Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

This really is a full service blog.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

You cannot shame the shameless.

This blog will pay for itself.

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

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

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Bark louder, little dog.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

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

In my day, never was longer.

I was promised a recession.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Live the Dream Open Thread: What If…

Live the Dream Open Thread: What If…

by | 164 Comments

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On beyond farce. Ann Telnaes, in the Washington Post (character annotation at the link):
Fat Elvis Trump (Second Time As Farce) - STOCKPILE
(It’s all in the details. Notice the corona-themed decorations, Melania’s jacket, the individual band members…)

Reader Interactions

164Comments

  3. 3.

    Mary G

    Thread of joy:

    Emerson, my 11 year old, is on a bit of a wild ride with the @USPS and our local mail carrier, Doug.And, I think there’s a deeper message to it all.First, the backstory…— Hugh Weber (@hughweber) May 2, 2020

  4. 4.

    Brachiator

    A great editorial cartoon! Is there an annotated version somewhere?

    Is that Pence on trumpet? Looks like a stiff?

    Any significance to the woman not being allowed in?

    And that bloated Elvis-Trump.  Sheer genius.

  9. 9.

    Brachiator

    @Mary G: 

    She’s got a notebook that journalists used to use in her hand, so I’m guessing she represents the news

    Ah. Yes. Makes sense.

  10. 10.

    JoyceH

    I was just recently saying that I really missed the days when you could just not pay attention to the news for weeks or months and feel confident that the government was being run by fairly smart well-meaning people who were doing the best they can.

  11. 11.

    Anne Laurie

    A great editorial cartoon! Is there an annotated version somewhere?

    It’s Ann Telnaes, for the Washington Post.  Thanks for reminding me to add a credit!

  12. 12.

    Van Buren

    Ant Republican who says one word about the deficit in 20121 deserves to be spit upon at the very least.

  18. 18.

    Mike in NC

    Moron Mnuchin on drums, with Fat Bill Barr on cello and Ross on saxophone. Great cartoon, but needs a few AR-15s.

  19. 19.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Stephen “Reinhard Heydrich’s Mini-Me” Miller as the sourfaced waiter FTW.

  20. 20.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Mary G:

    Hold on, is that you Emerson? Because that story is absolutely fantastic and I expect it’s gonna blow up big!

  21. 21.

    The Lodger

    @HumboldtBlue: Inimitable? Maybe, but I see a huge Al Hirschfeld influence in some of those figures. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

  22. 22.

    lamh36

    ATTENTION CLASS OF 2020!!!!

    LeBron James, Jonas Brothers, Bad Bunny, H.E.R. And More To Celebrate 2020 High School Seniors In TV Special

    Taking place Saturday, May 16, the star-studded Graduate Together broadcast will feature celebrity performances as well as commencement addresses and vignettes from graduating seniors

    https://twitter.com/RecordingAcad/status/1257088549842796553

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JoyceH: I was just recently saying that I really missed the days when you could just not pay attention to the news for weeks or months and feel confident that the government was being run by fairly smart well-meaning people who were doing the best they can.

    I’ve missed that since late at night on November 8, 2016.  (Yes, the dread started then.)

  26. 26.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @HumboldtBlue: Any idea what’s the significance of “Lumbini Sessions” re Rodrigo y Gabriela? There is a restaurant named Lumbini in downtown Baltimore, but it seems to have no connection whatsoever with anything vaguely Latin or Mediterranean or musical – it’s an Indian/Nepalese place known for its lunch buffets…

  27. 27.

    Ohio Mom

    I see Brix on the tambourine; Fauci with maracas; Ivanka, Jared, Eric and Junior singing back-up.

    Next to Melania is Junior’s girlfriend, then Eric’s wife.

    Who are the two at Donald’s feet? And in the row behind Melania?

  28. 28.

    JPL

    @lamh36: My son refused to walk for his graduation, but did ask me if I would go sit in the stands to watch his friend graduate.   I couldn’t do it bu wish I had.

