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One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

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This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Leaving it all on the field

Leaving it all on the field

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In a series of arcane rituals in a building that still has “cloak rooms,” Nancy Pelosi handed over the articles of impeachment to Mitch McConnell. She’s done her job by investigating and putting all the facts and testimony she was able to obtain in the face of unprecedented and unlawful obstruction on the table. Pelosi honored her obligation to the U.S. Constitution.

Now McConnell will do the opposite, ignoring his Constitutional obligations and doing everything in his power to bury and obfuscate the extraordinarily damning evidence against Trump and keep new evidence from being considered in the Senate trial, even as more material that exposes the scale of Trump’s criminality and corruption spills into public view in the media.

Since the deeply corrupt and cynical McConnell controls the process now, our best hope is to extract the highest possible political price from Republicans for shielding the administration’s criminal activities. Will we get witnesses? Not if McConnell can prevent it, but the strain is showing:

The House Managers will be reading the charges aloud in the Senate any minute now. Pelosi is under no illusions about what will happen next, so she’s leaving it all on the field and calling the whole corrupt bunch out:

Good for her. I’m represented by two corrupt Republican shit-stains in the U.S. Senate, but despite the futility of appealing to their nonexistent sense of duty, I plan to do so anyway. I also plan to convert my disgust for the sleazy, corrupt criminals who’ve captured our government into inspiration to kick them out at every level. That’s how regular people like us can leave it all on the field.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

182Comments

  1. 1.

    zhena gogolia

    I just pray the Democrats nominate a Democrat. If they do (not Gabbard), I will do everything possible to help elect him or her.

  4. 4.

    brantl

    I can’t wait to see if Mitch makes a film of himself, looking under chairs and tables a la Douche, looking for WMDs.

  7. 7.

    Kay

    That’s all you can do, really. Do your job and hope someone else does theirs. She has a limited role, by design.

    Whatever happens, I’m glad House Democrats were in place with a majority. The public wouldn’t have found out about any of this. Does it matter to the public? I don’t know- but they should at least have some information. A fighting chance.

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    Grassley says that Blunt, Leahy, Graham and DiFi will escort Chief Justice Roberts into the Senate. Interesting choices.

  9. 9.

    zhena gogolia

    @Kay:

    I don’t think the point is made often enough in the press — one of the main reasons we had a blue wave in 2018 was because people wanted him out!

  11. 11.

    zhena gogolia

    I’ve been so caught up in Parnas, I didn’t realize the trial was starting today! I thought it was next Tuesday.

  14. 14.

    dr. bloor

    Nothing else to do at this point but to try and document as much as possible for future historians who are interested in gaining an honest understanding of what the hell happened.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    @zhena gogolia:

    I just think they’re really invested in “everything is FINE”

    I don’t know what I would have done in their place- I admit it’s a really difficult problem to solve, because the Trump people all lie constantly, but the approach they have come up with is not getting the job done.

    This is a test and at the end of it we’ll know who and what passed the test and who and what did not. Pelosi passed. She had to rise to the occasion and she did. Now it’s up to other people. They’ll fail or they won’t.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    Do y’all think it’s smart politics for Trump to make a big ballyhoo over the NAFTA update today? I’ve seen criticism of the Dems for giving him a trade deal win at all, and IMO, you can make a reasonable case that it is a mistake. But it’s not like signing that agreement this week is going to change the media cycle in Trump’s favor. It’s Fox News content creation, obviously, but will it resonate outside of that bubble? I’m skeptical.

  17. 17.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Betty Cracker:

    Indeed. His professionalism stands in stark contrast to the hackitude of the Republicans. However this ends, we Democrats have good reason to be proud.

  18. 18.

    Just Chuck

    “No, because he’s implicated in all of this.”

    Finally they’re saying it bluntly.  No politely asking the DOJ to do its job pretty please, just stating the obvious.  J’accuse.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    Good for Nancy for calling it like it is.  Sometimes I think Nancy Pelosi, and the House, are the only things keeping us from being a full-on Banana Republic.

  20. 20.

    kindness

    Betty is one of the good ones down in Florida.  And Florida wasn’t so bad when it was represented by Republicans that weren’t TeaBagging crazy.  But that is history now and the Republican party there has moved on just like the Republican party has everywhere else.

    My parents generation were all Northeastern Republicans.  Social liberals and fiscal conservatives.  I suspect had any of them lived to this day and age, most of them wouldn’t be voting for the current crooks that run the party.

