Quite an image of Times Square tonight https://t.co/HUfVXGIWJO
— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) December 18, 2019
It’s the theme of the day! From the Washington Post:
… Protesters in the dark of a snowy New England evening chanted “Dump Trump,” while those marching in the warmth of southern Florida brandished signs reading “Impeach Putin’s Puppet.” In Republican-dominated Kansas, they repeated a mantra: “Country over party.” In Texas, they fretted that despite the House’s vote, Trump will get away with it all.
Organizers said that there were more than 600 protests nationwide — from Hawaii to Maine — with the goal of demonstrating “to our lawmakers that their constituents are behind them to defend the Constitution.”
In many places, the rallies functioned less as a chance to vent about Trump’s Ukraine dealings — the matter for which he faces impeachment — than as an opportunity for collective catharsis over the entire track record of a president disapproved of by slightly more than half the country…
The House hearings are due to start around 9am EST; actual voting is expected “around” 6:30-7:30pm, depending on the Repubs’ performative stamina, or any ‘surprises’ from the Oval Office squatters.
WATCH: @Maddow profiles the nationwide protests tonight.
She shows powerful footage from all around the country.#ImpeachmentEve pic.twitter.com/uQIyXfoO7k
— Stand Up America (@StandUpAmerica) December 18, 2019
Massive #impeachment rally in #Atlanta. Impossible to capture the entire crowd of more than 1000.#ImpeachmentEve #ImpeachAndRemove #Indivisible@IndivisibleTeam pic.twitter.com/OPbuuxB8FF
— Indivisible Georgia Sixth District (@INDI6_GA) December 17, 2019
Just rolled down the window to clap and cheer the massive one block long pro #ImpeachmentEve demonstration here in our small Utah town. All ages. Elders. Awesome. Bae was driving
— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) December 17, 2019
Even in single digit temps St Paul shows up on #ImpeachmentEve pic.twitter.com/ielQXSQH4U
— Justin Lerbakken (@Lerbaker) December 17, 2019
Spirited #impeachment rally on Boston Common tonight despite the weather. #ImpeachmentEve #mapoli pic.twitter.com/EMGdj6tXyH
— Amanda Smith (@abs628) December 17, 2019
All I can say is if millions of Americans braving all sorts of weather to demand the impeachment and removal of this thug of a president doesn’t make the front page of @nytimes they should stop calling themselves a newspaper. pic.twitter.com/GpLkrnYrKB
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) December 18, 2019
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
RandomMonster
The FTFNYTimes will probably run a headline about Hillary’s server.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Biden hit Dump yesterday with another hard ad (video)
He’s the only one running ads kicking Dump right in the face.
satby
I wish protests mattered.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Good morning. ?
Another Scott
‘ morning.
RollCall:
The process is marching on.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
“Power move”. Ugh. Horrible people. It’s like living in a bad 1980’s movie.
In other news, we have a county commissioner candidate! Ta da!
She’s good. We haven’t had a D county commissioner here for almost 30 years so wish us luck. This one could actually win. Her petition signatures to get on the ballot are due today but she should be fine. The general rule is you get twice as many as you need in case they’re challenged and she has 4x what she needs.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Sherparick
@satby: They do. NYT apparently has no coverage of the protests against Trump.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Kay: one power move = she impeached the mutherfvcker
Betty Cracker
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I wish Bloomberg wasn’t running as a Democrat, and most of his ads sing his own praises instead of kicking Trump in the nuts, which is a waste of money, IMO. That said, Bloomberg’s recent school shooting ad was a powerful exception.
It may be a more effective ad strategy to pick an issue and point out Trump’s massive failures on that issue rather than to run ads about how Trump sucks in general. Trump is terrible, it’s true, but he’s also been disastrous on policies that people care about.
Kay
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
The kids stuck in school buses for 4 hours was ‘badass’.
