I’d like to add one thing to Mistermix’s piece below, and that’s that I don’t have the fucking energy to engage with these trump-humping choads around me. Every day, I drive around, and still see Trump 2020 signs up. There is literally no point in arguing with them. It’s not about issues or what is best for them, it’s about cultural identity. It’s as pointless as telling them that their Friends of Coal bumper sticker or Confederate flag are stupid and counter-productive. You might as well tell them their NFL team sucks, too.
So fuck them. I’m surrounded by them, and it’s depressing. It’s the new Cult of the Lost Cause. And I’m tired of centrist Dems telling me we need to reach out to them and progressive Dems tell me that the right economic policies will turn the tide. The only thing that will get their votes is if you say the right racist things and hate the same people they do and pretend to LURV the baby Jeebus.
beef
Their NFL team does suck.
JMG
You are right John. The only sane response is “fuck ’em.” That is to say, if you are in a position to damage the life of a Trumper, do it and feel good about it.
rikyrah
I hate to say it, but check out this thread by Bill Kristol.
https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1341521744809635842
feebog
Remember that famous clip of Barney Frank responding to a woman during the run up to the ACA being passed; “I may as well be talking to a piano”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@feebog: It was Barney’s dining room table.
mattH
Yep. Living a red red state, I so feel you. Thanks for the safe harbor where I know I’m not insane to feel the same way.
Martin
LOL. Trump announces he won’t sign the relief bill. So he’s going to government shutdown us on his way out the door. Wants $2K checks.
Chyron HR
I’m so old I remember when centrist Dems were crucified for calling the noble trump-voting proletariat “deplorable”.
laura
Residents of crackerton can continue to watch their young leave or stay and die from opioids; because there ain’t no jobs so what else are you going to do; or stop polishing their grudges and get on board with change that betters their lives and prospects.
I know that there are many who struggle with use and pain management or know and love those who do – and so I apologize if this seems flip or callous. But the complete lack of jobs or social ties that bind and sustain along with a brutal 24/7 multiple jobs to scrap by economy makes me feel short tempered and stabby. Also, fuck the Sacklers.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Exactly this. People like Kevin Drum need to understand this
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
The relief bill has veto proof majorities, doesn’t it?
rikyrah
Cole, who is saying that we should reach out to them?
The MSM, who went on the eternal Cletus Safari for the past 4 years. They want us to ‘understand’, because they have been looking for a reason to excuse them. That they have some reason other than who they are, which is a deplorable human being.
But, we on this side don’t give two shyts about understanding them?
I know I don’t.
craigie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
In theory, but who knows what kind of numbskullery the GOP Senators will get up to.
Nicole
Yeah. If they let go of hating liberals they’d have a big angry hole in the middle of them and no idea how to fill it.
There was a Twitter thread awhile back from someone who worked for a cable company and said they’d gone to a house where the cable had gone out and when they said it would be a week or more to fix it (the actual cables had been cut by careless construction work), the wife begged them to do something more quickly because she needed her husband to have his FOX News, since “as long he has Obama to be mad at…”
I just don’t understand how anyone can go through their lives so angry all the time. It’s depressing.
RSA
My (hot) take is that a lot of the Republican party is single-issue voters: Very rich people. Hardcore anti-abortion people. Gun rights people. Anti-gay people. Racist people.
They will not be easily persuaded to change sides. It might be worth working to show them that the Republican party is terrible on their single issue. They might as well go third party, if they’re serious.
rikyrah
Another Bill Kristol thread
https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1341488845603414020
mattH
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Someone mentioned one of the drugs Drum is on messes with your cognition, so I just hope that’s it, because he’s almost as far out there as Feinstein with some of his posts.
MisterForkbeard
@Martin: I haven’t seen this reported anywhere yet. Huh.
Trump should just pass this one and demand they immediately pass another law to give bigger relief checks. He can say it’s so serious that he’s giving up on his bigly attempt to overturn the stolen election because it’s that important.
Honestly it’s probably the best thing he could do for himself.
Cacti
I’m long past my youthful idealism of “stay and try to make it better where you are.”
Saying “fuck it” and moving if a place sucks works a lot better.
laura
Well the shite bag just pardoned a handful of his Russia Russia Russia and undermine the ACA boys including cofeve Hunter and Collins.
