I’m very much of the “what pisses off Republicans pleases me” crowd these days. In that vein, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is my heroine:
Republican hypocrisy at its finest: saying that Trump admitting to sexual assault on tape is just “locker room talk,” but scandalizing themselves into faux-outrage when my sis says a curse word in a bar.
GOP lost entitlement to policing women’s behavior a long time ago.
Next.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 5, 2019
It hasn’t sunk in yet for the political establishment — and by that I mean not just the electeds, but the whole infrastructure of consultants and wingnut welfare types and staffs and so on — and the elite political media ecosystem, that they are a day late and a dollar short in the face of those who simply don’t accept their asserted authority.
AOC and many more did not come to the arena to play. She is no where near dumb enough to acquiesce to the pre-existing “rules”. Those norms are intended both to constrain policy, but, as important, to channel political warfare into forms that favor incumbent power.
This is the one true lesson Donald Trump absorbed, and now others have learned: don’t apologize. Attack.
Which is, of course, ever more vital when you are on the right side of history.
Image: Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 1890.
E.
She is going to leave a dent.
Ken
Also, as I just learned today*, Trump also used MF. On tape. At a rally. In front of women and children.
* On Balloon Juice, of course. It’s where I get all my political news, just like Cracked is where I find out what’s going on in the world of science.
MattF
It looks more like the lesson that Trump learned was “Don’t apologize, fantasize.” Women deal with this kind of fantasy-reaction all the time– I suspect AOC and her new sisters in Congress (including the Speaker) will lead the way in showing us how to deal.
And I also suspect a lot of men won’t have the ability to see how the new women are doing it even though it’s sitting right in front of them. It’s a test, guys– all you have to do is open your eyes.
MagdaInBlack
Almost seems like a plan (almost) that AOC draw fire/media attention while Leader Pelosi goes about setting things right. AOC enjoys the “game” and I enjoy watching her play.
Just a thought.
Good morning ✨
TaMara (HFG)
@Ken: I would love a link to that, because I think I’m going to need it for my slower-learning republican relatives.
Chris
@MagdaInBlack:
Yeah, I was thinking that too.
Chris
Also, can I just say how much I’d love to live in a world where the worst thing about Trump was that he used bad language.
pluky
@MagdaInBlack: This so needs an upvote button.
oldster
Damn she’s good. My hero, too.
Between her, Nancy, and Liz Warren, the Republicans are not going to know which way to turn.
And Mitt Romney, that useless p. o. s. — I hope he dies from an overdose of smelling salts.
PsiFighter37
Still would like to see what she actually accomplishes as a representative outside of clapbacks, but this is a good one.
Ken
@TaMara (HFG): ((Cassandra Leo)) said it in last night’s thread but didn’t have a link.
Oh dear, I do hope it’s real – I’d hate to lose my trust in Balloon Juice.
Eljai
Republican hypocrisy has been at a stunningly mind-blowing level for decades. I’m so happy to see AOC calling them out.
Gin & Tonic
She worked as a bartender, in NYC. I suspect she can handle the give-and-take of DC pretty well.
Gin & Tonic
@PsiFighter37: Inorite? She’s been in office what, two days now? How many bills has she had passed?
Punchy
I think what you meant was “did not come…..to watch”. They did come to play. Play hardball, play by the new, Repub-established rules. This is going to give Chuck Toddler a DEFCON 1 level of The Vapors, and oooooooohhh to a be a fainting couch salesman in the DC Metro area…..but this new breed of Dems have watched how the Rs did it and now they feel it’s payback time. Bigly.
The Pale Scot
As Lily Allen says, Fuck You Very Much
The Anthem for a new generation of Dems
Brachiator
It’s sad. Conservative fools, egged on by Fox News, stupidly believe that they can intimidate or harass AOC with increasingly stalker-like behavior.
Instead, she keeps whipping their ass.
Jerzy Russian
I am not sure I see a problem with using “motherfucker” to describe a man who has children (unless those kids are test tube babies). Maybe I am being too literal.
TaMara (HFG)
@MagdaInBlack: I agree. I also love that she’s living rent free in these idiots heads and they can’t quit her.
Jerzy Russian
@Gin & Tonic:
Wait, AOC has been inside a bar? That is an even bigger scandal right there. She should retroactively drop out of the race since she will never win with that kind of baggage.
