Baseball Open Thread

by wj

(Because, as hsh noted, it's been way too long since we had an open thread started. Mea culpa!)

Came across this in my local (California!) paper this morning: Are Cubs visiting White House early to avoid Donald Trump? Of course, the fact that Obama is from Chicago could have something to do with it as well....

Comments

[hairshirthedonist]

That's a lot of pressure, wj. What if no one comments? I'll look like a jerk.

[wj]

Nope. It will just indicate that momentum has a big influence in where people post their comments.

[Donald Trump]

The Cubs, so sad, lucky losers I call them, 100 years of losing, going out with Obama and Obamacare, sad and fitting, does anyone watch baseball anymore, for the winners, yes, winning is a thing of mine, so great, look at the Yankees, I am the Yankees of the White House and winning, you haven't seen anything, I'm telling you, it's going to be huge and the Cubs won't know what happened, let me say that, you'll see.

[wj]

DT, it looks like you are trying to emulate the Count. But you lack his panache, not to mention his intellectual capacity and vocabulary. Loser!

[wj]

P.S. Does that count as a personal attack? Given that it's a pseudonym of a pen name?

If so, sorry Dr S.

[Ugh]

Personal attacks on people not posting here are generally fine. I mean, watch: Obama is a poopy head.

see, I'm still h--

[hairshirthedonist]

Can I attack myself? That could be really edifying.

[CJColucci]

During the furor over John Lott using the sock puppet "Mary Rosh," I was considering starting my own blog and asked about the ethics of creating hostile sock puppets to abuse me on my own blog to create buzz. Never got a clear answer.

[hairshirthedonist]

I was just more interested in finding out both how vicious and how thin-skinned I was in one shot.

[Countme-In]

Since we have at least a medium in touch with the Evil One, if not the Evil One itself, in our midst for the moment, I have two questions for Him:

1. How does a germaphobe rationalize the practice of the well-known conservative past time/entertainment known as the golden shower, or pissing on the poor?

2. If even you know it, may I have Steve Bannon's address and personal cell phone number.

http://crookedtimber.org/2017/01/11/the-political-thought-of-stephen-k-bannon/#more-41389

[wj]

A germaphobe only worries about germs getting on him. Germs getting on others are irrelevant. Doubly so for a narcissist, for whom others are only relevant for their adoration. (Or lack thereof.)

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Amazing how the Cubs went instantly from the team with the longest World Series losing streak to the team with the shortest World Series winning streak.

2016 was an amazing year, in every so many ways. All we needed was Giant Meteor on December 31 to finish it up.

Thanks, Giant Meteor!

[Countme-In]

Mr. Precedent-Erect trump:

Given the out-of work, underpaid, and justifiably aggrieved workers in the state of Pennsylvania who voted for you and who have seen their livelihoods siphoned off by elites to benefit foreigners and the Other in the United States, would you please comment on this action taken by conservative Pennsylvania lawbreakers to close unemployment offices and additionally lay off 500 more Americans, who in turn, will not receive the unemployment benefits they are entitled to.

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/100390-as-wait-times-at-short-staffed-centers-skyrocket-pa-lawmakers-appear-unmoved?utm_source=dlvr&utm_medium=twitterauto&utm_campaign=social-inbound

Further, where should these suffering people turn if Republicans, who they voted for in righteous anger to do something, anything, to return this great country to its glory days, have now taken the last scrap off their kitchen tables, where they decide on their family budget priorities, like sending sis into white slavery, probably in the trump Tower, to put food on the table.

Surely you must know that your and your fellow Republicans' violent rhetoric during this past election season was the final saber-rattling before savage violence by these desperate out-of-work and underemployed folks comes down around all of our ears.

Would you, Mr Precedent, favor measures to arm every individual in Pennsylvania denied his or her unemployment benefits, in their time of need, with NRA-approved military grade automatic weaponry, which could be openly carried to the personal residences of the above-mentioned Republican killers of the unfortunate to help resolve this unfortunate bottleneck, sort of move things along toward the desired ends, in the formerly robust channels of empathy in this country, now reduced to not even a blessed drip?

