Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

I was promised a recession.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Republicans in disarray!

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

“woke” is the new caravan.

You are here: Home / What Will It Take

Reader Interactions

214Comments

  1. 1.

    piratedan

    We keep waiting for there to be some kind of political Rubicon for the GOP in regards to the behavior and defiance of the law exhibited by 45 and I’m beginning to wonder if its simply more a case of Political Fight Club and the fact that the overwhelming majority of them really are corrupt pieces of filth. This would imply that Vlad has the receipts for financial and sexual perfidy on a majority of the GOP, in the House and the Senate. IIRC, the GOP got hacked too and I suspect, considering how adept these guys are at governing; that there was a cornucopia of insider trading and dick pics and kiddy porn to be gleaned from wherein which has been used to keep everyone in lockstep. Just an observation, but I am beginning to suspect that these guys will burn it all down because essentially that’s the only way thru as they see it, hope that they can somehow brazen it out.

  2. 2.

    Cameron

    What will it take? I don’t have the faintest idea.Not one single Republican will lose office for supporting Trump. He’s the symptom, not the disease. If you can’t get rid of Senator Turtle, no difference who’s in the Oval Office.

  4. 4.

    Ruckus

    Have said it before, republicans are in it only for themselves. Whatever profit they think they can get is what they are aiming for. And they found out that if they all worked together their total IQ was in the 90s. So they did. And we end up with them not giving two shits about the country that they swore to defend and preserve. If and only if they see that they will be far worse off staying, they will bail. Not a second before.

  6. 6.

    DCrefugee

    I’ve been one to advocate a go-slow approach, with House impeachment hearings continuing through the GOP convention next summer, and engineering a Senate vote around next Halloween. Fck ’em…

    But I don’t think we can wait that long.

  7. 7.

    Mart

    To my conservative aquantices, Trump openly being a mob boss and wimpy dems pretending to impeach him for his finally doing the Presidency rightly – the tough way; are all features of a great leader, not bugs.

  8. 8.

    Mary G

    Democrats gave a lot of administration officials a hard deadline of today to cough up information. On the way out the door today, they served Mick Mulvaney with a subpoena. Good.

  9. 9.

    MisterForkbeard

    @lamh36: Ah. I’m not surprised, though even as a solid Harris stan I was willing to believe it COULD have been something minor. Bernie really should take the opportunity to announce that he’s leaving the race IN the next debate and make a splash with it – do some good by pushing a signature policy and possible handing off his support to someone else.

    He could do a lot for leftist politics by endorsing Warren, full stop. God help us if he tried to hand off his people to Gabbard, though.

  10. 10.

    Martin

    They don’t have a clue HOW to turn on Trump. They have no message.

    If they go out solo, they risk being caught out against whatever message does develop. If they aren’t careful, they risk burning more GOP that are caught up in this with the wrong message. And because Trump is Trump, they can’t trust the Wh to go along with the message they do come up with. Trump is likely to turn on them.

    They’re just fucked, so in that case, why do anything?

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    @DCrefugee

    Congress recesses for the weeks just prior to the election.

    As I posited here (months and months ago), impeachment in early to mid-October, letting that cloud hang through the election; Senate action in the lame duck post-election session.

  12. 12.

    debbie

    The donors will have to abandon them before they think about doing anything. The looniest of them (looking at you, Gym) will remain faithful until the end, but most others, remembering the idyllic days of Bush/Cheney, will begin to fall away.

  13. 13.

    Elizabelle

    @lamh36: I wonder if the heart attack might be a graceful way for a non-graceful candidate to bow out. His polling is collapsing, and this is not 2016.

    Go out on top, but go dog go!

  14. 14.

    JPL

    Only the shadow knows… bu until then every dem on TV needs to say they are cowards who are afraid of the twittler in chief. My goodness imagine being afraid of a tweet, but it appears the repubs are.

  16. 16.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Martin: The dumb thing is, if 15 or even 10 senators REALLY wanted to make a splash, they could just announce that while they support Trump and his policies in general, there really is some concerning shit here and it might be impeachable.

    They can even backtrack on that later! Do the Collins thing where they pretend to be considering to do the right thing and then Lucy the football. Instant media credit.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    @NotMax:

    I say we complete the inquiries, write up a Declaration of Independence sort of document with lots of whereases listing his offenses, and then hold a vote to censure Trump. Use it for the 2020 campaigns.

  18. 18.

    Mike in DC

    Public support for removal at 55+ percent, and Trump approval below 35 percent would likely push them pretty hard.