BubbaDave
Here’s a link to Donald dropping MF in a pre-Presidency speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN7KHWdyrbI
PsiFighter37
@Gin & Tonic: That’s silly. I’m well aware she hasn’t had any actual legislating power yet. That said, I will be more interested in seeing what she does with regards to her day job vs. spending time being a social media star. I wasn’t thrilled with her political instincts after she won the primary, and I still think she has the wrong priorities/focus.
BubbaDave
@Ken: Here’s a link to Donald dropping MF in a pre-Presidency speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN7KHWdyrbI
Dorothy A. Winsor
I love how she can’t see why she should care what these ridiculous entitled men think.
opiejeanne
@Jerzy Russian: I think you are, except the mother in motherfucker is his own mother, not just a random mother.
West of the Rockies
And let’s not forget that Cheney (while VP) told someone to Go F*** Yourself. Please, someone direct me to the nearest fainting couch. Where are my pearls?
TaMara (HFG)
@BubbaDave: Bookmarked!
Face
@Jerzy Russian: Isn’t “Pornfucker” a more apt moniker for this dirtbag?
Jeffro
Ok here’s a murder for you…two in fact. Two straight headlines from the Borowitz Report:
PELOSI TO SPEED UP SHUTDOWN TALKS BY NEGOTIATING DIRECTLY WITH PUTIN
also
POLL: AMERICANS SAY TRUMPOV ACCOMPLISHING LITTE IN FINAL YEAR AS PRESIDENT
???????
opiejeanne
@BubbaDave: God, the comments under that clip! I think I need a drink now, and it’s not quite 10am.
Chip Daniels
A lot of commentary seems to take the vein of posing this as the youngs vs the olds, like something out of Footloose.
But remember, the olds here are the Woodstock generation, the Pepsi generation, the Saturday Night Fever generation. We smoked and cursed and did the sexytime like nobody’s business.
Tom gets it right here, where the outrage is solely for the purpose of policing the behavior of women (brown women especially).
SiubhanDuinne
@Ken:
This isn’t the one previously linked, but it does the job:
https://youtu.be/_xej2hvJdxw
Frankensteinbeck
Rules of civility are a very good thing… in conflicts where both sides are acting in good faith. Republicans haven’t been acting in good faith at least since McConnell announced he would let the nation burn rather than let a black man be reelected. Democrats really like good faith, and have been slow to catch up. We want to fix, not contribute to the destruction.
But good faith ain’t returning any time soon. Also, women are pissed. Holy Hell, are women pissed. A rapist is on the supreme court, a proud sexual harasser is president, and the entire Republican Party defends this as their god-given right. Women are seeking power to an extent they never have before, ever, because this shit cannot stand. I’m less sure what the situation is among the non-white, because the media has trouble grasping non-whites exist exist as people.
Eljai
@The Pale Scot: What a great song! I’m going to be humming all day!
A Ghost To Most
Time for the “mean girls” to kick some doughy white male ass.
P.S. Impeach the motherfuckers.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Ken: I’d actually already posted the link earlier in the thread.
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (HFG):
Someone on AOC’s Twitter feed found it:
https://mobile.twitter.com/funder/status/1081227097656475653
I was worried that AOC wasn’t going to be a team player based on some of her early missteps, but once she was actually elected, she’s been pretty good. I still suspect that she had some people whispering in her ear that the “establishment Democrats” were going to somehow sabotage her getting elected, so she was pre-defensive that they were going to reject her. Once it became obvious that Pelosi and the rest of the leadership want her on their team, she chilled out a bit.
Nicole
If there’s one big lesson that stuck from Clinton and 2016, it’s that it doesn’t matter if you do everything right; they’ll still give the job to a man who’s dumber and less qualified, so why waste your time being nice and speaking politely and protecting their sensitive male feelings? Call ’em out on it. And cuss if you want to.
Good on AOC and Tlaib.
Mnemosyne
@West of the Rockies:
Not only that, Cheney said it on the floor of the Senate, not at a private, off-site event. And yet that was A-OK, because he’s a conservative white dude.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Nicole: Agreed. To coin a phrase, fuck their feelings.
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: He said it to Pat Leahy. The only “conventional” place I saw it in print verbatim was in The Economist, which does not shy away from the Anglo-Saxonisms.
The Pale Scot
@Eljai: Wake up to it everyday, it sets the mood
Baud
I want to see them dance and curse at the same time.
