always good to hear from the Just Drank Out of the Wrong Grail in Indiana Jones III Caucus pic.twitter.com/OuKveLZlHi
— Scary Rob (@robrousseau) October 4, 2018
They don’t care.
All they care about is achieving their political goals. If it comes down to a 50-50 vote Pence will March in and tip the vote to Kavanaugh’s favor and won’t even flinch. And they’ll spend the next twenty years claiming Democrats were the ones at fault and that of course he is a nonpartisan judge and oh it’s just a coincidence he overturned Roe even though Collins was convinced he respected precedent.
They are ruthless, shameless, and don’t give a fuck, and that’s why they always win. Christ, they’ll have 2-3 more judges on the court before the asshole berniebro’s on your timeline shut up about Hillary’s fucking emails.
I wish I had something positive to say, but you know I am right.
biff murphy
Frist!… just to cheer you up
ruemara
This is fully draining and while it’s your blog, this doesn’t help the mental states of people working against PTSD and the fucked up government we didn’t vote for. We’re working with wounds here, we don’t need poking at them right now. Just once a day is fine.
Tractarian
My Twitter machine says Flake is still iffy, NO Democrats have defected (Manchin is the only undecided) and Collins and Murkowski haven’t publicly declared either way. This thing is totally still up in the air.
I get the pessimism, I really do, but I’m more interested in factual, sober analysis, and the pants-wetting depressive screeds don’t really capture the moment, know what I mean?
TenguPhule
I think you’re wrong on one point. Kav is not getting 20 years on the bench. There isn’t going to be a working federal government in 20 years.
schrodingers_cat
Just like you were right about Snowden and Greenwald. Yes, you are always right.
TenguPhule
@Tractarian:
What part of “They don’t care” was not believable or easily disproven?
Jerzy Russian
That dude in the right of the photo attached to that tweet has a “who farted” face. From the looks of it, it seems they all farted.
John Cole
@schrodingers_cat: That hurt.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Poking the bear isn’t considered wise.
Omnes Omnibus
@ruemara: This.
@Tractarian: And this.
satby
They’ll never shut up about them, just like that LanceThruster dude on Facebook. Never.
It’s the only way they can get a hard on.
zhena gogolia
@ruemara:
Yeah, this is getting tiresome.
zhena gogolia
Oh, well, off to a talk about the “threat from Russia.” Just to brighten up my day.
Mnemosyne
I dunno. The fact that the Republicans are still talking in circles leads me to believe that it ain’t quite in the bag just yet. If you have a Republican senator, get on the phone and tell them what you think.
Doug R
@ruemara:
Eeyore has big feet these days
Manyakitty
Go watch the dog getting a puppy video I posted for you again.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So my youngest daughter (age 23) went all in for the message of Bernie and his bros. In 2016, if there was an anti-Hillary message or meme, she forwarded it to me; she really bought the disinformation.
Right now, she’s decided to get a master’s in Gender Grievance and Parental Accusation (OK, Women’s Studies, But you get the picture). Hopefully, she goes back to Archaeology for her doctorate, but the social justice people have their claws buried deeply into her hide, as she’s social, hard working and can organize.
She’s a TA, and I’d suggested that she use her position to encourage her students to register and vote, telling her the stakes and how important it is this cycle. What I got back sent me into an incandescent fury about that fuckface from Vermont, along with his bros.
Goddammit, when I expatriate, I shouldn’t send for her – she should have to live by her shitty fucking choices.
Tractarian
@TenguPhule: It is not clear, at this point in time, that it is factually correct to say that a sufficient number of United States Senators “do not care” about the accusations of sexual assault against the nominee such that the nominee will be confirmed.
Other than that, I agree that they don’t care.
germy
Maybe Bort’s pickled liver will give out before he does too much damage.
Eljai
It’s okay to vent, John. This whole process has been brutal on so many levels. But mark my words, if they actually get this belligerent asshole on the Court, it will be a pyrrhic victory. You do not know that he will be there 20 years. Nobody knows what it going to happen. These people we are fighting are not brilliant. They have f*cked up in many ways and they will do so again. We keep working for the world we know is possible and when they stumble, and they will, we will be ready to move. To paraphrase the great John Lewis, we will make a way where there is no way.
Ruling the majority based on the fringe beliefs of 18% of the population is simply not sustainable.
Mary G
Wallowing in depression isn’t a good life strategy. Going to stop reading anything you write that isn’t about pets or your garden. Your judgment is suspect – for one thing, you used to be a Republican who loved Ronald Reagan.
And if you’re right, and say “I told you so,” you will be an utter asshole. Go write some postcards or something.
Cacti
@schrodingers_cat:
Ouch.
FlipYrWhig
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Gah? Which Democrats exactly are “rapists” and “racists”?
Lavocat
Well, thank god the Dems nominated a progressive we could all agree on. Imagine if they hadn’t done that? What a terrible place we’d be in now. [eyeroll].
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Done. I said that I was angry about this and that I had a long memory. I said I knew that Johnson and I would never see eye to eye on judges, that this particular person was not worthy of being on any court bench let alone the Supreme Court.
And then I called Tammy Baldwin’s office and thanked her for being a hard no.
Mnemosyne
Also, John, in case you didn’t see, Heitkamp just announced that she will vote “no” and is getting so many donations that her website went down. Call Manchin’s office and point that out to him.
TenguPhule
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: You could send her a copy of “A Handmaid’s Tale” and a note suggesting she start looking for a red dress and hood.
gene108
They don’t always win. If they did Obamacare would never have come into being. The Family Medical Leave Act would not exist. CHIP would not exist. Dodd-Frank would not exist. Sen. Doug Jones would not be. Gay marriage is supported by most Americans, when 10 years ago it was so controversial candidate Obama would only go so far as to endorse civil unions.