  29. 29.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Delk: Ha! I would’ve missed that, thanks

    @Mike in NC: Deborah Birx on tambourine, a sad-looking Fauci on the maracas (sp? I don’t think I’ve ever spelled that word). Who’s that mope on the trumpet?

  30. 30.

    JMG

    Joe Biden’s harmless old-school polness is his greatest weapon. To his credit, he knows it.

  35. 35.

    Ohio Mom

    Duh: just like it says at the top of the post, click the link for an annotated list of the characters in the cartoon.

  36. 36.

    Jinchi

    Bob Barr should be playing bagpipes in that picture.

    (Wait… Have I become Comic Book Guy?)

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: is that supposed to be pence on the trumpet? she gave him a build like Mongo from Blazing Saddles

     

     

    @lamh36:

    the way the other candidates have done with tax returns

    anybody see what’s wrong with former Rand Paul campaign and Bush II White House aide Ms Jordan’s comparison there?

    and who did that with their tax returns? As I recall, the Clintons, the Obamas, the Gores, maybe even the Bushes just released their returns. Don’t remember Kerry. And Bernie and Willard just released one year each, as I recall?

  38. 38.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @lamh36:

    Damn, they want that fishing trip BAD, but it looks like Biden won’t play.  He offered access to the records where any complaint would have been.  Anybody he can’t satisfy by saying that was not asking in good faith anyway.

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JPL: I’m guessing Lindsey Graham and Kevin McCarthy

    (damn, we’re in it deep: How many normies do you think could play this game?)

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    but it looks like Biden won’t play.

    I REALLY want Biden to set up a fake warehouse with fake records and tell the reporters to go happy hunting.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    okay who’s the King on the drums?   Is that Barr?

     

    Nevermind.. Barr is on Cello.

  48. 48.

    Ohio Mom

    I like to think that yes, next May, all of Biden’s appointments will be hard at work repairing the damage that has been done (re-staffing the State Department, reinstating environmental policies and programs, etc.) but I don’t expect to be in a state of Zen.

    I’m guessing Corona will, at the least, still be nipping at our heels, and a lot of us will still be reeling financially. We’ll be more cautious about traveling, especially by plane, and about all sorts of other plans and commitments.

    I expect to feel more hopeful but not completely at ease. Though compared to today, it all does sound heavenly. May it come to pass!

  50. 50.

    Brachiator

    @The Lodger:

    @HumboldtBlue: Inimitable? Maybe, but I see a huge Al Hirschfeld influence in some of those figures. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

    Trumpeter Pence seems to have a touch of a nod to Charles Addams.

  53. 53.

    dexwood

    @JPL:

    Mitch Miller? My parents watched his show every week. Bored the crap out of me. Oh, never mind…. Emily.

  56. 56.

    Anya

    @Van Buren: Every Democrat needs to laugh in their faces. We know that the media will start their “what about the deficit” and we’ll have advocacy groups yapping about it but Dems need to stay the course and just laugh at them. Don’t even give them a chance to say they were wrong or defend their non concern. Never give these fuckers an inch. Let’s learn from 2009.

  58. 58.

    Brachiator

    @Mary G:

    From the annotation (hidden behind a paywall for some, I think)

    Sens. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey O. Graham, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy
    These Republicans have sold their souls to stay in office and watch this disaster unfold.

  61. 61.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Anya:

    Let’s learn from 2009.

    Trouble is, who’s “us”? If we’re lucky, we’ll be complaining about Cal Cunningham, Doug Jones and Barbara Bollier not having learned the lessons of 2009. If we’re lucky, John Hickenlooper will go along with what Chuck Schumer wants him to support, and Mark Kelly will be less of a Blue Dog than Evan Bayh.

    If we’re very lucky.

  63. 63.

    Bill Arnold

    @lamh36:

    “I think anything the Biden campaign can do, if they could agree on a certain number of reporters, a pool to go in & have access to the records & to write about it the way the other candidates have done with tax returns, that would be a step forward.”