Would you also know the precise location of Ayn Rand's poisoned grave, so that she may be exhumed and her remains treated to maximum disrespect?

Thank you sir, and may the tree of liberty ever after be watered with golden showers, or least the trickle down blocked by your enlarged, you wouldn't believe how enlarged, it yuge freedom-loving prostate gland, in a Moscow penthouse suite.

[Countme-In]

Mr Precedent-Reject:

Perhaps you missed my previous communication on this matter, but I hereby repeat my respectful request that James Comey's head and the head of his wife be forwarded to my business address, included below. The sharpened posts they will rest on to satisfy the mob's insatiable need for vengeance have been completed for weeks.

Let's move things along, ya punk. Send the heads, or else. What do I have to do, go over your still attached head, to your superior, Vlad Putin?

[Countme-In]

And now for our mid-week musical break:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1fiQMiznKE

[Ugh]

Unpossible! I was informed right here on this blog that any corporate malfeasance going on in large multi-national enterprises is only done by faceless non-management types because of corporate policy. Gosh.

[Ugh]

You don't happen to have been at the Watergate today have you Count?* :-)

*On the 13th floor, no less.

[Countme-In]

"Unpossible!"

Erm, Wells Fargo, anyone?

The Watergate?

Monica Lewinsky called some Cubans in to look at her plumbing is all I know.

[Countme-In]

This is what Unprecendential press conferences will look like from now on:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-press-conference-boasted-own-cheering-section

Sort of WWF, Don King, and the Krays all in one suit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNl3jvApJqU&list=PLnkgF5KWeAfMYdsQT16-3DTJEVIh-zXnO&index=5

I'm going to take up a new sport in 2017 to be ready for all eventualities from the Higgs boson particle that is now our Precedent and his hitmen, the Republican Party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxslOcJ9M3s

[Ugh]

The WF CEO was going to keep his job originally. Consequences for committing fraud are for the little people.

[SC_Birdflyte]

Hey, I thought Obama was a White Sox fan (South Side - North Side rivalry and all that).

[Donald]

Seems kinda relevant to the election.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/01/many-areas-appalachia-mississippi-delta-lower-life-expectancy-bangladesh.html

[hairshirthedonist]

A friend from HS posted this. He's not even close to being one of a kind on this subject:

I don't get real political in life, but is it just me? Obama's farewell speech put me to sleep, but I couldn't get enough of President elect Trump's speech today. I sure hope he helps us middle class people, and I think he will.

[Nigel]

While I have little problem with Buzzfeed's right to publish the (possibly) dodgy dossier, it has completely overshadowed the coverage of both the confirmation hearings and what ought to have been the evisceration of Trump's plan to 'separate' himself from his business interests.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

"Obama's farewell speech put me to sleep, but I couldn't get enough of President elect Trump's speech today."

Welcome to ADHD Amerika.

[Ugh]

Intrepid reporter ventures to inner plains to discover native attitudes toward hookers & blow.

[Nigel]

As always, Shakespeare...

"If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as improbable fiction." – Twelfth Night, Act III, scene 4

[russell]

Seems kinda relevant to the election.

I sure hope he helps us middle class people, and I think he will.

The next 4 years, in a nutshell.

If we're not extraordinarily lucky, it's the next generation.

What I expect: people will suffer like they haven't suffered in decades. And they will never associate that with the neo-liberal fundamentalism we've been living under for the last 35 years.

It'll be the blacks, or the gays, or Hollywood, or CNN, or liberal elites, or China, who are to blame.

Or maybe those Big Money Boys. But not the ones they vote for, or the ones the ones they vote for place in the Cabinet.

Been like that for a generation, I don't see any national epiphanies in the pipeline.

