From long-term commentor and Walter-adopter Debit:
This is Oscar. While he’s not wearing a demeaning hat or little outfit, he is posed so the decorative tree gives him some dramatic back lighting.
Oscar is a long term, probably permanent foster. My boss was diagnosed with liver cancer earlier this year, and her daughter moved in to help with care. The daughter’s cat, Oscar, didn’t get along with the mom’s cats, so I volunteered to take him. He’s settled in to our house and family, and I say probably permanent foster since a) my daughter loves him beyond all reason, and b) any animal that enters this house stays forever, no matter what the original foster time frame might have been.
***********
It has been ten days of non-stop First World Problems around here, culminating (please Murphy the Trickster God) with some outpatient surgery for the Spousal Unit later today. With luck and positive thoughts, I’ll see you all eventually…
What’s on the agenda for the day?
NotMax
Is this any way to run a business? Uber’s losses from January through September total at least $2 billion.
BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Wait, Trump runs Uber?
MazeDancer
How wonderful of debit to give another sweet animal a home!
May all be well with your husband, Anne Laurie
Betty Cracker
Wishing a full and speedy recovery for your hubby!
EBT
@NotMax: This feels good to me.
OzarkHillbilly
Good luck to your husband, Anne.
Baud
All the best to AL’s man.
Morning, rikyrah.
rikyrah
Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
Debit-you are good people ???
Baud
@NotMax: Someone’s CEO needs to be made Secretary of Transportation ASAP.
rikyrah
AL,
Positive thoughts and prayers are being sent to Mr. AL,???
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: @Baud: It’s the hot new investment.
BillinGlendaleCA
Hey gang, I’ve updated my annual album of Christmas pics, Wonderful Christmastime(no the song doesn’t play on an endless loop, or at all for that matter).
ETA: I took a trip up to Los Angeles’ Mayberry, aka Montrose for their Christmas lights.
OzarkHillbilly
Arctic ice melt ‘already affecting weather patterns where you live right now’
Clearly what we need is to burn more oil, gas, and coal.
Michael Bersin
I covered the Elector protest in Jefferson City yesterday. Most of the protesters were outside lining the sidewalk near the underground parking entrance to the capitol. It was cold, around 12 degrees when we got there around 11:00 a.m. Interestingly, there was a Russian theme to the day.
Have a Great Day!
The reactions of Trump true believers made the whole effort well worth it.
Mustang Bobby
Best wishes to your Spousal Unit, AL.
Counting down the days until I take off for the long weekend to visit Mom and Dad in Cincinnati. Two of my three siblings will be there so it will be nice for the parents to have the kids around for a day. Dad’s having memory issues so we try not to overload his hard drive with too much data.
I’ll be back in warmer climes by Monday night and then settle in for two weeks of loafing, writing, and car maintenance. The Mustang is getting a complete new top since you can’t just replace the rear window glass in a convertible. Fortunately it’s covered under the comprehensive clause (minus the deductible); a new top costs more than what we paid for my first Mustang in 1969. The Pontiac wagon gets a new power steering pump and headlight alignment.
I’ve decided that I will give the new president as much respect and deference as the Republicans gave President Obama. It’s only fair, right?
J.
I think Time should have made Debit Person of the Year.
Betty Cracker
@Michael Bersin: Nice write-up and photos!
Schlemazel
AL – hope your old man has an easy time of it and you guys are getting back to a better streak soon!
I am proud to have debit as a ‘neighbor’ obviously a person with a great heart.
MomSense
Debit you really are the best. AL sending best wishes to the spousal unit for a successful surgery and speedy recovery.
RSR
Oscar! That’s our youngest’s name. (human kid, sorta like a pet, but costs more)
Betty Cracker
@J.: Co-signed — a much superior choice to the hirsute, screeching jack-o-lantern!
satby
All the best wishes for a quick recovery for the Spousal Unit!
Good morning to rikyrah and everyone!
I got the news my youngest son, his gf, and their dog and cat are coming up to spend Christmas with me; we’ll run over to Chicago for brunch with oldest son and daughter-in-law on Christmas day. So I’m happy, because I haven’t seen #2 son for about a year. It’s the first Christmas in about four years they’re both going to be here. May even have a foster son sighting too.
MomSense
@Michael Bersin:
Well done!
MomSense
@satby:
Satby that is great news. Happy for you.
Baud
@satby: That’s wonderful, satby. Sounds like a good time.
Elizabelle
@Michael Bersin: Proud of you for protesting.
JPL
Anne, We’ll be thinking of you.
@BillinGlendaleCA: Thank you for sharing your photos with us.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I’ve had hemorrhoids that would have been a superior choice for person of the year … Or for president.
OzarkHillbilly
@Michael Bersin: Makes me sorry I missed it.
Central Planning
Hey, Alain, the cat picture above shows up rotated 90 degrees clockwise on my iPhone 7. My old iPad too.
Michael Bersin
@Betty Cracker:
You had to have been there. The righteous indignation on the part of some of the Trumpistas is amazing. I’ve been covering this kind of thing for a long – the Trumpistas can’t handle any opposition. It absolutely sets them off.
Michael Bersin
@OzarkHillbilly:
An important thing about protest: one person with a sign (make it a good one, poster board, 4 to five inch high block letters, filled in with solid color) has a huge visual impact. You don’t need a special occasion or a special invitation. I did this from 2003 to 2005 for hundreds of marches, protests, and vigils, many times on my own.
ThresherK (tablet)
Good luck AL on family surgery.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Nice. Not going to get to see my youngest this year. He had tentative plans to come up but I don’t think they have financially recovered from the flooding yet.
OzarkHillbilly
@Michael Bersin: I’ve been to a couple. I always feel a little uncomfortable because of my inability to “fit in”. I think for me, discomfort will be the new norm, whether I like it or not.
