Utah's #WomensMarch saw 6,000+ people occupy the State Capitol. Possibly biggest protest ever #utpol #utleg pic.twitter.com/VA2rb9w7lK
— Pat Bagley (@Patbagley) January 24, 2017
This is probably my next-to-last batch from BJ commentors, but I’m nowhere near tired of admiring all these Nasty Women (and allies)!
Here in New England we’re getting a nor’easter of freezing sleet — wicked lucky, for January, because if the temps had dropped just a few degrees it would’ve been a foot or more of sodden snow.
What’s the other (preferably) good news on the agenda for the day?
From “Occasional commentor” JCJ:
Pictures from Madison. Driving in it was like football game traffic.
Beloved gardening-and-rescue commentor MaryG:
Just because I am still fired up, here is a picture of Bonnie the Bailbondsperson’s phone number I wrote on my knee, along with bonus concerned cat; my sign, a bit worse for wear after going through narrow doors after the march, but with the names of some of those Juicers unable to march written on it… I am still gobsmacked that hundreds of people showed up and how positive the energy was.
A very cool thing happened. A van full of very young Marines from Camp Pendleton with a door decal about LIBERTY!!! pulled up and everyone on both sides got very tense. The Marines got out and there were a long few seconds of showdown-at-the-OK-Corral silence, then an older woman marcher said Good morning, gentleman! Thank you for your service! Smiles broke out on all sides, thank you, ma’ams were issued and they went into the vape shop. The driver looked extremely disgruntled, especially when I said Nice try, dude, but lame.
(MaryG also included an .mp4 clip, which unfortunately I can’t figure out how to embed here.)
“Longtime reader and occasional commenter” Matryoshka:
Attached are a few photos from Columbia, Missouri… The march was much larger than anyone expected. We were permitted to use only the sidewalk and had to obey traffic lights, but eventually there were so many of us that we took both sides of the street and it still took us 2 hours to walk the 10 blocks or so. My favorite chant of the day was “We want a leader/Not a sleazy tweeter!”
Thanks, y’all!
Morzer
Celebrate – and then get ready for the next fight. Here’s something that Pence will have been salivating over:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2017/01/23/texas_supreme_court_may_roll_back_same_sex_marriage_rights.html
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone???
rikyrah
@Morzer:
Uh huh
Uh huh
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Bruce K
On the wrong continent to participate in protests, and the local U.S. Embassy is now sort of enemy territory, but it’s heartening to see how massive the dissent is.
As for the future: my money is on U.S. Const. amend. XXV § 4 coming into play.
JordanRules
Can’t find the tweet now, but I saw it yesterday. It was in reference to 45’s latest claim in front of some Congress folks that he only lost the popular vote due to 3-5 million illegal votes.
As the 45 conspiracy crew has detailed this fraud having happened in Cali (of course), the tweeter responded by hilariously asking why the sneaky Dems didn’t bother to, ya know, get 80k of those fraudulent votes in the damned states Hillary needed them.
Schlemazel
Update from St. Paul:
The perfect record was blemished, there was an arrest at the march on Saturday. I didn’t witness it but apparently a guy with religious signs confronted a gay man in the march, when marchers told him to take a hike he sprayed them with a chemical irritant. The crackpot was arrested.
100,000 nasty women and friends with no arrests, 1 good christian arrested, must be persecution.
p.a.
Local action is important.
Schlemazel
Also, from a friends FB post, a sign that is another winner. It has a drawing of the Cat in the Hat with:
I do not like you down my shirt
I do not like you up my skirt
I do not like you on my rump
I do not like you Mr. Trump
Baud
I realized darkly this morning that one of the reasons the protests were satisfying is that it suggests that despite electing Trump, white people may not yet be ready to go full Rwanda on everyone else. While there is still a long climb up, at least we may not be in freefall anymore.
Mustang Bobby
@JordanRules: Not a tweet; an entire article on the claim of “illegals” voting.
Quinerly
@JordanRules:
WAPO has a piece up on it.
Yoda Dog
I will never forgive those that voted for this. Never ever ever ever ever. Fuck their reasons, fuck their fellings, fuck every last one of them forever.
Quinerly
NPR quite strong out of the box this AM. First 12 minutes of “Morning Edition” pretty brutal on Spicer and Trump. Now strong segment with the ethics lawyers who worked in the Bush and Obama WH.
OzarkHillbilly
Yours for $250m: the most expensive house in America
That’s funny, just reading about it makes me think, “I have to burn it.”
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Bruce K:
Made me look. I kind of suspected this is where you were going, but I had to make sure…
So should we all start muttering ominously about “25th-Amendment Solutions” around our wingnut acquaintances?
Baud
@Yoda Dog: If a Trump voter feels true remorse and starts voting for Dems like a yellow dog, I’ll consider forgiveness. I do not support specifically chasing such voters however.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Designed and priced for Asian buyers.
Kay
@JordanRules:
It’s one of Trump’s lies that could have real world consequences. The GOP base will insist on voting crackdowns. Doesn’t matter that much in California, because they have a Dem governor but it matters a lot in the states with GOP governors and there are a lot of states with GOP governors.
I wish there were some national plan on this. It’s a huge job. You basically have to replicate a state-like structure to protect voting rights with a privately-funded effort. If the state actors at the federal and state level won’t do their jobs on voting rights or are actively opposed to voting rights then some private org has to fill that role. You’ll need a lot of them. They will be doing the work of a whole section of the DOJ and state-level elections people in GOP states.
amk
@Baud: now if only the dem cong critters caught up with this huge momentum instead of just rubber stamping the thug’s nominated thugs. do they have a complete amnesia of last 8 years?
OzarkHillbilly
This headline at the Guardian made me laugh: Is punching Richard Spencer inciting violence or ‘American as apple pie’?
Ummm, it IS violence, which as a matter of fact is as American as apple pie.
Baud
@amk: I’m fairly happy with our Congress critters so far.
Baud
@Kay: They were going to do that anyway.
amk
@Baud: not feeling it.
Yoda Dog
@Baud: (sigh) I agree with you as always, Mr. Cool Head. My anger at these people right now is at a 10. I try to keep it to an 8 with varying results.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
Me too! I read that Americans are about as happy as they get making about $70,000 a year. Above that, more money doesn’t change or increase your happiness. I’ve always thought that filthy rich people who will never be able to spend the money they already have, are secure and their kids and grandkids will be financially secure but still want more, more, more money have a mental illness. They are money collectors and hoarders similar to the crazy cat hoarders who can’t give up their 100 plus cats that keep breeding and keep taking in more stray cats.
amk
Brexit: Supreme Court says Parliament must give Article 50 go-ahead.
looks like limeys have at least a few higher institutions still working.
Kay
@Baud:
It could be much, much worse. Trump appoints US attorneys. We’ve already seen this. Voter suppression was the reason Bush had a US attorney scandal. Gonzales had to resign for 2 reasons- US attorney purge and warrantless spying. It was so bad he had to resign. They purged the USA’s who wouldn’t go along with voter witch hunts.
Baud
@amk: Interesting story. Thanks.
Baud
@Kay: It will be worse this time.
Kay
I had a 24 year old young man make an appointment with me yesterday to ask if he should run for the statehouse. I thought it was very nice of him to make an appointment- it said “politics” after his name on my calendar so good for him for being so straight-forward :)
Anyway, he presented very well, earnest and serious, so I encouraged him to run and said we would help him if he decided to. I don’t know if he was inspired by the womens march but all that positive energy can’t hurt.
He has no experience but either does the current holder of the job- a young Republican- he was promoted because his mother is a judge and because the other GOP option was literally a criminal.
Baud
@Kay: The president has no experience either, so it’s all good.
I feel like a punk for working hard to get good at my job.
bemused
I haven’t forgotten those US Attorneys, several Republican, who were targeted for not going along with voter “fraud” lies. A bunch of young “Christian” Republicans were hired out of Liberty U or some fundie university. I remember one blonde girl but not her name testifying during a hearing she swore an oath to her president and was corrected by Dem that you swear oath to Constitution, not a president.
Kay
@Baud:
Media waved away the US attorney scandal. It was a different time though- they don’t promote GOP claims of voter fraud the way they used to. It flipped about 2012.
I love Talking Points Memo for that one reason- they pursued the US attorney scandal when major media waved it away and it was actually huge- Gonzales resigned.
Morzer
@bemused:
Was that Monica Goodling?
Sam
I used data to look at red/blue states, determined by the last election. One thing jumped out: red states get about $1.20 in federal spending for every dollar spent in blue states. When the president cuts back federal spending, unless he targets it carefully (he won’t), the red states are going to suffer.
Both red and blue contribute about the same amount of revenue. Blue GDP is higher per capita by almost 27%. So 2 remarkable facts: the blue states contribute substantially more to GDP (27% more) on a per-capita basis and red states are on the dole. But freedom….
