Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

T R E 4 5 O N

We will not go back.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Giving up is unforgivable.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Consistently wrong since 2002

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Washington DC Mayor Is BadAss

Washington DC Mayor Is BadAss

by | 238 Comments

This post is in: 

h/t rikyrah

I hope that makes you as happy as it made me.

Not to make this about gender – but damn there are some strong, powerful women out there handing the criminal GOP and Trump their balls in a paper bag.

Open thread

Reader Interactions

238Comments

  2. 2.

    Kay

    Oh, good for her. Reclaim it from the Trumpists.
    We all saw how the Trump Administration think cities should look- a big fancy house with a fence around it and armed guards stationed everywhere else. Yuck. Reject that.

  3. 3.

    Big Mango

    Trump is being revealed to all as a blustering fool….he will try to lash out….the mayor and others will laugh and more folks will notice the emperor has no clothes….Evangelical support down 15% AFTER  church stunts.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    OK, this belongs in this thread.  And thanks to rikyrah for making my morning!!

    @rikyrah:   Love it.  I am loving the pushback against our Orange bunker inspector in chief.

    As painful as Trump’s “electoral college victory” has been, I have always held out hope that it might be a crucible that results in even better and more far-reaching change.  Recovering is going to require way more than “incremental” actions.  This has been a dumpster fire.

    The Republicans are electorally endangered.  You cannot make a better case for voting by mail than allowing citizens to participate in democracy during a deadly pandemic that has killed over 100,000 in a few long months.

    People of color have borne the worst of Trump’s actions, and of his outright negligence and sabotage WRT his pandemic “response.”  But almost all of us have suffered, and a majority of us are willing to acknowledge that.

    This has come at an immeasurable cost, particularly to the African American community.  Lives.

    But they are leading the way to fighting back.  With more than words.

    It’s incredible that protest in the streets has come into vogue.  But look what it took.  I don’t see us going home and just shutting up

  11. 11.

    gwangung

    And if you think about it, these actions will ratchet down the tension and make it more likely the folks coming out will be peaceful.

    Smart, common sense actions.

  12. 12.

    Emerald

    Hoping all this crap will spur the country to admitting DC, which has a larger population than Wyoming, as a state. We sure could use the senators.

  13. 13.

    MattF

    Not so long ago, 16th Street was the boundary between ‘white’ DC and ‘chocolate’ DC– so painting BLM on the street has some extra resonance for the natives.

  14. 14.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Playing a speech by Martin Luther King over the sound system now. Too bad Trump is in Maine, but this is the leadup to tomorrow’s big demonstration.

  15. 15.

    VeniceRiley

    DC statehood and PR statehood should be job one day one for President Biden. Mayors Bowser, Lightfoot, and the one in Atlanta whose name I just forgot … Bottoms? Slaying.  But Bowser just shot to the tippity tip top for getting right in Cheetolini’s face.

  18. 18.

    Ken

    Next up: Zoning citation for putting up the extra fencing without a permit.

    If that doesn’t work, a few strategic street repairs could probably preventing any vehicle traffic in or out of the White House.

  21. 21.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Cheryl Rofer: So Trump  is in Maine today? No doubt dealing with whatever national crisis is occurring in Maine.

    ETA: Trump apparently said he’d like to drive around in an RV, which is funny to start with, but then he added, “with the First Lady.” Try to imagine Melania Trump living in an RV.

  23. 23.

    Geeno

    Hey, get sexist. This pasty white 60-year-old male has been sickened by the male fail parades of the last several years. The women, especially women of color, have been leading.

  25. 25.

    Ruckus

    Not to make this about gender – but damn there are some strong, powerful women out there handing the criminal GOP and Trump their balls in a paper bag.

    Why are they giving them back?

    I realize that no one wants to keep them but still…..They could send them off as medical waste. Which they are.

  28. 28.

    scav

    Ah! Selfishly, This comes in the nick of time for my functioning shreds of non-raging sanity but more largely, THAT’S a bPoke in their eye. Keep that ball rolling and reveal the uniformed instigators for what they are on a stage the waddling idiot chose.

  29. 29.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t know that I’d call Susan Collins a crisis, more of a chronic condition.

    And if Trump did go there to support Collins – well, I’d love to have seen her face when she found out.

  31. 31.

    Barbara

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Paul Waldman wrote a piece in the Washington Post that had a sentence that I thought could be used as the motto of the Trump administration: “Any problem he didn’t create he made worse.”

    Whether it’s police brutality, the pandemic, income inequality, trade policy or what have you, it seems like a pretty accurate summation.

  35. 35.

    Barbara

    @Ken: She’s probably hightailing her way to Canadian border as fast as she can until the “crisis” passes.

  36. 36.

    Skepticat

    The Portland Press Herald has an editorial asking tRump to resign, so “welcome” to Maine, you jerk.
    Mayor Bowser is my favorite badass today; more power to her. Now, if she just can get rid of the fences around the people’s house.

  37. 37.

    Ruckus

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s not just voting by mail that they don’t like, it’s that it leaves a clear trail, paper ballots that can be counted, how many sent out, how many returned, how many voted for whom, and they can be recounted by different groups and the counting can be verified and watched. They can be counted by machine and by people. It is of course not instantaneous but it is fair and it is accountable. Two things that conservatives fear and hate highly, a fair and accountable vote and government.

  38. 38.

    Jinchi

    @Cheryl Rofer: Too bad Trump is in Maine

    Isn’t he going to Maine just to thumb his nose at their Governor.

    “He and Attorney General Barr indicated to us that they had ‘intelligence’ that linked the protests to the quote ‘radical left,’” Mills said. “That these were the same “troublemakers” who led the Occupy Wall Street movement. And they pledged to prosecute protesters under federal law. Both the tone and the substance of the president’s comments were troubling.”

    In light of the president’s comments, Mills asked Trump not to come to Maine this Friday

  41. 41.

    Ruckus

    @VeniceRiley:

    Is it clear that PR wants to be a state at this point in time? Granted, being in limbo isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be but still……

    And yes I’m being very snarky…. So unlike me….

