Quelle superbe métaphore du passage de l'automne à l'hiver… ????
(Lagopède photographié par Anthony Madden) pic.twitter.com/8Qb57GoQNE— Vipère (@troglodette) December 14, 2019
Harry Reid calls for 2020 contenders to unveil a plan for the Supreme Court and praises @WeDemandJustice shortlist of progressive nomineeshttps://t.co/tJk6FDFCmp
— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) December 14, 2019
Former Senator Reid has no f**ks left to give:
… Senate Republicans have hijacked our Supreme Court. They stole a seat that should have been filled by President Obama in 2016 and they rushed to confirm Brett Kavanaugh last year despite ample evidence that he lied to Congress. The result is the Supreme Court is now a ticking time bomb, set to blow up any meaningful progressive reforms for decades to come. Yet, the court has been the subject of surprisingly little discussion so far in the presidential primary…
That is why any Democratic candidate serious about addressing the urgent crises facing our country needs a plan for dealing with the Supreme Court.
This starts with a public commitment to nominate bold, progressive lawyers to the court. Mitch McConnell’s elimination of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees means that, if Democrats win back the Senate next year, the next Democratic president will not have to cater to unreasonable Republicans to find a justice who can win 60 votes. Instead, there will be an opportunity to nominate justices who have spent their careers fighting for progressive values and can rebalance a Court that is now biased towards the rich and the powerful…
Demand Justice’s list includes brilliant women, people of color, and LGBT lawyers. It also prioritizes professional diversity to help rebalance a court currently made up almost entirely of former corporate lawyers and prosecutors. For example, our Supreme Court has not had a justice with criminal defense experience since Thurgood Marshall retired nearly three decades ago. Demand Justice’s list includes several former public defenders, including of Nevada U.S. District Court Judge Richard Boulware, whom I recommended to Obama in 2014…
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Honesty / Sanity Divide, Little Prince Rand (to paraphrase George Wallace) will not be out-liar’d:
.@jaketapper to @RandPaul: "Do you really think President Trump was concerned about corruption (in Ukraine)? Paul: "Yes, I do think Ukraine has been one of the corruptist countries on Earth." Jake: "That's not what I asked.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) December 15, 2019
Rand Paul tried to claim that Trump is anti-corruption, so Jake Tapper listed all of the Trump associates convicted of federal crimes. pic.twitter.com/dRYb6Q9SnD
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) December 15, 2019
And this is not even a marker of stupid Paul is. It's a marker of how stupid he thinks everyone else is. Next up, Paul argues that Stephen Miller is deeply concerned about racism in America. https://t.co/NFfnSR9q6I
— Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) December 15, 2019
And finally:
Petition to replace every confederate monument with A Dolly Parton statue. https://t.co/OsknszQ49H
— ?? ?? All the City Lights ?? ?? (@ATCLMusic) December 15, 2019
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
This is a big get.
Patricia Kayden
satby
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch: only in the twitterverse, I’m afraid. The average voter, even pretty liberal ones, have no idea who she is. We forget that pretty often around here, we have our own blind spots.
Brachiator
@satby:
Heck, I don’t know who she is. And don’t much care.
rikyrah
Brachiator
Nope. Nope. Nope. A president can use this in private discussions and considerations, but public declaration of an ideological litmus test is anathema.
Also, Marshall won 29 out of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court.
Earl Warren had been attorney general and governor of California, but had not served as a judge before becoming Chief Justice.
Baud
@rikyrah:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: Chairman Jerry’s a bit old for the job.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Good morning. ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah:
@Baud:
@Steeplejack (pone): Good night.
Baud
Inclusion 1 0 Exclusion
satby
@rikyrah: @Baud: @Steeplejack (phone): Good morning ?
@?BillinGlendaleCA: and Good night to you and NotMax when he shows up.
Amir Khalid
@Patricia Kayden:
If that’s true, then Mitch McConnell could be sealing his party’s political doom and his own by stating that he’s going to use his Senate Majority Leader powers to prevent Trump’s removal no matter how damning the evidence. I wonder what Mitch’s calculation is.
satby
@Amir Khalid: Mitch is also blocking election security measures, so I assume his calculation is that the Russians can help them one more cycle. In Mitch’s case, he probably also has help from the Chinese.
satby
Only 10 more days till the end of wall to wall godawful Christmas music! The countdown has started.
Amir Khalid
@satby:
I thought Mrs Mitch was Taiwanese.
OzarkHillbilly
@Brachiator: Same here. I recognize the name but I don’t know why.
Jay C
@Amir Khalid:
Mitch’s calculation?