Kent
For real? Where are you reading this. I don’t see it on any of the mainstream news sites that I have bookmarked.
Hasn’t both Houses of Congress now recessed for Christmas after passing this? Does he think he can drag Congress back to DC to make these adjustments?
I expect it is a another toothless threat
EDIT: Martin is right. It is now up on the Washington Post site: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/22/trump-stimulus-video-bill/
Another Scott
@Martin: Reuters brief blurb says that he wants them to “amend” it.
More drama for the drama God-Emperor.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
This article broke my heart ???
Baud
@Kent:
I saw a report that the direct payment was too little, but the story said Trump did not threaten a veto.
Kent
@Another Scott: Thing is, I’m pretty sure both Houses went into Christmas recess after getting this thing passed. They would have to come back into session to make his changes.
I think it would be more likely that they would all be so pissed off that they would just override his damn veto.
Kent
@Baud: I expect at this point in his presidency, McConnell would rather see a veto override than give out $2k to all Americans.
Baud
@Kent:
Yep. Trump is too late to the party.
Hungry Joe
Trump just pardoned Duncan Hunter. Duncan Fucking Hunter. A flat-out, unapologetic crook. Pardoned because he was one of the first CongressCretins to support Trump in 2015. Hunter’s (former ) district is inland San Diego County, just east of here. This one hits hard. I feel sick.
JPL
@Baud: I listened to the his prerecorded video, and he hedged. Maybe he just doesn’t sign it, and that would simply delay the payments. If he leaves tomorrow, a reporter should ask why is that the President -elect will take questions and you won’t.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
BBC
Man-baby wants attention.
MisterForkbeard
@RSA: The Republicans that I know are entirely tribal.
As in, even four years ago many of them were sort of reasonable and would actually talk about policy or “what’s the worst that could happen with guns if Hillary won vs what would happen if Trump won”, etc. They wouldn’t always believe me when I told them Hillary wouldn’t take their guns, but they’d talk about it.
Now they’re all frothing at the mouth. They’re ALL in completely into conspiracy theories and believe Democrats are all corrupt, etc. They can’t process information or tell truth from lies anymore.
Baud
@JPL:
I think the government would shut down if he doesn’t sign it.
moops
@MisterForkbeard: He is never giving up on his big election stolen grift. Never. He will be an inspiration to hundreds of GOP politicians that don’t like democracy and are now willing to be open about it. So, all that other stuff is planning and Trump has only one thing he spends hours and hours on.
Kent
He buried the lede.
As far as I can tell, this is Trump’s first outright admission that Biden won and a new administration is coming January 20th.
Baud
@Kent:
I think he also added the next administration would be his.
dmsilev
@Martin: He also threatened to veto the military appropriations bill. Last I heard, the House had a contingency plan to come back in session on Monday for a veto override if necessary.
Kent
@Baud: It passed with veto proof majorities. Congress will just override the veto and go back home for Christmas rather than re-open the whole damn can of worms at this point. That would be my guess.
MagdaInBlack
@trollhattan:
They left out his last line, which was ” and that administration may be mine
( as Baud beat me to it)
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I didn’t think so, but you’re right, it did.
Another Scott
@Kent: Dunno if they’re officially on recess, but they will be shortly. They only stuck around this long to get the budget and rescue bill passed.
Donnie’s throwing a tantrum. I have no idea whether he’ll veto the bill or not. The existing (7 day) CR expires on 12/28, so things won’t get critical again (except for people about to be thrown out of their homes) until that expires.
Mnuchen must feel really great about his negotiating ability, huh. I’m sure Nancy will be pleased as punch to talk with him again.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
kindness
What are these yahoos going to do January 6th when the vote for Biden is finally accepted by the House and Senate (after morans prolong it with stupid ass stunts)? Will they rend their garments? Cry in the streets? No, more likely they’ll go get drunk.
And honestly, any ‘moderate’ Republican that voted for Trump is unreachable. Stick a fork in that one. It’s done.
Baud
What happened with the Defense authorization act?
JPL
@Baud: hmm Then he’ll sign it, because he doesn’t want to be locked in the White House.