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: There is a reason I hate the rich.
debbie
@Quinerly:
Not just any ethics lawyers. They’re the lawyers suing Trump for conflicts of interest. They’ve been adamant about his violations for months now.
Kay
@Baud:
Well, we need people to run and it has to be younger people or retirees because no one else can take a year off and go to fairs and parades and events full time. Running for a state legislature is horrible.
Yoda Dog
@amk: What the fuck are they doing up there?!! Seeing only 8 no’s for Tillerson was maybe the most depressing thing I’ve seen all week which is really saying alot given this past week. Im ready to fight, dammit! Where the hell are my representatives and what possible good does it do to help them install tillerson, sessions, devos etc?? I dont get it. I never do, these days, it seems…
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: There are 2 ways to succeed in this world: Get good at your job, be born rich. I whiffed on the birth option, had to go the other route.
Baud
@Kay: Agree. Tell this young man he has Baud!’s support.
rikyrah
@Yoda Dog:
Tell the truth
Morzer
@Yoda Dog:
I think it sums up a lot of the reasons people don’t trust the Democrats any longer. They’ve become much too comfortable with the rich and greedy.
Baud
@Yoda Dog:
Maybe you should learn to stop reflexively hating Dems and read more closely. That was a committee vote and all the Dems voted against.
Kay
@Yoda Dog:
I’ll be surprised if DeVos gets a single Democratic vote. Her job prior to this one was opposing Democrats in Michigan. That’s 90% of what she did- work to defeat Democrats. Occasionally she would branch out to work to defeat moderate Republicans or people who wouldn’t take orders. She’s no more an “educational expert” than I am. She’s a political operative and has been for 30 years.
bystander
@Bruce K: I am more of the mind that Trumputin gets nailed with the Emoluments Clause.
Suit has already been filed, but I’m wondering about standing of the petitioner. Anyway, thinking that Pence or the repubs are going to do anything to rein in Trumputin flew out the window yesterday when he scuttled TPP to a peepless audience. The one thing they were willing to work with Obama on was the trade deal, and he just took a big dump on it.
My real hope was that all his fans at CIA would have prepared a nice big cup of tea for Fearless Leader, but alas.
Baud
@Morzer: And I don’t trust people who refuse to trust Dems. Quite a conundrum.
OzarkHillbilly
@Yoda Dog:
Every Dem voted against him. What more would you have them do, shoot him?
bemused
@Morzer:
Yes, I hadn’t gotten around to googling yet.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
Demand UN voting rights monitors in GOO held states.
Yoda Dog
@Baud: Ahhh ok, the whole Senate didnt vote on them? Then my mistake.
You can chill on me reflexively hating on Dems though. Thats not fair or true. To the extent that they’re working with the goddamn enemy, I will continue to watch and keep score by god.
Ben Cisco
@OzarkHillbilly: Punching Nazis is an established American tradition. Cap didn’t have a problem with it.
Yoda Dog
@OzarkHillbilly: Ok my bad, entirely. I was confused, I thought the whole senate was voting. Go easy on me, please. These are heady times and its alot to parse.
Applejinx
You call my representative ‘Wilmer’, and I also like Warren.
Examine those ‘nos’. How do you like your ‘Wilmer’ now?
(edit: can’t bloody find who voted on what before the edit window expires, but I’ve seen vote records with my Senator voting against confirmation of Trumpists)
debbie
When he swore Price in, Pence thanked the assembled HHS employees for their service. WTF army are they in?
bemused
@Morzer:
Yes. I hadn’t gotten to the google yet.
That reminds me of facetime with our 3 year old granddaughter who was singing a verse from movie, Sing, she watched. I asked her if it was a new movie or on cable so her grandparents could watch it and she said, “Google it”.
Kay
I’d look at it as if you have to hire people privately to protect voting rights because none of the Trump people will be doing that part of their job. It’s a full time job. They’ll have to be paid.
His administration will be an absolute disaster on voting rights. I believe that if there’s ever actual fighting between Left and Right it will be around voter suppression because voting against these people is all the public has. Take that away and it’ll get serious.
Baud
@Yoda Dog: If you are keeping score, here are the 11 Dems who voted against Kelly for Homeland Security:
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harris (D-CA)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Merkley (D-OR)
Udall (D-NM)
Van Hollen (D-MD)
Warren (D-MA)
Wyden (D-OR)
ETA: Gillibrand is the only Senator to vote against Mattis for Sec. Def.
Quinerly
@debbie:
Yes, they have been everywhere as a team as of late. I think at least one NPR show and at least one MSNBC show a week since election day. I enjoyed Terry Gross’s show the other day re how they met. They are the new “Barack and Joe Bromance.”
Baud
Here are the 32 Dems to vote against Pompeo for CIA:
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Booker (D-NJ)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Cortez Masto (D-NV)
Duckworth (D-IL)
Durbin (D-IL)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Harris (D-CA)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hirono (D-HI)
Leahy (D-VT)
Markey (D-MA)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Paul (R-KY)
Peters (D-MI)
Sanders (I-VT)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Van Hollen (D-MD)
Warren (D-MA)
Wyden (D-OR)
TS
@Yoda Dog: I endorse your position on the issue.
Kay
@debbie:
He’s probably worried that he and Trump spent months trashing public employees as dumb and unqualified and over-paid and now they’re dependent on those same people for their success.
It’s just dumb to start a new job and alienate everyone who works there, everyone who knows what they’re doing, but Trump is dumb.
Trump is more dependent on career employees than anyone. They all have to pretend he knows what he’s doing and cover his ass.
Yoda Dog
@Baud: (goes, sits quietly in corner)
OzarkHillbilly
@Yoda Dog: There is a lot of “I think it sums up a lot of the reasons people don’t trust the Democrats any longer.” going around lately. Dems are guilty of caving to the Republican steamroller before the asphalt is even in the hopper. It gets tiresome. And yes, I am a little irritable these days. Why do you ask?
danielx
@Morzer:
Aye, the very same!
TS
@Kay: I believe this is one of the areas that President Obama has said he will be working in.
debbie
@Kay:
Trump’s about to meet with auto executives. He’ll doubtless show how he depends on them.
Bruce K
@bystander: Well, the cheeto is almost certainly in breach of the Emoulments Clause, but the remedy for that is impeachment by the House and trial by the Senate, and I don’t have much faith that the 115th Congress is going to follow through on that front. (If the November 2018 elections flip control of the House and Senate – knock on wood – the 116th Congress will be a different matter, but I don’t know if that’s a safe bet.)
Given what’s going on five days into the new administration, I’m still putting my money on the cheeto breaking down so completely that Pence and cohorts feel they have no choice but to invoke Section 4. I’m scared to death of what the collateral damage is going to be, though.
Applejinx
People seem to like Mattis and to some extent Kelly. ‘Wilmer’ did. I think Adam Silverman likes ’em as well. It’s a fair question whether we need to become an absolute brick wall in opposition to a personality who probably won’t survive long, and in so doing tear down a system that a lot of people around here think works great (as long as Trump isn’t President).
I’m open to the burn-everything point of view, but my Senator ‘Wilmer’ is not: he wants to pick and choose and strengthen our position, as if all is not already lost. Would be nice if all isn’t as lost as it seems.
p.a.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Is that rhetorical?
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I would go in exactly the opposite direction. If you’re in Alabama hire a local lawyer who works in the affected county and then have the best election process lawyer in each state as a supervisor/team lead. Challenge at the county level (Bd of Elections and county judges) and then state level and then federal court- at the same time, all three.
Iowa Old Lady
Or not. If they’re angry enough.
Baud
@p.a.: OzarkHillbilly = Madonna.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@danielx:
I did this piece a zillion years ago, showing that it was even worse than imagined, the pipeline in to DOJ.
Goodling a product of Messiah College and Regent U, and a bunch of connects to the FRC.
They were coming in via Jim David (then an assistant attorney general) and some dimwit at OPM. It was like a firehose of theodicy and incompetence.
Yoda Dog
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh man Im so irritable too. I just want to see us fight and not roll over. It was quite relieving, actually, to have you guys correct me on Tillerson.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
There is a humiliation factor with the observers, though.
ThresherK
@Ben Cisco: Neat take on that from web cartoonist extraordiare David Willis.
Baud
@Yoda Dog: The problem is that if you believed the fake news, chances are many, many others believe it as well, and they are not here to have us correct them. And this is exactly the reason we lost the election.
Kay
@debbie:
Did you see yesterday they wouldn’t say the unemployment rate? They’ll corrupt all those numbers. The data the federal government collects and reports will no longer be reliable.
I have no sympathy. It was plain Trump is a liar. He hires liars. Big shocker. Just pitch anything they say in the trash. It’ll all be bullshit. There isn’t one of them who has told the truth about anything for months and that isn’t going to change. He hires people who are just like him.