Holding on to maximum political power in Washington for the GOP. Same as it’s always been: same as it always will be.
Most likely, the “plan” is to stage-manage the Senate trial to mollify critics just enough (given his druthers, I’m sure he’d move for immediate dismissal the instant the charges arrived at the Senate): then use the pre-ordained “no” vote to loudly and firmly bolster Trump’s inevitable hysterical Twitter campaign of COMPLETE EXONERATION!!1!!!11!! and ACQUITTED!!1!!11! INNOCENT!!!11!!!. And then go back to their usual obstructionist agenda..
satby
@Amir Khalid: you’re right.
Amir Khalid
@satby:
You Americans are fortunate to get a post-Christmas break from holiday music. Over here the Chinese New Year stuff is already playing in some malls right alongside the Christmas carols and winter songs*.
*Silent Night and Come All Ye Faithful are Christmas carols; Jingle Bells and Winter Wonderland are songs about winter, which hasn’t happened in Malaysia since the last ice age. Shopping malls here tend to conflate the two genres and their very different subject matter, which I find mildly annoying.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: When I first heard this I predicted a Chick-fill-a in 3… 2…. 1….
satby
@Amir Khalid: they’re not even considered separate genres here. Christianity and Christmas music have existed for 2000 years but only the last 60-70 years of schmaltz counts for playing *everywhere* here. Plus such enduring classics as the Singing Dogs
germy
Kathleen
@satby: She viciously attacked Nancy Pelosi. I don’t remember what accused her of but it was nasty.
JPL
@Jay C: I’m not sure that Mitch is even going to hold a trial. He’ll say not enough evidence and move along.
germy
Gabbard/Huckabee 2020!
Baud
@germy:
“Let’s bond over our shared hatred of Hillary Clinton.”
Baud
@Kathleen:
Impeaching the wrong way.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Emphasizing SCOTUS picks seems to have worked out pretty well for Republicans. Maybe the one weird trick Democrats need to learn is how to communicate the judiciary’s importance in sufficiently apocalyptic terms.
rikyrah
Hey ..what did you do at lunchtime?
Eh…just rescued three deer.??
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1206375905964232704
Baud
Not sure what I think of this.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: something, something, blackmail.
rikyrah
rikyrah
Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) Tweeted:
Every time I hear “free college,” my mind immediately goes to reparations. How exactly is there no $$$ to pay reparations to the descendants of the enslaved, but there is $$$ to send every student to college for free? How Sway?!… (BC the maj of college students is still wht) https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/1205956881191071744?s=20
rikyrah
???
Federico Chispas (@dfsparks) Tweeted:
A white male dominated economic populist left WILL be perfectly willing to throw racial and gender justice under the bus to achieve its aims for themselves. That’s become more apparent in the UK general election postmortem and it worries me that more people don’t that seriously. https://twitter.com/dfsparks/status/1206147827795034113?s=20
rikyrah
This thread
rikyrah
Kay
@Baud:
Ha! That’s true, in my experience. I think I said here we have 3 people running in the D primary to replace Latta (which is unheard of) and they’re all 1. really young and 2. really liberal.
Baud
@Daddio7:
I wish progressives on Twitter had your confidence in Democrats.
Baud
@Kay:
Every group within the Democratic party is awkwardly domiciled within the party.
Kay
Amy Klobachur was really good at the public ed forum. Biden was fine, I thought, although rambling.
Booker was sick and didn’t go. Bloomberg didn’t go either, because he’s just finding it easier and more efficient to buy his 5%.
joel hanes
@germy:
Neither Gabbard nor Huckabee “appreciate the values, principles, and freedoms enshrined in our constitution”.
Especially not Huckabee, who is an unabashed theocrat, and cares nothing for democracy or the rule of law: he was on TV less than 72 hours ago advocating a third term for Trump because the Democrats have been so mean to the fascist messiah.
That quote makes one suspect that Gabbard has not completely overcome her upbringing in a fanatic schism of the Hare Krishna faux-Hindu cult
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
.
Kay
@Baud:
That’s true too. I just love “awkwardly domiciled”.
joel hanes
@Daddio7:
Missing sarcasm tag?
Otherwise, perhaps the least perceptive comment I’ve seen this week.
Lapassionara
@Brachiator: she is a scholar of authoritarian states who lives in St Louis. She spoke at the first march we attended after the election and she was very articulate about the dangers we face. She is sometimes a guest on cable news. She has published collections of essays. I can only take her in small doses, as she is a Cassandra and I can easily get depressed these days.