  42. 42.

    Ken

    @Jinchi: [Trump] and Attorney General Barr indicated to us that they had ‘intelligence’

    Well that’s a slow easy pitch, isn’t it?

  43. 43.

    Wyrm

    I will say the Black Lives Matter DC is pretty unimpressed with the whole thing, calling it performance art that ignores the consistent support that Mayor Bowser has given to the Metropolitan Police Department (the city one that she controls).  They believe (probably correctly) that this is in place of putting in place any of the reforms that MPD needs.

    I think the f**k you to Trump is very nice, but I agree with BLM DC that this is a gesture.  I think it’s a really nice one, but Bowser is NOT a reformer, or really interested in hearing the voices of reformers.

  44. 44.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Ruckus: Funny story – when Bixby was neutered the vet asked me if I wanted his testicles. Now, admittedly, they were an awesome set, but really? She said some people want them. Gobsmacked.

  45. 45.

    CaseyL

    Mayor Bowser is *chef’s kiss*

    I love the idea of playing MLK Jr. speeches.

    Not sure she’ll have them played tomorrow: the demonstration will likely have live speakers.

    But before, between, and after? Sure!

  46. 46.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Has shitforbrains ever driven a car? Does he have a license? If he does, should the state that gave him one check for mental health issues that would preclude him having one? Senility, dementia, being a major asshole…..

  48. 48.

    LuciaMia

    The end of the week ending a teenier bit better than the way it began?  Well, its still only lunch time.

  49. 49.

    Mike in NC

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Trump is in Maine today?

    Fat Bastard is visiting some PPE factory, I think. Will Susan Collins be there to furrow her brow?

    Will he spend the weekend at Merde-A-Lago rather than face angry protesters tired of his Putin act? I used to work in DC and would sure as hell be there if I could.

  52. 52.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Wyrm: I mean, a giant fuck you to Trump coupled with the official request to get the federal forces the hell out of town is pretty good.

    It isn’t comprehensive police reform, but it’s good. I’ll take it and keep asking for the reform, too.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @TaMara (HFG):

    Hang them from the rear view mirror? Keep them in a jar?

    OK actually, what the hell?

    I have heard of this but then I’ve heard a lot of things in almost 71 yrs that have kept my neck muscles strong and having a wide range of rotation.

  58. 58.

    scav

    @Wyrm: It’s generally been that we need both sorts of actions — rather like a see-saw action to bring down a statue rather than only a push or only a pull.  Will it fix everything magically.  Of course not.  Is it emotionally on target on a few important levels? yup.

  59. 59.

    Nicole

    Oh my goodness, this makes my whole day.  I think “just paintin’ the streets” is going to be my motto for the weekend.

  60. 60.

    MisterForkbeard

    @TaMara (HFG):
    Trump’s comments there are ludicrously bad. The jobs report has been picked through very carefully to make it correct and highly misleading (‘3 million jobs created’ because they’re jobs that were put on hiatus and then brought back, only 14% unemployment due to a classification decision, etc.).

    And he chose to say that George Floyd, killed by police because he was black is… going to be proud of America (and Trump) because the jobs report is only cataclysmic and not apocalyptic.

    He won’t do a lot of damage control on it because we already know he’s awful and his supporters don’t care, but they’ll have to pretend to be concerned by it and the media will have forgotten by tonight. >_<

  61. 61.

    Elizabelle

    @Ruckus:   Exactly.  And states are being left without a reason for not allowing it in 2020 elections.  Vote by mail.  Vote early.  Bank that vote.

    Voting rights has to be among the top emphases for a new Democratic administration.  It underpins everything else.

  62. 62.

    Calouste

    @TaMara (HFG): I hope that amoral pile of shit is also going to have a great day. Just as great a day as George Floyd, may he Rest In Peace, is having today.

  65. 65.

    Leto

    @TaMara (HFG): This goes right along with that:

    Law Enforcement Seizes Masks Meant To Protect Anti-Racist Protesters From COVID-19

    Law enforcement agents have seized hundreds of cloth masks that read “Stop killing Black people” and “Defund police” that a Black Lives Matter-affiliated organization sent to cities around the country to protect demonstrators against the spread of COVID-19, a disease that has had a disparate impact on Black communities.

    The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) spent tens of thousands of dollars on the masks they had planned to send all over the country. The first four boxes, each containing 500 masks, were mailed from Oakland, California, and were destined for Washington, St. Louis, New York City and Minneapolis, where on May 25 a white police officer killed George Floyd, a 46-year-old handcuffed Black man, setting off a wave of protests across the country.

    But the items never left the state. The U.S. Postal Service tracking numbers for the packages indicate they were “Seized by Law Enforcement” and urge the mailer to “contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for further information.”

  66. 66.

    Capri

    @TaMara (HFG):

    As a veterinarian I can attest to the fact that a lot of people want the testicles from their neutered pets.

    Pro tip: Don’t try to put donkey testicles down a garbage disposal if you are tired of seeing them in your fridge.

  68. 68.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Capri:

    As a veterinarian I can attest to the fact that a lot of people want the testicles from their neutered pets.

    **Blinks into middle distance**

    Pro tip: Don’t try to put donkey testicles down a garbage disposal if you are tired of seeing them in your fridge.

    ** stops blinking, just stares

  69. 69.

    MagdaInBlack

    @TaMara (HFG):

    My least troubling thought is that perhaps they have a little ceremony and bury them…….because if you put them in the freezer theyre gonna end up in “clean out day” soup…

  70. 70.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost website:  story immediately beneath that of Badass Mayor Bowser having the streets painted.
    With White House effectively a fortress, Trump’s backers see strength while critics see weakness

    The White House is now so heavily fortified that it resembles monarchical palaces or authoritarian compounds. The resulting picture is jarring and distinctly political — a Rorschach test for one’s view of the Trump presidency.

    And Trump supporters see “strength” in that?  I can’t even…

  72. 72.

    Baud

    Only on BJ could a post about Black Lives Matter street painting lead to a discussion of dog testicles.