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
You’re not alone in that – I gotta get BP meds adjusted, in part because I’m simmering in low grade irritation all the time.
p.a.
@Baud: Unhinged Democrats for an unhinged time. ?
OzarkHillbilly
@p.a.: :-)
debbie
@Kay:
And it’s only been 3 days!
Quinerly
TPM has a nice piece up summarizing the WAPO and NYT pieces on the WH leaking. Seems the new president was bored over the weekend and watched tv. Aides are trying to keep him from doing that again. It upsets him.
This ain’t going to last 6 months.
Yoda Dog
@Baud: No, I didnt believe any fake news though. I never read or looked at anything that lied about the votes. I just didnt look into it deeply enough and assumed the whole senate voted when they hadnt. Im still on total blackout and almost never get out of the BJ-boat. A poster here (you, maybe?) put up the votes against Tillerson and I just saw single digits and jumped to conclusions.
ETA: Whether or not Im not guilty of buying fake news, your point still holds of course.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I am no where near that good looking (while I don’t have her range, my voice isn’t half bad tho)
Iowa Old Lady
@Quinerly: I just read that. Holy cow. It’s even worse than I thought, and I didn’t think that was possible.
Quinerly
@Kay:
Saw that. Spicer is a weasel. Can’t belief he has a Navy background. He’s going to crack at the podium. Can’t keep the numbers and the lies straight. It’s obvious he can’t handle the job.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
Filthy rich ceo lobbying groups like Pete Peterson Foundation and The Business Roundtable are so concerned that SS and Medicare are going broke they want to raise the eligibility age and do cuts to make it “sustainable”. I try asking republicans when I get the chance, why these billionaires formed groups years ago to “reform” SS/Medicare, privatize them. Why are they so focused on SS/Medicare? How does it benefit them? I point out the trust fund money and that maybe, just maybe, they want to get their paws on all that money. It’s like talking to statues.
One republican close to collecting SS said he would accept some means testing if it would mean keeping the program solvent. They are so willing to believe that irresponsible moochers on government assistance are draining US coffers so less SS/Medicare for people who actually worked hard and deserve it but not even entertain the thought that billionaire takers want to grab it all.
Patricia Kayden
@Yoda Dog: Democratic politicians are simply not as angry and ready to fight as the rank and file. I don’t expect much from them. That way I’m not constantly bitterly disappointed by their lethargy and inaction.
Republicans were obstructionists for the entirety of President Obama’s eight years. You would think that Dems would have no problem treating someone as odious as Trump in the same fashion.
Quinerly
@Iowa Old Lady:
I had read both pieces but the TPM piece is excellent at distilling them. Who do we think is leaking the embarrassing stuff and what does that person hope to accomplish? Within a month, I bet we hear something personal about his relationship with Melania. It would be irresponsible not to speculate. Let’s talk amongst ourselves.?
p.a.
@efgoldman:
I’m pissed about that collapsing ice sheet’s size being compared to Delaware. Delaware! WE’RE the standard for that kind of thing. Not some second-smallest piss-ant state.
Iowa Old Lady
@Quinerly: Press Secretary seems to be a tough job anyway. Even in a normal administration, they’re often the first to leave.
ETA: Did you see Charlie Pierce’s piece on how Ford’s Press Secretary resigned because he’d been put out front for a month assuring the press that no pardon of Nixon was in the works? He and Ford were personal friends but he resigned over being lied to and then ruining his own credibility by passing the lie along.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: I’m pretty sure they are in on the scam and just avoiding the question because they don’t want to admit that their “alternative” is nothing more than a Wall Street slush fund.
Quinerly
Fun piece on Axios “The Trump Show: New Drama.” Trump doesn’t like the color of Spicer’s suits. Spicer found a new suit for yesterday’s presser. Is Trump tweeting this AM yet? He’s had time to read the papers and a few blogs.?
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
This is not accurate. Republicans were strategic, especially in the first two years when they were in the minority.
Clinton was confirmed for SoS by a 98-2 vote.
Napalitano was confirmed to DHS by a voice vote.
Obama asked Gates to stay on for a little while, so there was no vote in 2009.
Quinerly
@Iowa Old Lady:
I think Josh Ernest was there from the beginning and he was excellent. Spicer is going to be voted off the island (oops, wrong show). Trump wanted a women in the position anyway. Honestly, I don’t remember Spicer being this bad when he was in relatively the same position at the RNC.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
Naw, I’m talking about Republicans who make less than six figures or not much more. As one wrote to local paper, “Democrats saying Republicans are going to take away Social Security, Medicare and our schools is nothing but the big lie they use election after election to fool the ill-informed”.
If any liberal or someone that smells like a liberal to them, they have a knee-jerk reaction that they’re lying or dupes of the Democratic party.
Peale
@Kay: on January 31, several census sites are due to go down for maintenance. To be on the safe side, we probably want to grab some of the data (can’t grab it all) to make sure when it comes back up it’s still the same.
Quinerly
@Iowa Old Lady:
Yes, real tough job. Read that it can be the highest paid job in the WH behind the president. Think the range is around $130,000 to $175,000. Has anybody looked up what Bannon and Conway are getting? Apparently she’s in Valerie Jarrett’s old office and Trump has to walk up steps to get to her.
Yoda Dog
@Baud: Damn man, I dont know how you and some others keep track of all this shit over so many years, but you guys are awesome. I feel like I actually learn stuff here, imagine that…
Baud
@Yoda Dog: I didn’t keep track of it. I looked it up.
amk
@Baud: other than those they ought to be confirmed cases, what else you got? rethugs made every admin nominee process as poisonous as they could and they got away with it.
bemused
@Quinerly:
Ernest is my favorite press secretary. I enjoyed his sly snark moments and will miss that.
MomSense
Ice storm here. Everything is coated in ice and it’s still coming down. So glad I had the huge pine tree next to my house taken down because this is the kind of ice that will bring trees down.
Quinerly
@efgoldman:
Agreed. He’s in over his head and Trump doesn’t like his suits. And we know Trump knows the ends and outs of male fashion.?
Baud
@amk: I’m not going to go through the either 8 year history of Obama appointees. My point is the GOP didn’t engage in maximal obstruction, they engaged in strategic obstruction. And it got worse as time went by because voters only rewarded them for it.
Will voters reward Dems for engaging in strategic obstruction? Probably not. GOP voters will hate it, and, judging by this thread, Dem voters will say it’s not enough and stay home.
danielx
@Quinerly:
Six months? That may be an optimistic estimate, considering what’s happened in the last three days. The picture presented by the TPM article and the original three articles upon which it is based show a man whose psychological issues go way, way beyond Nixonian. From the Politico article….
I read that and my reaction was “what the fuck?”. It sounds like dealing with a nine year old child afflicted with both Tourette’s and autism: ‘we have to lessen the factors which exacerbate his condition’.
From WaPo:
Well, no great surprise there. No single human being could have a greater sense of accomplishment for less reason. All three sources use terms like ‘furious’, ‘rage’, ‘angry’, ‘sense of injury’. If he’s enraged by criticism and lack of praise at three days into his presidency, what will he be like after (inevitably) he fumbles some crisis with serious consequences? Especially if, as seems increasingly likely, it becomes evident that he was manipulated (by Putin, the Chinese, anybody) into royally screwing the pooch, with no possibility of evading responsibility. He is in a position where he will not be able to say something didn’t happen or if it did, someone else was responsible.
His own staff has to manipulate him now, just to keep him from going totally off his rails and declaring war on his perceived enemies. Enemies other than the media, with whom he’s already stated he’s at war. Things are not going to get better, and he is going to become more flaky with every passing day.
Baud
@MomSense: Those are the worst. Stay safe.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: Got it.
manyakitty
@Kay: Are you near Cincinnati? PG Sittenfeld gives me hope for the future of Ohio Dems.
Yoda Dog
@Baud: Yea but you had to have some doubt to look it up in the first place. I thought they were just burning shit down back in ’09 too. Anyways, good on you. Ill shut up and listen now.
Quinerly
@danielx:
I go back and forth on my predictions on time lines. All over the place yesterday. My guess is they might stop the briefings for awhile and let the clock tick. Who the hell knows? It’s all so surreal that people voted for this. Those three pieces plus Josh’s piece are brutal.
Peale
What happened to moving the embassy to Jerusalem? I thought that was supposed to be yesterday. Maybe Trump was too tired to put in a full day?
Baud
@Yoda Dog: Sorry if I was hard on you. You made an honest mistake. I’m just tired of all the dishonest “mistakes” that are floating out there.
danielx
@Quinerly:
Loved a comment from Omnes Omnibus last evening:
MomSense
@Baud:
Thanks. We are staying in today.
