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You are here: Home / Election Year / local races 2019/2020 / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Malevolent Leprechaun vs. Malignant Narcissist

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Malevolent Leprechaun vs. Malignant Narcissist

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Yes, I normally try to keep the first-of-each-morning Open Thread light & upbeat, but then…

… Sessions, whose turbulent two-year stint in the administration ended in dramatic fashion when he was forced out by Trump in November 2018, would enter with strong name recognition and deep institutional ties in the state and elsewhere. He held the seat for two decades before he became Trump’s first U.S. attorney general.

But the wild card in the race will be Trump, and whether he will weigh in against his former attorney general and in favor of other Republicans who have already announced their candidacies. Trump remains popular in the state and plans to attend the University of Alabama’s football game against Louisiana State University in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday.

[Where, if Trump gets boo’d, he’ll be able to claim they were booing Sessions.]

Trump never forgave Sessions for recusing himself from the Justice Department investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, frequently berating him on Twitter for a move he viewed as a betrayal…

The Alabama race could factor heavily into determining which party controls the Senate following the 2020 election. Republicans are defending 23 seats, compared with just 12 for the Democrats. Republicans hold a 53-to-47 advantage and have long been hoping to oust Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.). They are wagering that his defeat would help offset any losses in other battleground states and protect the GOP’s majority.

“This is a nightmare for D.C. Republicans that just want to defeat Doug Jones,” said Dan Eberhart, an oil industry executive and a GOP donor who plans to back Sessions. “This is going to tie Trump and McConnell in knots.”…

Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) said that he spoke with Sessions this week but that the former senator and attorney general did not indicate to him directly whether he would run. Shelby said he spoke with Trump two months ago about Sessions’s potential candidacy and that “he was not exactly on board.”…

Reader Interactions

150Comments

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    first-of-each-morning Open Thread light & upbeat,

    Jeff Sessions is pretty light and what could be more upbeat than a cage fight between 2 of America’s favorite racists?

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    Bring out your dead!

    James Dean, who died in a 1955 car crash at the age of 24, is making an unexpected return to the big screen.

    The cultural icon, known for Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden, has been posthumously cast in the Vietnam era action-drama Finding Jack. Source

    7.7 billion people alive on the globe and not a one would do? This has gimmick written all over it. Although come to think of it, the possibilities for the porn industry are staggering.

  10. 10.

    David 🎃🧙Booooooo🧙🎃 Koch

    Republicans in disarray!

  11. 11.

    Baud

    The Mississippi governor’s race was closer than it has been in the recent past. Maybe there’s a sliver of hope for Doug Jones.

  13. 13.

    David 🎃🧙Booooooo🧙🎃 Koch

    “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner,” Trump told Rob Porter, the White House staff secretary who later quit amid domestic violence allegations. Trump then did an unflattering impression of Sessions’ Alabama accent, making fun of Sessions’ shaky performance at his confirmation hearings.

    Trump once called Sessions an “idiot” to his face during an Oval Office meeting, Woodward reports.

    Good times!

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Doug Jones is toast. They could run a religious nutbag sexual predator who cruises courthouse hallways in search of vulnerable teenage girls in need of a daddy figure and Jones would lose. Yeah yeah, I know they did that 2 years ago and Jones won. Trust me, Alabamans ain’t gonna make the mistake of voting for a DEM again.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    I’ve been assuming Jones will lose the seat and that’s probably still a safe assumption. But a GOP primary that features a Trump grudge-match against Sessions, a reappearance of the tiny pistol-waving pedophile, and an ex-Auburn coach? This distills every Alabama pathology down to its purest essence. Great news for Jones, IMO.

  23. 23.

    Cermet

    Well, one way or another, Sessions will likely win the primary and then retake his seat. Nice if the orange fart cloud somehow convinces the dumb thugs in AL to vote otherwise; here’s to hoping. One thing – at the least – Sessions was a better Attorney General then that that ass licking floating piece of stinking shit named barr. Sessions had a trace of honor.

  29. 29.

    Chris Johnson

    Oh my God. Suppose if Jeff Sessions was forced out because he got a chance to get into the Russian-compromised network but took a pass? Making him a toxic old white racist right-winger, but of the Red Dawn generation rather than the ‘Putin Yay’ generation? And the only reason he’s doing this is because he KNOWS that shit is primed to blow, sees the impeachment proceedings and the daily events, and has decided Trump is going down as a traitor?