Betty Cracker
@Michael Bersin: I’ve noticed that too — they’re like cultists and cannot bear any suggestion that Cheeto Benito is a fraud. They’ll need to develop thicker skins.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Welcome to my world.
debbie
@Baud:
I’m surprised all of these CEOs are willing to sell off assets to avoid conflicts.
MomSense
There are rumors that Bocelli is not going to sing for der trump. Ha! Guess it’s that former voice competitor.
Iowa Old Lady
@Betty Cracker: Their touchiness suggests we hit a nerve when we point out Trump’s insanity. They see it, but can’t admit it even to themselves.
Baud
@MomSense: Oh good. I didn’t want to hate Bocelli (although I was willing to give him a bit of a pass since he’s not American).
debbie
@satby:
What a nice surprise! Hope the iciness stays away.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: I don’t know. I think they just don’t like it when people don’t respect their authority.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah, that stinks. Mine moved from CA to Kentucky a couple of months ago because his gf trains racehorses; he’s going to try to get a job at the Toyota plant nearby. He liked living in CA, but it’s just too expensive; and it was too expensive for me to go visit. Once I could have afforded it, he moved. I’m glad it’s going to be easier to see him more often.
debbie
@Michael Bersin:
Pity there weren’t a bunch of “No, No, No” guys there to counter the Trumpsters. That’d really piss them off.
ETA: I like the idea of signs in Russian. Trumpsters need to get used to that. Second languages are tough for older brains. They’ll need practice.
MomSense
@Baud:
I hope artists continue to shade him.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Your sarcasm is noted.
JPL
@debbie: When they sell of their assets and put them in a blind trust, you don’t have to pay taxes. Also they understand that their assets might be worthless after Trump’s presidency.
debbie
@JPL:
It’s only money. I think most CEOs enjoy the power of their position even more.
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: I think that’s true. And that they know that they’re in a minority and they resent it.
Botsplainer
So MoJo got a recording of Mulvaney’s speech to the JBS. He is going to be Trump’s budget director.
It is even stupider than you think.
rikyrah
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Thank you for sharing your pictures with us.???
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: I don’t for a second believe that these trusts they are putting their assets into are any blinder then they are. Considering who they are going to work for, a wink and a nudge is all it will take. These people are not patriots, they are in it for the money.
rikyrah
@satby:
Sounds like a great Christmas for you ???
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Con man grifters all the way.
rikyrah
@satby:
And, they can’t stand that we are not just falling into line like they thought we would.
debbie
@Botsplainer:
Well, then. I’ll enclose a note with my tax returns: “The bitcoin are in the mail.”
Baud
@debbie: Money is fungible. It’s not like they are taking vows of poverty.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Ironic, since they refused to, also.
Gindy51
@OzarkHillbilly: The powers that be, who selected the thing we will have as president for the next who-knows-how-long, need that oil and gas to keep coming or they will lose their shirts, pants, socks and underwear. Petrodollars are what keep Russia a float and THAT is why they infiltrated our election, not some slight towards Clinton or any other reason. They need their investors to suck up their product and when they lose their shirts (as they will) the fossil fuel folks will laugh all the way to the bank.
The oligarchs and their US counterparts are scared to DEATH the Carbon Bubble will pop too soon for them to extract every last cent, ruble whatever they can. It’s coming and sooner than they wish, they know this so they have to keep the illusion of their viability alive and well to scam their investors. Look at how long it took Russia to sell some petro assets… way longer than it should have because the US slapped sanctions on Russia. Once the thing was selected, those assets started to sell. The illusion is secure as long as those in power are fossil fuel hacks and executives.
Google this title and read it, it makes more sense than anything else I have read about this monstrosity “Trump, Putin and the Pipelines to Nowhere”
Baud
@debbie: That’s the nature of privilege.
rikyrah
@debbie:
Oh, when we bring the 8 years of receipts collected throughout the Obama Presidency, they really get huffy.
Respect the office?
Like you have the previous 8 years?
He will get the same amount of respect that he showed President Obama during his racist Birther-in-Chief period.
PS-never forget to add Racist in front of Birther.
Steve in the ATL
@efgoldman:
I am so fucking sick of Berniebros.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gindy51: Yep, the motive behind everything they do: $$$$$$$$$$$$$
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: In my experience, the thing that really lands is suggesting that they’ve been hoodwinked by a known conman. Nobody likes getting played for a sucker, and boy, did they ever, and more evidence of it piles up every day. I’ve rolled my eyes at Trump-voting relatives and said, “You trusted a real estate developer?” That resonates here because everyone in Florida knows real estate developers are lying scumbags, LOL!
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I agree with going with the “you were conned” route.
Betty Cracker
@efgoldman: “Cult45” shall be the title of my comprehensive account of the Trumpocalypse.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Consider that stolen.
Kay
Kasich and the other Republicans delivered a “unity lecture” to the public yesterday. Trump has no responsibility in this, apparently. He can say and do whatever he wants and it’s wholly up to us to create “unity”.
It’s a complete capitulation to lower standards. They’re demanding much more from the public than they are from the President. Trump himself hasn’t done one thing to create “unity”- in fact he’s still running an ugly, divisive political campaign. We’re ordered to rise above that in the hope that if we pretend he’s a decent human being he’ll follow our example and treat others decently. They’ve removed him from the whole sphere of adult accountability.
BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL:
@rikyrah: Thanks, I enjoy taking them and sharing them. I was out cleaning the deep fryer, so I was away from the ol’ computer.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: Good morning.
Why “unfortunately”? They’re insufferable, from what we’ve seen here.
Jesus, I hope that doesn’t bring effing NR down on our heads. Too damn early.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay:
That’s because even Republicans know he’s not an adult.
Baud
@Kay:
He’s welcome to unify with us against Trump.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: Seems like Not Relevant is off the clock.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
You’re a funny guy, Baud.