  21. 21.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @MattF:  I am predicting a GOP Fetivus Airing of Grievances on the Senate floor. To many conflicting interest and to much damned with they if they do,damned if they don’t. Like McSally there, they are already lashing out.

  23. 23.

    clay

    @Betty Cracker: I guess the passing of NAFTA 1.1 gives him something to brag about at his rallies… but he was bragging about it long before it passed. I doubt it will move any needles.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    @Just Chuck:

    Pelosi has gotten more and more blunt as it has gotten worse. This isn’t normal for her, which makes sense- we’re seeing a rational response to an increasingly bad situation. She’s become a kind of reality touchstone for me. There’s Trump, et al,  in nutjob land and then there’s Pelosi. We’re watching someone rise to a challenge, adopt a different approach approach based on deteriorating conditions. It’s the one bright spot of this whole stinking mess. She’s clear.

  26. 26.

    Anya

    Speaker Pelosi and the House Dems did their part. All the pressure should be put on Trump’s accomplices in the senate. Anyone who says otherwise is not a serious person, and deserves to be mocked.

  28. 28.

    MattF

    @Betty Cracker: NAFTA has been a source of contention for decades, and there are long lineups of competing interests on both sides of every issue. I don’t see it making a significant difference. Trump will claim vindication, but he always does that, and it’s always a lie.

  29. 29.

    opiejeanne

    @clay: I wonder if he’s paying people to come to those rallies, like he has in the past.

    Oh, I know there are idiots out there who worship him and will come out to see him, but I’m wondering how much he has to pad those crowds.

  33. 33.

    West of the Rockies

    Trump crowing about NAFTA is a bit like the fan of a losing football team bragging that they’ve got the league-best punter.

  34. 34.

    Duane

    McSally seems nice. Can’t wait for the day a D senator tells a reporter they’re a conservative asshole.

  35. 35.

    The Dangerman

    You’re a liberal hack…

    Someone’s cranky … or someone’s a crank.

    I assume she will be going down in flames in Arizona.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    Sally Goldenberg
    @MikeBloomberg
    “This has only compounded the strange feeling of being on a parallel track that Bloomberg’s campaign exudes; while his opponents duke it out with each other, he simply doesn’t have to, playing by a script all his own.”

    I’m afraid we’re going to get the same coverage of Bloomberg we got of Trump, based on media belief that “everyone” knows him, when really only a small part of the country know him. Worse, probably because Bloomberg is also an actual media person.
    I just don’t want him buying the D primary. I don’t think that’s a rejection of Trumpism- I think it’s just a different variety. It’s not even about him- it’s about this shitty, fake process. It won’t end well.

  37. 37.

    the Conster

    So I guess Pelosi isn’t being funded by Russian oligarchs to protect Donald Trump, like Sarah Kendzior and other twitter nitwits were screaming about not long ago?  [eye roll]

    I’m on #TeamPelosi and get to listen in on monthly conference calls where she updates her social media team on messaging.  She is a remarkable person in every way.  She said #CoverupMitch is compromised, and it goes way beyond this president.  She knows more than anyone about, well, everything and has a plan.

    The next thing to watch for unrelated to impeachment is for a request for SCOTUS to expeditiously review the Texas Circuit’s challenge to the ACA, so that everyone knows – insurers and insured – what the healthcare landscape will be before the election.  That’s what she’s focused on now, and that this will be another healthcare election like the blue wave was.

  38. 38.

    Fleeting Expletive

    Anyone know what Speaker Pelosi was referring to yesterday in her speech, when early on she said something about Trump having said during a debate that he would not abide by any oath of office?  What did he say and when, how did I miss that?

  39. 39.

    Kay

    Besides Tulsi, who isn’t a real threat, the worst result for me is Bloomberg. Republicans and monied interests get rewarded for their fucking appalling behavior by Democrats nominating a moderate, wealthy Republican. It’s unjust. It rewards their atrocious behavior.

    They get Trump. He bought them and the least they could do is stay bought.

  40. 40.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: But where is Bloomy going to get votes?  I don’t see it yet.  Steyer seems to be winning the billionaire primary.

  41. 41.

    Duane

    @MattF: What kind of court doesn’t allow additional witnesses or other relevant evidence? Also, are there kangaroos at a circus?

  44. 44.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Kay: Bloomberg is not going to win. I’d vote for Biden over Bloomberg any day and I don’t like Biden.  Since Harris is out, I’m pinning my hopes on Warren for the primary.

  45. 45.

    clay

    @opiejeanne: I would guess that they realized that they don’t need to pay people to crowd his rallies because it doesn’t matter how many people are actually there.  Trump will just claim that it’s sold out, that there are thousands waiting outside, so what does it matter who’s actually there?

