David, this internet thing will never catch on… ?♀️ #davidbowie @timberners_lee pic.twitter.com/XKoSBVqZGU
— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) January 13, 2019
Open thread.
Sunday Night Open Thread: It’s An Alien Life FormPost + Comments (126)
by TaMara| 126 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
David, this internet thing will never catch on… ?♀️ #davidbowie @timberners_lee pic.twitter.com/XKoSBVqZGU
— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) January 13, 2019
Open thread.
Sunday Night Open Thread: It’s An Alien Life FormPost + Comments (126)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Dolt 45, Excellent Links, Republican Venality, Russiagate, All Too Normal, Go Fuck Yourself
Helluva A1 today with bylines from the best in the biz @gregpmiller @costareports @jdawsey1 @PhilipRucker @seungminkim @sfcpoll @danbalz pic.twitter.com/Q0xbhn2VDx
— Brooke Anne Lorenz (@BrookeLorenz) January 13, 2019
Too long for Donny Dollhands to read, but presumably he’s gotten Ivanka or Jared to give him the highlowlights.
… The president who pitched himself to voters as a world-class dealmaker has proven to be an unreliable negotiator. Grappling for the first time with a divided government, Trump has contradicted himself, sent miscues and spread falsehoods. He has zigzagged between proudly claiming ownership of the shutdown and blaming it on Democrats, and between nearly declaring a national emergency to construct the wall without congressional approval and backing off such a legally and politically perilous action…
The government could reopen if Trump agreed to sign legislation funding the government, versions of which already have passed both chambers of Congress, and table the polarizing debate over border security.
In the weeks leading up to December’s deadline to fund the government, Trump was warned repeatedly about the dangers of a shutdown but still opted to proceed, according to officials with knowledge of the conversations.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told the president that he had no leverage and that, without a clear strategy, he would be “boxed in a canyon.” He tried to make the case to Trump that even if Pelosi and Schumer were interested in cutting a deal with him, they would be constrained from compromising because of internal Democratic Party pressures to oppose Trump’s wall, these officials said.
Then-House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) talked with Trump by phone for 45 minutes the day before the shutdown, warning that he saw no way to win as he paced in a Capitol hallway just outside a conference room where House Republicans were meeting. Then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) warned about the perils of a shutdown during the Christmas season.
Inside, some of the more hard-line members urged a showdown over border wall funding, arguing that Trump’s core supporters would revolt otherwise. But McCarthy asked, “Tell me what happens when we get into a shutdown? I want to know what our next move is.”…
Trump’s advisers are scrambling to build an exit ramp while also bracing for the shutdown to last weeks longer. Current and former aides said there is little strategy in the White House; people are frustrated and, in the words of one, “freaking out.”
The shutdown was born out of frustration. Angry that he was stymied by party leaders and his own aides from getting more money for the wall in 2018, rattled by conservative criticism and stung by his party’s midterm defeats, Trump decided in late December to plunge into a border fight after being encouraged by Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), both hard-line conservatives. It was a startling decision to McConnell and others, who thought they had White House assurances that a shutdown would be avoided.
“He has no choice here,” said Newt Gingrich, a Trump supporter who was House speaker in the Clinton administration and during the second-longest shutdown, an episode widely viewed as a disaster for Republicans. “He has to win. His entire reputation, his entire relationship with the base, it’s all a function of being committed on big things and not backing down. If he backs down on this, Pelosi will be so emboldened that the next two years will be a nightmare.”…
As another Post article helpfully reminds us, the last time Gingrich promoted a shutdown, it didn’t work out so well for him — or his GOP co-conspirators!
Which makes it all the more interesting that it sounds like McConnell just might be looking for an exit ramp now. McConnell’s only loyalty is to himself and his leadership position, so if he’s playing the ‘I tried, but whatcha gonna do?’ card, he’s decided Trump is more of a liability than a benefit.
Sunday Evening Long Read: “‘In the White House waiting’”Post + Comments (165)
This post is in: Election 2016, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Republican Venality, All Too Normal
Josh is one of the best reporters around, but I didn’t want to retweet this until I checked if there was some mitigating context, and yeah, no, he just plain said he hasn’t left the White House in months, two days after his trip to Texas. https://t.co/5j6BSgNtVE
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 13, 2019
.
For those of you who didn’t grow up among us, ‘Irish Alzheimers’ is the ‘Scots Irish’ term for the condition where “you forget everything but your grudges.”
I think a lot about how all the pundits said Hillary ran a bad campaign specifically because she kept talking about the threat of a Trump presidency but then it’s all turned out to be correct
— JeremyIstanbul (@witliftin) January 13, 2019
and she STILL WON by 3 million votes
— Maureen Moore (@HopesMom12) January 13, 2019
Clinton’s performance in that debate is aging terrifyingly well. https://t.co/u8spVPuWId
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) January 12, 2019
Irish Alzheimers Open Thread: NEVER FORGETPost + Comments (227)
by $8 blue check mistermix| 98 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
To nobody’s surprise, the most recent Post poll shows that Trump and the Republicans are getting the lion’s share of the blame for the shutdown. Also, most (53%) oppose the wall.