Can you imagine?
hitchhiker
I so hope I live to see the day when this applies to “religious authorities.”
We have been blandly allowing them to set the terms of every single debate for way too long. When someone with power finally says, in public, “Know what? I really don’t care what it says in your bible. And neither, based on most of your behavior, do you.” — I’ll know that my grandchildren have a chance.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I think that for that, you have to pay money.
But once you’re president, you’re famous, and you can just make everybody do what you want.
sukabi
@E.: let’s hope it’s as deep and enduring as the grand canyon.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Gin & Tonic: Ditto, I think it’s Spencer Ackerman on twitter who keeps saying “I’ve told you time and time again do not pick a fight with a NYC Bartender, it won’t end well”
Jerzy Russian
@West of the Rockies: Speaking of Pen!s Cheney, I recently saw the movie “Vice”, which tells the story about his rise to power. The movie was pretty good, although it will leave you with a seething rage and the urge to kick many (if not most) of the main characters in the nuts.
Gelfling 545
@Jerzy Russian: It is my son in law’s practice on fathers’ day to wish a happy day to “all you motherf……
debbie
@MattF:
Pelosi would agree. Big whoop.
sukabi
@Jerzy Russian: ha! When I was in high school (early 70’s) my dad, a very straight laced teacher, was outraged at the cussing and motherfucker in particular. He sat sputtering when I told him I didn’t see what the big deal was, that it seemed to me that a motherfucker was just a father and that therefore HE was also a motherfucker.
MagdaInBlack
@TaMara (HFG):
She’s a “street fighter.” I love she said “I got your back” : a variation of my 3 fave words of assurance (in my world) :
“I got you.” said with a nod.
?
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I’ll declare a national emergency to fund my potty-mouth dancing girls.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
debbie
Never mind.
sukabi
@PsiFighter37: maybe, but I’ll bet she’s a very quick learner. Plus she’s got killer instincts.
debbie
@rikyrah:
We’ve been saying that for decades and decades!
Sloane Ranger
It’s been fun watching CNN. Both Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper tried to clutch their pearls but were quickly closed down by women panel members pointing out the hypocrisy of holding women to different standards than men.
Geoboy
@Frankensteinbeck: Actually, the Republican’s haven’t been fact based since 1994, when serial adulterer Newt Gingrich become Speaker and one fo the first hings he did was decimate the ability of the House to do independent research.
Immanentize
@Jerzy Russian: @Gin & Tonic:
Rumor is she also danced there.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Where do I sign up? I will normally curse and dance for free, but I can always use a little pocket change, aka walking around money.
debbie
@BubbaDave:
Wow! I stand corrected. Any idea when he made that statement? I see it was posted by a MAGat.
Archon
Oh wow! She’s good.
RepubAnon
@MagdaInBlack: Having a firebrand lead the attack while the leadership works in the background (without apologizing for the firebrand’s statements) is a long-established Republican practice. It’s been very successful for the Republicans – glad to see Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership have started figuring out that in today’s world, it is no longer smart politics to apologize for statements seeking to fire up one’s core voters.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Oh. My. God.
P.S. “Lord, please make my enemies ridiculous.” At least one prayer was answered this year.
edit to quote correctly.
rikyrah
No Accident: How Bernie Sanders Needed a Culture of Misogyny to Compete in 2016
Times Up for Bernie Sanders.
Baud
@RepubAnon: It helps that our voters are now “woke” and don’t try to find fault with everything all the time.
rikyrah
The situation is untenable
MagdaInBlack
@RepubAnon:
Firebrand is good. I recently referred to her as a “lightning rod” ….serves same purpose ☺️
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah:
His words that trouble me the most from that presser are “I can do it if I want to.”
Aleta
@Immanentize: If her hair shimmied we’ve got an exposé.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Now you see, that’s common-sense policy right there.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: @Aleta:
I did put this up yesterday, from Guardians of the Galaxy, but it so perfectly describes this particular Republican problem:
Immanentize
I kinda wish Manyakitty were here — she is an LCD Soundsystem fan (as am I). I have been feeling for a long time like, “I’m Losing my Edge” is my theme song. But I am really happy — overjoyed — to see young, strong, fun-loving women in power in this country.
trollhattan
@The Pale Scot:
She’s adorable!