    Might be fun to have qualifications for a pool of reporters that the Biden campaign is willing to communicate with. One qualification could be has a significant body of journalistic work criticizing the D.J.Trump administration.
    But nope, this as stated is just political extortion.

  64. 64.

    Bex

    @lamh36: Yeah, how dumb is it to mention tax returns when his Imperial Majesty hasn’t released his?  Everybody knows there’s no Reade “complaint” in the Delaware papers.  Jordan is one of those people who will never take yes for an answer.  She and her fellow conspiracy theorists will always want just one more investigation.

  66. 66.

    Mary G

    @Brachiator:

     

    @JPL: Thanks, I missed that Q & A due to having the attention span of a gnat these days (well, always).

     

    Another cool daddy/daughter tweet I came across:

    “Beast-mode.”Check out this daddy and his baby girl during the lockdown.I’m here for this.?❤️pic.twitter.com/Pk1GXNx1sS— Rex Chapman?? (@RexChapman) May 3, 2020

  67. 67.

    Anne Laurie

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Y’all get a chance to see them live, DO IT.   We went because the Spousal Unit is a classical-acoustic aficionado… but, even though I have a tin ear by comparison, they were amazing.

     

    @Uncle Cosmo: I think it’s the name of their studio (Lumbini is, apparently, where the Buddha was born).  If you click the #Lumbini sessions link just below the YouTube video, there’s more!

    @Ohio Mom:  Good eye!  The two at Donald’s feet (I checked the link) are Pompeo & Meadows; the three behind Melania’s booth are McConnell, Lindsey Graham & Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    @JoyceH: Amen and amen.

    Obama was always on-point with his messages of unity and positivity to the country – the WHOLE country, not just ‘blue states’.

    (just for fun: picture what would happen if Obama tried to withhold aid from ‘red states’ during a pandemic unless/until they…oh…raised taxes on the 1%, just because.  Or gave up their guns.  Or burned a bible or something)

    Anyway…I hope Uncle Joe and Co. start talking about that brighter future of normalcy (not a return to ‘normal’, just basic normalcy) and publicly and every day.  People. will. VOTE for that shit.

  69. 69.

    Jeffro

    @zhena gogolia: where’s his DNA sample, to prove E. Jean Carroll wrong?

    Where are the reporters willing to grill him about that NYT epic expose’ of his family’s decades-long tax fraud?

    Won’t any of them at least ask, “We thought you were this burning anti-corruption crusader, just a hair away from indicting Joe and Hunter Biden for something something Ukraine – whatever happened to that?  What about the Clinton Foundation – any charges coming there?  Uranium One?”

  71. 71.

    joel hanes

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    In 2019, Sen. Sanders released ten years worth of returns, 2009-2018.

    Some of us suspect that he had to drag his feet for so long because there was something hinky in the 2008 return, and he wanted that one to age out of the ten-year window.

  73. 73.

    Anne Laurie

    @lamh36: As a number of experienced archive-searchers have pointed out on Twitter:  If the U of Delaware wants to show these ‘just asking questions’ journalist/ratfvckers all 2000 boxes of unaudited, paper records — many of the hand-written or hand-annotated — and let them dig for what they want… those Heroes of Transparency will lose interest, if not immediately, within the next few tedious hours.

    The GOP paid teams of young interns to go through Bill Clinton’s Arkansas archives, which is where the ‘Whitewater!!!’ bs first emerged.  But that was back in the 80s/90s… and Bill had had a relatively short public career, at that point.

    Today’s Media Village Idiots are used to be spoon-fed ‘scoops’, like the DNC emails that Wikileaks helpfully ‘annotated’ for them.   They haven’t the training, much less the stamina, to do the white-collar shovel work of digging out ‘tidbits’ from the many reams of paper!

  74. 74.

    JPL

    So I guess trump is on tv saying he Spanish Flu of 1917  ended WWI and Biden wrote him an apology for some thing..      good times.

  75. 75.

    Jeffro

    @lamh36: Well, if he’s already been treated worse than Lincoln…um…I guess what I’m trying to say is, why haven’t I busted out the champagne, then?