They are ruthless and shameless, and their backers have poured billions over the last 45 years to prop them up, and yet they do not always win.
Progress marches on despite their best efforts to stop it. We will grind them down in the long run.
FlipYrWhig
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: And another thing, though. The “social justice warriors” and the Bernie-bros are, at least in my experience, utterly at odds. The social justice warriors want to FOREGROUND race, gender, and sexuality. The Bernie-bros want to do some fucking thing where hipsters, hardhats, and rednecks discover they all like beards and hate the bank and then something something utopia forever.
Emma
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: My feelings exactly towards some of my Trumpist cousins. All have young children but only think about getting “their own” back. If something happens, they are on their own. Family feelings my tochis.
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
He also voted for Bush Jr. But its rude to kick a man when he’s down.
germy
AliceBlue
John, I mostly lurk here so maybe I’m talking out of turn, but please stop this. Just detach for a day or two. Surround yourself with your animals, work in your garden, read a book. Anything!
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
Oh come on, that’s not fair. This is one of those “heads I win and tails you lose” arguments that are cliche sexist stereotypes.
NotMax
Need to bring out Yogi’s “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”
Also, the willow is too close to the doom and gloom.
;)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Eljai:
Tutsis made up something like 18% of the population of Rwanda when the Hutus rose up and drove them from rule by a campaign of mass slaughter. Now they’re down to 15%.
Just sayin’…
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yay! I know it feels like screaming into the wind, but we need to remind the Republicans that their votes are not inconsequential.
TenguPhule
@germy: All is well. Do not be alarmed. All is well. //
Archon
When today’s Republicans think about future history books do they think they will be the good guys in the story of early 21st century America? Do they think about it and not care either way? Are they banking history is written by the “winners” and they expect to win at any cost, or am I giving them a level or reflection and thoughtfulness Republicans are incapable of having right now?
Emma
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Of for crying outloud, really? Really?
Omnes Omnibus
@Archon:
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Luciamia
Man,you are just a little ray of sunshine. I know its stupid to be pollyannish about this , but Jesus!
Okay, you GOTTA post some Lily pictures.
Mnemosyne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
What percentage of the population were the Hutus? That’s kind of important to know.
FlipYrWhig
@germy: It’s amazing how these chucklefucks go from not knowing who the hell a person is to that person’s job becoming a matter of absolute life or death importance. I’d be even *Mrs. Kavanaugh* doesn’t give THAT much of a shit whether Ol’ Brett is or isn’t on the Supreme Court.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@FlipYrWhig:
I’m guessing that “superpredators” got hammered into her head repeatedly. She’s probably seeing a lot of Ted Kennedy stuff, too.
The Dangerman
I agree. Unless the jig is up (election hacking or voter suppression or whatever), I don’t think Republicans have a Political Death Wish. Having Roe go down with Kavanaugh as the swing vote is a PDW. Hell, Roe going down at all is a PDW in a lot of areas.
I’m guessing Collins and Murkowski hold hands and jump together for “no”. Flake might sack up and jump, too, to give them cover. Then Manchin owes them all a lifetime of Brewskis.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mnemosyne:
Over 80%.
Spanky
You know I loves ya, Cole, but you need to shut the everloving fuck UP!
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
That’s not fair! If you Clinton lovers would have nominated a candidate that I agreed with 100%, like Bernie Sanders or Susan Sarandon, I would have voted for them in an instant. Instead, you insisted on nominating a candidate that only won the primaries by 4+M votes and that I only agreed with about 93.7% on the issues. Maybe for some of you neo-liberals who have been Democrats for decades, 4+M votes and 93.7% agreement is “acceptable”, but for this true liberal who refuses to register to vote as a Democrat because my ~5.75 months of following politics has imbued upon me a sense of purity that will never be tainted by voting for a candidate that is experienced, competent and “acceptable to the overwhelming majority of the Democratic caucus”, all I have to say to you is, “good day.”
Sarandon/Kucinich 2020!
FlipYrWhig
@Archon: You can also solve that problem by… not reading books. So they’re WAY ahead of us.
Chetan Murthy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Edmund, I know you’re feeling frustrated, but could I just, well, y’know, put in a kind word for the youngs? When I was in grad school (almost exactly her age, in fact) I’d read Warren Farrell’s _Why Men Are The Way They Are_, and I was all “woke and shit”. I thought I was a feminist. Hell, my first girlfriend (who -was- (probably still is) a feminist turned me on to Deborah Tannen. And she bought me a copy of _The Myth of Male Power_. [She was also a far better person than I deserved.]
Yeah, I was that kind of “feminist”. I grew up, and learned a lot, and realized that what I really was, was a a misinformed male lacking compassion and empathy, who was prevented from doing anything ….. truly cringe-worthy [or illegal] (yeah, *Warren Farrell*, that was already cringe-worthy) by his social awkwardness.
It’s taken me years to get to where I understand the real score. Maybe only b/c I’m no longer in the gene pool. So y’know, cut the kid some slack. I know this election is the most important of our lifetimes. But kids, well, they’ll be kids.
It’s OK: by the time she’s 35, she’ll be completing your sentences. She might still not agree with you, but she’ll understand you completely, so it won’t be for lack of comprehension.
NotMax
Is it possible to troll one’s own blog?
Apparently so.
West of the Rockies
@ruemara:
Fuckin’ A.
SenyorDave
I’m predicting that he goes down 51-49, with Flake and Murkowski voting against him. I think Flake was actually pretty affected by the woman in the elevator.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@TenguPhule:
“Don’t try and scare me from demanding that my vote be earned.”
cokane
These are words of wisdom Cole. This fight is over.