    What if he is trying to stake a claim on the original Red-baiting rightwingers knowing that people are going to be bailing desperately off that sinking ship?

    He could split the asshole vote! :D

  30. 30.

    Jeffro

    “Ah…Ah jes want t’ be back in Alabama, ruling mah people, ruling those other people…”

    Jeff, baby, you could just sit in the nursing home and reminisce over old photos, you know that right?

  32. 32.

    Chris Johnson

    @Cermet:

    Sessions was a better Attorney General then that that ass licking floating piece of stinking shit named barr. Sessions had a trace of honor.

    Maybe he was just picking sides. I assume you mean that he recused himself from interfering with investigations on Russia, so Trump replaced him with someone who wasn’t as fastidious? Maybe Sessions has no honor but just didn’t like Trump and his Russians enough to team up with them. I guess we’ll be learning more about that. *glee!*

    I particularly love that he’s doing this knowing that Trump hates it and doesn’t want him to do it. If it’s not a profile in courage, it means Sessions knows something and is seriously taking sides. I see no indication that this move is happening to please Trump, or his handlers in Russia.

  34. 34.

    arrieve

    @Jeffro: Also love the Pleiades.

    I have to go to a funeral this morning — a dear friend’s brother-in-law, a firefighter who worked at Ground Zero and died of cancer. It’s unbelievably sad, and pictures of the stars are somehow very comforting.

  35. 35.

    John S.

    @NotMax:

    LOL. If you go that route, they can put Jayne Mansfield in just about anything – they don’t even have to change the titles.

  37. 37.

    JMG

    I’m hoping Tuberville wins the nomination. What could be more Alabama then the statement “he wasn’t smart enough to be a football coach, so we kicked him over to the US Senate”?

  39. 39.

    Spanky

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I can see the Horsehead in this one, although it’s tiny. It was much smaller IRL than I had thought when I first saw it through a scope.

    You folks are all lamenting the fact that we occupy the same planet as Trump, whereas I wonder how many so very much worse beings are out there, glass totally empty kind of guy that I am.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Jacinda Ardern’s landmark climate legislation has passed in New Zealand parliament, with historic cross-party support, committing the nation to reduce its carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and meet its commitments under the Paris climate accords.

    The climate change response (zero carbon) amendment bill passed on Thursday afternoon with the centre-right opposition National party throwing their support behind it late in the day, despite none of their proposed amendments being accepted. The bill passed 119 votes to one.

    Climate change minister James Shaw said the bill, which commits New Zealand to keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees, provided a framework for the island country of nearly 5 million to adapt too, and prepare for the climate emergency.

    “We’ve led the world before in nuclear disarmament and in votes for women, now we are leading again.” Shaw said.

    “Climate change is the defining long-term issue of our generation that successive governments have failed to address. Today we take a significant step forward in our plan to reduce New Zealand’s emissions.”

    Meanwhile, here in the US of Asses…

  42. 42.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Spanky: I mean between the hordes of murderous AI-Bots, all-consuming space-bugs, and still-bad-but-different space bugs that see you as a living nest (or worse depending how vulgar you let your imagination get)… yeah I can see why.

    Trillions of planets man…

  44. 44.

    JPL

    From the Daily Beast

    One of the ideas kicked around by Burnett and the president was shooting a new version of the Trump-branded Apprentice, tentatively titled The Apprentice: White House, and to produce it shortly after the president leaves office. This time, however, the TV program would be explicitly politics-themed and take full advantage of Trump’s status as a former president of the United States and a newfound Republican kingmaker.

    link
    haha republicans are gonna love that. He’s going to choose the candidates isn’t he.

  45. 45.

    Immanentize

    @JMG:
    Will Roll Tide fans actually vote for an Auburn coach? Dourg Jones is a proud graduate of Alabama!

    ETA. Hi Betty with-the-same-thought! 🙂

  47. 47.

    PPCLI

    @JMG: Campaign Slogan: “I’m not from Alabama, I didn’t live in Alabama until my mid-forties when I came here to coach a team half the state hates, remaining until I was fired 9 years later and left the state altogether. I left for Texas Tech, who fired my ass after 3 years and then non-power-5 Cincinnati who dumped me after going 1-7 in a weak conference. Nobody has wanted to hire me since. I was sued a few years ago for defrauding investors, and I settled, but won’t tell you the terms. Vote Tuberville!”

