From commentor Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Here’s a new Balloon Juicer pet – we just got an adorable kitten. Scout is a 10-week-old tabby boy with blue eyes and an apparent need for no sleep at all. He’s busy teaching our old kitty Peter how to play again.
Action shot!
Strawberry kitten for the full Strawberry Moon. Monday’s not really the best day for a big pagan party, which is why the prudent Swedes rescheduled theirs to next weekend. On the other hand, I have a bunch of strawberry starts that need to be transplanted into the front-yard strawberry pot this afternoon…
What else is on the agenda as we start another week?
Baud
There are darker days ahead.
OzarkHillbilly
Been up since 1:30 am. I’d settle for sleep.
Elizabelle
Darling kitten.
Good morning, baud and any other 0 dark hundred types.
Jeff Spender
@OzarkHillbilly: I have been awake a while now. Insomnia. Of course, I also work 12 hour night shifts so I’m up at night anyway.
I sympathize.
raven
Meow
Baud
WaMo
Sounds promising.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yeah, the cloudy ones.
Debbie(aussie)
Happy solstice fellow Juicers. Been a cold and extremely windy day here in sth east QLD. Received over 50 mls of rain in less than 6 hrs yesterday and today cold westerly winds, to dry it all out (rats). Of course not cold at all by the winters some of you experience, about 16c (feels like) now it’s about 7. Not sure about that dancing naked around the fire this year :)
ETA: gorgeous kitty, I want one.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Not sure about darker; hotter, yes.
Elizabelle
The Guardian: Dump Trump? Paul Ryan leaves door open…
So that nice Paul Ryan was apparently on Meet Chuck Todd yesterday, and this emanated from his lips, re supporting his party’s presumptive nominee:
What is this conscience, among Republicans, of which Ryan speaks?
Used the word twice in the Guardian excerpts; it must be Luntz-approved.
Most heartening factoid in the article: Ron Johnson of Wisconsin declines again to endorse Trump. He must be in trouble keeping his Senate seat. Hope so!
Baud
@Elizabelle:
If your conscience tells you to pick Cruz, you might not have one.
Elizabelle
Great, great K-Thug column today. NY Times, Paul Krugman: A Tale of Two Parties
Bonus K-Thug points: he addresses the Harvard/Shorenstein Center report on massively unfavorable coverage of Hillary (84% negative), while the press let Trump suck all the air out of the room, with their total complicity.
He even links to it!
Your morning Krugman.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I long ago noticed that lack of a conscience is a requirement for being Republican.
MattF
@Elizabelle: Shrill! No one pays any attention to him. Except for some of them. Who don’t count.
Baud
@MattF:
For a while, he was on the outs with the left because he supported Clinton in the primary.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I thought you were going in a different direction when I read “press” and “Trump” and “suck.”
raven
Straight to Nazi’s for Joe!
BillinGlendaleCA
Halperin is on Morning Joe.
rikyrah
Good Morning ☺, Everyone ?
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I think he’s against them.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
So true.
Cat48
I want Scout. He is so sweet. My 16yr old cat died on Mothers Day 2 yrs ago & I’m afraid to adopt. I cant stand to lose another kitty. It still hurts when I think of Jeffrey.
So, pet Scout for me, so sweet.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Is he doing the “what if Trump wasn’t Trump” schtick?
Elizabelle
@Baud: Truly. I cannot watch them any more. You can just about see the, uh, bodily fluids issuing from Andrea Mitchell’s and other’s mouths. Wired for Republicans, and attached to them like the dimmest of remoras.
Another point: Big Media is getting just about as enervated as the Republican Party. They have reported from their self-important and clueless bubbles for so long, that they’re empty calories and pointless punditry and missing/misdirecting the point, and even people interested in current events don’t give them the time of day. (Think of all the hate-watching and reading we do. That’s clicks, but not of a healthy variety.)
I think the networks and several major dailies should clean house but good. Get rid of the buckrakers; go with less prominent journalists with curiosity and souls. And rotate, rotate, rotate them. Actual journalistic digging might prove more useful than a fat list of contacts.
The press is lazy, and complicit, and they were not given the First Amendment because they were meant to be flacks and entertainment reporters.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: He’s been quiet so far.
Elizabelle
That was a long-winded comment, but the weakness of our press is a huge reason we’ve got Donald Trump. Obviously, he stepped into the world that Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and all those idiots made, the one that lies and tells its viewers to disregard facts.
But we’ve also got a news media that is lazy and prefers to entertain. I have been amazed at the crap that’s on NBC News (non-cable), and would not have been pre-Reagan era. We need less guns and more Fairness Doctrine.
raven
Jesus, Mika is such a fucking idiot with her whiny “heeee could be doing sooo much better” and her bullshit furrowed brow.
Baud
@Elizabelle: You’re right on. I don’t trust the press, and I hate that I’ve had to learn how to “read” them in order to parse what’s real and not.
BillinGlendaleCA
OT: The kid was really impressed with the 3-d pics I took of her last week at her pinning ceremony.
Keith G
@Baud: I do not see the need to do away with superdelegates or to completely do away with caucuses. Certainly, though, a look toward refinement and updating would always be welcome.