That doesn’t mean stop fighting or stop being outraged. Just means why it’s so important to stay focused on the winnable fights to come.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I’m your younger daughter’s age and that’s complete bullshit what she said. Are there some shitty Dems? Yeah. In the aggregate, though, they are far better than the GOP who are bunch of authoritarian assholes who are actively trying (if the FRC’s plan to erase trans people from existence fully succeeds) to suppress and eliminate entire identities legislatively and bureaucratically.
You should ask your daughter if she would like to live in Putin’s Russian Federation or Erdogan’s Republic of Turkey. Because if this thing isn’t turned around soon the United States is going to begin to resemble those places under GOP leadership
Omnes Omnibus
Also, for my fellow XY-Americans, Sara Benicasa has some advice on How to Handle Lady Anger.
Mnemosyne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
So the fact that a majority population attacked a minority population is proof that the minority Republicans will be able to successfully wage civil war against the rest of us? Or am I reading you backwards?
Japa21
@Archon: Bush the younger famously said he didn’t care what history said about him because he would be dead. Current GOP thinks the same way.
schrodingers_cat
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Have you considered the possibility that your misogyny may be fueling her rebellion.
FlipYrWhig
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I don’t keep track of all the Bernie Extended Universe mythopoetics but I thought there was supposed to be The Before Time when Democrats were proud liberals but then came The Clintons who threw the titans of those days from the mountain and neoliberaled it all up. I understand “wrong” but I don’t really understand “incoherent.”
Spanky
@Mnemosyne: Exactly. If they had the votes McConnell would be in front of the cameras with his smarmy ass smile taunting the Dems.
hueyplong
So it would be, like, uncool to talk about how much Cole likes pie?
glory b
@schrodingers_cat: Always a place for you with us at the mean girls’ table!
Luciamia
It isnt cynical to say that this is the route to go. Senators themselves are fed up with having to spend the majority of their time fundraising instead of doing their job.
SiubhanDuinne
@FlipYrWhig:
Al Franken and Robert Byrd, obvs.
different-church-lady
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
She doesn’t see any Republicans who are rapists?
Despair is a hell of a drug.
Emerald
@Eljai:
That, THAT, is the silver lining. Think if they’d managed to get people smarter than Bush the Lesser or Orangeymandius into the White House. They did massive damage, but it could have been worse if they’d known what they were doing.
I know that Special K (I get comfort from using derogatory names for them) is going to be a disaster, but he’s not competent and he’s impeachable. Meanwhile Gorsuch keeps his head down, so he’s pretty well untouchable.
But K we can get eventually. He’s vulnerable. The next-in-line conservative woman, not so much.
FlipYrWhig
@different-church-lady: Oh that one’s easy to explain: “ITS NOT ENOUGH TO BE BETTER THAN THE OTHER SIDE THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS IS EVIL THEY HAVE TO EARN MY VOTE.”
different-church-lady
@SenyorDave: Whatever. Smoking. You. I want. All that all that.
Princess
Rand Paul’s office is reporting him as undecided. Still.
I know, I know, Rand Paul. But still.
Republicans don’t give up until the last vote is counted. Why are so many Democrats such self-defeating wusses?
Chetan Murthy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Um, I’m guessing you’re right about the percentages, but “drove them [Tutsis] from rule” isn’t quite accurate. From my memory of the time [and from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide%5D
The article goes on to note the history there (Tutsis -were- the ones who ruled under the Belgians) and the role of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF, Tutsis) and civil war going on at the time.
I can’t find any articles about this, but -since- that genocide, the Tutsis have retaken power (under Paul Kagame).
ETA: fixed a typo, and also OH HOLY EDIT BOX WE HAVE MISSED YOU SO!
Tractarian
@cokane:
There are still four undecided Senators. Again, I fully understand pessimism – we’ve been here before with some of these characters – but what is the point of fatalism?
kindness
Someone is going to get hurt. People have already been hurt wrt the testimony so far (Dr Ford). But someone(s) are going to get killed here soon. Trump and the Republican Party are feeding this fire. They seem to want this to blow up in all our faces. I honestly think Trump hopes this happens because it will help elect Republicans next month. I’m scared for our country right now.
Chyron HR
@SenyorDave:
He’s okay now, someone explained to him that those were just activists who went there to yell at him, and not random people who happened to walk into an elevator with him. It’s all cool.
Tractarian
@different-church-lady:
Sounds like he is smoking something real mild, because predicting Kavanaugh to lose 51-49 is not an outrageous take.
Reminder: There are four undecideds (not including Rand Paul) and Kavanaugh needs three of them.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Of course you have to vote for the lesser of two evils. Is there some other option when one of two people is going to win the election?
Some candidates I’ve voted for are better than others, but what really mattered was whether they were better than their opponent. That’s all I had.
The Moar You Know
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I agree. I just had to permanently pull the plug on a 35-year friendship after a woman of my acquaintance started jumping all over me for pointing out that emails to Congressional representatives were useless. Accused me of being part of the problem that allowed Kavanaugh’s nomination. I won’t put up with that shit.
Your daughter, sadly, is of a type, like my former friend, and my mother, and many others, who find the allure of victimhood outweighs every other consideration. Having never truly experienced anything like real oppression, they wallow in the idea that they are victims, cling to it like a life raft. There is no cure, it gives them the license to do nothing useful. Their lives tend to be exercises in virtue signaling. Their only lasting relationships are with submissive masochists, who will take every punishment they dish out and tell them that they are right and good and awesome.
You don’t find people who’ve been through a concentration camp or ethnic slaughter taking that attitude. They tend to come out of it pissed, focused and determined to ACT so that nothing like that happens to them or anyone else. These actions frequently aren’t the best or even in their best interests (see, Creation of State of Israel) but they are doers. Not talkers. And definitely not victims.