OGLiberal
I feel for John but kind of expect it in WV. Many of the folks I grew up with in NJ are flat out lunatics. Did not expect it but there it is. Sadly, the default rule seems to be if you are white, especially a dude but certainly not constrained to gender (or even sexual identity) you are a Trumper until proven otherwise. It’s pretty fucking sad but often nuts because when you hear why these folks are Trumpers, it’s nuts.
Miss Bianca
I’m right there with you, Cole. Every last fucking word.
Is it my imagination, or am I fucking using the word “fuck” even more than I used to? Is my temper really THAT much shorter, or my vocabulary that much saltier, than it used to be? Or am I just too used to it here at BJ? A friend of mine chided me for “language” on my OWN FUCKING FUCKBOOK PAGE, thank you very much.
Maybe I’m just too fucking sensitive. That must be it.
dmsilev
Maybe if President Dealmaker had been more interested in, you know, making a deal rather than throwing a seven week and counting temper tantrum, the bill would have been more to his liking.
Crazy talk, I know.
dmsilev
@Baud: Still waiting for him to either sign or veto, just like this bill.
craigie
@rikyrah:
The Kristol tweets are alarming, to say the least. Never bet things can’t get worse, I guess.
Baud
@dmsilev:
Ok. That was veto proof too, I believe.
Miss Bianca
@Nicole: Oh, man. That’s chilling. I mean, I always remember the story that Betty C told us of her grandma, whom she weaned off Fox News with some slick patter about how it had been dropped by her cable company or some such. Meanwhile, of course, she had disabled it; and how her grandma turned back into a normal sweet old lady watching Animal Planet instead of a raging FoxBot.
dmsilev
@Baud: Yep. Though if memory serves som GOP Reps said that while they voted for the bill, they wouldn’t vote for a veto override.
RSA
Thinking about it, I’m guessing yours is a more accurate view. If so, I don’t know if there’s any general solution.
Roger Moore
@RSA:
I think this is much less true than you think. The thing that’s driving a lot of these voters is white tribalism, but it has been less and less publicly acceptable to say that since the 1950s. Instead, they latch onto a single issue- guns, gays, abortions, or what have you- they can use to justify voting the way they do. This is the main reason it’s pointless to try to make concessions on those issues in an attempt to win over those single-issue voters; their single issue is just a pretext.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: You and me both. I want our side to outvote them not reach out to them. It’s the white R enablers in the media who want reconciliation with T voters.
PsiFighter37
Cole, I would love to know how much of your current anger is by how badly your lovely Steelers have been playing as of late. 11-0 to start, 0-3 since. I don’t like them, but they are my fantasy defense, and Big Ben Rapelisberger’s inability to move the ball is a big problem.
dexwood
Amen, John. Thanks.
JPL
@craigie: When I saw Kristof’s tweets earlier, I had assumed that trump would appt. a special council to investigate Biden’s son, and one for election integrity. I assume that’ why Garland is being looked at for Attorney General. Now the nuclear sub that sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, scares the crap out of me.
Kent
@Roger Moore: White tribalism is the single issue.
All the other stuff is just wallpaper to hide the racism and greed.
Jeffro
@Martin:
@craigie: yet another unholy union: GOP pols desperately looking for a way to save face…trumpov desperately trying to distract…”Here, Americans! Here’s $2k each that Dems didn’t want to give you…THEY WERE GOING TO SETTLE FOR $600!!! Can you believe that shit?”
They’ll totally spin it that way, if we let them
Matt McIrvin
@trollhattan: I promise you, half of the progressives I follow on Twitter are going to declare that this means Trump is more progressive than Nancy Pelosi.
TS (the original)
@Martin:
From Washington Post
My bold.
natem
Never thought I’d see the day Bill Kristol would be getting linked with approval on BJ on the night a bunch of Blackwater goons get pardoned, but I guess that’s just peek 2020, init?
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Yep. As sure as the sun rises in the East.
Adam Lang
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): But they’re paid SO MUCH not to understand it!
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Some of these are smart people in every way other than having a Schoolhouse Rock-level understanding of how the government works. I don’t really get it.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
They are immoral.
TS (the original)
@JPL:
And pigs may fly – much more likely than a reporter asking trump such a question.
Elizabelle
@Matt McIrvin: Then please tell them to go fuck themselves on my behalf.
Please do that.