I get the fact that poverty and social dysfunction has extended into what used to be the stable working class. In spite of an expanding economy.

It's not hard to understand why that has happened. It's because somebody else grabbed all the money.

If you have a different explanation, kindly offer it up.

And now they want the rest. They want SS, Medicare, Medicaid, all of the public pensions. They want the schools, they want the prisons. They want the infrastructure, meaning shipping ports, airports, highways, bridges. They already have the rail lines.

Privatize all of it, so that the folks who have taken all of the wealth created by the expanding economy of the last few decades can now take all of the wealth represented by every available public institution.

They want all of it. Every fucking dime.

Neither Trump nor any of the (R)'s are going to provide any remedy for that. They're going to be at the head of the line with their hands out, looking for their payday.

Carlin nailed it. It was good for a laugh. See who's laughing four years from now.

Anyway, go Sox.

[wj]

For those in the mood, here is a blistering set-down, from a conservative columnist (admittedly a "Never Trump" Republican), of his approach to ethics questions. Including quotes from the Walter Schaub, Director of the Office of Government Ethics, on the contrast between what Trump is doing and what, for example, Rex Tillerson has done to eliminate conflicts of interest. (Love him or hate him, Tillerson has at least cut his ties with Exxon Mobil, at a cost of millions of dollars to himself.)

[Countme-In]

WRS

[Countme-In]

to wit:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/--100901

Fuck conservatives. Fuck Republicans.

[wj]

War Reserve Stock? Or something else....

[wj]

From 538 on Trump's conflicts of interest:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/no-one-has-a-good-plan-to-get-rid-of-trumps-conflicts-including-trump/

What this seems to say, in part, that it would be impossible for Trump to eliminate conflicts. Simply because it would take time, probably years, to sell off the Trump Organization and its holdings.

It seems to me that anyone who would be unable (not unwilling, but unable) to eliminate conflicts of interest ought to figure out that he shouldn't run for office in the first place. Even if he is doing it on a lark and doesn't expect to win.

[sapient]

Even if he is doing it on a lark and doesn't expect to win.

Or even if he's doing it at the behest of, and in collusion with a foreign kleptocratic dictator.

I'm watching Josh Earnest's news conference as I type. I'll miss loving my government.

[Countme-In]

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/01/what-happened-kellyanne-conway

http://mediamatters.org/video/2017/01/11/carl-bernstein-calls-kellyanne-conway-propaganda-minister/214989

When I first caught her on the tube years ago, I thought to myself, there's a cheap Republican shill who's is looking to be an expensive shill in the bullshit Republican firmament.

She hit the big time is all that happened.

With the help of her dic pic-obsessed husband.

[sapient]

She hit the big time is all that happened.

She's unwatchable. My stomach doesn't allow it.

[sapient]

If we're revisiting the election (again), I find this explanation for the results the truest to my experience.

[Countme-In]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/01/12/google-quietly-removes-fake-news-language-its-advertising-policy/214972

sapient, that was a contributing factor, no doubt, just as racism, economic anxiety, and hatred of the Clintons played their parts. "All of the above" as Russell points out.

But this, I think, was the reason why things turned to dog shit late in the going:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rudy-giuliani-fbi-clinton-emails_us_581c9e3fe4b0e80b02c93d6b

The election was stolen by Trump and the Republicans in collusion with fake media, the Russians, and moles for all of the above high up in the FBI, deep government as Donald Johnson calls it.

