Twitler this morning:
The White House is running very smoothly and the results for our Nation are obviously very good. We are the envy of the world. But anytime I even think about making changes, the FAKE NEWS MEDIA goes crazy, always seeking to make us look as bad as possible! Very dishonest!
The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don’t…
….care how many lives the [sic] ruin. These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years. They won’t even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!
I try really hard not to get my hopes up about the Mueller investigation, but outbursts like this make that challenging.
PS: I’ve decided to stop embedding the idiot’s tweets, mostly because they include a portrait of his ugly face, but here’s a link to where this batch starts.
satby
Thanks for not embedding them. I do all I can to avoid his face and voice.
Tony Jay
Yeah, he sounds stable and entirely confident.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
If you didn’t do anything wrong, there’s nothing to worry about.
I’ve been thinking that the Cocoon of Bitterness might have stemmed from hearing something last week. Doesn’t Mueller’s protocol involve notifying the subjects privately before we hear publicly?
Just guessing based on how things have played out with other arrests, indictments, subpoenas this year.
clay
I mean, aside from the obvious projection and paranoia displayed throughout his ‘statement’, it’s simply pathetic that he can’t get easily verifiable facts correct. Mueller left government service in 2013. Obama took office in 2009.
geg6
I really think he’s decompensating. What has worked for him all his miserable life isn’t working in this situation. He’s always been able to bully his way through or just walk away from any uncomfortable situation. He’s only run a very small family company and being president is nothing like that. He’s too old and too stubborn and too narcissistic and too stupid to adjust and he has nothing left other than lashing out. This will get worse before it gets better. The only good thing is that the media seem to have had enough with him and are calling him out, harshly.
frosty
@satby: It’s one of the flaws of watching John Oliver. I mute it whenever he’s got a clip of Trump talking. And he has a lot of them.
FlipYrWhig
Definitely when you think about screaming and shouting and anger you have to think “Bob Mueller.”
Jerzy Russian
The FSM does not love me enough to make today the day. However, I hope She loves others here enough.
Betty Cracker
@Tony Jay: Trump is such a psychopath and incompetent clown that I actually envy y’all for Theresa May!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@geg6:
Can you give me some juicy examples? I think I’ve overdosed a little on schadenfreude lately, built up a tolerance, need a little jolt every morning now to get started.
Tony Jay
But if the White House is running smoothly and everyone is in awe of how bigly successful everything is…. why you wanna make changes, dude? And if the Ebil Media are really out to get you, wouldn’t they – want – you to break up your winning team of winningly winners?
Did you think this through, Donald? Really?
FlipYrWhig
@geg6: He thinks the whole point of lawyers is that they make problems go away. When the problems remain, he assumes that the lawyers lawyered badly, probably out of spite. I think this is one of his biggest frustrations.
Wyatt Derp
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Not true for everyone but for old white men with power, yes, pretty much.
Also, does Trump truly not see that literally everything he is accusing Mueller of is something he himself is doing?
Jerzy Russian
@clay:
There you go again using Math on this here blog.
donnah
Stress does bad things to normal people, so imagine what it does to a supreme narcissist. He lives inside his own tiny brain, and has eliminated most of his advisers, so Twitter is among his few remaining outlets, and we can see him breaking down. And it only gets worse, as far as I can see.
He deserves his own personal hell and I wish him all the worst, but he’s wreckied the government and the country and I hope that if he snaps completely, there is still someone in the White House to step in and keep us afloat. But it’s pretty much turtles all the way down.
Baud
Did you add the sic, Betty?
Betty Cracker
@MattGertz on Twitter monitors Fox News programming and Trump’s tweets/public comments regurgitating the Fox talking points, complete with timelines. It really is amazing how often Trump immediately barfs up the Fox & Fiends chatter. Anyhoo, Gertz noted that there was nothing on the Mueller investigation on Fox so far today. Folks are speculating that Whitaker gave Trump a heads-up that something big is about to pop.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Yes.
Tony Jay
@Betty Cracker:
And it’s a gleaming testament to the awfulness of both The Pustule of Pennsylvania Avenue and the Malfunctioning Maybot that “You’re not as godawful a human being as Donald Trump” has to be the nicest thing anyone has said about her in about a year.
O. Felix Culpa
@Tony Jay: “Did you think this through, Donald?”
A minor flaw in your question: Donald and think do not inhabit the same room, much less the same sentence.
NotMax
More projection going on than at the largest megaplex.
Tony Jay
@Betty Cracker:
Well, tomorrow – is – Friday, so you’re probably right.
sherparick
@satby: I never go to them. I have him “blocked,” along with other trolls that occasionally show up on twitter. I don’t want to give him the hits.
I am curious about what right wing site had this story on the Mueller investigation: “They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want.” Is the source of this Corsi and Stone, whose every utterances are lies, to include the words “and” and “but.” (see Mary McCarthy on Lillian Hellman.)
geg6
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Just one example is FOX joining in a friend of the court brief along with CBS, NBC, ABC and other big media in support of Jim Acosta and CNN. I found that pretty astounding when I saw it yesterday.
satby
About the only microscopic satisfaction I get from current event news lately is that the Traitor in Chief is deeply unhappy and shows it in almost every picture recently. May his unhappiness increase exponentially until he strokes out from rage.
I don’t normally wish illness or death on people, but he’s more than earned it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@clay:
You forget Conservative World FACTS! Clinton was President until 2005 and Obama took office in 2006, there was no president GW Bush in their world.
Tony Jay
@O. Felix Culpa:
Well, no, come on. He does think… it’s just that what he calls ‘thinking’ we call “blindly lashing out in reflexive panic”. Check your Conservapedia (is that still a thing) for the correct terminology and it all becomes clear.
JGabriel
Benedict Donald via Betty Cracker @ Top:
So if everything is so smooth and good and we’re the world’s envy, why do you want to make any changes, Dickless Dollhand?
MattF
@Jerzy Russian: Doing math on the blog is just so unfair. It’s like those people who actually took note of the ‘uncounted’ votes votes before declaring that Republicans won the midterms. So totally unfair.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@geg6: I heard that some Fox types were upset when Hannity got on stage with the orange weasel and repeated all the standard stuff about Fake News and evil media. And the media he was pointing the crowd at included Foxies.
Still, I was a little surprised that Fox people were making a claim to a journalistic ethical line that Hannity had supposedly crossed.
Manyakitty
@satby: Good morning! I need to order soap and can’t find the twitter sale code you tweeted the other day. Help please?
MattF
I’m in moderation for some unknown reason.
zhena gogolia
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
They seem to sometimes make some gesture towards being a journalistic organization. I don’t think they ever did that in the early years. Although I guess they had Alan Colmes . . . .
MattF
Figured out why I was in moderation. (Because I entered my email address incorrectly).
Omnes Omnibus
@FlipYrWhig: To be fair, what lawyers do is make problems go away.
Cermet
@geg6: Really they have little choice. If such an occurrence were allowed, when our side takes back the presidency in 2020, then the real fake news pretend reporters could then be excluded.
@Betty Cracker: Your likely correct. I sure hope
Yarrow
@frosty: I mute Trump too. Can’t stand to watch him. I can’t even watch comedians make fun of him by imitating his voice and gestures. It’s all awful.
