From long-time commentor Roonie Roo:
RoonieRoo and Grumpy Code Monkey’s good humored reindeer Isaac.
… who seems to be thinkng, “Okay, but only because I love you guys more than my dignity… “
***********
What’s on the agenda for the start of a no-doubt-hectic week?
And a Modest Proposal that will not happen, but is amusing to contemplate:
Can somebody please make this happen pic.twitter.com/lSyCYNyo3s
— Rin Chupeco (@RinChupeco) December 19, 2016
rikyrah
Morning, Everyone???
rikyrah
Awe, the dog is adorable a good sport.????
Keith P.
Donald J. Trump sees your lack of celebrities and raises you a “this is as solemn event from which celebrities would detract”
rikyrah
Present temperature= -8 degrees???
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: He looks pretty miserable to me.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Our thermometer goes to zero. It’s below that.
JPL
@Keith P.: lol
In other words, the bribes about diplomatic jobs didn’t work. He really does sound like a nine year old.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: He’s alseeping!
JPL
Walter is the only dog that seemed happy wearing his Xmas hat. He felt pretty special.
Mustang Bobby
The proposal that Robert Reich talks about has been making the rounds on the Book of Face. I got it from actor Tim Guinee and passed it along. It reminds me of the counter-inauguration concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein in 1973 to protest the the re-upping of Nixon and his band of happy felons.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: That’s his story and he’s sticking to it.
NotMax
@raven
While visions of sugarbones danced in his head…
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Fellow felons!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: @NotMax: I thought he was fervently praying for an end to his torment.
Schlemazel
@rikyrah:
-11 here on the tundra but it is supposed to get into the 20s as the day goes on
BillinGlendaleCA
How California feels about the ShitGibbon.
Patricia Kayden
@Mustang Bobby: Leonard Bernstein was a pretty radical dude. That is awesome. Would be great if our big stars and celebrities held an alternate inauguration. Trump must be shown over and over again that the majority of us didn’t vote for him and do not support him in any way.
I hope at the very least that there are thousands of anti-Trump protesters out in force in D.C. during the inauguration to take the spotlight off his adoring supporters.
Patricia Kayden
@BillinGlendaleCA: My sentiments exactly.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: The seriousness of the job ends the next day
Hunt with the Trumps for $1million: President-elect is throwing a fundraiser the day after inauguration where donors can win the chance to go shooting with Donald’s sons
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4040272/Donald-Trump-throwing-fundraiser-sons-donors-shooting-Donald-s-sons.html#ixzz4THZAjdCa
Make Game Hunting Great again.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: That’s the offices of the LA Independent on Spring in DTLA.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Here’s hoping Dick Cheney goes.
ET
“Okay, but only because I love you guys more than my dignity… “ something never said by a cat.
NeenerNeener
God, those people are sooooo tacky. The Trumps, I mean.
In the grocery store check out line yesterday I saw a National Enquirer headline: “How President Trump plans to save 25 million jobs”.
My first thought was he’s going to shoot Pense in the head at the Inauguration, and then resign.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: …and the whole groups gets taken out by a pride of lions.
satby
So the nightmare becomes a done deal today and millions of people pinning their hopes on faithless electors finally have to face the reality. No words suffice.
JPL
@BillinGlendaleCA: When is Trump holding the news conference explaining how he plans to divest from his business.
CarolDuhart2
@JPL: Sour grapes to me. Everybody’s had some celebrities, going back to the Rat Pack at Kennedy’s Inauguration. And even before that, there were plenty of parties and gala entertainment. The only times there weren’t were times of war, like 1944 or perhaps 1916.
The Orange Cheeto will be forced to make to with military bands. Even local high school bands don’t want to go. They might be able to get a few church choirs from his deplorable base, but that’s just about it for music.
BillinGlendaleCA
@NeenerNeener:
Paul Ryan’s wet dream.
NeenerNeener
@JPL: Right after his first property on foreign soil is bombed and/or a rocket launcher takes out Ivanka’s plane on the runway at Orly airport. And not a minute before.
BillinGlendaleCA
@CarolDuhart2:
Since they can’t say no.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
DAMMIT! This is why BJ needs a like button!