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Well that’s disappointing. All I can say to people like this is that you move the needle one degree at a time, but after 10 or 15 years all of a sudden, it seems like something has really changed. I think most of us have witnessed this in our lifetime with the Republican party, and the people who managed that didn’t do so by staying home. On the other hand, at this point, I would prefer that people like your daughter stay out of the party if all they can bring to bear on the situation is their negativity.
ETA: I suppose it does not good to point out the children who are separated from their parents in concentration camps at the border. It would make a big difference in their lives if Hillary Clinton were president right now.
Butter Emails!!!
It’s not even the lesser of two evils. The Democrats and Hillary have and had good things in their platforms. They’re not perfect, maybe not as fast or far as is desired, but they are steps in the right direct from where we are now. The other party literally wants to go backwards. It’s at worst vote for the milquetoast over the evil.
lee
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: It sounds like she is fairly educated. I would send her a link to the problems of FPTP voting and have her use that with her target audience. Agree that ‘Yes the Dems are less than pure’ (gag) but it won’t get any better by not voting. The reason the GOP can run the bottom of the barrel like they do is because their target audience will vote ‘R’ no matter what and that is what counts in FPTP. If you want to move the needle for the Dems to the left, the only way to do that is the exact same way the GOP can now run pedos and almost win a Senate seat.
The Moar You Know
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You call the whole system corrupt and praise your inaction as the highest virtue.
See elections of 2000, 2006 (for the GOP), 2010, 2014 and 2016.
People of liberal thought and values tend to be very prone to this fallacy.
cokane
@Tractarian: Even if you win on Kavanaugh, youll still get a justice that rules the same. It’s akin to fighting for Scalia over Thomas. Policy results and how folks will be affected is the same. Look, it’s fine if this fight channels some people into working harder for November, 6.
But this particular fight is over. Even in a some utopian scenario where it gets delayed to the lame duck session, these guys aren’t going to let a nomination opportunity slide.
Gravenstone
@John Cole: Sometimes the stiletto isn’t sharpened, just so you can feel it slip in.
Fair Economist
@Tractarian: I’m more interested in opposing this. So I’m commenting, contacting Senators, and donating. I think we can take down Collins in 2020 if she is a Yea.
becca
Between you and me, I would say that the GOP wins only because it is ready, willing, and has a history of stealing elections.
I would think this obvious.
randy khan
We have to act like we can get the right result. It’s a slog, at best, and often dispiriting, but it’s the morally proper way to act. (Plus, it feels so good when you do win if you’ve been part of the effort – remember how we all felt about the Senate ACA vote.)
Also, if the jerks know how we feel and why, that’s one less excuse for their behavior. So call, even if you’ve called already.
Collins – 202-224-2523
Flake – 202-224-4521
Murkowski – 202-224-6665 (To leave a message for her, you need to press 2 for messages from people who want responses; she doesn’t give you an option for someone who doesn’t want a response.)
Sasse – 202-224-4224 (you never know)
Citizen Alan
@Emma:
It is possible that I may never speak a civil word to my sister again because when I described the GOP as “the Rape Party” on FB, she went off on me saying that if she had to “put up with Obama for 8 years,” I could live with Trump. And honestly, I’m okay with that, because the bitch was the one who guilt-tripped me out of leaving Mississippi in 1987 when my ACT and SAT scores could have gotten me a free ride at any non-Ivy League school in the country. (“It will /kill/ your daddy if you move away.”) So when my mom eventually passes away, I don’t expect to ever see my sister again for the rest of my life.
Chetan Murthy
Did y’all see that Beto turned down Obama’s endorsement? https://www.texastribune.org/2018/10/04/beto-orourke-says-hes-not-interested-barack-obama-endorsement/
I wonder if this was the right move. And for sure, I don’t know, and trust him to make that decision. Happy to have donated to Texas Dems, and to his campaign.
glory b
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: She might as well, the rest of us will have to.
Ask her to have some sympathy for those of us who will get really shafted, people of color, poor people etc.
Your vote is a communal, public act, not a form of artistic self expression.
different-church-lady
@Citizen Alan: Public Service Reminder: Facebook is engineered to create conflict. Eschew it.
Mary G
Look at this huge group – mostly women – refusing to take this shit:
Wow! Edit is back.
This is in the Hart Senate office building, BTW.
Editing comment a second time just because I can.
James E Powell
Totally agree with you. I’ve been scorched for saying so, here and elsewhere, but I am at a loss to see any reason for hope.
The reason they (almost) always win is that just under half the people in this country are hateful bigots. Some people will put the number lower – down to 27% – but I’m including the people who don’t reveal themselves in public, but who nevertheless vote for RWers (almost) every single time.
Fair Economist
@Princess:
He’s has to be re-elected eventually. This is bad for any Republican Senator who might lose a general election.
There are probably some other Republican Senators looking at the 2020 calendar and wishing Kavanaugh would go away. Gardner and Ernst spring to mind. Part of the rushed vote, I’m sure, is to try to jam them and prevent them from coming up with some excuse for forcing Trump to pick a non-rapey wingnut.
Fair Economist
@Chetan Murthy: I think Beto should have said something like “I don’t agree with ex-President Obama on all things, but politics should be about forming coalitions and unity and I appreciate his support.” Water under the bridge now.
eclare
@cokane: I get that, but I for fucking sure do not want to be reminded every goddamn day that there is a sexual assaulter on SCOTUS.
eric
@Fair Economist: Obama is no Willie Nelson ;)
randy khan
@cokane:
Well, first, Kavanaugh is pretty close to the worst person they possibly could nominate. Roe is hugely important, of course, but he’s basically what any other nominee would be on Roe plus a guaranteed bad vote on things like Presidential power and regulatory authority of federal agencies. And he’s obviously going to want to inflict revenge on the Dems for being mean to him.
Second, we don’t actually know what will happen if he doesn’t get confirmed. Remember that Kennedy actually was the third choice after two other candidates flamed out, so it’s certainly possible that something will happen that drags it past the lame duck session.