Chyron HR
THREAT LEVEL ORANGE: The President is awake and tweeting.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Yarrow: I can handle Alec Baldwin’s and Trevor Noah’s versions. That’s about it.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: Sounds like things are getting spicy over in the UK re: Brexit. I see the odious Jacob Rees-Mogg has submitted a no confidence letter on May.
Also, this was bizarre:
NotMax
Obama used his SECRET MUSLIM Weather Machine to make it rain in France. Why isn’t DOJ Investigating? Disgraceful!
(No stupider than anything quoted in the front page post.)
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: the hot takes I’m seeing—I just completed a redeye from Hawaii to New York so I’m not up for heavy reading yet—are saying that it’s really the best deal one could expect given that it’s a suicidally stupid idea in the first place. Will be unsurprised if it collapses the government anyway though.
MattF
@Yarrow: I guess ‘numbers’ are more politically reliable than numbers.
satby
@Manyakitty: Cyberweek free shipping is automatically applied ?. Just select what you want and it’s shown and then subtracted from your totals. It starts Monday. Maybe by then I can add pictures of some of the new soaps I have.
And thanks!
Yarrow
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Trevor Noah drives me nuts with it because he’ll show a clip of Trump and then laugh about him like he’s a joke. He’s not a joke. Also, far, far too much Trump during the Moment of Zen. Nothing Trump does or is associated with is even remotely close to zen.
satby
Ugh, I have to go to the market and the promised heavier snowfall is here, falling on top of the frozen sleet. The driving conditions of nightmares.
Wish me luck!
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: It probably is the best deal, which means it’s terrible and shouldn’t happen. Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab resigned, followed by at least one other cabinet member. No confidence letter in May submitted by Rees-Mogg. Just a mess. I agree it could collapse the government.
tobie
I don’t want to revive the flame wars from last night’s t-bogg level thread, but I was curious who/what the Sunrise Mvmt is since I follow climate news and have never heard of this group. It turns out the group was formed a-year-and-a-half ago and, quelle surprise, is not one of the serious youth climate organizations (known as YOUNGOS) that participate in the UN Climate Conference. They’re a Berner group that endorsed Bernie candidates, especially Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib. The point of Monday’s rally was to tell Pelosi to Step up…or step aside.” Their manifesto for a green new deal is so vague and general that if a junior high school submitted it as a project, she would fail. Long story short: they’re an agit-prop group that is willing to burn everything down if they don’t get their way. One might describe them as hostage takers. I can’t imagine Monday’s stunt was not planned with their newly elected endorsees. The Democratic Party should continue to work closely with climate experts, including the YOUNGOS. The Sunrise Movement can and should have a seat at the table when they develop some expertise. Till then, no quarter.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: Good luck! Stay safe.
Major Major Major Major
@satby: I’m super psyched that it’s going to snow on my first day as a New Yorker.
satby
@Yarrow: I went through the entire Shrub years without watching or listening to him if at all avoidable. I was able to evade him, Totus is easily evaded too.
Though Colbert has clips sometimes and I have seen those.
Just One More Canuck
@Major Major Major Major: I’m sure you’ll get over it quickly enough
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Major Major Major Major: As an upstater (aside: towns 5 feet up the Hudson are not “upstate”) we used to point and laugh at how the City handled snow.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
I can’t envy a nation that has Theresa May at 10 Downing Street. That dimwit is bound and determined to carry out Brexit even though it will mean driving Britain off a cliff.
chris
@Tony Jay: @Yarrow: Have you seen the Brexit cup? Says it all.
Platonailedit
How presidential. It’s going to take generations to clean up this corrupt thug’s messes all over the world.
Major Major Major Major
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: is Beacon upstate? Please say yes so I can continue joking that I sent my cat to a farm upstate while I get settled in.
delk
JFC. Some guy screamed Heil Hitler Heil Trump during the intermission of a Baltimore production of Fiddler on the Roof.
Manyakitty
@satby: Yay! Should I wait until Monday to order?
cain
@Betty Cracker:
Eventually he’s going to blame Fox and Friends publicly. That’s going to be fun. You know Fox & Friends is playing up to the one watcher. It’s amazing how much influence that stupid ass show has.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Major Major Major Major: Sure. There’s an exception clause for places you tell your kids you sent Fluffy. Even Yonkers would be allowed.
tobie
@delk: oh no. I don’t know how we put all this toxic hate back in the bottle.
Ohio Mom
@satby: I would have thought they’d cancel the market on a day like today — how many customers are going to brave snow and ice?
Here in southwest Ohio, it’s raining and slowly melting last night’s ice storm. My electricity went off sbout a half hour ago; the last tree limb to fall on a power line picked my neighborhood.
Since there are something like 96,000+ other customers without power, it’s going to be a long day here. Especially since my phone is old and doesn’t hold a charge well.
I am going to have to ration my internet time. Bah! See you all again much later.
Yarrow
@chris: LOL. Perfect.
@satby: I watch a lot of political comedy shows so it’s hard to avoid him. I mute him and look away but it’s still hard.
Gin & Tonic
@Major Major Major Major: Snow in NYC is wonderful indeed.
Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.
@satby: Great plan! Ignoring malignant narcissists is both the best way to deal with them, and to preserve your own mental health. Any attention, positive or negative, just feeds the beast of their constantly collapsing self worth, and encourages acting out.
Also, imagine winning the Presidency and thinking “At last! Now everyone will *have* to pay attention to me!”…only to have hundreds of millions ignore you.
Betty Cracker
@delk: WT actual F? Seems the Trump-Nazi-KKK nexus needs a lot more law enforcement attention. Did you read about the two DC-area Nazi bros who were in communication with the terrorist who shot up the synagogue in Pittsburgh? One killed himself shortly after the massacre (good riddance), and the other was just arrested. Josh Marshall has been all over the story at TPM.
rikyrah
I totally want Indictment Friday.
khead
@tobie:
My first thought actually? Please not Cecil….
Also, kinda surprised schools are closed.
tobie
@khead: Don’t worry…I hear parts of Harford are just as bad!
We’re wimps in MD when it comes to snow
Yarrow
About bloody time:
arrieve
@Major Major Major Major: Definitely upstate. Although I consider the Bronx “upstate” — i.t depends on where you’re starting from.
Yarrow
Marc Elias is good…
Jinchi
Every time Trump shouts that “They have found no collusion “ it just reminds me how overwhelming the evidence of collusion is. Not least of which is his own “Russia if you’re listening…” quote during the campaign.
Sloane Ranger
@Betty Cracker: Yes, whenever I get despondent about Brexit, I always comfort myself by thinking “At least Donald Trump isn’t our PM”.
Yarrow
@Jinchi: I’m always reminded of that iceberg image with the “what we know” above the water and “what Mueller knows” below the water. Trump and his traitorous family and cronies and enabling Republicans are toast. Tick tock, motherfuckers.
Major Major Major Major
I have the keys to a Manhattan apartment now! A sublet, but…
ruemara
@tobie: which is why I still do not think AOC is all that smart.
I hope Tangelo Tyrant is sleeping very poorly and is quite nervous, bless his evil heart.
@delk: disgusting. It’s amazing how many norms we’ve had broken in just a little over two years.