BillinGlendaleCA
Not pet friendly.
BillinGlendaleCA
Getting chilly for LALAland, 33 degrees outside.
satby
@BillinGlendaleCA: -12 here. And I need to be able to get out today, to work and the store for dogfood.Dog does not live on cookies alone, though they’re all willing to try.
albertZ
@Schlemazel: LIKE
joel hanes
If the anti-Trump-inauguration concert happens, every act should sing the same song:
“Chain Of Fools”
which I nominate for the official epithet for the Trump
administrationGrifting Operation.Immanentize
@satby: I think people didn’t really believe the electors would change their votes. But it was interesting to think/fantasize about how it should work constitutionally speaking this time around.
I wonder if I will be more or less depressed once it is finally a done deal? I am Shooting for just old numb. Opioids to share, anyone? Bueller?
MomSense
@satby:
Makes you wonder why we keep the undemocratic EC.
Anyone else wishing they could dumb themselves down and care a lot less? The stupid people seem much happier since the election.
Kay
@Keith P.:
Yeah, right. He’s still holding campaign rallies where they scream “lock her up”. The AP described Trump as “gloating” which is accurate. There’s nothing positive about any of this- he’s as nasty and petty and small now as he was every day of that campaign. They can put all the lipstick they want on this pig- his own actions since election night show who and what he is.
My favorite are the petulant demands that we all treat him with respect. He’s disrespectful to everyone except his adoring fans but he feels he’s owed something by the rest of us.
Immanentize
@MomSense: Beat you to it. ?
Ignorance may well be bliss at this moment.
Baud
I support the counter-concert. Should also start planning a counter event for each of Trump’s SOTU’s.
Immanentize
@Baud: he will not do any SOTU addresses. The constitution just requires a report.
satby
@MomSense: I don’t know any Putinsbitch voters outside two coworkers, and not a peep has been heard out of either of them since the election. My FB feed is similarly quiet, and though I know some conservatives unfriended me, most are still there but also not talking about politics at all. It’s a bit strange, because the usual sharing of faux news has basically stopped and no gloating at all is in evidence.
I hope they’re afraid, and I suspect some are.
Baud
@Immanentize: Why would be refuse to go on TV?
Kay
@MomSense:
It won’t be as celebratory as other Presidents, though. He polls 10 or 20 points below other Presidents at this point after election. He’s not as popular and people aren’t as hopeful for his term as they have been for past presidents.
All his loyal liars will be out there spinning like mad but he hasn’t convinced anyone who didn’t vote for him with his actions since the election. He had a chance to- he chose instead to go on a gloating tour and continue his 24/7 nastiness.
JPL
@Immanentize: The egotist that thrives on attention, will give a SOTU address.
Baud
@satby: They should go all in. There’s no going back from this.
debbie
@JPL:
Fundraising for what, exactly?
rikyrah
@JPL:
Sigh.
Just loathesome ?????
Immanentize
@Baud: ok. Maybe he will do one. But he cannot control camera angles or production. He is not good at scripted settings or respecting institutions. He has to do more than just give his campaign speech (which is what I expect at the inaugural).
But maybe he will try it, just wing it, mock RBG for being old, and announce that we are bombing Egypt.
MomSense
@Immanentize</
We are so screwed.@satby: I wouldn’t mind if they felt some self loathing or at least embarrassed. Maybe they are starting to realize “shaking things up” is unpleasant.
Iowa Old Lady
@Keith P.: He didn’t want those grapes anyway!
debbie
@Immanentize:
Would he refuse an opportunity for the attention he’d get from the SOTU? I don’t think so.
MomSense
@JPL:
He’s going to have to use a TelePrompTer and the man can barely read.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: They will be YUUUUGE!! The CLASSIEST!!! Everybody will LOVE them!!!
Iowa Old Lady
@JPL: That is so preposterous that I wonder if the story is a spoof.
Immanentize
@debbie: will he mock all the people sitting in the house that he beat? “I see L’yin Cruz! And Little Marco! Where is Crooked Hillary? Ha ha ha. I beat them all, big league, didn’t I?”
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: That’s preposterous??!!