  74. 74.

    Elizabelle

    I wonder if de Blasio and his staff have any ideas on what they could paint in front of and around Trump Tower.

    Maybe the other cities’ mayors can have a friendly rivalry on how best to civically decorate the area near a Trump property.

  76. 76.

    Ken

    @Capri: Pro tip: Don’t try to put donkey testicles down a garbage disposal if you are tired of seeing them in your fridge.

    An early entry for the Bulwer-Lytton contest?  At the least, it’s surely a sentence that has never been written before.

  79. 79.

    Jinchi

    @Leto:  The U.S. Postal Service tracking numbers for the packages indicate they were “Seized by Law Enforcement”

    They were seized by the Postal Service? I thought they were seized on the streets during the protests. It looks like they must have branded the organization itself as a criminal or terrorist one. Otherwise, why seize a box of cloth masks?

  86. 86.

    WestTexan

    @Geeno: This 59-year-old whitish dude from West Texas couldn’t agree more. I hate that I look like these gooper assholes.

  87. 87.

    L85NJGT

    “The 2020 election is just five months away, and prediction markets now price a 77%, 50%, and 51% likelihood of Democratic victories in the House, Senate, and presidential races, respectively,”

  88. 88.

    JustRuss

    I don’t understand why the White House is called “the people’s house”.  If the people elected the POTUS, Hilary Clinton would be living there.  Let’s call it “the outdated compromise constructed to appease slavers also known as the Electoral College’s house.”

  89. 89.

    Leto

    @Jinchi: From the article it sounds like they were seized in transit. It would go hand-in-hand with the other PPE shipments seized by Federal authorities.

  94. 94.

    Another Scott

    @opiejeanne: If it happens, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were just a photo-op like Fred Thompson would do with “his” red pickup truck.  One story I recall is that he would drive into some small town in it, give his spiel, leave town in it, then change to a limo or something similar and let a staffer drive the truck to the next town, rinse and repeat.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  95. 95.

    Jinchi

    @Leto: It would go hand-in-hand with the other PPE shipments seized by Federal authorities.

    Well then, I guess we can expect the medical staff at a hospital in rural Alabama to be wearing them soon.

  96. 96.

    Skepticat

    Just read that they’re calling the new fencing around the White House a chicken coop.

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    “Some of the sternest challenges the country has ever faced, and Trump is patting himself on the back.”

    Says he’s in his bunker, out of touch, and takes no responsibility.

  99. 99.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    President Trump: We’re sorry that you decided to come to Maine, but since you are here, could you do us a favor? Resign.

    You have never been a good president, but today your shortcomings are unleashing historic levels of suffering on the American people.

    Your slow response to the coronavirus pandemic has spun a manageable crisis into the worst public health emergency since 1918.

    We are also in the middle of the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. There is no national strategy to recover from the shock that is disproportionately affecting people who were already struggling to make it.

  102. 102.

    Spanky

    Is it too late to get a Maine skywriter to write “Resign Donald” overhead?

    Or a witch. A witch could do that. Where’s Christine O’Donnell?

  103. 103.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Elizabelle: And Trump supporters see “strength” in that? I can’t even…

    Yes, what the F, .. is most of his base cowards at heart?

  104. 104.

    VeniceRiley

    @Ruckus: It isn’t clear, but the sales pitch has certainly changed.  They should be very aware how important it is to have representation in the house and senate should they ever have another natural disaster.

  107. 107.

    japa21

    Just thought I would pop in and share a comment Mrs. Japa said to me this morning. I had commented that he said he was going to Alaska in 2022 to campaign against Murkowski. She, very quickly I might add, pointed out that “Alaska isn’t that far from Russia so it would be a short trip.”

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    @japa21:   Hmmm…..  we should let him go.  Just think, he could be taking Maggie Haberman or Peter Baker with him.

  113. 113.

    dm

    This is also going to be a real middle finger to any federal forces flying overhead.

    As, for instance Egg Beater One ferrying the occupant in and out of the White House?

  114. 114.

    Wyrm

    @scav: I don’t disagree, I just want to put a little bit of a damper on this notion of Bowser as some sort of superstar.  She is an adequate mayor with some issues with policing and a lot with education.

    When the group you are allegedly supporting is tweeting crap back at you I think it is worth listening to.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    Biden’s holding a news conference right now.  Railing against Trump’s nonresponse to the pandemic.You can watch on WaPost’s website, or C-Span.org

    And you better because you won’t hear about it anywhere else. It’s weird that our massive, billion dollar campaign media industry can’t spare a single person to cover Joe Biden.

  117. 117.

    MomSense

    Good for DC!  The Apricot Asshole is comi by to Maine today to infect, oops inspect, the company that makes the swabs for the COVID tests.  The town only has about 1,500 residents and he is going to turn it into a zoo.  Our Governor asked him to check his rhetoric and gave a strong statement against him.

    I think they are asking protesters and supporters to have their events in Bangor, but who knows.  I’m in the office today so I haven’t been able to follow the news.

  118. 118.

    Sab

    My facemasks  came from Ray Gun, somewhere in Iowa. Very cool. Had to give half of them away to admirerers.

  119. 119.

    zzyzx

    I’m so old that I remember when people were freaking out that Biden mentioning that not everyone is nice was going to be a big issue that we’d be talking about for months.

  121. 121.

    Baud

    What’s a seven letter word for “lie”?

    US Park Police: It was a “mistake” to say no tear gas was used in Lafayette Square

  122. 122.

    rp

    @Wyrm: They have a legit point, but that tweet was kind of dumb. What’s more likely to move the needle with Bowser, saying “thank you! and now…” or saying “f*ck you! just performance!”?

  123. 123.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Sab: Link? (pls)

    My friend made me three lovely masks, but I think, since this is going on a while, I may need some more and don’t want to ask her for more (since she made like 500 to donate and is understandably burned out).

  124. 124.

    trollhattan

    The timing ensures this will get scant attention, but it’s actually a big Biden deal.