Jinchi
@Yarrow:
I never understood why May didn’t simply keep kicking the can down the road after she became Prime Minister – parliament never had to vote to leave the EU – She could have insisted that they lay out plans for an orderly withdrawal first, then called for a second referendum asking if voters wanted the reality as much as they wanted the idea.
But she decided to go with her “Brexit means Brexit” nonsense, instead, hoping that everything would simply fall into place on it’s own.
Every problem she has is self inflicted.
The Moar You Know
@geg6: Obama gave them a warning shot, discussed locking them out of pressers. Never actually did it, but they got the message. And they are terrified that if CNN loses, the next Dem president will lock them out.
Frankly, I hope CNN does lose and the next Dem president locks them out on day one and never lets them back in. It won’t stop them from making shit up, but that access conveys a lot of prestige and such a lockout would do serious damage to their reputation, even among their brain-dead viewers.
Won’t happen.
There are a lot of judges that would like to do Trump’s bidding on this, but they won’t. They know the payback would hurt the fascist propaganda outlets far more than any legit news org.
Major Major Major Major
@Jinchi: I always think of a tweet(?) I saw explaining how it’s almost more aggravating than watching Trump. In the UK you have a professional politician and diplomat patiently explaining what she’s doing as she knowingly eats four live grenades.
Ruckus
@geg6:
Not saying they shouldn’t call him out at all. But if one was trying to handle someone with all his “issues” wouldn’t that be exactly the wrong way to do it? Of course the “right way” does absolutely nothing to stem the shitty behavior and actually reenforces it. Which is one reason he learned to do it in the first place and has no idea that it’s wrong. It’s always worked but he’s put himself in a totally different situation where it doesn’t work at all. He’s lost, and when he’s lost, he lashes out. Normally that would only mean his world would get smaller and his bullshit would normally fall on fewer and fewer ears. Dumbshit put himself in one of the most intense spotlights on the planet, thinking that would make him special. It has, but totally opposite any way he expected. All of his faults and perversions stand out in stark difference to the former holder of the job. Or really most any reasonable human.
danielx
Always with the projection….
Yarrow
@Jinchi: Well, technically once they triggered Article 50 they had two years to get it done. I’m sure they could have kept kicking it down the road but technically there were some requirements. Uncertainty has its own problems as well.
Bruce K
Someone in the tweetlesphere (link here) speculated that Mitch McConnell just might be personally afraid of what the Mueller investigation may uncover. I don’t know if we’re talking “leaving Fort Leavenworth feet first” levels of danger, but I can hope.
I know the GOP’s problem is more systemic than personality-driven at this point, but I can’t see the US getting repaired while McConnell’s got a hand on any of the levers of power. More even that Trump, Gingrich, Giuliani, Hannity, and their ilk, he’s the one that got me to realize that what we’re dealing with is flat-out evil.
tobie
@ruemara: I’m just tired of thinking of agit-prop as a brilliant strategy. Yes, it’s worked well politically (as in electorally) for the right but at the price of the well being of the country.
Redshift
@Major Major Major Major:
Ms. Redshift went to college in nearby New Paltz, so I’ll echo the joke she learned there: it’s upstate to people who think everything above 142nd St is upstate.
arrieve
@Major Major Major Major: Welcome to the city! Hope to see you at the next meetup.
Yarrow
@Bruce K:
Been saying that since December 2016. McConnell is hiding big things and he’s terrified of what Mueller is going to uncover. Too bad. He had his chance to come clean and do the right thing. Tick tock.
arrieve
@Redshift: And I guess I’m that joke without having heard it before!
Major Major Major Major
@arrieve: somebody suggested I should throw one. When was the last one?
A Ghost To Most
@Tony Jay:
Living a completely transactional life obviates the need to think things through.
Frankensteinbeck
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, this is an unusual and out-of-the-blue note in his Mueller rant. Given his attention span and constant projection, we know Mueller is on his mind and his own screaming freakouts are on his mind. That usually means someone just talked to him about both in a way that upset him. There are a lot of variations on that, but I’m pinning the best chance that Nit-Whit briefed Trump on the investigation in ‘Mueller’s team is a well-oiled machine and they’re coming for your balls, boss’ terms, combined with seeing news coverage about his own tantrums. That has been a big news topic the last couple of days.
Possibility that would tie things up neatly: Someone close to him told him that his rants have given Mueller legal ammunition to use against him.
Tony Jay
@Yarrow:
Yes, that kind of baseless “The British People voted for whatever version of Brexit I happen to favour right now and will also have voted for whatever version I’m forced by circumstances to promote next week, next year and forever” yammering has been the foundation stone of the ‘Brexit Means Brexit’ movement since the Referendum results slid wetly out of the national digestive tract back in 2016.
The truth is that there was never going to be any possible version of Brexit that matched the impossible promises of the Quit Campaign, and most of them knew it when they were contrasting visions of Euronazi bureaucrats with pencil moustaches dictating brown hordes of scrounging rapists to come over here and steal white people’s jobs against the bright sunny uplands of Rainbow Unicornia where the fuzzy-wuzzies were back in the colonies and there were more wholesome variety shows on television, they just thought they’d never have to even try because, surely, not even fourty years of relentless Murdochian propaganda could make the British electorate do something THAT stupid,,,,,could it?
Turns out, yes, it could.
May’s mission for the last two years has been to hold her riven Party together, push Quitter after Quitter to the forefront of negotiations to (mostly) shield herself from accusations of sabotage, and keep herself in Number 10, with her priorities not necessarily in that order. Now that she’s facing the blinking red light of default into a no-deal cataclysm she’s hoping she can force her Party to swallow what is basically EU membership without any of the rights, perks, protections or security for the foreseeable future and call it a successful Brexit, or else plunge into a No-Deal scenario or, even worse, into the Blood Red Dictatorship of the Proletariat that is a Centre-Left Labour Government (cue booming evil laughter).
Will they? Highly unlikely. There’s about 50 BreXXXit Radicals all clad in black turtlenecks and ready to roll with Project Mayhem who would love to drive Britain off that no-deal cliff, serenely confident that they will end up with cushy wingnut welfare sinecures for their role in “Making Britain Open for Business”. Labour have already said they’re dead set against it. Ditto the Lib-Dems and even the Ulster Greycoats who’ve been keeping May in power since last years Election. If everything follows the most obvious glide-path (and since no one has a hand on the controls, that’s likely) we should be barrelling through the Parliamentary obstacles to a 2nd Referendum before the deadline of the end of March, 2019.
Hopefully. Or it will get even worse. Hey, you guys had a chance to correct your great, national mistake and you took it, why can’t we?
VOR
@Yarrow: Agree, I cannot stand the sight or sound of Trump. I can only handle him in small doses, like a clip on Colbert. I watched the entire Helsinki press conference and was in pain afterwards. I can’t watch The President Show – too close to home. I can handle Alec Baldwin’s Trump on SNL.
cain
So I noticed that no front pager has zero’d on the power play by the First Lady. It seems she has instigated something and flexing her political power. I wonder what the new dynamics are going to be and whether we will see more things from Melania. Trump was willing to listen to her for at least one aid and she’s already digging her claws into the chief of staff. I think we’re going to see some interesting new dynamics between the first lady, POTUS, and everyone else.