Lying is lying.
natem
Oh also, loving that Trump taking a steamy deuce on the stimulus is all the Twitter Lefties need to go screaming about Pelosi and Schumer
JPL
@Baud: Pelosi is tweeting her support for $2000.00 lol Let the games begin.
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
You shouldn’t waste your time on the opinions of people that stupid.
Matt McIrvin
@JPL: Yeah, she’s in fact not dumb.
Spanky
Meanwhile …
craigie
@natem:
Please stop calling it “stimulus” – it’s disaster relief. My current pet peeve.
Another Scott
Twitter dick_nixon weighs in:
===
Yes. Even if you’re for Trump it should send you round the bend because he could have paid people and been President for life. They were against it because Pelosi was for it. Well, my God, you see Pelosi’s $1200 and raise her. Snatch the territory back. It’s not difficult.
My God, what’s better to run on, this year or in four? “Trump, who got you paid” or “Trump, who almost sent the army in”? I understand the latter has its constituency but my God, I’m tired.
Somebody here took us to task the other day when we called Trump a coward. He is a coward. He is the President of the United States. He could have gone up to the Hill and said, “I don’t give a good goddamn what Milton Friedman said, we have the chance to pay people to vote.”
The deal is a hand grenade with a pulled pin in regards to Georgia. He has to come out against it now.
He could have pressed for $2000 checks. He didn’t. He said vote for me or else, like he was negotiating over a goddamn parking lot.
===
Sometimes, when one is doing politics, it plays to actually be a politician and know how politics works. Donnie doesn’t.
Fortunately.
We need to win Georgia!!
Cheers,
Scott.
RSA
@Roger Moore: That could very well be. In some ways it’s a simpler explanation, and it has plausible history.
LivingInExile
Alienated. Kind of like Living in Exile.
wvng
John, as a fellow West Virginian I share your feelings. These are my close neighbors, people I’ve “known” and trusted for more than 35 years. People I’ve helped, and who have helped me. We’re invited to their family reunions every year, they welcomed us into “their” valley. And they put out Trump flags. I don’t know how to deal with this.
For some, I’m certain, it’s about judges and moving the Israeli embassy. I don’t think you can over estimate how much the Rapture crowd adores Trump for these things.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
@Matt McIrvin:
I love going on r/moviescirclejerk because it can have some very funny, witty takes on idiots talking about movies/the entertainment industry from a leftish perspective. But holy shit, there was a post about how one of Obama’s current favorite TV series was The Boys (show about superheroes that pokes fun at Superheroes and capitalism) and people were like, “I wonder who this is aimed at lol”, “r/selfawarewolves”. Oh, and they said shit like Obama was an imperialist neoliberal who bombed the ME, literally let a bank pick his cabinet, and that Obama and Trump are the same shit, but Obama was more “polished”
People are idiots
Suzanne
@JPL: Turtle doesn’t care what Trump wants. Turtle gets a thrill from Americans suffering.
Spanky
Also, in news totally unrelated to anything newsworthy, I’m sure …
JanieM
@rikyrah:
With good reason. Thanks for putting it here.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: WRT the Bill Kristol thread: believe you’re referring to the possibility that Barr is getting out of Dodge on December 23rd (tomorrow, dog be praised) ahead of some truly despicable presidential pardons even Barr does not want to be associated with?
That’s an interesting idea (somewhat frightening, really), and might be plausible.
I am thinking: rather than be afraid: perhaps the “Deep State” and Intelligence Community will come down with a leak or series of leaks against Trump? Hit him with both barrels?
I don’t think the professional people who entered government service want to see criminals with connections to Trump being pardoned, all over the place. People whose actions are against every principle those who believe in rule of law and good government hold.
We should not assume that Trump is the only player here.
Gravenstone
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’ll just be one more grievance, Congress “turning on him”. He’ll blame everyone but himself for his own actions.
rikyrah
pinacacci
@natem: I know, right??! I used to have faith in the axiom that “Bill Kristol is always wrong about everything” but he’s a lot more sincere than I believed, and has got a principle or two rattling around in there.
Aleta
dmsilev
This thing with the stimulus bill veto threat is a move Trump used to like pulling in his real estate days. Negotiate a deal, with a bank or a contractor or whatever, and just before it closes suddenly make some big new demand. The other party has a choice of either seeing all of the work and negotiations go to waste or to give him what he wants. Often enough, they did the latter.