Quinerly
@danielx:
Saw that this morning when I was catching up with comments. Love you guys! Lurked here since the Bush Adm. Only recently commenting. Feel like I know some of you personally!
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
A little too much truth to this for comfort.
Quinerly
@Peale:
He had tv watching to catch up on. They taped some “Apprentice” episodes for him and heated his milk bottle
amk
@Baud:
They almost took US to default and credit downgrade. The worst possible maximal obstruction.
BillinGlendaleCA
The rain(and hail) finally stopped and sky cleared.
Baud
@amk: No, the worst possible maximal obstruction would have been to actually default.
amk
@Baud: thank god for small mercies.
BillinGlendaleCA
57 years of sunrises.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Nice.
OzarkHillbilly
@danielx: Bullseye.
Schlemazel
New Pew Research data out on energy choices. 65% of Americans want priority given to developing alternative energy, 27% want priority given to fossil fuels
amk
chinese are sabre rattling.
danielx
@Quinerly:
To know us is to loathe us.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Thanks. How about so Southern CA snow?
danielx
@amk:
From me, myself and I: I am so fucking prescient I scare myself.
SFAW
It was brought up yesterday, didn’t see any useful answer, but I haven’t checked every thread:
Do we know that Amir is OK? (Given the month-long radio silence.) I’m hoping he just decided to take a break.
FlipYrWhig
@Applejinx: Christ almighty. If he had voted against them, I guarantee your fanatical ass would be saying that his principled opposition was the most admirable, wonderful thing you had ever seen in politics.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly: re: $250M house
Not if I get there first…
Kay
@manyakitty:
I’m not. I’m north. Do you remember this guy?
I think he’s part of the group who are suing Trump. I saw his name on one piece about it, so I’m not sure.
I wanted him for AG instead of Marc Dann. I was right, too. Marc Dann had to resign. Chandra was bitter about it. He was so clearly more qualified. ANYWAY! He’s still plugging away so good for him.
amk
@danielx: I am all for derailing chinese and russian expansionist designs but I have zero faith in the current kkklown doing that.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffro: I just booked my tickets. Leave in 2 hours. Better hurry. ;-)
SFAW
@amk:
Global thermonuclear war would derail some of their plans, so there’s that.
hovercraft
@OzarkHillbilly: @Baud:
Nyet, nyet, nyet, it is designed and priced for our new Russian overlords. Unless you are referencing the fact that much of Russia is in fact in Asia ;- )
PS: I’d happily watch it burn.
bystander
@Bruce K: I admit I don’t understand the process here, but certain citizens have brought suit in federal court. I was imagining that a court decision would require either resolution of the violation within a set period of time or removal from office. If the repubs then refuse to pursue their constitutional obligation by enforcing the court order, they also make a public declaration of their federal duty. I see this as an “our hands are tied” situation taking them off the hook with the trumputinites. Taking action themselves and substituting their judgment for that of the low education voters will not fly well.
Anyway, a knowledgeable attorney probably knows how this could play out.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
It is getting even weirder out there.
They’re flailing. This is not the verbiage of a professional – it infantilizes the people of the country. To date, he’s said nothing and done nothing to assuage the concerns of those who didn’t vote for him. A leader would say, off the bat:
Every president in my living memory made efforts to at least pay some lip service to this, and each made actual efforts here and there.
Not this fuckin’ guy. He gets his ass chapped by people hating him, so turn up the heat.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Why don’t you guys just subcontract it out to BillinGlendale? As a bonus, we could probably get some outstanding photos in the deal.
You kids really need to “work smarter, not harder.”
rikyrah
This article Officials Beg Trump to send help after storm
Did anyone during 44’s time in office have to BEG for help?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@bystander:
This one fails on standing. Tribe joining it was the kiss of death, as he’s a worthless old grandstander with delusions of practical legal competence. The only litigants with standing on the loss are competitors, which would be real hesitant to file polarizing litigation due to PR reasons (that, and risk a Trump DOJ investigating corrupt foreign practices, which they all do in the hospitality industry).
rikyrah
GOP split over Medicaid imperils Obamacare plans
Republicans want to cut costs, return control to states and keep people covered — a near impossibility.
By BURGESS EVERETT, RACHAEL BADE and RACHANA PRADHAN
01/23/17 06:38 PM EST
Top GOP lawmakers and President Donald Trump are coalescing around a plan to turn Medicaid over to the states as part of their Obamacare replacement. But the push is already driving a wedge between congressional Republicans and could gum up the repeal process altogether.
Conservatives have long called for block-granting Medicaid, which would cap spending and give states direct control over the program that provides health care coverage for low-income Americans. That goal is finally within reach now that Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House.
But divisions over how to do it are already causing tension. At the crux of the matter is an impossible task set forth by Trump: In recent interviews he has said he wants to block-grant Medicaid funding to the states but also ensure the roughly 11 million people who received coverage under the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion do not lose it.
Those two things are fundamentally at odds with each other because block grants are widely viewed as likely to result in sweeping cuts in government-subsidized health insurance for the poor. The mixed signals to the Hill are making it hard for lawmakers to get on the same page and coalesce around a plan.
………………………..
Contrast that with House Budget Vice Chairman Todd Rokita, a strong advocate of block granting.
“Medicaid is among the top three drivers of our debt,” the Indiana Republican said. “It’s unfair for the citizens of tomorrow to bear the burden through our debt load for the health care of today’s poor, and it’s especially not fair for them to pay for [able-bodied adults] who otherwise should be making their own way.”
Quinerly
Suggested reading at Axios: Trump 101: What Trump reads and Watches. Apparently, he never really ever read the WAPO. Welcome to the last 72 hours!
rikyrah
And yes. POTUS/Breitbart is a seamlessly unified corporate media entity.
They generate their own news. Control supply AND demand.
— 5’7 Black Male (@absurdistwords) January 24, 2017
You cannot think of this White House as a White House. It isn’t.
It’s merely a money laundering center with nukes.
— 5’7 Black Male (@absurdistwords) January 24, 2017
Quinerly
“The Future of the Left Is Female,” over at NY Mag. Can’t link on this smarty pants phone.
rikyrah
Next time an “ACA replace” package claims it allows “patient choice,” understand what they intend to exclude. This just passed the MN house.
— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) January 24, 2017
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Applejinx: We call him Wilmer because certain trolls appear to have a Google alert to summon them to any thread where his True Name is mentioned.
And when that one becomes a Name of Power, we’ll change it.
You should know by now that these jackals have absolutely no problem with bashing someone using their True Name. It’s just a matter of boredom with the trolls.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
What a fucking ego on that one. Tell her she’s a lunatic and she’s not my custodian. I think she needs a custodian, frankly. She’s incompetent in a legal sense.
Gross. Does this make Trump my father? No. I refuse.
They truly don’t get it. They don’t get basic concepts of small d democracy. They all need to back the fuck off and stop pushing themselves on us.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Schlemazel:
Hellscape, a pure hellscape. We’re is Democracy now when people can peacefully assemble when ever they want to?
zhena gogolia
@bemused:
Yes! Me too! My dentist who was arguing with me, when I said that all people like Putin and Trump cared about was piling up money for themselves, said, “Trump doesn’t need any more money.” GRRRRR! Of course he doesn’t need it! It’s a compulsion!
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
And while on the subject of True Names, did anyone else see Sir Ian McKellen’s tweet about the March in London?
The deadbeat has a lovely new nickname.
Quinerly
Rough piece in WAPO about Trump lying about his record on the environment to those business guys he met with yesterday. Touted his environmental awards and said he has been called an “environmentalist.”
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It’s all bullshit anyway. They’re strutting around pretending they are rescuing the country and Trump inherited a solid economy. You know what Scott Walker is bragging about today? 4% unemployment.
Trump could go golfing for the next year and no one would care. All he has to do is not fuck it up. He WILL fuck it up but it’s not required.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Thank God for the likes of Subodh Chandra and Neera Tandon, kinda makes up for douchy pplz of Indian origin like the moronic Dinesh D’Souza and Squeaky Ponnuru.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mustang Bobby:
The economy is getting to near total employment. He really is out of touch, isn’t he? It’s like his attitude towards women, his head is stuck in 1978.
BillinGlendaleCA
@hovercraft: Looked at teh Google map, kind of a small lot. Not classy at all, much smaller than Spelling’s place.
manyakitty
@Kay: Looks like Chandra is still doing good work! He’s probably closest to me in Akron, geographically. Then there’s Sittenfeld, who is running again for Cincinnati city council, and I hope he’s considering a move to Columbus soon, your local guy, then who else? Our candidates here are a foot wide and an inch deep. Barely a puddle, when we need a flood of qualified, competent, motivated people.