    California residents who own handguns are four times more likely to commit suicide than their neighbors who don’t own them, according to a study led by California researchers and released Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

    “Firearm owners were not more likely to die of other causes than non-owners,” said the study’s lead author, David Studdert, a professor of both medicine and the law at Stanford University. “As a matter of fact, they were a little bit less likely. “

    While women typically have far lower risk of suicide overall, this research found that they are 35 times more likely to kill themselves when they own a handgun

    “Women actually attempt suicide a lot more often than men,” Studdert said. “They have lower suicide rates, but they attempt more often. How is that possible? Well, they tend to use methods that are less lethal, like pharmaceuticals, and so they have a very low fatality rate, but if you drop a gun into that mix — higher attempt rates and suddenly a very lethal means — then you get this explosion in the rate of firearm suicides for women.”

    Male handgun owners committed suicide at a rate nine times that of those who didn’t own a gun, according to study data, and Studdert noted that men account for the majority of firearm suicide.

    So much of gun safety data has captured statistics on white males because they are the biggest buyers of firearms, Studdert said, but the vast cohort in this study allowed researchers to identify suicide trends for women.

    This study is the most exhaustive one to date on the risk of suicide among handgun owners. While past studies looked at data on a few hundred suicides, Studdert and his team examined causes of death among 23.6 million California residents from Oct. 18, 2004, to Dec. 31, 2016. That included 676,425 individuals who acquired one or more handguns.

    Studdert said the research would not have been possible without the data provided by officials with the Bureau of Firearms at the California Department of Justice. Then they merged information from voter registration records with information on firearm purchases and mortality data.
    …

    “A lot of people who buy handguns say they are buying them because they want to make their homes safer,” he said. “We now have multiple studies showing that (gun ownership is) a risk factor not only for you but also for your family members, and we have very little evidence that it actually increases safety for you and your family from attacks and intrusions.”

    Here’s where many people will share an anecdote about how they used their weapon to save their own or someone else’s life, but Studdert said studies actually show that, compared with those who don’t own guns, gun owners are at slightly increased risk of homicide.

    If people still opt to buy guns, despite the increased risks of suicide and homicide for their family, gun safety advocates suggest three ways to better the odds of preventing death, Studdert said: Keep the weapon unloaded. Lock it up. Store the gun and ammunition separately.
    https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article243255581.html#storylink=cpy

    Remember that congress prevents the NHS from conducting such a study, and vote the bastards out to correct that.

  125. 125.

    WaterGirl

    @Jinchi:

    Seized by Law Enforcement.  It shows that way on the US Postal Tracking Service.

    I do not believe they were seized but the Post Office itself.  But I can only imaging that it’s a post office employee who notified the “government” so they could illegally seize something.

  126. 126.

    sdhays

    @Wyrm: Something that a lot of people are starting see is how widespread and deep the problem is. Whether or not Mayor X (for any given city) wants/ed to do Y to reform the city’s police, there’s been a very hard limit on what the police would be willing to tolerate. A politician in that position can’t afford to go to war against the police under normal circumstances, and that’s what seems to be necessary. Just look at De Blasio. He made the police halt Stop & Frisk, and they’ve been acting out ever since, to the point he’s scared to criticize them directly again. (Sure, he has his own problems, but the point still stands).

    When people are out in the streets demanding change, having that discussion with the police becomes easier because mayors and council members and DA’s can point out the window and say: “I can’t let you just keep doing what you’re doing. All those people won’t let me.”

  127. 127.

    Baud

    Paging Schrodinger’s Cat

    Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said Friday he agrees with former Secretary of Defense Gen. Jim Mattis’ stark warning this week that President Donald Trump is “the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people” as nationwide protests have intensified over the death of George Floyd.

    “I agree with him,” Kelly told Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director, during a live-streamed interview.

    “There is a concern, I think an awful big concern, that the partisanship has gotten out of hand, the tribal thing has gotten out of hand,” Kelly said. “He’s quite a man, Jim Mattis, and for him to do that tells you where he is relative to the concern he has for our country.”

  128. 128.

    scav

    @Wyrm: I’d also wonder if at least some of the disagreement is more for public consumption.  Two articles instead of one — or at least a longer one with more discussion.  It’s not that the mayor thinks her actions are the be-all and end-all nor the others that symbols are useless.  We’re likely always going to be stuck with people that want or hope for magic, effective, simple quick solutions.  Long-term defunding isn’t exactly going to happen overnight either and there’s a lot more that needs to be accomplished with police (and allies) culture to achieve real reforms.  They can be brutal with lower tech stuff.

  129. 129.

    ARoomWithAMoose

    @Leto:  Something else for the truth and reconciliation commission, if we ever get one, under what authority was domestic law enforcement getting the information on the content of these shipments (in the scheme of things, these aren’t big shipments)? Someone has been using the domestic surveillance apparatus for either stealing PPE (think Jared’s contractors in charge of distributing the federal PPE hoard) or straight up harassment (NY and Mass. getting their shipments seized).

  131. 131.

    Kent

    @Leto:@Jinchi: From the article it sounds like they were seized in transit. It would go hand-in-hand with the other PPE shipments seized by Federal authorities.

    Cloth masks are not medical PPE.

  132. 132.

    ET

    It seems the people behind the @DMVblacklivess isn’t impressed. What I am not sure they understand is that sometimes this kind of stuff isn’t so bad. And with a troller in Chief this will really sting. Of course going beyond that is essential, but trolling the president – particularly this on – can be cathartic.

  133. 133.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Elizabelle:

     

    The White House is now so heavily fortified that it resembles monarchical palaces

    As a citizen of a monarchy I resent this comparison. Have you seen Buckingham Palace? You can get a lot closer to it and it has railings at the front and a brick wall at the back and sides. And you can visit Windsor Castle, even if the Queen’s in residence.

  135. 135.

    clay

    @Baud: “partisanship”…. “tribal”….

    No, General Kelly, if you still can’t give a specific name to the root of all of this, then you can just shut right the hell up again.

  136. 136.

    louc

    I wandered by there this morning after an appointment in downtown DC. I didn’t realize it was the city that set up the speakers. They were playing Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” while I was there. The sound system was right next to St. John’s Church plaza.