Kay
I might watch it just to see this fraud out there on his own without being propped up in a tv studio or surrounded by his adoring fans or children. I want to see Donald Trump give a speech all by himself, NOT in one of his own chosen venues and without the reality tv props- the big CEO conference table and all that bullshit stagecraft they’ve engineered for the last month.
He’s supposed to be the President of the United States. Is he afraid to come out and stand alone and face the majority who didn’t vote for him? The Tweets are so cowardly- he fires off a series of nasty comments and then hides from any questions on what he said. The coward hasn’t held a public press conference but he had a private off the record cocktail party for journalists. It’s time he stopped hiding. It’s not my job to make him feel comfortable. I don’t work for him.
JPL
@MomSense: Teleprompters are acceptable, as long as you are republican. The speech will be unpresidential. He’ll also talk about his magical ability to untheft jobs. Those tiny fingers can accomplish a lot.
Immanentize
@Kay: I am old enough to remember when the nation’s great papers spilled tons of ink, and TV spent huge chunks of revenue producing time, addressing the scandal of how Hillary would not hold a press conference and therefore was an elitist afraid to be properly vetted.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly: My thoughts exactly…let there be lots of drinking, let them forget to bring their bright orange stuff…
Baud
@Immanentize: I said the other day that if you want an apples to apples comparison of media bias, it’s the press conference issue.
Immanentize
@Baud: I missed you saying that, but you are (as usual) completely correct.
Jeffro
@Kay:
Yes.
I won’t be watching the inauguration…but I’ll hope for bitter cold weather and every other day-spoiling thing that could happen. I sure as heck would tune in to a counter-concert and donate oodles of bucks to those causes, though!
Kay
Coward. Has to be surrounded by loyalists or he gets anxious. It’ll be tough for the Trump Family when they figure out we don’t all work for them. I’m not one of their employees and I owe them nothing . I can’t wait until the giant pampered toddler encounters the usual disgruntled crowd of citizens.
I went along on an Obama campaign event in 2012. The motorcade entered this Ohio town where the Tea Party had (briefly, as it turned out) captured local government. They had screaming Tea Partiers lining the route 2 and 3 deep- crazy signs about Muslims, the whole works. Obama was unfazed- went and gave a hopeful speech and didn’t mention the opposition at all.
Kay
@Jeffro:
Considering how Obama was treated from Day One and how Team Trump continues to treat Clinton, no one should be at all hesitant to let Trump know they’re unhappy. This idea that there’s two sets of rules- Republicans behave one way and Democrats are ordered to behave another way- has to end.
Donald Trump has not made the slightest effort to “reach out”. The burden isn’t on us. It’s on him. It is literally his job to make an effort to bring in the majority who didn’t vote for him. If he doesn’t succeed that’s not on us- it’s on him.
Baud
@Kay: Too many people have taken our graciousness to mean that we are the abused spouse of American politics. Their beds are about to burn.
Kay
@Immanentize:
Remember the press conference clock? Now they wait in the lobby at Trump Tower dutifully participating in this reality show of a Presidency. Trump isn’t comfortable by himself – he sets these tv appearances up so he’s surrounded by people he summoned or surrounded by adoring fans. They have played along and let him get away with it.
Why did they attend the off the record media cocktail party? In what way did that possibly serve the public interest?
JPL
@Iowa Old Lady: You are going to feel bad, when they have to cancel. Now they won’t be able to give that big donation to St. Jude’s hospital.
Elizabelle
@Baud:
And their pockets are about to be emptier.
Where it’s possible, I am consciously spending my money in blue states. Had a chance to head to South Carolina last weekend for some sun, and just.could.not.do it.
Maybe the Trump yahoos can fill their hotels and restaurants.
Kay
@Baud:
I’m tired of being scolded. I have been gracious. I’m active in local Democratic politics and I’ve never carried an insulting sign or booed a Republican or threatened to lock anyone up. Yet I have been taking this abuse from Republican activists since 2000. I’m done with “gracious”. I don’t owe Trump anything. He works for me. He owes me.
debbie
@Kay:
Some sharks drown if they don’t keep swimming. Can Trump give a speech without adoration or thunderous applause?