cmorenc
One problem with Trump comprehending the damage caused by the shutdown on ordinary people (aside from just his narcissism and taste for arrogant bullying) is that for decades, his uber-affluent lifestyle has been well-insulated from being tangibly affected or dependent (at least in ways he can perceive) on government services and resources. For but one example, he has for decades flown private jet and never had to stand in a TSA line at an airport and take his shoes and belt off and dump out the contents of his pockets into a tray.. He recreates at private golf courses, not camping in National Parks, and so on. Of course, this is compounded by his baseline lack of empathy for anything beyond his immediate family, but OTOH there’s nothing in his direct experience to break through the thick shells of his narcissism and comfortably insulated lifestyle. The only thing that would potentially get through to him viscerally is if he starts getting negative feedback from enough of his own base about unacceptably harsh impacts of the shutdown on them, instead of perceiving that they’re resolutely behind him, cheering him on.
WereBear
Just finished a fine tweet by John Rogers who explains we are in the midst of a seismic shift which was accomplished without actual war.
The rules have already changed.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
I love how Wilmer’s response is basically, “We’ll do much better this time, believe me!”
A. Don’t apologize
B. Say some version of, “believe me.”
Now where have we seen that philosophy before?
trollhattan
@WereBear:
Fingers crossed.
David Evans
It’s a false comparison.
A locker room is where men can go to be free of the nannying voices of women.
A bar is where men can expect women to be subservient because the men are buying them drinks.
See? Not the same thing at all.
gwangung
@WereBear: No actual war SO FAR.
TaMara (HFG)
@MagdaInBlack: That was actually the first tweet I saw and followed it back to the one Tom posted. I thought, yup, nobody is going to push these women around.
The Midnight Lurker
Okay… so I just Googled ‘Republicans dancing’.
Now I know why they hate her.
James E Powell
@PsiFighter37:
New congresspersons rarely lead on legislation. But at the very least AOC is changing mainstream political news coverage away from the All Trump All the Time program of the last three years. I think she is doing a very good job moving both the subjects and manner of political discussions. I’d like twenty more like her.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I don’t think that’s quite right.
She does see why she shouldn’t give a fuck what those old, entitled white assholes think.
That’s an entirely better kettle of fish.
hueyplong
Not articulate enough to describe the extent to which I enjoyed OAC’s tweet today.
So I’ll just say
This. Every day. Until half of Fox’s demographic checks out in a wave of apoplexy.
Juice Box
I’m not a socialist, but it warms my elderly heart to see women exhibiting some toughness. Real women swear too.
ET
Doing a little research related to Calvin Coolidge and found this. On January 17, 1925 he gave a speech to the the American Society of Newspaper Editors almost 100 years ago. The bolding is mine
MORE
Ruckus
@Juice Box:
I swear with the greatest of ease.
I know women who out do me seemingly 10 to one.
They are words, not swords or bullets. Or republican lawbreakers.
Mary G
@James E Powell: I can’t express the joy and relief I felt this morning when I woke up and found morning threads about gun control legislation, CBC party, dogs, deflated Christmas decorations and AOC and Tlaib stealing the spotlight to read. There was no “Christ, what’s the asshole done now?” thread for almost 12 hours.
I am hoping we have set up a virtuous circle where Twitler isn’t being talked about 24/7, which causes him to do ever more criminal, moronic, and insane things trying to draw attention back to himself, leaking approval all the way down. The good reviews of Elizabeth Warren’s campaign rollout must have him throwing things and screaming invective.
Elizabelle
@WereBear: Link please, for the John Rogers thread. I would love to see it.
Happy New Year! You reading anything good? I am working through Barbara Kingsolver’s “Unsheltered” rather slowly. It’s quite good, although preaching to the choir.
West of the Rockies
@Jerzy Russian:
The previews to me really make The Dickster look like a wuvable wascal. I’m not having it.
laura
@James E Powell: New congresspersons rarely lead on legislation.
I’m thrilled that she’s public policying in public by calling for confiscatory tax rates to wring the idle capital out of the soft hands of the Owners of America and back into the economy. I’m so down with that. So. Very. Down.
Next…..
JPL
@Jerzy Russian: I’ll pass.
gwangung
@Elizabelle: https://twitter.com/jonrog1/status/1081272687186501632
John Rogers is ALWAYS good to read.
MomSense
@Baud:
Day ending in Y at my house.
West of the Rockies
@Mnemosyne:
Repubs have ZERO space to criticize any-damn-one ever again.
Mandalay
@Mary G:
Well said.