Betty Cracker
@Bruce K:
QFT. I believe the senatortoise’s seat is up in 2020, and if the Democrats are smart, they’re grooming a charismatic blue dog and funding a libertarian ratfucker right now…
Platonailedit
@Jinchi: Once they triggered article 50, there was no going back. And EU, is what, stuffed potato in this deal? They hold the upper hand in this and they know it.
arrieve
@Major Major Major Major: In July, when NotMax and Satby were in town. There were definitely enough locals to have another one.
Jeffro
Hey GOP – whaddya think – he’s sounding more and more innocent by the day, eh?
I hope he drags them all down, down, down to the bottom, flailing and gurgling all the way.
feebog
I have consistently preached patience regarding the Mueller investigation. After all, there are a lot of investigative threads and it is obvious one thing has led to another, even if we don’t know the specifics. Having said that, THE ELECTION IS OVER AND I WANT SOME GODDAMN INDICTMENTS DAMN IT. You know, just a couple to tide me over until after the holidays.
Shakti
@sherparick: Yes, I had blocked several members of the administration including Trump the day they declared victory because I didn’t want to look at his stupid face or his stupid tweets being reply tweeted into my timeline. I also avoid television because I don’t want to hear his stupid voice either. I don’t even like comedians pretending to be him.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: My feeling for awhile is that when the Mueller investigation’s big indictments start to drop then that will impact Brexit. The two are tied because both were Russian-influenced. Some of the same players (Farage, for instance) were involved in both. Interesting times.
I hope so.
cynthia ackerman
@Omnes Omnibus:
Also good at making money go away …
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@cain: If he were removed from actual power and kept incognito somewhere, and all of the presidential functions were being handled by a Kelly / Melania / Ivanka cabal, would that look different than the White House looks now? Would there be any external signs that are different from how it functions today? Are we maybe there already?
A Ghost To Most
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: You want to really point and laugh? An inch of snow in DC causes the most astounding freak outs. As a WNYer in my yoot, it was hard to control my derision.
Chyron HR
@delk:
Another would-be Bernie voter driven into the arms of Trump.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jinchi:
May seems to be a less intelligent McConnell. She wants to wreck Britain’s government. She wants Brexit, wants a shit deal, wants to gut the safety net, and more. I haven’t seen her personally enough to get a sense of why. For Turtle, it’s clearly ‘fuck you liberals for making a black man my boss’ driving his existing bad traits to extremes.
@Bruce K:
No single person is more at fault than McConnell. Trump is flailing. McConnell is deliberately and systematically destroying everything he can reach. Someone that evil, and he is ‘cartoon supervillain’ evil, inevitably has skeletons in their closet.
Gelfling 545
@Major Major Major Major: You’ll get over that -guickly.
A Ghost To Most
@Betty Cracker: Shit Hitler is a symptom. McConnell is proof of that.
Sloane Ranger
@Amir Khalid: I hate to be put in the position of defending Teresa May but she is between a rock and a hard place here. On one side, the frothing at the mouth nationalist Brexiteers and “business friendly” Remainers on the other. The fact that she has somehow managed to steer a course beween them for so long is a testament to her political skills.I doubt anyone else could have done it.
The alternative is to have the Tory Party break into pieces. This would normally get a cheer out of me but the consequence would be to let in Jeremy “the EU is a neo-liberal conspiracy against the working-class ” Corbyn who would have us out on a hard Brexit in a shot if he could, regardless of his MP’s views.
Yellowdog
@Amir Khalid: I wonder what Putin has on her. Not golden showers, maybe sometime roleplaying? Or probably just boring but criminal financial finagling.
Frankensteinbeck
@Betty Cracker:
I can’t imagine getting Kentucky to vote for a Democrat over McConnell. This state is a cesspool of hate. He’s not liked, but it doesn’t matter. He says his opponent is in league with brown people, and Kentucky stampedes to vote for him.
A Teabagger challenger could maybe unseat him, but he’s organized and canny, and they tend to shit themselves in public.
Then again, I didn’t think we could get Alabama.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: I’m following the BBC’s live feed on today’s events and am seeing several calls for a second referendum.
Ruckus
@Tony Jay:
Aww, early morning snark. I like it.
Haroldo
@Tony Jay:
Well written! I follow the Brexit Follies on primarily the Guardian – I don’t see much hope for optimism. Are there other internet media outlets that can give well-reasoned prognoses?
Patricia Kayden
@FlipYrWhig: Robert Mueller is the epitome of cool. He has done a great job of soldiering through under very difficult circumstances and intense scrutiny. I have no doubt that his investigation will be enough to tear Trump down. If not through impeachment, it will give Democrats more than enough fodder to win the White House in 2020.
Yellowdog
@Frankensteinbeck: The ‘why’ is that Putin has something on her and is forcing her to do Brexit because it accomplished his goal of weakening western Europe. There is ample evidence that Putin was behind, or at least a co-conspirator in fomenting the Brexit vote.
Platonailedit
Unlike the supreme court, the federal courts seem to think counting votes and enabling voters to vote do matter in a democracy.
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost To Most: I think perhaps a poorly executed metaphor I used in an earlier post led you to believe I don’t understand that. I do.
Fair Economist
@Jinchi: I think May was planning something like what has actually happened – the realities of Brexit forcing a BINO which she could get passed, allow her to claim she got Brexit done while not causing enough damage to be politically problematic. If she passes this it worked. We shall see.
If it were just the Brexit deal up for a vote I think it would pass – most Tories will yield to her whip and many Remainers and Labour Brexiters will recognize this is the best they can get. The no confidence resolution is a wild card, but since Corbin and May both want soft Brexits that is likely what will happen.
FlipYrWhig
@Patricia Kayden: It’s so far beyond bizarre that Trump’s big complaint would be that *other people* are shouting and throwing fits.
TaMara (HFG)
So if twitler goes down (say somewhere in late January) from whatever – mental breakdown is my guess – and Pence is found to be somehow, you know, complicit in anything having to do with his benefactor, Manafort – doesn’t that make the Speaker of the House president? wink, wink.
Tony Jay
@Yarrow:
You mentioned that a few weeks ago (when it came out Mueller was investigating Aaron Banks and his foreign money funnel) and I agreed with you then. Brexit was as much a foreign intelligence operation as the 2016 Election and deserves to be investigated and prosecuted as such.
Plus, let it not be forgotten, the declaration of Article 50 was propelled and the exit date of March 31st 2019 chosen because on April 1st 2019 the EU’s Tax Avoidance laws come into effect across all member states. Nothing suspicious about that at all, is there? /s
The Moar You Know
@Haroldo: British media has some amazing strengths and politics is not one of those strengths. The Guardian is just as clueless as the BBC or the Daily Mail on this shit. I’ve been talking to my Brit friends. Who all basically say “fuck if I know”.
Only thing Brit media does worse than their own politics is ours. BBC World Service actually got me yelling at the radio the other day. Fucking clueless.
Cermet
@cain: Cant think of a better occurrence outside of Mueller indictments. More power to her – even the orange fart cloud can’t risk anything to alienate his trophy wife; if she walks, he’s cucked and funk. His white nationalist creeds are in the toilet if she cuts off his balls and leaves – lol. This is turning out to be a real bonus.
Barbara
@Tony Jay: “Correct” is way too optimistic. The more accurate expression for the midterm elections would be “take steps to contain the disaster.”