One welcome refinement might be for the Democratic Party to decide that the caucus system (if used) cannot be utilized to assign more than 49% of a state’s delegates.
Full disclosure: I have chaired a precinct caucus and have also worked as a paid official of my county’s Democratic Party. I think that caucuses can do good things for local Democrats and to significantly diminish them might have unfavorable unintended consequences.
Baud
@Keith G: I’m sure it’ll be vigorously debated, but IMHO caucuses are too exclusionary as they currently exist to play a significant role in selecting to nominee. The situation in Washington was especially problematic.
RedDirtGirl
Happy Birthday to me!
Baud
@RedDirtGirl: The sun will set a little later in honor of this auspicious day. Happy Birthday!
NotMax
Maybe not the last time, but one of the very last few.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Believeland (photo)
rikyrah
I see no need to get rid of Super Delegates. I definitely am against open primaries. DEMOCRATS should choose the Democratic Party ‘s nominee. Now, they can turn caucuses into Closed Primaries.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Via Trix
rikyrah
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
That is a good sentiment about King James ?☺
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Haha. I remember Trix from my time at GOS. Good guy.
ETA:. I see that he reposted someone else’s tweet. Still a good guy.
rikyrah
@RedDirtGirl:
Happy Birthday ??
NotMax
@RedDirtGirl
Have a jazzy birthday!
Elizabelle
@RedDirtGirl: May it be a good one!
Keith G
@Elizabelle:
They were not given the First Amendment. It belongs to all of us to use as we need.
For heaven’s sake, when was the glory days of a fair press? (Maybe the Cronkite era).
My point is just like the heroes of the Alamo, the fair press is mostly bit of historical (if not, hysterical) self-serving, myth making. From the Committees of Correspondence to Pulitzer and Hearst to the Grahams and the Sulzbergers, those who publish have points of view. Those points of view may be moderated or might be predominate. Nonetheless there is almost always an identifiable world view, and an advocacy toward that view.
My thesis is that to an intelligent and rational citizen (not including myself here), consuming what the “press” is making must always be, and has always been, a wary exchange.
magurakurin
@Keith G: I think a discussion about the process is needed. And it will happen. What I don’t think is that the loser of the primary should get to dictate alone what changes there will be. Sanders isn’t saying he wants a discussion about it and that his preference is to end the role of the superdelegates. He is demanding that it happen. There is actually a huge difference in those two positions.
sorry, nothing here to move me out of the Fuck Bernie column.
One possible solution might be to bind the supers by the popular vote in each state as the same way as the at large pledged delegates. Of course you would have these weird situations where say Nancy Pelosi might endorse candidate A even though she has technically been bound to vote for candidate B in the first round. But, I suppose that isn’t a huge problem. Then, the superdelegates, who are who they are because of their activity in the party, would be there, on the floor, and voting in the second or third or fourth round of an actual contested election. This election isn’t a good example of why they exist. In a two person race, they have less meaning. A four person race would be a different story.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I can see the argument against caucuses, and even agree with them to some great extent, without thinking that they are the worst idea since the vote.
However when it comes to the whole super-delegate controversy, I can’t help but ask, “Where’s the problem?” Turns out all the problems people have with super-delegates are in their heads. They “don’t understand them” or fear that the SDs might “subvert the will of the people”. Never mind that ignorance is cured with knowledge, or the fact that SDs never have been, and I highly doubt they ever will be, suicidal.
From where I sit, it appears that those who are the most upset about SDs just seem to think that people who have invested heart and soul in the DEM party should have no more say in how things are done than some random homeless guy who after 27 years of drunken stupor has suddenly decided to vote.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Obama to make cameo appearance in “Ghostbusters” (photo)
satby
@RedDirtGirl: Happy Birthday to you! Hope it’s a wonderful day!
magurakurin
@OzarkHillbilly:
OPOL from DKOS?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Green Bay Packer Olivia Munn featuring revolutionary new football cleats. (photo)
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Barney Frank was saying that if you get rid of the Supers you’ll end up with Members of Congress and party bigwigs being pledged delegates like they were before superdelegates came along; displacing regular folk.
Keith G
@Baud: I am not against some barriers to entry when it comes to a private political party choosing it’s defacto leadership. That is why I like closed primaries. If some states continue to use causes, then limiting the number of delegates that such a “meeting” can award would be a good thing.
Cat48
The Black Caucus & the Hispanic Caucus say NO, youre not taking our Super Delegate status and NO we don’t need to open primaries bc it might dilute the minority vote. Source – Politico
Bernie has to fight them.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Caucuses are definitely ahead of superdelegates in terms of needed reforms in my book. Maybe simply reducing the number of superdelegates is the way to go. What are they now, 15% of all delegates?
satby
@Elizabelle: I quit a few years ago because I’m right there with you.