The county commissioners are all men and they meet on the 4th floor of the courthouse. I sometimes ride in the elevator with the leader (a Trumpist) and although he is a “badass” who makes a lot of “power moves” he’s too scared to make eye contact with me when we’re alone on the elevator. I knew his mother. She would be ashamed of him.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
I agree. It’s somewhat odd and disappointing that the others are leaving the field to him.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Sherparick:
There is this story on the U.S. News section on the website: “Rallies Spread on Eve of House Impeachment Votes.”
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
satby
@Sherparick: so, why do you think that proves they matter?
I’ve been a protester since the Viet Nam days, and I used to think they mattered. Not sure they do any more. Votes matter more.
NotMax
Hmm, must be failing memory. Sure don’t recall ordering the deluxe buy one get one free package of leg cramps. Well, at least there is symmetry.
Baud
@satby:
They matter as long as people are committed to both.
MJS
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I love TV ad Joe. He should replace Debate Joe and Off-the-Cuff Joe.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Your local government sounds as awful as mine: all white Republican men, most of whom hide their cowardice under a veneer of bravado. Some are more overtly terrible than others, but that’s really the only difference between them.
WereBear
Which I admittedly like.
WereBear
@satby: Protests do matter.
It makes denial even tougher for the delusional, and that’s always a good thing. Not that it will make them change their mind. But because it can make them shut up.
Kay
For me, I just have to accept that some institutions and people will hold up better than others- are more resilient. Because it is challenging and some will just fail. Failure actually is an option and they’re not all the same. The cracks will show in some and less in others. State department held up better than DOJ. Success/failure. Better/worse.
I read this thing on Twitter yesterday where the complaint was journalists rewriting Trump’s letter to cover it as news improved how it’s presented to the public. They rewrite it in a way that adds seriousness and gravity to the letter- the letter itself is deranged and low quality. That is a challenge. They’ll have to do things differently to meet it. I don’t know how to do it. It’s difficult. Some will meet the challenge and some will fail. The NYTimes failed.
WereBear
@NotMax: I have friends who swear by dill pickle juice. Or mustard.
WereBear
@Kay: At least we have some, like you said.
I’ve been down and out with this stupid virus thing since Thanksgiving. Finally getting on top of it.
I blame it on slacking off on the self-care I have to do. So I’ve learned my lesson :) I just have to remember I’ve learned it!
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I really could have hugged the candidate when she announced. They walk around the courthouse like they own the place. They often run unopposed. They’re smug and arrogant.
It’s not easy running as a D! She’s a 4-H person and they meet a ton of people. She’ll have the underground 4-H network of support out in the boonies :)
Betty Cracker
@WereBear: It also allows participants to feel less alone and more motivated to fight back. My sister, daughter and I went to the Women’s March in DC on 1/21/2017, and we all remarked on how we felt hope rather than despair for the first time in months.
Baud
@Kay: Good for her. I hope she wins.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kay:
“Underground 4-H network.”
Another sinister special-interest group heard from.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I hope she wins! The 4-H mafia could put her over the top! ;)
Baud
@Steeplejack (phone):
The Deep
StateFarmDavid ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
⏰4Ⓜ️??
debbie
That Times Square photo is the best! I just wish they could have gotten a permit to march to Trump Tower.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
As I recall, State had the benefit of being led by Obama’s SecStates Hillary and John Kerry, who worked hard to repair the neglect and marginalisation it suffered under George Walker Bush.
Baud
Trump holding a campaign rally in Michigan at the time of the vote.
Kay
@Baud:
We hired her at the board of elections and she was really competent. It was difficult to hire her- that’s a clique too. The people who thought they should get the job were mad. Anyway, she stayed for two years and left because she got a higher paying job at a bank but she comes to D meetings and had her petition with her last night. County commissioners have a lot of power. Sherrod Brown says it’s the hardest job in local government. They allocate all the funding. The signatures have to be validated which one does by looking them up on the sec of state list of registered voters. Ours have to be D ‘s or independents. I saw her busily looking up the signer as people signed on her phone and I thought “good! pre-validating!”
I’ve never seen anyone do that before, but it makes sense. Usually they just get a ton of signatures, dump them at the BOE and hope for the best.