[Countme-In]

https://twitter.com/MicahZenko

and ...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/01/06/world/americas/ap-lt-mexico-ford.html?_r=0

Under the heading of unintended consequences (I notice only Sebastian among moderate conservatives here seems to be worried about these types of things), here's hoping that those Mexican workers become the vanguard of a Trump-like fascist movement (because of economic anxiety; imagine that) in their country and give rise to a rude fascist Beast of their own who will lead Mexico to draw closer in diplomacy and treaty with China and especially with Putin's Russia (maybe Cuba will join them once it is thrown back into the Russian sphere by our ignorant conservative filth) and when the new Berlin Wall starts rising along our southern border, maybe Mexico with see the wisdom of arming itself against the Trumpanistas, say, by lining up these babies every thousand feet along the Wall to counter threats of American hostility and wetback hatred:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/25/russia-unveils-satan-2-missile-powerful-enough-to-wipe-out-uk-fr/

Simultaneously, I hope the Republican Party gets its wish and the U.S. leaves the UN:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/cruz-and-grahams-tantrum-against-the-u-n/

There will no international body for the United States to petition as intervention as the missiles get ready to fly.

The only consolation for decent Americans, as we and our loved ones are incinerated, is that the Trump/Republican Party and 99% of its supporters will finally be fucking dead.

I'm not sure how that's going help the middle class, hairshirt's friend's locus of concern.

Maybe if they survive the Holocaust, they start a union and climb back into the middle class without republican/business elite obstruction, exactly the way the working class did it last time around.

[Nigel]

Slate make's a good point about the news media playing Trump's game:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/01/how_trump_is_manipulating_the_media.html

To me, that was the worst thing about his press conference. Journalists with some self respect would have stood up en mass and left the room.
No platform the sh*thead.

[Countme-In]

I'm curious.

When self-driving vehicles are perfected and nearly every truck, bus, and taxi driver in this country, a big chunk of the working class just barely hanging on to lower middle class standards of living, is placed on the unemployment lines (if lines are still permitted; where will the line form if unemployment insurance is defunded, as Republican filth were so eager to do during the Romney 2012 election) and thrown out of work, who are they going to vote for?

Is Trump going to declare the driverless vehicle illegal? Not bloody likely.

Are the captains of industry, seeing vastly reduced labor costs, going to to the right thing as patriots and refuse to throw their fellow Americans to the wolves? Not bloody likely, Lucy, considering the same filth has been emptying out the industrial heartland for thirty years and shipping jobs overseas, and happily, in the name of shareholder value, with the help of Democrats, by the way.

So, again, who are these people going to vote for when THEY are aggrieved.

Not Trump, believe me, because the Trump people will not give a shit about these folks. Trump will rolling in it as the Trump hotels are supplied driverless delivery vehicles by They'll just repeat the time-worn republican bullshit that well, get a job so lazy sods.

Besides, from what I've read about the Uber corporate elite, they sound reliable alt-Right to me, so I would expect nothing but ridicule from them toward their very recent fellow employees, because that is how the Ayn Rand ethos works. Stomp, and then ridicule.

There are 3.5 million truck drivers alone in this country. I don't think they'll be in the mood for shit like voting once they see what is happening to them.

Another rude Beast, a la Trump, might come along and organize them, part of which, please, will be to arm the ones who aren't already armed with some heavy duty Republican weaponry and start advancing on the parties who have ruined their lives.

But wait, it's America. Right. Oh, yeah. So ... they'll just kill the blacks and the Jews, and the liberals and the immigrants who have stolen their livelihoods, not the guilty ones Russell references above.

Got it.

Maybe they can work for Google, hanh?

[sapient]

Agree, Nigel.

Also this: Russian state-owned television interrupts c-span.

[Countme-In]

sapient, I have it on reliable sourcing that roughly half the calls that come in on the C-Span phone line dedicated to conservative are actually Russian/Republican agents trying to sock puppet American public opinion.

Now, it could be that I made all of that up.

Which would at the very least put me in the running for a position with Kelly Ann Cuckway's political hit firm and maybe even catapult me into the lead for the Fake Pulitzer Prize, with trump as master of ceremonies, the only one that will count from now on in this full of shit country.

[Countme-In]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/marine-le-pen-trump-tower

Martin Heidegger, Charles Lindbergh, Martin Bormann, and Heidi, the Bergen-Belson companion dog, were spotted in the gift shop.