In the next week or two, I’ll be taking a full shutdown cruise. I’m starting by flying out West tomorrow, then I’ll be getting in a new vehicle (long story) and driving back to Rochester. Along the way I was planning to visit some national parks and monuments. If a TSA sick out doesn’t keep me from boarding the plane, if the ATC sick out doesn’t make me miss my connection, and if overflowing toilets and assholes cutting down trees don’t close the national parks, I’ll let you know how my journey through the heart of Stupidland goes.
(I’ll leave the latest Trump is a traitor news to Cheryl and Adam.)
This post is in: Books, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Readership Capture, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
You may have heard of Little Free Libraries, but how about this Little Tree Library, fashioned out of a 100-year-old cottonwood stump? https://t.co/C3vM0zzpwu @Colossal #Recharge pic.twitter.com/2hhS0sksGn
— David Beard (@dabeard) January 12, 2019
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Couple meet-up proposals, promoted from the comments, just in case:
PsiFighter37 says:
January 12, 2019 at 6:31 pm
It is very short notice, but I am out in Denver for business and will be free this coming Tuesday evening (1/15) after 7PM or so. I am staying in the heart of downtown and would love to get a drink or two with any Juiciers who are in the neighborhood. I don’t think I have made a meetup since July 2013 in Seattle, so would love to get a chance to see any folks!
ruemara says:
January 12, 2019 at 9:53 pm
Speaking of meetups, Seattle Juicers, Friday night good for you? Or Saturday?
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And for the LMM stans…
An emotional opening for ‘Hamilton’ in Puerto Rico — not just for Lin-Manuel Miranda but an island still reeling from a storm https://t.co/S4Rgq5RlRL
— Janet Johnson (@JJohnsonLaw) January 13, 2019
Sunday Morning Open Thread: Community ChatPost + Comments (96)
This post is in: 2020 Elections, Open Threads, Assholes, Clown Shoes
SRSLY:
Richard Spencer
David Duke
Jack Prosobeic
Michael Tracey
Cassandra Fairbanks
Steve Bannon
and Russian botsAll really like "Progressive" Tulsi Gabbard.
Seems cool.
— It's going to get ugly. (@bongo_xxx) January 12, 2019
Trump is gonna get a primary after all. https://t.co/ZXtTIWcbmT
— Arjun Jaikumar (@ArjunJaikumar) January 11, 2019
I know Murphy the Trickster God likes to torture those of us who say “Whichever Democrat runs against Trump, that’s who I’m voting for”… but as R.A Lafferty once wrote: The mountain has labored and brought forth a mouse. Did it have to be a wall-eyed mouse in a clown suit?
On the glass-half-full side, maybe she can lose her Senate seat while she’s failing to get the (D) presidential nomination!
Any viable progressive candidate should interpret this as an invitation to earn DKos’s endorsement; getting that endorsement, in that race, against maybe the worst Dem in Congress, would deliver quite a bit of money. https://t.co/JQnn86GeGQ
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 12, 2019
This 2017 piece lays out the anti-Gabbard case perfectly. We’re ready (and have been ready) to back a solid primary challenger in her district. https://t.co/3lVPgzSWdu
— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) January 12, 2019
Is anyone excited about Tulsi Gabbard, outside of a handful of people that are going to be torn between her and Bernie?
— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) January 12, 2019
Bashar al-Assad
— Aaron Wrast (@AaronWrast) January 12, 2019
Russia. Russia is very excited.
— Finn (@Finn_aka_Jeremy) January 12, 2019
4. bUt sHE sURFs anD iS a VEteRan! pic.twitter.com/f0BPnQ1HHu
— Operation Wolverines (@OpWolverines) January 12, 2019
saw my first pepe avatar in like a year on this hellsite and it was attached to a self-described tuIsi bro. do with that info what you will
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) January 12, 2019
It was interesting to see Gabbard became a progressive hero for resigning from the DNC to endorse Sanders despite having a pretty bad voting record and all these other red flags with the BJP, Assad, LGBT issues, repro rights, etc.
— Joshua Holland ?? (@JoshuaHol) January 12, 2019
"Tulsi Gabbard, Bashar Assad’s Favorite Democrat, Is Running for President" https://t.co/zqIo73PtZa
— Charles ?. Davis (@charliearchy) January 12, 2019
This is an accurate statement, no one else had their early career bolstered by a Hare Krishna splinter sect or made a secret diplomatic trip to meet with Assad. https://t.co/6RHB0Atbex
— Elitist Dentist-Goer (@agraybee) January 12, 2019
This post is in: Cat Blogging, Open Threads
Ric and Zooey want no politics in this open thread.