Third, it’s a minor detail in the scheme of things, but if Kavanaugh doesn’t get confirmed, that will be half of this year’s Supreme Court term without the 5th conservative vote, which can’t hurt.
Fourth, he’s a terrible person, a liar and likely a serial sexual assaulter. Keeping him off the court is affirmatively a good thing.
Fifth, winning on him will help in November. We can’t forget that.
TenguPhule
Petri on fire as usual
MomSense
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Damn. My kids could tell me the absolute worst and I would take it in stride but if they said that shit to me about the DNC and Democrats and not voting they would get a figurative ass whooping. That shit needs to be defended with examples cited.
I fucking hate Bernie Sanders. It has taken me months to reprogram my mom who also bought his con.
trollhattan
Didn’t think about this shitstorm for an entire half hour today on account of getting an MRI. Ankle, to figure out why it hurts when the xrays say it doesn’t hurt, so my upper half outside the tube where I could stare at the ginormous GE logo and watch the clock and the two-digit random number display. Never want to go all the way inside, nope, no thanks.
This fucking thing IS LOUD and I felt like I was trapped at Burning Man watching Nevada’s shittiest trance band playing four-minute segments each having a different rhythm and pitch. Should there be a next time I’m bringing foam earplugs to supplement the protective headgear. Did I mention it’s LOUD?
Back to your shitty, shitty government.
Practice edit: Yay!
LeftCoast
Long time lurker-jackal. My two cents:
The fight is never over. That’s the whole point of democracy. If he gets confirmed, we keep fighting for the senate. If we get the senate, impeach his lying ass for perjury. If the senators are too afraid, we primary them until there’s enough with some fortitude to fight.
Sounds hard and long… but it is a lifetime appointment. He should never be comfortable in that chair if he gets there.
Chetan Murthy
@Fair Economist: Well, I figured he was just trying to avoid being tarred as an “Obama Demo[n]crat”. I mean, I grew up in Texas, and I can attest to the power of the GrOPer brand. Hell, I joined the Young Republican club in HS, believed all that RoNnIe RaYgUn horseshit. My mom convinced me otherwise in college, thank goodness.
So I can imagine that he was just trying to inoculate himself from that sort of reaction. My frontal lobes tell me that it’s unnecessary and maybe counterproductive. My hindbrain tells me maybe he’s got a point, b/c a lotta folks down there do all their thinking with their hindbrains, eh?
Dorothy A. Winsor
I am reminding myself of how surprised I was when the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. It’s possible to be too cynical.
randy khan
@Mary G:
It’s a great feeling, isn’t it?
Mnemosyne
@cokane:
I’m not so sure about that. All indications are that Kavanaugh is being installed on the court to be a partisan hatchet man and pressure the other conservatives to vote the way the oligarchy wants, by fair means or foul. The rest of the people whose names were being floated were nutty conservatives, but not party hacks who worked directly for people like Karl Rove.
They want THIS SPECIFIC GUY for a reason. He’s not just a standard Tea Party nut. There are specific things that the oligarchs want that only this guy is willing to give them. Stopping him is worth it in itself.
John Revolta
This post actually cheered me up a bit.
Cole doesn’t exactly have the best track record with these “We Are All So Fucked” episodes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
with the caveat that IANAMainer, I don’t see Collins making a pointless yes vote her (possibly) last act as a phony moderate. I think she’ll be the last R to vote. She’ll follow Flake and Murkowksi.
Fair Economist
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Did you mention to her that at age 23, she can get insurance because of Democrats? Or point out that the Republicans are about to put a rapist on the Supreme Court and if there were 2 more Dem Senators that wouldn’t be happening?
jacy
@cokane:
Sorry, but that’s fucking stupid. First, the fight isn’t over until it’s over. And it’s not over yet — just look at the thousands of people protesting out there right this minute. I’m not saying I think Kavanaugh won’t be confirmed. I think he probably will. But until the moment he is, you FIGHT LIKE HE WON”T BE. If you don’t, you’re doing half their job. Because it’s really fucking easy to give up if you think you’ll probably lose.
And it doesn’t matter if Kavanaugh goes down and they replace him with someone just as bad (although I would argue there is no as bad as Kavanaugh). You don’t fight the entire future at once. One fucking thing at a time, and then on to the next. Fighting till the last second is not the losing strategy. It’s the winning strategy.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Like when you campaigned for GW Bush, John? You might just fraken consider you little bit in creating this mess John before you scold the rest of us like a self righteous a-hole.
JoyceH
I don’t understand why the GOP is so insistent on this particular nominee. There are plenty of other judges who are just as conservative and perhaps even just as partisan, without all the baggage.
What do they think is going to happen if Kavanaugh is confirmed? Do they think these 40+ people who tried to get information to the FBI will just go away and shut up? Why would they? They haven’t signed NDAs. They can’t be threatened in parking lots by Trump Org goombahs — there are too many of them, and some of them are reasonably prominent people. And now they’re pissed off.
In addition to the abuse allegations, there are plenty of other problems. There’s the witness tampering with his old classmates on the Ramirez charge. There’s the lying under oath in his confirmation hearings. There’s the mystery of the vanishing debt. There’s the question of who colluded with Whelan on the Doppelganger smear. This guy’s closet is BURSTING with skeletons and it will explode sooner or later.
jl
Got Granpa Grassley on one side and Granpa Cole on the other. And Granpa Simpson keeps himself together better than either of them.