Baud
@Kay:
We would split into a million different parties if our political system allowed it.
Kay
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch:
There is a big age split in polls, though. I think polling people point it out because it’s relatively new- age wasn’t a traditional sharp dividing line. It was true in the UK election too.
Baud
@joel hanes:
IIRC, he’s a legitimate right wing troll.
Or possibly a Gabbard supporter.
rikyrah
Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) Tweeted:
In my opinion the biggest takeaway from the UK election is that unabashed economic leftism didn’t win back the white working class from conservatives. That’s what translates most to US politics. It cuts to the heart of the Bernie/socialist argument here. It was race not class https://twitter.com/marcushjohnson/status/1205877973146128384?s=20
Kay
The NYTimes is previewing Trump’s excuse for not going to debates in their newspaper as “news”. He’s just priming the ol pump. He doesn’t object to debates– he objects to the biased insiders who run them.
Donald Trump’s first victory was utterly co-opting NY media. It’s the only thing he’s good at.
He’s such a coward.
Immanentize
@Baud:
@Kay:
Is there a real thing that one can call the “young right?”. Where are they domiciled (if domesticated)?
Baud
@Immanentize:
For a while they were libertarians, but they went into hiding when Trump took over.
I think the right as a whole is more unified, so young vs. old is less relevant.
Kay
Gross grifter who was the mayor of NYC and is a former US attorney. It’s just amazing what they’ll do for money- and it’s not even that much money, in the scheme of things. He probably made more selling useless “security consulting” off of 9/11.
Immanentize
@joel hanes: Those words of D’s make so little sense, I assume it was written by a real person. AI is better at generating political rants. Maybe a Tulsi employee?
joel hanes
@Baud:
So all projection, then.
Baud
@Kay:
We need to bring “Cool story, bro” back
Baud
@joel hanes: Yep.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I think there is. I would even split it into two parts- the young religious Right and the young Trumpian Right. My youngest is a political minority at his high school. My oldest was one of two liberals in his government class and the other one was a Canadian. They just whine that they’re unrepresented more than we do- in conservative areas young people are conservative too, unsurprisingly.
J R in WV
@Baud:
Maybe because Pete Buttigieg isn’t progressive, at all?
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I’ve scoffed at the notion that Trump won’t show up for the debates because it’s such an obvious chickenshit move. But he really is a coward, so maybe he won’t. Gotta think it would be incredibly damaging, though. The MAGA chuds will buy any excuse, but he has to expand his appeal beyond the die-hards.
Immanentize
@Kay: I’m not surprised that young people in conservative areas are conservative. That was true even when the Beatles landed in New York.
But you say that they complain more about being unrepresented? In their county? State? Country? If the latter, that means the GOP has effectively nationalized everything.
opiejeanne
Do you know what the beautiful bird is in the photo? That is a glorious picture. Never mind, it’s a ptarmigan
opiejeanne
@J R in WV: He’s just about convinced me that he’s really a Log Cabin Republican.
In disturbing news, one of my friends is pushing a candidacy of Warren/Sanders and he didn’t think it up on his own. Ugh!
Princess
@germy: Are there a lot of issues on which Gabbard and Huckabee disagree? They both dislike gay people. And Huckabee is one of those Sarah Palin Republicans of the “baby bonuses to Christian families” kind. He’d probably be okay with social programs if on the Right people benefited from them.
Also too, this makes me think anew that Bernie’s plan is to name Gabbard as his VP and use her to attract GOPers.
opiejeanne
@opiejeanne: Never mind, I’m being redundant.
Baud
Not a single Dem voted for this tax cut, but both sides are the same.
Baud
@opiejeanne:
It’s a thing. We had a post on that a few days ago.
Immanentize
@opiejeanne: I say bravo for the Warren Sanders push because:
1). That puts Warren at the top of the ticket for primary voting purposes and
2). Not gonna happen. Ever.
So, yay for Warren wins and picks Sanders! but Warren will choose wisely instead.
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
I remember being in Puerto Rico for my company’s winter sales conference. It felt very odd lying on the beach on a 96-degree day listening to piped-in songs about snow and frostiness.
Immanentize
@debbie: I lived five years in Miami, then 12 in Texas. Same thing. A Santa dressed in red and white fur and boots looks as out of place in Miami Beach in December as a Lubavitcher with a fox fur hat. But one sees the latter a lot more.
Baud
This is disappointing.
zhena gogolia
@satby:
I was looking for his sarcasm tags.
I’m all in for the Dolly monuments!!!!!
debbie
@Baud:
Yeah, NPR’s braying about that.