BJ doesn’t need to react with a new OP for every dumb thing Trump says and does, just because the media does that. It’s getting really lazy, stale and boring. There’s a whole world out there beyond Trump.
How about it OPs? See if you can go a whole week without a single post about Trump.
dimmsdale
Sorry for the length of the comment, but: You know who else has lost entitlement to civility-police, language-police, and tone-police? Our pampered, entitled media whores. It seems to me that one of AOC’s inspiring traits is conveying the awareness that “you don’t have any entitlement or standing WHATSOEVER to critique anything about me. NEXT!” In former days I might have thought this a little unseemly from one so young and “inexperienced”, but these days the elite tut-tutters on the right, AND the center, and the godawful reporter and pundit class, have all lost any legitimacy they might have had, by virtue of diving all-in into a cesspool of corruption; fostering it, enabling it, normalizing it, “what-about-ing” it, and “both-sides-ing” it.
I have developed a tremendous contempt for these tailored-suit guys (and gals) in the press and pundit class. They will never EVER confront Republican ratfuckers as vigorously as they confront young women of color. I’ll be watching carefully to see what other hints I can pick up from AOC about not letting self-infatuated gasbags take you down; and also to see if I can get AOC’s back (or SPW’s, or Gillibrand’s, or [insert lefty politican’s name here], by letting the entitled press lunkheads know that that false-equivalency shit don’t GO ‘round here no more.
Frankly, I’d also like to see more accountability directed against the reporters who ask these inane questions, just ONE leftie politician saying something along the lines of “Before I answer your question about Ms Tlaib’s comment, have YOU spoken to Donald Trump, or any Republican, about all those F-bombs and MFs he dropped in the meeting with Pelosi? Have you? No? Why not? What’s stopping you? Tell you what, when you’re as confrontational with Republicans as you are with young women of color, THEN get back to me. NEXT!”
sukabi
@laura: Here’s a Krugman thread on that.
trollhattan
@gwangung:
Oh, that is good.
Brickley Paiste
Yes, what this country needs now are some really pointed attacks on leftist politicians like Bernie Sanders.
You all is some stupid motherfuckers.
sukabi
@dimmsdale: shorter and more to the point: “I’m not the tone police.Do you have a substantive question? No? Next.”
TS (the original)
@rikyrah:
trump’s equal in dissolving democracy – equally to blame for the shutdown – and one person who could ensure the government is back in business tomorrow – but both he and trump prefer to make people suffer.
Aleta
Re: the article linked by @rikyrah:
By Marissa Jenae Johnson, Aug 2016 (The Root)
1 Year Later: BLM Protester Who Interrupted Bernie Sanders’ Rally Discusses the Moment and the Movement
PsiFighter37
@James E Powell: Sure. But as someone who interned in my congresswoman’s office (Nita Lowey) back in the mid-2000s – there is a lot of work to be done. The most recent NY Magazine front-page article on AOC suggests she is not fully staffed by any stretch, nor are her existing staff members quite sure about how to learn the ropes (or where the ropes are). Constituent services is the first and foremost thing representatives have to be focused on. I remain very skeptical that this kind of weedwhacking is what AOC is actually interested in.
germy
tokyokie
Years ago, in the late and lamented British humor magazine Punch, I read a review of Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers that approached the film from the perspective that it was a two-hour advert for red floor coverings and wallpaper. Whereas other critics evaluated the film with the sort of soberness that should be employed when critiquing ART, the
review made its point much more saliently by refusing to accept the film with the level of seriousness it demanded. That taught me a couple of things. First, ridicule is always a proper response for dealing with self-importance. And secondly, and more importantly, allowing opponents to define the rules of argument means losing the argument at the outset.
I’m ecstatic that AOC has already figured all of this out. And she didn’t even need to thumb through old copies of
in an archive somewhere.
germy
Gex
@Ken: They’re already saying that doesn’t count because he wasn’t President then. The issue now is not the swearing or doing it in front of children, but doing it as an elected official. Dear God they are so sad and pathetic.
She is so deft at coming back at them. She’s really good. She is going to give them fits and I am so glad of it.
feebog
I love the fact she is inside those Republican male heads and they can’t get her out. And while I think part of it is a generation gap, I also think the fact she is a single attractive woman of color who knows their shit really does stink drives them nuts.
tokyokie
Bah. Those two quotes were supposed to be italics.