  48. 48.

    azlib

    @The Dangerman:

    Someone’s cranky … or someone’s a crank.

    I assume she will be going down in flames in Arizona. 

    Sound like it. She has adopted clinging to Trump to win election this year in a state turning purple. Remember she was appointed after losing to Sinema.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @Felanius Kootea:

    Good because it seems very unfair for Republicans to make such a catastrophic error and correct it with the Democratic primary. The solution to their shitty judgment is not to give them a new party to run into the ground. The only other party.

  51. 51.

    joel hanes

    @Kay:

    IMHO, Rep. Neal has signally not risen to the occasion.

    And Reps. Collin Peterson (MN) and Jared Golden (MA) have failed by attempting to straddle.

  52. 52.

    jc

    “I hope the Senators do not become part of the president’s henchmen.”

    Hasn’t that horse pretty much already left the barn?

  54. 54.

    Aleta

    OT , but a good thing.  Post:  The FBI has arrested three alleged members of a white supremacist group on federal gun charges and other alleged crimes, according to people familiar with the matter.
    The charges, expected to be unsealed Thursday, grew from an investigation of a somewhat new effort among online extremists who refer to themselves as “the Base,” which is the English translation of “al Qaida.” According to experts who track hate groups, the Base promotes racist views and seeks to unite different hate groups in preparation for a “race war.”
    At least one of the individuals was arrested in Maryland, these people said. Federal law enforcement officials moved on the trio partly out of concerns they might engage in violence at a gun rights rally planned for Monday in Richmond, these people said. The Virginia General Assembly’s new Democratic majority is advancing several far-reaching bills that seek to restrict access to firearms.

  55. 55.

    MJS

    @delk: That was my thought, exactly. It sounded much grander than “the space behind the wall with hooks where you put your coats”.

    My greatest disappointment was on the first day of 1st grade, when I learned that the lavatory was not, in fact, the same thing as a laboratory.

  56. 56.

    PJ

    @Kay: I get the strategy if he is the Dem candidate, but who does Bloomberg think will vote for him in the primaries? What states does he realistically have a chance of winning? It seems to me that at best he winds up in the Steyer/Yang range.  Is he just waiting for something bad to happen to Biden so he can pick up his delegates if he drops out?

  57. 57.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Right? I’d be all for a party to represent socially liberal, fiscally conservative people — of whom there are apparently many — as long as it’s called “the Republican Party.”

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @joel hanes:

    That’s funny. That’s how I think of it though- “failed. Next”. It is entirely possible there may not be enough people who pass. The critical mass. Failure really is an option, despite our cherished folkways :)

    I was thinking about this in terms of what we always put into the “religion” basket. But it isn’t all religion. A lot of it is like self help and Power of Positive Thinking nonsense. That probably leads the country astray and into fantasy as much as any religion. There’s a TON of it.

  59. 59.

    Mary Ellen Sandahl

    We had cloakrooms in public school too. The classroom had a partitioned area that was nearly as wide as the room which was lined with coathooks and closed off by a row of doors. Lockers weren’t the solution until high school.

    Sen McSally is a rather large male. He seems even nicer if you watch the clip.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s Bush 2000 without the religious nuts:
    Mike’s plan will make education and training a national priority.
    Mike’s plan will do so by modernizing systems and programs to equip millions of adults with valuable skills for good jobs and careers. This plan will invest in states, community and technical colleges and others to build career-training systems and programs providing skills and credentials employers identify as priorities for hiring for good jobs — and the supports that learners need to participate and get ahead.
    They get ENDLESS do-overs, these people. They repackage the same shit every decade.  He’s a Reformer Who Gets Results, like Bush was before he launched an insane religious war.

  61. 61.

    joel hanes

    @Kay:

    nonsense … leads the country astray and into fantasy

    It took the twinkly eyes, genial charm, and elegant footwear of a beloved B movie actor to cement “my comforting delusion is just as good as your expertise” as Republican dogma.   The GOP has increasingly abandoned any tether to the real world ever since.

    In short, I blame Reagan first and foremost.   Credulous hierarchy-loving Christianists and disaffected *cough*bigoted*cough* white people were just the fields in which he toiled to produce this foul harvest.

  63. 63.

    Geoboy

    @MattF: Sir – As the legal representative of Cockroaches Local 315, I wish to inform you that my clients regard your comparison of Kellyanne Conway to a cockroach as an intolerable insult.  Should you refuse to publicly retract this slur and offer a written apology, my clients are prepared to seek redress of this grievance in the legal system.

