That’s better.
On the SCOTUS appointment, the one really nice thing is I have to spend zero time learning about the nominee. You simply oppose anyone who is not Garland, because obstruction should not be rewarded. Period. End of Story. Dems filibuster him until McConnell blows up the filibuster.
Elizabelle
Happy February.
Agree. Merrick Garland or go home. And stick to it.
ETA: and make a point that Senate Republicans would not even give Garland a hearing. Point out their cowardice and obstruction. People paying attention now.
Obama’s popularity is only going to rise in the next months, and Trump’s will continue to crater.
Make this hurt.
oldster
Yup.
That’s the long and short of it.
Ohio Mom
I joined up with my neighborhood Indivisible group. Every day I am emailed talking points for calls and letters to my MoCs.
It’s truly depressing to read in detail exactly how awful each cabinet nominee is. I am glad to be excused from learning much about this fellow whose name sounds like someone getting ready to spit out a big wad.
Big Ole Hound
Of course…let the GOP taste their medicine for a change and while your at it do not ratify any cabinet nominees either.
Tokyokie
Hell, Gorsuch being the spawn of the evil Anne Gorsuch is enough to disqualify him in my mind.
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
True Dat. You don’t get to steal a Supreme Court seat. Well, obviously, they did – so it should be Justice Gorsach* in the record books till the end of time.
Dems not bringing a knife to a gun fight anymore. Bring on the land mines.!
Snarki, child of Loki
It takes 40 Senators to filibuster, and they should do so.
It takes 20 Senators (or less!) to demand recorded roll-call votes on EVERYTHING
It takes ONE Senator to withhold ‘unanimous consent’, and require votes for EVERYTHING
Add in a bunch of “quorum calls” and “call to adjourn”, “points of order”, “points of information”,
and McConnell’s Dishonest GOP Senate can be ground to a halt.
Goose/Gander. Suck it, Mitch.
The Democrat’s immediate goal should be to make McConnell stroke out before the midterms.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
Nice critters Cole. I deleted my response that didn’t help keep the happy theme emphasized. See, I can be cooperative.
OzarkHillbilly
I am shocked, shocked I tell you:
DeVos Apparently Plagiarized Parts Of Her Responses To Senate Questionnaire.
Betty Cracker
Gorsuch is willing to knowingly receive stolen goods (e.g., Garland’s seat), which would be enough to make me suspect he’s a man without honor even if a bog-standard Republican nominated him. But the fact that he was nominated by Trump automatically makes him garbage. Anyone who colludes with Trump in any sphere is transformed into a walking human shit via trumpsubstantiation, surrendering their dignity and other worthy qualities to become ambulatory feces. A decent person wouldn’t consent to such a process. Therefore, I already know all I need to know about Gorsuch.
greennotGreen
Thurston, Rosie? Proof of life, please.
Paul in KY
@Snarki, child of Loki: I am ALL for this!!!
Ric
They won’t.
Amir Khalid
What’s this I keep hearing about the Juicitariat pining for me? I wouldn’t have thought anyone pining for me was particularly plausible.
So anyway, with this new Trump administration the hits just keep on coming, don’t they? It’s like Donald J was deliberately trying to wreck America. His is turning out to be the train-wreck presidency every sane person in the world feared — and also what half the voters in America wanted and expected when they picked him. It’s really that last bit that, to quote Sir Mick Jagger, that has me mystified.
delk
I got out of the hospital yesterday. How’s that for positive note? Seriously, I’d like to thank everybody for the well wishes. I was diagnosed with Addison’s Disease (figures, I’m a White Sox fan, lol).
I am sure glad January is over!
January 2015: Fractured back.
January 2016: Rotator cuff surgery for two massive* tears and a hole.
January 2017: Addison’s Disease.
That said, it is nice to get the deductibles out of the way so early. :-)
*Massive tears are greater than 5 cm and are usually found in men 10 years older than me.
MomSense
@Tokyokie:
Damn. I hadn’t made the connection. My god she was horrible at EPA.
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
((((Amir)))) we have missed you!
OzarkHillbilly
@Amir Khalid: They had their hands nailed to their keyboards.
Quinerly
@Ohio Mom:
I remember what a nightmare his mother was at EPA. #resist
Spanky
Propane Jane asks a very interesting question:
(Link to DK)
Quinerly
@Amir Khalid:
Glad to see you checking in. I’m mostly a lurker. Have been concerned and missed your posts,though.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid:
No, no; we were pining for the fjords. (Nice to hear from you Amir.)
Betty
@delk: Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but it is better to know what you are dealing with. Best wishes.
Schlemazel
@Amir Khalid:
Nice to see you back. I was worried you were pining for the fjords
EDIT: and I see @OzarkHillbilly: got there first. nertz!