  21. 21.

    lollipopguild

    Trump is a mob boss/cult leader. It can be tough to leave if you feel that trump will come after you. The fact that most of these people are spineless cowards also keeps them under his thumb.

  23. 23.

    Richard Guhl

    With the Neo-Confederate party it’s always rule or ruin. They seek nothing less than the restoration of what they believe is a natural hierarchy of sex, race, and class, with wealthy white men at the top of the heap. Trump’s trashing of norms and customs serves their ultimate goal.

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Cameron:

    If you can’t get rid of Senator Turtle, no difference who’s in the Oval Office.

    Bullshit. And horseshit.

  26. 26.

    hilts

    What will it take for Republican Senators to turn on Trump?

    Maybe, if it turned out that Ivanka had gotten an abortion after getting impregnated by Daddy. Other than this scenario, I can’t imagine any other event that would turn the spineless Republicans in Congress against Trumpenstein.

  27. 27.

    Ocotillo

    Even if those slugs are defeated, we still have so many people in this country that are brainwashed. How do you get them out of the cult. My Foxbook feed is full of friends howling about the injustice of the Dems attacking Trump, until we somehow have an intervention with 27% (I think it has grown to 35%) of the country, we are in for ongoing misery.

  28. 28.

    joel hanes

    @lamh36:

    If it’s over for Sanders, we must extend the hand of comity to his supporters, quietly burying or forgiving grievances, so that we can link arms against the Republicans.
    Because need to win, incontestably, in many places.

  30. 30.

    trollhattan

    @hilts: Somehow they would Old-Testament that into a positive. The “unpublished verses of Deuteronomy” or somesuch.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    We are just going to have to wait it out and see. These Republicans are not patriots, or courageous people. They’re in it for themselves. They will dump Trump once they are afraid of getting dumped themselves.

    I rather hope people will start yelling at them in restaurants and on the street. Make their lives as uncomfortable as possible, once they leave their gilded cages.

    Could you have scripted any of this timeline? There has not yet been a bottom for Republicans; they just keep digging and scraping.

  33. 33.

    Ocotillo

    @hilts: I doubt that would shake his support. John Fugelsang has it right, maybe if he starts wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt.

  34. 34.

    B.B.A.

    Is there a single Republican politician in America who is more popular than Trump within their constituency?

    Didn’t think so. Il Douche has them all by the balls. None of them will turn on him until he’s six feet under.

  35. 35.

    hells littlest angel

    Not one of them will stray until someone loses a seat in an election and polling says it is because Trump is toxic.

    You mean like in 2018? No, it’s going to take more than that. To paraphrase Boss Jim Gettys, You’re the greatest fool I’ve ever known, GOP. If it was anybody else, I’d say what’s going to happen to you would be a lesson to you. Only you’re going to need more than one lesson. And you’re going to get more than one lesson.

  37. 37.

    Aziz, light!

    Most of them will never budge, in fear of losing votes by Trump’s mob of troglodytes.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    Headline and blurb up at top center of Washington Post right now:

    ‘Where is the line?’: A Joni Ernst town hall questioner sums up the GOP’s dilemma

    Republicans’ gamble on President Trump has paid off so far. But the past week or so has shown the peril of their see-no-evil approach.

  40. 40.

    Mary G

    More pearl clutchers appear:

    New: Trump’s calls with foreign leaders have long worried aides, leaving some ‘genuinely horrified.’ New details on Trump’s calls with Putin, Saudis, and others. https://t.co/WNtnCJtNTr by @CarolLeonnig, me, and @jdawsey1— Shane Harris (@shaneharris) October 4, 2019

    Resign, cough up paperwork like Volker, and testify for nine hours or STFU. It’s way too late for anonymous op-eds.

  42. 42.

    Yarrow

    They’ll turn when it becomes personally important to them to do so. Perhaps that’s a political issue–they’re way behind in the polls and/or losing donors. Or perhaps it’s something else–kompromat style.

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    Jennifer Rubin in the WaPost: Dear cowering Republicans: What are you waiting for?

    Illustrated with photos of Susan Collins and Rand Paul. Take that!

    …. No fact pattern or rational argument will persuade the [Jim] Jordans and the [Ron] Johnsons of the world to give up the cultist and embarrassing defense of the president. (Note to Democrats: Those rural white working-class voters who buy this same nonsense are never voting Democratic, so give up your fixation with “understanding” and winning them back.) Rather, I’d like to focus on the rest of the Republicans, the ones who know Trump is nuts but were in it for the tax cuts or to get reelected or because they were convinced they could have made things better. If that course of action were intellectually and morally sustainable, they would not be literally hiding from the press or pretending they had not read the most eye-popping news in recent memory.