  64. 64.

    Fair Economist

    @Kay: The good news about Pelosi becoming more plainspoken is that, publicly, she is the voice of her caucus. Since she is accusing the conpirators publicly then even the Blue Dog types are OK with saying that openly. That’s a good thing.

  65. 65.

    arrieve

    @MJS: OMG. I hadn’t thought of this in the many decades since I was in first grade (where we also had a “cloakroom”) but I thought the same thing when the nuns kept saying lavatory. Where’s the laboratory? I wanted beakers and Bunsen burners and at least one mad scientist.

  66. 66.

    Fair Economist

    @Kay: My sister-in-law is into both the New Agey stuff and kooky fundamentalism – and she’s not alone. She has books with titles like “Overcoming Satan with Positive Thinking”. It’s very odd.

  67. 67.

    Marcopolo

    @zhena gogolia:So yesterday Amanda Litman, the woman behind Run for Something made the following excellent point: whomever wins the D Presidential nomination there will be a lot of D voters who won’t be super excited about that person. That’s okay, she said, so long as you find a local D (or otherwise left) candidate at any level (federal, state, local) you are excited about and get out and work your tail off for them.  Getting our folks out to the polls on Election Day is the most important job we have and it doesn’t matter so much whose campaign you are working on.  And you are pretty much guaranteed to work longer & harder for someone you like.

    There may be a few small holes in this  argument but overall it’s a winner & what I will most likely wind up doing.

  71. 71.

    Immanentize

    @Fair Economist: Ha!  T

    Chrystal Power and the Seventh Seal.

    Whale Songs for the Rapture

    Red Chakra Rebirth.

    Man, I could do this all day.  And probably make griftcoin to boot!

  72. 72.

    Immanentize

    @MJS: I had a great day camp idea for kids just like you — Steam Punk Laboratory.  Where kids would all get heavy rubber aprons and gloves and do stinky, slightly flammable experiments from the 1890s. I could charge rich parents sooo much. But the insurance would be a killer.

  73. 73.

    MCA1

    @Kay: I beg you and Betty to sit down for a long weekend, bang out a thousand back-and-forth posts starting with some U.S. politics 2020 topic and going wherever the discussion leads you, then compile it in book form for our consumption.  I would pay a hefty sales price for that tome.  It would be an awesome and succinct treatise on where our society currently sits and how we got here, with maybe a glimmer of hope about the future and how we get out of this mess, replete with snark and witticisms.

    Seriously, you guys are the best.

  76. 76.

    James E Powell

    @zhena gogolia:

    I don’t think the point is made often enough in the press — one of the main reasons we had a blue wave in 2018 was because people wanted him out!

    That’s because the press/media want him in!

  78. 78.

    MJS

    @Immanentize: Others parents may have been marks, but not mine. One year I wanted a chemistry set for Christmas. I got a “Geology Set” instead. “Tap these rocks” and “look at them under a magnifying glass” was a poor substitute for “Here young child, mix these chemicals, and let the fun begin!”

  79. 79.

    japa21

    @arrieve: The school where I went to first and second grade had a cloakroom where we hung coats, left boots, etc.  A recurring nightmare for me at that time was that a buffalo got loose and was running through the school and our teacher made us all go into the cloakroom, figuring the buffalo was too big to get in there.  She was wrong as I discovered just before I woke up.

     

    And yes, that probably does say a lot about why I am the way I am close to 70 years later.

  83. 83.

    Aleta

    @MJS: My partner says he used what he learned from his chemistry set to blow up all his toys in the basement one year.   He doesn’t know why he did it.

  84. 84.

    mardam422

    Q: Senator McSally, should the Senate consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial?

    McSally: You’re a liberal hack I’m not talking to you

    Manu- You’re not going to comment about this?
    McSally: You’re a liberal hack.

    Raju: And you’re not doing your Constitutional duty. So which one of us is the hack, Senator?

  86. 86.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Baud: Me too, although I am glad they don’t carry swords, guns or canes anymore, for instance:

    In 1856, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina caned Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on the Senate floor so badly that Sumner had to be carried from the chamber

  90. 90.

    Betty Cracker

    @Marcopolo: That is excellent advice. I will definitely keep it in mind to pass along to some of the younger voters I know who are fired up about this primary now but not as used to disappointment as us grizzled old Dems.

    @MCA1: Thank you. :)

  91. 91.

    germy

    @Duane:

    McSally seems nice. Can’t wait for the day a D senator tells a reporter they’re a conservative asshole.

