I’m in.
Who’s with me? pic.twitter.com/7Jw7KbthWv— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) September 25, 2020
"We’d expect nothing less from Donald Trump, who pissed away the chance to protect the lives of 200K Americans when he didn't make a plan to stop COVID-19." (2/2)
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 27, 2020
At this moment, we're facing both the worst public health crisis of our lifetime and the existential threat of climate change.
We need a president who believes in science.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 26, 2020
Trump’s hand-picked successor to Justice Ginsburg’s seat makes it clear: they intend to destroy the Affordable Care Act & overturn Roe. This selection would move the court further right for a generation & harm millions of Americans.
I strongly oppose Judge Barrett’s nomination.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 26, 2020
Amy Coney Barrett will work to gut Roe v. Wade and the ACA, taking away health care coverage from millions of Americans—including those with pre-existing conditions. And make no mistake: Trump is counting on her to swing the Supreme Court in his favor when he loses this election. pic.twitter.com/cTpOHgintZ
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) September 26, 2020
The most underrated electoral dynamic of 2020 is that taking healthcare away during a pandemic is not a talking point but a likelihood on November 10. Lots of less impactful topics have been discussed more thoroughly by talk shows, but this is one reason people are in a rage.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) September 26, 2020
BREAKING: Joe Biden leads Pres. Trump nationally by 10 points among likely voters, new @ABC News/WaPo poll finds. https://t.co/9Dn8Hh9Qlb
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 27, 2020
Also, every ‘but her emails’ NYTimes political ‘reporter’ and their bosses owes this woman a personal apology:
Four years ago today: @HillaryClinton: "So you've got to ask yourself, why won't he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he's not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be." pic.twitter.com/zvj75qVAmf
— Bros4Joe ? (@Bros4Joe) September 27, 2020
germy
Baud
You’re here! I thought BC was substituting this morning.
Baud
The nation owes Hillary an apology. Anyone else think 2020 is karma for how we treated her?
Baud
Here’s what Trump’s DOJ told the Supreme Court. Black and white, in writing.
germy
I just learned of the Brad Parscale story this morning.
But then I checked back over some older threads here, and I see the commenters discussed it thoroughly.
There is no scooping jackals. It can’t be done.
Fester Addams
Not exactly feeling a flood of sympathy for Brad “I built a campaign Death Star for Donald Trump” Parscale but, by all means, don’t allow the shithead to off himself, we may want to hear from him regarding more Trump crime.
A Ghost to Most
@germy:
Yea, no. It took until THIS month for the bulk of jackals to realize how far along the coup is, and how dangerous our situation is.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Not unless karma is a capricious asshole that punishes the wicked and the innocent alike.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Nothing so mystical as karma is needed to explain it. We made a corrupt, incompetent, racist rapist the President of the United States. The consequences are not surprising in the least and need no otherworldly explanation.
germy
@Fester Addams:
Wow, I didn’t see the full statement from Tim Murtaugh. He uses Brads meltdown to attack Democrats and RINOs:
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
It is!
Joe Falco
@Fester Addams:
Exactly. Trump and his accomplices will meet their end sooner or later, but not before there’s possibly a chance for justice to be done if it can be helped.
Kathleen
@Baud: Amen.
Gin & Tonic
Week 7 of anti-Lukashenko protests in Belarus. Short BBC video clip found in this tweet.
Betty Cracker
The Englishman who coined “shitgibbon” early in our (inter)national nightmare continues to impress with his colorful insults:
germy
Gin & Tonic
A Twitter comment on the NYT tweet about the tax story.
George
@Baud: I am a frequent lurker and infrequent commenter, so take whatever I write with that in mind.
But liberals need to stop promoting group self-guilt. I, at least, didn’t treat Clinton poorly and I vocally supported her among my social group as well as with a few bucks.
The nation owes her no apology. The lunatics on the right who kept up 20 to 30 years of hatred for her owe the apology. The New York Times owes her an apology. The people who could not bring themselves to vote for her in November 2016 because Clinton had “not quite convinced” them owe her an apology.
Those parties are the ones who owe America an apology as well.
Don’t smear the sane among us with that group guilt. I, at least, did what was right and I don’t feel bad about it.
Betty Cracker
@germy: How many rocks will fly out of his nose during the debate tomorrow?
Kay
Is the new supreme court justice embarrassed that the President has already announced she’ll be casting the deciding vote to keep his crooked ass in power? Or that he’s already announced that she’s voiding the ACA protections?