    I’m not a Muriel Bowser fan, but I have to give it to her — this was a great FU. Volunteers took over from city employees to keep brightening those yellow letters.

    PS If you look at the rectory that had the fire, you can’t see any kind of burn marks because it was in the basement. The biggest damage all over downtown was lots of graffiti, especially on the Treasury building and monuments to buttholes. What an effing coward Trump is to close off Lafayette Square. DC has been through a lot worse with no national guard nor military police called in.

  139. 139.

    Skepticat

    And now I’ve seen the chicken coop called “the world’s largest and most expensive playpen.”

  141. 141.

    Gravenstone

    @Jinchi: Maybe they just saw that they were masks and are on another PPE seizure kick?

    /least toxic explanation I can come up with

  142. 142.

    Ruviana

    Since it seems to fit here in a way, I should note that I had a student whose parents kept his foreskin when he was circumcised as a baby.

  145. 145.

    db11

    @Wyrm:

    When the group you are allegedly supporting is tweeting crap back at you I think it is worth listening to.

    I agree, and I’m not about to criticize the group who’ve been the primary activists in this fight for being pissed at the mayor for paying (what they might see as) lip-service to the issue — instead of addressing the real core of corrupt, racist and brutal policing. (does it seem like there’s any other kind in light of the past week?)

    But still, this is a win of a different sort for them… so take it, use it and keep pressing for more.

    It’s also possible that recent events have put some steel in her spine, knowing that the overwhelming public support, and pressure, provides a previously-absent political counterweight to the power of the police union.

    We can hope — with some evidence — that like Joe Biden has, she will continue to rise to this historical occasion.

  146. 146.

    Jinchi

    @Gravenstone: /least toxic explanation I can come up with

    With Trump, I’ve always found that I have to go with the most toxic explanation I can think of, then prepare to be surprised when the real explanation is even worse than that.

  148. 148.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Jinchi: Trump admin, the question is what is the dumbest, most hamfisted and inept thing they can do? Seizing masks so they can hand them out at the MAGA rallies they planing has to be it.

  149. 149.

    Redshift

    I don’t know if it’s already been mentioned, but apparently the National Guard has been staying at a hotel under a contract the DC government set up to house Nat Guard troops for pandemic response. The DC government has told the feds that the current deployment doesn’t fit that and canceled the contract.

    Since they were Utah National Guard (which I hadn’t heard before), wingnut senator Mike Lee started shrieking that Bowser was “kicking them out” and invoking the Third Amendment. (Wingnuts seem to think that there is no law but the Constitution, which is unquestionable when they invoke it but awful when a Democrat invokes it.) Bowser’s administration calmly stated that they’re not kicking them out, DC taxpayers just aren’t paying for it, and they’re welcome to take it up with the hotel.

    (The only local news report I’ve found is at the 11:12am entry here.)

  150. 150.

    Mallard Filmore

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

     

    I live in Glendale, being a major asshole does not preclude one from having a license to drive and automobile.

    Asshole driving starts in Bakersfield and goes to the Mexican border.

  151. 151.

    Redshift

    @Wyrm: Yup. I think it’s entirely possible that this is an objectively good thing that she did, and that it’s appropriate for activists to respond with “now show us you mean it.”

  152. 152.

    Elizabelle

    @Sloane Ranger:   When we learned that Trump fled to his bunker, I thought of Queen Elizabeth.  How she might be too genteel to ever reveal her contempt for his cowardice.

    Thinking on her parents staying in London during the Blitz, and her own wartime service.  Queen Elizabeth is tough.  Trump just plays at it.

  153. 153.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    And you better because you won’t hear about it anywhere else.

    For once, I’m fine with that.  I want nothing to distract America from Trump fucking up a good job report by saying George Floyd is happy about it.  The man’s ability to shoot himself in the dick is incredible.  Superhuman.

  154. 154.

    Leto

    @Mallard Filmore: It starts at the Canadian border, down to the Mexican border, at the Pacific Ocean over to the Atlantic. Everything that light touches, asshole drivers.

  156. 156.

    Elizabelle

    @Redshift:  Amazed they’re not at a Trump property.  Paying full freight.

    So unlike the Grifter in Chief and the princekin.

  157. 157.

    prostratedragon

    @Baud:
    Hmmm, not sure “lead” is the verb. “Veer,” maybe. Weren’t eunuchs sometimes given their balls in a box as a remembrance, and because, well, they were theirs.

    Of course, this isn’t the dog or cat himself keeping them. Somehow, that matters.

  158. 158.

    mrmoshpotato

    Oh look! More lies! Did Hillary ever release a list of potential cabinet members? Who would be her lying-ass Secretary of Labor? Oh wait…

    So the 13.3% unemployment rate is bogus, yet the entire news media is reporting it as legitimate, and the president just held a celebration over a phony number. Jesus H. Christ, the president is constantly being backstopped by horseshit mistakes like this. https://t.co/MvA7VrXRgN— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) June 5, 2020

  159. 159.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    OT – on today’s Trump regime labor numbers:

    The Countess is a commissioned sales professional with a luxury unit of gigantic, multinational travel conglomerate that counts multi billions in annual sales. This week’s “what the fuck is going on in our company and it’s new acquisitions after a paralytic period of long silence” webinar revealed  startling numbers:

    1. April’s revenues were off 97% from the previous year.

    2. May, never a great travel month, was off 90%.

    3. The brass hopes that they can climb to 50% by December’s end, but the sales teams are pointing out the extent of cancellations and the absence of both destination and flight inventories well into next year.

    4. She’s anticipating that some people’s travel in the direction of Asia that is scheduled for Fall 2021 will not be going.

    When I consider that we can’t even get a passport renewed (much less get one issued), that our borders are sealed both ways and that leaving this shithole country appears impossible, I get very anxious.

  164. 164.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    @Baud: That’s the beauty of this place. Think of all the odd things we learn here!