Wdit !! – crap! EVERYBODY got there first. In my defense I have been sick. Got the flu & the shot was no protection I get. I have been miserable for 2 weeks now
martian
I think where I land is that Gorsuch is not a good man. Because no one who has any ethics or integrity, who cares about this country and it’s democracy and history, could accept Merrick Garland’s seat. Trump should have had to ransack the courtrooms of America down to the municipals looking for someone low enough to accept his offer. To happily accept Trump’s offer is to lack the character and ethics requisite for a place on the nation’s highest court.
Is that hyper partisan of me? I’ve genuinely been pondering whether I am and just can’t see it.
ETA: Oh, I see Betty got there first and more eloquently while I was puzzling over my words. What Betty said.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Spanky: Well, it’s true that we never hear of Dolt 45’s mother. Maybe it’s because she was a foreigner.
lamh36
Good morning.
Damn shame when a Beer commercial is more inspiring & positive about the American immigrant experience than the current President of the United States!!
https://www.facebook.com/BudweiserUSA/videos/10154076569601688/
MomSense
@delk:
Glad you are feeling better.
gvg
I actually do think we should learn about him, because 1)it will probably reflect badly on Trump and that may help us persuade someone of something down the line. 2) if he gets the seat, the sooner we know what his specific type of bad rulings will be, the better we can plan to keep the damage down.
Supreme Court Justices have not always ended up ruling the way their Presidents planned, especially as time goes by. Trump is surrounded by opportunist people who have non identical beliefs and he is a terrible judge of character and competence although he thinks otherwise. this means this guy can have several different downsides. I doubt he will turn out to be any good to us down the line but I have wondered about Roberts. Actually all the conservatives already on the court, may dislike a lot of Trump actions. The Federal Marshals not following court orders and such, ought to upset them. It upsets me. Trump is radical.
D58826
I continue to be amazed at the stupidity of the average GOP voter. The GOP/Faux news spin machine promises to return America to some gold age from the mythical past. Yet depending on when that time period is, most of the GOP voters would have no place in that society. You don’t have to go back very far to find a time period in which A/A Goper’s would be riding the back of the bus. Clarence Thomas would still be picking cotton an d certainly not living in an upscale Va., suburb with his white wife. Go back a few more years and KellyAnne Conway would be at home barefoot, pregnant and with very few rights outside of her husband’s name. A few more years in the gold past and she could not vote. She would not be polluting the air waves on a daily basis. There would be no Scalia model SCOTUS justice since Italian/Catholic Nino would never have made it into an elite Ivy League law school let alone to the Supreme Court. It hasn’t been that many years since Italian immigrants were viewed with the same degree of suspicion and hate that Muslim immigrants face today. All of the Jewish GOPers would have been met with a ‘no Jews allowed’ sign as we returned Jewish refugees to the tender mercies of Hitler’s death camps.
This new nominee believes the Court should decide cases based on the original intent of the signers. ‘Original intent’ is simply bigotry dressed up in a tux. The original intent of the founders was a government run by white, male, anglo-saxon, overwhelmingly protestant, property owners. While today’s 1% is a bit more diverse, the founding fathers would have been quite at home in that group.
And if the political process hasn’t been sufficiently out of control – Jerry Falwell jr. has been named to heard a commission on higher education reform.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: Welcome back! Don’t be a stranger.
Trump is a disaster. We have to fight him and his minions (not the DLC, not HRC, not the DNC, not Wilmer) every single day.
Cheers,
Scott.
D58826
@Spanky: Or that wife number 3 may have a questionable immigration history. BUT E_MAILS
Another Scott
@delk: Ouch! Glad you’re out!
Take care and have a speedy recovery.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Schlemazel: There have been various things going around, and some linger. I hope you’re fully recovered soon. Keep up the fight!
Cheers,
Scott.
D58826
ok, now this is really really REALLY REALLY important
time to declare a state of national emergency.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2017/02/01/u-s-bacon-reserves-hit-50-year-low.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl
gvg
@Betty Cracker: I am not willing to go that far. Someone will fill that seat eventually and it’s the GOP congress of last year who are the people to blame.
It doesn’t sound like the case here but I have honestly thought some people would end up taking the positions just to keep Trump from picking someone worse sooner. They’ll eventually get fired and their reputations will be trashed but I was actually hoping for a few. more likely in lower profile positions.
The 25th Amendment needs a cabinet to trigger removal I think. I also think it didn’t envision a batshit crazy President from the start, it was meant for someone who started OK and lost marbles. Its been stunning that so many people don’t recognize and value competence, how we fix that I don’t know. I am guessing that America’s relatively long stretch of pretty good times is part of it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: You can’t type a comment on this blog without tripping over a Flying Circus fan.
Amir Khalid
@D58826:
See? See? ISIS is hitting back at America already!
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Amir Khalid: Amir! OK, this is now a good day no matter what I might be dealing with.
fuckinguversecustomerservicemuttermutter
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
I am in awe of a brain that can come up with a word like this so early in the morning. Kudos, Betty!
