Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

When we show up, we win.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Dear legacy media: you are not here to influence outcomes and policies you find desirable.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

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

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Monday Morning Open Thread: Winter Is Here

Monday Morning Open Thread: Winter Is Here

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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:

And finally:

Reader Interactions

194Comments

  1. 1.

    David ??Booooooo?? Koch

    Sarah Kendzior
    @sarahkendzior

    I’m voting for Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic Primary.

    4:07 PM · Dec 15, 2019
    2K Retweets 15.2K Likes

    This is a big get.

  2. 2.

    Patricia Kayden

    The Fox poll is 54-41 for impeachment. That’s a bigger margin than the Democrats’ victory margin in 2018. In other words, if I can put it this way, impeachment in 2019 is running a bit ahead of House Democrats in 2018.— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) December 15, 2019

  4. 4.

    Brachiator

    @satby: 

    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.

    Heck, I don’t know who she is. And don’t much care.

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    This starts with a public commitment to nominate bold, progressive lawyers to the court.

    Nope. Nope. Nope. A president can use this in private discussions and considerations, but public declaration of an ideological litmus test is anathema.

    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.

    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.

  13. 13.

    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.

  14. 14.

    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.

  18. 18.

    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..

  20. 20.

    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.

  22. 22.

    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

  29. 29.

    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.

  36. 36.

    rikyrah

    This thread

     

     

     

    “Blackfamous” is the gap between black stardom and white anonymity. For instance: The highest possible rating on the “blackfamous” scale would be someone EVERY black person knew but was unknown by EVERY white person.So I ask: Who is the most “blackfamous” person of all time?— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) December 14, 2019

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    Sanders and US socialists’ biggest electoral claim is that fierce, open economic leftism will win back the white working class, who left the Democrats because of “neoliberalism.” We’ve seen repeated cases of that claim failing miserably—WWC choosing race over class t.co/vBKmLED7bJ— Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) December 14, 2019

  41. 41.

    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%.

  42. 42.

    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

  46. 46.

    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.

  48. 48.

    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.

  51. 51.

    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.

  53. 53.

    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.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    Rudy Giuliani
    @RudyGiuliani
    Budapest | Kiev | Vienna
    After hundreds of hours & months of research, I have garnered witnesses & documents which reveal the truth behind this impeachment, which includes NO wrongdoing by
    @realDonaldTrump
    These threads only touch the surface. Read & watch all. More to come.

    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.

  55. 55.

    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?

  59. 59.

    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.

  61. 61.

    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.

  62. 62.

    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.

  63. 63.

    opiejeanne

    Do you know what the beautiful bird is in the photo? That is a glorious picture.  Never mind, it’s a ptarmigan

  64. 64.

    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!

  65. 65.

    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.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    About 400 of America’s largest corporations paid an average federal tax rate of about 11 percent on their profits last year, about half the official rate established under President Trump’s tax law of 2017, according to a report released Monday.

    ….

    The report also found that 91 corporations in the Fortune 500, many worth billions of dollars, paid no federal taxes at all last year.

    Not a single Dem voted for this tax cut, but both sides are the same.

  69. 69.

    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.

  70. 70.

    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.

  71. 71.

    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.

  72. 72.

    Baud

    This is disappointing.

    Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) are leading the Democratic primary field in a new NPR/PBSNewsHour/Marist poll, the latest indication that the progressive senator from Vermont is seeing a surge in support ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

     

    Twenty-four percent of Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents said they supported Biden, while Sanders was close behind at 22 percent.

     

    Together the two candidates amassed nearly half of the support from Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents.

     

    Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) garnered 17 percent support, followed by South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), who came in at 13 percent support.

  74. 74.

    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.

  75. 75.

    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.

  76. 76.

    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.

  79. 79.

    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!

  80. 80.

    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.

  83. 83.

    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.

  86. 86.

    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.

  87. 87.

    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!”

  89. 89.

    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.

  93. 93.

    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)

  95. 95.

    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.

  96. 96.

    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.

  97. 97.

    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.

  98. 98.

    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.

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    The woman interviewing Giuliani acts like someone who’s been cornered in the family kitchen by a demented great uncle…

  101. 101.

    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.

  102. 102.

    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.

  104. 104.

    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.

  106. 106.

    germy

    The woman interviewing Giuliani acts like someone who’s been cornered in the family kitchen at by a demented great uncle…

    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.

  108. 108.

    trnc

    @Baud: Not a single Dem voted for this tax cut, but both sides are the same.

    Collins thought about it, though. I mean, furrowed her brow and everything.

  109. 109.

    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.

  110. 110.

    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!

  113. 113.

    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.

  116. 116.

    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.

  119. 119.

    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.

  127. 127.

    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….

  128. 128.

    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….

  129. 129.

    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.

  130. 130.

    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.

  131. 131.

    germy

    @Betty Cracker:

     I just found it kind of amusing, the way she stares at him wide-eyed and nods robotically.