This incredibly arrogant notion these people have that their personal integrity is somehow not affected by the company they choose to keep and the actions they implicitly validate is pure nonsense. Trump is smearing his shit all over her. She isn’t going to come away clean. She takes the seat tainted and it wasn’t the imaginary “anti Catholic Democrats” that tainted her it was the President and her ideological fellow travelers. Lie down with dogs…..
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Steeplejack
For the morning crowd: I wrote some notes yesterday on respite-friendly streaming content at NHK’s English-language website. Lots of food, travel and culture.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Glad to see both of them this morning ??
rikyrah
@Kay:
She is used to taking stolen seats, Kay.?
Gin & Tonic
Few people, probably even among the well-informed on an almost-top-10,000 blog, know where Nagorno-Karabakh is. It’s been the subject of a “frozen conflict” between Azerbaijan and Armenia for decades. Very recently it became un-frozen; shots have been fired, and both countries have declared martial law.
Now while the mythical Ohio diner people couldn’t find Azerbaijan on a map if you paid them, there’s a “Trump property” there. Ivanka has visited, more than once (not sure if DJT has.) How cynical should I be this morning?
Kay
It isn’t just the President either. Ted Cruz tweeted that he needs 9 on the supreme court to drag Trump’s ass over the finish line. She’s accepting this? Fine with her if the far Right pre-announce her decisions? She has no agency or responsibility in this at all? She’s not going to even try to defend the idea that the court she’s joining has some integrity? She can’t go the men of the far Right and ask them to stop portraying her as a crooked political hack because that’s bad for the court and the country? Or is it just any means to an end? Because if it is then she is a crooked political hack.
germy
rikyrah
@germy:
???????
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Exactly right!
Kay
@rikyrah:
Hey, I’m not destroying her credibility. Her President, Party and fellow far Right ideologues are. And that’s apparently fine with her.
germy
@Gin & Tonic: Trump was asked about it, and he didn’t know anything either. “We’re looking into it strongly,” he replied with a confused expression on his face.
germy
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Ted Cruz is a respected lawyer on the Right. Announcing he needs this judge to hand the GOP an election taints the judge more than any Democrat has or will. They smeared her themselves.
OzarkHillbilly
She is a crooked political hack, that’s why she was picked for the job.
Sloane Ranger
@Kay:
I believe the fringe Catholic religious group she belongs to preaches that women should be subordinate to men. How she (and they) can believe this and still promote her as a judge, let along Supreme Court Justice, beggars the mind. How can she exercise control of her courtroom when there’s a male lawyer present? Or is it only certain men she has to obey?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Joe will do well in the debates in a way that doesn’t hit you in the face at first. With both Palin and Ryan, his manner was a large part of what impressed. He was poised, experienced, a little amused. It was that rather than aggressive attacks or zingers that I remember.
Gin & Tonic
Wasn’t this asshole supposed to stay off Twitter and concentrate on his family? At least his horrid wife has appeared to be doing so.
Steeplejack
@A Ghost to Most:
Oh, please fuck off with that bullshit. “Nobody knows the truth but me!” ?
Joe Falco
@George:
Seconded!
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I wish you were on the judiciary committee. :)
germy
@Gin & Tonic:
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
Nice alliterative run there!
MattF
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I think the question is how he’ll respond to all the lies. Everyone knows there will be an incoming avalanche of bullshit— and Biden’s not the fact-checking type, and can be short-tempered. We shall see.
germy
germy
Somehow I suspect the story would have ended differently if Brad had been a black male (or woman) rather than a famous white dude.
Lapassionara
@Sloane Ranger: That’s the question I have. How can someone who believes that wives must submit to their husbands be trusted as a judge? Who will be making the decisions?
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! ?
Jeffro
@Baud: “we”?
Jeffro
“I like wine”, Barrett said with tears welling up in her eyes at her hearing…
Bluegirlfromwyo
@germy: Tim Murtaugh…proud member of the party of personal responsibility is for those people.
Gin & Tonic
@Lapassionara: When my dear wife and I got married, back in the Bronze Age, in a fairly traditional ceremony, she insisted that we memorize the (traditional) vows and recite them in full on our own, rather than repeating after the officiant. That way she could omit the “obedience” clause, and if questioned later, say “oh, gee, it slipped my mind in the emotion of the moment.” This was on advice she got from my mother.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Speaking of Amy Coney Barrett, I wanted to revisit the Times piece by Elizabeth Bruenig that you referenced yesterday (“Amy Coney Barrett and the New, Old Anti-Catholicism”).