    You’ll definitely know the day it happens.  It’ll be front page news and the lead story on every TV news show.  And they’ll be discussing it for weeks.

    This McSally thing, I think it’s mostly being discussed in places like this.

  95. 95.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Aleta: I not only had a chemistry set, my best friend and I would buy chemicals by mail from those tiny little ads at the back of Popular Science and mix our own explosives. I have no idea what my parents thought, if anything, but I’m kind of surprised in retrospect that we didn’t seriously injure ourselves.

    These days we’d be on a terrorist watch list.

  99. 99.

    joel hanes

    @MJS:

    I’m so old that

    1.  The Gilbert chemistry sets still had “interesting” stuff.   I had an alcohol lamp and a battery-operated centrifuge,  bent my own glass tubes, did some copper electroplating, and had a little bit of gibberelin with which to experiment with abnormal seedling growth.
    2. The big drug store downtown stocked quart jars of powdered charcoal, saltpeter, and sulfur, and would sell them to an eleven-year-old kid for a relative pittance.
  100. 100.

    joel hanes

    @Immanentize:

    A fun one you can still do:

    Buy fine steel wool in the paint department at the hardware store.

    Outside on a dark night, use a match to light one corner of one pad.

  101. 101.

    Mallard Filmore

    @MJS: One Christmas I got a chemistry set.  One of the experiments was

    1. get a small bit of steel wool
    2. put it in this test tube
    3. add water
    4. watch it rust
  104. 104.

    Brachiator

    Good for her. I’m represented by two corrupt Republican shit-stains in the U.S. Senate, but despite the futility of appealing to their nonexistent sense of duty, I plan to do so anyway. I also plan to convert my disgust for the sleazy, corrupt criminals who’ve captured our government into inspiration to kick them out at every level. That’s how regular people like us can leave it all on the field.

    Well said.  While we may have to watch the GOP become co-conspirators, we can refuse to acknowledge that any of this is correct or valid.  I overhear some people talking about this, and Trump supporters are almost giddy with the way that Trump gets away with his corrupt practices.  But it is not all right.  It will bite us all in the end.

  105. 105.

    WaterGirl

    @germy: Holy shit.  I guess she doesn’t have to talk to, or consider, the half of her constituents who are not conservative republicans.

    I’ll add one more holy shit here because OMG it is so much worse when you hear her dismissive tone, she treats the reporter like a dog nipping at her heals while she’s riding a bike.

    Normally I reserver “what a dick!” for men, but not here.  Anyone reading this, if you haven’t watched the video, you should.  It’s only a few seconds, but totally worth the time.

  108. 108.

    Kent

    @Kay:I’m afraid we’re going to get the same coverage of Bloomberg we got of Trump, based on media belief that “everyone” knows him, when really only a small part of the country know him. Worse, probably because Bloomberg is also an actual media person.
    I just don’t want him buying the D primary. I don’t think that’s a rejection of Trumpism- I think it’s just a different variety. It’s not even about him- it’s about this shitty, fake process. It won’t end well.

     

    Occurs to me that one of the few benefits of a caucus is that it is likely harder for someone like Bloomberg to break through just with sheer spending.  You actually have to get off your butt and hit the street. And then you have to actually have to build an organization.  Money alone can’t do that.  Giant states like CA are a different situation because it is all a media campaign there.

  109. 109.

    Aleta

    @Immanentize: The next year he switched to physics, and  he and a friend shot a real arrow out a classroom window at a third classmate, who’d paced off the length to where their calculation said it would land and was standing there.  It landed at his feet (very fortunately no farther).  “This stuff really works!”  was their only thought.

  112. 112.

    West of the Cascades

    @germy: This McSally thing, I think it’s mostly being discussed in places like this.

    It seems to set up nicely for a “McSally is a coward” TV spot, which may get traction in Arizona where she’s up against (checks notes) a former astronaut who helped his wife recover after surviving a shooting spree.

  115. 115.

    Bill Arnold

    @joel hanes:
    That’s how, as a kid, I used to make iron oxide for thermite. Had to grind it a bit finer in a (ceramic) mortar and pestle.
    (The aluminum powder was paint pigment; grandfather had a bunch for painting, I presume.)

  120. 120.

    Barbara

    @hilts: I know that people feel somewhat reluctant to take everything he says at face value, but in reading an NYT article on him, I learned that they had also interviewed him and asked for some back up.  Apparently, he has produced his cell phone, emails, even voice mails (including voice mails from Giuliani) and a variety of other contemporaneous documents.  If you read carefully, Giuliani is denying things that didn’t generate documentary proof, e.g., conversations, but everyone seems to be trying hard to avoid talking about things that seem to be backed up by a paper trail of circumstantial evidence.