Elizabelle
O Canada. Go Canada.
They’re giving us all a free national parks pass for 2017, to celebrate their 150th birthday on July 1.
But for the weather, they would never get us to leave.
Here’s the link to the pass information. It’s got this cute stylized beaver on it. Free entry to parks, but camping and activity fees remain.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: @Baud: It definitely pisses them off. Or at least it does when I do it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: I think we got a free weekend for our National Park Service Anniversary. We’re cheep bastards.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: It’s not like I’m asking Kasich to support Baud! 2020!…yet.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I went to a state Party meeting where Marcy Kaptur spoke and I was thinking about her as a kind of “real life Bernie Bro”- she works really hard to recruit Left/Labor candidates in Ohio and they run. She endorsed Sanders as you may recall. She was BernieBro before there were BernieBros.
I have personally been involved in races for two of her candidates. We haven’t won any. I think Bernie Bros have to explain that to me. She’s Toledo. It doesn’t get any more WWC than that. She’s powerful too- along with Sherrod Brown she’s often the only national Democrat at these meetings. There literally ARE no “neoliberals” standing in her way. The Great Lakes races that are coming up are wide open. The state Parties are shattered and dejected. If they want to take over and run races in MI, OH and WI they should have at it. It’s ripe for the picking. No one is stopping them from testing this theory.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Heh.
Patricia Kayden
Hoping that Mr. AL’s surgery goes smoothly and he recuperates quickly.
@Kay: Where was Kasich’s unity speech during the Obama years? I must have missed it in between President Obama being called a liar during his first SOTU and McConnell promising to make him a one-term President.
Baud
@Kay: The long, invisible arm of DWS continues to hang over them like the Scythe of Death.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: Will they go away if they lose?
Kay
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I refuse. It feels like propping him up. Screw that. It’s time he accepted responsibility for his own actions. It’s not my job to be the better person in a relationship with the President. I don’t have a relationship with him. I believe he is currently on a national tour jeering at me. Maybe they should direct these lectures at him.
MomSense
@BillinGlendaleCA:
It was a whole week! I took my youngest and visited two. Happily it was school vacation week. We danced salsa at the visitor’s center in Lowell with a bunch of kids from the local schools. I heard so many languages spoken that day. Seems like a lifetime ago now.
Patricia Kayden
@Betty Cracker: Calling Trump a conman is perfect because he’s not going to fulfill any of his fantastic promises, i.e., build the wall, jail Secretary Clinton, kick out all illegal immigrants, etc. Just ask Trump supporters what they expect him to do to better their lives. He’s not going to do a thing for them. He’s going to help his 1% buddies save taxes, off shore their earnings, protect their assets from the government, etc. That’s about it.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: Cheap is good, just be nice and polite too.
I’ve ordered my pass. Tra la tra la. Keeping the passport close at hand too.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: And we heard pretty much the same thing with Jr. 16 years ago, I agree.
Elizabelle
Love the pic of Oscar with the Christmas lights decoration. Quite elegant.
Pets do love chez Debit.
Your tree decoration reminds me of a luminary, out on the cold white snow.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: The kid has a US national park pass since she’s veteran. Though we haven’t been with her on any excursions.
JPL
The President-elect feelings were hurt
Let’s just call him the toddler who took over America.
Kay
@Baud:
One thing she said was true. She said Clinton came to the Toledo rail station and talked about Warren Buffett. That was part of the “Trump is outside the norm” messaging. She said very few people in that crowd would know who Warren Buffett is or care what he said if they did know. That’s true. Democrats have to get over the idea that these people are “validators”, that we’re all just waiting for elite validation of our candidates. It makes them sound out of touch, like they live on the editorial pages of the NYTimes. Drop the Tom Friedman references. Just remove these people from the vocabulary. No one cares what they think.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: The National Parks are one of the best things ever about the US of A.
We have to keep them safe and available for everyone. No changing the rules to allow guns, etc.
Stand your National Park. And state ones too. Parks rule.
Elizabelle
@JPL: Toddler in Chief.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Graciousness, good sportsmanship, humility and public-spiritedness seem to be utterly foreign concepts to Trump and his obnoxious minions. You’re right — they’re on a national “nyah-nyah-nyah!” tour, and they lie about the election results at every opportunity, as if saying they won in a landslide enough times might make it so. Screw that whole bunch. They’ll have my respect when they earn it, which will be never.
Kay
@JPL:
Trump is petty and small. However. We must rise above the President of the United States and be the better man.
Fucking ludicrous. You can’t be a leader and order people to behave better than you do. That won’t work.
Baud
@Kay: That’s fair. I just don’t know what people do care about. It’s easy to tell people what not to do.
Betty Cracker
@JPL: Here was my reply on Twitter:
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden:
Not so sure about the last, I’d like to see the betting line on it.
Baud
@Kay:
Trump can’t be a leader. He won not by leading but by being an entertainer for people who want to enjoy hating others.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
The thing about Kasich was he learned. He grew. He started out as big an asshole as Trump but he was smart enough to change. Part of the reason he had to change was the public revolted. They didn’t give him a pass. He was headed for disaster. He was running around insulting people and pushing thru radical changes. He didn’t change because we coddled him. He changed because he was stopped on one of his big initiatives. It was literally humbling.
FlipYrWhig
@Kay: Virtually to a man, ahem, they are whiners, poseurs, and grad lounge armchair revolutionaries who romanticize class struggle because they think of it as a John Hughes-esque fable about the outcasts getting back at the rich kids.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: I really don’t think the ShitGibbon understands how short his leash can be. Congress has the power of the purse and there’s the 25th Amendment, Section 4.
FlipYrWhig
@BillinGlendaleCA: You mean not “lose” but “get stabbed in the back by the Neoliberal establishment, no fair,” right? :P
BillinGlendaleCA
@FlipYrWhig: Oh, that’s right; the all powerful Neoliberal establishment.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I didn’t know that about Kasich. Interesting. I doubt very much Trump is capable of a similar transformation.
