On Jeff Sessions’s recommendation.
BREAKING: WH statement. Letter from Trump to Comey. And AG Sessions recommendation. pic.twitter.com/BPjIJ4MVvH
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) May 9, 2017
This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Assholes, Both Sides Do It!, Bring On The Meteor, DC Press Corpse, Fuck Yeah!
On Jeff Sessions’s recommendation.
BREAKING: WH statement. Letter from Trump to Comey. And AG Sessions recommendation. pic.twitter.com/BPjIJ4MVvH
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) May 9, 2017
This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Fuck Yeah!
Senator Warren, still my idol. Here’s some more excerpts from the MassLive interview:
… Q: Who is we? I hear progressives, and politicians in general, talk a lot about the middle class, but not much about people who live in poverty. Why is that?
Warren: One of the things I talk about is the way I divide the world. It’s the top ten percent who do very, very well; and the remaining ninety percent. And I talk about the interests of the ninety percent together, and make the argument that the investments in education, in infrastructure, in a robust economy, and in research are the things that benefit the ninety percent.
Q: So the breakfast waitress, and the dual-income double-professor family?
Warren: That’s right. Who are busting their rear ends but still can’t pull it all together. So that’s really the idea behind it. America once worked to build a lot of opportunity. And they called it the middle class; they filtered things through the middle class. But the truth was, opportunity was there for the middle class, for the working class, for the working poor, and for the poor poor. And you watch from about 1935 to about 1980, income goes up for everyone.
Q: Are you talking about Reagan; the 1980 mark?
Warren: Yes, that’s the 1980 mark. And African Americans talk about this as well. From the time we first started measuring, there was a black-white wealth gap; a big one. But we were hooked on the idea of opportunity. When the Civil Rights movement picks up steam in the 1960s and 70s, the black-white wealth gap shrinks by 30 percent. Then the shift to a trickle-down economy causes the black-white wealth gap to triple. So that’s the point. We can make a set of investments that work for all of us.
Q: You know some African-American political analysts say the progressive movement is tone-deaf when it comes to race. They say economic opportunity is all well and good, but it’s not going to make racism go away.
Warren: I talk about this in the book; about the economics of race. Which is a different point. It’s there in the first part of the story; how we built a middle class, and it’s there in the second part with trickle-down economics. But I also talk about it in terms of the politics of race. And the discussions around the Republicans; the dog-whistles on race, and then Donald Trump’s deliberate efforts to try to stir up bigotry…
That’s really an essential point — the Democratic Party’s problem is not that civil rights and women’s rights are somehow a distraction from “real” economic issues. It’s that, in our two-party system, some people who don’t want to call themselves Republicans are trying to turn the Democratic Party into a platform to talk about their issues (ECONOMIC JUSTICE! SINGLE PAYER NOW!) rather than the messy, open-ended coalition of “special interest groups” (urban activists, local machine politicians, immigrant workers, civil rights and women’s rights supporters) we’ve been at our best and most successful.
In fact, this is another nasty revival from the original Gilded Age, when Finley Peter Dunne mocked the Goo-Goos determined to purge American politics of ‘corrupt’ urban professional politicians (with the help of voter registration!) and replace them with clean-minded properly-educated white ‘native-born’ men. Just as it was more than a century ago, it’s always the people of color, immigrants, women — and working-class — voters who are expected to sacrifice themselves for True Progressivism.
(To be continued)
Who Defines the “True Progressives”? (Part I)Post + Comments (205)
This post is in: Dolt 45, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Readership Capture, Yes We Did, Fuck Yeah!
Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 26, 2017
"You tired of winning yet, you orange mothe—" pic.twitter.com/UAsOe4YH8G
— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) March 25, 2017
I like to imagine Obama reading this last line–mainstream Republicans complaining about Freedom Caucus–and laughing for a good 5 minutes pic.twitter.com/ZFQFmH8KLn
— laura olin (@lauraolin) March 25, 2017
btw, collapse of Trumpcare completely undercuts argument that Dems are "distracted" by Russia controversy; that they can't multi-task
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) March 26, 2017
Late Night Open Thread: How You Like Me NOW?….Post + Comments (101)
This post is in: Excellent Links, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republicans in Disarray!, World's Best Healthcare (If You Can Afford It), All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Fuck Yeah!
House Rs voted over 60x to repeal Obamacare while Obama was president. They voted 0 times on it under Trump, and are now ready to move on.