A lot harder to pull the same move when you’re a lame-duck President. He hasn’t figured that out.
Elizabelle
WRT John’s topic: a NY Times article that is worth the click. Excellent essay by Beth Macy, a fabulous writer/journalist BUT: the reader comments are just as valuable. It’s from readers from all over the country who grew up in what are now red states. Why some people left. What has happened to those who remain. Some of the comments are funny [one woman thanks a current MAGAt for dumping her; she escaped “a burning dumpster fire”], but most are sad and many offer some really interesting takes on what they’ve observed.
Macy’s essay does not delve into the headline topic as much; it’s a portrait of her incredible mother (a former aircraft factory worker who despised Trump), who died shortly after Election Day. How Beth was a late baby and the only child in her family to get a college education. Her mother insisted, so Beth could get out, and away.
Be sure, though, to check out the 260 reader comments as well.
NY Times:
If I’d Stayed in My Hometown, Would I Be a Trump Voter?
My family lost its shared reality. But some ties still bind.
[And my short answer: no, Beth wouldn’t. She is curious, and can think for herself. She had escape velocity.]
Kent
@Elizabelle: Exactly. Even in deepest, darkest red America there are still plenty of progressive-thinking Democrats around. Just like you can find MAGA assholes in Portland and Seattle. Plenty of them. I’m related to some.
When we lived in Waco Texas I could just scratch on the surface and find all kinds of interesting progressive thinking folks all over the place. A bazillion of them came out of the woodwork during the 2008 Obama vs Hillary caucuses, even in the rural exurban place we were living in the red rural fringe outside Waco at that time.
Bluegirlfromwyo
Ruckus
@MisterForkbeard:
So you know that’s the last thing he might even consider doing. And probably then only after hell freezes over. Unless he thinks it will win him the election.
CaseyL
@Roger Moore:
@RSA:
Very similar, eerily similar, to how the Purity Progressives use leftier-than-thou “socialism” to shit all over women and people of color.
Funny, that.
debbie
Has there been any response from the GOP Congress Trump has just undermined?
dr. luba
@rikyrah:
DIdn’t that begin in 2010, with the Tea Party “revolution”? It seems I’ve been hearing about these yokels nonstop for much longer than 4 years.
Wyatt Salamanca
@trollhattan:
Trump needs a diaper change and a pacifier.
Amir Khalid
@Miss Bianca:
It’s your Facebook page, and there you have a right to drop all the F-bombs you want. Fuck the prudes.
taumaturgo
@Kent: I would love to see the day Democrats could use their leverage for the betterment of the working class. Of course Trump being the liar he is all this could turn out to be fake.
jimmiraybob
@trollhattan:
For the next four years he will be telling the MAGA faithful that he went full-tilt to the mat for them and if they just dig deep and send whatever $ they can to “Grifter Fund of the Day” then he will keep fighting for them. Trump 2024!
Rule No. 1: He’s always lying.
Rule No. 2: He’s always grifting.
Consider this a prognostication.
Anotherlurker
@Cacti: I wasted 3 years of my life trying to live in Fla. I’m from NYC and I figured I’d delt with every kind of asshole that existed.
Boy was I wrong. Racist Midwest retirees, Rednecks, religious assholes, gun jumpers, real estate developers and the rest of them were a revelation to me.
I tried to understand them and when I did, I decided to get the fuck out of Bradenton.
I’m now living in The East Bay Ca.and loving it. My rent is 2X what I was paying in Fla. but I am fine with it. It is no mystery to me why Fla. is so cheap to live in.
As always, apologies to B.C., Adam and all other Juicers who manage just fine in Fla.
JanieM
@Miss Bianca: Did you fucking block the fucking friend? ;-)
(I’m not on Facebook so I don’t really know how this works.)
Miss Bianca
@Jeffro: And you know what? I’m so broke right now, so desperate, SO ANGRY right now that I am saying, “I don’t fucking care WHAT motivates the mofo – give me the 2 grand and I’ll spit on him later.”
(bad mood from yet another day of having spent hours and hours applying for grants for my theater to be told, “oh, I’m sorry – you’re not doing BADLY ENOUGH to merit any help – try spending down every last penny you have in the bank and THEN get back to us! Have a nice day!”)