D58826
@JPL: And as usual he is running his twitter account ahead of the facts from yesterday’s violence in Europe. Berlin looks suspiciously like terrorism but the German authorities haven’t quite gotten there yet. The assassination in Turkey looks more like a good old political assassination rather than something uniquely inspired by Daesh. Only thing I saw on the Swiss incident was that three men were shot while at prayers in a mosque. At first blush sounds more like anti-Muslim violence than anti-Christian.
FlipYrWhig
@BillinGlendaleCA: They’re always up to something, those neoliberals. They’re like Keyzer Soze.
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: Did he block you?
ETA: Good for you.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: He views that as a compliment.
bemused
I don’t know what it’s going to take for Trumpbots to catch on they’ve been had. It’s not like Trump and company nor Republican legislators or even rightwing media are bothering to speak in code anymore. Kevin Drum posted an interesting comment on this. Rich Lowry, National Review wrote a couple of days ago “Obamacare repeal without replacement…a deficit increasing, traditional Republican tax cut for the rich.”
Patricia Kayden
@satby: That’s lovely.
OzarkHillbilly
@D58826:
Also one person killed a short distance from the mosque. The Swiss are not yet linking the 2.
BillinGlendaleCA
@bemused: “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter”(for Republicans).
Dick Cheney
Elizabelle
I think we are all going to have to model gracious and kind conduct in our lives, to try to be a countervailing force to the mendacity and stupidity that is overtaking America.
Some kid or younger person is watching. Give them hope.
zhena gogolia
@Michael Bersin:
Unfortunately that Russian sign actually says, “We fucked so much.”
You need something like “ПИЗДЕЦ”
satby
@efgoldman:
yeah, I hear this too: the Democrats are as corrupted as the Repukes are and that they’re the same. Thanks Bernie, you bastard.
satby
@Elizabelle: Sounds like a plan. Meet up in Canada maybe? Can we claim refugee status by this summer?
Elizabelle
@satby: Glad to hear you are having a holiday reunion with your sons, and with such a nicer house this year. Life is looking better for you, on the micro level.
bemused
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Republican voters didn’t notice that either while they were so worked up about Dem debt and deficit, screaming their heads off and writing letters to newspapers. Deficits under Republican president and control, crickets.
Elizabelle
@satby: Now that is an idea. Taking Balloon Juice international. A drop in, drop by camp out. Hmmmmm.
satby
@Elizabelle: It is, for now. And as long as we protect SS hopefully the worst is behind me for a while, at least as long as my health holds! Because when you have that, everything else is good.
Jeffro
In case anyone missed this back in September: the rise of GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer
i.e., Palin with an inheritance
i.e., every know-nothing busybody who gets all of her info from her RW friends on FB
satby
@Elizabelle: I’m game. Have tent(s), love to travel!
Kay
Here’s a good (if rock bottom) standard we could hold Donald Trump to- he could stop lying constantly. The President-elect is still running around the country lying constantly. At those rallies he holds he tells a series of untruths.
Is that a standard he can meet, or too high a bar for the pampered toddler-President?
Track lies. When he stops telling so many we’ll know he’s making an effort. He could go from, oh, ten a day to one a day. We’ll put a chart up on the fridge and let him pick a sticker of his choice to put on days where he doesn’t lie at all. He needs something to shoot for.
We all agree the lying is unprecedented, correct? Fix that. Stop lying. That’s the rock-bottom bar for “Presidential”.
Jeffro
And a great current read: the Dems had a knife, and the GOP had a gun , comparing Obama’s handling of Russian election hacking with how NC Gov McCrory handled his own election (even as he was losing it)
I’m not an either/or person; more of an ‘and’ kind of guy. So my inclination is to both a) get Dems to fight more like Reps, and b) find ways – if possible – to get Reps back to some sort of norms. Back in a bit with some thoughts on each…
Elizabelle
Apropos of nothing, this was a hoot. Circa 1960s Palm Springs home, on the market, Barbie and Ken or Helen Gurley Brown meets Mad Men interior intact. From sfgate.
You can imagine sitting there, coming up with a screenplay, it is so period perfect. Middlebrow (if that) taste.
Tazj
@Michael Bersin: Truck Fump -I like it.
Oscar looks like my Star. You do good work Debit.
Good luck to AL and Mr. AL, hope everything goes smoothly.
Martha
@Betty Cracker: This is a perfect retort. I served on a board with 2 developers and 2 lawyers and 1 insurance executive, all men of course. You know it’s bad when the guys rolled their eyes at the developers for being craven and inconsistent.
FlipYrWhig
@bemused: That’s because to Republicans “deficit” means “welfare.” How else would The Government run short on money if not by over-generous handouts to Those People? This is why they think Obama increased “the deficit,” irrespective of how he handled the deficit.
Elizabelle
@Kay: You had me until your last paragraph.
Lying is not unprecedented, but lying on this scale is. It’s all scale, and Trump and his spokesliars are off the charts. Blown through norms, as you’ve said.
Did you see Krugman’s column yesterday, How Republics End.
He blames it on the Republicans, too, which is cold comfort. They’ve been rewarded. For now.
They’re hacks in a gilded petri dish. And they got away with it. With not allowing a Democratic president to appoint a Supreme Court justice in the last year of his presidency. With all of it.
So far.
rikyrah
@Kay: \
Nope
Kay
The NYTimes now define “Left” as everyone who is not a Republican.
It’s weird to watch this newspaper become Politico. Do we need another Politico? Isn’t Politico enough of a Politico?
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
The correct term is con man grifting hustler.
Elizabelle
I think Jonathan Martin got his start as a Politico Republican whisperer.
And good catch on “Left.”