    And yet they are hiding and hoping — hoping for what? That this will all blow over? That Trump will find a time machine to go back to erase his confessions on the White House grounds? That no more witnesses and no more documents will ever turn up confirming again and again the president’s shakedown of a foreign country for dirt on his political opponent and his solicitation of the same from China? This is irrational thinking. Their cowardice is implicit confirmation that the president’s actual words and conduct, which are unalterable, are indefensible.

    …. Unless you want to be one of the lawmakers hiding from voters and reporters until 2020 and/or tagged as enabling impeachable conduct, you have three rational choices: announce you are retiring; denounce the conduct and call on the president to resign or at least refrain from running for reelection; or support impeachment.

    Remember, in 1974, the first post-Watergate election, Republicans lost 4 Senate seats and 49 House seats. In 1976, they lost the presidency. That is where the GOP is heading once more. You now have to decide what role you want to play in the downfall of Trump’s presidency and the political annihilation of your party. But for God’s sake, stop hiding from the press and voters.

  45. 45.

    azlib

    Most politicians are chickens at heart. The Republicans will start to break only when the polling among Republican voters gets worse for Trump and their own relection is in jeopardy. Facts do not matter in thse polarized times.

  48. 48.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Don’t worry about Bernie. He won’t let a little thing like a heart attack stop him.

    Why he’ll be back on his feet, screaming and wagging his finger in no time.

  50. 50.

    Steve in the ATL

    @azlib: how’s the weather out there? When my dogs and I were dying (not literally) in the 101 degree heat, it occurred to me that it was 18 degrees cooler than the day we dropped off our daughter at U of A.

  51. 51.

    James Powell

    They aren’t going to turn. They aren’t going to lose power by staying with Trump. They have the majority of white people and the vast majority of the money. They will never believe they can lose. Temporary setbacks, but they will never lose.

  52. 52.

    Aleta

    It’s gonna take money.
    A whole lot of precious time. It’s gonna take patience and time.

    The problem is they are all for sale. I’ve come to believe outbidding and higher status is the only way you’d get them to change. The other thing is that most decent people who love their work for reasons other than money don’t want to spend their life on this kind of politics.

    Of course the other ways to drain the compensation Republicans get — bankrupt the NRA, restrict lobbyists, expose and criminalize dark money, Mercers and Kochs — are possible I hope. A truth commission supervising the political ad agencies? Require our airwaves to give equal ad time to candidates, and forbid sale of election ads? Investigate public office holders and federal contractors for lying to the public who pay them?

  56. 56.

    hilts

    @Elizabelle:

    At this point, the Republicans in the House and the Senate are nothing more than a bunch of bed wetters and nail biters. They can all go fuck themselves!.

    PS Fuck those goddamn motherfucking NY Yankees and let’s go Minnesota Twins!

  58. 58.

    Geo True

    The independents living in Red districts have not been lighting up Repub phones, they are only hearing from the base in the last few weeks. Once the indys make their voice heard, the Rs will shift instead of face electoral defeat.

  62. 62.

    joel hanes

    @Aleta:

    the other ways to drain the compensation Republicans get

    Please add “reinstate the limits on media ownership” to your excellent list.

    And stepwise movement toward actual enforcement of the anti-trust and labor laws already on the books could be a big help — if we can get those actions past the McConnell-polluted courts.

  66. 66.

    Aleta

    @Steve in the ATL: I think this is your internationally known wit, but I stupidly don’t get it. Or you mean the song? Just one song. But I’m sure you know that.
    By the way, William Eggleston broke open my world (of only classic b/w) the first time I went to see a show (MOMA). I still have vivid memories of those photos. Then many times after that, including some movies at Hampshire as well as encountering prints all over the place. The ones of Los Alamos too. Life changing work.

  69. 69.

    Elizabelle

    @Aleta: I like all the suggestions in your final paragraph. They have to happen, if we are to maintain a democracy.

  71. 71.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Aleta: there were two videos for that song, back when the MTV showed music videos. One featured George and a bunch of silly props, and the other an overly sexual teenage girl.

    Did you find the MOMA show to be perfectly banal? Perfectly boring, certainly? (From an infamous review of that show. I troll him with it at holiday dinners and he is still mad about it. “How is the turkey, Bill? I find it perfectly banal…”)

  72. 72.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Chris Hayes @ chrislhayes
    Am I crazy or is no group anywhere running any kind of anti-Trump ads about the President’s scandal?

    andrew kaczynski ? @ KFILE
    Need to Impeach has ads targeting Ernst, McSally, Collins,

    I hope Steyer has hired, and listens to, good people

    and I hope Baud comes back

  75. 75.