@Keith G: and your view is how my buddy the journalist sees it: according to him there’s never been a time of more or better information available to the news consumers. But if so much quality news is available, I counter, why does a significant percentage of the population believe completely factually incorrect things? He’s never actually answered me on that, other than to blame people for staying in their bubble. I maintain that it would be harder to stay in a bubble when the news pierced it routinely.
magurakurin
@BillinGlendaleCA: That is the main objection from the CBC as well. I think this is something that can be worked out, but doing it as a ransom demand from the loser of the primary…yeah how about no?
I really don’t see why this is the best time to have this discussion. There are a lot of Hillary supporters who also think the superdelegate system needs a closer look. It isn’t as if the whole thing is going to be swept under the rug. And the real tell is that Sanders hasn’t mentioned the shitty caucus at all.
Schlemazel Khan
@Keith G:
Yup. Most of the people whining to end the current system have no idea how difficult is has been to maintain a party they can whine about. I am not a huge fan of caucusing on Tuesday night as it can run late and does not have a lot of time when time is needed to discuss things. Plus it shuts out night shift workers. But we can’t just walk away from it and maintain a healthy party.
The super delegates are irrelevant this year as Clinton has the majority of votes and do serve to block a potential Drumpf-like idiot so I’m not yet convinced they need to go either.
OzarkHillbilly
@magurakurin: I don’t go to dkos so I am ignorant of all things opol. (in other words, sorry, i don’t get the joke)
Baud
@satby: I find that the news media has outsourced the work of figuring things out to the consumer. Yes, I can be better informed if I have the time to put in the work, but not many people have the time or energy to do that.
bystander
The press was on Clinton from the moment the repubs started their idiotic email “scandal”. MSNBC has been particularly insane, but who could top the NYTimes publishing the false claims that she was to be criminally charged? Clinton left State riding – I would say, justifiably – high favor ability. But the constant blowing b/s up on teevee each night takes its toll. We are supposed to wonder why she didn’t resolve all conflict in the ME and why she didn’t take out Daesh the way she offed Vince Foster.
magurakurin
@Cat48:
As a white guy who spent the first 35 years of his life basically getting the shaft from old white guys in suits, albeit mostly ones with good hair, I’ll go with the POC this time.
I don’t see Bernie as a savior or anything other than another old white guy telling me what I need to do and think. He’s just coming at it from the Left. Doesn’t make it sit any better with me.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
ABC News — Donald Trump Ratings — June 15, 2016
Favorable ——— Unfavorable
Blacks………4% …………..94%
Latinos…….11%…………..89%
Women…….23%………….77%
College Ed..25%………….74%
This is great news — it shows he has lots of room for growth.
magurakurin
@OzarkHillbilly: you are better off for it. But it loosely described an individual who became either a hero or nefarious depending on the point of view over there.
Schlemazel Khan
@RedDirtGirl:
Well, you have to longest day of the year to celebrate, make the best of it!
MattF
None other than Fred Hyatt has attempted a bit of snark about Trump. No link.
Hyatt suggests, semi-seriously I suppose, that Der Trump be bought off after winning the nomination. He also suggests that Reince Priebus be given the job of butler at Mar-a-Lago. Not bad. But it is worrisome that Villagers are making jokes now. It seems inappropriate.
magurakurin
@MattF: Josh Marshal said this morning if they did give Trump a billion dollars to quit that it will probably be the first time he actually had a real billion dollars. Josh is of the mind that Trump probably doesn’t really have all that much money at all.
satby
@Baud: Exactly! And it pisses me off when I point out to the professor of journalism, who thinks that situation is just fine, that most people don’t have the time, inclination, or are savvy enough about the internet to seek quality news and separate it from the wreck out there. And it leaves the computer illiterate completely at the mercy of the infotainment system.
Cat48
@magurakurin:
Iagree.
satby
@magurakurin: what he lacks in cash he more than makes up for in ego.
Keith G
@magurakurin:
Is this still a thing?
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I think that this is exactly a thing that would happen.
But more importantly to me, I do not mind a firewall. Contrary to what was argued several months ago, there is a Democratic Party establishment and that establishment was squarely behind Hillary Clinton…and they were right to do this. That is the way politics works.
Had Hillary stumbled just a bit (but enough to let Sanders tie her with pledged delegates), I would have expected the superdels to step in and protect us from a smart and dedicated guy who nonetheless should not be our nominee.
Of course had Hillary shown some massive and until now unknown flaw, I would expect the superdels to protect us from that shit show (to the extent that they could).
satby
And before we get too far into the weeds let me say beautiful kitty Comrade Colette! I love orange tabby cats.
magurakurin
@Keith G:
only to me, because I’m vengeful and spiteful.
Sanders doesn’t matter anymore. He can endorse, not endorse, dance a little jig…Clinton will do this with or without him. And she’s gonna win it.
satby
@magurakurin: it will remain a thing for a lot of us. Backstabbing isn’t popular.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Thomas turns 68 this week and turns 69 during Hillary’s first year. He makes good money, but he knows he can make 5 times more on the speaking circuit.
It may also signal there’s no reason to stay because Anthony Kennedy may retire, as he turns 81 next year. Why stay on the court if you’re constantly going to be in a 6-3 minority.
With Scalia’s death and Kennedy’s and Thomas’s possible retirements the court balance would be 7-2.