Their lead piece was an interview with Schumer about his request for witnesses and other impeachment issues. The best part was when Schumer cut off Steve Inskeep and said he had to go because the interview had lasted longer than he had committed to. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an interview end at the interviewee’s insistence. Inskeep was audibly taken aback.
Kay
@Immanentize:
They do complain. They believe they are surrounded by liberal cultural influences. I’m sick of it- I have zero patience for it. It’s a belief that they are presumptively “the norm” and they’ve been unfairly robbed of their natural supremacy. It’s both whiny and arrogant, which is just the kiss of death for me. Pick. If they want to be jack booted authoritarians they don’t also get to whine that I have to love them. No, I don’t. There’s this neediness- a demand for validation. Trump has it and so do his awful children.Yuck.
Baud
@debbie:
On the topic of young vs. old, the Bernie issue really is a roadblock in my support for the youngs. I’m holding out hope I won’t be forced to vote for Biden in the primary.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Too close for comfort.
Baud
@Kay:
Agreed. America is not a safe space for conservatives.
Immanentize
@Baud: I know the difference between 22 and 17 is 5. But that doesn’t seem like much of a difference in such a poll. And it was a Nationwide poll? That said, trendlines do have Warren a bit down from her heights these days. I guess we shall start seeing what’s what in a couple of months!
Kay
@Baud:
You know this, but I have trouble with it because I buy their argument. They did get a raw deal. I don’t think that’s debatable anymore. It may be a pipe dream but maybe admitting that to them would be a start at bridging the divide. People sometimes just want to be heard.
I admit it. I don’t have to “own” it by myself but I do have to admit the truth of it.
debbie
@Baud:
Yeah, I don’t want to have to vote for any of the grandpas.
Baud
@Immanentize:
It’s not close to over. But I’m still disappointed Dems are still giving Bernie the time of day.
Butter Emails
@Baud: It makes sense. Warren and now increasingly Buttigieg have been in the media cross hairs and Sanders and Biden are the beneficiaries of that.
debbie
@Kay:
When was the last time the younger generation didn’t get a raw deal?
Baud
@Kay:
I thought that’s what Warren’s entry into the primary would accomplish.
Kathleen
@Baud: Didn’t she also accuse her of conspiring with Russia to block impeachment? I’m on phone and my Googlezzz dkilld are limited or I would have provided a link to that tweet even though I’ve blocked her.
Immanentize
@Kay: When I wrote the Beatles thing, I thought — when I was young, the (far) right knew they were on top and had the cultural upper hand. They were fighting change.
But now it seems that young conservative people embraced most of that change (music, dress, language, free love, behavior, etc.) But now they complain that they want what? To return to the straight world of their grandparents? They wouldn’t survive a day in that land.
I guess it’s like you say. They somehow need also to be loved. Do they really care if a couple across town is gay? Or do they just want something to pick on as proof that they are not sufficiently respected and loved?
Cartman: “Respect my Authoritah!”
Baud
@debbie:
Not that this will happen, but if I end up having to choose between Bernie and Bloomberg, I’m moving to Belize.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Our local paper regularly publishes whiny letters to the editor in which people complain that Trump is treated unfairly and lament how awful it is that facts and some fellow citizens (a 2-1 minority in this county) don’t support him. I’ve never seen a larger set of extra-dainty snowflakes in my life than the Trumps and their whiny cult.
Baud
@Kathleen: I don’t know. I don’t follow her.
joel hanes
@debbie:
When was the last time the younger generation didn’t get a raw deal?
For white males and traditionalist females, 1950 was pretty bright.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fye4uY3pCvo
Immanentize
@debbie: . In perhaps the entire post-WWII period until the 80’s?
Immanentize
@Baud:
I will join you! I know a great little place to stay on Ambergris Key. Sadly owned by the former Grand Wizard of the KKK. (Both true)
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: Oooh. Jackal Colony. I am in.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: That was interesting. It took about a minute and 3-4 refreshes for the comment to appear.
Anyway, Ambergris Key. Mmmmm. I have been thinking “educational visa to Spain” for 2021.
Did my first canvassing for Elizabeth Warren yesterday. The people at the doors were so nice. It’s early in Virginia, so they weren’t all overcontacted and cynical. They had a lot of good comments, and even those not supporting EW (at this point!) had some marvelous assessments and issues.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@joel hanes:
I was 3 in 1950, so I can’t comment first hand. But I will say that my mother (a traditional woman) had a college degree in journalism and worked at the Detroit Free Press–as a secretary. That obviously had much more to do with gender roles than younger vs older generation, so maybe it doesn’t relate to the question.