By this logic, shouldn’t Barrett also recuse herself from any cases involving abortion?! But this is skipped right over in Bruenig’s piece.
Betty Cracker
You know how sometimes when there’s a really terrible call in a sportsball game, the umps/refs will do a “make-up call” later to balance the scales? I feel like that’s what The Times is doing here. Their Beltway coverage will almost certainly remain abysmal, but maybe their very good investigative reporters are trying to make up for the damage. Too bad about all the dead people, destroyed international standing, etc., but here’s a massive Trump scandal to chew on for a while.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I know they want to focus on the threat to the ACA but I really feel like the Dems should also spend some time asking Judge Amy about all the ways Trump has violated his oath of office. Get this supposed Constitutional scholar on record as knowing nothing about the Constitution and how it applies. Also ask her if a case involves a national security threat and Constitutional Presidential powers, should Supreme Court judicial review be expedited (as Bush vs. Gore was) in the name of national security, or should it be slow walked from the lowest court up through the appeals process over the course of several years?
satby
@Lapassionara: And in that cult (which numbers about 1700 in South Bend, where it was founded) a wife is subservient to her husband but both are subservient to a “head”. So who would call the shots on her decisions, her husband or his head?
From wikipedia:
OzarkHillbilly
Generally, contemporary American Catholics aren’t particularly beholden to God either.
lowtechcyclist
Did his campaign really say that? That’s fucking awesome!!
geg6
@Jeffro:
Okay, I literally LOLed at that one.
There go two miscreants
@germy: That was strange: your comment of several paragraphs with some links was hidden as if pied — and I definitely do not have you pied; I see your other comments just fine.
ETA: #16
OzarkHillbilly
@lowtechcyclist: The google comes up with nothing.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Barbara
@lowtechcyclist: Seriously, that is the kind of response I would expect to hear at a lively discussion after everyone has had a few — and yes, it’s awesome.
Kay
@Steeplejack:
I don’t know. I suppose she could justify hearing an abortion case because she’ll rely on a legal distinction rather than a moral one. She won’t overturn Roe based on Catholic doctrine. She’ll overturn Roe because it’s unconstitutional, and she has to hear it to overturn it.
I mean, she COULD do the same for the death penalty, but the article assumes the judge hearing the death penalty case would believe the death penalty is constitutional, leaving only the moral objection.
Roe, legal issue, can hear it to overturn it. Death penalty, no legal issue, only moral objection.
Baud
@George:
It’s not self guilt. It’s about the fact that the nation is a collective, and we are all tainted by collective actions, whether it be Bush era torture or the demonization of Hillary. BJ as a separate collective has nothing to feel guilty about.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
A politico article confirms it.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Are we still #1 for “skull-fucking a kitten?”
PJ
@Kay: I am certain that Ms. Coney Barrett is deeply concerned about being appointed to the Supreme Court by an illegitimate, incompetent, corrupt President who has done tremendous damage to this country in the course of enriching himself with the office and ensuring his re-election by illegal means (not to mention all the bigotry), and who is in hock for more than $400 million, and in order to maintain her honor and self-respect, and to respect the will of the American people when it is less than 40 days from the election, will announce this week that she is withdrawing from consideration for the Supreme Court and that she is asking the Senate to refrain from confirming another Justice until after the inauguration.
LOL.
She has no shame, and will gladly use Trump’s and the GOP’s shameless norm-destruction to advance herself and the right wing agenda, and, like the evangelicals, will tell herself that Trump is the imperfect vessel through which her god has chosen to improve the world.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: There’s a #2?
Betty Cracker
@Kay: David Roberts of Vox observed the following:
Truth.
geg6
@lowtechcyclist:
I loved that response. It is just perfection, as far as I’m concerned. When it first came out last evening, there was a lot of pearl clutching here and elsewhere about it being vulgar. Tough shit. Vulgar is where this country is and it is the only thing that seems to get some people’s attention and support.
I’ve seen Jennifer O’Malley Dillon (is that who tweeted this? I think so but can’t find attribution at the moment) interviewed on Showtime’s The Circus. She’s a badass and spoke pretty plainly in conversation with John Heilman. I really liked her and related to her.