Haroldo
@The Moar You Know:
I agree – I listen to the BBC and become similarly enraged. This is not ideal, is it? But not surprising
tobie
@Tony Jay: thanks for this excellent summary. I’ve been wondering what May’s been up to. You clarified it — looking out for number 1 as we say on this side if the pond.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: Yep. There is so much going on once you look at it. I wish the UK could have its own equivalent of the Mueller investigation but I do think in some ways they have ceded that to us. We have used a lot of intelligence from the UK, Five Eyes and NATO allies so it’s not like those countries don’t have an interest in what’s happening with the investigation.
PaulWartenberg
One of the joys of watching a bad liar whose shtick relies on projecting his own sins onto others, seeing trump tweet about chaos in a Mueller office that has been notoriously focused and tight-lipped makes me as happy as someone baking mac and cheese right now.
Oh, that’s still me! :)
PaulWartenberg
You wanna know what’s sad about Brexit right now?
There was a ton of smart people screaming before the vote that there was no such thing as a clean break from the EU.
Every Remain voter saw this day years ago. And the Murdoch-backed wingnut media in the UK lied to the voters into this stupid mess.
If the Queen regains control of the government, I hope the first thing she does is bring back beheadings for the likes of Boris, Farage, and Rupert.
Yarrow
@Cermet: Reminder that “cuck” became such a popular word with the toxic right because everything they do is projection.
Betty Cracker
@PaulWartenberg: Oooo, I’d kill for a plate of homemade mac and cheese right about now. This cold snap has me craving comfort foods.
Tony Jay
@The Moar You Know:
You should have heard the BBC interviewing John Kerry on the radio this morning. The presenter hit all of the Republican frames – Dems are incoherent on policy, Trump is bigly popular, no Democratic Senate = Electoral failure, young Dems hate old leadership, etc etc. It took Kerry a few minutes but the constant corrections seemed to knock the contrarianism out of the presenter and he finally started asking about Kerry’s book (which he was on to publicise).
It’s turning into an exercise in hate-listening. I really need to knock it off.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: I see May is going to hold a press conference in Downing Street. If it weren’t so serious this would be quality entertainment.
Uncle Cosmo
@Sloane Ranger: No, but Reeks-Smogg (spawn of the coscribbler of The Sovereign Imbecile) might be next up to bat. Sticky wicket, wot?
(Consider dialing that there “there but for the accidents of birth go we” attitude back just a tad, pilgrim.)
bemused
Off topic but puppy mill White Fire Kennels in Iowa was raided with help of ASPCA removing 170 plus Samoyed dogs. Horrible conditions. I’m sick to my stomach.
Elizabelle
WaPost website: link to Nancy Pelosi press conference. She just came out. Is speaking of the CA wildfires and the death toll.
Elizabelle
Courage to run and the stamina to win. — NP on the new Congresspeople
Elizabelle
Up to almost 40 seats. “Almost a tsunami.”
Half the new members in our Democratic side are women. …. It’s transformative. They will decide what their priority is …. calls them entrepreneurial and enthusiastic.
Elizabelle
HR 1 to be priority one. They’re ready with that legislation. Restoration of Voting Rights Act, among other things.
Elizabelle
Speaking of protections for Mueller, and that Whitaker could not qualify for AG under their plans.
Elizabelle
First question from press is whether there will be a Climate Crisis panel. (Not sure of exact wording…)
Refreshing.
Uncle Cosmo
@Yarrow: Some will be “toast” – & some Lindsey-Graham-cracker crumbs.
Betty Cracker
Every nation contends with its own pathologies, of course, but one factor about Trump that is a deep and abiding source of shame for me is that he is a very AMERICAN type of asshole. He embodies every negative stereotype about Americans — fat, loud, stupid, braggadocious, grasping, bigoted, etc. I assume the rest of the world knows we’re not all like that, thankfully most of us aren’t. But it’s still painful to be repped on the world stage by the very embodiment of the Ugly American.
eclare
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the updates! At work and can’t watch.
O. Felix Culpa
Ok, so Palm Beach County in Florida says it can’t meet the machine recount deadline because broken machines. May I venture to guess that those machines were broken well before the election even happened? And why the f*ck is broken voting machines even a thing in 2018 USA? Were the election officials taken by surprise that an election was coming? (I know, stupid questions, but still….)
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, really.
The Ugly American was a warning.
Not a job description.
Elizabelle
Second question is leadership change.
NP: Repeats “Just Win Baby.” Asks press to group all the questions, cuz she’s only going to answer it all once.
Elizabelle
Do you have the votes to be elected Speaker?
NP: Yes.
Elizabelle
[Democrats] “Spoke out beautifully. Healthcare, healthcare, healthcare. Like a jackhammer.”
I intend to win the speakership with Democratic votes. Speaks of overwhelming support in her caucus. Believes she’s the best person for that …
now, Q on omnibus.
O. Felix Culpa
@Elizabelle:
Of course she does. I think it’s all theater and posturing from the right and the left.
tobie
Thank you, Elizabelle, for the live updates! Pelosi just reminded the media about the House’s legislative agenda and said that they have a “day job,” things to do, not just time for leadership questions.
Regarding new members: She doesn’t care if they support her, only that they support the Democratic agenda. Bravo.
tobie
@Elizabelle:
That was sweet, as was her answer to question about Marcia Fudge considering throwing her hat into the ring. “C’mon in. The water’s warm.”
FlipYrWhig
I still want to see every public appearance by Mitch McConnell turned into a barrage of questions about why anyone supports someone who’s so old, out of touch, and generally unappealing. If it’s fair to force Pelosi to do that it should be fair to force McConnell to do it.
Amir Khalid
@Sloane Ranger:
This course May is so carefully steering, where does it take Britain? Economic and political isolation from Europe, geopolitical iirrelevance, possible dissolution of the United Kingdom. I honestly think leaving Europe would create an existential crisis for your country. May has a greater duty to the country than to her party. Better for the Tories to abort Brexit and be the Opposition for a generation, I think, than to go through with it.
Sloane Ranger
@Uncle Cosmo:
That would indeed be bad but the bulk of Tory Mps are Remainers so we will, hopefully avoid that googly.
Just got back from my volunteer job at the local museum and read further up the thread that May is scheduled to hold a press conference. Waiting to hear what she has to say with bated breath.
Elizabelle
@tobie: Yeah. She’s been great. I love how NP answers the question and then …. stops. She has given her response. Great tactic. Don’t give them something else to obfuscate with.
@O. Felix Culpa:
I pray you’re right. And I still want President Pelosi. Not a time for newcomers, or the non-fierce.
PC is over.
Elizabelle
@tobie: Love that re Marcia Who.
Tony Jay
@tobie:
Everything about May’s behaviour since becoming Tory leader in 2016 can be best understood by asking “Does this help her stay leader for another 24 hours?” That’s all she wants, all she’s interested in.
She took the job knowing Brexit was going to be the only real issue for the foreseeable future and tried to give herself some room to handle it by calling a snap election in 2017, with disastrous results for her own position and authority. She went from leading a divided Party with an overall majority in Parliament to leading a divided Party that relied on 10 hard-core BreXXXit Europhobes from Ulster to get anything through Parliament.