ETA: I see Imm’s comment at #91 and now that I rethink, I can see what you both mean. College was affordable, frex. Of course, the Vietnam War hit the younger generation, especially the male half, hard. I guess I think the young usually pay for the mistakes and greed of the old.
JMG
It is so telling that “winter music” (great term,BTW) is only played at Christmastime. Play “Winter Wonderland” at a mall in Massachusetts in mid-February and you might have a riot on your hands.
opiejeanne
@Baud:
I totally missed it.
I can’t keep up. There’s too much and it’s depressing.
I’ve been focusing on Christmas to distract me and it’s helped some, but our adult children are Not Helping. One is going to visit her in-laws in Florida, which is fine, they need to see them and so we are doing the Christmas Eve party on the 21st. The other daughter is taking off for about six months, maybe more, before Christmas, and our son is too busy to come for a visit this year.
Our 50th anniversary is the 27th, so Christmas Day and the 27th we will be celebrating together, without the kids.
We have discussed having a big party to celebrate our 50th, maybe in June, but now I’m thinking “why bother, no one cares”.
Also, listening to my youngest who has decided she’s an atheist just takes the joy out of the season, plus she’s decided that Trump is going to win because she works with a bunch of idiots who like him so there will be no grandchildren ever, because global warming is going to kill us all.
Sorry. I think I’ll call the doctor this morning, when I get up. Maybe insurance will cover a shrink.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@opiejeanne:
We care!
And I will say that if you’re not depressed, your youngest sure sounds like they are.
Betty Cracker
The woman interviewing Giuliani acts like someone who’s been cornered in the family kitchen by a demented great uncle…
debbie
@joel hanes:
They were looking for another Herbert Hoover, so I’d place the date back in the 1920s, prior to the Depression. Kids didn’t it good then, either.
debbie
@Immanentize:
Yeah, that would include my youngest brother, Gordon Gekko Jr. I think what helped them is that they figured out how to play (if not destroy) the olds.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Good. More pressure on McConnel to call witnesses at the trial
O. Felix Culpa
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch: Um, no. Nice for Warren to get as many endorsements as possible, but 99.8% of Dems (ok, I made that number up) don’t have a clue who Sara Kendzior is. I only recognize her name because she comes up on BJ now and then. Otherwise she would draw a blank for me, and I’m a political junkie. Your average Dem on the street is not on twitter and won’t be impressed
Or what satby said at #3.
debbie
@opiejeanne:
Start planning that party! It’s sure to be better than you are thinking now.
germy
She works for OAN. She’s a willing participant in this bullshit.
I suspect the face she’s making is her “Serious Journalist Breaking Bombshell News About A Scandal That Will Destroy The Democrat Party” performance.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Rudi had me until “died twice.” //
trnc
Collins thought about it, though. I mean, furrowed her brow and everything.
opiejeanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I know, I have a nice group of friends that all live somewhere else. I’m mostly upset for my husband. He is dying to be a grandpa and I think he’s hurt by the desertion. I’ll be 70 and he’ll be 73 soon, and I don’t understand what’s going on with the middle kid/daughter. I think she’s running away from her dying parents (can’t handle her pets dying), and while we ain’t going nowhere right away, we won’t always be here and we won’t always be as healthy.
Denali
I totally back the movement to Belize in case of a Bernie or Bloomberg choice. How did it come to this? We had a field of very well qualified candidates, and somehow because of their gender, we are afraid to nominate a woman, and it is beginning to look a lot like a choice between 3 old white men. Don’t want to get into comparisons with UK, but it was a singular failure of the Labor Party to get behind an wildly unpopular candidate. They could not win. We need better leadership here. We need a cohesive winning strategy. We did it with Obama so it can be done!
opiejeanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: And thanks.
Baud
@Denali:
Two old white men. Bloomberg isn’t getting close to the nomination. That was just my attempt at Halloween at Christmas.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Me too. Say you’re left-leaning. How do you look at Warren and Sanders and pick Sanders???? It’s a cult, like Trump.
opiejeanne
@debbie: We might go to Europe instead and tell the kids to kiss off.
Frankensteinbeck
@Immanentize:
They want to be loved for being assholes. They want minorities to say “Thank you, Sir! May I have another?”
Immanentize
@opiejeanne: I think we here care! I will expect my invitation in late April (when I hope to be on the DAW cruise line) so that I can make travel arrangements to wherever the hell you are.