They often go with “Democrats” and “Liberals” as the only source of opposition to The Risky One.
Politico is a poison. It is, it is.
Kay
@rikyrah:
He blatantly lied about Russian interference. He said he didn’t know and that’s not true- he was briefed.
He’ll lie about anything. No one can believe a word he says and he’ll be President of the United States in a month.
It really does matter. It’s not up for debate whether it’s “important”. The President of the United States can’t continue to lie constantly. He discredits the country.
JPL
@Elizabelle: Thanks. The twin spreads, look vaguely familiar.
Kay
@rikyrah:
He’s been a crazy liar for a long time. His own lawyers made sure there two in a room when they had any interaction with him because he would lie about it unless there was a witness. They said this in a deposition. His 40 year lying problem is public record.
rikyrah
Trump Voters Think African Americans Are Much Less Deserving Than ‘Average Americans’
12/19/2016 06:16 pm ET |
……………………………
A few astute analysts, however, have noted that the sympathetic focus on white America’s problems stands in stark contrast with conservatives’ lack of empathy for communities of color. Indeed, when African Americans protest against profound racial inequality—unequal conditions that are directly traceable to discriminatory governmental policies—they are often condemned by the right as “whiners“ who should simply try harder to remedy their own situations.
…………………….
Perhaps most importantly, the display shows that the main dividing line between Clinton and Trump voters was on the question black deservingness. Most voters, regardless of who they supported in the presidential election, thought that average Americans are getting less than they should. Yet, Clinton’s voters were a great deal more likely than Trump’s to say that blacks have also gotten less than they deserve (57 percent to 12 percent respectively).
It appears, then, that Trump voters weren’t simply motivated by their widespread belief that average Americans are being left behind. Rather, their strong suspicion that African Americans are getting too much—a belief held by the overwhelming majority of Trump voters—was a much stronger predictor of their vote choices in last month’s election.
Racially resentful beliefs that African Americans are getting more than they deserve were so strongly linked to support for Trump, in fact, that their impact on both the 2016 Republican Primary and the general election were larger than they had ever been in before.
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
I have to put in a plug for the newest member of the Parks/Monument family. The Katahdin Woods and Waters Monument is a stunningly beautiful area in Maine’s Penobscot County. That area has long been a favorite for artists around the world and now it has a chance to be preserved and enjoyed. The challenge is that Maine’s governor is opposed to it and will make things as difficult as possible. The other big challenge is that it doesn’t have the infrastructure that the National Parks have.
I do encourage people to visit the monument. It really is an amazing place.
bemused
@FlipYrWhig:
It’s bizarre how Trumpbots scorn elites but give a pass to billionaire banksters, hedgefunders and don’t quibble about huge tax cuts for them while meekly accepting cuts to their SS/Medicare/disability etc. The difference is if they’ve been told which elitists are “liberals”.
rikyrah
@Kay:
tell that truth, Kay.
Elizabelle
@MomSense:
The National Parks Service website for Katahdin Woods and Waters. Thank you. It’s on the five-year (or less!) bucket list.
Major Major Major Major
@bemused: I’ll bet Goldman Sachs’s approval rating will be up sharply by this time in February with Republicans. If not already. I don’t know if people track that.
schrodinger's cat
@Kay: His election and his campaign have discredited the country.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: His very election and his campaign has discredited the country, why the future tense?
bemused
@Major Major Major Major:
If not sooner. Didn’t take long for Republican approval rating of Putin to go up.
rikyrah
We Must Have Trump, Because Colonialism
by Martin Longman
December 19, 2016 4:03 PM
Let’s think about this:
We can reconfigure this argument just a little and state it differently. For Michael Barone, it’s desirable that less educated people not be imposed upon with the “colonialism” of more educated people. If you don’t like that, you can say, instead, that white people, particularly white people with below-average education, should not be governed by a diverse group of better-educated people.
D58826
@OzarkHillbilly: update from daily beast
One of these days der Fuhrer will learn to wait for the facts before picking up his phone. Hopefully the world survives till that happens
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/20/police-zurich-mosque-attack-not-terror.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl
Yarrow
@Kay: I read somewhere that the better tactic is not to counter his lies one by one but to acknowledge the pattern. “Trump is lying again. Why does he lie so much? What is he hiding?” That kind of thing. If you get down in the weeds and try to counter each lie you’re working on his turf. Calling out the lying as a pattern and then focusing on that may work better.
He wants people to focus on each lie because then they’re distracted and looking over there while he’s over here doing something much worse. Don’t fall for it.
Elizabelle
@schrodinger’s cat: You got your apostrophe back! May it stay.
cosima
Went to the salon today and my lovely hairdresser told me one of her other American clients told her that Hillary is just as bad as Shitegibbon. I told her that person is obviously stupid. Here the odds are great that any American will be a R stooge, living an overprivileged expat life, which is why we live as far from the city as is reasonable for my husband’s commute. Ugh.
But here’s a piece from The American Prospect to give a little bit of a pep talk to us lefties: http://prospect.org/article/who-are-we-americans-now
“But crises are also the undoing of governments; leaders who take their countries to war often miscalculate their odds of a quick and easy victory. Crises may arouse a discouraged opposition and enable it to get back on its feet after being knocked down. When reversals of fortune come—whatever the occasion—the opposition must be ready with its own alternatives and its own story.”
Elizabelle
We need to stop journalists from saying “partisan” when they should be saying “Republican”.
Partisan is “both sides do it” and that’s how the press normalized us into President Trump.
I actually think Trump will be bad for business. How many of you watch broadcast or cable news any more? How many of you pay to read journalism?
Do we want to pay to keep up with Trump’s latest idiocies? Maybe we don’t.
Maybe we fucking deserved better.