  121. 121.

    Chip Daniels

    I’ve never been more proud to be a Democrat, and more pleased with Speaker Pelosi’s performance.

  122. 122.

    Another Scott

    Senators To Violate New And Different Oath

    “I’m so bored with violating the oath of office,” commented one Senator.— EminentHat (@Popehat) January 16, 2020

    Yup.

    Grr….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  123. 123.

    Geoboy

    @MJS: A couple days ago, somebody posted on the Internet that for Christmas their daughter had received a Barbie camper set and a Barbie science laboratory set, and they had just realized that they had inadvertently given her a Barbie Breaking Bad starter kit.

  126. 126.

    Mr. Kite

    Funny, I haven’t seen any squawking about CIVILITY after this McSally thing. Or for that matter about all the recent “terrist symp!” accusations.

  127. 127.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Thanks for reaching out  to the cowardly, unethical, immoral, unpatriotic Senators representing you. More people need to show that there are a lot of energized, angry people, who are thoroughly disgusted with their gross negligence of their duty . (Remember how they tried to pretend that Clinton was grossly negligent? Here’s a *perfect* example, that even overshadows the Schiavo case (where just reading the court record – public record! – told you everything you needed to know), of the real perpetrators of (probably) bad faith, or, at a minimum, gross negligence: the GOP!

  128. 128.

    Kay

    @Fair Economist:

    Okay NOT to get too in the weeds with this but Trump supporting cartoonist Scot Adams is not religious but is definitely a Power of Positive Thinking Woo Woo.

    As are many of the Trump supporters where I live. It’s why they love Facebook so much. There’s all those sayings on Facebook- “if you can dream it, you can do it” – that sort of thing. They pass them around. NOT religious- these are people who spend a lot of time at the Eagles, drinking and gambling. But woo woo on these slogans. And Trump would be perfect for those people- he “actualized” his own success, whatever. Right up their alley.

    This merits further investigation :)

  129. 129.

    Gravenstone

    @Immanentize: I got into  wee bit of trouble in elementary school for randomly mixing some chemicals from my chemistry set together into some sort of ammonia smelling goo – which I then promptly took to school and showed around. Should have known then what field I’d end up in, but no it took me another almost 20 years…

  130. 130.

    FelonyGovt

    @Kay: My evangelical Christian  (former) Facebook friend who thinks Trump is “our Churchill” sells essential oils.

  131. 131.

    Sloane Ranger

    I counted and there are 13 left handed Senators. OK, not very relevant to the Impeachment process but I just found it interesting. We are meant to be 10% of the population and this sample seems to support that.

    I had a chemistry set as a child. My favourite experiment was growing copper sulphate crystals. I was stopped from setting fire to magnesium tape after a small incident with the kitchen table.

  132. 132.

    Kent

    @Aleta:@MJS: My partner says he used what he learned from his chemistry set to blow up all his toys in the basement one year.   He doesn’t know why he did it.

    As a science teacher I can tell you that chemistry sets available in the 21st century are a very pale shadow of what they were in the mid 20th century.  Say 1930s to 1950s when they actually gave you compounds that could generate exiting and explosive reactions.

    Today the lawyers have long ago erased any interesting capabilities from chemistry sets.  If you actually want to put an interesting chemistry set in front of your kids there are web sites that will provide an itemized list for a real chemistry set that you can’t otherwise buy.  Everything is available separately, just not in a kit you can buy on Amazon.

  135. 135.

    Kent

    @FelonyGovt:@Kay: My evangelical Christian  (former) Facebook friend who thinks Trump is “our Churchill” sells essential oils.

    I have family who have gotten into all the MLM schemes from Amway to the scentsy candles.  They are also very popular with the Mormons for the same reason.

    Essentially you have lots of these stay home (often homeschooling) moms who live in exurban and rural areas where there really aren’t that many opportunities for fulfilling work outside the home anyway.  And they also have large networks through their churches.  So they are prime audiences for these MLM schemes.  In urban and progressive areas women are more integrated into the normal economy and there is more shopping everywhere anyway, so the MLM nonsense is harder to take hold.

  138. 138.

    WaterGirl

    @West of the Cascades:

    It seems to set up nicely for a “McSally is a coward” TV spot, which may get traction in Arizona where she’s up against (checks notes) a former astronaut who helped his wife recover after surviving a shooting spree.