Or, the two of you should come cruising with me and the Immp for your 50th.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
SHOKIN IS THE CROOKED PROSECUTOR EVERYBODY’S BEEN TALKING ABOUT WHO HAD TO BE GOTTEN OUT SO THAT UKRAINE COULD GET ITS FOREIGN AID
Baud
@opiejeanne:
Do it! Tell them Balloon Juice is your family now!
Betty Cracker
@germy: I know who she works for and am not making excuses for her poor career choices. I just found it kind of amusing, the way she stares at him wide-eyed and nods robotically.
yellowdog
@Amir Khalid: No. They will cheat and win.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
It’s their usual projection. Putin poisons people right and left, so they’re going to claim that Obama did too.
Immanentize
@Frankensteinbeck: I know many do. But I hope that is just a big mouth minority of the minority of the (diminishing) majority race.
Baud
@yellowdog:
They will cheat. I’m not conceding the win.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@opiejeanne:
Family relationships are so complicated and fraught. I’m guessing that’s one reason there are so many novels about that. We all keep trying to understand it.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: One what day did he rise from the dead?
opiejeanne
@Immanentize: You guys are swell. Where/when are you cruising?
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: I am pretty damned white and I knew at least 75% of the names mentioned and recognized quite a few more (had heard the name but didn’t have and instant recognition of where and why). And then Josephine Baker, Bell Biv Devoe, and Albert King? Come the fuck on….
Immanentize
@opiejeanne:
I am the third son of three.
Three pieces of wisdom from my parents:
1). My father — Binghamton NY is a great town to be from. I took that seriously and was the only child to leave the area.
2. Also my father — I raised up sticks so they may beat me. Tru dat.
3. My mother — we raised you to be independent and sometimes it makes me sad we were so successful.
Here we are….
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: From what I’ve read, Giuliani is also relying on testimony from another crook, Lutsenko (sp) as well as a Firtash, the Russia-aligned oligarch marooned in Vienna while he fights extradition to the U.S. Basically, he’s finding every discredited, corrupt jackass in Ukraine to manufacture dirt.
I’m sure Trump is eating this shit up, but if McConnell is smart, he won’t let Giuliani anywhere near a hearing room.
opiejeanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: None of them are terrible offspring, they’re all great, I think mr opiejeanne feels a bit abandoned. I mean, I have middle kid’s elderly cat because she took off like this a couple of years ago, went camping in Glacier and Yellowstone and Teton. Drove cross country, camping for a while until that became a drag. They got to the east coast and their car died. They flew home, I still have the cat.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
Definitely. It almost looks like an SNL sketch. And you’re right, she’s probably thinking to herself “He’s just like my crazy Uncle Pat” while she puts on her Serious Journalist face (not realizing her expression says “My crazy Uncle Pat!”)
p.a.
These Dem polls w Biden & Bernie in the lead: the lead among likely PRIMARY voters? Or just beauty contests? Who has the best ground work, and in which states? Or is the Dem polity so enraged/scared that the primaries may actually mirror the general election Dem. demographics?
Immanentize
@opiejeanne: I think it will be the Mediterranean in late April (the Immp’s birthday period). I’m calling it The Oligarch tour. Greece, Turkey, Malta, maybe a quick stop in Israel to meet the Russians….
Dorothy A. Winsor
@opiejeanne:
In our culture, kids are expected to leave home and create their own lives. I think to do that, they kind of have to reject us. That’s painful, and yet, a sign of our success.
Immanentize
I just read a very uplifting article on the front page of the NY Times. Seems that Republican states are really not preparing for the census of 2020 while Democratically controlled states are going all in to make a full count.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I should have had kids. I’m very good at driving people away.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize:
That sounds wonderful!
germy
https://cats.lovetoknow.com/Does_Mom_Miss_Her_Kittens
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud:
Apparently I am too, though I didn’t know it until I became a mother.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
As my mother used to say half-jokingly (I hope), children grow up to break your heart.
satby
@J R in WV: @opiejeanne: He’s a progressive.
Also not going to get the nomination, so the character assassination is a bit suspect. I’m seeing the beginning of the decades long tactics that resulted in the Hillary hate that cost this country so dearly last time. Our opposition smears early and often.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Christ, you should heave been around here while you were gone. The pining for you…. Enough to make a person puke.*
*Of course, these people didn’t have to meet you face to pantsless face.
Raven
@Denali: Do weird, I just got a really nice fishing shirt in the mail from Denali!
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus: Yep. There’s a reason I never attend meetups.
Raven
@Raven: So
opiejeanne
@germy:
Not helping, mainly because all three went off to live their lives separate from us, and successfully.