May never recovered from that mistake. She believed the paint-fume huffings of the Tory Press when they said Corbyn was toxic and was humiliated, leaving her no option but to rely on the looming disaster of Brexit to keep her in Downing Street. No one intellectually capable of mounting a challenge wants the job of handling Brexit, while all the ones who do want that job are either as thick as mince, off-puttingly ambitious, or both, so can’t build a support base for a coup. That combination has kept her in position (if not in power) for this long, shedding moronic Brexiteers in clumps as the wheels of Brexit ground relentlessly over them, but it’s coming to crunch time now and it’s hard to see how she survives much longer.
If it goes to a no-confidence vote, the Tories have a conundrum. Vote against their own leadership and force May’s resignation? But if not May, who? They either elect a Brexiteer and finish the job of tying their Party’s rotted corpse to mast of the Good Ship Cock-Up, or they try to elect someone who has stuck to their Remainer guns this long, and completely detonate Party unity. Either way, Brexit has screwed them and will continue screwing them, which would make me endlessly happy if it wasn’t also screwing me and everyone else.
Brachiator
What he actually meant:
O. Felix Culpa
@Brachiator: Brilliantly translated. Bravo.
Yarrow
@Amir Khalid: I agree.
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the update. Nancy Pelosi is formidable. NANCY SMASH!
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
Oh yeah.
JPL
What did Whitaker find out about the investigation, and when did he tell trump..
Sorry if this has been mentioned as I haven’t read the comments yet.
Now I see that the esteemed blogger Betty mentioned it.
Tenar Arha
@Betty Cracker: I use him & @UnfollowTrump when I don’t want to give orange man a click, but there’s no photo QT or the QT is cut off too much for me to infer his argle bargle from context. (There’s an @UnfollowVP too).
Frankensteinbeck
@O. Felix Culpa:
I think a big chunk, I’d guess around half, within the Democratic Party is theater and posturing. From the news it’s a personal campaign of hatred, the same as they direct against any powerful woman. It always boggles me that even Maddow is in on it. The Right has that hate, plus Pelosi has been an enemy that defeated them time and again, even when they had a major advantage. I have minor sympathy for the posturing Reps who feel squeezed by all this, because the press grills them mercilessly to try and reduce their identity to ‘For/Against Nancy Pelosi’ and nothing else. In any case, I don’t think there are enough actual anti-Pelosi dumbasses to make a difference when the votes are held.
tobie
@Tony Jay: May gets some sympathy here because she’s had to deal with our corrupt, inept, petulant man-baby President, but clearly the sympathy is not deserved. What a mess our rightwing, xenophobic populists have created.
JPL
@delk: Trump said it was okay now. How horrible for those in attendance. Although it was intermission, I read those in the theatre did not really enjoy the rest of the performance.
FlipYrWhig
@Frankensteinbeck: Maddow last night seemed to be saying that if Democrats accepted Schumer right away but were irresolutely meh about Pelosi, something was wrong. To me that rang as pro-Pelosi not anti. Maybe I missed some previous airings of the grievances…
Platonailedit
Our Kay should be thrilled about this.
Uncle Cosmo
@Frankensteinbeck: It might take a Wenga. (i.e., an Agnew with parties reversed): Primary him from the 10-megaparsecs-starboard-of-Genghis-Khan, then rally all the not-batshit-insane voters in KY to close ranks around a centrist Democrat as the only rational choice in the general. Though it is unclear whether there are enough NBSI voters in the state to manage it.
Platonailedit
Frankensteinbeck
@FlipYrWhig:
She digs up and showcases every anti-Pelosi voice she can find. She doesn’t seem to weigh in personally aside from repeating the trope variations that Pelosi is unpopular with Democrats. I don’t watch much TV, but Maddow’s show is on a lot in this house and I have had to walk in on this a number of times. If it’s anti-Pelosi, Maddow will air it without challenging it, just give it the fine old MSM ‘It’s a controversy!’ treatment that she avoids on most topics.
Brachiator
@Platonailedit:
I love this stuff! The pushback againt Trumpian ignorance has to take place at every level, local, state and national.
trollhattan
@O. Felix Culpa:
Think Republicans in wooden shoes.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: I think T’s election was a wake up call for a lot of people who were not normally into politics, or were content to watch it from the sidelines.
FlipYrWhig
@Frankensteinbeck: I find a huge proportion of the anti-Pelosi mishegas to stem from a fundamentally stupid confusion between the use of the word “establishment” to mean “powerful” and the use of it to mean “conservative and moneyed.” Which is also why when anyone talks about “anti-establishment” whatever I just exhale sadly. To characterize NANCY PELOSI as *too conservative* just beggars belief, and yet there are hundreds of idiots egging each other on to believe it anyway.
jeffreyw
@Tony Jay:
Nicely put. I am imagining you giving this speech in Question Time to a resounding chorus of Hear! Hear!
TenguPhule
Every accusation is a confession.
germy
Raven
@Frankensteinbeck: Baloney.
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
Obviously you haven’t been paying much attention to Theresa May.
cain
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
All of those people have likely competing agendas and they still need Donald Trump so they’ll all be fighting over who gets to talk to him and influence him because in the end certain things can only be done by Trump.
TenguPhule
@FlipYrWhig:
Since he has a bad habit of not paying his lawyers, this was the obvious result.
cain
@Frankensteinbeck:
I think the best route is to unseat him with a wild eyed teabagger and then promptly put the guy in cold storage away from any leadership positions. He’ll just be one crazy asshole a sea of em.
Spanky
@tobie: The Scots aren’t having it. Per CNN:
IIRC, the Scots were always against it. Hopefully they can sway enough MPs to force a no confidence vote.
Raven
@TenguPhule: Fuck Israel and fuck you.
Patricia Kayden
@Betty Cracker: Theresa May oversaw the wrongful deportation of elderly West Indians so naw. I love Angela Merkel and am sorry to hear that she’s stepping down.
Brachiator
@Yarrow:
It’s weird. At some level, neither Boris Johnson nor Rees-Mogg, or even Corbyn on the left, seem to care about BREXIT. They all want to use it as a tool to displace Theresa May. And even though they rail against the EU, they seem to expect the European Union to save the UK from any folly.
Spanky
And if you’re interested and have a WaPo account, it looks like they’re going to live-stream May’s speech.
Patricia Kayden
@germy: Yet White Evangelicals love them some Trump, who is a walking tale of immorality and hated President Obama, who is a compassionate, intelligent and decent human being. Go figure.
The Moar You Know
@O. Felix Culpa: All I needed to hear. She doesn’t make shit up. If she says she has them, she does.
ruemara
@Brachiator: They’re the bad, awful abusive boyfriend who tells you they can leave at any time and is surprised AF that you’d ever leave a catch like him.
tobie
Sorry to switch topics, but NBC News has an article up saying the White House is considering giving the Turkish cleric Gulen to the Turks in exchange for Erdogan going easy on the Saudis. Has this been reported elsewhere?
Couldn't Stand the Weather
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Stephen Colbert’s impression is hilarious.
I agree, listening to Drumpf himself is enough to cause me to lunge for the volume control.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep. It is heartening to see that a number of these people recently won elections. And especially the women who were not simply disgusted by Trump, but energized by his attempts to disrespect them.
cain
@tobie:
Who is ever going to trust a deal from this white house?
tobie
@cain: No one would trust a deal but Erdogan knows he’s negotiating with an administration with no moral compass that would happily turn-over a US permanent resident to a regime known for torture in exchange for short-term gain. That’s what’s so horrifying. The Turks and the Saudis are pulling the strings, and Mr. Dip-Shit thinks he’s winning.