J R in WV
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I didn’t know vets could get one. I got one for $10 that appears to be good permanently forever, as a “senior” old! We’ve done a lot of parks and monuments in Arizona, all the way up to the Grand Canyon! It’s great!
rikyrah
Notice that Tom Perez is not attacking his opponents for DNC chair but taking the fight to the GOP and Trump. #TeamPerez
— Laura (@SheWhoVotes) December 19, 2016
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah: Has Ellison been speaking ill of a democrat? Doesn’t seem like his style.
@Yarrow: I like this! I’m going to start using that. You know, in the style guide for my vast media empire.
Elizabelle
@Yarrow: Great point.
Call out the lying in total, and as a way of operating. Don’t get down to the individual lies.
It’s like talking about gun violence. You have to stay out of the weeds, because nomenclature about the precious is so important to the gun humpers. If you don’t know the precise words, you have no standing to talk about the carnage the precious is causing. Uh. No. Hell no.
rikyrah
Obama’s last battles are our frontlines
Spandan Chakrabarti
December 19, 2016
As of earlier this month, President Obama held the distinction of having granted clemency to more individuals than LBJ, and he continued that streak today with 153 commutations and 78 pardons today. The president is using his plenary power under the pardons and commutations clause to address a lifelong fight for justice: the lengthy imprisonment of nonviolent drug offenders.
The President said something in his recent interview with Trevor Noah that caught my ear: the federal government, he said, is more analogous to an aircraft carrier than it is to a speed boat. Turning it around 180 degrees is a time consuming, difficult process.
That may explain why President Obama is now engaged in a series of actions to protect liberal priorities. A lot of that is by executive order, but at least one big part of it is now law.
Earlier this month, in a rare victory for the administration in Congress, both the House and the Senate passed the renewed 21st Century Cures Act – the bill better known as Vice President Biden’s moonshot bill. The bill was signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday, November 13. While the $1.8 billion in taxpayer investment into cancer research is the headline star of this bill, its $4.8 billion for the National Institutes of Health and streamlining of the drug approval process was something patient advocates from a wide ranging disease communities (including lupus, kidney disease and lung disease advocates) had been pushing. This was a major victory given the Republican Congress’ aversion to science.
Moving on to more obvious and partisan liberal priorities, on December 14, the Obama administration finalized a rule prohibiting states from using federal dollars to discriminate against organizations like Planned Parenthood simply for providing abortion services. While these administrative rules are reversible (though such reversal may be subject to legal action), it requires the full rule-making process to be repeated, which gives advocates and activists time to create political groundswell against it.
phoebesmother
Since this is an OT, here’s something I did (donating to the NC NAACP) thanks to a link on BJ from another commenter.
Today it’s in honor of my sister who was among the NC citizens arrested in Raleigh this week protesting the Republican power grab. She’s been part of Dr. Barber’s Moral Mondays for a few years now. They’ve built a people-power movement that’s truly integrated and gives white progressives a way to support our “identity-politics” brothers and sisters by fighting our common enemies on voter suppression and attacks on teachers and education, et al. My sis even made the news on WRAL as one of the arrestees (it’s her second time).
So here’s something positive to do that’s unifying and well-organized, what all the critics call for:
phoebesmother
My link doesn’t show up even as text. I’m doing something wrong. Here’s the text with a spaceband after //:
https:// naacpnc.nationbuilder.com/donate2016
rikyrah
Which means…NO NO NO NO to ‘accepting’ Cheeto Benito.
What Those Who Studied Nazis Can Teach Us About The Strange Reaction To Donald Trump
While it’s important to watch the president-elect closely, we also must be mindful of our own response to him.
12/19/2016 07:13 pm ET
………………..
These reactions to Trump and his supporters have a way of separating ideas that usually move in tandem. Facts and truth are suddenly unrelated. Power no longer implies responsibility. Legitimacy and decency are now somehow passengers on separate ships. In this dynamic, People magazine can champion both the perpetrator and the victim and see no contradiction or betrayal. Lilla can use the victory of a campaign steeped in identity politics to highlight the ineffectiveness of identity politics. And Lerner can argue that a campaign “advanced” by sexism, racism and xenophobia can tell us much about the targets of that bigotry, i.e. that they need to behave differently, but little about the supporters of that campaign.
So, why the rush to defend Trump’s supporters? Why the self-recriminations? Why the willingness to stretch the bounds of legitimacy to accommodate Trump’s antics? Much has been written about Trump’s demagoguery and its similarity to totalitarian leaders of the past, but what about Trump’s opponents? Are many of us borrowing a page from totalitarianism without realizing it? Are we empowering him? Are we coordinating?
The word Gleichschaltung is often translated from the German as “coordination” and refers to the process of ― politically speaking ― getting in line. It often appears in books about the Nazi era. German Jewish philologist Victor Klemperer and German journalist Joachim Fest wrote about the personal cost of coordinating in their respective memoirs. German author Sebastian Haffner and Americans including journalist William Shirer wrote about the propaganda and politics of coordination.
German-born Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt, in one of her last interviews, explains it best.
“The problem, the personal problem, was not what our enemies did, but what our friends did. Friends ‘coordinated’ or got in line.” And this coordination was not necessarily due to the “pressure of terror,” said Arendt, who escaped Germany in 1933. Intellectuals were particularly vulnerable to this wave of coordination. “The essence of being an intellectual is that one fabricates ideas about everything,” and many intellectuals of her time were “trapped by their own ideas.”
Steve in the ATL
@D58826:
Haha–good one!
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
Seconded. I’m happy to unify against Trump.
Mnemosyne
AL, I hope all goes well for Mr. AL.