Dan B
@rikyrah: I tried to understand my Koch related in-laws for years. She even said that she might have some lack of understanding because she was “born with a silver spoon, no, GOLD spoon, in her mouth!” After they screamed at us Thanksgiving 2016 that Marriage equality was settled law, when we said we felt concerned about our rights (not marriage) it was obvious that never seeing them again was the best choice. They just asked which day we wanted to get together for Christmas. Answer: No. My brother and hus girlfriend haven’t asked about Christmas. It’s very saddening but we value their lives as much as our own and were very worried about the wonderful black family next door when the Fire Department showed up one night last week.
It feels like we are holding it together, emotionally, for so many people, even the ones who act as though there is no problem. It’s no problem until it’s a heartbreak that cannot be undone.
lowtechcyclist
@Roger Moore:
Yeppers. For them, it’s really down to them versus everyone else. Blacks, white liberals, college professors, furriners, whoever. All of them Bad People. No reasoning with that.
I still say we should do the full-bore economic stuff first – solidify the support of those who voted for us this time, give them a reason to show up in ’22. Might win over a few GOP voters on the margins, or at least help them have less reason to be mad at the world.
But the culture-war stuff? More and more, we’ve won all that already. There are people against gay marriage, but they’re already a minority, and fewer every year. Guns are a winning issue for them only in places that are mostly red anyway. And so forth. No point in compromising in a won game.
Anyway, economically we should do the stuff that’s right to do anyway, and not give an inch on the cultural stuff. And if that doesn’t satisfy them, fuck ’em.
Miss Bianca
@JPL: I’m cool with that. LOL!! Nancy SMASH!!
Kent
It used to not happen so much because back in the day, Dems would nominate their own “Cletuses” to compete against the GOP. Like Bill Clinton and John Edwards.
Miss Bianca
@pinacacci: Weird, I know. Almost disturbing.
randy khan
@Aleta:
This is why she’s great. She’s putting the screws to McConnell and Senate Republicans. It’s perfect.
Matt McIrvin
@dr. luba: I remember these stories at least as far back as 1976, when the big theme was “what is a ‘born-again Christian’, anyway?”–a term these media guys had never heard before–and why they were voting for Jimmy Carter! That didn’t last long, of course, and four years later the big story was where the surprising Reagan landslide came from, and we were off.
Dan B
@Nicole: Good observation about needing to hate. My take is they are emotionally stunted or handicapped, or both. Rage is the only emotion that is “manly”. Without it they are empty husks. They rage at the “elites” who look down on them simply by being happy, creative, and accruing power by the people they attract to their orbit.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Miss Bianca:
You took the words right out of my mouth.
Miss Bianca
@JanieM: The weird fucking thing is, this is a woman I’ve traveled with and who lived in fucking BELFAST, thank you, Belfast NORTHERN IRELAND, for years, where they swear like sailors, so wtf??
@Amir Khalid: Thank you!!
@Bluegirlfromwyo: yeah, well, see @JanieM. Weird. Would not have expected that from her.
mali muso
@rikyrah: Thank you for sharing that. So powerful and haunting.
Wyatt Salamanca
@natem:
It just underscores how deviant and abnormal Trump’s actions have been over the past four years.
Mary G
@Miss Bianca: Oh, I am sorry. Maybe we could do a Balloon bleg for you and you could pass some of it under the table and off the books to the theater? I’d pitch in. We’re almost out of campaigns ?
Miss Bianca
@Wyatt Salamanca: And THAT feeling, if anything, gives me insight into a Trump voter that I wish I didn’t have. All those people who said, “his name was on my government checks?” Yeah, I laughed at that. Bitterly. But then, here’s me going, “if *that’s* what it takes – that asshole’s ego gratification – to get from the federal government the bare minimum I need to survive this darkest hour before the dawn? Fuck it, I’m down with it.”
All I have over those folks is some knowledge. That and a quarter will get me a gumball.
catclub
@Martin: and Pelosi says: Great! CNN:
That is the difference between me and Pelosi. I would just stop at calling him an asshole for stopping a must pass bill on a whim.
dexwood
@Miss Bianca: Give her a sincere Bless Your Heart good and hard.
Lyrebird
@rikyrah:
When do we get to say, wow, we had a Hitler wannabe in the White House and we managed to dislodge him, now let’s figure out how to keep removing Nazis from power without a new world war, eh?