[Countme-In]

"I don't get real political in life, but is it just me? Obama's farewell speech put me to sleep, but I couldn't get enough of President elect Trump's speech today."

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/thiel-on-obama-no-corruption-can-be-a-bad-thing-2017-01-11?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts

Fuck em all.

[Countme-In]

http://onehotmessalaska.blogspot.com/2017/01/america-announces-divorce-from-reality.html

via Washington Monthly

[Countme-In]

Reality has requested a restraining order but doesn't trust republican law enforcement to honor it, so things will taken into reality's own hands:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmB-ME8i2bA

[wj]

Count, you do realize (your 7:20), presumably, that it was only ever a common law marriage....

[Countme-In]

Never consummated either. Reality didn't want to make whoopy with a bunch of fake virgins.

In Missouri, the cold-blooded killers who take away your health insurance will lend you their gun as you seek justice:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nick-marshall-missouri-conceal-carry-gun-capitol

[Countme-In]

I now hate this side of Obama:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-parting-gift-from-one-president-to.html

sapient, you and I are going straight to Guantanamo.

Are you sure you don't want to rethink this NSA thing? ;)

[Countme-In]

For some reason, I thought of this trump press conference quote ugh cited on the other thread:

"So there is a great spirit going on right now, a spirit that many people have told me they've never seen before, ever. We are going to create jobs, I said that I will be the greatest jobs producer that God ever created, and I mean that, I am going to work very hard on that. We need certain amounts of other things, including a little bit of luck, but I think we are going to do a real job, and I'm very proud of what we done and we haven't even gotten there yet."

... when I came across this biblical quote in a book I'm reading called "The Book Of The People -- How To Read The Bible" by Brit A.N. Wilson:

John 20 Verses 26 to 29

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

That would be Doubting Thomas, because we know who Trump thinks he is (yes, he's Donald Trump, bigger than Jesus), and who his acolytes believe he is too.

"I'm very proud of what we done (did) and we haven't even gotten there yet"

And since this is a baseball thread, that sounds like something Ernie Banks would have said about the Cubbies 2016 World Series in 1956 or thereabouts.

[sapient]

Are you sure you don't want to rethink this NSA thing? ;)

I'm pretty sure that Putin would have the Donald covered in the gestapo realm, no matter what Obama did. That's the thing about evil Presidents - they don't need "precedent", "permission" or "law".

[sapient]

Also, not sure that Trump isn't (partly) Snowden's gift to us.

[sapient]

I'm not thinking about the future right now. I'm just glad I was alive when my President sang this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiIC3A0ROM

[liberal japonicus]

A bit of devil's advocacy (and accusations of 21 dimensional chess) there on the NSA article, Count, one could look at it as trying to widen the number of people who will know about things, which then makes it more difficult to use illegitimately. Greenwald has an article about 'the Deep State' going to war against Trump, but my feeling is that if they are going to war, they certainly took their sweet time.

Unfortunately, if you start overthinking this, you end up in the kind of coldwar mindset where no one can be trusted and everyone's motives are suspect. Just hope we get out of this alive...

[sapient]

Just hope we get out of this alive...

I hope our children do.

[Countme-In]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/nothings-really-changed-with-amazons-promise-to-add-100000-jobs-says-analyst/ar-AAlOJE0

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-says-buy-ll-bean-but-many-products-are-made-in-china/ar-AAlPhqK

It's eye-opening ain't it? First, the colossally craven quality of the stupid that's going to require sucked-up-to from now on, and second, the turn-key sniveling ass-kissing by the ruthless titans of industry that commences once the regulatory gummint ass in the White House ain't a black one, no? Even though it is kabuki theater air ass-munching for the rubes in the cheap seats.

[Countme-In]

Meet the new deep state:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/01/mike_pompeo_trump_s_pick_for_the_cia_wants_a_holy_war.html

[Countme-In]

Ah, war reserve stock?