And we only live here because Middle Kid wanted us to move here. There was a nasty insistence from her asshole ex-husband that we move here so their kids would know one set of grandparents (his parents are workaholics) , and as soon as we got here he announced he wanted a divorce. She moved in with us for a few months while she hunted for a place to live, then the youngest moved to Seattle. They live across Lake Union from each other, and can see each other’s building.
satby
Belize is too hot and humid. I’m looking at Portugal, Spain, or Mexico.
Seriously.
germy
@Omnes Omnibus: When I leave for good nobody will notice a thing.
opiejeanne
@satby: I’m seeing statements from Mayor Pete that I do not like in a Democrat, and that sound an awful lot like Republican Lite.
The smearing that was really bad was directed at Senator Harris. Kamala Is A Cop is the damning phrase from the left.
opiejeanne
@germy: Yes we will.
Say, whatever happened to Corner Stone?
Gin & Tonic
@opiejeanne:
I have to admit that’s a pretty ambitious itinerary for an elderly cat. When our cats got older, they tended to spend most of their day just following the sunny spot on the dining room carpet.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: OAN is the network for people who think Fox is filled with leftists.
opiejeanne
@Gin & Tonic: Haha.
They left the cat with me while they went off on their adventures. It was great.
Said cat is sleeping on my feet right now, lucky boy. I haven’t been able to sleep tonight.
satby
@opiejeanne: I was very surprised Harris wasn’t doing better and disappointed that she left the field before the South Carolina primary, where I thought she was on track to win or come in second. She and Warren were my primary choices. I keep wondering about the Biden support polls show.
I don’t know anyone black or white backing him as a first choice.
JPL
@opiejeanne: I hope all is well at the Corner Stone house.
When do we start planning the big celebration? NYC might be fun in June.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Great image to start off the day. Well, not “start off,” exactly, but still …
JPL
@satby: Amy still interests me. If Biden were to win the nomination, I want Harris on the ticket.
OzarkHillbilly
I love the fact that my wife works out here now. We are on our 3rd day in a row of winter storm warnings (so far a little snow but mostly freezing rain and sleet, not much accumulation yet but slick in spots) and I was able to take her to work, stop at the grocery to get stuff for baking and be home in little over an hour. We’re expecting 4-7 inches of snow today and I will have to pick her up at 4:30 but at least I have 4wd and I don’t have to worry about her driving on these icy back roads.
opiejeanne
@satby: I’m still pretty upset about Harris and how she was treated, and after she withdrew all of the hypocrite media people talking about how wonderful she was with kids, and stuff. They ignored her while she was running, couldn’t be bothered to interview her.
SFAW
Saw an interesting suggestion by one of the commenters at TPM:
Regarding the Senate impeachment trial, “some people are saying” that the jurors/Senators are going to take an oath before the “trial” begins, something about being impartial? [I do not know how much truth there is in this.] The commenter suggested that, immediately after the oath is taken by the entire Rethug Senate caucus, Schumer (or someone) make a motion that O’Connell, Graham, and assorted others [who have said (more or less) “I’m going to vote to acquit”] be excused as jurors. The likelihood of such a motion passing is approximately nil, of course. I also don’t know if such a motion, or any motion, would be permitted. But I think it would be good fun if the Dems were able to do that.
Omnes Omnibus
@satby: Purely anecdata: When I was home at Thanksgiving, I did a straw poll of my voting age family. We had one Mayor Pete curious (my 76 y/o dad), one Warren (my 73 y/o aunt), and one Harris (me). The remaining seven people were for Biden including my 18 y/o nephew.*
*One caveat to this is that my cousin (the Warren supporting aunt’s son) was not there, but his mom said that he finds Trump personally disgusting but buys into the anti-immigrant shit. X-mas Eve at his mother’s place will be interesting because I won’t keep my mouth shut if he says anything.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Brrr! You’re a good partner.
Here we just have rain predicted for pretty much the rest of the year. I’m a little tired of the mud.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Gramps, how’s the baby?
Jay
OzarkHillbilly
How to be hopeful: Colum McCann on the broken violin that played in a refugee camp
Jay
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: thing is, except for the BBros, almost everyone else will unite behind our eventual nominee. I think Biden wins on the basis of being an acceptable second choice for most people where Sanders isn’t even an acceptable 5th choice for anyone not in his cult. The policy differences between most of the top 5 are miniscule (I’m leaving out Bloomberg, Gabbard, and the rest of the odd balls, but I am including Booker and Klobawhoever in that < not a fan of hers). It’s been a weird primary, I hope we never have as long and congested one ever again.