    NotMax

    OT.

    Goliath season three now on Prime. First season was watchable enough, second season held together better (although detoured into some thematically unnecessary cul de sacs before returning to the main road) and generally more engaging.

  76. 76.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Aleta: the George Harrison version had two different videos, for reasons that remain unclear.

    I’ve got so many Uncle Bill stories that I won’t post online, but if we ever meet in person….

  77. 77.

    Millard Filmore

    @rikyrah:

    They are all compromised, Cole.
    All of them.
    They will never break away.
    Blackmailed Traitors, ALL??

    Their calculations are not based on polls, or getting re-elected. They will do what it takes to minimize their time in prison.

  79. 79.

    James Powell

    @Elizabelle:

    The problem with Rubin’s analysis is that her recollection misses the fact that Watergate & Nixon’s resignation in disgrace was a temporary setback for Republicans. Six years later they took over and they’ve pretty much been running everything ever since. They completely took over the Beltway, the states and the press/media. She was part of that and got wealth from it.

  80. 80.

    Elizabelle

    @zhena gogolia:

    I doubt it was just whatever with Adam. Baud has seemed very down in the mouth for a while.

    It is hard to be a decent person, waiting and hoping, and the bad guys get another inning, and another inning, and another …

    Some people here catastrophize, and a lot of the threads are about ugly topics, let’s face it. Maybe it’s not that great to do so many threads about Steve King (not the talented writer and good guy).

    Baud’s really a really noticeable absence, but a lot of folks aren’t here as much.

    ETA: Although some may have decided to be happy in their personal lives or do something else. We all have to decide how we survive. Maybe they’re working on campaigns or issues instead of chatting it up on blogs.

  81. 81.

    Steve in the ATL

    Since so many jackals called and emailed me about this earlier*, the Frank Family Pinot noir was parfait with the grilled lamb this evening.

    *combined total of approximately -zero-

  83. 83.

    A Ghost To Most

    Based on a sample size of two, I believe they would cheer on nuclear war before they would admit being wrong to a libturd.

  84. 84.

    Tazj

    I wish those people who used to stand behind Marco Rubio holding a spine would start following him around again. He’s so obnoxious. Well, they all are. Today he said Trump was just joking around when he was talking about China and we shouldn’t rush to judgement about him.

    I guess he’s saying what most of his constituents want to hear and doesn’t care about anything else.

  85. 85.

    Yarrow

    Man this new WaPo story about Trump’s calls with foreign leaders is just…wow.

    In one of his first calls with a head of state, President Trump fawned over Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling the man who ordered interference in America’s 2016 election that he was a great leader and apologizing profusely for not calling him sooner.

    He pledged to Saudi officials in another call that he would help the monarchy enter the elite Group of Seven, an alliance of the world’s leading democratic economies.

    He promised the president of Peru that he would deliver to his country a C-130 military cargo plane overnight, a logistical nightmare that set off a herculean scramble in the West Wing and Pentagon.

    And in a later call with Putin, Trump asked the former KGB officer for his guidance in forging a friendship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un — a fellow authoritarian hostile to the United States.

    And no surprise, he didn’t get along with leaders who were women.

  86. 86.

    scott (the other one)

    @piratedan: As I have said before, Putin is reputed to be the wealthiest person in the entire world, worth somewhere around $200 billion. If he’s “only” worth even 1% of that, I find it very hard to believe he couldn’t get kompromat on nearly the entire GOP structure for, say, 1% of that 1%—a small enough sum that he’d not even notice it was gone, and what a staggering ROI. And I can’t figure out why he wouldn’t. And the behavior of virtually member of the GOP establishment doesn’t make it seem less likely to me.

  87. 87.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    leak leak leaked-y leak….

    In one of his first calls with a head of state, President Trump fawned over Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling the man who ordered interference in America’s 2016 election that he was a great leader and apologizing profusely for not calling him sooner.
    He pledged to Saudi officials in another call that he would help the monarchy enter the elite Group of Seven, an alliance of the world’s leading democratic economies.
    He promised the president of Peru that he would deliver to his country a C-130 military cargo plane overnight, a logistical nightmare that set off a herculean scramble in the West Wing and Pentagon.
    And in a later call with Putin, Trump asked the former KGB officer for his guidance in forging a friendship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un — a fellow authoritarian hostile to the United States.