Kay
What will be most disappointing to me is if Americans end up liking Trump’s extreme neediness and clamoring for attention. It’s just repulsive to me. If that is admired I will be horrified. It means I have not one thing in common with any of these people. I can’t imagine liking that. It makes my skin crawl.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
And if you parse that through, she wants everybody to leave Brittney, er Donnie, alone and give him a chance. Fuck him.
He wanted the job and got it, the whole shebang.
Kay
@manyakitty:
I know you probably know this but The Big Hope is dreamboat Richard Cordray comes back from DC and runs for governor.
I really like Cordray, although he’s intimidating on a personal level because he’s very smart and “quick” in this way I’m not, but he is the Great Hope.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@zhena gogolia:
Trump does need money, all of his wealth is borrowed.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: White old media guys will like it, because he is like them. I don’t see women falling for it. He will have his constituencies. But this is a big country.
manyakitty
@schrodingers_cat: Where do you land on Nikki Haley? Jindal is a no-go, of course.
zhena gogolia
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Yes, I also said, “How do you know how much money he has? We haven’t seen his tax returns.”
bemused
@rikyrah:
Bastards. I need to make a call this morning.
manyakitty
@Kay: THAT WOULD BE EXCELLENT!!!
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
This is NOTHING, too. It’s a dispute THEY STARTED over crowd size. Wait until an oil rig blows up or any of the other 5000 emergencies Obama had to deal with.
They’re whiners.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: I don’t know about quick, but you are smarty, scary smart and have a good sensible head screwed on those shoulders. Ask the people who know me, I am pretty tough grader and don’t hand out compliments easily.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
She reading Dick Cheny’s Consitution or something? Since when is the media a branch of government? That’s part of why Trump and co don’t get it, they are the ones in charge now. No one else to blame.
schrodingers_cat
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Boredom, fandom or mischief paid for by Russian masters, its pretty tiresome and repetitive.
hovercraft
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I saw a piece on the news the other day about the place, I had the same thought, the neighbors seemed awfully close. For that kind of money I’d want a moat and to need at least a golf cart to get to the mail box ;-)
The Spelling place was a monstrosity. I remember seeing something on the new place Candy (?) was buying, her downscaled apartment was something ridiculous like 10,000 square feet or something. If you are going to scale down do it right. Dion Sanders went from 29K sqft., to 7 K, to 600 sqft, granted his new tiny house is on 140 acres where he is planning on installing a massive fishing pond, and a bunch of other abodes for his extended family, but that is downsizing I can totally get down with.
SFAW
@zhena gogolia:
How do you know he “doesn’t need it”? I’ve been calling him a “thousandaire” for a number of months, and haven’t seen anything (outside of Deadbeat Shitgibbon’s bullshit pronouncements) to indicate otherwise.
Show us the tax returns, you lying motherfucker! (No, not you, zhena, of course)
ETA: Aaaand … I see you already addressed this in a follow-up comment.
GregB
@Kay:
What state is Cordray from?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Literally everything he is doing is destabilizing, short and long term. Energy is poised to go up, which will be deemed inflation by the Fed, and interest will go up. Financial refs will be gutted, existing regs unenforced.
schrodingers_cat
@manyakitty: I have no respect for turncoats who change their religion for political expediency. Of course this conjecture on my part, and I don’t claim to have looked into her heart. At this pt I cannot take anyone voting Republican seriously.
rikyrah
@Kay:
You keep on bringing it, Kay.
Thank you.
bemused
@zhena gogolia:
Dumbest argument ever!!! Of course they don’t NEED more. Since when have billionaires ever turned down a great chance to grab more money. It’s hanging fruit. Your dentist is either an idiot or he’s thinking more about his possible future tax breaks. I would have asked him how badly he needs tax breaks.
Kay
@GregB:
Ohio. He was the AG. At one time he was the top vote getter in the state. He broke with the “establishment” of the Ohio Dem Party and endorsed Obama in ’08 which was brave at the time he did it. The only endorsements Obama was getting at that point were urban mayors. That actually worked out well for Obama. Democrats need huge numbers in urban areas and Obama got them. I think mayors were key to that.
He was a great AG for consumer rights. The work at the CFPB isn’t a departure for him- it’s what he’s done his whole career.
rikyrah
Trump’s Cabinet Is Designed to Sow Chaos
by Nancy LeTourneau
January 23, 2017 3:21 PM
As we watched the Trump transition team roll out its slate of Cabinet nominees, this became a common refrain:
Last week Michael Kruse interviewed three Trump biographers. The transcript is full of interesting tidbits about what we can learn from this president’s past. When it comes to his Cabinet nominees, here’s an insight from Gwenda Blair, author of The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President:
Once you begin looking at this administration’s actions through the lens of sowing chaos as both a product of Trump’s personality and a strategy for his political operatives, much of what is happening becomes clear. Not only will Trump’s cabinet nominees create chaos in the departments they are assigned to oversee, we’ll see a lot of chaos between cabinet members and other advisors. According to the Wall Street Journal, some of that is already happening.
SFAW
@Kay:
Well, not intentionally. I leave open the possibility that they uttered a truth by mistake.
gene108
@Baud:
Dem voters want payback for all the receipts they’ve collected since Reagan. Until “conservative” becomes a dirty word like “liberal” was for 20+ years, and Republicans are humiliated and their ideology ridiculed the hard core liberal Dem voter will never be satisfied Dems have done enough.
manyakitty
@schrodingers_cat: Makes sense to me.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
I’m late to the thread, but that is why we’re already organizing to elect a Democratic governor in 2018. Our awful Republican governor (tautology, I know) is term limited, so she’s on her way out. We took back the state legislature in 2016 and now our sights are on the governorship. I hope there’s similar organizing going on in other states.
ETA: We elected a good Secretary of State in 2016, which is the role that directly oversees voting rights. She’s already expanding access with a proposal to make voter registration automatic with one’s driver’s license. We need to reelect her in 2018 too.
rikyrah
Quick Takes: “A Body Blow to Trump’s Populism”
by Nancy LeTourneau
January 23, 2017 5:12 PM
* Of all the commentary about the #WomensMarch, Francis Wilkinson captured the impact best. He draws a contrast between the attempt by Trump to tout his populist roots in his inaugural address and the way that myth was shattered on Saturday.
……………………
Neither Trump nor the organizers of the Women’s March could’ve known how the populist words of his inaugural would be so devastatingly refuted by Saturday’s tide of humanity. True, it’s a short-term victory. The Trump administration will be the arena for a long and fierce battle. We are at the opening bell.
But it mattered. Everyone in Washington — from a determined Speaker Paul Ryan to a shellshocked White House, from tentative Democrats climbing out from the rubble to liberal interest groups searching for an ideological anchor — just got a look at a very different people from the one described by Trump.
* These thoughts were also summed up well in a couple of tweets.
As a certain community organizer would say, ordinary people working together can do extraordinary things. Awe inspiring. #WomensMarch.
— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) January 21, 2017
Looking at this crowd, if the Dems think they should move away from their multi-racial, female-centered base, they’re crazy — @amjoy
— Sally Albright (@SallyAlbright) January 21, 2017
rikyrah
We just handed Asia over to China by torpedoing TPP.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
Please stay in and be safe. Ice terrifies me.
Jeffro
@bemused:
It’s absolutely true, too. I love that pic of the Trumps and the Obamas side by side…who would you rather be?
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Just because they hate each other, doesn’t mean they are going to love T. That’s some school yard bully level thinking.
Yoda Dog
@schrodingers_cat: Im having a button made that says “Im with Kay.” Nobody will get it but I dont care.
Might get a “Baud 2020” too.. If he stops hurting my feelings… XD
BillinGlendaleCA
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Energy prices are not part of the inflation rate, at least directly; they’re much too volatile.
Jeffro
@p.a.:
HEY NOW…
rikyrah
@Schlemazel:
Uh uh uh
crazification factor
Kay
@GregB:
I went to the 08 convention and I’m not a very emotional person- I almost never get all worked up in public- but I was sitting behind the AA Dem mayors when Obama accepted the nom in that stadium and they were so moved I ended up crying. Just the intensity of emotion from these people who spend a big part of their careers being much more disciplined than white politicians have to be – there’s always this subtext in Ohio politics that they can’t be “too black”- can’t appear to “favor” black people- it destroyed me.
It’s all so hard. They have to bridge so many things. For once it was just pure pride for them.
Jeffro
@danielx:
It’s just another thing he has that he didn’t earn, no matter how much he tries to convince himself (and us) otherwise.
Must be especially difficult for a guy who hasn’t felt appreciated…dare I say loved?…since his folks shipped his unbearable ass away to prep school…
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa:
Hi! Been trying to catch you on a few threads. You are in the Santa Fe area, right? Did I recall Galisteo or was that someone else? I’m in Cerrillos from around 2/10- to morning of 2/12 when I head out for Abiquiu for a couple of days. Then in Albuquerque for a week starting 2/14. Meeting friends at The Hollar in Madrid, NM for dinner on 2/10. My email is [email protected] if you want to catch up. Would be cool. Dinner! Open invite to anyone else in the area, too! I’m in Kanab, Utah for a week starting 3/2. Open invite to anyone in that area, including St.George. Have a great day!