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
YAY! You’re back!!
Central Planning
Let’s end this post on a high note
Svensker
@delk: Good grief. Peace be upon you!
Tokyokie
@lamh36: Well, what would you expect? Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch were both immigrants, and their company is now owned by a Belgian multinational conglomerate.
Svensker
@Amir Khalid: So good to see you alive and kicking. We was worrit
D58826
@Quinerly: Well we can look on the bright side. Going forward his ‘original intent’ jurisprudence would keep women out of government jobs. Didn’t Jefferson say something to the effect that he would rather see a black man in government then a woman?
ant
Does he have to wait two years, and keep majority in order to do so?
I don’t under stand why he didn’t eliminate the filibuster already. And not just for SC justices, but for everything.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
A friend of mine was remarking on this about an hour ago. I was bitching about him, his record and his 1988 yearbooknslobber over Kissinger (and about his piece of shit, should have been indicted mother).
She feels like this is the poisoned pill we get to fight about before the nom is withdrawn. The following is going to be even more odious, and McConnell will choose that moment to go nuclear.
Alain the site fixer
@Amir Khalid: welcome back!
Darkrose
@Betty Cracker: trumpsubstantiation!!!
Darkrose
@Amir Khalid: Amir!
Darkrose
@delk: Oh man. Glad you’re out of the hospital.
SiubhanDuinne
@delk:
Wow, that’s quite the litany of awful Januaries. Hope this third time breaks the evil spell. Glad you’re out of hospital with your sense of humour intact.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@gvg: The 25th amendment was a reaction to President Kennedy getting shot in the head and the prospect that he survived. So literally loosing his marbles.
amk
@Snarki, child of Loki:
This. Start from there. And never relent. Let the thugs taste their own poison.
FlipYrWhig
@Tokyokie: @lamh36: I have noticed that A LOT of liquor and beer ads are being aimed at Latinos recently.
Tokyokie
@Amir Khalid: Amir, Glad to see you’re still with us. Even after a crushing loss by our Anfield lads. But then, I probably jinxed them by acquiring that retro LFC jersey a few weeks back.
JMG
@ant: The filibuster protects the majority as well as the minority. It allows majority Senators who are afraid legislation popular with their base but more broadly unpopular to vote for it knowing it’ll fail and they won’t have to deal with its consequences. It’s a cop out device, and all pols love those.
rikyrah
Nice pics, Cole.
Steve, of course, scares me. He’s plotting. Don’t know how you don’t sleep with one eye open everynight.
I don’t even need to know the guy’s name.
HE.SHOULD.NOT.GET.A.VOTE.
PERIOD.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
Hey Amir. Thanks for checking in.
Alain the site fixer
@Tokyokie: funny, I was considering posting live posts for Amir’s favorite team matches in hopes of drawing him back, Amir-bait, as it were.
ant
@JMG:
ok.
but why keep the filibuster for scotus?
Tokyokie
@delk: Well, on the bright side, now you know what ails you, and Addison’s is fairly easy to control with medications. Beats learning you have a progressive degenerative disease of some sort.
A Ghost to Most
Making T. coli and especially Yertle eat this nomination would bring so much energy to the resistance. Strong knees, Senators.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
It was either pining for you, or for the the fjords.
Since I don’t have any beautiful plumage, I went with you.
Really glad to see you’re back!
ETA: And I know you came back just for the Super Bowl.
artem1s
this. Hopefully the Dems will learn to tag team this shit. It’s going to take constant vigilance to keep up this obstruction. The upside being the Rs have forgotten how to do anything except obstruct and glad hand the Koch Bros long ago. If they have to be in DC all day, every day, then they can’t go home and con the WWC rubes and collect their Koch Cash. Dems will get MORE funding and support every time they grow a spine. They should be asking for money like they are running a marathon. Please donate $XXX for every hour of filibustering, for every NO vote, every time John Lewis parks his butt in the well of the Senate and leads a sit in.
Corner Stone
All the same shit conservatives are saying about how Gorsuch “deep belief in the Constitution, deep belief in Bill of Rights” and “he’s a judicial conservative who believes in small government” and etc, is the exact same bullshit they all said about Justice Roberts when he was nominated.
ant
My understanding is that to change the rules eliminating the filibuster can also be filibustered, unless it’s done in the beginning when the new Senate is first swarn in every two years. Mitch failed to do this this year yes?
Is this correct?
SFAW
@ant:
They won’t. The only question is: what completely-bullshit excuse will that treasonous, seditious fuck (a/k/a the Turtle) use to “justify” nuking it?
Corner Stone
I wish Jon Stewart would just go away. I fail to find anything he says nowadays humorous or useful.
laura
@delk: Best to stop doing Januarys.
Also, that cat is a massive, floofy kiki. Does he come with a prying bar?
oldster
Have you called your Rep today about the Stream Protection Rule?