Yarrow
Someone upthread mentioned that Trumpism is a cult. We need to read up on how to deprogram people from cults. Could we have a front page post on this?
bemused
@rikyrah:
Excellent on Biden’s moonshot bill. Not so many months ago, I heard Biden on NPR/MPR speaking somewhere on moonshot/coordinating different health care providers and groups on cancer strategies. He was awesome. I know I bookmarked it and sent it around to friends. Now to find it again.
hovercraft
I was just talking to a couple of people about the events of yesterday, truck, assassination and hat not, it started off okay, but quickly went wobbly when it was stated the truck driver was a refugee, who had been allowed in. I kept going anyway, but then next thing you know we were onto how China is not scared of Obama, and they know him and how he does things, and how they found one of our Navy drones in the sea, and they said they were going to keep it, but then our fearless leader said you better give it back or else, and China totally backed off and said of course we are giving it back, we never meant to imply we weren’t. I don’t know anything about this drone or what he’s talking about, but I did point out that China does things for it’s own reasons, and that when we had the ultra tough Bush-Cheney administration China had no problem shooting shit out of the sky, so I doubt they are scared of the Shitgibbon, ,I pointed out that the world is a lot more interdependent than it used to be, and so any actions the Shitgibbon takes will have repercussions here at home . That’s when the conversation sideways, Lennie (the security guard, who is an ex-cop), said that whatever the deal is with that the real problem is the “one world government” is real. I asked what he meant, it he went into Bilderberg conspiracy territory. I’m talking Alex Jones, North America ‘Super Highway’, shit. I cut him off, and told him that if that is where he’s coming from, the Shitgibbon is our last chance to take the country back and save us from the UN and Bilderberg one world government, then there is no point trying to have a conversation. I knew he was a supporter, but he seems like a normal guy, to think that all this time I’ve ben friendly with a true believer, I’d ask how many guns he has at home but I’m scared.
I guess another thing we ‘liberals’ missed was that as an ‘owner’ of so many golf courses, the Shitgibbon signaled to ‘real America’, his determination to fight the UN takeover of America, as a course owner he would never let them steal our golfs!! The signs, they were everywhere.
Gin & Tonic
Here’s a screenshot of Alex Jones on Russian TV, with a chyron saying “Alex Jones: Trump’s Secret Weapon.” Note that the guy he’s on screen with, Alexandr Dugin, makes our Alex Jones look as sane and sober as an Ivy League professor of philosophy by comparison.
Larkspur
@Elizabelle: This is exactly what I’ve been trying to do, too. It’s small-scale, it’s not political, but it’s important. I’ve been doing small stuff like being extra-cooperative when letting other drivers merge into traffic, keeping a real close eye on anticipating pedestrians in cross-walks, holding doors for people, thanking clerks as well as other shoppers, letting other people go first when I can, smiling at children (when they’re with their parents or caregivers – ya gotta be careful about engaging with youngsters these days, even when you’re an old lady like me), all that kind of stuff. I walk dogs a lot, so I’m constantly encountering gardeners and construction people and I always try to say hi. Part of it is modeling behavior, but honestly, most of it is trying, by action, to quell or disperse or dilute my inner feelings of rage and despair. So yeah, it’s self-serving. Whatever. I do what I want.
Lizzy L
@hovercraft: I’ve had this experience: talking with someone who seems grounded in reality, only to discover that she believes in all kinds of insane things. In my case, it happened five years ago, when a woman I know absolutely refused to sign up for the ACA, even though she has no medical insurance and is quite poor, because she believed that if you did, the government would put a microchip in your head. Oh, and she also believed in all that U.N. “one world” stuff. Oy.
Elizabelle
Commenter “What have the Romans” put up a beautiful recipe for Swedish Spice Cookies on Adam’s jelly donuts thread from last night. Here is the recipe:
From commenter What have the Romans Ever Done for Us:
Elizabelle
@hovercraft: Yes. They walk among us.
But their thinking styles are not of the rational world. Deeply concerning there are so many out there.
I blame the internets.
hovercraft
The rubes will celebrate this as a victory over both Mexico a victory over both Mexico and the corrupt lying NY Times.
Trump Dines With Campaign Trail Target And Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim
Donald Trump invited Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim to dine with him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach this weekend after targeting him during the presidential election as a puppet-master pulling the strings of the “corrupt media.”
Trump described the meeting to the Washington Post as “a lovely dinner with a wonderful man.”
The Post reported that the meeting had been arranged through back-channel negotiations that Slim opened up with the President-elect’s former campaign manager and informal advisor, Corey Lewandowski. Anonymous people briefed on the dinner told the newspaper that the sit-down was intended to warm frosty relations between the two moguls and open up lines of communication between Mexico and the United States, rather than to discuss policy proposals in detail.
Slim’s son-in-law and spokesman, Arturo Elias, told Fortune that the telecom magnate and New York Times investor left the meal with a “very positive” outlook about U.S.-Mexico relations.
These words are far sunnier than anything Trump and Slim had to say about each other during the 2016 race. The President-elect blamed the number of women who went public with allegations that he groped or inappropriately touched them on Slim and his media empire, claiming that the Mexican magnate was working in cahoots with Hillary Clinton to harm his campaign.
At an October campaign rally, Trump repeatedly pointed out that Slim was “from Mexico” and a shareholder in “the failing New York Times.”
“Reporters of the New York Times, they’re not journalists, they’re corporate lobbyist for Carlos Slim and for Hillary Clinton,” he told a North Carolina crowd.
Elias told the Wall Street Journal at the time that Trump’s comments were “totally false” and that Slim was in no way “interfering in the U.S. election.”
Major Major Major Major
@Elizabelle: don’t blame technology for people believing stupid shit.
But yes, they walk among us. It’s like They Live, except when you put on the sunglasses, normal people are suddenly wearing tricorn hats with teabags hanging off them and a sign that says DON’T ROB MEDICARE TO PAY FOR SOCIALIZED MEDICINE
Jeffro
@Kay:
I’m a little surprised at Kasich, but with other Repubs, not so much.