What Russell Said 12:07pm

[russell]

the Senate has queued up as much of the ACA for repeal as is possible via reconciliation. I.e., via simple majority.

Over to the House now.

Scoundrel time.

I am currently entertaining wagers on how long it takes Trump to demand that the presidential exemption from the conflict of interest provisions be extended to the Cabinet and all executive staff.

These are very good people, the best people, they can't work with their hands tied by petty bureaucratic rules! Sad!

Any takers?

sapient (and others) worry that Trump will usher in fascism. I don't really see that.

I see a straight-up banana republic. Not banana-republic-ish, or "banana republic".

Banana republic. Klepocratic authoritarian government-by-grift.

Clinton gave speeches to the big banks! Her foundation took money from other countries!

Trump is going to give the whole freaking country to big banks, with a few choice slices handed out to folks in other countries as deal-sweeteners.

Watch your asses everyone.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

It will be interesting to see how long it takes before Trump calls up his Treas Secretary: "Run those banknote presses 24/7, and send over a dozen pallets of Benjamins to the White House ASAP. I need to fill up the basement swimming pool for a bunga-bunga party this weekend. It'll be GREAT!"

Go ahead, tell me I'm wrong.

[Countme-In]

"Watch your asses everyone."

I should stop using the word "fascism". It's too high-brow for these mugs. What would these dreg reptiles know about any sort of "ism", anyhoo, other than jism? It's like talking to Joe Pesci.

"You said I'm fascist. Go ahead, tell me how I'm fascist ovah heah. Do I seem fascist to you? How? You said it. What did you mean by fascist? I nevah hoid such a woid. Get a load of me, I don't know fascist from marinara."

Next thing you know, you're headed upstate for a hastily arranged interment by flashlight.

Here's the bad cop/lethal cop treatment America will be treated to. The Ethics Director needs to get some fire insurance for his restaurant and then make scarce. What he oughta do is attend this "hearing" in front of punk Chaffetz carrying a weapon and slap it on the witness table because the gun is the only instrument of ethical civilization conservative punk filth understand.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chaffetz-probe-ethics-director-trump

[wj]

Snarki, I was going to tell you that you are wrong. Because, after all, all significant payments these days are just moving electrons around.

But then I reread what you wrote. And you are probably correct, Trump will say just that. Because he is the one who has no clue that money doesn't come from printing presses.

[Girl from the North Country]

these dreg reptiles

Ah the inventiveness, the flow, the sneaky ability to circumvent posting rules! How will I miss thee? Let me count the ways....

[russell]

What he oughta do is attend this "hearing" in front of punk Chaffetz

To paraphrase Ron Reagan (fils not pere), I suspect the director of executive ethics craps bigger ones than Jason Chaffetz.

I'm guessing Chaffetz et al think they've been unleashed by the Trump ascendancy, but I'm also pretty sure there are lots of people in positions of responsibility who aren't going to go away quietly.

Here we go!!

[Snarki, child of Loki]

"...all significant payments these days are just moving electrons around."

Humans are so funny.

THESE electrons, in THIS configuration are super-super valuable. Other electrons, not so much.

[wj]

For anyone under the illusion that money is anything other than a unit of account (e.g. gold bugs) this is doubtless horrible/terrifying news. Effectively unlimited "money" available to anyone who knows how to move the right electrons.

But then, gold bugs somehow never explain why gold is any more inherently (as opposed to merely historically) valuable than a piece of paper. It just is!

[hairshirthedonist]

The analogy one of my coworkers used was that dollars, to the federal government, are like inches. If you're building something, you can't run out of inches. You might run out of wood or nails or bricks or whatever material you need. But, so long as you can get more of that stuff, you can build as many inches of whatever as you please.

[russell]

But then, gold bugs somehow never explain why gold is any more inherently (as opposed to merely historically) valuable than a piece of paper.

It's PRECIOUSSSSS!