    I’m no political consultant, but that seems like a winning slogan to me.

  51. 51.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    “Trump has told senators/advisers he will move to Alabama to beat Sessions himself.”

    That’s just the strange sharpie track added to Hurricane Dotard, which was definitely headed to Floriduh.

  53. 53.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    When I was in IA earlier this week, I wound up sitting at a restaurant table across from a guy talking about “Shifty Schiff.” I bit my tongue because the friend I was with will run into this guy again, but she spoke up. Afterwards, her husband, a life-long Republican, said he didn’t understand how people could think that way. He had changed his registration to Independent, which is a step in the right direction at least.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    The “suburban backlash” from 2018 held on Tuesday, including in Pennsylvania:

    Amid all the various local factors that shaped GOP losses—from Kentucky to Virginia, from suburban Philadelphia to Wichita, Kansas—the clearest pattern was a continuing erosion of the party’s position in the largest metropolitan areas. Across the highest-profile races, Democrats benefited from two trends favoring them in metro areas: high turnout in urban cores that have long been the party’s strongholds, and improved performance in white-collar suburban areas that previously leaned Republican.

    I think that’s probably good news for two Dem issue groups- prochoice and gun control.

    Trump is making the same political choices every GOP-er must (now) make. He has to be far Right on guns and abortion, and that comes with a cost. In unifying the GOP base he becomes much more of a standard issue Republican who can’t veer from the Party line. His complete and utter capitulation on gun control was the most recent example, but he’s also had to go far Right on abortion. The two areas he veers from GOP orthodoxy are (now) limited to trade and foreign policy, and trade won’t help him in the suburbs and most people don’t vote on foreign policy.

  60. 60.

    Ken

    Sessions must file his paperwork to run with the Alabama GOP by Friday at 5 p.m. He has yet to take this official step ahead of the Friday deadline.

    Please FSM, let him miss the deadline and announce a write-in campaign.

  64. 64.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    He had changed his registration to Independent

    Polls really should change that to “Republican but ashamed”.

    Obviously excluding the special sub-set of “independents” that appear weekly in NYT pieces, who are actually “Republican party activists and former convention delegates who have built a small shrine to Trump and follow him around the country”.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    I think Doug Jones can still win. I hope the national Party invests in him. We can’t say we want a “50 state strategy” and skip certain states. A 50 state strategy guarantees more frequent losses. The goal of the thing is more infrequent “upset” wins but that comes with a higher (total) number of losses.

  66. 66.

    Kirk Spencer

    Imo the advantage of the 50 state strategy is that it builds the bench and infrastructure. Sure, at first it’s a lot of losses and infrequent upsets, but a decade later it’s Virginia turning blue.

  68. 68.

    Raven

    So my wife just walked me over to the eatery where my birthday/retirement party is. She framed what looks like 500 pictures of me through the years. I had an inkling because a couple of people almost let the cat out of the bag. It was a lot of work and I’m probably not as excited as I should be but it’s pretty cool. I did make her take down the picture of me with Zell Miller but we’ll leave the blown up picture of me in front of the White House throwin up the power fist

  70. 70.

    p.a.

    “You’re not the real fascist, I’m the real fascist!”
    “You can’t even spell fascist. I was a fascist when you were running a football league into the ground.”

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Raven:

    me in front of the White House throwin up

    would work as a replacement for the one with Zell.

    Happy birthday/retirement party! It sounds great, and your bride has put a lot of love and work into it.

  74. 74.

    hueyplong

    I kind of hope Sessions files in time and Trump becomes obsessed with the Alabama primary to the exclusion of literally every other subject on earth, including his fealty to Vlad and his desire to cage children. He decides the GOP Senate is in on it and petulantly refuses to nominate judges on the list handed to him while any sense of a coordinated impeachment defense is abandoned.

    Then Sessions actually gets the nomination and Trump loses what remains of his mind to push his own third party candidate in a last shot at revenge.

    And we end up with Jones being re-elected while Trump isn’t.

    A person can dream about a string of own goals.

  75. 75.

    danielx

    Roy Moore? That schmuck seems to have more political lives than ten cats.

    Crowded Alabama Republican field (get ready for a runoff):
    -Jeff Sessions
    -Tommy Tuberville, former Auburn football coach
    -John Merrill, current AL Sec. of State
    -Congressman Bradley Byrne
    -State Rep. Arnold Mooney
    -Fmr AL SCOTUS Chief Justice Roy Moore

    — Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) November 6, 2019

  76. 76.