This will drive John Roberts nutz. How would anyone feel being perpetually on the losing side. Such frustration and impotency could prompt his retirement and lead to…. dare I say it…… Chief Justice Obama.
Elizabelle
@Baud:
There it is. The news media is all about the consumer, and its clicks, when its actual, higher mission is to serve citizens and voters.
Plus, less journalists and too many buckrakers and “opinion leaders”.
Add that to Americans working long hours, raising families or busy, busy, busy with other concerns, and who has the time (except us political junkies)? It shouldn’t be left to Facebook feeds.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: @Baud: I don’t really know what the percentage is, I could look it up and do the math if I really cared, but I don’t. When it comes to who the delegates are and the SDs relation to it all, I only know I will never be one or the other. I do not care enuf to invest the time, money, and energy necessary into the process to become one or influence how things are done (maybe some day at the county level, but how many Dems can Washington co have?), and I tip my hat (and every now and again the money jar) to those who do. I just find the nuts and bolts of the political process very boring. Necessary, but boring.
One thing I won’t do is bad mouth the people who do that work. If there is one thing Bernie did that really did piss me off (as opposed to just irritating me) it was calling the Democratic party establishment “corrupt”.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Keith G:
Pretty much what happened in 2008.
Elizabelle
Superdelegates are fine.
Bet the Republicans wish they had that system in place about now.
Also: closed primaries, but voters can change parties maybe 30-60 days before primaries (should eliminate most rat-romancing), and I am not a fan of caucuses. Would love to see some emphasis on a series of rolling super-primaries, and a WAY shorter election season. This is the permanent campaign, and it’s killing us.
MomSense
@Jeff Spender:
We are all rooting for you! Thank you for fighting the good fight.
BillinGlendaleCA
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Chief Justice B. Obama or Chief Justice M. Obama?
debbie
@Baud:
Cruz would only make a bad situation worse.
Iowa Old Lady
@satby: Does your house seem too quiet now? Have you heard from the girls since they went home?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Long time LA Dodger announcer Vin Scully isn’t feeling the bern. (clip)
debbie
@Elizabelle:
i disagree. The press is being scapegoated. It’s the voters themselves who got the party into this fix. Voters always had the option of doing their own research.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@BillinGlendaleCA: Sasha.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Uh, excuse me but apparently the Bernie or Busters have their hands on evidence of voter fraud by the DNC and Clinton campaign and Guccifer and Julian Assange are ready to drop a bomb on the election. It’s going to happen and then everyone will be begging Bernie to save us.
Bernie is the kwisatz haderach!
MomSense
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
I’m so happy for LeBron especially since he is doing so much for young people in Akron.
debbie
The kitty is very cute in that tiny kitty bed, but whatever those flowers are outside the window are spectacular!
debbie
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
He willed that win with that last-minute block!
BillinGlendaleCA
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Looks like I picked the wrong week to quite drinking.
OzarkHillbilly
@MattF:
It would have been better if they had been making jokes at Trump’s expense from the beginning.
rikyrah
The kitty up above is too cute for words ?
Jeff Spender
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: You know what would be nice is if anyone had any actual evidence would just hand it over instead of playing these thriller intrigue games.
magurakurin
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
I didn’t remember Dune has having a particularly happy ending…but it was a long time ago when I read it.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
I know that I am repeating myself, but I think that it should be said repeatedly. The GOP is not the only ones mad that Trump won’t use Frank Luntz approved dogwhistles. These dogwhistles were for the MSM media as much as they were for GOP politicians. The dogwhistles enabled the MSM to pretend that the GOP was something other than what it is. They are mad that they don’t have them to hide behind.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Neither, unless Roberts retires also.
Iowa Old Lady
@Elizabelle: Americans are busy, yes, but they also treat an interest in politics as freakish. I hear so many people say they hate politics and never read about it. Maybe it comes from thinking all politics is venal and petty, why would you want to read about it. It also kind of fits with American anti-intellectualism.
sherparick
@Baud: Winter is coming:-) Still, it was a wonderful weekend here in Virginia along the Rapidan. Can’t remember a finer summer weekend.
Keith G
@satby:
Correct!
The thing is, the “news bidness” has almost always been about advocacy. Bubbles tend to get pierced when someone in opposition to the bubble attacks it. During the era of “Good Journalism” the bulk of the American news media supported the American involvement in Vietnam until it didn’t. I was reading the papers back then. I was told the the Commies were real bad dudes and they had to be stopped. And then …not.
We like the news when they are popping other folk’s bubbles.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Tell it! Good point.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@MomSense: oh, that’s right. He’s funding 1000s of college scholarships.
you don’t see anyone else doing that.
rikyrah
@Cat48:
And they are correct.
So, nope. Follow the rules we have now. After all, this is the base of the party.
LAO
@RedDirtGirl: Happy Birthday RedDirtGirl!
rikyrah
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
LOL
You are too funny ?
Ultraviolet Thunder
At DTW waiting to go to MPLS for a day.
TSA here was smoking fast this morning.
They reorganized the lanes and tripled the speed in Pre-Check.
Thanks!