Iowa Old Lady
@Quinerly: Wasn’t Robert Gibbs press sec for a while?
rikyrah
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
He will get the same amount of respect that he and the GOP showed #44.
Which is none.
Telling the truth about their lies doesn’t make them political hacks.
Um, no heifer.
There is no joint custody.
Sit your phucking azz down and shut the phuck up.
The arrogance and entitlement with these muthaphuckas.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly: Dang and here I am tied up at work…have to plan better for the next one.
gene108
@Quinerly:
Have a friend, who works at the NJ environment department. Back in the early 1990’s, Trump would roll up in a big limo and acted like he owned the place, when he wanted permits to build things.
In the late 1990’s, Steve Wynn wanted to build in Atlantic City. Trump rolls up in a tiny car and acts horrified at the terrible environmental impact new development (i.e. Wynn’s) would have for coastal NJ.
That’s about as environmentally friendly as Trump gets.
Jeffro
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: (from KAC):
Oh HELL NO, Kellyanne…just because you’re trying another tack here and appealing to the Nurturing Party…we are not nearly done with you yet. Abusers go to court and go to jail.
(And it’s four years tops, btw)
ETA: I see Rikyrah and I are on the same page here, but R’s was better said as usual
gene108
@rikyrah:
True Liberals should be proud. They were dead set against TPP.
bemused
@Jeffro:
Too many Americans seem to be enthralled by very wealthy people, at the wealthy far removed from them. What can explain that some people believe, even now, that billionaire ceos are job creators and don’t bitch much about them getting more tax cuts. If they get a couple hundred dollars tax cut at the same time, they quit grumbling. It’s no wonder the GOP think their voters are chumps. otoh, if the wealthy are close to home, they work for a very wealthy, greedy boss who nickel and dimes them, etc, they can have quite a different opinion.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I agree, but the Fed frequently kills credit markets based on energy based price hikes.
Kay
@bemused:
This might be worth it if nothing else comes from it but “stop worshiping rich people”.
I get this stupid freebie “bizness” magazine at the law office and there’s always a CEO on the cover. No one contributes anything of value to these companies but this one man? It’s just grounded in bullshit. It’s this silly Great Man theory and it’s childish. Let it go. Grow up. It’s intended to inspire 5th graders who don’t know any better.
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
I’ve been seeing most of the cabinet picks as Bannon picks, designed to cause as much chaos as possible and stop most of these departments dead in their tracks, with no one to argue for the department’s mission, budget, or staff. People are going to have to sue to get them (the departments) to do their most basic functions.
hovercraft
Trump Administration Freezes All EPA Grants And Contracts
ByCaitlin MacNeal Published January 24, 2017, 9:52 AM EDT
The Trump administration has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily suspend awarding grants and contracts, ProPublica reported Tuesday night.
Myron Ebell, who ran Donald Trump’s EPA transition, confirmed the freeze on contracts and grants to ProPublica.
“They’re trying to freeze things to make sure nothing happens they don’t want to have happen, so any regulations going forward, contracts, grants, hires, they want to make sure to look at them first,” Ebell told ProPublica.
It’s not clear whether the directive applies only to new contracts or grants, or also to existing ones, according to ProPublica.
ProPublica also obtained an email from an EPA employee telling a storm water management employee that grants and contracts have been suspended.
“Right now we are in a holding pattern. The new EPA administration has asked that all contract and grant awards be temporarily suspended, effective immediately. Until we receive further clarification, this includes task orders and work assignments,” the employee wrote, according to ProPublica.
EPA officials did not confirm the freeze to ProPublica.
One EPA employee told ProPublica that the suspension of all contracts and grants is an unprecedented move. But Ebell argued that the freeze did not extend much beyond the norm.
“This may be a little wider than some previous administrations, but it’s very similar to what others have done,” he told ProPublica.
The Huffington Post also reported Monday night that the Trump administration froze all contracts and grants, citing an EPA employee who spoke with congressional staff.
Quinerly
@Iowa Old Lady:
I think you are right. Very beginning?
Iowa Old Lady
@Jeffro: My son used to play D&D, and over the last few days, I’ve been recalling how, in addition to being good or evil, characters could be lawful or chaotic. A chaotic character created lots of problems for everyone else even if they were also good. A chaotic evil character was almost impossible to deal with.
Quinerly
@hovercraft:
And told them not to discuss it as I recall from an early AM piece.
Jeffro
Btw in somewhat positive news: this is a great type of strategy for pre-empting Trumpian bullshit proposals. Put an actual, positive, sensible plan out there first.
Obvious benefits:
– the Dems get the first word/news cycle, meaning
– the Reps look like Johnny-come-latelies
– the plans get compared for their effects and their cost, meaning
– Reps get exposed as “no matter what they do, they enhance the rich and screw the poor”
Shoot, this kind of thing might have even been useful w/ the cabinet nominees (and still might be for SCOTUS): suggest moderate, competent Rs for any open positions of any kind, then wait while Trump and Bannon pick the most unqualified haters possible. Let the media do the contrasting. Vote on a party line and save the sound bites for 2018
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@rikyrah:
Nancy and the Trump writers are making a big error by assuming design when it is really nothing more than the incoherent, directionless classism of a meritorious inheritor. To him, the appearance of wealth is all that matters – look at the tacky decor he surrounds himself with, look at his treatment of his women, look at his public persona.
Iowa Old Lady
@Quinerly: That’s how I remember it too.
@hovercraft: Oh whoa. Mr IOL spent his professional life in industry researching how to reduce emissions and increase fuel economy in diesel engines. Some of that work was done on contracts with EPA. His big company employers would be very unhappy about this. I’ll bet Trump thinks it’s all pointy headed college professors.
Ben Cisco
@ThresherK: Nice.
Jeffro
@Iowa Old Lady:
Well, you just confront them with a +2 pu**yhat…times 3 million…and that’s that, they’re goners, no saving throw or anything. ;)
I’m actually looking forward to the Tax Day March: show us your returns (or your audit letter), Trumpdemort!
schrodingers_cat
@Iowa Old Lady:
He doesn’t think. My cat has better impulse control than him.
Another Scott
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yup.
I’ve seen the argument that the recessions in the ’70s due to the “oil crisis(s)” was due to the Fed misinterpreting a 1-time jump in oil prices as being a sign of continuously rising prices in the future. Step jumps in commodity prices don’t necessarily mean accelerating inflation over the medium and longer term (inflation is a rate of change after all).
Dunno how widely accepted that argument is among sensible economists, but the lack of accelerating inflation when gas hit $4.50 a gallon might be a clue that there’s something to that.
Cheers,
Scott.
O. Felix Culpa
@Quinerly: I’m in for the 10th. Sent you an email. Thanks!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Another Scott:
I was in high school in the late 70s, and remember the nuttiness of interest on secured home loans running between 12% and 17%.
If anybody crushed Carter, it was the Fed.
The ridiculousness on that rescue mission to Tehran was the icing on the cupcake.
HRA
I have to share this from Nova Scotia.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/women-s-march-on-washington-sandy-cove-digby-neck-donald-trump-1.2899568
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
Yes. Every year my university gives out two top alumni awards and at least one always seems to go to some guy (almost always a guy) who is CEO of something. I’m sick and tired of the CEO-worship.
hovercraft
Unconscionable
ByJosh Marshall Published January 24, 2017, 9:50 AM EDT
You probably know about the story. Zeke Miller of Time magazine, part of the White House press pool, incorrectly reported in the White House pool report that the bust of Martin Luther King (first brought into the White House by President Obama) had been removed and replaced with one of Winston Churchill. This turned out to be wrong. A short time later Miller corrected the report. The White House has been using this as proof of media perfidy for the last three days. But on Hannity last night, Kellyanne Conway wildly upped the ante, telling Sean Hannity that Miller is personally responsible for putting her life in danger.
Conway claims she has now received Secret Service protection because of threats against her. There appears to be no independent confirmation of this or why she has if she has. In her conversation with Hannity she says she received “white substances” delivered to her house. Again, we have no information about any of this. But it is not implausible in the day and age we live in. It has happened to other high profile people in moments of great controversy. And it is obviously awful if it happened. I leave it as an open question precisely what happened because Conway has shown herself to be a serial prevaricator. There is no conceivable rationale for blaming this on the press. And it is unconscionable, to specifically blame Miller.