    RAVEN

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: No, tomorrow night but the White Tiger is right down the block and there is no way she’d be able to keep me from going over there so she needed to get if over with. My stepmom and half sis are coming in from AZ this afternoon and my brother and his bride on the redeye Friday. My sister fell and shattered her elbow Halloween so she’s not coming.This has all been complicated by a home football game that made accommodations a nightmare but it’s time to power through it and get it over.

  80. 80.

    JPL

    @RAVEN: Congrats and have fun with friends and family.

  81. 81.

    hueyplong

    @Jamie: Think of how quickly Sessions would become a co-conspirator in the bizarro FoxNews world of plots to frame Trump for Russian interference.

    His old pals (and potential impeachment jurors) from the Senate would start to wonder about Trump after all…

    You can see how this would go.

  82. 82.

    MattF

    Somewhat OT. Hugh Hewitt gives Mitch McConnell advice on how to rapidly smother the whole silly ‘Trump is a criminal’ business. We shall see, I guess. I’ll note that the word ‘Pelosi’ never occurs in his plan, which is an oversight.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    Binyamin Appelbaum
    @BCAppelbaum
    ·10h
    There’s something like 700 billionaires in the United States and I hope some of them can be convinced to issue joint statements about Elizabeth Warren, because it’s going to be really boring if we have to do this 700 times.

    They should do one of those whole-page ads in the NYTimes. “AS billionaires, we state the following…”

    Then a list of names, ranked by net worth.

  84. 84.

    Jamie

    @hueyplong: Yep, and it’s not like we haven’t seen this kind of circular firing squad before. Hell, Lindsey Graham is now accusing the guy who bought an ambassadorship for a million bucks of being a secret liberal.

  85. 85.

    jonas

    @OzarkHillbilly: I don’t expect him to win reelection either, but I wonder if anyone from Alabama could say something about how his constituent services and local politicking are working out. I was once told by a South Carolinian that they kept sending Strom Thurmond back to the Senate for decades even after it was clear he was a completely useless, senile old fossil because he had this huge and very powerful staff both in Columbia and in Washington and if you had an annoying pothole on your street or something and the county maintenance people were ignoring it, you could call Thurmond’s office and the next day a crew would be out there working on it. If Jones has earned a reputation of being effective in that way, it might not be as easy to sideline as Republicans are expecting.

  86. 86.

    CaseyL

    @MattF: There is no need for advice or strategy when the Senate can just summarily dismiss the charges. CJ Roberts may be able to control the process, but he can’t force the Senate to do anything more than go through the motions. (And I think it’s odd that people believe Roberts will act in good faith in the first place. There is no evidence that he will.)

  88. 88.

    danielx

    @hueyplong:

    Sessions is a vindictive little fuck, and sure as God made little green apples he has been brooding over being repeatedly humiliated by a man he considers to be socially inferior to a southern gentleman such as himself. It would be the crowning point of his life to vote against Trump in an impeachment trial.

    Yeah, I know – the list of people Sessions considers to be socially inferior to southern gentlemen like him numbers in the billions, and that’s not even counting white people.

  89. 89.

    Redshift

    The perfect outcome would be if Sessions splits the field and Roy Moore wins the primary, Trump campaigns for Moore, and he loses to Doug Jones.

    But I doubt the FSM and Murphy the Trickster God love is that much…

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I hope the national Party invests in him. We can’t say we want a “50 state strategy” and skip certain states.

    He’s a sitting Senator…of course,the party should invest in him.

  91. 91.

    hueyplong

    @danielx: Agree with your talk about Sessions’ motivation, but don’t like the idea of him voting in an impeachment trial, which could only happen in a scenario in which Trump has been re-elected.

  93. 93.

    MattF

    @CaseyL: Perhaps. The catch, for Trumpites, is that impeachment is a political process— so procedural ‘solutions’ miss the point of the exercise. But, as I said, we shall see.

  94. 94.

    Cermet

    @Spanky: You do realize that if current measurements and understanding are correct about physics/universe, then the universe is infinite and there are an infinite number of orange fart clouds being stupid/ruining the country and maybe in one, the orange fart cloud isn’t stupid (and that world is even more royally screwed!) Hope that doesn’t ruin the joy you have (and we all get) from your making those beautiful photo’s.