    Former White House officials described Trump as “obsequious” and “fawning,” but said he also rambled off into different topics without any clear point, while Putin appeared to stick to formal talking points for a first official exchange.
    “He was like, ‘Oh my gosh, my people didn’t tell me you wanted to talk to me,’ ” said one person with direct knowledge of the call.

    “He was like, “Oh my gosh…”? I’m willing to bet trump has never in his life uttered the word “gosh”. Hope Hicks? Somebody on twitter said everything you need to understand about how Hopey got from Greenwich to trump-world is that she went to Southern Methodist U. I don’t know that school well enough to interpret that, the only guy I knew who went there was a wannabe-jock from HS who probably wound up as a wing nut.

    Jethrene The Possum Queen is a possibility, but I don’t see her as leaking

  88. 88.

    hilts

    @Aleta:

    Require our airwaves to give equal ad time to candidates,

    I’ve always been of the opinion that each candidate should get 2 30 minute blocks in primetime across ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and FNC to explain their policy proposals.

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Trump’s personal goals seeped into calls. He pestered Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for help in recommending him for a Nobel Prize, according to an official familiar with the call.
    “People who could do things for him — he was nice to,” said one former security official. “Leaders with trade deficits, strong female leaders, members of NATO — those tended to go badly.”
    Aides bristled at the dismissive way he sometimes addressed longtime U.S. allies, especially women.

    nothing surprising, much of it known, but good to see it all in one place as the rats get skittish

  90. 90.

    dmsilev

    FTNYT:

    2nd Official Is Weighing Whether to Blow the Whistle on Trump’s Ukraine Dealings

    second intelligence official who was alarmed by President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine is weighing whether to file his own formal whistle-blower complaint and testify to Congress, according to two people briefed on the matter.

    The official has more direct information about the events than the first whistle-blower, whose complaint that Mr. Trump was using his power to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals touched off an impeachment inquiry. The second official is among those interviewed by the intelligence community inspector general to corroborate the allegations of the original whistle-blower, one of the people said.

    I hope that happens and both officers (presumably) testify directly to Congress (in closed session most likely).

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    While he may not hold the monopoly, Billy Bob Thornton has solid squatter’s rights when it comes to playing wry.

  93. 93.

    jonas

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Aides bristled at the dismissive way he sometimes addressed longtime U.S. allies, especially women.

    “When said aides were asked if they would ever quit and speak out on the record about the President’s outrageous behavior, they quietly turned away, pretended not to hear the question, and shuffled off with their hands in their pockets….”

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @jonas: I wonder if that leak came from that Wall St banker who was supposed to be one of the grown-ups (Dina Powell, I made a google– and she worked at fucking Goldman Sachs because of course she did)

  98. 98.

    Amir Khalid

    @joel hanes:

    If it’s over for Sanders, we must extend the hand of comity to his supporters, quietly burying or forgiving grievances, so that we can link arms against the Republicans.

    This strikes me as overoptimistic. I would not regard the Wilmeristas’ ongoing effort at hostile takeover in the name of their saint as any sign of regard for the Democratic party.

  101. 101.

    Elizabelle

    @Ohio Mom:
    @zhena gogolia:

    I know. I hope Baud comes back. He actually serves a really important function. He lightens the place up with some very funny, self-deprecating quips. The levity is needed.

  103. 103.

    zhena gogolia

    All you people who hate Twitter — how about these two?

    @AdamParkhomenko
    4m4 minutes ago
    More
    The names of individuals in government we know are mixed up in all of this failed us while individuals that we don’t know the names of yet are saving us.

    @BetteMidler
    Follow Follow @BetteMidler
    More
    Sorry I’ve been away from Twitter for a bit. I was busy having insane sex with a young Marine. I hope it doesn’t get out & cause people to think, “Good for her!”

  107. 107.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Amir Khalid: polls have consistently shown that Sanders voters second choice was Biden. I think that’s changed a bit as Warren has gotten stronger, but I don’t ‘think most of his 18-20% were full-blown “If I can’t have Bernie, burn it all down”. I suspect there’s enough of those true believers to cause trouble, I hope he won’t pull the same kind of destructive crap he has been since January 2016, but what are the odds…

  108. 108.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Since so many jackals called and emailed me about this earlier*, the Frank Family Pinot noir was parfait with the grilled lamb this evening.

    *combined total of approximately -zero-

    But it was a very large quantity of zero.

  113. 113.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mary G:
    A while back I took a break from commenting here, and you guys sent Subaru Diane the mob enforcer to drag me back in.