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: I have heard from Qunoot, Valentina is in country but at workshops before she goes home later this week. I miss them, but back in my own bedroom and bed I’m now sleeping 7 hours a night as opposed to the 4-5 I was getting with them here. So mixed blessing!
The dogs miss them too.
rikyrah
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
I will believe it when I see it about Unca Clarence. He has a job where he does no work….why would he give that up, with his self-hating Uncle Ruckus self.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Jeff Spender: Of course you would like that because you’re a neoliberal establishment stooge. How much is Hillary paying you to say that? As soon as they get done recounting the votes in Indiana and Kentucky you will see that Bernie was robbed. 9 super delegates switched their allegiance this last week! I can’t tell you who the 9 SDs are but trust me, they switched.
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: yes, that too. It helps with the meme of “both sides” to discourage people from following politics. Added to the fact that most people seem to be unable to connect the dots between what they vote for and what they get.
Elizabelle
@Iowa Old Lady: And yet they follow sports, and TV talent shows, avidly.
magurakurin
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
jeez. better trolls please. or maybe I need a better snark meter. damned Poe’s Law.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Sleep is highly overrated anyway.
Jeff Spender
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: I like the cut of your jib.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Jeff Spender: Forgot, the media is in the tank for Clinton. They suppress every story that will hurt her campaign and replace it with positive puff pieces. Everyone knows this is true. Bernie (or Jill Stein) or Bust! #neverhillary
Iowa Old Lady
@Elizabelle: When I was in college, a French teacher claimed that, unlike Americans, French young people liked discussing politics. I have no idea if that’s true, but it leaves me wondering now if deliberate uninterest in politics is an American cultural phenomenon.
OzarkHillbilly
@magurakurin: Your snark meter needs retuning.
Jeff Spender
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Don’t forget that EVERY SINGLE PROVISIONAL BALLOT IN CA WAS FOR BERNIE!!!111!!
Even the Republican ones.
Keith G
@rikyrah:
He could make truckloads of more money doing even less work. Add to that what (very) few limits that have been put on his wife’s work would be lifted and she would also be a power earner.
I think he is enough of a cranky ol’ basterd to stay on just to fuck with Liberals, but he is a young enough to maybe see a better life ahead off the bench.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Jeff Spender: That’s right! Debbie Wasserman Schultz personally removed all the ballots for Bernie herself. Guccifer will expose everything!
satby
@Keith G: factual information pierces the bubble. The Viet Nam war had it’s Walter Cronkite moment when the newsman realized that what army brass was saying didn’t match what he saw with his own eyes, and he reported that.
Every time Chuckles the Road lets an untrue statement pass unchallenged on his show (we call that Sunday), he aids and antes the misinformers. And he knows it and still does it. He’s the poster child, but not the only offender.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Krugman is good today. No link from my phone. He equated the failure of the GOP to the fall of the USSR. Rotted from within.
Also documented extremely negative coverage of HRC by the MSM.
Krugthulu is great in election years.
satby
@debbie: looks like azaleas.
debbie
@satby:
Amazing what a good night’s sleep can do! My neighbors have an almost-one-year-old baby who’s woken me up almost every night of his life. From time to time, they go away for the weekend. My mood vastly improves every time.
magurakurin
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah, I thought so. whew, that’s a relief.
satby
@satby: Chuckles the toad. Wouldn’t let me edit.
Iowa Old Lady
@satby: Didn’t Todd say it wasn’t his job to point out that a politician was lying? Oh yeah. Via C&L.
satby
@debbie: yeah, I’m seriously snappish on less than 4 hours. Which happened a few times. But on the whole it was a wonderful experience for all of us and we’ll be staying in touch. If the past is any guide, they’ll actually understand and appreciate the experience more as they get older, which was true of all of us as teens.
JPL
What a precious kitty! The plant outside the window is amazing. Happy Birthday to RedDirtGirl!
I streamed Morning Joe for a few minutes, and Mika and Joe are shocked that Trump is coming across like a racist pig. They are shocked because that’s not the Trump they know. Trump has always been a racist pig, and they are either lying, or he was better with his dog whistles.
Elizabelle
@Iowa Old Lady: That remains amazing to me.
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: yep. If the Dems didn’t market effectively for Obamacare and the lies the Republicans told got traction, well Chuckie said that was the White House’s problem to correct, not his.
And if he worked for an ethical business would have been fired for that.
Keith G
If not already linked:
Clinton grandbaby pics
#Squee!
#the theoligarchycontinues
Ultraviolet Thunder
The snax are not a good enough reason to fly first class but they do make Monday am a little more tolerable.
TS
Caught a few minutes of MJ – they seem to delight in showing pictures of Trump rallies where the signs have the T hidden – so lots of RUMP in the background. What did Trump do to Morning Joe – they were such good friends
satby
@Keith G: is it just me, or does former President Clinton look a bit skeletal in those pics? I hope he’s doing ok.