Betty Cracker
Here’s some news I missed in yesterday’s hubbub:
It sucks that we lost Rep. Cummings, and it’s a disgrace that Hill was driven out of politics by sexist goons. But these reps seem like fine choices to fill the gaps. I’m more familiar with Porter and LOVE to watch her fillet malfactors in hearings.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@debbie: They had a nice one in front of Dump’s place (photo)
germy
tom the dancing bug’s latest comic. Trump’s imaginary friends:
https://boingboing.net/2019/12/18/a-cavinesque-and-hobbesian-loo.html
Steeplejack (phone)
@Baud:
LOL. Who’s funding them? The Jolly Green Giant?
debbie
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
That is nice!
Baud
@Kay:
Detail oriented. Good.
Kay
I learned this last night too- the D candidates for President are organizing by having their supporters call their own phone list. The list you have on your phone of people you know. Everyone probably knows this but I haven’t seen that before. The Bernie people told me last night. I know Obama didn’t do that. I wonder if their friends hate it. I wouldn’t mind it, but that’s me.
Baud
@Kay:
I can see Bernie people doing that. How do they know what the others are doing?
Kay
@Steeplejack (phone):
4-H is really small-d democratic. They vote on everything. The meetings are crazy-making. It’s an endless round of 8 to 17 year olds voting on slips of paper. It makes you yearn for the authoritarian scouting groups. “Is anyone IN CHARGE, or is this opinionated 8 year old running this thing?”
rikyrah
Some day, we will have to discuss how the GOP radicalized Norm Ornstein. I remember when he was just your milquetoast tv pundit. Now, he is a truth firebrand.??
Kay
@Baud:
They’re getting ready for the Ohio delegate caucus, which is Jan 7. They have to register by 12/31. The delegate caucus will have all the candidates so they were talking to one another last night. They’re all doing it.
Steeplejack (phone)
The union thugs at USPS are really bustin’ ass this holiday season. I heard some noise outside my door a little while ago, and it was a package being delivered shortly after 7:00 a.m.
satby
@Steeplejack (phone): they bust ass most of the time. It’s a hard job made harder by all the crap people dump on them. I admire them.
mrmoshpotato
Silly Kaivan. The FNYT should’ve stopped calling themselves a newspaper years ago.
Princess
Loudest boos last night in a very cold Chicago were for Mitch McConnell, followed by and spontaneous chants of “MoscowMitch.” I used to think Biden was a shoe-in for Illinois’s delegates but I’m not sure his “Trump’s a problem but the GOP is just fine and we’ll all be friends again” line is going to help him here.
mrmoshpotato
So what’s being said is the Russthuglicans might not have the stamina to be in government?
germy
Kathleen
@Kay: In Hamilton County Rethugs held commissioner slots for 100 years. A very popular city Dem councilman beloved by local Rethugs broke the barrier because people were so furious about Bengals stadium bill crafted by a Rethug commissioner. Now we have all 3 slots which include first African American commissioner. Sadly our first Dem is dying from cancer and resigned. Connie Pillich is going to run.
Betty Cracker
More news: Susan Collins announced her desire to dither and express surprise and disappointment at totally predictable events on behalf of Maine for another six years.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay: “trolling” Such trash we have in the People’s House these days. All of them.
Steeplejack (phone)
@satby:
Amen.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Amazon! We pay no taxes, but we’ll give you free leg cramps! Aren’t we nice!
rikyrah
As the vote on impeachment ? is taken, let’s be reminded:
Maxine Waters was right?
Al Green was right?
They were telling the truth all along ??
mrmoshpotato
@WereBear: And naked mopping?
Tata
@Kay: I knew his mother. She would be ashamed of him.
Why not just say that to the elevator captive? “I knew your mother. She would be ashamed of you.” That’d leave a dent.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Wasn’t there some speculation earlier that she was thinking of running for Governor? Any thoughts on whether this shows that she thinks that would be a heavier lift, and is thus maybe a good sign that she’s beatable in the Senate race? (IOW, she’s going to have to fight to keep her seat?)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I can see her meaninglessly voting against Trump to bolster her Independent bona fides.