  115. 115.

    Starfish

    @Mary G: He is just depressed because there are too many candidates in the Presidential field for anyone to notice his candidacy.

    I am still here waiting for Peak WingNut to happen. At this rate, the rapture is going to come first.

  116. 116.

    Steve in the ATL

    @mrmoshpotato: a robust zero with earthy overtones and hints of oak

    @MisterForkbeard: it actually involves irrational and only theoretical numbers, but that’s a pretty good dumbed down version. One could also say “zero plus zero”.

    @raven: Athens is a great town.

  121. 121.

    Starfish

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I went to a Barn Storming event for Warren in a place that had a ton of Sanders voters, and a lot of Sanders voters were there to support Warren. It made me a little more optimistic that a lot of Sanders voters were not necessarily Sanders Dead Enders who were going to take their toys home if they could not have their candidate.

  122. 122.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    WASHINGTON — A second intelligence official who was alarmed by President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine is weighing whether to file his own formal whistle-blower complaint and testify to Congress, according to two people briefed on the matter.

    The official has more direct information about the events than the first whistle-blower, whose complaint that Mr. Trump was using his power to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals touched off an impeachment inquiry. The second official is among those interviewed by the intelligence community inspector general to corroborate the allegations of the original whistle-blower, one of the people said.

  123. 123.

    piratedan

    @Steve in the ATL: and speaking to last night’s discussion, I’ve seen the argument made that the Beatles are essentially the founders of Power Pop in and of itself, and that the 70’s bands that we’ve discussed are more their musical heirs than anything else, but that’s certainly a worthy discussion topic over a couple of quality beverages, perhaps next time you’re in Tucson…

  125. 125.

    Steve in the ATL

    Question for the group regarding the premise behind “The Purge”: stupid, or moronic?

  126. 126.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Tazj:

    I wish those people who used to stand behind Marco Rubio holding a spine would start following him around again.

    Is there video because that sounds hilarious?

  128. 128.

    zzyzx

    I think it’s easy to sink into the despair.

    I was never a fan of impeachment because without a smoking gun, it was all just useless. It felt like unwarranted optimism that it could work.

    Turns out that having the actual smoking gun (and why I supported this one… it reached the point where we just had to) doesn’t change that calculus. You just have to spin any lie and get people to repeat it. It’s so frustrating.

    Thank the thing up high for my cats.

  129. 129.

    joel hanes

    @Amir Khalid:

    any sign of regard for the Democratic party.

    I don’t think most of them have much regard for the Democratic Party.
    And some of them will probably be … um … less than gracious, no matter what.

    Nevertheless, we need every vote, and Airing of Grievances followed by Circular Firing Squad during the runup to the election will, in my estimation, not advance the main goal of removing Republicans from power. I can silently absorb a _lot_ of verbal guff and other affronts in service of that outcome. I can even limit my comments about uncomfortable allies to positive statements, and reserve my angry words for the common enemy.

  131. 131.

    Steve in the ATL

    @piratedan: indeed! And you have long been on my selective list of posters whose musical opinions I will read and consider (including but not limited to Omnes, Steeplejack, and Mike J, and conditionally Immanentize, who is still on probation for liking a Yoko Ono song).

  133. 133.

    cokane

    Many of them aren’t just failing to turn on Trump. They are saying what Trump is doing with foreign leaders is good, even necessary to fight “corruption”.

    Even *if* they turn on Trump that won’t be the end. The democratic culture of the USA has fundamentally changed. And it’s not going back to what it was any time soon.

  135. 135.

    Mike in DC

    @Steve in the ATL: Highly implausible, but the underlying theme is that people’s true nature emerges under extraordinary circumstances. I guess you might call it “urban horror”(although one film is set in the suburbs).

  138. 138.

    sdhays

    @Amir Khalid: How about we extend the hand of “you’re a grown-ass adult aware of the stakes, so if you can’t be assed to vote for the Democrat, whoever she may be, go fuck yourself”?

  142. 142.

    Steve in the ATL

    @raven: nice! Hope the weather prediction for tomorrow is accurate, though pretty hot again Sunday before we head back to the ATL. Should be cooler on Tuesday when I get to Syracuse!

  144. 144.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Starfish:

    I am still here waiting for Peak WingNut to happen.

    Good luck. Do you have enough food and water for the long, long, long, long, long haul?

  146. 146.