Obama passed it in December, and it prevents Big Coal from burying streams in waste and destroying groundwater.
So of course the Republicans want to repeal it.
The vote is today: call your Rep to tell them to vote *against* the repeal of the Stream Protection Rule.
Read more here:
https://thinkprogress.org/congress-is-set-to-overturn-the-stream-protection-rule-1829c522f388#.cghd4gq99
jeffreyw
“Steve! You magnificent bastard! I read your look!”
– Gen. Patton*
*Damn right
Bupalos
I’m open to an argument that a knee-jerk tit-for-tat here (that in the end is only symbolic) helps us do this, but the only “this” that matters at this point is that we have to win at the ballot box in 21 months.
A big fight over the character and temperament of this guy to me would be a big mistake. Only if dems can get together on a one-voice stand that the seat is stolen and cannot honorably be filled at all would I want them to push it to filibuster nuking.
amk
@ant: Harry Reid did it in nov 2013.
Tokyokie
@Alain the site fixer: I decided to root for LFC years ago because they’re the favorite EPL side of Ireland and they wear red. But how can you not like a team whose fans sing an unsingable Rogers and Hammerstein number (it ranges from middle C to the G above the treble clef) and do so badly before every home match? (Although I’ll admit it was difficult when that bastard Tom Hicks owned the club.)
Yarrow
@Amir Khalid: Amir! So glad to see you here. Hope you can visit more often. And hope you are well.
Corner Stone
I wish they would stop saying Gorsuch is “replacing” Scalia on the court. That seat should have already been filled.
p.a.
@Amir Khalid: welcome back! not much happening here… ?
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
@Amir Khalid: Great to see you here, Amir. Don’t be a stranger!
hedgehog mobile
@Amir Khalid: We have missed you! So happy to see you!
lollipopguild
@Amir Khalid: I have missed your very smart comments. Nice to have you back!
Bupalos
@SiubhanDuinne: I was going to say the same but I slobber over Betty too much as it is.
Seriously, juicers, appreciate what you have here!
Tripod
@ant:
Power
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
So you are saying everyone expects the MPFC?
GregB
It is hard to believe, but for so many, this is the world they want.
Hey Amir.
martian
@Amir Khalid: From a mostly lurker, Amir, there’s definitely been an Amir-shaped space in the blog since you’ve been gone. The intense embarrassment of Trump’s election should prevent anyone from pressing you, though. After this, what person of taste wouldn’t give all Americans the side eye and wonder what really lies beneath?
@delk: Sympathies and best wishes for an easy recovery. That’s a hell of a way to start the year but, hey, enjoy all the free healthcare to come! It’ll almost be like living in a proper first world nation.
Schlemazel
@Another Scott:
I am not sure if if its the sick or not but I have been concerned the last couple days because I just don’t have the energy for the fight right now. I am worried I have ‘battle fatigue’ and we are not even a month in yet. I need to call and write again but I just don’t have the energy. I’m hoping that goes away when I get better.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: Yay, you’re back!
@delk: Aw, man — that’s a lot at once. Hope you’re feeling better.
ant
@amk:
I see.
So Mitch can nuclear the scotus filibuster just as soon as he has 50 senate votes to do so. That shouldn’t be very hard to accomplish.
sigh.
Opposing Trump SC pick doesn’t change anything in the long run.
Yarrow
@Corner Stone: Where is Jon Stewart showing up? I haven’t even heard about him since some time last summer.
p.a.
Since ‘positive’ this is from Albert Hunt (had not heard of him in a while, remember him as a conservative, but unsure if neo, paloe, christo, etc., but anyway):
Yarrow
@ant:
NOT opposing his SC pick definitely won’t change anything. You don’t know what opposing his pick might change.
Weaselone
@D58826:
This is the reason restricting Muslim immigrants is foolish. We get the skills, the labor and the manpower without further stressing our already beleaguered pork suppliers. They work, pay taxes and we get to keep all the bacon.
Timurid
#IfNoGarlandWeRiot
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:I agree with John and with all of this
Let your senators know, people, and let ’em know weekly until you either hear that they’ve committed to filibustering/voting “no”.
Also, Trump is a grandstanding dick and I think he may actually blow past the 27% mark on his way down.
amk
@Yarrow: Bingo. Preemptive surrender never did help the dems and their causes.
Betty Cracker
@Bupalos: Trump filed for reelection on the day he was sworn in so he could begin collecting campaign money for 2020 and has already socked away a few mil. Since the Republicans said Obama couldn’t seat a justice during a campaign, the same rule should apply to Trump. How did they put it: “Let the people decide?” Yeah, that.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: Apparently this is fairly common, especially for Congressional candidates.
EDIT: And I saw a hilarious tweet yesterday: Donald Trump shouldn’t be allowed to nominate a Supreme Court justice in the last year of his presidency.