Baud
@Another Scott:
I believe the current Dem governor is really popular.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker:
I love Katie Porter. She has that sweet, round face and looks harmless. Hahaha.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: That dancing bug does good work.
Betty
And the brave Boston Globe calls for censure instead. Shame on them.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott:
To remind: we have had interest in a jackals canvassing against Susan Collins/meetup in Maine next year.
We could make that happen.
Kay
@Kathleen:
I like her a lot. I once came upon her changing her clothes in her car in the parking lot prior to an event in Toledo. Kasich’s re-elect year, which was a very bad year for Democrats. You know how you recognize that “car changing clothes” maneuver”? I walked by very discrete, like I didn’t know what she was doing. Running for office is horrible.
Beth from Florida
@Betty Cracker: same. I was at a local protest yesterday and the community group therapy value of protest and knowing you’re not alone is immense. A municipal bus was one of many vehicles to honk. Protests bring hope and that brings actions like voting.
SFAW
May have been mentioned elsewhere, but in case not: Happy 176th Birthday to Keith Richards!
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: He doesn’t look a day over 150!
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
You’re off by 100 years. Keef is actually 276.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: They do. Those who protest, mobilize and vote.
I will give my own example.
I went for one of the sister marches organized by the Parkland kids and that’s how I got to know many of town Ds and now I am in the town D committee. I have helped canvass for some local elections and done some work with registering unregistered voters as well.
These marches gave me an opportunity to see that I was not alone. Marches alone are not enough but they do matter. YMMV.
Kay
Meth isn’t new but it is back with a vengeance. People have commented that opiates in rural areas (white people) were treated differently than other drug issues in urban areas (black people) and that’s true, but meth was always huge in rural areas and it never got the attention opiates got- I wonder if opiates were a prescription (initially) so were therefore more “middle class” and “respectable”. There’s tiers even among rural white people. Meth is the bottom.
schrodingers_cat
Speaking of marches there are protest marches organized all over India for the 19th. There is one to be held at August Kranti (Revolution) Maidan in Mumbai. It was the venue of the historic call for the Quit India Movement in 1942.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Betty Cracker: We had that too in our county, since about the last ice age.
In 2018 we got our first Democrats. In 2019 we went 100% Democrat. No Repubs left. Zero.
SFAW
@Betty:
I get a daily e-mail listing their top stories; I saw that, and was not surprised, although definitely disappointed.
The Glob turned rightward about 3-5 years ago, after John Henry bought them. They’re not as RW as the Herald, nor the WSJ, but they’re no longer liberal/left. When Scot Lehigh is their most liberal op-ed columnist, it’s pretty clear they’re no longer the Globe of David Nyhan. [I like Lehigh, but he’s not a liberal.] And they have The Always Clueless Joan Vennochi as their designated “woman who writes disparagingly about strong women” columnist. [She’s been doing that schtick since at least 2002, when Shannon O’Brien ran against Tower of Courage with the Backbone of a Bed of Kelp, Mitt Romney.]
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato: No argument from me.
@Amir Khalid: Don’t exaggerate, he’s no older than 237.
Melusine
@satby: They matter in providing a strong visual signal that people aren’t happy and are willing to take action, and generate news coverage to that effect. They also serve to encourage engagement and let people know they’re not alone.
The Women’s Marches after the inauguration didn’t change things on their own, but they made it damn clear that a whole lot of women (and men) were pissed as hell. It also created networking and volunteer opportunites for people who may never have been politically active before. And I’m ceryaun the strong showing bolstered the women who ran in 2018, and the recent crop of presidential candidates.
They don’t solve things on their own, but participating reminds me that there are other local folks who care, and gives me hope.
It’s also a great oppotunity to vent and shout the things you can’t always say at holiday dinners.
A physical presence standing up against injust still matters.
schrodingers_cat
Troll Update: The troll that showed up to demonize Muslims and dominate the comments to my post of two days ago, has also been commenting on Richard Spencer’s website.
Baud
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Whoa!