  76. 76.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Bex: and of course, Mrs Greenspan. In this case, the RT is an endorsement.

    Biden should say, whichever team of reporters is allowed to go through trump’s taxes, including his kids’ and his companys’, when they’re done with those, they can start on the 1,600 boxes in the basement of the UD library

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    Biden wrote him an apology for some thing.

    I wonder if the media will demand to search his files for proof of that apology.

  80. 80.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    just noticed Yamiche Alcindor being blocked at the door by a bouncer, and the garnishes of the quarantinis are Covid viruses

    ETA: And Eric trump looks a little bit like Peter Boyle’s Frakenstein which is not totally inappropriate

  81. 81.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jeffro: Well, if he’s already been treated worse than Lincoln…um…I guess what I’m trying to say is, why haven’t I busted out the champagne, then?

    Shit.  A-fucking-men.  These fucking people.

  83. 83.

    jl

    The distraction blame game BS the Trumpsters are pulling on WHO and China needs to be stomped on with extreme prejudice. The astroturfed bad faith of the Trumpster/GOP complex has been mainstreamed enough so that, from I’ve heard of it this weekend,  the corporate media is afraid to interview any scientist or public health expert or epidemiologist who knows fuck-all about it (for fear of imbalance), but are interviewing the usual parade of political hacks and operatives, all spouting their own motivated and tendentious horseshit.

    I have  a collection of peer reviewed journal articles published in last half of January that gave the world 90 percent of the info it needed to start effective control efforts. And I easily found them on the intertubes in real time as they came out. And, does anyone think that South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, and even Japan (though exactly what is up there is hard to figure) all stumbled on control efforts that produced much less and death, much less damage to their economies, much less damage to social and emotional health, and personal liberty, than the US, just randomly? They all just lucked out, right? They all saw the same research we did, starting in the middle of effing January.

    Regardless of what bad things China did, fact is, there are too many ways to cross check the numbers, too many independent data sources, to hide the basic relevant characteristics of the epidemic.

    I just heard some shithead political operative say that China seriously hampered US efforts to start work on control by not sending out live vaccines. That is total crap. And here again, the brute undeniable historical facts show that assertion to be a damned lie. The Chinese sent out the genetic code almost immediately, German researchers used it to develop a very adequate test for early control almost immediately, which they offered to everyone, and almost everyone took them up on it.

    The US, lead by Trump/GOP crimes against humanity (against its own citizens) suspects was sitting with its thumbs up its ass, and continued that obsessive hobby for months.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’ll just note that my keyboard did not burst into flames as I typed that.  Evidence that there is no omnipotent and just god?

  86. 86.

    Butter Emails

    @Anne Laurie:

    That’s what the media actually wants. They want to some conservative propaganda organization to go through the records, find any details that can be turned into something salacious and deliver an article complete with Republican framing that they can add a couple of smoke, cloud and fog references to before slapping there names on it.

  89. 89.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Anne Laurie: Aaaaand we have a winner! Truly a round-the-world** Tinker-to-Evans-to-Chance connection! Thanky kindly!

    ** NB But not “round-the-horn” – that double play starts with a ground ball to the third baseman, and Harry Steinfeldt, who patrolled the “hot corner” for the Cubbies in those days, is known primarily for playing in the shadow of the other three infielders due to FPA’s famous verse. I guess “Steinfeldt to Evers to Chance” just didn’t have the same cachet, though it scans just as well…/TMI

  90. 90.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @TS (the original): I mean, cut him some slack. He probably doesn’t even know Lincoln was assassinated

    Stands to reason.  I mean he didn’t know Lincoln was a Republican until a couple years ago (so of course “no one knew”).

    At this rate, Trump should finish the abridged version of the Lincoln biography by 2134.

    @Baud:His word is his bond.

    Yeah, junk bond.

  91. 91.

    Patricia Kayden

    @lamh36: He can end his pain by resigning then so that we don’t have to continue being mean to him. What a big baby.