    Amir Khalid

    @joel hanes:
    I think the hard core of Wilmeristas, the kind that voted for Stein rather than vote for that woman Hillary, are actively hostile toward the Democratic party and not interested in joining hands. The vaguely-aware-of-politics people who merely like the sound of what Wilmer’s saying might be more persuadable.

  149. 149.

    brantl

    Electoral pain. Not one of them will stray until someone loses a seat in an election and polling says it is because Trump is toxic. Donor pain. No one will stray until the big money boys have had enough.

    It will take both, and both will have to be obvious to a 3-year-old for these dopes to believe it. They are now just that stupid.

  151. 151.

    Another Scott

    One for Adam… Twitter:

    Josh Weinberg @josh_weinberg

    Josh Weinberg Retweeted Sebastian Gorka DrG

    my dream of being directly attacked by the dumbest guy on the planet have finally come true

    Josh Weinberg added,

    Sebastian Gorka DrG Verified account

    @SebGorka

    Don’t you dare lecture me or anyone else on courage or service to the nation.

    You worked for @HillaryClinton.…

    3:24 PM – 4 Oct 2019

    Heh. :-)

    (via Popehat)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  155. 155.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    Grilled butterflied leg of lamb is da bomb.

    Naturally you kill your cheating husband with it before butterflying.

  156. 156.

    Steve in the ATL

    @piratedan: love the lead guitar on it. Their catalog is great for people with short attention spans. Who can focus on one song for more than two minutes?

  158. 158.

    joel hanes

    @Amir Khalid:

    [some] are actively hostile

    Agreed. I don’t have to like them, but if they’re unreachable, I see no upside in poking them with a stick, either.

  159. 159.

    Kent

    Anyone know how late the GOP could replace Trump on the ballot?

    Like what would actually happen if in October 2020 during the debate with Elizabeth Warren he actually collapsed on stage on live TV and was incapable of continuing? What could the GOP do, if anything, to replace him? Would a vote for Trump just become a vote for Pence?

    There are different ballot deadlines in different states and people will have already started voting by mail in some states.

    The man is not healthy. It could happen.

  161. 161.

    Brachiator

    What will it take for Republican Senators to turn on Trump?

    Electoral pain. Not one of them will stray until someone loses a seat in an election and polling says it is because Trump is toxic.

    Perhaps. That means strap on tight, because we are headed for 2020 and beyond.

    Donor pain. No one will stray until the big money boys have had enough.

    The money boys and girls love Trump more than do the evangelicals. They can’t turn him loose, cause if they do they will lose their minds. From the latest reports.

    President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) raised $125 million in the third quarter, a record-breaking fundraising sum. According to Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale, the president now has $156 million in cash on hand with nearly $310 million raised so far this year. In contrast, former President Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had only pulled in $70 million in the third quarter of 2011.

  162. 162.

    cain

    @rikrah

    We did! I know a lot of white women who support Warren are wondering why Black women aren’t riding with y’all. Well we saw how 53% of y’all betrayed Hillary and tbh, y’all cannot be trusted. I also believe y’all will eventually betray Liz for the patriarchy? https://t.co/uWyHORFMdc— Filet Mignon with a nice Chianti (@epitomee) October 4, 2019

  164. 164.

    Tazj

    It was Greenpeace that followed him(Marco Rubio)around. I didn’t really remember who did it before I commented, but I knew someone did, and it was funny at the time. I don’t know if there’s video but there are plenty of pictures. My link didn’t work.

  172. 172.

    Another Scott

    @Kent: I still don’t think that Donnie will debate the Democratic candidate. Remember, he ran away from Megyn Kelly. He’ll try to have some stupid bigly rally instead.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  173. 173.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kent: thanks, I never thought it was a particularly religious school, which that line about Hope Hicks seemed to suggest

  175. 175.

    Kent

    @sdhays: it would fucking serve the whole GOP right if they stick with Trump and then are stuck without a candidate at the last minute basically defaulting the election to the Dems because they didn’t have the integrity to choose a different candidate.

    We can only dream.

  177. 177.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Aleta: in addition to the music, you have to be impressed that they managed to find four people in Edinburgh without red hair!

  178. 178.

    joel hanes

    @Another Scott:

    Donnie … debate

    Given the events of the last two weeks, I don’t think he’ll be the candidate.
    People in the executive branch are finally caving, and Trump grows more unhinged by the day.
    Another month of this kind of acceleration, and something will break.

    I have no idea how things will play out.

  179. 179.

    cain

    @MisterForkbeard:
    I wish they would, it would cause McConnell to really fucking lose his shit – because he would then refuse to put impeachment to a vote. He’ll probably pull the same shit – “Let the people speak” or some other nonsense. I want McConnell’s balls basted in ghost pepper hot sauce with honey that attract a lot of bitey insects.