And by power I do not just mean elected office.
Rush L got his award, but he is less powerful than he was. Let’s make the Proud Boys and the Snack Team people – the white dudes saying yeah we can steal this land – and all them have less power. Adam keeps saying we’re off the map, and for once some of it is good. These journalists could be breaking stories about pushing back against white nationalism and mob rule.
Looking forward to it but not holding my breath by any means!
And sorry John, I don’t think you should leave since your people are there, but I am glad I took my folks and left a similar place.
catclub
@dmsilev:
This is the amazing thing. A half competent response to CV19 and pushing LOTS of economic stimulus over the head s of GOP senators would have gotten him re-elected.
Crazy talk again.
dww44
@jimmiraybob: After hearing this and the names and misdeeds of those Trump has pardoned this evening. I said aloud to no one….”Trump is just an awful human being.” He has no redeeming qualities, none whatsoever. I wish I could say that directly to those in my extended family who voted for him twice I am so very angry.
Miss Bianca
@Mary G: Bless you, what a lovely thought! I’m tempted…but maybe I’ll just hug myself knowing that the “Pets of Balloon Juice” calendar proceeds are going to my local animal welfare group. At least I managed that! And they too have been knocked out by the generosity of the BJ community. Just like that Four DIrections organization. : )
catclub
Does the president appoint special Counsels? Or the Attorney General?
If the AG, what happens when there is no AG? anybody know the laws?
Ian
@rikyrah:
I made the mistake of clicking those tweet threads. Bill Kristol is wildly speculating, and his sources are simple anonymous white house staff.
At least Maggie Habberman makes for a decent read. Her imaginary friends tell better stories.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I’m with you, John. Our little (6,200) town here on the south Oregon coast is chock full of proudly ignorant conservatives who like to hate on anyone who draws their ire. My wife and our daughter have to deal with the snowflake fucks five days a week in trying to get them to comply with the masking requirements for the store they work at. They are attacked just about every time they approach the non-compliant, as if they were the ones who made the mask a requirement and could change the rules if only bitched at enough.
They hate Democrats and too many of them fantasize of a violent end to their fellow citizens lives, all because that’s what Fox News and their political party have taught them.
Fuck’em, as one fondly remembered esteemed individual once said.
CarolPW
@Miss Bianca: We mostly can’t do anything about ANGRY because we are in the same boat, but broke is something that can be helped. Please do not be too proud to ask for the help you need from a community you are a part of.
ETA: including for your theater.
Miss Bianca
@CarolPW:
Awww…I tell you what, tho’: we are literally just finishing up the recording of a radio play for Christmas – John Arden’s The Business of Good Government: A Christmas Play. It’s the kind of thought-provoking piece that this community would likely really enjoy. I was thinking of letting TaMara or WaterGirl know, so that one of them could put up a link to it.Then, anything anyone felt like tossing in the virtual hat would be most welcome. ; )
Dan B
@Cacti: Leave if you are somewhere that hates you and stifles you is easier if your family, like my loving and open minded family, was unwilling to stand up for me as a homosexual young guy. I got out of Wadsworth, Ohio, a town that Sab knows too well. My father got us out of small town, Jim Crow Arkansas for the same reason. The culture was just insurmountably rooted. Both towns are much the same with small town Arkansas suffering steady decline and small, overwhelmingly white, Wadsworth, doubling in size.
I ended up in 15% white SE ‘Soviet’ Seattle. (Not really as progressive as rumored, but close.) LGBTQ people live everywhere in the city when they used to live, with some exceptions for wealthy guys, in a single mixed race neighborhood.
We love living here for the ordinariness of everyone’s daily lives, including our own, the low crime rate, and how it scares our conservative relations to the point they will not visit.
Our happy lives, and those of our hard working neighbors who support their extended families and friends, are a bittersweet commentary of the RW / Trumpist mindset.
They don’t want to know what they are missing.
Holiday wishes to the Cole family. I hope you get some vacation time to kinder shores like my handsome gay friend from Detroit who went to the moon when he saw several gay couples holding hands as they walked in front of our house. He grabbed me and smooched me in “solidarity”. I didn’t object to smootches from Mr. Dreamboat but the gay couples were a bit ferklempt. Mr. Cole – blogmaster of the grand refuge: There are havens of goodwill and sanity. It is restorative to visit them from time to time.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@catclub: There’ll be an acting AG that can do the deed.