JPL
@Baud: How about questioning why Trump didn’t release the past year of tax returns, They would not have been under audit then.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: No press conferences, no issue; genius!
Iowa Old Lady
@JPL: Mr IOL is sitting behind me, reading from his computer screen. He’s found some story that claims you can bid X number of dollars to shoot a bald eagle. I am reduced to praying that’s true.
rikyrah
@CarolDuhart2:
I thought that there would be plenty of country acts… Surprised that there are not.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: Come to California, it’s nice and sunny and as blue as can be(though there is this pack of snarling jackals).
Kay
@Baud:
Can you imagine if Obama had continued to attack McCain after the 2008 election? Held rallies to do it?
Sleazy Trump went out and was gossiping about Michelle Obama at one of his rallies. The fans booed, like he knew they would. So fucking gross and classless- he can’t even manage to lay off Obama’s wife. Has to bring up her name at one of his hatefests. He has a cowardly method for this, too. He mentions the name and when the angry crowd boos he tells them not to boo. It’s slimy as hell. He’s too fucking cowardly to attack the First Lady directly so he put her out there for the mob to attack.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: I am seriously thinking of moving there. Lived in Long Beach for a while, loved it.
The whole West Coast is marvelous.
I will let you know when I’m on my way, and we can do a meet up!
I love my sister dearly, but am thinking this is not the year I want to do a Confederate Christmas with my BIL. Too raw, and he is willfully ignorant.
matryoshka
I long for the day when billboards appear or memes circulate with the shitgibbon’s face and the words “You’re FIRED!” Eventually even the rubiest rubes will enjoy firing a millionaire. And then we can have a rational conversation about why you can’t run a nation like a business, because a nation is not a business.
rikyrah
@Kay:
You are correct about them demanding respect.
PHUCK OUTTA HERE
This isn’t 2000, where the old norms of “respecting the office” still applied.
After they’ve spent 8 years disrespecting President Obama, phuck ’em.
We earned them, and now we have 8 years of receipts.
And they chose a rotten human being “elected” through treason against American sovereignty.
debbie
@Kay:
Trump’s been like this, very publicly so, since the late 1970s. People show you who they are. I don’t know why anyone would expect him to behave any differently than he has for the last 40 years.
Kay
@debbie:
Take him out of that tower or in front of an adoring crowd or coddled by cable anchors and let’s see the big strong man without the props. He’s afraid to appear by himself in a venue he can’t control. Eventually they’ll have to send him out alone.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: We had one of them meetups yesterday, Oppiejeane was in town.
MomSense
@Kay:
I hope it’s a blustery, blustery day. May have to look at the screen just to see his alleged hair fly the wrong way revealing his baldness. If it’s raining then some poor service men will have to hold umbrellas for him and then the media and conservatives will fail to screech about it and I’ll want to throw things.
rikyrah
@Kay:
And we need the names of every journalist that went to that farce
???
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Seriously. You’re right.
We want names.
Iowa Old Lady
@matryoshka:
Exactly. A business provides a service or product in order to make money. Money is the goal. If GM could make more money by ceasing to make cars, they’d cease making cars.
A country takes in money in order to serve the needs of the people. Money is the means.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Best comment since November 8th.
Bravo.????
Kay
@rikyrah:
Trump himself took “norms” off the table. He’s conducting a campaign tour here they chant “lock her up” AFTER the election. No one ordered him to do that. There’s consequences for actions. He behaves disrespectfully towards others so he hasn’t earned respectful treatment. That’s the rule and it’s always been the rule. No exceptions for the Trump Family. They’re sleazy. If they want respect they’ll have to learn how to act.
Ella in New Mexico
It looks like Dumbhole is going to be reduced to having his personal protective service rushing out ahead of his entrance at the various Inaugeral celebrations with a boom box blasting Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be and American” on replay.
But I think the “Freedom Concert” idea is awesome. Even better, what if a few brave souls agreed to perform at The inauguration and instead of praising and celebrating, grabbed the mic and used it to protest him and his shitty values instead?
Hubby said he thinks Trump would find a way throw them in jail. And we’d have our nations very own “Pussy Riot” incident.