Fair Economist
@Chetan Murthy: I totally get why he doesn’t want to be labelled an “Obama Democrat”. I’m just pointing out it’s possible to accept an endorsement without agreeing with everything or even most things a person believes, and he really just needed to point that out.
bemused
@germy:
Why do these lunitics always look about ten years older than they are and have poor hygiene?
jl
@JoyceH: Trump thinks Kavanaugh will decide anything anyway anyhow to protect him from any sanctions for his conduct, either during or after his term of office. IMHO.
jacy
@Chetan Murthy:
He’s keeping it local. That’s the right thing to do. Got nothing to do with Obama, got everything to do with showing that he’s representing Texas, while Cruz is representing Cruz and Trump. Look at it this way: Cruz has to invite Trump in, while Beto doesn’t need to invite anybody in who does bleed Texas blood. Easy-peasy.
TenguPhule
@JoyceH:
And Kav will lift his glass of beer and give them all the finger because there are not 67 votes in the Senate to remove him.
PST
As Kavanaugh dominates the news, every other Trump story fades from focus, including Russian interference and the big tax/inheritance story. His approval polling is getting better and the Congressional generic numbers are drifting closer. It seems incredible to me that the maggots care about this, but evidently it fires them up. I see it happening around me and I see the numbers shifting at 538. It’s not just the media narrative du jour. It is gut-wrenching to admit, but this fight is probably doing more harm than good for the midterm elections. The sooner it’s over the better. I hope Kavanaugh is rejected, but I don’t expect it, and drawing it out any further only helps the opposition.
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
Broad inaccurate Generalizations arn’t worth much.
In the Rwandan Genocide, Houthi’s killed as many Houthi’s as they killed Tutsi’s.
They killed mixed marrages, the guy who had more land than they did, girls and women who had spurned them, widows with land, travellers with valuables.
Omnes Omnibus
Good news on the immigration front.
Chetan Murthy
@Fair Economist: It’s Texas, Fair Economist [sung to the tune of “It’s Chinatown, Jake”]. The stoop-shouldered, shelf-eyebrowed, woman-hating Neanderthals down there don’t do nuance.[1]
[1] Heh, and I used to call them that, even while I was all “feminist” and reading my Warren Farrell. Lordy. Lordy.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Florida Man!
Fair Economist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Maybe and maybe not. People generally are not punished for supporting bad things in politics too much if they are on the losing side. If Kavanaugh is defeated, the opposition will be largely satisfied and Yea Senators won’t suffer much. Likewise if Kavanaugh is confirmed, there won’t be much of a price for being Nay.
Michael Irwin
In my heart, I know you’re right.
hueyplong
@TenguPhule: I’d rather get the finger from Kavanaugh because he failed to get to 50. That’s possible until it isn’t.
Dr. Ford risked a lot more than a reputation for accurately predicting voting results. Feels kind of cowardly not to back her up until the end.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mnemosyne: Even if you step outside the politics this guy sucks horribly – a drunk with closet full skeletons who takes everything personally a judge. That’s insane. Only the Evangelicals would be so flipped out at see Judge McCrybaby as anything but an utter disaster.
jacy
@John Revolta:
Maybe Cole is doing a reverse-cosmic-ju-jitsu because he knows if he predicts that Kavanaugh is confimed the universe will shit on him someway, somehow and Kavanaugh goes down. Wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen.
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Maybe you create a form message for her emails with the response that goes something like this: Thank you for your message. Please indicate whether you are (1) at risk for deportation; (2) being affirmatively denied the right to register for the vote; (3) seeking assistance with bail for a minor misdemeanor that you cannot afford to pay; (4) were beat up or otherwise harmed by a policeman; (5) trying to figure out your next move as a dreamer brought to this country as a young child; (5) Unable to get a visa for your family members to visit because they are Muslim; (6) recently lost your Medicaid coverage because you didn’t realize you had to report to a state website on your employment status, and you don’t have internet or a car so you aren’t sure how you were supposed to report. If you are merely looking for someone to yell at because you are feeling like a victim today, I suggest you find someone in groups (1) through (6) and try to assist them in dealing with their own problems.
JoyceH
@TenguPhule:
You don’t need the Senate. Witness tampering, sexual assault, taking bribes (potentially) – there are all sorts of matters where either federal or state law enforcement could get involved, and while Justices can be impeached, impeachment is not the ONLY option.
schrodingers_cat
@glory b: Great to see you again! Paraphrasing Manto (a great Urdu writer), I just tell the truth as I see it, if someone is ugly its not the fault of the mirror.
trollhattan
@JoyceH:
They hate the idea of losing more than they cherish/lust for that fifth seat. Especially losing to a GIRL. And Liberals. And Democrats.
Mike in NC
We live in a country where most everything is controlled by old, rich, white, conservative males. That’s why we can’t have nice things.
FlipYrWhig
@PST: You do know that all you’re saying is “THIS IS HOW YOU GOT TRUMP,” right? Don’t lecture people about how their outrage is helping the other side. It’s fucking obnoxious.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@JoyceH:
IMHO the Evangelicals think he’s their man and all his flaws don’t matter like with Trump, because Kavangaugh is a just a hellbound Catholic meat puppet the baby Jesus useing to punish everyone else for not being like the Evangelicals. The rest of the GOP Senators are in a hard spot between pissing off their loony base and pissing off the rest of their voters. So this shame FBI probe is attempt to weasle it, except of course Trump turned it to shit like Trump does with everything.
eemom
@JoyceH:
uh, impeachment IS the only option to get him off the federal bench.
Though I suppose if he were convicted of some crime and thrown in prison there would be some logistical issues with his supreme court gig.
Jay
@eemom:
Historically, there have been several dozen US Judges who sat in jail, until eventually they were impeached. There’s also a couple who resigned rather than go to jail.
eemom
@PST:
You are, with due respect, an idiot. The damage that that shitsack will do if he is confirmed is mind blowing. It dwarfs everything else that’s going on right now, except what they’re doing to those poor children.
randy khan
@eemom:
If he were convicted of a crime that sent him to prison, I imagine that even the Republicans would seriously consider removing him from the Court.