    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!”)

  132. 132.

    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?

  133. 133.

    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….

  135. 135.

    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.

  138. 138.

    germy

    While it may feel like a mother cat will be upset that her kittens will be taken away, cats don’t think the same way people do. It’s natural for a mother cat to begin weaning her kittens around four to five weeks of age and they’ll be fully weaned around 10 or 12 weeks. It’s the goal of the mother cat to teach the kittens to become independent, at which point her bond to them will weaken. In fact, it’s not uncommon for the mother cat to become uncomfortable with the presence of her kittens after they are weaned and growl at them if they remain for too long.

    cats.lovetoknow.com/Does_Mom_Miss_Her_Kittens

  142. 142.

    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.

  146. 146.

    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.

  149. 149.

    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.

  151. 151.

    Gin & Tonic

    @opiejeanne:

    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.

    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.

  153. 153.

    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.

  154. 154.

    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.

  158. 158.

    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.

  159. 159.

    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.

  160. 160.

    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.

  161. 161.

    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.

  165. 165.

    OzarkHillbilly

    How to be hopeful: Colum McCann on the broken violin that played in a refugee camp

    “We left our music in the taxi,” Colm apologised.

    “Oh, you’re a fiddle player,” said Abdelfattah, off-handedly, pointing to a corner where a small pile of rubber bullets, gas cannisters and “sound bomb” shells also sat. “We were just given a fiddle by a lady in England, but it’s broken and nobody knows how to fix it.” And in the cramped office space, Abdelfattah began to talk of his concepts of beautiful resistance, using stories and music and dance and theatre to allow young people and women in the camp to become changemakers.

    Colm rose noiselessly from his chair and reached for the modern-looking case. The violin looked like something long ago sound-bombed. The strings were twisted. The bridge was hanging off.

    Upon the possibility of hope one always tastes the possibility of sorrow: the violin looked like my cliched concept of a refugee, silent, unstrung.

    Colm began to work with the strings. “Art puts us on an equal ground,” said Abdelfattah. Colm turned the bridge around. “We shape a better future despite everything we come up against,” said Abdelfattah. Colm loosened and tightened the pegs, adjusted the chin rest. “We do not want your sympathy,” said Abdelfattah. Colm made the strings taut: the violin began to look half-musical. “Seventy per cent of those who go through the Alrowwad programme don’t go to prison,” said Abdelfattah. Colm positioned the tail-piece. “People think these kids know only how to throw stones,” said Abdelfattah, “but we write, we sing, we dance, too.”

    The violin looked half sober. Colm worked his fingers around the peg box, plucked the strings, tightened and untightened the pegs, tuning from low to high. There were two bows in the case. One was brand new, unrosined. The second was older. Colm took a hold of the second one. The room waited. We had no idea if it would make any sound.

    This is the music of what happens: a plume of dust rose from the violin. It seemed to me a moment so theatrical it could only be true. Later, I learned that it was rosin dust rising from the bow hairs, but at the time it seemed that the thing was emerging from another age.

    Colm played Róisín Dubh, an Irish love tune from the 17th century. No singing, no words. The sound of the violin made a brand new lung of the room. He followed it with an improvised fusion piece involving the call to prayer, a dance tune we had learned in Nablus, and rap rhythms heard in Israel. It was some of the most glorious music I have ever heard.

  166. 166.

    Jay

    But Trump and JIT (Just in Time)? Trump gives his fans their politics via Twitter. Instant packets, dozens of times a day. Why bother to actually track his promises with results?.No need to measure the long term effects or the actual cost. We get what we want. Fresh. every day.— Robert Young Pelton (@RYP__) December 15, 2019

  167. 167.

    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.

  168. 168.

    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.

  169. 169.

    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.

  170. 170.

    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.

  171. 171.

    debbie

    @satby:

    I hope we never have as long and congested one ever again.

    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? //

  172. 172.

    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.

  173. 173.

    Jay

    Personally, I’d like to see everyone (social media users, media outlets, etc) think twice before amplifying fatalistic narratives about how screwed we are, & instead consider giving voice to those who’ve always understood the threat and actually offer solutions to counter it. 7/— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) December 16, 2019

  179. 179.

    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.

  182. 182.

    Jay

    “It has consequently attracted large financial flows and some of the world’s most high-profile criminals. A significant slice of the inbound money comes in the form of cash or gold,” she wrote in a post based on a Tax Justice Network report.

    timesofmalta.com/articles/view/was-17-black-the-motive-behind-caruana-galizia-assassination.757300.a…

    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.

  183. 183.

    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.

  184. 184.

    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.

  186. 186.

    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.

  189. 189.

    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.

  190. 190.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    Emphasizing SCOTUS picks seems to have worked out pretty well for Republicans.

    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.

    Maybe the one weird trick Democrats need to learn is how to communicate the judiciary’s importance in sufficiently apocalyptic terms.

    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?

  192. 192.

    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.

  194. 194.

    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.

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