Incredibly humiliating optics, any of the three above scenarios would be.
debbie
@MomSense:
I didn’t even think of that! Imagine the solemnity preserved with a baseball cap!
Steeplejack (tablet)
@satby:
I just got on the Google and ran the numbers. It looks like voter turnout was 58% in this election. Trump’s percentage of the vote was 46%. So that means that 27% of all eligible voters put Trump in the White House.
Cue the Twilight Zone music.
Ella in New Mexico
It looks like Dumbhole is going to be reduced to having his personal protective service rushing out ahead of his entrance at the various Inaugeral celebrations with a boom box blasting Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American” on replay. Until the audiences ears start bleeding.
But I think the “Freedom Concert” idea is awesome. Even better, what if a few brave souls agreed to perform at The inauguration and instead of praising and celebrating, grabbed the mic and used it to protest him and his shitty values instead?
Hubby said he thinks Trump would find a way throw them in jail. And we’d have our nations very own “Pussy Riot” incident.
Incredibly humiliating optics, any of the three above scenarios would be.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Just to be safe, my policy since the election is to only watch Joy Reid.
Baud
@rikyrah: Coming from you, that’s a real honor.
debbie
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Hmm, that percentage rings a bell.
Iowa Old Lady
@Kay: Not to mention that Trump wants respect because he will be president when he spent years claiming the current president isn’t an American.
Adrift
@Immanentize:
which is a shame as I was looking forward to a “YOU LIE!” moment.
MomSense
@debbie:
INORITE!! Either he exposes the great shame and insecurity of his vanity or he looks like a douchebag at his own solemn gathering. Pray for wind everyone. Pray for wind.
Kay
If this were a Democrat every single op ed piece would be about how the Democrat had to reach out. Does Trump not have to reach out because the people who voted against him are less important than GOP voters? Not as important a demographic? Lesser citizens? Why isn’t he being scolded by the media for these kinds of numbers? The only voters who matter are older white people?
Jeffro
@Baud:
100% this. We have absolutely nothing to lose, so now they get to see how they like it. And unfortunately, even that’s not a fair comparison – opposition to Obama was based on senseless fear and racism. Opposition to Trump is sheer patriotism.
debbie
@MomSense:
Perhaps they’re building a DopeMobile to protect him from any breezes.
MomSense
@debbie:
DopeMobile!! hahaha!
MomSense
@Kay:
This is the umpteenth billion example of Republican Rules. They get to play a completely different game than we do.
Jeffro
@Kay:
You know, this is interesting…I’ve been kicking around an idea for a book where I’d essentially “flip it”: have Dems doing the things that Reps do (and get away with), and vice versa. Not sure if the audience is to rile up Dems, get Reps to see the light (lol), get the media to quit excusing Reps and/or making false equivalencies all the time. Your example is a great one. I was picturing Dems blocking the debt ceiling – can you imagine the shock and outrage from Republicans? Lots of great examples already and the Trump era (crosses self) will no doubt provide many more.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Iowa Old Lady:
The “Bald Eagle” package ($1 million) allows 16 people to have their picture taken with Trump and then go on a hunting expedition with Uday or Qusay. No eagles will be shot, at least not intentionally (or maybe just not on camera).
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: We don’t count, Kay.
Iowa Old Lady
@Steeplejack (tablet): That didn’t work out well for those hunting with Cheney.
Jeffro
@Adrift: Just picturing Trump trying to give a SOTU is making me laugh (grimly, but still)…it’d be like a second grader trying to give a well-structured oral report on macroeconomic trends, or like me trying to review a recent discovery in particle physics…
Adrift
@Jeffro: Grimly is the correct word, but at least it’s a laugh. I don’t think he could control his temper in that situation and he will be quite surprised to find out he can’t have a congressman thrown out or incite the audience to beat them up.
ETA: and the post-SOTU tweets would be delicious.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Got all the way down to 32, brrrrrr!
gogol's wife
@Kay:
That’s exactly how I feel. We are all Farrah Fawcett now!
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Iowa Old Lady:
Hey, it was just one old guy! C’mon, everybody’s going to have a small percentage of people shot in the face.