  92. 92.

    Jinchi

    ….And then came a Plague, a great and powerful Plague, and the World was never to be the same again! But America rose from this death and destruction, always remembering its many lost souls, and the lost souls all over the World, and became greater than ever before!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2020

    Am I the only person who thinks Trump didn’t personally write this tweet? Somehow it comes across as Steven Miller’s language with his Lovecraftian view of America.

  93. 93.

    jl

    @Jeffro: “Well, if he’s already been treated worse than Lincoln…um…I guess what I’m trying to say is, why haven’t I busted out the champagne, then? ”

    Will that nonsense get Trump banned from social media for threatening violence against an elected official? Just because it’s himself doesn’t make any difference. Danger to himself as well as others.

  94. 94.

    Mary G

    Some guy on Twitter tried to tell me the other day that California is a paradise of diversity and Democrats rule everything, and got huffy with me when I said the 27% are alive and well. This is in the OC with me:

    A man grocery shopping with a KKK hood in Santee, California. The city of Santee has a history of racism & people in southern California call it 'Klantee'. This is Trump's America. pic.twitter.com/AYRdnMVnXK— Stone (@stonecold2050) May 3, 2020

    They never go away or give up.

  95. 95.

    mrmoshpotato

    @TS (the original): The Soviet shitpile mobster conman probably thinks Lincoln is doing an amazing job and being recognized more and more as Dump’s brain melts down.

  97. 97.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mary G: This is punch-a-Nazi territory.  Hold his hood on and punch the shit out of the white trash motherfucker.

  98. 98.

    jl

    @Mary G: At least, did have a mask. But OTOH, far past time we had a better public info campaign giving out easy to understand  standards for masks, and warning that they will be enforced.

    Edit: might be just me, but my guess is a KKK hood shouldn’t make the grade.

  99. 99.

    Anya

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: If we’re lucky Chuck Schumer will no longer be the leader and we’ll have a more effective communicator and a better strategist. Who is the Nancy Pelosi of the senate? Patty Murray?

  100. 100.

    Patricia Kayden

    "After the president said he had seen convincing evidence that gave him a high degree of confidence that the virus came from a lab, I checked in with intelligence sources. They are not on that page" @KenDilanianNBC. "They say we don't know. We don't have any smoking-gun evidence" pic.twitter.com/TAGuZEDCvE— Kasie DC (@KasieDC) May 4, 2020

  102. 102.

    MomSense

    Twitter tells me that Trump said he has been treated worse than Lincoln in the Fox interview he is doing at the Lincoln MEMORIAL.

  103. 103.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Anya: Ah, yes.  I remember when everyone used to shit on Harry Reid for not getting anything done in the Senate.  If you don’t have the majority, there is little that you can do in the Senate.

  104. 104.

    Zinsky

    @Jinchi:  There’s no way Donald Trump wrote that maudlin tripe.  He is too damn stupid.  The only thing Trump reads is the wrappers on the porn videos he buys.  Nothing else.  An illiterate, innumerate shit-for-brains pervert and serial rapist.

  105. 105.

    jl

    @Patricia Kayden: There is really no evidence at all that it escaped from the lab. It’s somewhat possible, not probable at all kind of thing. Sinister forces have are pumping out big lies.

    The initial hypotheses of how the new bug escaped the lab and claimed documentary evidence, have been debunked. So, it is an ‘absence of evidence’ for a far less than most likely scenario deal.

    Edit: and what needs to be yelled from the roof tops (all caps ahead warning): TRUMP FIRED THE US SCIENTISTS MONITORING THE LAB!!

  107. 107.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    can’t wait for the tweet where trump says he was misquoted about Our GREAT and BELOVED! ABRAHAM LINCOLN WHO WAS A REPUBLICAN LIKE TRUMP

  109. 109.

    Baud

    Wait till Trump learns that Lincoln fought on the wrong side in the Civil War.

  112. 112.

    jl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Not many people know this, but if you don’t use Trump vodka for your vodka gimlet, you’ll get lime disease. Many experts have come to me and told me this privately.