  166. 166.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mallard Filmore:

    @Leto: OK, y’all have never driven in Glendale; you see, drivers here are in a great hurry because they are very important and demonstrate this by constantly holding a cell phone while they’re “driving”, except when they’re checking messages on said cellphone.  I’ve been rather shocked that these late model Benz and BMW’s don’t come equipped with bluetooth connectivity, my 10 year old Prius has that.

  169. 169.

    prostratedragon

    @JPL:
    I’m old enough to remember Richard Nixon as the man you wouldn’t buy a used car from. Doubt that Bunker Boy could even sell a brand new RV.

  170. 170.

    Redshift

    On the OT subject of Cotton’s op-ed, this twitter thread was a great response. Basically, Cotton lied about what the Constitution says, and without it, he has no argument.

    He claims the constitution requires feds “to protect each of them (states) from domestic violence.” What it actually says is:

    “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.”

    So it absolutely says that the feds only protect states from “domestic violence” when they request it. Great job with that “good faith argument,” NYT.

  171. 171.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jinchi: 
    Don’t forget when the FBI internally labeled BLM “black identity extremists” in 2017

    We are all “Black Identity Extremists” now

  172. 172.

    cain

    @TaMara (HFG):

    Does the WH Comms people not feel exhausted? Constantly defending the stupid shit that this president does at all times? Crikey. What a soulless job.

  173. 173.

    Leto

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: military people have a favorite game they like to play when bored: which state has the worst drivers? We compare things like, who can drive in the snow? Who can drive in the rain? Who knows how to properly manage a round-a-bout? Tailgating, cellphone driving, bumper-to-bumper rush hour morning/lunch/evening traffic… and the conclusion we’ve come to: assholes… assholes everywhere!  Not unique to one state, locale, regionality. It’s just Americans.

  174. 174.

    Kent

    @Leto:@Kent: yet they were still seized.

    Yes, my point was that there was no conceivable medical reason to seize cloth masks.  That is a red herring.  Hospitals can’t use them because they aren’t FDA approved.  The only reason was to unconstitutionally squelch protected political speech.

  177. 177.

    Chip Daniels

    I want to be a fly on the wall when a staffer tells Trump that the official White House stationery is being changed to
    1600 Black Lives Matter Avenue
    Washington DC 20500

  180. 180.

    Leto

    @prostratedragon: no no no, see… all those other failed business (Trumpov Airlines/Steaks/University/Casinos/etc…) were all just practice for this newest venture: Trumpov RVs! This time, this time it’ll be a winner! Just trust him, he knows what he’s doing. Also if you could pay in cash, small bills…

  181. 181.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Redshift:

    and shall protect each of them against invasion

    Antifa and BLM are outside agitators, hence invaders. QED libtard

    /Kavanaugh, probably

  182. 182.

    Miss Bianca

    @Redshift: See, Cotton got this far…

    “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a Republican form of government”

    And then he said, “Game over, man, GAME OVER!!”

    What’s so hard to understand about that?//

  183. 183.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Leto: We have extremely aggressive and distracted drivers here in Glendale, they are different.  Driving is not a means to travel from one place to another, it’s a competition.   The wife commented that the drivers here are worse than drivers in Korea, and in Seoul they take left turn lanes as merely a suggestion on whether you will turn left.

  186. 186.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Leto:

    military people have a favorite game they like to play when bored: which state has the worst drivers?

    Sounds like a pretty pointless game when everybody knows the answer is New Jersey.

  188. 188.

    Ruckus

    @VeniceRiley:

    I do understand. But there are two sides to this issue here. We could do what is necessary for them to become a nation. (I have no idea what that is.) Or a state. It would be in our interest to make them a state, but I’m not sure if I lived there, I’d want that. And I’d ask, why has this not been done before now? Who is stopping this, or just not doing anything about it? If I had to bet it would be republicans.

  189. 189.

    Leto

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, that’s what people from California say. Then they get to Florida, NY, Texas, Colorado… and they all say that “this place has the worst drivers! Worst than California!” Now substitute California for every other state. But I will say that even if you think where you live is the worst, or South Korea, head to the Middle East (Saudi/Kuwait/Qatar)… hoooooooly shit! Nothing can really prepare you for that

    Edit: see G&T and Goku’s response above, haha!

  190. 190.

    Barbara

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yeah, me too.  I have been daydreaming for a while about what a boffo vacation might look like next year. I keep thinking with some anxiety that a lot of countries might not actually let us travel there.  To me, a lot of these things seem so obvious — that tourists won’t come here, much less international students and investors if they are afraid of getting sick.

  191. 191.

    Barbara

    @Leto: People get very emotional about this, but as a pedestrian, I think the worst drivers — as well as the worst pedestrians — are in Boston.  I think, however, that everyone is more inclined to break the rules and especially, to run red lights than when I learned how to drive.  Mostly I attribute that to spending too much time in cars.

  192. 192.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    You could say that about any city in the country……

    But shitforbrains has a double degree in asshole. He’s the asshole’s asshole. The asshole that other assholes aspire to be. The leader of assholes, the person most admired by other assholes. Mr Asshole of assholes. But the one thing you can count on is that he won’t be the last asshole, just one of the worst examples.

  194. 194.

    mrmoshpotato

    @cain:

    Does the WH Comms people not feel exhausted? Constantly defending the stupid shit that this president does at all times? Crikey. What a soulless job. 

    What’re they exhausting – the souls they don’t have?

  195. 195.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Leto: We have a lot of auto body shops here in town and they are so full that they end up parking some of the customer cars outside in the street.  These cars are mostly late model luxury cars(Benz, BMW, and Lexus).  The drivers here are aggressive, distracted and bad drivers(they’re quite important, in a hurry and have no fucking idea where they’re going).

  196. 196.

    joel hanes

    @Sab:

    I too have Raygun masks.   Raygun delivered in six days; it took the highly publicized VIDA six weeks.   The Raygun masks are superior in most ways:  generously sized, well made, long upper and lower ties instead of ear loops.   I do wish they had the wire in the upper seam to mold to the nose; I’m going to add that, somehow.