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) March 24, 2017
It takes a special skill in a politician to not be able to leverage a majority.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 25, 2017
Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire:
You knew things had gone sideways when they locked up the House. The corridors that lead through the heart of the Capitol, from Senate chamber to House chamber, were still an unnavigable mass of tourists and staffers and journalists, all clustered by the walls and in unruly knots below the various graven images in Statuary Hall. The echoes were an impossible gabble of crying children, overmatched tour guides, angry parents, and television stand-ups from many lands. At about 3:30, when the voting was supposed to start, a small, tough-looking woman from the Capitol Police turned out the lights in one of the small foyers leading to the chamber. She swung the big doors shut and slammed the locks down into the floor. And that was pretty much it. Until, of course, Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, took to a podium in the bowels of the Capitol and said the following.
“Obamacare is the law of the land for the foreseeable future.”
That statement should have come with a sword for Ryan to hand over to Nancy Pelosi who, let it be said, is one legislative badass. She somehow kept her caucus united. There wasn’t even a hint of blue-doggery from her caucus as it sat back and let the Republicans rip each other to shreds, let the president* get exposed as a rookie who should be sent back to A-ball, and let the conservative movement expose itself as graphically as it ever has as the soulless creature of the money power that it’s been for 40 years. Usually, there are some Democrats who either want to make a deal so that Fred Hiatt will send them a Christmas card, or simply because Democrats occasionally can’t help themselves from trying to make the government, you know, actually work…
“We were a 10-year opposition party where being against things was easy to do,” Ryan said. “And now, in three months’ time, we’ve tried to go to a governing party, where we have to actually get … people to agree with each other in how we do things.” Of course, since 2010, the House has had a Republican majority and a Republican speaker. There have been two of them—John Boehner and Ryan. The crazy caucus ran Boehner out of office and now, they’ve handed Ryan his head. Pro Tip: it’s not you, boys. It’s your party…
To be fair, the president* took the defeat rather better than I thought he would, which is to say he blamed the Democrats, repeated claim that the Affordable Care Act is gasping its last breath, and was so fulsome in his sympathy for Paul Ryan that, were I Ryan, I’d hire a food taster. Somebody’s going to pay for this. You can be sure of that. Meanwhile, as Paul Ryan said, Obamacare remains the law of the land. The Rotunda was still packed with tourists when the news came down and you wondered how many people there had somehow been helped by the Affordable Care Act. Maybe it’s that elderly gent looking up at the statue of Huey Long, or that kid in the wheelchair paused beneath Norman Borlaug. Obamacare is now a pre-existing condition, and a damned stubborn one at that.
Also too, Scott Lemieux at LGM on a “B.F.D.”:
… It is ever more remarkable, in retrospect, that much of the discussion on the left following the passage of the ACA consisted of complaints about how Obama/Pelosi/Reid could “only” pass the ACA. This is, on one level, understandable, given that the ACA is unmistakably inferior to the baseline established by other liberal democracies… The coalition that passed the ACA included three senators from the Dakotas, one each from Indiana and Arkansas, and two each from Montana and West Virginia. Glib “BE MORE LIBERAL!” exhortations don’t really help you to get liberal governing majorities in an institution that heavily favors conservative rural interests.
Comprehensive health care reform is brutally hard, as Truman and Johnson and Clinton can tell you. In addition getting the list of legislators above, the Democrats also needed to keep in the fold every liberal who was well aware that the ACA was substantially suboptimal. Senators like Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown deserve enormous credit for working to make the bill as it could be and then supporting it. The Republicans just completely failed with a more homogeneous coalition in the more top-down chamber. What the Democratic leadership pulled off in 2009 is remarkable, and we now know that it is an enduring accomplishment.
Excellent Read: “How Obamacare Became a Preexisting Condition”Post + Comments (112)
This post is in: NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republicans in Disarray!, Yes We Did, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Fuck Yeah!
What if, perhaps, Obamacare is actually good and the GOP lit its hair on fire just to frighten the American people & score political points?
— John Dingell (@JohnDingell) March 24, 2017
BREAKING: Stocks sharply rebound after news that House pulled GOP health plan https://t.co/TU32GDDTDF pic.twitter.com/F9bJniW536
— CNBC (@CNBC) March 24, 2017
Yes, it’s only one battle, the GOP will never give up, think of the Media Village Idiots whose cocktail-party weekend has just been ruint, yadayadayada. As a devout Cynic, I’ve always felt that one of our Democrats’ greatest weaknesses is that we can never stop looking for the defeat lurking behind every victory. Tomorrow, we gird for the next fight — tonight, we celebrate!
Apart from cheering our warriors, what’s on the agenda as we start our well-earned weekend?
John Lewis went off. #KillTheBillpic.twitter.com/co9eh4wjwi
— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) March 24, 2017
Trump tells the New York Times that the AHCA bill failure is the Democrats' fault https://t.co/ptisvmhrG8
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) March 24, 2017
Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla), asked what this failure meant:
"Obamacare is the law of the land."