  181. 181.

    JR

    This, gentlemen, is my profound conviction: I believe that we are at this moment sleeping on a volcano.

  182. 182.

    Kent

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: so they would have to have some sort of ad hoc mini convention and pick a new candidate and get him or her on the ballot in all 50 states. That would be a fucking shit show. Who else could they pick but Pence?

  185. 185.

    J R in WV

    How would Baud ever win the presidency without Balloon-Juice?

    I think he’s down Mexico way…

    Our new puppies are gone again, chasing a deer into the woods. I’m determined to assume they will be back when they want to come back. I’ve left bowls of puppy chow on the front porch.

    They don’t appear to bark when they come around, and so may have come around several times while AWOL. They don’t know about barking to come in, because on the Goat Dairy they were outside working dogs, intended to protect the goats.

    ETA: @Amir Khalid:

    We are aware that the Wahabis are not typical Muslims, and that that is who does the evangalistic thing is the Islamic world.

  189. 189.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Kent: Pence would be the smart choice, but they could choose anybody. No mini-convention, just the RNC. While it was the VP nomination and earlier in the process, look at the process used to replace Tom Eagleton on the ticket in 1972.

  193. 193.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Question for the group regarding the premise behind “The Purge”: stupid, or moronic?

    Moronic. The vast majority of people would not put up with such a government that has a “purge”. People would band together and protect their communities

  195. 195.

    patrick II

    What will it take?
    A total change in the mythology of the right. They believe economics is a natural system that overrules democracy. Their particular economic ethos emphasizes the rightness of acting for yourself and the futility of community action — which only interferes with the efficiency of the market. It is reinforced and integrated with prosperity religion to add an extra layer of righteousness which justifies any amount of dishonesty, most exemplified by:

    Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, the firm that needed a $10 billion bailout from the US government, was explaining that an investment banker’s role was one of “doing God’s work.”

    They don’t believe in democracy, they believe in winner take all. The only thing that will change their mind is the failure of their party, the failure of the country, or the failure of civilization (working from bottom to top).

  197. 197.

    ET

    The GOP party establishment has spent 30+ years breeding and inculcating its members to be sheep. Move with the herd, don’t think for yourself, let the strong white man tell you what to do and believe. Most of them thought they were the strong white man. Now they are in the position of realizing they weren’t what they thought they were. They don’t know how to act and have gotten subsumed by the tRump machine and bullied by a con man and most of them know it. They themselves destroyed both themselves
    and undermined the tools (oversight and democratic norms) for their own purposes, and have left them and us, less to fight back with. Enough of them aren’t so stupid they don’t understand, but they want to stay in the Senate and because they aren’t as brave as they thought they were, I don’t suspect many will do much.

  201. 201.

    Steve in the ATL

    @azlib: weirdly, that’s not much different from our summer, except probably the humidity. And the high quality college football

  202. 202.

    waratah

    @Steve in the ATL: I wonder what part of the lamb did you grill? My nephew grilled a great shoulder roast on the grill when I was in Sydney in April. The first night my sister had lamb cutlets, I remembered how lamb was suppose to taste.

  207. 207.

    waratah

    @Steve in the ATL: I was raised on Australian lamb, my mother always flirted with butchers and got the best deals. Seriously I think we ate mostly lamb as it was inexpensive and plenty of it during that time. My husband decided to gift me with some lamb in beef country and fattened one up like a cow. I was used to grass fed free range young lamb and I could not eat it. Something changed the taste, it was the grain or not butchered correctly we did not try again.

  209. 209.

    Steve in the ATL

    @waratah: I got an up charge after I tried to flirt with the butcher. Apparently I’m not as young and pretty as I used to be. [sad face emoji]

  210. 210.

    cain

    @Steve in the ATL:

    @waratah: I got an up charge after I tried to flirt with the butcher. Apparently I’m not as young and pretty as I used to be. [sad face emoji]

    Speak for yourself! I still get free drinks at bars. :) I don’t even ask, they just give it to me. Walked into a bar in Austin during SXSW, and the bartender (whose been drinking and smoking in a non-smoking bar) points at me saying “you’re getting free drinks!” – My reaction was “Of course, I am!” :D

  214. 214.

    PJ

    @Aleta: I was going to put that one into my personal Academie Chansonaise, but unfortunately that song is 3:42 long, and Al ends up using a lot more than 6 words. But his heart was in the right place.

Comments are closed.