Baud
@geg6:
I agree, although it saddens me a little that only a white guy could get away with it.
ETA: Maybe Katie Porter could too. I guess we’ll find out when she runs for president.
Ken
Not going to click through, but has he warned that more members of the Trump campaign might become suicidal if the bad news continues? Because I’m not seeing that as much of a motivation.
Steeplejack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Attribution in this story:
Kattails
OMG I couldn’t even finish watching HRC because of the clown faces Trump was making. I deeply and sincerely hope that his screwing of so many people over the course of his life finally catches up with him.
As for Barrett, I don’t see that a potential felon should be nominating any judges for anything, and given the taint on her occupancy that would be engendered by the blatant hypocrisy of pushing forward after the Merrick Garland fiasco, I think that her accepting it is proof of bad judgement. (OH, nipped down to the bottom and missed all of Kay’s exquisite comments on the matter–well, seconded then.)
geg6
LOLOLOLOLOL!
Just got a call from some police organization asking me to support them against the threats of defunding. Told him no, not really going to, because I support BLM. The silence on the other end before the click was profound.
Barbara
@geg6: They managed to get past grabbing women by the p*ssy and sending people back to sh*thole countries they can fucking well get past “pissing away” the health and well being of Americans.
I always look at 538 polls in the morning and I am starting to feel the teensiest bit hopeful. I don’t actually expect Biden to win Texas or Georgia but I hope the fact that they are as close as Florida means something positive for us.
And as for ACB, I am not reading the details. The politicking over the Supreme Court over the last 30 years has made me realize how antiquated it is. We need a larger court, one that gives senior status to justices over the age of 70, and appoints their successor at that time whether they choose to stick around or not. I think the court should have 15 members, and a minimum case load that requires panels of five, and then operating en banc. A democracy that hinges one one or two swing votes in a politicized court is not a democracy. This is how Iran operates, basically, with a small number of people serving as a junta. I understand there are basically no norms or constraints, but our norms are fading fast.
Baud
@geg6:
?
PJ
@OzarkHillbilly: No more than any sinner is beholden to God. And if there’s one thing anyone who was raised Catholic will never forget, it’s that you’re a sinner and have no cause to be self-righteous. Not that that stops assholes, Catholic or not.
H.E.Wolf
Hi all – this is a quick drop-in to post the Electoral Vote blog link for Sept 28. I’ve pinned the section on the Supreme Court nominee; scroll up or down to read the rest of their items for today.
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2020/Pres/Maps/Sep28.html#item-3
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: OK. My google fu is world renowned for it’s lack.
geg6
@Steeplejack:
Well, then she is a badass, too. Joe is surrounded by badass women. I like it.
Betty Cracker
@geg6: She is great, and so is Andrew Bates, who is Biden’s rapid response director.
Kattails
A Bloomberg article has Trump’s personal debt at $1.1 billion, and calls him a national security threat, which we all knew but nice to see in print.
OzarkHillbilly
@geg6: :-)
wenchacha
@Kay: Believe it or not, religious extremists and “natural law” enthusiasts have little trouble with our secular humanist notions of “integrity.” You win the Kingdom of God by all means necessary. Sorry not sorry.
Steeplejack
@Barbara:
These sound like good reforms.
germy
I saw this comment over at LGM about Trump and it made me laugh:
( Thanks to commenter BobOso )
Chief Oshkosh
@geg6:
That was just the caller taking his time to carefully enter your contact information and address into a “special” spreadsheet.
Expect a visit soon.
Gin & Tonic
@Kattails: That’s an “opinion” piece, but, interestingly, it’s by Tim O’Brien, who actually *has* seen Trump’s tax returns, although he can’t say anything about them (his lawyers got them in discovery when Trump sued O’Brien for libel – and lost.)
geg6
@Chief Oshkosh:
Well, they probably already have me on there for the crime of protesting, so just another black mark against me, I guess. ;-)
laura
Well, my home town of Santa Rosa is on fire again. It’s currently spreading in from the east end of town and evacuations have been underway since the midnight hours. Just a windy sky full of burning embers looking to land and ignite any/everything available for fuel. I’m gutted. Gonna be a long Monday.
PST
@geg6: I’ve started getting those police association calls too. Sure sounds like a grift.