And the Court has no provision for justices who can’t attend oral argument and conferences in person. I imagine that they would be disinclined to create them for people who are rotting away in a jail cell.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Fair Economist:
She’s actually uninsurable on the individual market – she had a birthmark with a precancerous mole that we had to pay to have removed when she was 15. Cost about $3500, as we were on a shitty catastrophic policy at the time, so it was under the deductible.
OCare has kept her insured since.
eemom
@Jay:
Well, that’s kind of my point. Impeachment IS the only option, unless the shitsack resigns, which of course he never would.
TenguPhule
@hueyplong:
I’m up for fighting for every single vote. But I have no illusions what it would take to remove him once seated.
Ksmiami
@Mnemosyne: you have it backwards- as I’ve commented before, minority rule by a despised fringe never ages well and either collapses in a vortex of its own incompetence or is brought down violently by the majority- especially in a country where consent of the governed still means something-
TenguPhule
@JoyceH:
No federal or state LEO will touch him with a ten foot pole unless he was to literally shoot someone in public.
MoxieM
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’m so sorry to say this, but making you incandescent is a feature, not a bug. But on your behalf, and all of ours, I do wish the younglings like this would grow up, and use their brains for thinking.
The folks I know like this are in their 40’s, and have no such excuse. Former Paul-tards, I guess, straight up racists. I was dis-en-friend-chised for calling them out on it. Tant pis.
Chetan Murthy
@eemom:
eemom, just to add to your already cogent response: DO WHAT YERTLE WOULD DO. What would Yertle do? 100% RESISTANCE. OBSTINATE, [even to the point of] SELF-HARMING RESISTANCE. That’s what he did, and he was rewarded for it. MAKE THEM PAY FOR EVERY INCH.
hueyplong
@TenguPhule: Fair enough.
Has Manchin or someone in his office confirmed the story that he’s a “yes”?
Because if not, maybe we’re seeing some McConnell-inspired B.S. Grassley’s vein popping today tells me they’re not quite ready to vote yet (i.e. they don’t have 50). The second they have 50, they’re going to call a vote before anyone can backslide.
eemom
@randy khan:
Actually, what the republicans would do is lynch whoever dared to charge him with a crime in the first place. I find it inconceivable that he would face actual justice in the poisonous reality we inhabit.
MoxieM
@JoyceH: I was wondering, with respect to the suit (?), accusation, thing against him as a Circuit Judge. If that goes forward, and he’s seated on SCOTUS, what are the implications? (Clearly IANAL, or even lawyer-adjacent)
TenguPhule
@hueyplong:
he’s offically “undecided”.
And then yesterday he went on FOX news and went did his best impression of “Special K is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”
hueyplong
@TenguPhule: So you’re saying there’s a chance.
Mnemosyne
@PST:
So women need to sit down and be quiet, or else (white) men are going to get mad at us?
Sorry, too late. The Republicans decided to go to the mat to defend a drunk and a serial groper. They can deal with the backlash on their own.
Elizabelle
Outside Senators Murkowski’s office at the Hart bldg. Got some great footage of protest and arrests in lobby. Here w NBC and TV one, cooling their heels.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PST: every other Trump story fades from focus, including Russian interference
the Russia story has been on the front pages for two years before you ever heard that name “Brett Kavanaugh”, and the sad truth is the lumpenmittel haven’t cared. I hope, pray and to some degree trust that at least some of them will start to care when Mueller spells it all out, maybe even more when trump junior and a bunch of other accomplices are testifying live and on camera in front of people like Schiff, but this fight is most definitely not distracting from the Russia story.
Elizabelle
NBC guy says Murkowski and Manchin both want to read the full doc but have not yet. Manchin coming in tomorrow morning to read it.
Elizabelle
In Murkowski’s office. Staff telling callers she has no public decision yet.
Tim in SF
They won’t overturn Roe. They’ll do worse: they’ll hollow it out so it is meaningless. Overturning Roe would give Democrats something to rally around, and they won’t give us that.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Read last summer than Team Mueller would likely fall silent leading up to the election so as not to have any potential direct impact (hey Comey, does that sound like a good idea?) perhaps this is that in motion. He did go get his laptop worked on.
MazeDancer
@ruemara:
Yes, this is true. Don’t think Cole understands the impact of childhood or adult sexual abuse.
No reason he should. But being aware would be helpful to many.
misterpuff
@Archon: They are rewriting the history books as we speak. Soon schoolchildren will be reading how Washington and the other Founding Fathers have teamed up with Zombie Reagan, Drumpf and Bannon to MAGA our actual history.
cokane
@jacy: What fighting are you really doing? I’d rather see people getting folks registered to vote in key states or other GOTV work that could be done right now rather than having thousands descend on Washington for protests that will be little more than spectacle.
It’s correct to say one thing at a time. And this thing is past. The election isn’t. And yes, time spent on this, especially frigging traveling to DC, is time not spent on the real thing.
Kathleen
I’m with you, Cole. All hope has left me. I’m renouncing Twitter and going to spend lots more time reading novels. I’ve written dozens and dozens of GOTV postcards, I’m calling, I’m voting. But the fix is in, at least for now. I’d say, hope I’m wrong, but like I said, no hope left.
Ohio Mom
@kindness: Someone already died, last year, Heather Heyer in Charlottesville.
.@trollhattan: Yes, MRI machines are loud. I stopped things part way through to ask the technician for ear plugs. Why they automatically provide them from the start is a mystery.
Onto the subject at hand: Ohio Dad is a real Eyore on current events. He is sure we are witnessing the end of democracy. Some days I secretly agree with him but I think optimism is an important value and I refuse to give in to despair.