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid:
Oh, what a nice start to the day! Welcome back!
zhena gogolia
@D58826:
Good post. I wish it were on the front page of the NYT and on every cable news network.
amk
@Major Major Major Major: da kenyan filed his papers for re-election after two years, not after two weeks.
Just One More Canuck
now THAT’S a yellow dog Democrat
Morzer
http://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: It’s not common for presidential candidates.
@Betty Cracker: I agree. Since Trump wants to be a perpetual candidate, let’s use that against him when we can. It’s not proper to vote on a SC nominee during a campaign. Let the people decide. If that means we need a placeholder candidate to declare for the Dems, let someone do that too.
Bill
I have zero confidence Senate Democrats have enough spine to actually filibuster. I’m already reading articles indicating they won’t because they’re worried about losing the filibuster for future battles.
Fact is, if Trump/McConnell are going to nuke the filibuster, they’ll do it whoever the Democrats decide to use it. Force the Republican’s hands and make them own this.
philpm
Apparently, the coup is on: Via an AP alert I just got on my phone, the ‘pubs on the Finance Committee just changed the rules and moved Price and Mnuchin’s confirmation to the floor without Dems present.
amk
Major Major Major Major
@amk: Just picking a random congressperson, Pelosi filed on 11/16/2016.
ETA: @Yarrow: Yea but that’s not the kind of ‘not normal’ we’re on the look out for, it’s merely unusual. It’s not part of some evil master plan to muzzle dissent.
Jeffro
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s awesome – love it!
Jeffro
@amk: He’s just trying to irritate Michelle and/or make Richard Branson laugh. =)
Yarrow
@philpm: So frustrating. The Dems need a representative at every meeting, every everything. At least someone to sound the alarm.
amk
@Major Major Major Major: But has any president done it before? I have no idea.
Morzer
@philpm:
The Democrats must decide whether to fight with everything they have against the tyranny of a corrupt, vicious minority conservative/fascist junta, or else to die whimpering about the rules and achieving nothing. Les jeux sont faits.
Major Major Major Major
@amk: I don’t know, the FEC easy search tool only goes back to 2008.
@Yarrow: If they had a representative at that vote then they wouldn’t have been boycotting the vote, something we were happy about yesterday.
Yarrow
@amk: They look like they’re at a beach. Anyone know where they’re vacationing? I hope they are getting their well-earned rest.
amk
@philpm: Not surprised at all. The thugs break all kindsa rules, convention and decorum and only the dems have to play nice? Hopefully dems will say Fuck that noise.
philpm
@Yarrow: By having one Democrat show up at the committee, they would have had a quorum, which is why they were boycotting the meeting in the first place. GOP Senators changed the rules without them present, so nothing they could have done in that instance.
amk
@Yarrow: I have read at some richard branson’s private island.
Jeffro
Two unrelated thoughts to add before disappearing into work for a bit:
1) Y’all need to follow Trump Draws on Twitter ( @TrumpDraws )…it’s good to interrupt your feed with the man-baby’s latest artwork a couple times a day
2) This Gorsuch thing made me kinda mentally circle back to the Dems’ recent infrastructure bill/proposal…in addition to everything else we are doing and our Democratic MoCs are doing, it would be great for Dems to preempt Trumpov’s bullshit on a weekly basis by continuing to propose, y’know, actual good-government proposals and bills. Not only would it steal some of the limelight from Trumpov, it would fight the perception that the Dems are only knee-jerk opposing Trumpov, that they have no ideas of their own. And the contrast would be EXCELLENT as we continue to progress towards the 2018 elections.
So…next time you’re on the phone to your MoC, once you weigh in on the Outrage Du Jour, be sure to let her or him know you’d like to see the Dems putting forward their usual principled, thoughtful solutions, policies, and legislation in order to pre-empt Trumpov and create a clear contrast for 2018.
philpm
@amk: Agreed.
Schlemazel
@Yarrow:
by not being there they were effectively blocking the nomination. I get what you are saying but in this case it was serving a purpose
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
What she said.
Deborah
@Jeffro: My senators are Blunt and McCaskill. I sent McCaskill a fax (counts as a call) about SCOTUS and called Blunt about EO. Should I call Blunt about SCOTUS? He will vote for him, of course.
Morzer
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2017/01/rules.html
Betty Cracker
@Morzer: Exactly so.
Morzer
@D58826:
Alright, alright, you’ve convinced me! There’s something to this radical conservatism after all.
Whaddaya mean, that wasn’t the plan?!
Major Major Major Major
CNN calling the GOP rule change for Price and Mnuchin “an extraordinary step”.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: @philpm: Okay. I misunderstood what it was. I’m not sure how to win in these situations.
waysel
Does anyone know of a place where a listing of Trump regime travesties, EO illegalities, threats to national securities, etc, may be found?
zhena gogolia
@waysel:
It’s inscribed on my bleeding, broken heart.