PPCLI
@Kattails: Hopefully Biden hits Trump with this early out of the gate tomorrow night. Along with his sons both stating back in the day that there was an avalanche of money coming in from Russia.
“Why won’t my opponent tell us who he owes a billion dollars to?”
Maybe followed up by: “Maybe this explains why he doesn’t dare ever make even the mildest criticism of Vladimir Putin?”
germy
@PST: I used to get those calls all the time, back in our landline days.
And then there was a local newspaper article warning that police never call for donations.
Kathleen
@germy: I thought the endangered species were for his hair.
The Fat White Duchess
@Gin & Tonic: Laura Ingalls Wilder in 188? insisted on omitting the “obey” clause, and specified in advance that she would do so.
...now I try to be amused
@satby:
I can’t help but think of the nautical definition of “head”.
prostratedragon
Someone asked about this earlier:
China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and the U.A.E. are on it; Brazil and Turkey are not. Namibia is on the list: maybe he could develop the Trump Skeleton Coast Golf Club
Ken
@germy: See, it’s not the police calling for donations, it’s the police benevolent association, or the friends of police, or the police union. Completely different entities, legally.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: When we lived in Iowa, I once got a letter thanking me for agreeing to donate to the police fund and providing me with the envelope to send my donation. Totally bogus. I reported it to the state AG.
germy
@Ken: Yes, and I find it so odd, because they are all the highest paid in every community, with the most powerful unions. Why are they begging?
SFAW
@Baud:
Maybe not, but YOU, as an individual, know what YOU did.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: “Yeahbut…”
“One cannot serve two masters.” – some wise book.
Either they can be religious and wear their religion on their sleeve and make everyone know that they’re publicly religious, or they can do their jobs and obey their oaths and follow the Constitution and the laws and previous precedent. There is no middle choice.
They can’t have it both ways. No matter how hard they try…
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Eolirin
@zhena gogolia: Karma is not viewed as an otherworldly force by the traditions that originated it as a concept. It’s not a justice fairy floating around watching people and deciding if they’re naughty or nice and rewarding or punishing them accordingly.
It’s a law of literal cause and effect, the natural and inescapable way that actions and intentions change a person, or if you’re going to apply it (in a not entirely authentic fashion) to an entire society, it’s the way that collective actions ripple forward in time and effect changes in the state of that society; 2020 is very directly karma for the treatment of Hillary Clinton in this way, because if she was treated better she would have been president. And it would have required as a condition for that to happen a not as insane republican party where Trump would not have even gotten through the nomination process, a less broken media, etc etc. In that world things would not be nearly as bad as they are in this one.
All of the collective actions we’ve been making as a society have lead us to this moment in time and the brokenness of those decisions has lead to a brokenness of result.
germy
Thread about prebunking (proactive debunking):
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, Fat Nino Scalia was a leading proponent of that shit (i.e., the throwing overboard when it ran counter to ideological goals).
Betty Cracker
@laura: Ugh, that sucks. Stay safe!
Gin & Tonic
@Ken: Years ago I had a good friend who worked for one of those PBA fund-raising outfits (he needed the money.) His absolutely ironclad rule – don’t ever give them a dime.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That’s more of a fundey thing than a Catholic thing. I suppose that depends on how much a fan girl she is of City of God.
Almost Retired
Here’s something else I don’t like about Amy Coney Barrett (in addition to the laundry list of unfavorable ideological attributes already recounted by others). Her background includes very, very little time practicing law at the street level.
She was a clerk for Scalia, she litigated for a couple years (and worked on Bush v. Gore), and then became a law professor at age 30.
I know this profile is not unique among Supreme Court Justices. But a bit of experience seeing the real world effects of the application of the law to real people – the kind of experience you get from having flesh-and-blood clients – would presumably take the edge off of her doctrinal purity. There will be COVID survivors without healthcare out there, for example………and not just an academic analysis of the concept of severablility in Legislative interpretation.
germy
Omar’s tweet, after Trump accused her of “illegal” activity:
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
I was under the impression that “shitgibbon”, first used on one of Trump’s visits to the nation north of England, was a Scottish coinage.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Eolirin:
Nice comment, but: “Have led.” “Has led.” Past tense of lead is led.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: At least until they can resurrect Hillary ‘s email scandal. Cynical part of me is thinking that Trump stories are place holders for the REAL scandal!!!!