Couldn't Stand the Weather
Can I plz have get-out-of-moderation-free card?
Sloane Ranger
@Brachiator: Yep. We’re an island and the word insular describes us to a tee.
TenguPhule
@Raven: And since you seem to have nothing better to do then try to keep picking a fight with me, you have the honor of being only the second person on this blog sent to the pie filter by me. We can simply ignore each other and everyone’s happy.
different-church-lady
What’s interesting is that we’re nearly two years in and other than banning one reporter from the press room he’s made utterly no headway in getting the media to stop doing FAKE NEWS about him. None.
Funny, that.
chris
woohoo1
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid:
You obviously aren’t familiar with Theresa May or the current Tory party.
They have no higher principles then FYIGM.
A Ghost To Most
@The Moar You Know: Clyburn didn’t sound concerned this AM; he said he likes Rep. Fudge, but was backing Pelosi. Dude knows how to count votes.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
In Corbyn’s defense, that’s not his job at the moment. He didn’t make it, he campaigned against it and a good chunk of his own political party still wants to go through with it. Until and unless he becomes PM, I take every claim about him on Brexit with a grain of salt. There’s nothing he really can do at the moment that wouldn’t risk splintering the coalition of opposition to the current government.
lurker dean
i follow this so i don’t have to follow the idiot on twitter..
https://twitter.com/RealPressSecBot
Patricia Kayden
@chris: Blue Wave, baby!! Keep it coming.
A Ghost To Most
@tobie:
This cannot stand, if true.
daryljfontaine
@chris:
woohoo2
D
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: That’s exactly it. A substantial (okay, ~27%) of this country is comprised of garbage like him. Not sure how we can even fix that.
Captain C
@Major Major Major Major: Depending on who you ask, anything north of Central Park is sometimes considered upstate.
tobie
@A Ghost To Most: I guess I should call my Senators to see if they can move on this. No permanent resident is safe, if this comes to pass. I hope some of BJ’s lawyers will weigh in soon.
chris
@Patricia Kayden: Indeed. Dave Weigel notes that Susan Collins is the only Republican left in New England. I doubt she’ll run again but YMMV.
TenguPhule
The officer was white. The security guard was black and had just brought down the armed attacker who was firing his gun. The witnesses were reportedly yelling at the officer that the security guard was security when he shot him.
SMH.
TenguPhule
@tobie:
Not at Wapo, NYT or the Guardian. Not yet.
A Ghost To Most
thedailybeast
Platonailedit
schrodingers_cat
@chris:
Not for long.
TenguPhule
British Media, for shame.
Mnemosyne
@A Ghost To Most:
I find it fascinating that none of the online “progressives” have noticed that the Congressional Progressive Caucus is not fielding a candidate to run against Pelosi for Speaker and seems content to vote for her. The only House members making noises about wanting to be rid of Pelosi are the more conservative members.
Of course, a lot of the Twitter “progressives” are Russian ‘bots, so it’s hard to tell how much of the noise really exists.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
From your fingers to the FSM’s noodles.
chris
@schrodingers_cat: Tick tock
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
“Good guy with a gun.”
Ella in New Mexico
@tobie: @A Ghost To Most: This is outrageous. The illegal and immoral thing Flynn was being paid to plot and which he could have been imprisoned for is now an officially considered thing by our corrupt government to get Turkey to lighten up on Saudi Arabia. Guess Jared thinks he’ll need more money down the road.
Gulen needs to present himself to the Canadian embassy seek asylum ASAP.
tobie
@Ella in New Mexico: Since Nov 9, 2016, I’ve been wondering why he hasn’t done this.
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
He’s succeeded in demonizing the press, in making his supporters hate and distrust real journalism and to look only to him for what to believe.
And he understands that beat reporters and pundits have as tender an ego as his own. So in baiting them, he gets them to whine and complain, and to lose focus. If reporters had any brains, they would ignore the baiting and the declarations that they are “enemies of the people” and just file their stories.
Alien Radio
@Sloane Ranger: Corbyn is a Eurosceptic (,and for good reason, there ARE flaws in how the EU is run that massively exacerbated eurozone problems in the wake of the financial crisis, ones that A fat dollop of reigning in neoliberal economic policies would help with). What Corbyn IS not is insane and Malicious, And He’s not going to support a hard Brexit even if he has a Minority of Labour MPs who support it because it will be actively harmful. A lot of the rules from the eu that are supposedly harming Britain (European competition rules that require you to privatise government Services for example) have plenty of carve outs in them that allow member nations to keep certain services nationalised, it’s just there’s never been any appetite for using them because there hasn’t been a government in 40 years that didn’t heed the siren song of their mates in the city calling for a chance to get fat on a privatization structure contract (It’s not even the sold off services this is being done for, it’s the contracts that we’re being sold out for, corruption is cheap). He has plenty of room to manouver as a full member of the EU, and not having to cope with a post apocalyptic economy will aid that. Why fuck Labours change of winning another election in future?
No matter what the papers are saying about him, Corbyn is not mad, in fact he may be a very canny operator. This whole issue about him not forcefullly arguing for a second referendum for example. Reversing Brexit is his Biggest Bargaining chip, but the Media is trying to get him to give it away for free, mostly so he has less political capital and they can start working to undermine his government quicker ones their skins are safe. Corbyn is going to trade in this chip, but only at the right time, because A: He’s not insane enough to want a hard brexit, B Not stupid enough to think that the Brexit on offer is a good deal, C: He might be able to extract concessions from the real power brokers in the UK that will allow him some room to actually govern, institute some good policies for working people and use that to cement a Labour voting bloc for when the next election rolls along.
I think he’s a LOT more strategically adept than he’s given credit for. that will probably work to his advantage, it has so far.
dr. luba
@satby:
I find this helps: Make America Kittens Again.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: NP?
edit; okay, that’s nancy pelosi.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: HR 1 ?
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
There’s tons that I don’t understand about British politics, but I find it odd that Corbyn clearly wants to be prime minister, Labour wants to displace the Torys, and yet they have a deliberate policy of not talking about BREXIT. It’s not as if the issue will go away. And I find it absurd that someone would ask for my vote, but refuse to say how they would deal with this looming economic disaster.
It would be like an American politician asking for my vote but refusing to give an opinion about whether he or she supports the Affordable Care Act, and saying, “We’ll deal with it after I am elected.”
Jay C
@chris:
Yes: from a lot of stuff I read Sen. Collins was utterly floored by the negative reaction she got over the Brett Kavanaugh nomination: just my guess, but I think Collins played the “Moderate Republican” card just one too many times: and (from what I’ve read) is lividly angry at being overtly called out on her bullshit. And, one would assume, unpleasantly surprised at the immediate flood of donations for her (yet-to-be-named) opponent in 2020. ($3.5MM ??)
Wouldn’t be surprised if she was the next GOP retirement.
Alien Radio
@Brachiator:
I hope my comment above is at least a little enlightening https://balloon-juice.com/2018/11/15/someone-sounds-nervous/#comment-7089288
WaterGirl
@germy: That was awesome.