Kay
This whole frame is nonsense and I refuse to go along. I’m not judging Trump by the color of his skin or his last name or the size of his bank account. I’m judging him by the content of his character as expressed through his actions. That’s all anyone can ask, Donald Trump included.
He’s disreputable. He’s earned that thru lying constantly and cheating people. I’m allowed to make a distinction between reputable people and disreputable people. I have to- if I don’t there’s no incentive for anyone to care about their reputation and they can and will behave horribly. I’m permitted to see a bad person and say “that’s a bad person”. I can make those distinctions and I won’t be scolded into treating him as if he’s reputable or credible.
Liars aren’t credible. That’s the price they pay for lying. He should pay the same price anyone else does.
BillinGlendaleCA
@gogol’s wife:
I hope not, cause I visited her grave recently.
Kay
@gogol’s wife:
I didn’t tell Ivanka and the boys to sit in on meetings. They’re adults. They make choices. It looks to me like Donald Trump is afraid to meet with people without his fawning children or an adoring crowd acting as a buffer. I didn’t tell any of them to do this- they do it themselves. This whole elaborate stage set is about protecting the giant toddler. There’s no rule that says I have to pretend I don’t see it. I don’t care what he’s “comfortable” with- I’m not his assistant.
Kathleen
@Kay: Yes. Only white rethuglican voters count.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Kathleen:
AKA, the 27%.
BillinGlendaleCA
LALAland in warmer days.
OzarkHillbilly
@efgoldman: Au contraire, he has run many businesses…. Right into the ground.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: If an airline had his record, it’d go out of business. Oh, that’s right; his airline did go out of business.
Patricia Kayden
@debbie: Why are you assuming that Republicans wouldn’t give him the thunderous applause he so craves?
Martha
@Kay: Yes this exactly. Anyone with whom I’ve talked to about this in public (other than my husband and close friends…then it’s a whole different language!) I emphasize this point. And also the titanic ironies of the Rs and “good Christians” supporting such a moral and ethical reprobate.
matryoshka
@efgoldman: I know! That makes the tragedy even more tragic.
@Kay: I hope a congresscritter screams “You lie!” when he addresses them.
Jeffro
Not sure what the hell is going on with the WaPo today:
Headline #1: “Washington’s Most Exclusive Meeting: Daily Intelligence Briefing May Lose Some of Its Luster Under Trump”
Headline #2: ” White House North: will Trump Tower be the Epicenter of the Trump Administration”?
Let’s just update those a bit…
Headline #1: “Trump Endangers Nation Daily, Claims No Need for Briefings as He Is ‘Smart’ ”
Headline #2: “Man-Baby Refuses Traditional Home of Presidency, Costs Taxpayers $1M Daily”
Chris
@efgoldman:
Virtually every conservative idea these days comes with the following two-tiered problem:
1) “That would be a stupid thing to do even if you could be trusted to do it right.”
2) “You can’t even be trusted to do it right.”
Overthrowing Saddam and installing a democracy would’ve been a stupid idea even in the best of circumstances, as it involved divesting resources from a war against the enemy that had attacked us on 9/11 and putting serious strain on our alliances in the Gulf by removing a buffer with Iran. It was, of course, nowhere near the best of circumstances, as conservative enslavement to the dictates of their ideology (running the war on the cheap, firing or ignoring all experts and especially those with ties to the Clinton admin, turning it into a proof-of-concept for mad social scientists like Grover Norquist) pretty much guaranteed that things would go tits-up.
Making budget deficit reduction our number one priority would be a stupid idea on general principle, because the budget deficit is rarely our biggest problem and there are frequently problems that can’t be fixed without running deficits. But, of course, even if it were a praiseworthy goal, you can’t trust conservative politicians to meet it: their combo of tax cuts and security spending, to say nothing of things like corporate welfare or their puritan programs (like drug-testing welfare recipients) that cost more money than they save, have never done anything more than send the deficit skyrocketing.
Prioritizing ending abortion over all other considerations is a terrible idea, being that it effectively ends a woman’s right to control her own bodily functions. But even if it were a praiseworthy idea, conservative “pro life” politics have never actually ended abortion, only sent it into a Prohibition-like underground where it’s done less safely and costs lives of both “the unborn” and the women involved.