Geminid
I expect Biden to press Trump on the tax issue. And I hope trump follows his supporters’ example and plays it off as an example of his business acumen. That just won’t fly on the national stage. But Biden can’t bring this up- at least to trump’s face- if trump doesn’t show. His calls for drug tests seems like more trump bullcrap.There never were going to be drug tests. But trump can use them as an excuse to dodge the debates. That said I think trump will show, because he knows he is behind and has to turn that around. And he craves the audience.
SiubhanDuinne
@laura:
I’m so sorry. That’s just heartbreaking. Be safe.
geg6
@germy:
The guy never said he was with the local police or any official police entity. It sounded like a PAC.
soga98
@…now I try to be amused:
I’m resisting a pun on another meaning of head.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Kay: Ted Cruz is respected? In any capacity? When did this happen?
Quinerly
Haven’t read all the comments. Anybody post on the raccoons who attacked WH reporters/photographers on the lawn? Paula Reid has it on her Twitter.
Quinerly
@Quinerly:
“Strong Pawnee vibes at White House this morning as a raccoon attacked multiple news crews on North Lawn.
allegedly grabbed pant leg of a photographer & then a corespondent before being fended off.”
Paula Reid, CBS
Geminid
@Quinerly: I heard they all wore masks.
Miss Bianca
@geg6: Almost worth getting a phone call like that *just* for the opportunity to give that response! LOL!
Kathleen
@PJ: OT but have to share this remembrance of things past. I think I was in the fifth grade at St. Bernadette’s circa 1960 when the nun was explaining how when you commit a denial sin it left a small Black dot on your soul but a mortal sin blackened your whole soul. Someone then asked if you commit alot of venial sins and all those black dots blackened your whole soul would that constitute a mortal sin that would condemn you to hell?
I also remember that one of the nuns defiantly wore a Nixon button during 1960 campaign.
Quinerly
@Geminid: soooo… I’m Googling for more info on Paula Reid’s Tweet and got side tracked by a story about why Pres Coolidge didn’t eat his Thanksgiving raccoon.
And I’m on my phone so I suspect there will be howls about how the link looks. Advance apologies.
WG: not sure if that was the exact link, but many links on this raccoon story can by found by search ing “why press coolidge didn’t eat his Thanksgiving raccoon”.
Fair Economist
@laura: So sorry you have to go through that again. Best wishes to you and all in danger from these fires.
Plus hate with the heat of 10,000 suns on the fossil fuel industry that caused this.
germy
germy
Ted Cruz is on The View in a few minutes.
Should be some interesting questions.
montanareddog
@germy:
Shitgibbon did not spend $70K on hairstyling. American taxpayers spent $70K dollars on hairstyling.
germy
In response to questions about the trump tax story, Ted Cruz says we should abolish the IRS and have a flat tax.
10% from everyone.
Kattails
@laura: Oh no, that must be the most horrifying and helpless feeling. Stay safe, hoping it gets stopped in time.
I did see a forest fire once, living on an island off the Jersey coast, started as a small but oddly large smoke plume (from 6 miles away). By night the whole visible coastline looked like hell, smoke hanging over the flames. This was 40 years ago, and I was safe, but I will never forget the sight. Those pitch-pine lowlands are “designed” to burn and recover but for years the blackening on the trees was visible as they sprouted from the trunks. Trying to envision this on a scale that you all are dealing with is boggling.
lowtechcyclist
That should have not only blackened her entire soul, but burned it to cinders.
bnatebuckeye
@germy: That Murtaugh dude is just unreal in his level of sliminess.
Juju
@George: Don’t forget James Comey. He needs to apologize to Secretary Clinton. Don’t forget more people voted for Hillary Clinton than voted for Trump, therefore the founding fathers also owe Hillary Clinton an apology.
J R in WV
@laura:
That’s horrible, be careful and please, stay in touch with your peeps, including us. Run away, run away!!
Best of luck, too!
trnc
Don’t take it personally. “America” is often used as shorthand for things that happen at a national level, but everyone (sane) understands the difference between those of us trying to actually make it a better place and those who aren’t.
trnc
@Kay: I would love nothing more than for her nomination to somehow be stalled and expired, but I’ll play devil’s advocate. Her judicial philosophy aside, I wouldn’t expect any nominee who sincerely believes they could be an effective justice to turn down the nomination just because it’s being rammed through by bad faith actors. For one thing, if she turns it down, you can bet your ass someone else will be nominated in a heartbeat. Also, this is literally her only shot. If she turns it down, I would bet anything that she would never be nominated again. I don’t expect her to turn down a once in a lifetime promotion just because the people putting here there are assholes.