    I’m going to get some heavy-duty hair elastics and tie the ties semi-permanently to opposite ends of an elastic loop, which will make the masks slip-on items.

    Also, some of the Raygun masks are screen-printed with saucy slogans, etc.

  197. 197.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Miss Bianca: Cotton apparently is also too stupid to realize that line was uttered in response to feeling like they were fucked. :)

  198. 198.

    Miss Bianca

    @Barbara: I concur about Boston. They are maniacs. I will never forget the time my brother and I flew out to Boston and rented a car. We were following my sister, who lives in Cape Cod, when she suddenly signaled to get off at an exit. Well, we had to do an abrupt signal and shift and the guy behind us got so mad he FOLLOWED US OFF THE HIGHWAY, just so he could pull around us and cut *us* off!

    Fortunately it was over 20 years ago – before people started carrying guns to road rage incidents!

  199. 199.

    Taken4Granite

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Seconded. As a New Hampshire resident, I can testify that the term “Masshole” originated in the driving habits of too many residents of our neighboring state to the south.

  201. 201.

    joel hanes

    @opiejeanne:

    Hey!   Silicon Valley commute drivers are among the most skillful and cooperative you’ll find anywhere.   And almost all of them know how to merge, and what a yield sign means.

  202. 202.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ruckus: “Doc, what’s wrong with me?  Give it to me straight.”

    “Well, in my professional opinion, and from your physical, and your lab results, you’re a major asshole!”

  205. 205.

    Ruckus

    @Mallard Filmore:

    I’ve lived well north of Bakersfield. I’ve lived 2400 miles east of Bakersfield. I’ve driven across the US 4 times. I’ve traveled to 46 of the states for work. Been on 3 continents and several islands around the world. I think I’m qualified to say that there are assholes everywhere in the world. And also that we have more than our share here in the US.

  206. 206.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Miss Bianca: I have lived in both Boston and NYC, and way back I had a friend who’d driven a cab in both cities, and the difference, accurately summarized by him, is that NYC drivers are aggressive but predictable; Boston drivers are aggressive and unpredictable.

    The worst “cultural” difference is at a traffic light. In NYC it’s important to be already accelerating when it turns green. In Boston, the light turning red apparently means “still time for 3 more cars.” These two obviously conflict pretty badly.

  207. 207.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Miss Bianca:

    the guy behind us got so mad he FOLLOWED US OFF THE HIGHWAY, just so he could pull around us and cut *us* off! 

    BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!  What a hilariously stupid waste of time and energy!

  208. 208.

    Leto

    @Barbara: My accident gave me a lot of time to think about this subject, about how we essentially have 50 different sets of rules about driving. That’s part of the problem that America has wrt driving. Idk, I have a lot more to say about this subject but I’ll reserve it for another thread.

  209. 209.

    Miss Bianca

    @prostratedragon: Ah, that never gets old!

    I still find myself muttering, “Don’t know my own strength” every time I manage to cock something spectacularly.

  212. 212.

    dm

    @Miss Bianca: And yet, with all those terrible drivers, Massachusetts ranks 42nd in the nation for number of car accidents.

    (Though Taken4Granite still has a right to complain — New Hampshire is even further down the list.)

  215. 215.

    Leto

    @prostratedragon: haha!

    @Ruckus: we share remarkably similar stories. I think the biggest experience changer for me/Avalune was living in Europe for about 4 years, finally coming back to the States for a vacation/visit, and seeing just how fucking crazy everyone here drives. Sometimes it takes being away from a particular place to really open your eyes. We had been driving in a pretty regular/orderly fashion for years, then came back to the wild Wild West! Driving in Texas, while visiting our son for his AF BMT graduation… again, insanity! When we finally moved back to the states in June 2017, we were involved in an auto accident less than a week after arriving (someone backed into us in our rental car). And then my own accident. Like I said to Barbara above, I have more to say about this but will reserve it for a different thread.

     

    @mrmoshpotato: I’ve seen plenty of dash cam footage out of Australia concerning drivers trying to kill bicyclists, either with their car or getting out and assaulting the cyclists just for being on the road. JFC…

  216. 216.

    Jinchi

    @Gin & Tonic: Boston drivers are aggressive and unpredictable.

    Unpredictable, definitely. Learning to drive in Boston the rule was “signalling just gives the other guy an unfair advantage.”

    But I’d say Southerners are more aggressive. The rule in Texas is apparently: the biggest vehicle always has right of way. (Which is a problem if you’re a cyclist).

  217. 217.

    Jess

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Having moved from California to Mass, I have to disagree–people are pretty reasonable and polite here for the most part. CA on the other hand, has been totally taken over by assholes. I’ve driven through most of the states in the US, and the only one that truly shocked me with horrendous, rude, and just plain stupid driving was Connecticut. That surprised me

    Edit: I’m not including Boston drivers in my assessment, but they don’t seem worse than the Bay Area drivers, IMHO.

  218. 218.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Next to where I work is a very large body shop. Probably over 80-100 cars in at a time, it’s a big place. And they specialize in BMW, Merc, Audi, and only late model stuff. Normally they are full and churning out a massive amount of repairs, most major work. It’s not just Glendale. But every city, state and nation has it’s share of asshole drivers. Some have more than their share. Some have far more. But I’ve lived in CA, south and north, OH, South Carolina, those 46 states I’ve traveled or lived in, I’ve driven in 45 of them. I’ve ridden motorcycles over 1/2 million miles, driven more than that in cars. I’ve ridden in cabs in several states and countries. I’ve even driven a fair bit in Glendale. Believe me when I tell you, there are asshole drivers EVERYWHERE.

  221. 221.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Leto: This is mostly car-on-car, or car-on-truck stupidity.

    Btw, it’s a stupid, stupid, stupid idea to cut off a road train.

  222. 222.

    Mike in NC

    When people complain about insane Boston drivers, I tell them to watch the Ben Affleck bank heist movie “The Town” just to see how we were taught.

  223. 223.