CarolPW
@Miss Bianca: I would say that if you do not tell TaMara or Water Girl about the play you are an idiot except I am to polite to say it.
Kent
Exactly. Executive branch agencies are like the military. There is always SOMEONE somewhere in the official chain of command who has acting authority to make decisions regardless of how many vacancies there are at the top. But it could likely be some career civil service assistant AG of some sort if enough of the Trump spawn have jumped ship. He can’t just insert his own folks into the chain of command if they aren’t already there.
debbie
Can’t link on my iPad, but Miss Lindsey is over at Twitter showing his support for Trump’s call for $2,000 stimulus payments. Whore.
Another Scott
(antelope-eating-popcorn.gif)
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@CarolPW: LOL! A (virtual) glass of wine with you, ma’am! Consider it (almost) done!
CarolPW
@Miss Bianca: Good.
moonbat
Nancy Pelosi called him on it. Perfect. If he’s going to be a loose canon these last weeks let him shoot one for our side. That’s hilarious!
Another Scott
(antelope-eating-popcorn.gif)
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
@Anotherlurker: NYC is a specific breed of asshole. If you understand the rules of a place where the sheer volume of people can cause them to start to feel like cockroaches, then they generally aren’t hard to deal with. Generally they are very limited interactions – minutes to hours. NYC doesn’t really have the durable asshole – once you know them they are generally pretty nice.
Florida kind of specializes in durable assholes.
moonbat
Hate to beat a dead horse, but the phenomenon that JC refers to here is very much a product of toxic masculinity. And that editorial that Elizabelle refers to is a good example of what can happen to people who feel surrounded. There are parts of this nation that are on par as far as women’s rights go with the developing world. And there are plenty of curious women out there (as I discovered talking to rural women in Pennsylvania this year) who are surrounded by a bunch of toxic males and are afraid to speak out/vote as they please. We cannot underestimate the tribal pressure to conform in these areas.
One of many reasons we need to expand broadband accessibility in this nation is to give these people, male or female, a way to reach out and find like-minded people to speak to and with so that they can find their own voice and act as they may now only secretly wish to.
trollhattan
Mister Gavin, he busy, even in quarantine #2.
Confess I don’t know anything about Assemblywoman Weber, but glad to see the quick and positive transition. Now then, does he appoint her rep…(I’ll let myself out).
jnfr
I can’t quite say “Fk them” because a bunch of them are my family. So I settle for a sort of disengagement when it comes to the really insane threads. And over time we’ve settled into a sort of random communication where we just don’t discuss the crazy stuff.
Not communicating often though.
Dan B
@rikyrah: Broke my heart too. That little girl that will only know stories about her father, and feelings that linger despite time passing.
Our neighbor Dw is the most gregarious guy we’ve ever met. He’s big, not pretty, dark black, and irresistibly enthusiastic about everyone in the neighborhood. He has a 1 1/2 year old son who is the sweetest and cutest little boy. Dw loves him. It takes two seconds watching them together to be apparent Dw is the greatest Dad ever and CP is the luckiest little boy in the world.
We think that Dw is religious and believes his faith on God will protect him. We’re believers that God gave us brains to protect us from sharlatans and fakes. We feel we don’t dare impose our views on them. It’s heartbreaking.
Anotherlurker
@Martin: Very nicely put, Martin.
O. Felix Culpa
@Matt McIrvin: Per my Facebook feed, they already have. Dumbfucks.
Salty Sam
My situation with my family, exactly. It is painful as my mom’s health has begun to decline rapidly, and the few times we communicate, much phone time is spent waiting for her to ransack her vocabulary for the right words.
I go back and forth between “Fuck it, I can’t listen to her spout Fox bullshit any more!” and sadness that this woman who brought me into this world, and is responsible for nurturing some of my better qualities is unreachable now.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@jimmiraybob: ROFL, that’s the best take on this demand from Trump “Why, if they get 2K checks my idiot fans will just sign them over to me!”
lurker dean
@Nicole: that was probably lauren hough, who wrote about it in this article:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cable-tech-dick-cheney-sex-dungeon_n_5c0ea571e4b06484c9fd4c21