    I’m only on board if it’s “McSally is a coward, who clearly hinks she doesn’t have to represent her constituents if they hold a different point of view than she does.”

  139. 139.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @WaterGirl:

     I guess she doesn’t have to talk to, or consider, the half of her constituents who are not conservative republicans.

    This has been the (usually unspoken) position of most Republican elected officials at every level for a while now – to the point where many of the newer or just dumber ones don’t even realize there’s a problem with that, and have been saying it out loud. I’m trying to remember which California state-level rep actually told a reporter a couple of years ago that “my constituents are the people who voted for me.”

  142. 142.

    Kay

    @Kent:

    The power of positive thinking woo woo isn’t just women though. It’s working class men. I see it all the time. It’s everywhere. About 15 years ago they were all going to be landlords. They were buying these courses about how to buy ramshackle houses and make a profit. I saw it again and again and again in the law practice. My town had to set up a “land bank” and buy the properties because the owners were defaulting or abandoning. It’s a kind of nonprofit trust, managed by the local government, intended to protect the value of surrounding properties.

    I think these people would be vulnerable to a Trump-like character.

  144. 144.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @Immanentize: One win doesn’t mean the state has gone purple.  If we get more wins in 2020 then I will feel like we have truly turned a corner.  The GOP is so ensconced in power here, particularly on the state level, that it’s going to take a lot to turn that around.

  146. 146.

    Denali

    I have emailed Senator Lamar Alexander asking him to vote for witnesses in the upcoming trial. When I lived in Tennessee he was a well-respected Governor. Now that he is retiring as a Senator I urged him to place his country over his party and to vote to remove the criminal from office.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    @Kent:

    So Trump found this much bigger group of “believers”. Non-religious, or religious plus woo-woo, but believers in magical “success”. That’s what they see in him. Like prosperity gospel, but a MUCH bigger market. That’s the non-religious Trump devotee, I bet. The people who buy books “Increase Your Sales by 1000%!” Those people.

  150. 150.

    Kent

    @Kay: That’s true.  They are especially susceptible to the “become a real estate millionaire with no money down” pitches that get made in suburban Hampton Inn conference rooms.    It is amazing how much fraud gets sold to people in suburban hotel conference rooms.

    I guess Trump with his Trump University was right in their wheelhouse and comfort zone.   Historians will probably construct some grand unifying theory that pulls together evangelical religion, MLM schemes, positive thinking scammers, racism, and exurban white America.  And Trump will be the the epicenter of the venn diagram.

  152. 152.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

     

     

    @Baud: I vote Nerf guns…or possible water balloons.  CSPAN would get much better ratings!  I think the House of Commons in the UK actually has 2 red lines down the center that are two swords lengths apart, I think the MPs for each party are not allowed to cross , in order to prevent fist fights.

  154. 154.

    Gravenstone

    @chris: Read that. Disappointed to recognize she was making a glorified Molotov cocktail. Granted, arson is nothing to laugh at, but it’s hardly an explosive device.

     

    And very fortunate her kid was not injured.

  155. 155.

    Sloane Ranger

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Your information about the House of Commons is correct. In fairness, although there have been shenanigans, including members swinging the mace around, there have been  no actual sword, or even fist fights, for quite a while.

  156. 156.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @FelonyGovt: My fundamentalist sister and Trump supporter also sells essential oils.  She once sent me some blessed Frankincense, which ain’t cheap and expected me to swallow to “help my stomach”.  It’s still sitting in a junk drawer in the kitchen.

  157. 157.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: The same people have been listening to Rush Limbaugh for 30 years, so they were sitting ducks for a big-mouthed conman.

  159. 159.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: Democrats did manage to take other statewide offices in 2018, including Secretary of State, nice as she can prevent voter purges and so on.  That’ll make a difference in the future

  160. 160.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @Kay: @Kent:   Haven’t we been saying this for a while though?  He found himself a bunch of “suckers” he could con.  The Evangelicals and Fundies have been suckers for the religious con for a long time (prosperity gospel has been preparing the way for Trump for decades).   One of my sisters and my mother belong to this group. And then, as you two note, there are gullible conservatives who aren’t religious (like Scott Adams, another one of my sisters who is trying to get rich by selling real estate).

    To add to your theory, I think there is also a common “fear” factor because education level varies among these groups.  But their fear of losing what they have, of it being taken away from them by “others” is at the core of their conservatism.  I think the fear factor is the other side of the coin of this Woo Woo belief.  If you believe that an essential oil will help that weird rash on your hand, then you’re just as liable to think that you got that weird rash from the blah, brown and socialists at the dollar store.