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill
@Keith G:
You’re assuming facts not in evidence – I’ve seen nothing to lead me to believe that Sanders is smart or dedicated. Everything I notice about the guy is that he’s a platitude spewing crank in a rumpled suit and a shitty heavy accent, who never stops whining. If it is a policy coming from him, it is either wrong from the start or I’ll-considered in execution. I ble the credulousness of the Vermont voters who foisted this moron on us.
#fuckthebern2018
JPL
After saying that people should be allowed to carry guns in the clubs, to prevent attacks, Trump now says, he didn’t say it. He didn’t say whether or not, he said it about the Paris attack.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Spot
@Cat48: Right, it’s more privileged brogressive nonsense. Like practicing to be arrested for Philly, while POC have to worry about actually be killed when they’re arrested.
#fuckthebern2018
Keith G
@satby:
He has looked as if in a weakened state for a while now. Not long ago I watched a vid of him in an informal give and take and I was taken aback at the increase of physical and vocal frailty that I noticed.
It may have been at the end of a long and arduous day on the hustings, but I found myself hoping that he could make it through to at
least February without crashing.
satby
@Keith G: me too.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill: Oh yeah? Well you just wait until Guccifer and Julian Assange drop their bomb! Once Hillary is indicted she will stop writing checks to you and the other neoliberal establishment sheep that are employed by her campaign to steal the election from Bernie, with the help of Elizabeth Warren the Traitor and Oprah Winfrey! #feelthebern #bernieorbust #neverhillary #imawhackaloon
BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: It’s probably his diet.
magurakurin
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Spot:
It’s been a long time since I lived there, but when I did in the 70’s and 80’s Philly cops were not to be fucked with whether you were black or white. Seriously scary jackboot shit. No idea what it is like now, but they probably need to be very careful when they do their protests.
rikyrah
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Spot:
true that
amk
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: sheesh.
Patricia Kayden
@RedDirtGirl: Happy B’Day!! If I could sing like Whitney Houston, I’d warble in your direction.
@Elizabelle: Thanks for that link. Krugman appears to be living in the real world where adults elect other adults to the most powerful political position on Earth. I cannot believe that anyone could argue that Trump is a viable Presidential candidate with a straight face. He cannot even pretend to be presidential during the start of the general campaign season. How the hell would he behave if he had the power of the Executive Office?
schrodinger's cat
C^3 that’s very cute kitteh. Congratulations!
Kathleen
@Elizabelle: Also top allowed Bernie to remain unscathed. But I’m sure that fact will not deter Bernie nor his acolytes from declaring persecution by the media.
MomSense
@RedDirtGirl:
Happy birthday!
Congratulations to Scout for finding such a happy home.
Patricia Kayden
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: But he has said numerous times that he loves “the blacks” and “the Mexicans”, right? Why are they being so mean to him?
@JPL: Or they’re actually shocked that he couldn’t pretend not to be bigoted after he became the Republican presumptive nominee. For some strange reason, some Republicans were under the delusion that Trump could put on a different persona and act as if he weren’t a bigot for the five months leading up to November. They’re shocked that he not only hasn’t changed his demeanor but appears to be digging into the mud with gusto.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Kathleen: The media colluded with Debbie Wasserman Schultz to schedule the only debate for 2:00am in the morning so no one could see Sanders completely expose #NeverHillary for the neoliberal war-monger Wall St shill that she has always been, especially when she was a Goldwater girl who was enabling Bill’s predatory nature against women. Hillary takes money from countries that kill gay people so Trump would probably be better which makes my vote for #JillStein count even more!
Kathleen
@rikyrah: This. In triplicate.
Kathleen
@RedDirtGirl: Happy Birthday!
bystander
@OzarkHillbilly: The part that bugs me is that he called the system corrupt because he didn’t get to dictate the rules. That’s not a great instinct in a democracy.
@Elizabelle: Exactly. I live in a closed primary state and it serves the purpose well. Even if one of our senators is Chuck Schumer.
I’m also wondering what happens to all those “moderate” repubs after their party implodes. Will we be looking at record number of DINOs in sheep clothing?
satby
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
You’re on fire today, but that was excellent.
khead
Beautiful little kitteh.
WaterGirl
@Cat48: I got my kitties 2 or 3 months after losing my kitty soulmate, the one and only kitty I had ever had. My last words before leaving the shelter were “but what if I can’t love them?”
That was not a problem, I assure you! For me, the years of love are worth the pain of loss.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@satby: If he’s still on that crazy no-fat diet, I’m not surprised. I knew a woman who killed herself on a similar diet. She followed it so strictly that her cell walls started breaking down. Not enough fats coming in.
Patricia Kayden
@TS: Washington Post explains the falling out.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/03/this-is-why-donald-trump-is-so-mad-at-morning-joe/
Patricia Kayden
Anne, I have a comment in moderation. Thanks.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@satby: Will you still think it’s excellent when the Stanford study that proves election fraud dominates the news cycle today? The Stanford Study, Guccifer 2.0 and Julian Assange are going to bring the collusion between #NeverHillary and the Media out into the open. If you don’t believe me it’s because you’re a neoliberal shill for the establishment. #neverhillary #bernieorbust #iswearimnotcrazy
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Kathleen:
The last Bernfeeler dead ender in my FB feed was posting about a media report from Harvard that showed poor poor pure Bernie being the victim of a media blackout as evidence of a conspiracy. I pointed out that when he started to get media coverage he blew it big time like the NYDN interview which was disastrous. Silence. These pathetic cultists have all lost the plot.
danielx
NEED MOAR KITTENZ!!?!