Etc, etc, etc. “Run the nation like a business” is just another example: 1) terrible idea in its own right, because neither a nation nor a government are anything like a business, and 2) they [Trump is far from the first Republican who was a terrible businessman before going into politics] can’t even run a business in the first place.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
Yes.
rikyrah
@Iowa Old Lady:
The mere thought of that is disgusting.
J R in WV
@Kay:
And I’m afraid the innocent and naive protesters in DC will be stomped to death – not by DC cops – but by supporters of Trump there to celebrate the end of equality in America. They will be inclined to take the re-establishment of inequality into their own hand – er, boots after seeing Trump take that oath.
Of course, Trump has probably taken an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth many times. This time he takes an oath to preserve and defend a document, the Constitution, that as nearly as anyone can tell he has never read – never!
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
Half the room will be silent. That is all he will see.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
I wonder if it might be the other way around: his fawning children know he is mentally ill and/or has dementia and they’re afraid to have him meet with other people alone. IOW, they’re functioning as his keepers.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Setting aside the optics of shooting down the symbol of the United States of America …
I’d love them to be stupid enough to do this, but I find this hard to believe.
danielx
@rikyrah:
Only 0 here, but definitely cold enough to do the boiling water trick.
I was thinking more along the lines of “okay, you’ve made me look like a fool, now if you will leave me to my nap, nobody will get hurt.”
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
The Tillerson Reveal: Tax Evasion and a Russian Connection
by David Atkins
December 18, 2016 6:14 PM
If Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson is confirmed after this latest news, it will mean Republicans have no shame at all:
I would feel a little bit bad about using anonymously leaked documents to discover how our new overlords are abusing us, but….well, you know.
So, let’s see. Oil company CEO? Check. Direct ties to Russian oligarchs? Check. Using a Caribbean tax haven to cheat taxes? Check.
JPL
@Jeffro: We need to give him a chance, just like the repubs gave Obama a chance.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Jeffro:
Those, especially the first, are examples of normalizing the authoritarian, which we have been warned about. “Dear Leader doesn’t do the intelligence briefings, therefore they are not important.”
phoebes from highland park
@MomSense: Well, I sure hope the day AFTER is warm – as it can be in DC – because I’m coming to town on a bus, with thousands of others to march in protest.
rikyrah
Hmmph
The Republicans’ Desperate Apartheid Calculus
by David Atkins
December 17, 2016 7:55 PM
…………………………………
The Republican approach to power dynamics here more resembles asymmetric warfare than traditional political conflict: parties that expect to regain power once they have lost it don’t typically behave this way, because they know that bad behavior can become a precedent used against them that will make it difficult for them to govern when they return to power. The Republican strategy here only makes sense if they expect never to regain power once they have lost it.
There’s a good reason for this, of course. In states like North Carolina, the demographic tide is working against Republicans. There are fewer rural angry whites, and an increasing number of more liberal, younger, browner, better educated and more urban voters moving in. The Republican Party in states like North Carolina has made it a priority to restrict access to the voting booth in a desperate play to prevent their own electoral collapse. Their attempts to disenfranchise poor and minority voters were so egregious that the Supreme Court had to step in to stop them.
There is a precedent for this sort of political desperation: apartheid South Africa. South African whites knew that to allow true democracy in the colonial nation would mean their permanent disempowerment. Their reaction was to violate international norms and become a pariah in order to hold onto power that, once lost, would never return. Political factions with a legitimate claim on power and a reasonable argument for the majority of the public know they can temporarily give up control in a democracy and win the next time around.
But Republicans know that absent some sea change that improves their numbers among women and minority voters, they cannot expect to regain power once states like North Carolina are lost to them. And they know that they cannot count on flukes like Donald Trump’s narrow electoral college victory for long as the map continues to shift away from them.
That’s what makes the current incarnation of the Republican Party so dangerous. They have total control now, but they know their time is limited if elections remain fair. They’re reduced to the apartheid calculus: either implement authoritarian control, or watch everything they have worked for disappear in four to eight years, perhaps forever.
rikyrah
Trump’s Most Dangerous Lies
There’s an insidious strategy behind these falsehoods.
by Anne Kim
December 19, 2016
Advisers to President-elect Donald Trump have given the press and the public some remarkable advice: to take “seriously” but not “literally” the words of the next leader of the free world.