Morzer
@waysel:
I believe there’s a badly secured private server in the White House. Give it a day or two and Sean Spicer will tweet out all the information you need to slide past the security systems.
Major Major Major Major
@waysel: somebody linked to a place the other day in the comments but now I can’t remember what it was. In short, no, and Obama didn’t do it either so while it’s still bad it’s not 100% troubling. The documents are still filed properly, they’re just not immediately available in full text online.
tobie
Rules are for wusses. I’m afraid we’ve become a lawless state. Orrin Hatch just summarily changed the rules to get Mnuchin and Price through:
Full article at Washington Post.
I’m scared. I’m not sure what we can do any longer…
D58826
According to a David Frum tweet – comment made by das Fuhrer before a group of A/A –
The Onion could not come up with something that stupid!
Morzer
@tobie:
We can fight with everything we’ve got and if we can regain power we declare any and all acts of the Trump administration to have been unconstitutional and unlawful, including the elevation of Gorsuch to the supreme court.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major:
I guess they can’t quite bring themselves to say, “The Republicans are flouting all rules and conventions and our system of government is being overthrown by a gang of religious zealots and nihilists who are being funded by the Russian government.”
But still, points on the board for them.
amk
@tobie: from a reasonably functioning democracy to a tinpot dictatorship with willing courtiers in under three weeks. hoocuddanoed.
Morzer
@Yarrow:
It’s noteworthy that both Price and Mnuchin have been caught lying blatantly under oath during their testimonies, such as they were. The GOP are clearly desperate to avoid any further public displays of incompetence, dishonesty and corruption. How long before they do the same thing with the fraudulent idiot DeVos?
Major Major Major Major
Matt Bors has a funny new cartoon that sums up the Trumpian mindset. The last panel is perfect.
Steeplejack (phone)
@lamh36:
Damn, that could actually get me to buy a Budweiser, which is something I haven’t done (voluntarily) in, uh, decades.
dww44
@Elizabelle: It’s going to take a lot more and worse missteps from the Trump Administration to move those around me who still believe in the “Trump has done more in 1 week than Obama did in 8 years” meme. They believe this because their knowledge is superficial, they adore leaders with authoritarian tendencies and they are STILL daily overdosing on Fox and talk radio.
But there is humor to be found in social media world. Yesterday a FB friend, a longstanding member of the white, private school attending, upper middle class in this small city, posted that she had voted Republican for every President since Reagan, but voted for Gary Johnson last November in order to rebut being called a “liberal snowflake” by one of her conservative friends for not voting for Trump. Some of the comments were very revealing. One of her friends didn’t know what liberal snowflake meant. Then there was another FB friend posting on her own timeline to ask if she should join AARP and was immediately told (by white guy friends of a certain age) that if one was conservative one would NOT spend one’s money to join that far left organization!
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s just subtle enough to make it all the more brilliant.
Betty Cracker
@Morzer: They lied under oath, and both are self-dealing crooks who make it obvious that Trump’s “drain the swamp” slogan was a cynical lie. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing that the Republicans upended the rules to sleaze that pair of swindling scumbuckets onto the cabinet. They own those motherfuckers 100% now, without benefit of democratic processes.
SiubhanDuinne
I am having trouble wrapping my head around the plain fact that Republican President Asterisk and his gang of enablers have been in power for only TWELVE FUCKING DAYS!!
It feels a lifetime already.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
Brilliant! So true.
Morzer
@SiubhanDuinne:
Hell, why go for half-measures? Let’s make it the last month of his *prezzyduncey.
Major Major Major Major
We need to make sure that senate Dems know we will consider a vote to end cloture on Trump’s human garbage SCOTUS nominee to be a vote to confirm him. Cloture is consent!
Morzer
@dww44:
Donnie Putinobitch will either continue to do the extremely stupid things that his minority hate mob think they want (leading to disaster for all) or else do nothing and disappoint his followers (especially ISIS). Either way, I think there’s going to be an almighty backlash in 2 years time, if Trump and Bannon decide to allow elections of any sort.
Larkspur
@efgoldman: Yep, getting old is a constant pitter-patter of tiny astonishments.
rikyrah
Have you called your Rep today about the Stream Protection Rule?
Obama passed it in December, and it prevents Big Coal from burying streams in waste and destroying groundwater.
So of course the Republicans want to repeal it.
The vote is today: call your Rep to tell them to vote *against* the repeal of the Stream Protection Rule.
chris
@waysel: Try this?
hovercraft
@Amir Khalid:
Welcome back ;-)
Don’t be such a stranger.
@delk:
Glad you are feeling better, and at least now you know what you are dealing with.
Larkspur
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I’m going to contribute to the happy theme, too. I just finished up a dog-sitting gig with a small, adorable tri-color Cavalier King Charles spaniel. He’s still pretty young, so each walk is a training session. He’s not allowed on the furniture, but he has lots of little dog beds right next to wherever anyone is sitting, and he is allowed to sleep on the bed with me. So comforting.