CarolDuhart2
@WereBear: Protests also are good for networking, for letting people know there’s others out there that feel the way they do,. for getting into the press. Visibility, baby!
Also, if protests are so ineffective, why is the right so eager to discourage them? Protests, and the activity surrounding them led to the advances we have to day-politicians know there’s a passionate and active group behind a cause-enough to sway a few-and also more than a few who aren’t at the marches.
Baud
In fairness to satby, a lot of protests do fizzle because, I think, the protests are seen as an end in themselves.
Kay
So everyone goes thru what they go thru ‘in these times’ – we’re outsiders looking in, we don’t know the whole truth, but about 6 months ago I realized it’s worse than even we think – just sure of that.
That’s what Judge Berman is telling us here. It’s worse than we think.
I just hope we can have a (relatively) free and fair election, given corruption in the AG, so therefore in the DOJ and God knows where else. I’m not as confident as I would like in just the mechanism, the process let alone flawed candidates, political media, all the rest. I don’t know that the machinery is functioning.
jonas
@Baud: I suspect most of the other candidates — aside from Warren and Buttgeig — don’t have enough money or staff at this point to be canvassing in Iowa and New Hampshire, *and* cutting high production-value ads attacking Trump at the same time.
JMG
@Kay: Opiods kill more users, but what meth leaves is human wrecks. A strung-out junkie bears more resemblance to a person than does a strung out meth head.
jonas
@Betty Cracker: Porter is a badass. Part of the wave that turned former deep-red Orange County, CA blue in 2018. Studied under Elizabeth Warren at Harvard.
Kay
Do any of you doubt they’ll do it again? I mean, OF COURSE they will. So there will be a day coming up when there will be a theft and a release of information on whoever the D candidate is, and then what happens? Odds are we go thru this again. I don’t know how to fix it or what to do about it. It’s what happens when the Watergate break-in succeeds. What happens after that. That’s what we’re in.
Kathleen
@WereBear: I swear by Hylands Leg Cramps. It’s homeopathic remedy but I swear by it especially after runs. I get it at Kroger but you can order it online. CVS or Walgreens may carry it as well if they are on the island.
Chief Oshkosh
@Kay:
I don’t think it’s difficult at all for the press to correctly cover Trump. All they need to do is look back over how they covered Hillary, and then go do that. They won’t, but let’s not all pretend that they don’t know how to go after someone ruthlessly.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Agreed they are the first step not an end in itself. Sustained protests did bring Romanian dictator Ceausescu down.
Right now in India where Modi has intimidated the press, and cowed down most of the political opposition parties the brave protesters are showing that yes there will be resistance. They know that the odds are stacked against them and yet they protest.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh: Yep.
Kay
What I sort of love about it how Wikileaks essentially closed up shop. Not even an attempt to appear to be what they said they were. Task completed, shut it down.
They all have such contempt for us. I mean, you hope it’s “pride goeth before a fall” but maybe it’s not- maybe it’s “pride goeth before a successful coup” :)
“Failure isn’t an option”. Sure it is. They’re failing all over the place. Definitely an option.
satby
@Baud: plus, they haven’t been very big since the Women’s March. They have to be massive to be counted as significant. I really wish I could still believe they matter, because I pretty much go to all of them.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: I vehemently disagree that protests are seen as an end in themselves, at least not these days. That’s a canard thrown at the first Women’s March (in part, because women), which led to tremendous organizing and results. 2018 anyone?
Kay
@Chief Oshkosh:
I disagree because I struggle with this in my work. Liars are really difficult to deal with, and often, OFTEN, they succeed by lying. I have had witnesses where I was showing them the document and they were denying its existence. I got reprimanded for putting it too close to her face. That’s how maddening it is.
I wish it weren’t true but it is. It’s not just a matter of calling them out. They fucking suck HALF of any group of people in. You’re amazed they’re going along, but they are.
They are corrupting. That’s the power. Not just them as individuals but what they do to other people.
SFAW
@O. Felix Culpa:
I imagine Baud’s sentiment is a holdover from Occupy Wall Street, which did not appear (to me, at least) to have any significant follow-on activity. Considering how publicized it was, that seems to have been a lost opportunity.