Mnemosyne
@WaterGirl:
That’s how House bills are named in each session, so she’s saying that the very first bill the Democrats are going to introduce is a voting rights bill.
Barbara
@Jay C: Maybe she can do an Olympia Snowe and retire early, but after Le Page is gone. It would be the most consequential an beneficial thing she has ever done, barring her sudden burst of courage in voting against ACA repeal.
ETA: I find it almost unbelievable that she was shocked by the reaction to her position on Kavanaugh. The ONLY reason she has survived this long is that older female voters in Maine see her as an old guard Republican who will protect feminist principles. It has been frustrating to see her schtick bamboozle so many of her constituents.
Divf
@Captain C: “I get a nosebleed if I go above 23rd st. “
Frankensteinbeck
EDIT – Removed. I do not feel my comment was false, but I’m not sure whether it’s the explanation that applies to Collins.
wasabi gasp
Covfefe justice is an unlimited prison cell phone plan.
Medicine Man
The projection in that highlighted tweet is really something.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
The problem is that >50% of the voters in the northern regions of England which are traditional Labour strongholds, voted for and still mostly support BREXIT.
Corbyn can’t snub those voters or else the party will risk losing seats there come the next election. There are also an estimated 10-20 Labour votes who still back BREXIT and have backed May’s government on some critical votes despite the Labour whip’s best efforts.
So to keep his party from fracturing further, Corbyn has been doing the bare minimum for BREXIT to try and balance between the majority who want to Remain and the stubborn rump that wants to keep going because that’s what they voted for. If the remain Tories were not fucking idiots determined to place party over country, perhaps he could do more. But he has to work with the shitty situation that he’s in, not the ideal one he’d like.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Some of them remember what happened to last group of people who didn’t take that seriously.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Unfortunately there are a lot of really stubborn British voters who prefer pride over having to admit they fucked up.
Saying little or nothing is actually the best way to avoid them digging in their heels and doubling down.
Brachiator
@Alien Radio:
This was a great comment, very thoughtful and provided much to consider.
I think your thoughts on Corbyn are especially astute. Unfortunately, he may not be able to influence events or to undo any damage caused by Tory stupidity. If May’s proposals are accepted, or even if she is replaced by a hard BREXIT Conservative leader, what could Corbyn do to reverse anything? At various dates, certain exit processes must be completed. Also, the EU will want to ensure that other nations don’t consider their own version of a BREXIT by making it difficult to back peddle or dawdle once agreements have been made.
Again, as a total outsider, I nonetheless think that British politicians are ignoring the wider political and economic implications of BREXIT as they fight for power. Either that, or they have back deals made with the EU technocrats and economists to rescue them from their follies.
In my more cynical moments, I think that the pro-BREXIT fools so hot to restore total British sovereignty will end up seeing Scotland break away, the Republic of Ireland finally swallowing Northern Ireland after a bloody war, and the stump of England and Wales becoming a fourth rate backwater, worse than Greece as a tiny insignificant nation with a few cool historically significant sites for tourists.
BTW, I think that Tory BREXIT hardliners engage in economic fan fiction in which a UK which has pulled away from the European Union enters into all kinds of fabulous trade deals with Donald Trump, and prosperity rains down from the sky.
James E Powell
Every time I read or hear ‘Democrats gained X seats” I want the writer or speaker to include “and that was running in drastically gerrymandered districts.” Fact is, I’m not sure that’s true. I read somewhere that the widespread gerrymandering made the Rs more vulnerable when there is a wave. What say you – the much smarter and more educated horde – to that?
The reason I ask is that there is another election just two years from now in which the Democrats very much need to hold onto this majority. There is no higher priority. That is the bitter lesson from 2010.
Fair Economist
@James E Powell:
That is incorrect. The Republican gerrymanders result in more seats for them than they “should” have up to the point that they are losing the election by 16 to 20 points, in which case it no longer matters. They have more seats in the House than they would with fair districts – probably about 15 to 20. A really nasty example is that they retained control of legislatures in WI, OH, and NC in spite of losing the popular vote there. In some cases they have *supermajorities* in spite of losing the popular vote.
Kraux Pas
I expect that this is true, however there is probably a threshold that must be overcome for it to take hold. I don’t think they hit that threshold. I can imagine, though, that if they got an additional 1-2% of the national popular vote that it would have manifested in drastically more seats.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Given how everyone over there is reacting to May’s “deal”, you’re not wrong.
James E Powell
@Jay C:
Wouldn’t be surprised if she was the next GOP retirement.
My expectation is that the press/media will continue to portray her as the Last Honest Woman (McCain is gone after all) and paragon of Broderism. If Kavanaugh comes up on the campaign it will be to condemn those who treated Poor Susan so unkindly and how she withstood the storm with dignity and grace. In 2008, a huge year for the Democrats, Collins got 61.5%. I don’t pretend to understand Maine, but that tells me that the voters like her.
Kraux Pas
@Kraux Pas: Looking at the map, the NYTimes has Ds at 52% of the popular vote and winning 52% of the seats. There are seven seats undecided (1.6%). So they may actually slightly over-perform their percentage of the vote.
Still, I think a slightly bigger wave of voters would have produced a far more drastic over-performance. How many? I’m not sure, let’s find a statistician.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator: Corbyn just gave his party a heads up.
Since there is no such thing as a Sensible BREXIT, Corbyn is making it clear that the second referendum to reverse the first one is now on the table.
Tony Jay
Late back to the thread but can I just say that with regards to Corbyn and Labour’s response to Brexit TenguPhule and Alien Radio have said everything I would.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: HR-1 is always a rules bill organizing the House. They can’t do any other legislation without it.
Just Chuck
@VOR: Count me as another who can’t even look at Trump, let alone listen. I never had this kind of visceral reaction to anyone before, not even Shrub, but I *hate* the occupier of the oval office like no one or nothing else.
Just Chuck
@feebog:
The new congress hasn’t been seated yet. When that happens, well, there are dem congresscritters who are saying the same thing as you …
Just Chuck
@PaulWartenberg:
Last time the monarch tried to exercise direct control, the penalty was the same, but …
Just Chuck
@Fair Economist: Logically, gerrymandering should mean a wave election destroys the party gerrymandering was meant to favor, since, put simply, gerrymandering consists of spreading the margin of victory around more districts. As in chopping one +12 “strong R” district into three +4 “lean R” districts, while in the process eliminating an entire “strong D” district. Leaner margins should mean a wave will sweep up all those districts, but there’s still incumbency advantage to consider.
Oh BTW, Colorado just approved a redistricting commission similar to California’s. Curious if any other states did the same thing this year?
Fair Economist
@Just Chuck: The Republican gerrymanders normally created something like 2 R+10 districts for each D+20 one. Result: Republican supermajority unless they lose the election by 20 points (R+10 means Republicans are expected to get 10% more, so Democrats get 10% less). That’s roughly what happened in the gerrymandered statehouses. NC was gerrymandered to R+8 roughly and so we did win some seats there but we are still in the minority. Honestly, we wouldn’t have a workable majority in the House even with this national vote except that the shift in women and educated suburban voters has made some of the gerrymandering obsolete.
Michigan approved an anti-gerrymandering initiative as well and I think there were two more states that did something against gerrymandering.
Alien Radio
@TenguPhule: And the Deal is done. He was waiting for this.