[hairshirthedonist]

On LL Bean. An interesting excerpt:

Fashion will no longer be about creativity and self-expression, or even utility. It will be about political alignment. Companies will have to decide what side of the aisle they're going to sell to, and then hope that they made the right choice. And what industry can survive, apart from politics itself, on a diet consisting solely of political alignment?

How neat! We can all wear uniforms, like sports teams - or even armies. There will be no confusion about who our opponents are.

[Ugh]

This seems a good place to again express my utter contempt for the fraud and coward Paul Ryan, the most dangerous man in America, at least until next Friday, when he'll be moved down to second.

Feh.

[Ugh]

John Cole has it right (via the twitter):

Paul Ryan seems smart because he’s only eating paste while standing next to the kids lighting farts and smearing their own shit on the wall.

[Ugh]

I mean, what a prick.

[wj]

On the other hand, Ryan does seem to have accepted that "repeal and delay" isn't going to be viable. In the political sense. That is, his incoming President is opposed, and even his members (including the Freedom Caucus!) are opposed, to repeal without a replace at the same time.

How he deals with a base which has been promised repeal immediately, when there is nothing resembling a replacement to enact, will be an interesting playlet.

[Ugh]

They're just casting about for something they can call a "replacement" without having even the obsequious Washington press corps laugh in their face. If the come up with something they think they can "sell," even if it will turn out to be an abject disaster costing millions of people their insurance, they'll jump on it.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Aaand...the word on Josh Marshall's place says that Trump is purging the DC National Guard Chief, within minutes of taking office.

Smells like a putsch, doesn't it?

[Ugh]

Meh, my guess is that Trump just issued a blanket order for all political appointees (of which the DC Nat Guard Chief is one, although who knows why) to vacate ASAP on 1/20 and doesn't particularly give a sh1t about one or another.

Probably Steve Bannon-driven paranoia about subterfuge, double crossing, and "we need to get our people in there!"** even if they haven't even thought about a replacement for a particular position.

**because this is what they would do if they were in the position of Obama's political appointees, something to watch out for in January 2021 if Trump doesn't win re-election.

[Ugh]

More transparent Ryan BS, at least Tapper put down his drink long enough to correct him.

[Ugh]

It seems they are going to go with the "Repeal and Fuck You!" approach.

[Hartmut]

I'd say at the same nominal value gold has a bit more practical value than paper that is already printed fully on both sides. At least on this side of the pond even the use as fuel is compromised. But small change is of even more practical use since brass, nickel and copper have more applications than gold.
As the old saying goes: I can buy anything, says gold. I can take everything, says steel.

[sapient]

It seems they are going to go with the "Repeal and Fuck You!" approach.

Don't worry, Ugh. There's always "GoFundMe".

[wj]

my guess is that Trump just issued a blanket order for all political appointees (of which the DC Nat Guard Chief is one, although who knows why) to vacate ASAP on 1/20 and doesn't particularly give a sh1t about one or another.

Almost certainly true. Note that, unlike previous transitions, all "political" ambassadors (i.e. not career diplomats) have been told to resign effective that date. So it looks like an across-the-board policy decision.

[sapient]

So it looks like an across-the-board policy decision.

Maybe, but I'd like to be the skeptic this time.

I think the Donald wants to handle security at and after the inauguration his own way.

[Nigel]

A decent article on where to go from here, and some thoughts on how to deal with the election of a barbarian:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/01/how_the_democrats_can_play_hardball_with_trump_s_supreme_court_nominee.html

[Countme-In]

Watch who Trump chooses to replace the DC National guard Chief. The timing is ominous.

Expect the DC National Guard to be under orders henceforth to shoot to kill anyone who attempts to demonstrate against or petition their grievances against this illegitimate government.

Further expect the DC National Guard to become an extension of trumps private security force.

I wouldn't surprised if Trump, Flynn, and Bannon are seeking counsel from Polish and Russian state security police regarding who might be an acceptable appointee.