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
If it weren’t for the last sarcastic hashtag, you’d be my FB feed Bernbot dead ender. Well done!!
Kathleen
@Iowa Old Lady: @Keith G: Next on Meet The Press, Bernie Sanders demands that Hillary Clinton produce baby’s birth certificate to prove she didn’t steal the child to battle claims she’s not likeable. Chuck Todd has the latest on Grandson Gate.
satby
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: how perceptive of you! Of course I’m a neoliberal shill for the establishment. I just got told so by another bro on the book of face.
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
Are you sure you’re not posting at kos under the names slinkerwink or Betty Pinson, Hamsher’s old paid posters? ‘Coz you’ve got the patter down….
LULZ
Paul in KY
@Cat48: I’m sure there’s a cat out there that would love to be adopted by you. Go ahead & do it.
Paul in KY
@RedDirtGirl: Happy Birthday to you also!!! Too!!!
Kathleen
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Sigh. I’m having a very difficult time letting go of Berni Bundy and his Band of Punks., whom I believe are a minority of his supporters. What makes me angrier is all the crap he’s gotten away with.
Paul in KY
@BillinGlendaleCA: How about both on there!
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: So we’re cultists now? I thought we were conspiracy theorists but now the orders from Debbie Wasserman Schultz is to call us cultists so of course you neoliberal shills take your orders like the good little establishmentarians you are. I will never support Clinton because she is a war monger who only wants to fight wars that I will never support. #neverhillary #elizabethwarrenisdeadtome #ithinkiwetmyself #yepiwetmyself
Paul in KY
@Keith G: I see that old SOB staying on till he dies.
TS
@Patricia Kayden:
Thanks – truly thin skin – upset by a minor negative comment – I could almost want him to be President to see the meltdown – but NO – not for any reason should he be in any position of political power.
MattF
Corey Lewandowski has been fired by the Trump campaign, this time for reals, apparently.
ETA: Senior Trump staffer comments: “Ding Dong, the witch is dead!”
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: How is it that in
169173 posts no one has thought to reply, Winter is coming–?Cue Ezra Pound:
Shell
La-di-dah La-di-dah. Funny how that bomb is always just about to drop….but never does.
Just One More Canuck
OT but Lewandowski is out as Trump’s campaign manager (per CNN)
#republicansindisarray
SiubhanDuinne
Woo! Just saw a CNN headline saying that Trump and Corey Lewandowski are “parting ways.”
Off to track details, if any are yet available.
Divf
Ok, you win.
Mike J
NYT front page, June 20, 1964 Civil Rights bill passed 73-27.
Shell
Forgot to add. Beautiful kittie!
Whats doing? Summery weather coming in. Wish I was down the Shore. Course the ocean temps are still in the low 60s.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@SiubhanDuinne: Holy shit! This is complete amateur hour. Why dump Lewandowski first thing Monday morning when you could have canned him at 4:59pm the previous Friday?
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill
@MattF:
The loyalty of Donald Trump to subordinates is obviously the best, the greatest.
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill
@satby:
If you want to giggle, go to the diary on dkos where the topic is the Congressional Black Caucus letter objecting to all of Bernie’s desired rule changes. According to the commenting BoBs, the CBC is just a mouthpiece for corporate interests.
Mike in NC
Latest news is that Drumpf is firing his campaign manager. Needs somebody more extreme?
hedgehog the occasional commenter
Squee kitteh!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Baud: Such a cheerful thought. Thanks, Baud.
Cute kitteh is cute.
Amir Khalid
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
Remember, among many many other things it lacks, the Donald’s campaign org does not have people to manage its communications. This is a natural consequence of its having no one in charge of a key area. Expect many more screwups like this between now and November.
RedDirtGirl
Thanks for the birthday wishes. Not only is it the solstice, but it’s also a full moon. Last time this happened was 70 years ago.
MattF
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill: Firing your campaign manager first thing Monday morning is a good way to prove you don’t have a Communications Director.
Uncle Cosmo
@magurakurin:
Erm…could someone kindly re-post the procedure for restoring a computer keyboard soaked in hot coffee? ;^D
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
I wondered if you were up late or up early, Sorry it appears to be the old insomnia. I was up for 90 minutes, but went back to bed successfully.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Since this is an open thread, I thought I’d leave some impressions of the Texas State Democratic Convention that was held in San Antonio this past weekend.
First, getting rid of the two-step (primary and caucus) was way overdue; it opened up the process to far more people, and I heard several references to this being one of the largest Texas state conventions ever (something on the order of 10,000 attendees).