  95. 95.

    rikyrah

    @Raven:

    She framed what looks like 500 pictures of me through the years.

    The visual of that must be beautiful. I bet you will be all up in your feelings when the party actually gets here.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Democrats in red areas have kind of a different take on this. They’re Democrats and they want the Party to try, to show up, to compete. They are sometimes unrealistic- expecting presidential candidate visits to counties where the Democrat will get 5000 votes or something which just isn’t a good use of time, but I hope they invest in his defense. It’s, simply, worth it.

  97. 97.

    rikyrah

    I know it’s the Daily Mail, but…….
    just hope Omar’s ducks are in a row….

    EXCLUSIVE: Newly divorced Ilhan Omar faces investigation over taking her lover on trips paid by her campaign, as the Federal Election Commission is asked to examine at least $369k in payments made to the married aide

    Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is facing an investigation over taking her lover Tim Mynett on trips that were paid for by her campaign
    The conservative National Legal and Policy Center last month filed an amended version of a complaint lodged earlier into Omar’s campaign spending
    The group is asking the Federal Election Commission to investigate payments made by Omar’s campaign to Mynett’s company, The E Street Group
    Ilhan’s campaign paid Mynett’s company more than $369,000 since hiring him in August of 2018 up until this past September
    Nearly $25,000 is labeled as travel expenses, according to records
    ‘If Ilhan for Congress reimbursed Mynett’s LLC for travel so that Rep. Omar would have the benefit of Mynett’s romantic companionship, the expenditure must be considered personal in nature,’ according to the complaint
    Omar’s divorce from husband Ahmed Hirsi became final this week, while Mynett’s wife Beth has also filed for divorce in the wake of the affair
    By MARTIN GOULD IN WASHINGTON D.C., FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

    PUBLISHED: 11:46 EST, 6 November 2019 | UPDATED: 11:57 EST, 6 November 2019

  98. 98.

    CaseyL

    @Raven: 500 photos! The walls must be completely covered. The Story of Raven – sounds like something out of folklore. Have fun at the party!

  99. 99.

    Kay

    @RAVEN:

    The best birthday I ever had was when a then-boyfriend planned a surprise party. I would have thought I would hate that but I was genuinely surprised and he put a lot of effort into it and it was really kind of amazing how well it went and the people he turned up who showed up. Good job! It remains the gold standard of birthdays :)

    Party planners don’t get enough credit. It’s very risky! If it’s horrible it’s their fault.

  102. 102.

    Immanentize

    @RAVEN:
    I thought your step mom wasn’t going to be able to make it? Or was that your sister?

    In any case, enjoy your day and don’t let any rain fall.

  103. 103.

    rikyrah

    This muthaphucka, here!!
    The damn nerve!!

    GOP senator rips into Pelosi at Trump rally: ‘It must suck to be that dumb’
    BY JUSTIN WISE – 11/07/19 07:45 AM EST

    Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) launched into a blistering attack against Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) while speaking at a Trump campaign rally in Louisiana late Wednesday, stating that it “must suck” to be as “dumb” as her.

    “In three short years, President Trump has doubled the growth in the greatest economy in all of human history. And do you know what our Democratic friends have done for him?” Kennedy asked. “Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to impeach him.”

  104. 104.

    cmorenc

    @MagdaInBlack:

    @Baud:
    With all the planets orbiting all the stars in all the universe, how did he end up on ours?

    Consider the possibility there is a countlessly vast multitude of Trump-replicants scattered throughout the universe, and we may actually lucked out getting one of the relatively less malevolent ones, terrible though he is.

  105. 105.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Redshift: Even better: whoever loses the GOP Primary runs in the General as a 3rd Party candidate and splits the deplorable vote, handing Jones the election.

  107. 107.

    rikyrah

    The crazyfication factor strikes again 😒😒😒

    Stuart Rothenberg (@StuPolitics) Tweeted:
    In latest NBC/WSJ poll, 27% of respondents say Trump is “honest and trustworthy.” Also, 27% say he has “high personal and ethical standards.”

  108. 108.

    JWR

    @NotMax:

    “This opens up a whole new opportunity for many of our clients who are no longer with us,”

    The CEO of the company doing this sounds more like a mortuary director planning a reboot of the original Night Of The Living Dead than a representative for the Dean family. But then, there’s money to be made! (eta and they may actually need some, too.)