  114. 114.

    jl

    @Omnes Omnibus: And Trump steaks protect you from multiple antibiotic resistant flesh eating bacteria. Experts call me sir when they say this, and they choke up and weep. ‘Your steaks saved the world, Sir, and have kept fashion models in the gym and thin for decades now’.

  115. 115.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    when… when do people finally get offended? /rhetorical

    Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom 3m
    Trump is now basically saying that it wasn’t his idea to do West Point, but they asked him to do it

    Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom· 4m
    Trump refers to the military school where they stashed him as a “mini West Point“

  117. 117.

    Bruuuuce

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    I guess “Steinfeldt to Evers to Chance” just didn’t have the same cachet, though it scans just as well

    Would it be unreasonable to suspect that the apparent ethnic origin of “Steinfeldt” was more offputting than the more Anglo-Saxon “Tinker”?

    Nah. Couldn’t be. Americans are just so accepting, and all, and always have been [/sarc]

  120. 120.

    jl

    @Baud: You are lousy fake for not reading all of the Trump accomplishments before you made that insulting comment. That is why you can’t get a real job and have to comment on a fourth rate only almost to 10,000 blog. You should be nice, why aren’t you nice?

    Hoo-Kay, I better get out of here and do some work for remote teaching tomorrow. It’s almost as if an evil spirit has taken possession of me.

  121. 121.

    Gin & Tonic

    @jl: What the fuck is a “vodka gimlet”? Is that like the “vodka martini’s” louche cousin?

  125. 125.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    oh my god, it’s even worse than that (he’s already back-pedaling a bit, talking about postponing, as much as I can decode the babbling) Video

    Acyn Torabi @Acyn
    Trump on West Point: There’s no risk. They wanted me to speak. I didn’t want to speak…

    the question pissed him off, he’s feeling the heat on this. I forget who pointed out that “are you ready?” has become his go to when he feels cornered

  126. 126.

    Anya

    @Omnes Omnibus: Harry Reid was good at messaging and he would’ve agitated Trump every damn day. Schumer is so bad at messaging.

    I am not one of those pitch fork democrats who’s always shitting on their side and accusing them of betrayal. In fact, I think it’s one of the reasons we don’t have a lot of good things. And I do understand that any senate leader would have to deal with Manchin and other so called blue dog senators but a charismatic leader who knows how to convey the message makes a huge difference.

  128. 128.

    Ken

    @Anya: There’s an easy counter to wails of “the deficit”. When the Democrats pass legislation with extra spending, just tack on a tax cut.  Remind people that cutting taxes raises revenue.

    This should be a miniscule 0.05% cut in some obscure tax. If someone questions whether that will really increase growth, explain that you wouldn’t want too big a cut lest the economy be unable to cope with the supercharged growth.

  129. 129.

    SFAW

    Whilst reading the “picture a Biden cabinet doing all sorts of stuff” dream/hope, an interesting (a/k/a cynical) thought occurred to me: if the Party of Traitors retains control of the Senate, can they be prevented from refusing to confirm any/all cabinet secretaries? Thinking of Moscow Mitch reprising his Merrick Garland treason, of course, and that that traitorous motherfucker shows no reluctance to prevent Democrats from getting anything they want.

  131. 131.

    SFAW

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    They wanted me to speak. I didn’t want to speak…

    Both are lies. Has he hit 20,000 yet? [Meaning since his inauguration. Lifetime, he’s gotta be approaching 1 Mil. ]

  133. 133.

    JMG

    @SFAW: Theoretically, they could. Of course, theoretically Biden could jail all Republican Senators without trial as well as their Supreme Court justices and say, “go ahead and impeach me” if he had 34 Democratic Senators to back his play.

  134. 134.

    Mary G

    Yamiche says Pence told Fox News that he shoud have worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic.

  135. 135.

    SFAW

    @JMG:

    Of course, theoretically Biden could jail all Republican Senators without trial as well as their Supreme Court justices and say, “go ahead and impeach me” if he had 34 Democratic Senators to back his play.