It all sucks, but I won’t hold it against her. If she lies about her judicial philosophy, that’s on her but that’s a whole other thing.
trnc
Something occurred to me about the belief that RBG should have retired while Obama had time to nominate someone else – who says she wasn’t planning to over the summer and then saw what Mitch was doing to Garland?
Uncle Cosmo
@OzarkHillbilly: In pretty much any religion** there seem to me to be 3 levels of religious affiliation:
IMO most US Catholics who still consider themselves RC (vs LC, “lapsed Catholic,” or such) cross back & forth between types 2 and 3, largely depending on whether they are nostalgic for their Catholic school days with Sister Sadistica and/or send their kids there. They run the dogma through their own common-sense filter, obey what seems to make sense (while not insisting non-Catholics do the same) & ignore the rest. These “cafeteria Catholics” regularly drive the neofeudal wannabes in Rome (e.g., former Pope Benedict-Arnold) to the edge of excommunicating the whole damn country – until cooler heads point out that the American congregation is their cash cow (no one in any other advanced country bothers to show up & contribute & those in the 3rd, 4th, …Nth world don’t have the ca$h) & doG help they should drive whole congregations to the high-church Episcopalians (most of the ritual, none of the guilt). Because if there is one key to understanding Roman Catholicism it is Follow The Money.
Opus Deists like Bill “Dis” Barr are of course type 1, who are fervent to drag civil society back into the 13th century complete with hierarchy, misogyny and orthodoxy.
** Except for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Anyone tending toward “cultural Mormon” is either dragged back into the bosom of the LDS or becomes a Gentile, i.e., an ex-Mormon.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Quinerly:
Here is an easy way to clean up your fugly links: you can erase everything after the question mark (“.amp” in the one above), which, yes, is screwing up the comment box for people with small displays.
Uncle Cosmo
@germy: Well over 40 years back I was dating a teacher from Appalachian MD who’d gotten a cold call from one of those “Police Benevolent Association” organizations who hit her up for way-too-pricey tickets to a fundraiser. She was too new in town to say no…but she learned fast.
PJ
@Uncle Cosmo:
With regard to your “dogmatic” category, you need to make a distinction between teachings of the Church and Church doctrine. I would say that the bulk of Catholic adults that I have met would fall into your “dogmatic” category, but almost every one of them was not actually dogmatic, they believed in the teachings of the Church in terms of treating others with compassion (though, being human, probably most of the time that was not the first thing on their mind when they acted.) But that doesn’t mean they automatically embrace Church doctrine – they don’t necessarily think homosexual acts are bad, that women shouldn’t be priests, that abortion should be illegal, etc (though some of course do). Many people do attend Mass for social and cultural reasons (they are people, after all), but I would bet that the vast majority of people who do are also believers.
ETA: Most American Catholics have no idea what Opus Dei is. The cult that Amy Coney Barrett belongs to is something I’d never heard of before last week.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack (phone): OT: What browser are you using on your phone? Mine seems to wrap long naked URLs without issue and doesn’t push out the right margin (Brave/Chrome on Android).
(Long lines of text without breaking spaces can be a problem, but they seem smart about URLs.)
And it really isn’t commenters’ job to fix up URLs (even if they know how to do so – the software should handle it if it accepts URLs in comments).
Cheers,
Scott.
oatler.
@germy:
I think they told Meghan to stay home today for a reason.
Brooklyn Dodger
@zhena gogolia: “Nothing so mystical as karma is needed to explain it. We made a corrupt, incompetent, racist rapist the President of the United States. The consequences are not surprising in the least and need no otherworldly explanation.”
Too long for a rotating tag?
Kathleen
@lowtechcyclist: Exactly! Especially since I was raised to loathe Republicans, Nixon in particular. Some kids’ parents read them fairy tales. My dad regaled me with stories about Nixon’s perfidy in his campaigns against Jerry Voorhees and Helen Gahagan Douglas when I was a wee one.
WaterGirl
@There go two miscreants: If germy had replied to SOMEONE you have pied, he will show up as pied in his response to that person.
But if germy is just making a comment, or replying to someone who is not pied, he will show up normally.
WaterGirl
@H.E.Wolf: I added that site to Election Action! in the sidebar.