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    @rikyrah:

    I’m wondering if maybe the name should change from “crazification factor” to “moronification factor.”

    ETA: Or, perhaps to address the “Por que no los dos?” contingent, perhaps it should be the “C/M factor”?

  113. 113.

    David Evans

    @Cermet: My guess is that in the multiiverse there are more versions of Earth where Clinton won, and there are versions of each of us there breathing sighs of relief. Not that it does us any good.

  114. 114.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @JPL:

    a newfound Republican kingmaker.

    Oh, Donald, you sweet summer child. Your voters are exactly like you. The instant you no longer have the power to deliver white supremacy, they will forget your name.

  115. 115.

    SFAW

    @Raven:
    Congrats once again on your movement into the “drain on society” class. I hope you (or y’all, I guess, but mostly you) have a great party.

  116. 116.

    SFAW

    @rikyrah:

    “In three short years, President Trump has doubled the growth in the greatest economy in all of human history. “

    That’s only because even he could not fuck up the Obama boom in only three years, even though he keeps trying. So kindly STFU, Kennedy, you fucking moron/liar.

  117. 117.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    They should do one of those whole-page ads in the NYTimes. “AS billionaires, we state the following…”

    Then a list of names, ranked by net worth

    Wouldn’t mind that at all

  119. 119.

    frosty

    @Raven

    …the blown up picture of me in front of the White House throwin up the power fist.

    There’s a great memento!

    PS speaking of retirement I’m down to 85 and a wakeup. And trying to figure out Medicare.

  120. 120.

    rikyrah

    @CaseyL:

    And I think it’s odd that people believe Roberts will act in good faith in the first place. There is no evidence that he will.

    No evidence…AT ALL

  121. 121.

    StringOnAStick

    @danielx: What lovely and loving kitties! Our two sister kitties are at least 2 lbs heavier, and we call that ruckus Kitty Thunder.

    We consulted with Werebear, and the annual growth and loss of an impressive mane in one kitty plus her size is indicative of Norwegian Forest Cat genes for these rescued orphaned barn kittens.. That means she won’t be fully mature until age 5, in 3 years. Occasionally I look at her and realize she’s gotten bigger even now.

  122. 122.

    Shalimar

    I was talking about this with very well-connected friends about whether Trump would support proven failure Moore or go with someone else like loyal House member Byrne, and was surprised to hear that Bradley has garnered significant backlash from big money Alabamians after taking part in the storming of the SKIF. I was unaware he was even one if the 30, but both friends i talked to were outraged about it. They said it was a sign he doesn’t take his job seriously.

  123. 123.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Kay:
    The girl friend of one of my brothers threw him a birthday party that was all one of those murder weekend-clue parties that were all the rage about 20 yrs ago. From the pictures it was a real blast!

  125. 125.

    Kay

    @Raven:

    and she was furious!

    Oh, that’s funny. I hate surprises but this was fun. That bf later turned out to be a snake in the grass so apparently he was good at keeping secrets, ya know, in general.

    You take the good with the bad, right? Good at surprise parties, also good at secretive betrayals :)

  126. 126.

    J R in WV

    @hueyplong:

    Agree with your talk about Sessions’ motivation, but don’t like the idea of him voting in an impeachment trial, which could only happen in a scenario in which Trump has been re-elected.

    Actually, you are wrong. Senators are seated several weeks before Inauguration Day, so Trump could lose the election and THEN be convicted of High Crimes and be removed from office, thus losing his Federal pension and a shot at a Presidential Library and a government-funded office and staff.

    Coyote may love us well enough for that to unfold in January, 2021. Or not… would surely be a fitting finale to the whole corrupt circle of horrors. If Trump lost the election, I would guess that many more Senators would feel free to vote against him in the trial.

  127. 127.

    Gravenstone

    @NotMax: I’ve long argued that every time Trump mocks someone else’s intelligence, he’s just regurgitating what Fred told him every day of his own miserable existence.

  128. 128.

    glory b

    @Kay: The judicial candidates here (for Superior Court) all ran as proud Dems, touting support from Planned Parenthood. The Repubs didn’t give a party affiliation in their ads, just said they would protect families, neighborhoods and children (didn’t say from what).

    There were negative ads tying the R’s to Trump, and saying they would take away a woman’s right to choose. I figured the Dems must have had pretty good poll numbers.