This formulation – first articulated by reporter Selena Zito – was originally an effort to explain why so many of Trump’s obviously outlandish statements didn’t seem to bother his supporters (“he doesn’t really mean to build a wall…”). But it’s since become the mantra of Trump’s boosters to justify the mix of half-cocked 3 a.m. Twitter rants, conspiracy theories, half-truths and outright falsehoods that seem to comprise the bulk of Trump’s communications with the public. As Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager, put it: “This is the problem with the media. You guys took everything Donald Trump said so literally. And the problem with that is the American people didn’t.”
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Trump: “The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history.” (Trump transition team statement, Dec. 11, 2016)
Truth: Trump’s electoral college victory ranks 46th out of 58.
Trump: (On the hacking of the DNC) – “They have no idea if it’s Russia or China or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed some place.” (Fox News Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016)
Truth: U.S. intelligence officials know exactly which Russian officials were behind the hacking of the DNC.
Trump: “I will be holding a major news conference in New York City with my children on December 15 to discuss the fact that I will be leaving my great business in total in order to fully focus on running the country in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” (Twitter, Nov. 30, 2016)
Truth: Trump’s business empire is staying in the family.
Trump: “Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!” (Twitter, Dec. 6, 2016)
Truth: There is no current contract for this amount with Boeing.
Trump: “The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!” (Twitter, Dec. 2, 2016)
Truth: Trump’s call with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen was months in the making with cooperation from both sides.
Trump: “…I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally” (Twitter, Nov. 27, 2016)
Truth: There is no evidence whatsoever of any sort of widespread voter fraud.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: They need to be fired and replaced .
Elizabelle
@O. Felix Culpa:
I think that is what is happening.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: Wait. By who? Another Kellyanne Conway type? Dangerous advice.
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
Lots of research in there to show that Trump tells lies.
I have a simpler approach:
I know Trump is lying if his lips are moving!!
RoonieRoo
@OzarkHillbilly: He was half asleep at the time.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: Out of the frying pan and into the fire!
SiubhanDuinne
@J R in WV:
I said a week or two ago that even as he speaks the Oath of Office he will be committing perjury.
(Will he be placing his hand upon a first edition of The Art of the Deal, do you suppose?)
rikyrah
@J R in WV:
That’s my approach too.
HRA
@O. Felix Culpa:
I am trending towards the same belief of his children sitting in by knowing they cannot trust him. It may well be that it’s pure ignorance on his part or your thought on a medical problem.
rikyrah
Homemade car windshield de-icer
MrSnrub
@matryoshka: I wouldn’t want the country run by any business I’ve worked for.
Sometimes I marvel at how businesses stay in business at all.
burnspbesq
@Immanentize:
Bull. No one is that old. That was almost half a Friedman Unit ago.
debbie
@rikyrah:
I think I read that rubbing alcohol dries out the rubber thing holding the windshield. Prestone makes a spray de-icer that works great.
O. Felix Culpa
@HRA:
Alas, those are not mutually exclusive options. He is ignorant…and he may well have serious physiological mental disorders.
MomSense
@phoebes from highland park:
Hey I was asked to knit a bunch of pu$$yhats for that event. Finishing my Christmas knitting today and then it’s all pu$$ies for me.
They are hot pink hats with cat ears. I’m going to make one for myself and a few friends to wear in solidarity with the marchers.
liberal
@MrSnrub: Agreed.
liberal
@Martha:
People need to start labeling the Fundies for what they really are: fucking perverts.
opiejeanne
@Keith P.: Those grapes were probably sour anyway.
opiejeanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: it’s 35 here, at 10:22am.
opiejeanne
@debbie: For the Trumps.
opiejeanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: That’s opiejeanne. :-)
opiejeanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: It was 12 here last night. The sun is out so it’s 33, which is the projected high.
Stan
@Kay:
Holy Godwin! What is the group of leibstandardten called? Sturmabteilung?