From Hannity (emphasis added) …
We invited the press pool into the Oval Office, I was there … And it was to witness the President signing these executive orders … We let the pool press in, and immediately the print pooler sent out the pool report that the MLK bust had been removed. It is false. I don’t say his name publicly because I don’t want him to get attacked like I do. Because of what the press is doing now to me, I have Secret Service protection. We have packages delivered to my house with white substances. That is a shame and yes I hold him into account for it. This guy puts it out. It gets tweeted and it gets reported 3,000 times. He still can’t take it back. He apologized to his colleagues in the press; he has not apologized to the President. And the damage is done because then people look at Donald Trump as the ‘R word’. The darn bust was right there. I was standing next to it. It was being hidden by a guard. Why don’t you ask us? Why don’t you say, where is the bust? It presumptive negativity.
Millet made a mistake, a kind of sloppy mistake. He quickly corrected it and sent out word of the mistake as volubly as the original report. What Conway is doing here is wild and unconscionable incitement.
Yarrow
@HRA: Great story!
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: You could have asked your dentist — “Do you need any more money? If not, I will happily keep what you were going to charge me….
O. Felix Culpa
@Jeffro:
Excellent strategy. Schumer may turn out to be an excellent opposition leader. My Dem senators are holding the line too. Our Indivisible group (former HRC volunteer leadership team) is going to their offices today to present a letter commending them for their work thus far and asking them to continue opposing Sessions, Tillerson, DeVos, etc. We’re not likely to win most of these battles, but we are building and strengthening a political network for the future.
Yarrow
@O. Felix Culpa: Universities need money. They recognize the rich CEO types and in turn get big donations. It’s just doing business for the universities. Wish it weren’t that was but it is.
darrel wright
@rikyrah: The thing about sowing discord seems absolutely on point. This is the basis upon which I urge what I otherwise admit is undue and unearned concern for the softer of Trump’s voters. Trump will lob in issue after issue that attempts to increase divisions of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc. It is deadly effective; it’s similar to what ISIS does, trying to poison the ground that it’s softer supporters could run to, so they can’t run away. We need to resist this as much as we resist the Republican agenda.
hovercraft
Speaking of Still Celebrating, lets celebrate that FOX and the right wing are still butthurt.
O’Reilly: Women’s March Protesters Were “Told To Show Up,” Just Like “Totalitarian Governments In The 20th Century”
Video January 23, 2017 8:55 PM EST
Fox Guest: Only “Privileged” Women And “Whiney, PMS-ing” Celebrities Participated In Women’s March
Video ››› January 23, 2017 10:12 AM EST
bemused
@Kay:
I’ve been thinking about how it plays out locally. For instance, a guy owns three businesses. He is a bitch to work for. Manager employees have projects running smoothly. The routine of the boss is he comes in, micromanages, says what they are doing costs too much money even if not true, makes expensive exceptions for a customer that is a buddy of his, leaves disruption behind. He generally comes back later and sort of apologizes. The managers sometimes quit and only come back if they think the more money he offers is worth it. Christmas bonuses even for the best managers are chintzy. There aren’t that many employees so everyone knows everything that happens and he is not liked nor respected. No employees nor many customers think of him as a job creator. The employees sure don’t say he doesn’t need more money so he’s not interested in piling up more!
Why people who know this guy and other wealthy business people just like him in their own back yards can’t see the billionaires do the same thing to them on a much larger scale, cutting SS, Medicare, health care and so on and then vote Republican is very weird to me.
O. Felix Culpa
@Yarrow:
I know, but my alma mater is one of the richest out there. Massive endowment. Of course it can always be bigger and more named buildings can be built, but still…
zhena gogolia
@SFAW:
My tax returns are clean as a whistle!
Immanentize
@SFAW: Like
Yarrow
@O. Felix Culpa: Yeah, I know what you mean. i think some of it is rich people recognizing other rich people–their friends. Some is the universities wanting to recognize people from their schools that achieve “success” as it’s commonly defined in our culture. Some is needing money. The second one–the one about success as it’s defined in our culture–is one we can work on to change, possibly.
zhena gogolia
@HRA:
Beautiful! Stop making me cry.
hovercraft
Kellyanne Conway Says She’s Getting Secret Service Protection After Receiving Threats
President Donald Trump’s adviser says the media is to blame.
Kellyanne Conway said she is now under Secret Service protection.
President Donald Trump’s adviser told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday that she had received suspicious packages at her home. She blamed the threats on negative press coverage of the new administration.
“Because of what the press is doing now to me, I have Secret Service protection,” said Conway. “We have packages delivered to my house with white substances. That is a shame.”
Watch the interview here: LINK
Conway was discussing a reporter’s erroneous tweet about Trump removing the bust of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office when she made the claim.
According to The Hill, it’s not unusual for senior advisers to the president to obtain Secret Service details. Both David Axelrod and Valerie Jarret received protection when President Barack Obama was in office.
ETA: Josh Marshall has a scathing assessment of the Spokes Cobra’s behavior.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/unconscionable–2
bemused
@hovercraft:
Omg. O’Reilly giving Conway heavy competition in newspeak.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: That is not CEO worship, it is simply fishing for donations. Self perpetuating problem, I know, but don’t blame your University for trying to keep tuition down.
Immanentize
@Yarrow: You got there first….
GregB
It is so grotesque watching this consolidated one party government claiming to be besieged victims of a powerful adversary.
El Caganer
@Jeffro: If she really sees the Trump administration as a parent and all of us citizens as its kids, the proper role of the media is to act as Child Protective Services.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: I have a serious recommendation on the alum award issue, write to the alumni president about this concern, and include the names of five people who are really deserving of such an award regardless of wealth. You may still get one CEO, but you may just get a worthy person recognized which may allow them to tap into alumni donations for their own non-profit or project.
El Caganer
@hovercraft: Well, don’t give your goddam home address for your coke shipments.
Kay
What a shame. The public will never get answers on the FBI’s unprecedented intrusion in the Presidential election or why Director Comey selectively releases information.
It will remain secret forever. Another questionable election where real concerns are buried to protect institutional actors and powerful people.
They can’t do this over and over without real consequences. They can’t tell people to shut up and move on forever. They have no credibility. It’s not an endless resource, credibility. You can’t just withdraw and withdraw and leave IOU notes. We deserve an explanation. I know it’s best for all these powerful people to pretend what we all saw happen didn’t happen, but at some point someone somewhere needs to be held accountable.
Immanentize
El Caganer: The rich really do have all the advantages these days!
hovercraft
@bemused:
They are all pulling in the same direction, Newt wants NBC banned for actually committing journalism.
Jeffro
@El Caganer: Amen.
it’s just more bullshit, the thought that Trump is “sharing custody” (I hope he hears that line btw; he’ll scream himself purple yelling at her). He doesn’t share a thing. it’s also not the role of the press to ‘share’ America with the president or anyone else – they are there to report on and critique what our elected officials are doing (or in this case, destroying)
Immanentize
@Kay: It is a shame, but there is no such thing as forever secrets in government — but nothing is likely to be done soon (earliest chance — 2 years and retake the House).
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize:
Excellent idea! Ironically, one of the last CEO’s to get thusly awarded was booted by his company not long afterwards.
Timurid
@Kay:
He’ll also undoubtedly try to interfere with the inter-agency investigation.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: I would include that little factoid in my letter!
Jeffro
Also, in more “water is wet” news, David Brooks is a jackass. No, I’m not going to link to it. He’s not really feeling the love for the Women’s March (shock and surprise). Here’s the worst of his three reasons why:
1) …which is why the March was so age, gender, race, and class-open that it drew 3M people, David.
2) …yes, because we’re certainly going to be able to out-patriot Trump and the GOP with more red, white, and blue David.
3) …otherwise known as, the Democratic Party, you jackass
4) …noooo, it wasn’t our “institutions” that were “fundamentally hollow”, you jackass. One of our two major parties has reached its logical end after 4 decades of Cleek’s Law principles and billionaire ownership. To say nothing of being compromised by Russia.
5) …funny that a male would only think of ‘identity politics’ primarily in terms of race.
I wonder what Brooks would say if HRC was a 46%-of-the-vote, China-aided president and 3M Americans hit the streets in protest the day after her inauguration. Wait…3M mostly male Americans. I wonder…
bemused
@hovercraft:
You’d expect Newt to be right in there hoping to get back in the grifting game. The grift has got to be pretty paltry now compared to his hay days shooting out outrageous quotes like women can’t be in combat because they get infections lying in ditches.
Another Scott
@O. Felix Culpa:
Excellent.
I’m not a telephone person. I’ve occasionally written my Congresscritters and Obama via their web forms. I hate using them because you have to pick a category (which often doesn’t fit), it’s time consuming, you never get a copy of what you submit, and weeks later you get a canned response via the mail which doesn’t really indicate whether they actually read your submission.
Today I decided to just buy a bunch of pre-stamped post cards from USPS.
USPS.com -> Postal Store – > Cards & Envelopes -> See All -> Fanciful Flowers Stamped Card seems to be the only kind available.