  130. 130.

    J R in WV

    @frosty:

    PS speaking of retirement I’m down to 85 and a wakeup. And trying to figure out Medicare.

    I didn’t actually count down, and for Medicare, I just took the state defaults, they chip in a little bit on the Medicare supplemental from Humana, and that comes out of my state pension automatically… I guess I could pick some other plan, but other than some prescription annoyances it seems to work out OK for me.

    Wife has AARP supplemental, it appears to be mostly OK although they require her to order many prescriptions from a mail-order outfit that seems nearly incompetent at just doing their job.

    So there are two Medicare Supplemental plans evaluated for you. Neither is terrible, neither is great.

  132. 132.

    Ben Cisco

    Dems here aren’t planning on rolling over, and conventional “wisdom” notwithstanding, Jones ain’t dead yet. I expect the GrOPer primary to be a shitshow; if the loser(s) mount independent campaigns I’ll take Jones winning outright in the general.

  133. 133.

    Citizen Alan

    @JMG:

    In Tuberville’s defense, I was very impressed when he took a remarkably strong (for the time) stance against the Rebel Flag, all but begging students and alumni to stop bringing them to games. IIRC, he got death threats over that.

  134. 134.

    Citizen Alan

    @Snarki, child of Loki:

    What makes that stupid comment by Shitgibbon so especially ridiculous is that if Sessions eventually wins, Shitgibbon will turn on a dime and claim the *only* reason Sessions won was because of his influence.

  135. 135.

    Aleta

    To me this leak reeks of John Barron-Miller phoning it in.

    According to three people with knowledge of the situation and another source close to Trump, ‘Apprentice’ creator Mark Burnett and the president have sporadically kept in touch, mostly over the phone.

    One of the ideas kicked around by Burnett and the president was shooting a new version of the Trump-branded Apprentice, tentatively titled The Apprentice: White House, and to produce it shortly after the president leaves office. This time, however, the TV program would be explicitly politics-themed and take full advantage of Trump’s status as a former president of the United States and a newfound Republican kingmaker.

    “There have been several discussions between Burnett and Trump about The Apprentice: White House,” a person with knowledge of the situation told The Daily Beast. “It is something Burnett thinks could be a money-spinner and Trump is very keen on doing.” 

    One person who has spoken with Burnett about Trump said he openly boasted of his relationship to the president: “Mark would say ‘My relationship with the president is incredibly strong. I’m the most powerful person in Hollywood because of it. I could wipe the floor because of it.’ Mark has no shame.”

    “One thing I’ve learned about the press is that they’re always hungry for a good story, and the more sensational the better. The point is that if you are a little different, or a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you.” —Art of the D

  139. 139.

    mrmoshpotato

    Trump has told senators/advisers he will move to Alabama to beat Sessions himself

    Does this idiot not know Florida and Alabama are separate states?

  143. 143.

    Brachiator

    But the wild card in the race will be Trump, and whether he will weigh in against his former attorney general and in favor of other Republicans who have already announced their candidacies.

    The super-Trumper GOP alternatives to Sessions must really be something.

  145. 145.

    Kathleen

    @JPL: They can call the show Face In The Crowd and end first episode with Trump standing on balcony and screaming, “Marsha! Don’t leave me!” while recording of fake applause blares in the background.

  146. 146.

    moops

    I said it first, years ago, that after Trump’s presidency he would have a reality show where he picks the GOP nominees for office. He’ll start with governorships and senate and congress nominees and build up to the 2024 GOP Presidential nominee.

  148. 148.

    Citizen Alan

    @Shalimar:

    Do we have a list of who those a-holes were? I really want to know if my local congressman was one of them so I can start spreading rumors about how he may be a Russian asset.

  149. 149.

    Matt

    Crowded Alabama Republican field (get ready for a runoff):
    -Jeff Sessions
    -Tommy Tuberville, former Auburn football coach
    -John Merrill, current AL Sec. of State
    -Congressman Bradley Byrne
    -State Rep. Arnold Mooney
    -Fmr AL SCOTUS Chief Justice Roy Moore

    Somebody put down some tarps; a heap of toxic garbage this tall is gonna have Superfund-level runoff

  150. 150.

    unknown known

    @NotMax:

    Trump once called Sessions an “idiot”

    It’s always projection.

    Yes, but a stopped clock…

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