    Yeah, not really. I was actually being serious. I don’t think it’s likely, but I also expect it’s a non-zero probability, given Traitor Turtle’s willingness to destroy a functioning US government.

  136. 136.

    Another Scott

    @Anya: Don’t confuse the press not covering Schumer with him being bad at his job.

    Repost (a different link) – Senate Democrats:

    On NPR’s Morning Edition, Schumer Says McConnell Call To Bankrupt States Amid Coronavirus Pandemic Will Increase Bipartisan Momentum To Deliver Needed Aid For State And Local Governments

    April 24, 2020

    Brooklyn, N.Y. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer today appeared on NPR Morning Edition, explaining that Leader McConnell’s assertion that states should be able to declare bankruptcy because of the coronavirus pandemic will increase bipartisan momentum to deliver much needed aid from the federal government to state and local governments. Below is a transcript of the interview:

    Noel King: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York is on the line with me. Good morning Senator.

    Sen. Schumer: Good morning Noel. I hope you are healthy.

    Noel King: Thank you sir, you too. Individual states need aid, they’re losing all kinds of revenue. Lawmakers are considering how to help. Your Republican colleague Mitch McConnell suggested that bankruptcy for states might be the best route. Now you seem not to agree, you’ve made that point. Does he have a point about limiting how many rescues and how much money we can throw at this thing?

    Sen. Schumer: Well first of all, what McConnell said was so far out of the mainstream I think he’s going to have to walk it back. He has isolated Republican senators, Republican governors have denounced him, and you know he was the reason that state and local aid was blocked in the interim bill that the president is signing today, he wouldn’t let it go forward. But now that people have seen how twisted his logic, or illogic, is I think actually what he said has given even more momentum for state and local assistance in number 4. After all, Noel, who are we talking about? This is not abstract, you know, state government. Rather, it is police officers who patrol our streets and keep us safe, it’s ambulance workers, it’s bus drivers. These people should not be thrown out of work because the states are not collecting revenues and I hope McConnell comes to his senses, turns around and helps us get state and local, but if he doesn’t, I think there will be the momentum to defeat him. As for the bigger question you asked, what about all of these packages, this is a crisis unlike something we have never seen really in this country. 26 million people unemployed, so many businesses closed, the number one goal is to solve both the healthcare crisis and the economic crisis and it will cost some money. There is a bit of hypocrisy coming out of Leader McConnell, he passed a $2 trillion tax cut mainly for the very wealthy, which did more before COVID to increase the deficit than anything else, so I guess deficits are ok in McConnell’s eyes when its tax cuts for the rich. Remember, they said it would grow the economy, it didn’t. It mainly went for stock buybacks in the corporate side. And so it’s ok to do that to increase the deficit but we shouldn’t help people who are out of work? We shouldn’t find a testing regime which we put in the last bill which the president will sign which will help us get back to work quickly? We have no national focus-

    […]

    Schumer is fine. Reid was fine.

    The problem is the media is wired for Republicans.

    Eyes on the prizes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  137. 137.

    Dan B

    @jl: And the most stunning examples of effective control: Vietnam, 270 cases zero fatalities; New Zealand, may be at zero new cases; Australia, don’t have the current tally.  And Vietnam has 96 million people plus two huge cities.  It’s not politics.  It’s believing in expertise and data.  Both these are deadly to the GOP.

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SFAW: not that he consults me, but I imagine he would pick his battles: Treasury and AG. I suspect he doesn’t really care about foreign policy, and he could point to State and Agriculture and Commerce and maybe Defense as evidence of his willingness to work with the White House.

  139. 139.

    SFAW

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    OK, that seems a reasonable take, although I think he’d do it to as many as he could, to show that he’s the boss. But the question remains: if we don’t retake the Senate, and if Traitor Turtle is not run over by a bus, is there anything other than “the opposition party has never done that during America’s history.”

  140. 140.