    Ruckus

    @Leto:

    A lot of it for me was ridding the motorcycle. In my first year (2 or 3 centuries ago) I had a Unocal double tanker (It was Union Oil at the time) try to hit me with his truck. Twice. I did manage to adjust his drivers side mirror for him, enough that he had to pull over to fix it so he could drive. I gave him a salute as I rode off. But staying alive for 50+ yrs of ridding required a special asshole radar. Not everyone develops that. I find that assholes have the hardest time at developing asshole radar.

  224. 224.

    James E Powell

    @Wyrm:

    I just want to put a little bit of a damper on this notion of Bowser as some sort of superstar.  She is an adequate mayor with some issues with policing and a lot with education.

    It is also a Democratic Left tradition, whenever it looks like we are winning, to launch attacks on each other so we don’t get too far ahead.

  225. 225.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Ruckus:

    I work for a company that owns those kind of body shops all over the U.S.

    Inside joke is ” God bless asshole drivers, they keep us living indoors. ” ?

    Eta: except now, lack of work has many of us sitting home.

  227. 227.

    opiejeanne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: They come equipped with Bluetooth, the “owners” just haven’t bothered to learn how to use it.

    Our 7-year-old Subaru came with it but we rarely use it now. We’re almost always in the car together these days, so there’s someone handy to answer the phone.

  230. 230.

    opiejeanne

    @joel hanes: Not sure if you’re kidding, but I didn’t mention them and I did drive through Silicon Valley quite a bit during the 9 years we lived there. There was one incident on the 101 in San Jose that is seared into my memory even though there was no resulting accident, just a lot of terror from every driver for a good five minutes. Idiot entered the freeway too fast and spun 180, and sped up going the wrong way for several hundred feet.  The freeway just stopped until he turned around, but afterwards everyone was gasping for breath and looking at the other drivers around them.

     

    I’m mostly remembering driving on the 680 North from Fremont to the 80, and it was no picnic but even worse was being driven by friends who grew up in the East Bay, on the 680 to go into SF.  I tried to take the 580 whenever I could, and that strange little Warren Freeway when I went to Berkeley.

    Massachusetts drivers are in a special category all by themselves, though, worse than San Diego drivers used to be in the 80s, worse than coked up OC drivers on the 91 in the 70s/80s. I’ve never driven anywhere where the drivers straddled the line between lanes for miles, and it wasn’t an isolated incident.

    I’m not chicken, or I wasn’t back then.  I have driven through NYC without fear (I used to go into SF every week from the East Bay so a NY freeway was no biggie), changed drivers in the middle of the George Washington Bridge when traffic was stopped and mr opiejeanne was tired. I’ve driven in Paris, and they are somewhat assholish but right outside the city they are extremely polite drivers and even inside the city they were very careful with pedestrians and bicyclists.

  231. 231.

    SWMBO

    Probably close to dead thread but:

    One of the fastest ways to get the cops to shape up is to make any civil liabilities shared between the city/county/state (which currently assumes the entire burden) and the police unions pension funds.  If the bad cops cost the good cops some of their pensions, it will get their attention.  A few civil suits in the million dollar plus range would hit them in the wallet.  A few million here, a few million there, and pretty soon you’re talking a real hit to their wallets.  If every time a few good cops covered for one bad cop and it cost them a few thousand out of their retirement, they are going to be less likely to cover up the next one.  They may have a thin blue line but they personally don’t want to  take a hit on their green bottom line.  Part of today’s cop culture program is that there is no accountability or reason for them to hold each other accountable.   Hit them in the wallet and see how fast it can change.

  232. 232.

    opiejeanne

    @Gin & Tonic: The Bay Area drivers don’t stop for stop signs if they can help it, and run a lot of red lights. It was like that in the 90s when we lived there, and we almost lost the youngest when a carload of middle-aged women blew through a light across from the HS. Her big sister pulled her back Just in time. This was common all over the SF area, and it was blamed on losing the Embarcadero freeway in SF after the Loma Prieta earthquake.

  233. 233.

    SWMBO

    Just now reading the thread and comments.  This painting of the street with Black Lives Matter.  Would it be visible from Marine One as Trump leaves or comes back to the White House?

    That would be some serious shade.

  234. 234.

    Ruckus

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Didn’t put it in there but they have maybe 20 cars in right now and they have had far fewer in the past couple of months.

    But. I just got back from shopping as I hadn’t been in about 2 weeks other than in/out, once. The traffic where I live is very close to normal. I’d say probably 80% back. I expect, from the driving I saw today, the body shop will be booming within a couple of weeks.

  235. 235.

    low-tech cyclist

    McKayla Wilkes:

    I’m sorry, I wish I could find joy in this but it just feels performative as hell. Mayor Bowser’s proposed budget for FY2021 includes an additional $18.5 million for police and a $16 million cut to housing assistance. We need real change & that starts with the budget, not this.

  237. 237.

    low-tech cyclist

    @James E Powell: It is also a Democratic Left tradition, whenever it looks like we are winning, to launch attacks on each other so we don’t get too far ahead.

    If people don’t blow smoke up my ass, I won’t have to point out that it’s smoke.

    Also, the objective is for the people to win.  When I see the Dems furthering that objective, I’ll say so. When I feel they’re not doing so, I’ll say that too.

    And believe me, I want the Dems to win.  I want them to win big, preferably so big that what’s left of the GOP can be drowned in the bathtub, because the GOP is a cancer on our nation.

    But the Dems perpetually have me asking, “can’t anybody here play this game?”  They’re great at policy, and they suck at politics, while the GOP’s the exact reverse.  And because I want them to win, I want them to learn to play politics well.  And I’m not going to pretend they’re making winning moves when they’re not.

  238. 238.

    low-tech cyclist

    Now the thing that Mayor Bowser does deserve righteous credit for is telling the troops they had to get their asses out of DC hotels.  That’s a hell of a lot more badass than the Sixteenth Street stunt: that’s tangible pushback against Trump’s current sequence of militarization moves.  It’s probably her only available move in that respect, but she at least did the one thing she could.  More than I can generally say for the Democrats in Congress.

Comments are closed.