Betty Cracker
@Jay: My paternal grandfather was in the Battle of the Bulge. Makes me ill to realize that 75 years later, many of his own descendants are fawning over clownish authoritarians after all my grandfather and his fellow soldiers did to give liberal democracy a chance to flourish.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Got to see her last week at my Baby Girl #1’s winter strings concert (6th grade, honors viola) (Some Xmas tunes but also # of fiddle and a few jigs) and BG #2 is getting prettier every day. She smiles all the time now and has even begun to giggle. Slowly warming up to PawPaw.
Omnes Omnibus
@satby: Yeah, the three who didn’t have Biden as a first choice still saw him as okay. And everyone really IDed as Team Broken Glass.
debbie
@satby:
I have a sinking feeling this kind of campaign season will be the standard, not the exception, in the future. Who on either side doesn’t think they have the answers to be the best president in the history of the country? //
Ruckus
Next up, Paul argues that Stephen Miller is deeply concerned about racism in America.
But Stephen is concerned!
That there isn’t anywhere near enough racism in America.
Jay
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: For her, from back when the Web was interesting.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Lovely. Thank you for sharing .
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: that’s a great story. Also an example of #irishfamous //
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Hey, if that black guy can do it…///
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: If I was of the greatest generation I’d be pissed
Surveying the world that I built slipping back into this
I’d be screaming at my grandkids: “We already did this”
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Sweet. My grandson is in the stranger danger phase of life. He really dislikes men with facial hair and thinks Santa is evil. For X-mas he’s getting a bag filled with tissue paper. That will keep him busy for awhile.
Denali
@Raven,
Actually, Denali was the name of my daughter’s dog. A malamute/husky, of course.
JPL
@Jay: The only solutions that I can think of would land me in jail.
Jay
https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/was-17-black-the-motive-behind-caruana-galizia-assassination.757300.amp?__twitter_impression=true
It appears that Malta journalist Caruana Galizia was murdered for digging into a UAE registered company, 17 Black, now Wings Development, that was used to launder money to politicians, civil servants and others in Malta and else where,
all tied into a series of P2P projects of questionable value, fixed rates and tax scams.
Betty Cracker
@satby: I hope everyone will unite around the eventual nominee. One encouraging sign is that Sanders didn’t come into the race with as strong a base as a runner-up would typically attract. He’s got the hardcore Berniacs, but lots of folks who voted for him in the 2016 primary moved on.
I think that surprised his campaign. They mistook “Sanders primary voter” for “Bernie Bro.” (In their defense, that’s a common mistake.)
If Biden is the nominee, the thing I worry about more than party infighting is that overall lack of enthusiasm will depress volunteering, donations and ultimately turnout. Trump is so awful that one hopes that’s motivation enough.
bemused
@Kay:
I’m having a flashback to Rudy renaming Manhattan jail Bernie Kerik Complex but name changed again when Kerik was sentenced to federal prison.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
You really need to get out more. Viola jokes? Oy vey.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Julian Castro would be a great choice for VP at another time. Since I think Hillary was robbed, it’s important for me that there be a female on the ticket if the nominee is Biden.
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: Evergreen material, dude. Comedy gold.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: Sorry, but Jingle Bells is a song about how Batman smells.
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
Gotta agree. There were only a few names in any of the replies to that tweet that I didn’t know (and you could come up with a similar list of white people and I’d probably be unfamiliar with the same proportion). Either I’m an outlier among wipipo or lots of black people underestimate how much white people know about black culture.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, but the Republicans are stupid brutes who see the Supreme Court as an unreliable bastion of liberalism working against ‘Murica. You want the Democrats to take on this mantle of stupidity?
Republican politicians have said stupid shit like “a Supreme Court justice don’t need no law degree nor no legal experience. They just need to know what the baby Jesus wants.”
Or they mumble originalist BS, where a justice uses a conservative Ouija Board to determine what the Dead Founders thought about an issue brought before the Court.
I agree with you, but aren’t we talking as much about a restoration of norms and balance as a call for, I don’t know, what, progressive judicial activism?
debbie
Am I the only one who got an error message only on this thread about an hour ago?
bemused
@Kay:
Kay, you are a treasure! The whiny trumpers don’t get to have love from us nor an ounce of respect. I love “extra-dainty snowflakes” Trumps and their whiny cult.
These folks have a failure to assimilate to a diverse America and blame everyone else for their own stubbornness to face reality.
geg6
@debbie:
No, you were not.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: My personal judicial wish list would include affirmation that women are equal humans entitled to bodily autonomy and acknowledgement that this “everyone is entitled to as many guns and as much ammo as they want” idea is nutso.