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 24, 2017
Essential piece of today’s GOP disaster is Dem resolve & unity in never once showing any inclination to help out the GOP.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 24, 2017
Held her caucuses together to save Social Security, to pass ACA, & to save ACA.
She’s one of the most underrated pols of the last 50 yrs
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 24, 2017
If there's four years of dealmaking like this, Pelosi's going to wind up owning Mar-a-Lago.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 24, 2017
Really interesting that White House has made it seem like Obamacare is unsustainable ready to collapse and now they're like we're moving on
— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) March 24, 2017
Two months from now Trump will be denying he ever wanted Obamacare repealed
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 24, 2017
GOP aide on CapHill: "I'm starting to think that while we're pretty good at winning elections, we're not great at the whole governing thing"
— Alex Roarty (@Alex_Roarty) March 24, 2017
"It's going to pass, so that’s it," Spicer says, again stressing that there is no Plan B and no contingency.
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) March 23, 2017
“This parachute is going to open, & that’s it.”
“Uh, there’s no pull cord. In fact, that’s a toddler’s Hello Kitty backpack”
“It will open” https://t.co/sdJ7TKWjHN— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 23, 2017
President Trump says he'd be "open" to bargaining with Democrats on a health care bill. https://t.co/sH3F7LxTrW
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 24, 2017
(And I am “open” to being handed a large bag of money, no strings attached. LOSER!)
Friday Evening Open Thread: Repubs Be LOOOOSERRRSSSS!Post + Comments (122)
This post is in: Dolt 45, Excellent Links, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Trump Crime Cartel, Decline and Fall, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, Fuck Yeah!, Schadenfreude
You know, I'm starting to think Trump might not be very good at running a business. He seems to have a lot of HR issues.
— Erin Brr, sir (@erinscafe) March 5, 2017
DougJ linked to this Washington Post article, but it’s too schadenfreudelicious not to share more:
… Trump enters week seven of his presidency the same as the six before it: enmeshed in controversy while struggling to make good on his campaign promises. At a time when White House staffers had sought to ride the momentum from Trump’s speech to Congress and begin advancing its agenda on Capitol Hill, the administration finds itself beset yet again by disorder and suspicion.
At the center of the turmoil is an impatient president increasingly frustrated by his administration’s inability to erase the impression that his campaign was engaged with Russia, to stem leaks about both national security matters and internal discord and to implement any signature achievements…
Gnawing at Trump, according to one of his advisers, is the comparison between his early track record and that of Obama in 2009, when amid the Great Recession he enacted an economic stimulus bill and other big-ticket items…
Trump, meanwhile, has been feeling besieged, believing that his presidency is being tormented in ways known and unknown by a group of Obama-aligned critics, federal bureaucrats and intelligence figures — not to mention the media, which he has called “the enemy of the American people.”…
Trump was brighter Sunday morning as he read several newspapers, pleased that his allegations against Obama were the dominant story, the official said.
But he found reason to be mad again: Few Republicans were defending him on the Sunday political talk shows…
Gosh, Lord Smallgloves wonders why the GOP apparatchiks he tore up and climbed over to reach the Oval Office aren’t loyal? ‘Tis a puzzlement!
Much more chewy detail at the link. Betting line among the Media Village courtiers seems to be that Reince Preibus (speaking of party apparatchiks) is next off the sledge, but there’s so many weird characters in Trump’s train, there’s always another plot twist.
Not to mention the Rosencrantz & Guilderstern characters, such as a certain foundational Nixon-alumni ratfvcker, who (per Esquire) “Forgot Other People Can Read His Tweets“[warning: possibly NSFW]:
Late Night Open Thread: Impotent Outrage All Over the Trump CompoundPost + Comments (89)
This post is in: An Unexamined Scandal, Dolt 45, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel, Fuck Yeah!, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All, Very Serious People
"There is no evidence to support that claim" of Obama ordering Trump wiretapped, a US official tells me.
— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) March 4, 2017
Plus they are dumb, you know, but not completely inept. Trump doesn't personally meet fellows named "Alexei" in parking garages.
— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) March 4, 2017
Of course it’s seriously tragic that the So-Called Leader of the United States (#SCROTUS) is threatening our democracy this way. On the other hand, if we’re gonna re-litigate you-know-what (Waterbedgate?), then at least us aging totebaggers should be able to get some entertainment out of it, yes?
Not only did Obama tap Trump's phones, he stole the strawberry ice cream out of the mess locker.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 4, 2017
@AlGiordano At this rate, the Obama Presidential Library is going to have an entire wing built inside Donald Trump's head.
— Robert Holzer (@RobertHolzer) March 4, 2017
You've got to wonder which political hack who never met Trump before last year is willing to go to jail for him.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 4, 2017
Sunday Evening Open Thread: Prime PBS Totebagger Viewing TimePost + Comments (70)