Omnes Omnibus
@cokane: Do you really think that this fight and the fight to win the election are unrelated? Do you think that, win or lose, the women who calling, occupying offices, coming out and telling their stories, etc. are going just quietly go home and do nothing after this fight? Look what happened with Heitkamp today – look at the donations she got. Is that not a part of the election fight and also a pointer to Manchin in how to vote?
waratah
@Chetan Murthy: Obama and Clinton tried to help his aponnent in the primary for congress. he said he learned then when he won that sometimes the popularity of other people does not always transfers. He is also spending time right now talking to university students telling them how important their vote is even though everyone is telling him he is wasting his time.
schrodingers_cat
So when is the vote?
geg6
As far as I’m concerned, I’m at war. I’m done being nice and all Republicans, every single one, is my enemy. They are not worthy of respect, empathy or any human feeling from me. I will ask everyone in my life if they are Republican and if they are, they are out of my life forever. I’m going to do some target shooting at my sister’s to get back into being comfortable handling a gun again. I’m ready when the shooting starts. And I have no doubt now, it’s going to start. I won’t be the one starting it, but I believe that they’re going to be coming after us. They are going to regret coming for me, that’s for sure. I’ve had enough of these mother fuckers.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat: Closure tomorrow. Confirmation on Saturday.
PST
@eemom:
The damage that this shitsack will do if he is confirmed is about the same as the damage that the replacement shitsack will do if he isn’t. Amy Coney Barrett may be less repulsive but her elevation of sectarian religious dogma over constitutional principles is, if anything, even greater. I am outraged by Kavanaugh, but the appointment of a terrible justice is a consequence of the Trump election, Senate majority, and Kennedy retirement. The number one priority has to be preventing the appointment of terrible justices 3 and 4. I thought Kavanaugh would be a winning issue, but empirically, it’s not. Quite suddenly, over the course of the last three weeks, we see Trump gaining ground in his personal polling. The 538 average of generic Congressional ballot polls shows the democratic rise now reversing and starting down. The recent Marist poll, which showed a large advantage to the democrats in enthusiasm for the upcoming election, has shifted for the worse.
This surprises me. I hate it. Maybe Adam Serwer is right, The Cruelty Is the Point, and Trump fans are getting fired up precisely because the sadistic bastards love this kind of public burning of a woman. But short run public opinion is what matters now because the midterms are the only realistic opportunity for the next two years of throwing a brick into the republican machinery. So if extending the Kavanaugh debate works against this, then getting it over with is probably a good thing. I don’t feel like I’m lecturing anybody or telling anybody that their outrage doesn’t matter. I’m just saying that the prospects for winning in November now look worse than they did three weeks ago, so we should be concentrating on something else.
geg6
@PST:
Easy for you to say. As a rape victim, I can’t concentrate on anything else. I wish I could. Must be nice to be you and able to just say oh well and move on. But now I know you’re not someone I can count on, so that’s a good thing, I guess.
Omnes Omnibus
@PST: I’ll refer you to my answer to cokane upthread.
eemom
@PST:
Oh yes, let’s treat a handful of fleeting polls as gospel and the dictator of all priorities. That worked so well for us in 2016.
If this particular shitsack goes down AND Democrats take the Senate, we can stop a replacement shitsack from being confirmed. That’s pretty fucking huge. Walk and chew gum much?
PST
@Omnes Omnibus: If I’m wrong, it will be because I’m underestimating the effect on democratic enthusiasm that you’re talking about and overestimating the effect on the republican base. That’s possible. I admit that there is evidence both ways. That’s why the polling bothers me so much. When there are plenty of examples that support conflicting conclusions, it’s the best way we have to estimate which effect is greater in the aggregate. I would never have predicted that the Kavanaugh revelations wouldn’t help our side. I expected everyone to react to Dr. Ford’s testimony the way I did. I shouldn’t have.
jc
“They are ruthless, shameless, and don’t give a fuck, and that’s why they [too often] win.”
Sadly, I agree with what Cole said. I would add that they are fundamentally dishonest. But those who voted for and enabled Trump have ruined their own reputations, permanently. The era of Trump is still going to be an absolute disgrace 20 years from now, and we won’t forget who they are.
Litany
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: This “berniebro” meme needs to die in a fire. 1 in 10 Bernie voters voted for Trump, as compared to 15 in 100 Clinton voters who voted for McCain in 2008. Of these Bernie crossover voters, half disagreed with the statement “white people have advantages in US” and the vast majority of them were not registered Democrats. These are not people who fit the traditional profile of a Democratic primary voter, and they would not have voted for Clinton in *any* general election. By subtracting these voters and examining the crossover voters we have left, it’s easy to see that a historically LOW percentage of Bernie voters went on to support Trump or a third party candidate when compared to other primary candidates and their supporters.
This narrative that Bernie did Clinton in has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with milquetoast liberals and their never-ending appetite for bashing progressives. Clinton had huge flaws as a candidate, but none of it mattered to the DNC and their donors. So the entire party rolled over like a dog showing its belly, and come November we got blown out anyways even as Bernie voters held the party line in unprecedented numbers.
J R in WV
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Just asking, how is daughter paying for her “women’s studies” degree program?
‘Cause I don’t know if I would support someone who has become a lunatic with very much money, just sayin’.
cokane
@Omnes Omnibus: I think spending time protesting in the DC capitol is time not spent organizing for the election. This isn’t complicated. Nor is this July where you have plenty of time for both.
Kay
I’m getting new carpet for the law office, so I took the sample board around “to everyone” (5 people) and they all had different color choices. I left the sample board on a table Thursday and this morning it was on my desk, with a nice note from Jo the cleaning lady- “yay! I like this one”
“Play it Cool” it is. The expert has spoken.
The rest of them were like “we could put the names in a bag and choose one” – yeah, great idea. Thank God Jo is decisive.