$0.38 each
I figure it will be easier to quickly write a note and drop it in the mail the next morning. And being hand-written, it might get a little more attention than something from a web form. And it should be easy to make it a regular habit.
Unfortunately, the USPS site is undergoing maintenance at the moment, so I’ll have to actually make the purchase later.
Cheers,
Scott.
hovercraft
@Timurid: @Immanentize:
Aren’t we in the age of leakers? Haven’t the right wing ben singing the praises of every leaker this side of Moscow for the last year? As we all saw nothing can be kept secret anymore, Gulliani’s old friends in the NY office may have leaked like a sieve, but I guarantee there are enough anti-shitgibbon people out there to ensure that the truth leaks out. The Shitgibbon badmouthing the people with all the dirt for the last year, was not smart, his visit aggravate even more of them, they will not let this be disappeared. The truth will out. Comey can rejoice in his job security, but his name and reputation are forever tarnished. Oliver North is a hero and a celebrity to FOX and the right wing, but to the rest of us he is scum, welcome to your new world Comey.
Immanentize
@Timurid: This is an interesting Q — since the whole brouhaha about the “WALL OF EVIL” that supposedly prevented our intelligence agencies from cooperating (It did not), there is a whole lot more cross-over jurisdiction between, particularly, the CIA and the FBI with the NSA coming up on the inside (they have agents, but not as many boots on the ground as the other two. This longstanding rivalry has had really bad consequences and some pleasant side effects — namely, no one federal security apparatus. For Trump to really consolidate power, either the FBI or the CIA would have to go. That might be his plan when denigrating the CIA….
fedupwithhypocrisy
@bemused, @Morzer, @danielx: It was Sara Taylor who said she took an oath to the President. And you can have the pleasure of watching Sara Taylor Fagen on CNBC, and occasionally on MSNBC, where she gives analysis as a member of their posse of GOP “Trump-skeptics,” because Republicans only fail upward, apparently.
Another Scott
@Kay: Eh? The FBI director has a 10 year appointment. Trump has no power to “ask him to stay on the job” as if he’s reappointing him now – he’s going to be there until September 4, 2023 unless he’s fired or quits.
This is more BS from Trump’s people and Comey.
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
SFBayAreaGal
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: In 1980, I bought a 1980 Pontiac Sunbird (my first brand new, off the car lot, car) I was paying 18% on my car loan at the time.
bemused
@fedupwithhypocrisy:
Thanks for the correction. Both of them were in the news at the time, young, blonde, fundy women, could have been twin sisters!
Timurid
@Immanentize:
He won’t directly order anyone to stop work. But as Director he has a thousand subtle ways to stall, divert resources and spread confusion.
hovercraft
@bemused:
Oh dear I missed that one. Wow, just wow, how is this man still allowed to opine on anything? Stupid question, every rethug on TV has a ridiculous quote or two to their name.
Another Scott
@Kay:
I’m not so sure. The DOJ IG is investigating Comey and Comey has no control over the IG (especially not at the DOJ), and neither does the AG. It’s a total[ly] separate chain of command.
Can Donnie break the chain to try to protect Comey? Sure. But there would be severe consequences.
Cheers,
Scott.
Neldob
Anybody know what’s happening with FEMA and the tornados in the South?
bemused
@hovercraft:
It’s a feature, not a bug and worse than ever.
CNN hired the vile lunatic Jeffrey Lord who just made a bizarre, creepy correlation between NAFTA and dry cleaning blood on women’s clothing. We have people on tv and in the WH that belong in a secure facility for the mentally deranged.
Aleta
@Kay: They block some of our collective memory (so to speak) of the history of these events by monitoring and objecting to the ‘political content’ of what’s taught in the schools. And new voters come along who didn’t experience what happened, for example, 16 years ago. The attack on public schools and teachers’ power is about political control.
Another Scott
@Neldob: Not a whole lot of info about FEMA out there. I did find this at GovExec (from December):
That seems to indicate that it was April 2009 before he took the job. I haven’t seen any report that Donnie has said he has anyone in mind to appoint yet. There’s almost nothing relevant on FEMA’s Georgia page.
Cheers,
Scott.
laura
@Morzer: Monica Gooding the unabashed vote-cager and handmaiden to Hans Von Spasovsky?
And Don Seigalman sits in prison. . . .
Fucking justice, how does it work?
O. Felix Culpa
@Another Scott:
Great idea! I tried to buy those postcards at my local post office yesterday and they were out of stock. I’m trying the main post office today after delivering our letter to our Senators’ offices. It will be useful to have a stack handy.
If you manage to get those postcards today, please consider sending one to T***p with this message: “Don’t make America sick again. Improve Obamacare. Don’t repeal it.” We want a mountain of mail to be delivered to this address:
Pres. Donald Trump
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW,
Washington, DC 20500
cmorenc
@Baud:
This is not the right way to look at the pool of Trump voters, sorely tempting though it may be on the merits of anyone whose judgment was corrupted enough to vote for the shit-gibbon, for whatever dominant reason. INSTEAD, consider more closely the “pool” metaphor and the fact that most swimming pools have a deep end and a shallow end – and its the voters who chose to only wade less than knee-deep in the Trump pool because it seemed warmer who are worthwhile reachable once they realize it’s only warm because of all the fresh piss in it. We don’t need to bring all that many back over to our pool to succeed in winning future elections, nor do we need to pamper them specially for them to do so – rather all we really need to do is make them realize the Trump pool is hazardous to their health and the health department would shut it down if the health department wasn’t so corrupt itself at the moment. FORGET ABOUT all the sick morons splashing about noisily down at the deep end of the Trump voter pool -we don’t need ’em, don’t want ’em.
O. Felix Culpa
@cmorenc:
From what I have seen of Baud, there’s no illusion about bringing hardcore Trump voters into the fold. My interpretation is that the reference is to those at the margins – or shallow end – as you put it. They might be peeled away.
To me, the most fruitful tactic is to target our soft allies who somehow neglected to vote in 2016. We only needed about 80,000 plus 1 over three states to win the Electoral College. At least that many non-voters may already be regretting their inaction. PLUS we must protect and extend voting rights and help people register and get to the polls. It isn’t a huge stretch of imagination to think that at least 80,000 plus 1 were discouraged or prevented from voting by restrictive, complicated laws, disinformation, and nonworking voting machines. We need to turn that around.
Edited a bit.
cmorenc
@Jeffro: Well, to a limited extent, there actually is a vaild point buried in the pile of nice polite Republican nonsense David Brooks is spewing: progressives won’t get traction to the extent they seem to be making LBGT and “black lives matter” and abortion the spearpoint of their movement, rather than economic and social fairness and opportunity – of which the aforementioned issues are certainly important parts, but not the leading sharp edge. For all his many flaws, Bernie Sanders best illustrated how to best present the leading edge of the progressive ideal, without at the same time throwing any of these three important issues overboard.
fedupwithhypocrisy
@bemused: Yes, two shameless peas in a pod. If I recall, Goodling took the 5th, actually.
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
He won 18% of Hispanics.
Brooks is right…should have been under 10%
chopper
@Kay:
it isn’t too a bad analogy – trump is the scumbag philandering father of a divorced national family. just not the way conway intended.
Gelfling 545
@Bruce K: Nixon was forced to resign by the immense public pressure on him and the Congress. It can be done again. Besides, I don’t think That Person is enjoying himself just now.
Another Scott
@cmorenc: Relitigating the past isn’t the way forward, but I can’t resist in this instance.
Many flaws, yes indeed.
How to best present the progressive ideal? I’m not so sure.
Ultimately, in order to get progressive legislation enacted, one has to be able to persuade Senators and Congresspeople to vote for your preferred policies. Bernie has shown little or no ability to do that. His legislation rarely has cosponsors. He attacks people that he needs (the Democratic party, etc.). He uses inflammatory rhetoric that prevents people from ever shifting their support from him to anyone else (J still uses Bernie’s “Corrupt”™ language to talk about Hillary and the Party).
Giving the same speech for 18+ months isn’t a sign of knowing the right way to get elected.
He’s not a very good politician when it comes to actually getting things done, and the way he campaigned did real damage.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
chopper
@manyakitty:
never thought about that before. shoulders? top of the head?
O. Felix Culpa
@Another Scott:
Hear, hear!
manyakitty
@chopper: Heh. Either are valid.
George
@OzarkHillbilly: I am not convinced that the Spencer punching incident was not staged. It wasn’t as much of a punch as it was an elbow, and Spencer managed to walk away. How convenient that it happened on camera as well. I think it may very well have been an attempt by Spencer get a little street cred.
fuckwit
@Baud: Yeah you should have been born a rich sociopath; that appears to be the fast-track to success, at least in politics, venture capital, entertainment, and real estate development.