Omnes Omnibus
@satby: They do. If nothing else, they let good people in small towns in red states know that they are not alone. In bigger communities, I can say that I have never met anyone who hasn’t come back from a march or rally more fired up and ready to work hard than they were before they went.
satby
@Kay: part of my (very short career) as a private investigator was to testify in court that the person shown on videotape committing a crime was in fact the accused now denying that was them in the tape. The tape alone wasn’t enough, we had to verify that it was that defendant we had taped. Because they always lied.
it was a pretty demoralizing job.
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
I’m talking about pre-Trump protests.
R-Jud
@NotMax: You must’ve been bad if Krampus got you.
satby
Ok, you all feel protests help. Maybe. We’ll see.
Baud
@SFAW:
That’s the biggest one that comes to mind.
Betty Cracker
@Another Scott: I don’t know Maine politics, but I’m hoping Collins will feel she has to atone for the Kavanaugh vote by voting to remove Trump.
laura
And away we go!
ITMFA
Kathleen
@WereBear: I swear by Hylands Leg Cramps. It’s homeopathic remedy but I swear by it especially after runs. I get it at Kroger but you can order it online. CVS or Walgreens may carry it as well if they are on the island.
@satby: I had temp jobs at USPS. Some of the coolest people I’ve ever worked with. I have a lot of respect for them.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby:
As I recall, Trump suggested maybe it wasn’t him on the Access Hollywood tape.
Omnes Omnibus
@satby: Why do you think that they don’t help?
Kathleen
@Kay: I like her too. Alicia Reese who is currently in legislature is running also so there will be a primary. I’ll have to think about that vote. Todd Portune, who is retiring, was truly loved and respected by Dems and Rethugs. He’s been sick for years and needed a Walker but still showed up and marched in parades. Very brave and unique pol. I worked on his campaign in 2008.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: Thank you for that clarification. Your use of present tense suggested otherwise, but I agree that in the past many behaved as if demonstrations were sufficient action. My experience shows that a lot of people have learned since 2016 that more is required.
Immanentize
@Kay:
Meth is a really ugly addiction. And dangerous to self produce. But
I don’t understand this statement — just as a matter of chemistry.
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: I thought I made it fairly clear that I think they can help if they’re massive. And I should probably add sustained. Some of the most egregious anti-democratic and crimes against humanity conduct ever seen in this country has happened over the last 3 years and the demonstrations against it haven’t been all that since the Women’s March. Maybe my disappointment has more to do with the fact that after 3 years of this we don’t have millions of people demonstrating, not just thousands.
geg6
@Kay:
Sorry but this is completely wrong. Why would ethical reporters try to change an exact quote from a written missive? What is the reason for that? That is putting a huge thumb or more like a whole hand on the scale. What journalists need to do differently is their fucking jobs. My mother was a journalist and she’d rip you to pieces for saying journalists should somehow do anything other than report the facts, the who, what, where and when of what happened. And if you have the actual text as written, then you report on that, not your interpretation of what might be less stupid or self-serving or untruthful or unhinged. That is not the job, regardless of how many supposed “journalists” at the NYT or anywhere else see it. They are incompetent and should be fired. And held up for ridicule and as examples of exactly what not to do. They are a disgrace to a profession they claim but do not fulfill. Quit cutting them this kind of slack. They don’t deserve it.
satby
@geg6: I think Kay was criticizing, not cutting them slack.
geg6
@Kay:
You’re an attorney. Your relationship with your clients is not in any way comparable to the relationship between journalists and the subjects of their reporting. Not comparable at all. If they are, they are doing journalism wrong.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: What I see is people doing the grassroots organizing to run for office and get out the vote. Many were galvanized by the Women’s Marches and the March for our Lives. That work is at least as important as demonstrations. Actually, I think it’s more important over the long haul, but we need both forms of activism.