Next up, at the end of the week, is a stay with one of my favorite elder dogs, a golden retriever. She loves being brushed and I love brushing her, plus the house has all the good tv and streaming stuff, and a hot tub, although the last time I tried a hot tub, there were just enough chemical components to make me sneeze and sneeze.
In conclusion, let me recommend John Scalzi’s latest, A Fortnight of Trump. There is some positivity there.
Major Major Major Major
@Morzer: Trump’s fans are a fucking UFO cult. Disaster or failure only makes them believe even harder that the targets of their hate are out to get them. And they’ll vote. We can’t count on them flipping, we have to get to his soft supporters if there are any and get our people to turn out.
Timurid
People respected the filibuster because they knew that one day the wheel would turn and the other party would be back in power. But now Republicans have bet their entire fortune on this being the last turn of the wheel, the last cycle. Ever. That’s the whole point of Trump.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Snarki, child of Loki:
I’d love to see it, especially Mitch stroke and croak.
Major Major Major Major
@Timurid: and yet, Mitch kept the filibuster.
chris
Yay, did you know it’s National School Choice Week? The grift goes on.
ETA: From the Federal Register.
Morzer
@Major Major Major Major:
The hardcore Trumpzis just hate everyone and everything that stopped them from being mean-spirited, hateful bigots and imposed consequences for such behavior i.e. most of the human race. They won’t stop until they’ve wrecked the joint. That said, a substantial slice of Trump voters either didn’t think he meant what he said, hated HRC or simply were desperate for a better life. Those people can be won over or, at minimum, persuaded not to vote at all. We get that chunk of his vote, combined with our heavy majority in the popular vote and we can remove Trump and his rabble from the White House. If, and I think it’s a very big if, Trump and the GOP allow anything like elections to take place.
Larkspur
@oldster: Done. My rep is Jared Huffman (D California 2d) and he’s strong on the good stuff, but I’m calling him on this and other stuff, too. Plus he always has a clerk/intern who answers the phone.
brettvk
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: My password for them is an obscene reference to the quality of their service. Sadly, the only other ISP in town is even worse.
Morzer
@Major Major Major Major:
Sure. Either he can make the Democrats cave by threatening to destroy it, or he can blame them for forcing him to do what he wanted to anyway. It’s also just possible that he wants to have a check on Trump’s more lurid idiocies for which someone else can be blamed.
Larkspur
@Schlemazel: Hell, no, you have the flu. All you should be doing now is resting and caring for yourself. Most of time time when you get the flu, its effects last weeks after you think you’re over it, so don’t be impatient with yourself. Also, thank you for being Schlemazel, because if you were Schlemiel, the rest of us would all be sick.
Major Major Major Major
@Morzer: my theory is that he doesn’t actually want to do half+ the shit the House is going to send him and he’s counting on democrats to save his ass.
SiubhanDuinne
@Larkspur:
I am going to needlepoint that.
Elizabelle
@Deborah: Yes. Absolutely. Call Blunt’s office to put your opposition on record. Maybe the lizard brains especially need to know, given their bubble.
Larkspur
@SiubhanDuinne: I love you.
SiubhanDuinne
@Larkspur:
Seriously. That’s fucking poetry, that is.
MomSense
@Corner Stone:
Did you see Jon Stewart on Colbert last night? You are going to fucking loooove his tie.
Ha.
Larkspur
@dww44: As John Scalzi said in his latest, A Fortnight of Trump
Quinerly
Franken on a tear. Live on MSNBC.
Major Major Major Major
@Larkspur: my favorite thing like that I saw was, snowflakes stopped the Nazis.
Larkspur
@Major Major Major Major: That’s excellent.
D58826
@Morzer: By Hillary ‘lied under oath about her e-mails’. E-maiuls and Benchazi
O. Felix Culpa
@Deborah:
YES YES YES YES YES!!! GOP legislators always need to hear from you! The Tea Party stormed all their legislators and now their agenda is being enacted. We must do the same.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Is Neil Gorsuch a member of the Federalist Society? That would be telling, but I can’t find anything on line. Only a quick search, I admit.
Major Major Major Major
Senate votes Sessions out of committee on party-line vote.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: nothing would get me to watch MSNBC. Nothing. But a link to what Franken said would be great. Was it about the Supreme Court?
trollhattan
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Just learned his mom is Anne Gorsuch Burford, who Reagan put in charge of destroying EPA (see also James Watt).
So he was raised by cancerous wolves.
Peale
@Major Major Major Major: I’m going to need to check out. Cue the poutrage over the “betrayal” of the weak Democrats and how “I’ll never have to vote for them again!”
Iowa Old Lady
In speaking about Black History Month today, Trump first bitched about the press, then said
Doesn’t it sound as if he thinks Frederick Douglass is still alive?