  162. 162.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    @Baud: until 1980, there was a member from Wilkes barre Pennsylvania who would show up in a cape, as well as a top hat.  He also had a waxed mustache.  Daniel Flood was his name; he eventually resigned due to corruption

  163. 163.

    Ruckus

    @opiejeanne:

    It’s not like he’s been padding them very well. Most of his rhetorical blowjob political rally/bullshit meets have been pretty lame in attendance.

  164. 164.

    bemused

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ:

    I know a few people selling young living oils who are quite “religious” so that definitely seems to be a thing with evangelicals. I want to tell them about the history of the founder of that company but think they wouldn’t care or scoff. They sure believe those oils can cure every damn thing.

  165. 165.

    Brachiator

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ:

    To add to your theory, I think there is also a common “fear” factor because education level varies among these groups. But their fear of losing what they have, of it being taken away from them by “others” is at the core of their conservatism.

    And yet, when has this ever happened?  Usually, the mobs attack the “others” and bad politicians often nativist, and exploit fear.

  166. 166.

    Ruckus

    @joel hanes:

    There were people softening the field before raygun. He came along and sounded normal/familiar because you’d heard his voice and were used to it. And compared to the shitstain of today he was normal. Compared to normal human he was a rabid animal.

  167. 167.

    Kent

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: The fear is the racism part and anti-immigrant part. Harder working and more competent minorities are displacing their lazy asses.   This is accelerated by the increasing urbanization of the economy.  The great majority of jobs in this country in the past two decades have been in cities and their nearby suburbs.  Which are full of brown people and immigrants.  That produces a massive cognative dissonance among rural white folk.  To get ahead they really need to migrate to cities.  But they have been teaching themselves for decades that cities are full of crime and the wrong people and to be avoided.  So they are stuck in their declining small towns watching their lives decay.  And also why you see so much more anti-immigrant sentiment in rural areas and small towns where there are hardly any immigrants to begin with.

  170. 170.

    Duane

    @Gravenstone: In the 70’s we bought calcium carbide, large can, for about three dollars. Made a cannon from coffee cans, poke a hole in the bottom. A couple pieces of carbide, water, light it up. KA-BOOM! A 4th of July favorite.

  171. 171.

    Kent

    @Ruckus:

    @joel hanes:

    If you are old enough you might know that dynamite was sold in hardware and farm stores.

    My dad grew up on a farm in Oregon in the 40s and 50s.  They used to go buy dynamite all the time for blowing up stumps.    Totally ordinary.

  172. 172.

    WaterGirl

    @Kay: This comment and one more ended up in Spam.  I am not sure why. They looked identical so I deleted the other one.  My apologies f they weren’t identical.

  174. 174.

    bjacques

    Thread’s probably dying, so my pyrotechnic antics in college in the early ’80s will have to wait for another time. Nuts.

    I do wonder if McConnell’s attempt to stage-manage a kangaroo acquittal could backfire on him. His lieutenants will be frogmarching the Senate through narrow procedures and nuns will patrol the aisles with rulers, which will make for boring TV. Meanwhile, outside, have near-daily revelations from Parnas, Trump being unable to resist interfering in a process being run for his benefit, and maybe someone like Hyde losing it in public.

  176. 176.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Plus, even when it’s tiny, that duck is much prettier than the other one, which was actually a snake.  Who knew?

  177. 177.

    bemused

    @Kent:

    I think I watched that video awhile ago plus reading about company. I researched this company because someone I knew was totally into it and I got suspicious when her ravings about the oils seemed really over the top.

    I have some essential oils I use mostly for scenting the house  but definitely not that brand.

  178. 178.

    tomtofa

    We made chlorine gas in HS Chemistry class. Inadvertent but surprisingly easy. The school was evacuated.

  179. 179.

    J R in WV

     

    I used to play with carbide as a youth, you could create amazing flame throwers, bright white flame swords in the twilight. I did lose my eyelashes once, but no one noticed… we created a Fireball around my cousin and me, fortunately neither of us inhaled while in the ball of flame!

    Later on we used the carbide in lamps while exploring caves… this was before modern LED headlights, a carbide lamp was what all the cavers used.

  180. 180.

    joel hanes

    @Ruckus:

    dynamite

    I knew about it, but in the days before some end-use documentation was required I wasn’t old enough to buy it, and I didn’t have the end-use documentation when I was old enough.

    And I had no training, and even I am not stupid enough to mess around with dynamite and caps untrained.

    There was a short time during which I could purchase M80s for “gopher control”.   Those are scary enough.

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