TS (the original)
@Brickley Paiste: Sanders might be the biggest threat in 2020 – the idiot may do a 3rd party/independent run for president – and give trump a real chance. He needs to be taken out of the running asap
Brachiator
@PsiFighter37:
Whatever. There are a bunch of congressional newbies. They all have to get up to speed. It is pointless, and plays the nut jobs’ game to focus on a single person.
I wish them all well.
Elizabelle
@Mandalay: I would find that refreshing.
I am sick of all Trump all the time. Who wants to marinate in all this idiocy? A lot of the country does fine not examining each and every Trump or Republican outrage du jour in detail. And here, I am not speaking of the uninformed. I am speaking of those who are a little more discerning with what draws their attention.
If you are on a campaign, or working on something important, you don’t have time for all this petty shit.
Keep the big picture.
trollhattan
@germy:
Objection: trick question!
Elizabelle
@gwangung: Thank you for the John Rogers link.
Yes, will develop a habit of checking him out.
trollhattan
@Brickley Paiste:
You misspelled “drown in a vat of horsefat.”
germy
@trollhattan: I suspect that organization has a lot less to give, lately, since their overseas funding is drying up. (Or is it?)
germy
It’s almost like Bill is caught in Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth:
Bill Arnold
@Immanentize:
OK, but Gamora is likeable from the beginning of that movie. Prickly, but likeable. (Even lovable.)
Barbara
@Brickley Paiste: I am tempted to say something dripping with sarcasm but instead I will merely comment that Sanders’ response to the mistreatment of women in his campaign hovers somewhere between he had more important things to worry about to he can’t be bothered with disputes among the hired help. Women have heard this song a thousand times along with all the excuses for why powerful men shouldn’t be held accountable for rank sexism. Appealing to us to ignore the bad stuff in order to focus on a higher purpose is one of the most infuriating.
sukabi
@TS (the original): I don’t think he’ll get the traction this go round as last. Warren has the same set of ideals with the bonus of actually having been a huge part of creating actual consumer protections. Plus she isn’t a shouty, pointy man that can’t be bothered to listen to anyone who isn’t in his cohort.
Chyron HR
@Brickley Paiste:
So does God need to send down another bird during the 2020 primaries to mark Bernie as the rightful ruler of the human race, or does the one from 2016 still count?
Brachiator
@ET:
That’s a long ass speech from Silent Cal. Good stuff.
Dorothy A. Winsor
germy
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: Not to mention treasonous.
A Ghost To Most
@Brickley Paiste: GFY, BorisInPutinland.
sukabi
@Dorothy A. Winsor: that’s a “Thank you. Next.” Lol.
Good.
James E Powell
@PsiFighter37:
Patience you must have my young padawan.
zhena gogolia
@Ken:
It’s real, I saw a montage where somebody compiled all Trump’s swearing, it’s all as he’s standing on a dais in front of a public crowd, and it culminates in “mf.” I saw it in somebody’s tweet this morning but cannot remember where.
Baud
@Mary G: Agreed.
zhena gogolia
@Chip Daniels:
In my high school, the MF word was a rough equivalent for “guy.” I’m hard to shock.
zhena gogolia
@Frankensteinbeck:
Good comment. Women are so pissed.
dimmsdale
@sukabi: Beautiful! Short & sweet.
Yarrow
I really can’t believe there is this much discussion about the word “motherfucker.” The world is changing. Tick tock, motherfuckers.
J R in WV
@Brickley Paiste:
So glad to see you is here again, Brickley Paste… heh.
If you actually think Senator Sanders is leftist, you need to go away and study politics some. Sanders talks about being a leftist, but his actions are never in the least bit left leaning at all.
Being a Russian stooge is not the same as being leftist, especially since Russia has abandoned socialism for a solid Nationalist Fascist state ruled by the world’s wealthiest autocrat. And that’s what Senator Sanders wants here, a Nationalist Fascist autocracy with himself at the helm.
Hope you enjoy hanging around here at Balloon Juice, where you will be roundly mocked for your lack of knowledge and superficial political positions, you Russian troll! At least your English am better what many some Russian trolls can manage!
Baud
@Yarrow: So uncivil.