This is exactly right-on, Kay. We have no need to adhere to any higher standard than Unfit-elect Trump does…and since he’s running around congratulating himself (or as SNL put it, “holding rallies so that people can cheer for me”), we have every reason to ramp up our criticism of it, not temper it.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly:
it’s because they are authoritarians to the core, and Unfit-elect Trump is their idea (gag) of a true strongman leader. Defy him, and the whole mindset reacts in fury (partially because they know they’re so quick to get on their knees themselves)
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: “like”
Larkspur
Wouldn’t it be cool? As soon as Trump takes the oath of office, a hundred thousand signs pop up in the crowd: “YOU LIE!”
JanieM
@Patricia Kayden: @@Baud: Kay:
Fnck them and their fncking unity all the way to Betegeuse. As Patricia Kayden says, where was it for the last eight years? Where is it in NC today, after a Democrat has been elected governor? I can’t say fnck them enough times or strongly enough.
This went on in the non-immediate aftermath of 9/11, too. “United we stand” blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Every time I heard/read it, all I wanted to say was: Okay, if we’re going to unite, let’s unite behind *my* views. Then someone with (relatively speaking) my views gets elected, and we see just how much they give a flying banana about unity.
Fat fncking chance.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
I’m looking forward to that being the standard in the fourth and final year of Unfit-elect’s time in office. Supreme Court vacancy to fill in 2020? Why Mitch, I believe we need to let the people weigh in on that in November!!
(yes, I know they’ll come up with something creative and lame to try and tell us why this is different…”but…but…Trump won Pennsylvania, so therefore he gets to nominate SCOTUS judges up until noon on Election Day”…”but…but…Trump’s judges are automatically great Americans, so he gets to nominate…” etc etc)
Jeffro
@Yarrow:
I like this way of responding, a lot. I’d only add “Trump is lying again…lying and distracting from ______. Is that why he lies so much? What is he hiding?”
mai naem mobile
Good luck on the surgery Anne.
hovercraft
These people just can’t help themselves. If they are this brazen before it’s inaugurated, how much will it be once it’s official?
Yes because when I think conservation, I think Uday and Qusay.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: The denied Supreme Court nominee is what drives my despair.
I am still glad every single day that fucking Antonin Scalia is dead, dead, dead.
But it’s insane that Obama was not allowed to appoint the new justice. That will come back to haunt us.
Yarrow
@Jeffro: Yes, there are many ways to use the “Trump is lying again” structure and strategy. I say any way that focusing on the pattern and not the specific lie is the way to go.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
Per Krugman’s column yesterday, continued violation of norms is indeed what threatens the republic today, just as it did a couple thousand years ago. We have to keep pointing it out, not normalize it, and push hard to restore it. Things like Scalia/SCOTUS, the NC Gov issue, restricting voting rights, threatening to not raise the debt ceiling, Rs’ reactions to the Bundy standoff, Rs embrace of people like Alex Jones…it’s all part of the same madness, all because they know that in an increasingly multicultural US and increasingly global economy, just ‘being white’ doesn’t mean much.
Jeffro
@Yarrow: Great point and thanks for the ‘framing’ & the reminder!
catclub
@Baud: I already am not a big fan. He seems to be able to express one emotion in his singing.
Since it is not joy, or happiness, he would still be suitable for a Trump inauguration.
catclub
@hovercraft:
As a Mexican, Slim cannot interfere in US elections. But once he owns a US corporation, he ( or Russia) can interfere to his hearts content.
Huge loophole in the system. Owning a US corporation is equivalent ( or better!) to citizenship.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
Wasn’t one of the right-wing beefs with Obama that he was purportedly “anti-colonialist”?
I guess colonialism is A-OK as long as it’s non-white people who are being subjected to it.
hovercraft
https://www.facebook.com/AmericanKennelClub/videos/10154369720859121/
Feebog
Wishing your hubby a speedy recovery AL. And Debit, it takes a very special person to adopt multiple pets. You are my hero (keep the Walter pics coming).
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Here’s wishing an uneventful procedure for Mr AL and a speedy recovery.
Debit, you are a role model well worth emulating. Thanks for that, and for Walter and Oscar, and all the rest.
Mnemosyne
@Larkspur:
I’ve been doing the same thing. I am a natural introvert, but I’ve been trying to make friendly, casual conversation with strangers (especially strangers of color, if you will) more often.
hovercraft
@Mnemosyne:
Ye it was the big hypothesis of one of Dinesh D’Souza’s books, quickly adopted by Newton Leroy Gingrich to explain Obama’s repeated snubs of our traditional western allies, particularly the British. When did he abandon them you ask, why on day one, when he removed the bust of Churchill from the oval office and replaced it with one of MLK. The fact that the bust in question had been LOANED to Bush, and that there is another bust of him in the White House, never seemed to penetrate.
Mnemosyne
@Jeffro:
Actually, I would say it’s something slightly different — since they support the strongman, if they can get you to bend a knee to Trump, you’re bending a knee to them. So of course they’re enraged that you’re refusing to acknowledge their superiority that was conveyed to them by their Trump support.
hovercraft
@Mnemosyne:
Come on over and chat, we are friendly, especially those of us past the first blush of youth. The youngsters can be abrupt with anyone who interferes with their intertubes time, and it’s hard to find them not engaged on their devices.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: That’s WORK, Kay. The Berners I kow seem to be way more comfortable sniping from the sidelines than rolling up their sleeves and actually, you know, trying to RUN things.
Aleta
Best wishes, glad tidings, and a sane drive back home to you and your spouse.
Michael Bersin
@zhena gogolia:
That’s where individual blog/commenter/community comes in handy. We could use a clearinghouse of sarcastic Russian phrases that will fit on a protest sign. That was someone else’s sign – still, the sentiments expressed work. Unfortunately we’ll have at least two years to work on perfecting our Russian and Chinese protest sign language skills.