    TS (the original)

    @Mary G:

     

    NEW: Vice President with a *big* walk back & admission on Fox News: “I should have worn a mask at the Mayo Clinic.”— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 4, 2020

  141. 141.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SFAW: I have a fantasy where certain individuals with large and passionate followings focus their rhetoric on the courts, and talk about how important it is to take the Senate to even begin to undo the damage already done by Mitch McConnell

  142. 142.

    SFAW

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I have a fantasy where certain individuals with large and passionate followings focus their rhetoric on the courts, and talk about how important it is to take the Senate to even begin to undo the damage already done by Mitch McConnell

    I have a fantasy where that person — whoever he may be — gives you a shout call, and heeds your advice.

  144. 144.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Can I get a unicorn or at least a pony out of this fantasy?

    Maybe. Will you accept it if it’s not sporting a Cheesehead?

    ETA: The unicorn I have is a Norwegian Blue. It’s got beautiful plumage hornage.

  147. 147.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @JoyceH: I’d just settle for the Bush days were the incompetence was only an occasional indulgence instead constant.

  149. 149.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @SFAW: Not impossible with his shitty polling the Senate doesn’t go blue but Turtle is out of office.

  150. 150.

    Ken

    @JMG: You know, the old school politicians knew how to handle this. They’d invite their opponents over to discuss the issues with a drink, and within a few minutes the problem was solved. But we won’t see the likes of the Borgias again.

  151. 151.

    Kristine

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Not impossible with his shitty polling the Senate doesn’t go blue but Turtle is out of office.

    I’ve wondered about this scenario. Does any other GOP senator have the amoral focus that McConnell has that would allow them to carry on as he did?

  152. 152.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kristine:

    Does any other GOP senator have the amoral focus that McConnell has that would allow them to carry on as he did?

    All of them, Katie (C’mon, man, you saw that one coming)

  153. 153.

    SFAW

    @Kristine:

    Does any other GOP senator have the amoral focus that McConnell has that would allow them to carry on as he did?

    Cotton, Ernst, Kennedy, Cornyn, Grassley, Randy, Scott, Shelby, probably a bunch more. Maybe not as much as Moscow Mitch, but I’m sure they’d up their game.

  154. 154.

    Procopius

    Oh, my, that cartoon makes me feel 16 again reading my first issue of Mad Comics. Every frame was like that, stuff in the background that you had to have some knowledge to get the joke. Mad Magazine was able to keep some of it, but not as much. I’ll have to add Telnaes to my regular comics.

  157. 157.

    Gvg

    @Kristine: probabaly, but the question is, who has the votes to be senate republican leader it McConnel goes. Sometimes thes amoral power hungry people make sure no one can challenge them, and when they are done, their isn’t a clear successor. I never hear who his leiutenants are but that could just be lousy reporting.

  159. 159.

    SFAW

    @Gvg:

    if McConnel goes.

    He won’t. I’m happy to give money to Amy McGrath’s campaign, but she won’t win.

  161. 161.

    Bill Arnold

    @phdesmond:
    Friend lived late teens/early 20s in a sprawling apartment over a garage (very small estate) owned by his parents, that Al Hirschfeld had lived in for a while. He had painted on all the wallboard walls; some (mildly) racy stuff, in color. Don’t know what happened to all of those wall paintings; he was still alive at the time according to wikipedia. (At least I think it was hirschfeld; memories match the paintings and drawings found in a search. )
    Gotta respect somebody who paints their own art on the walls. :-)

  162. 162.

    Bill Arnold

    @Ken:

    This should be a miniscule 0.05% cut in some obscure tax. If someone questions whether that will really increase growth, explain that you wouldn’t want too big a cut lest the economy be unable to cope with the supercharged growth.

    Homeopathic tax cuts? Brilliant. :-)

  164. 164.

    tokyokie

    @Brachiator:

    Trumpeter Pence seems to have a touch of a nod to Charles Addams.

    I, too, thought Pence was drawn to look like Uncle Fester. And I like his being visually linked to the dimmest character in a macabre comic.

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