Chyron HR
@J R in WV:
Nope, sorry. “Lie back and think of Medicare For All” has joined “White lives are what really matter” and “NRA 4 EVER” as positions that are axiomatically leftist because Bernie holds them.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Barbara:
OT:
I just wanted to thank you for your advice last night about investing. It helped tremendously and put me on the right track. : )
I probably won’t do any investing in the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF or CDs for a few years though, since I don’t have a lot of dough for it to matter. I’m just going to try to save money in my savings until my career gets started in a year.
A Ghost To Most
@Yarrow: Distract, deflect, distort, deny, dissemble.
All the tools in their toolboxes are hammers.
Bill Arnold
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Another word of advice; put some cash savings someplace where you have to jump through hoops at least a little bit to spend it. e.g. no ATM/online access.
germy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pence-and-white-house-officials-meet-with-congressional-aides-in-effort-to-end-shutdown/2019/01/05/7840bf4a-10fb-11e9-84fc-d58c33d6c8c7_story.html?utm_term=.64b8b2bbe602
Bill Arnold
Medium-length backgrounder on Republican failures to seriously pursue border security. (And TBH, a Democratic poison pill added to some 2006 legislation.)
Republicans Don’t Really Want to Secure the Border (Harry Cheadle Jan 4 2019)
BC in Illinois
@J R in WV:
I think we might listen to the Montpelier, Vermont, Times Argus on this. Their editorial about Sanders 2020 is entitled, “Dont Run”
I’m very convinced he shouldn’t.
Bill Arnold
Three minutes of heartbeats lost forever if you watch. I found it amusing.
MSNBC Trolls Donald Trump With Supercut Of His Most Ridiculous Boasts
Bill Arnold
Arizona GOP chairman warns state Republicans they’re not allowed to criticize President Donald Trump – The letter was sent out to Arizona GOP officeholders — including newly-appointed U.S. Senator Martha McSally
Got it. It is forbidden to criticize “Dear Leader”.
Bill Arnold
Chinese censorship factories:
Learning China’s Forbidden History, So They Can Censor It – Thousands of low-wage workers in “censorship factories” trawl the online world for forbidden content, where even a photo of an empty chair could cause big trouble.
(NYTimes, Li Yuan, Jan. 2, 2019)
trollhattan
@germy:
Pence holds a meeting? What in the everloving fvck is that barely-a-mannequin excuse for a human supposed to accomplish?
sukabi
@germy: it looks as though Pence is crawling out of the shadows to get HIS name in the news, in a “Hey, over here. Look at me. I CAN do something.” kind of way. Someone is preparing the public for the idea that at least the VP is trying to end this, even if the soon to be removed president won’t.
sukabi
@trollhattan: nothing. He’s upping his profile to take over when drumpf is hauled out.
Baud
@BC in Illinois: It would be the best thing he could do for the country.
JPL
@Gex: What about in the situation room? Is that okay or more likely IOKIYR?
Mary G
@Barbara:
Amen, sister. The “we shouldn’t criticize aspects of his behavior because he’s on our side about other things” is one of the worst “whataboutisms” I see from progressive men.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Optics.
Brachiator
@Bill Arnold:
Orwell would love this. Conservative values are now synonymous with Donald Trump.
The GOP is willing to go down with him. I’m happy to oblige them.
JPL
@germy: It did give Fox news a chance to bloviate about the meeting and the dear leader.
Steeplejack
Scene from a vet’s examining room:
The housecat is fine. Follow-up visit after a toe-pad puncture on New Year’s Day.
Jerzy Russian
@West of the Rockies: The movie was not at all sympathetic to any of the main characters. Cheney start off as a drunk who was kicked out of Yale for being a dick. HIs wife threatens to leave him unless he stops drinking, and the movie goes on from there.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Brachiator:
Too bad there’s a non-zero chance they’ll take the rest of us with them. I swear, they scare the shit out of me, especially the last two years.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Bill Arnold:
So like physical cash in a safe?
Yarrow
@Baud: Maybe you should hire me for the Baud!2020! campaign. Something in communications, maybe?
Millard Filmore
@WaterGirl:
[*] does not apply to darkie presidents, for them everything is executive overreach.
Spanky
@Face:
No, “daughterfucker”. Because Ivanka. And yeah, go ahead and make him deny it.
Bill Arnold
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Nah, just a bank account not linked to the one(s) you usually use, preferably in another bank.
FelonyGovt
I was happy to read (sorry, don’t have the link) that Nancy Smash asked if anyone would be making such a fuss about Tlaib’s remark “if she were a man”.
sukabi
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: more like in an account that has penalties for early withdrawals, or someplace where a sudden impulse isn’t easy to quench.