This, of course, has its down sides. The Democratic Party is large and diverse and has many competing interests, and they don’t always see eye-to-eye. We have both pro-life and pro-choice caucuses, a gun enthusiasts caucus, a technology caucus, a fair trade caucus, etc. The second general session on Saturday got a bit testy, but I’m proud to report no chairs got thrown (or waved menacingly in the air). The Berners got their buttons punched big time when Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson stood up at the podium and announced that she was a superdelegate and was voting for Hillary. The Berners had also introduced a petition (authored by former Texas state representative Glen Maxey) to reduce the number and influence of superdelegates, but one of the Berners moved to change the language so that instead of “no more than 10% of total delegates may be superdelegates” it would read “0% of delegates would be superdelegates”, which of course pissed off everybody since it a) wouldn’t pass, and b) would leave the Democratic party open to a Trump-like candidate. Then there was a drawn-out argument over whether you could even submit a motion to change the language of the petition. The unaltered petition was approved.
A bit of humor – the wording of the petition would have banned as superdelegates corporate lobbyists from companies such as Pfizer, and poor Gilberto Hinojosa couldn’t say “Pfizer” to save his life, finally spelling it out. When people started yelling at him, he replied, “Hey, I’m an old Mexicano from South Texas, I’m doing the best I can!”
There was drama with the delegate selection process; one Bernie delegate from Senate District 25 was struck because Sanders representatives on the nominations committee saw an interview he gave with the San Antonio Express-News where he said that, reality being what it was, he may have to support Hillary. The SD25 precinct chair moved to have him restored to the list of delegates, but the voice vote was too close to call. It was getting to the point where they would have to send people through the crowd to count individual votes, which would have taken an hour at least. In the end, the struck delegate announced that he would not challenge the substitution, and the whole thing went away.
Sat in on the fair trade caucus presentation against the TPP. They love the President, but this is a bad deal economically and environmentally, and should be shitcanned ASAP. As one of the presenters pointed out, trade deals shouldn’t only protect American workers, they should protect the workers in all of the countries that sign on. The best line of the presentation came from Congressman Lloyd Dogget, describing the relationship between labor and environmental groups in the caucus – “We can’t agree on everything, but we can agree to disagree agreeably”.
The Texas Freedom Network also gave a great presentation on how the Religious Right have hijacked “religious freedom” to push explicitly political agendas.
Friday’s general session was speeches speeches speeches. One of the funniest came from one of the Texas state representatives from San Antonio (sorry, didn’t get his name) – “My mother always said, ‘be careful where you lay down, Mijo, or you may wind up with fleas.’ The Republicans weren’t careful and woke up with a nasty red-headed Trump tick. You know what the Spanish word for ‘tick’ is? Garrapata! It means, ‘grab with the hands.’ Can you imagine being grabbed with those tiny hands?!”
There was also a great line from Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez: “I’m female, Hispanic, a lesbian, and a Democrat – how much more horrifying could I be to certain people?”
The stars of the show were the Castros. Joaquin was the convention chairman, and there’s a push to put Julián on the ticket as VP.
Lots of Hispanic speakers, and not just because of the South Texas demographic. It took me a while to catch on, but this was a very specific repudiation of Trump and the naked racism coming from that campaign.
In all, it was a mostly fun and educational experience. It also left me with the feeling that not only am I a bad Democrat, I’m a bad Texan and American for not being more aware and involved.
My problem is that I’m an introvert and a misanthrope, so “getting more involved” means doing things that are, to me, almost physically painful.
J R in WV
@debbie:
I’m thinking Azalea bushes out that low window. Kitty will be crazy over the bees and bumble-bees etc on those flowers.
J R in WV
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
You are no doubt certain that e-mail related indictments will be made public by the FBI later today, and Vince Foster indictments will be released by the FBI tomorrow.
But not.
ETA fix typo
catclub
@Baud:
Putting California early would be a MUCH bigger help to the establishment candidate than superdelegates.
Kicking NH and and Iowa to later ain’t gonna happen.
Chyron HR
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
I move to retroactively change the language of your post to, “Bernie is the greatest American in history and his supporters are SOOOOO hot.”
J R in WV
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
There’s a surprising amount of evidence in this post. Evidence of your ignorance, first because there were several debates, not an “only” debate!
Even more interesting, none of the debates were at 2 am in the continental US.
Because there were several of them with different starting times, I can’t be sure exactly where on Earth you were to see an American political debate start at 2 am, but way east of Washington DC.
Europe, eastern Europe, western Russia? No telling. But of course we know that Trump’s campaign manager has connections to, shall we call them questionable political agents in eastern Europe.
And speaking of hired, troll, how much are you worth to a political campaign? $0.15 a thread?
Gin & Tonic
@J R in WV: Since, IIRC, you are retired, today may be as good a day as any to take your snarkometer in for maintenance and recalibration.
Uncle Cosmo
@Elizabelle:
And the guy responsible for that is one Roone Arledge, the creator of “Wide World of Sports” at ABC, who was put in charge of the network’s news department–& immediately decreed (I paraphrase) Screw serving the public interest, this operation is going to start making money!
MobiusKlein
200th post: wooooo solstice from almost midnight sun in thingvailr Iceland. Well, it is cloudy all the time, so midnight undarkness. So have yourself a very merry roll nekid in grass at midnight tome!