geg6
@satby:
She may have thought she was criticizing them. But she actually is providing their rationale for why they are so incompetent (and even more so when comparing it to her job as an advocate) and basically shrugging it off and saying it’s hard. It’s not even a little bit hard. Not a bit. You report the facts. That’s it.
schrodingers_cat
Protests are not effective that’s why Bharat Jalao Party (Jalao == Burn) is trying to stop the one tomorrow in Uttar Pradesh where they are in power at the state level. That’s why China is trying to suppress them in Hong Kong.
sab
@Kay: I live in Ohio and I think I have guessed where you live. I will send a contribution. Almost all my political contributions are local now. In Akron we have a promising young state rep who will be term limited out soon. I send her periodic contributions in hopes that she has a war chest if she aspires to higher office.
Duck Tom Steyer on term limits. We used to have competent, experienced people in the statehouse. Now we mostly have idiots galloping after professional lobby guys.
schrodingers_cat
Looking at the protests happening in India, Students and ordinary folk, marginalized Muslims are coming out in huge numbers to show the government and the people who voted for the BJP that they exist and it is their country too. I for one applaud their courage.
sab
@Kathleen: Another Ohioan to support. I am keeping most of my political contributions in-state.
rikyrah
@NotMax:
leg cramps?
gatorade
mustard
Zinsky
I rallied in downtown Minneapolis in 12 degree cold. Crowd was probably 200+ despite the frigid temperatures. My sign said “Most Corrupt President Ever”.
Elizabelle
@Zinsky: Yea you! Proud you were out there!
Yarrow’s link. Good story.
BBC: The ‘3.5% rule’: How a small minority can change the world
Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.
schrodingers_cat
@Zinsky: Thanks!
Kathleen
@sab: Thank you! I decided to focus more locally as well. Do you get emails from David Pepper? They’re pretty informative.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
suspected that..which is why I suggested ignore.
Bill Arnold
@schrodingers_cat:
They didn’t respond to my mention of the links between white supremacists and Hindu nationalists (and other such nationalists). The lack of response was interesting.
(I assume “he” but will keep it gender neutral for now.)
Timeline on the Richard Spencer website comments?
Bill Arnold
@Elizabelle:
This is a key paper on the topic (pdf):
Why Civil Resistance Works – The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, 2008)
It is worth reading to fortify one’s belief in non-violence.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: You were right.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Atoning will have nothing to do with it. I’m reasonably sure she felt/feels no guilt or shame for her Kavanaugh vote. The only reason she would vote to convict the Traitor-in-Chief is if Moscow Mitch tells her to do so, as part of a plan to get her re-elected. Neither a “convict” not “acquit” vote from her would surprise me. I would also not be surprised if Traitor Turtle lets her make some stupid-ass, mealy-mouthed speech, ostensibly to give her cover for her campaign.
She’s as cynical as Moscow Mitch, but at least he’s honest about it.
TominNC
there were more people in Times Square than on the Mall at the inauguration.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
Aww, isn’t that sweet! I’m sure he will feel much more at home in his natural environment with the genuine NAZIS!
Elizabelle
@Bill Arnold: Thank you, Bill. Pulled it down to read. Much appreciated.
J R in WV
@geg6:
Kay wasn’t talking about her clients at all. She was talking about witnesses, sworn to tell the truth, lying on the witness stand in open court.
She was perhaps, to a degree, making a comparison to those same liars willing to lie on the witness stand in open court also being willing to lie to a reporter. Reporters who don’t have a huge chunk of cynicism in their nature can easily be taken advantage of by lying sources like everyone in Trump’s administration.
If you don’t think reporters shouldn’t be aware of the possibility that their sources are lying to them, you don’t know any real reporters.
eachother
@NotMax: I hope you get this. Odd idea, yes. It worked for me the on the one occasion so far that I have used it.
The lip area under the nose, thumb inside the lip, index finger on the outside flesh. Now squeeze with enough pressure not to injure but to trigger whatever solution it initiates for cramp resolution. Squeeze for enough time to effect the nerves or brain or cramp location. I think it will be known when it is enough.
Read about this somewhere. Needed it and it worked
Also eat a banana too