…like your grandma’s safe, if your grandma likes to pretend she’s the banker and you’re an irresponsible money burner.
Bill Arnold
@sukabi:
Also, an account (or whatever) with no fees. (Such things exist.)
Fair Economist
I thought pastehead was trolling from the right? Did he flip? So hard to keep up with the nonsense in the Trump presidency…
Remember, if he’s working in a troll farm (very possible) he gets paid for everybody that replies to him.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: I just googled john rodgers and twitter and don’t even know if i got the right guy, but I didn’t see anything like that.
Link?
sukabi
@Bill Arnold: think he should go the grandma route.?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@sukabi:
@Bill Arnold:
So like a CD?
James E Powell
@Mary G:
Exactly. It’s like the way the Democratic Party shamelessly tolerated and placated the racists in its ranks – covering them with euphemisms – for years until they were replaced by more openly racist Republicans.
We can be and ought to be the party that says no to that shit.
WaterGirl
@gwangung: Thanks for the link!
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl: John Rogers, not John Rodgers
Amir Khalid
For what it’s worth, you can also hear Barack Obama say “motherfucker” — in the audiobook of Dreams From My Father. In that passage, he is quoting a drunken heckler at a community meeting.
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: Yeah, I had found the right one; I just typed the name wrong here. I suspect the thread being referred to was too far down in the list for me to find it before I ran out of patience.
scott alloway
@tokyokie: As a UK MP might say, “Hear, hear!”
Sister Golden Bear
@sukabi: Dead thread, but for the folks like me who catch up on older threads after the fact….
Online-only banks are good for this, and offer higher rates (up to 2.5%), since they don’t have the expenses of physical locations.
CIT Bank and Ally Bank are two good ones — CIT doesn’t have ATMs cards, but you can do bank-to-bank transfers (six per month are free, there’s a small fee for additional transfers), wire transfer and get checks mailed. Ally is similar but also offers an ATM card and a checking account if needed. No-to-minimal fees for both.
They’re good places to park rainy money, savings for a new card, money for property taxes, etc.
Sister Golden Bear
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: CDs are also good for that sort of thing. When you’ve got enough cash, you can “ladder” them for getting several with different durations, 3-month, 6-month, 1-year, 2-year. Allows you to have some cash that can be accessed relatively quickly, but also take advantage of the higher rates offered for longer duration CD.
BTW, if you do set up an additional bank account at a different bank (having it separately is a good way to remind yourself it’s not “everyday money”), one good thing to do is set up an auto-transfer of 5% of your take-home pay, to be done right after you get paid. So the first bill you pay is to yourself. Most of the time you can find ways to shave 5% off your living expenses, especially when that money isn’t in your regular account. Since it’s “deducted” immediately, it becomes out of sight, out of mind. If you can’t do 5%, do it with a smaller amount. It’s a good way to build savings, even is money is tight.
BrianM
@Sister Golden Bear: Good advice in the BTW paragraph. However, I fear laddering may seem too complicated, given what Goku’s said. Just buying a bond fund is probably close enough.
However, I wouldn’t bother with a bond fund. Like others mentioned in a previous thread, a fine approach is to (1) put six months of saving aside (as in your BTW), then (2) just pick a Vanguard Target Retirement fund to pay someone else to make and maintain a decent allocation between stocks and bonds, and between foreign and domestic.
Buford
@Chip Daniels: exactly…it is about power, power over women….that is one of the republicans’ basic platform planks….the republicans are starting to panic…they sense their immediate danger, and their “fight or flight” instincts are kicking in….this seems to be the point of trump’s evangelical supporters…to control women…period…there is no other explanation that makes sense…the “Grand Old Party” is dead…gone…and the corpse is really starting to smell bad….what has replaced the “Grand Old Party” is truly corrupt, perverted, and should be spurned and rejected by everyone….
Mary Ellen Sandahl
@Bill Arnold: I suggest a savings account at a credit union, where you would have to physically go there and withdraw dollars (or maybe a cashier’s check) to get money. And it would help if the credit union was at a modest distance so you couldn’t just stroll around the corner. You’d build up a bit of interest; and credit unions are a good thing in general. They are not there to make a profit, and often offer things like good used car loans, etc.
Ed
It’s good to see Cortez reminding us that both sides are the same.