HeidiMom
@Amir Khalid: It’s good to hear from you, Amir. Welcome back, from a newbie.
Major Major Major Major
@Peale: how did democrats betray us by voting no? (I know that you’re referring to somebody else’s complaint)
FlipYrWhig
@Iowa Old Lady: Some friends were kicking this around on Facebook just now. I strongly suspect Trump got Frederick Douglass mixed up with Clarence Thomas.
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid: Amir sighting. Woo hoo!
Please do not be gone so much. Although you may be just as tired as we are of Trump.
ETA: and Lily sighting too. Moar Lily. Moar Amir. Thank you.
PaulW
To all Democratic Senators:
Vote Garland for the Supreme Court seat.
Vote Garland for the Supreme Court seat.
And tell McConnell to go to the deepest pit of hell where he belongs.
You gonna worry about getting attacked for “uncivil” behavior in the Senate?
It’s McConnell’s own damn fault. The second he publicly – GLEEFULLY – blocked Obama’s right to submit a judicial nominee as President, he threw every rule of good behavior out the door.
Vote Garland for the Supreme Court seat.
Keep voting Garland for the Supreme Court seat.
PaulW
@Iowa Old Lady:
Frederick Douglass is a Time Lord.
Jeffro
@Larkspur: thanks, that piece is great!
Peale
@Major Major Major Major: Somehow, they are supposed to stop all nominees through magic. As we see with Mnchin, the Republicans will just change the rules and vote him out of committee anyway. But there will be 10 times less outrage at that than there will be for Democrats actually showing up to vote him down. I have no idea why this is. I guess the Democrats are supposed to break rules because of fascism and anyone doing anything to advance a candidate, incuding voting against him, is counted as a betrayal.
Timurid
@Steeplejack (tablet):
I often dream about a seance at a Federalist Society meeting where they summon the spirit of their hero… and then Hamilton’s ghost floats around the room, dope-slapping each one of them and shouting, “What the fuck do you people think you’re doing?”
Elizabelle
@Timurid: that’s a good dream.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Timurid: “You must be out of your God damned mind”
/Cabinet Battle 2
MomSense
@Iowa Old Lady:
Yup. Sounds like he has no clue who he is.
We have a moron for a president. And it really pisses me off that someone born to such privilege is so incurious and uneducated.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
BTW, Debt Ceiling to expire in March, hold on to your wallets.
D58826
@Peale:
Major Major Major Major
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: oh goody.
The Lodger
@Amir Khalid: Amir! Glad you’re back!
bluegirlfromwyo
@D58826: Damn right original intent is bigotry dressed in a tux. So make them own this. Five justices. Original intent and practice. DT gets nothing until three more resign or die. Why should the GOP get all the poison pills?
dww44
Just took an online poll from my R Congressperson. Question:
Instant poll results when one answers: 72.01% of poll respondents are in favor of it. It really is disheartening to live in a very red state.
Miss Bianca
@Amir Khalid: Amir is back!! (happy dance)
SgrAstar
@Amir Khalid: All true, Amir…but YAY! You’re back. Whew!
O. Felix Culpa
@oldster:
Done. Thanks for the heads-up.
@Amir Khalid: I will join the Welcome Back chorus! Was worried about you. Glad you’re here!
Dog Mom
@delk: No disrespect – I wish you the best for improving health and healing. I have a 10 year old beagle with Addison’s, dx’ed almost 3 years ago. Regular meds, good diet, some exercise, managing stress and avoiding triggers keeps her happy and healthy. Find a good experienced doctor too. Hopefully you will have a crisis free future.
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: @oldster: Emailed Scott Tipton, as I can’t really call from work. I am sure it is shouting (scribbling) into the wind, but I had to register my protest somehow! (also posted the article link on my FB activist group page).
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Hey AMIR! Glad to hear from you! Believe me, no one is more mystified about how we got where we are than the majority of people who voted for Hillary!!!
I just hope Trump doesn’t manage to destroy the whole world, which he has multiple paths to trot down happily that would lead to that end.
Hoping you are doing well there on the opposite side of the big blue marble we call Earth. Take care, stay in touch! Let us know if you need anything.
J R in WV
@Another Scott:
Actually, I’m happy to put Wilmer on the other side – not with Hillary, the Democratic party, etc. Isn’t he still an (I) in reality? Will he use the Senate rules to call for roll call votes on every little thing?
Doesn’t it only take one Senator to push a stick into the spokes of McConnell’s smooth senatorial theft ring? Will Wilmer be that senator? Because if not, then his minions need to come to their senses and realize that Wilmer isn’t on our side, he’s on his side and doesn’t give a shit for anyone but himself.
No forgiveness left for people who had any part in painting Hillary as teh Ebul…!!!
J R in WV
@Weaselone:
Hurrah!! This is the snark we come to B-J for, thanks so much for participating!
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Timurid:
Amen to that.
ETA: Out all day, just got back.