Surely, the Oath Keepers will be called in to monitor the situation.

Maybe David Clarke, Milwaukee County Sheriff, who has stated he sees nothing standing in the way of sending one million American citizens of questionable allegiances to Guantanamo.

Are pussy hats listed on the dress code down there?

Clarke regards the blood of Black Lives Matter as mere grey water to soak his lawn.

Paul Ryan has already turned away citizens petitioning his office regarding his attempted murder of ACA participants by having the Capitol Hill police escort them away from his door without being allowed to deliver their citizen petitions, a door these good people fucking paid to be turned away from.

[sapient]

Thanks, Nigel. I love Dahlia Lithwick. Plus, she lives in my town.

Hal Movius: Here were have, to put it mildly, an unprecedented situation.

Which calls for an unprecedented response. Obama needs to delay inauguration because it's a national emergency.

[Countme-In]

When in doubt, nominate a Republican Texas pigfucker to lead the Consumer Financial Sodomy Bureau down the rat hole.

http://juanitajean.com/yachting-randy-is-back/

[wj]

Watch who Trump chooses to replace the DC National guard Chief.
...
Maybe David Clarke, Milwaukee County Sheriff

Oh, Count, how can you say such a thing??? Obviously the only possible candidate is Joe Arapaho!

[Countme-In]

Kevin Drum is under a death sentence.

What are the chances he's going to lie in the face of that fate?

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/01/today-politics-i-experienced-it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWGAdzn5_KU

Use your imagination for the depth of Republican blood that will water the tree of liberty.

[russell]

Obama needs to delay inauguration because it's a national emergency.

I think Obama has made it clear that his priority is to ensure as orderly a transition of power as is possible.

IMO that is appropriate. He's making the right call.

Asking Obama to discard normal protocols is to ask him to do the things you (and I) do not like, and in fact fear, in Trump. It also puts all of the responsibility for deciding that Trump presents a situation so unusual that it requires an extreme response on him. Which is, IMO, a big ask.

Obama is doing all of the right things IMO. If we think Trump is an extraordinary threat, I think the burden to act is, and should be, on us.

Obama is doing his part, with grace, in spite of what has surely been an unending series of WTF moments since 11/9.

What you are asking of him here belongs, I think, to us.

[russell]

Expect the DC National Guard to be under orders henceforth to shoot to kill anyone who attempts to demonstrate against or petition their grievances against this illegitimate government.

Wouldn't be he first time.

I think it's entirely possible that demonstrations against Trump may be met with violence. Hopefully not from the National Guard, but I guess that's possible.

People who want to take any kind of public action against Trump, whether legal demonstration or civil disobedience, should be prudent and take whatver steps you need to take to address that.

Like, think twice about bringing small kids. Get some training in how to manage and respond to hostility and threats (or reality) of violence. If you think it might be hard for you to keep your head in that kind of situation, consider whether you really need to participate personally - perhaps there is other work you can do.

Violence is not out of the question. Folks shouldn't assume the worst, but folks should also be prudent and prepared and take care of themselves and those around them.

I'm not talking about violence in return, I'm talking about knowing how to respond to it in ways that are constructive and which maximize everyone's safety.

It's a thing, best to be mindful of it. Stay safe out there.

When in doubt, nominate a Republican Texas pigfucker to lead the Consumer Financial Sodomy Bureau down the rat hole.

My operating assumption is that the feds are going to be nohing but destructive to things that are important to me, for at least the next 4 years.

You'll have the greatest leverage at the local and state level. We can try to turn either the House or Senate in two years. And, we should all just plan on dealing with a blizzard of harmful bullshit for the near term.

It is what it is. We have a peculiar way of electing presidents, and we've elected a fragile impuslve vindictive inexperienced ass to the office. Who might actually be vulnerable to, or subject to, interests hostile to our own.

Whee! What fun.

Here we go.

[russell]

an aside - I took a few minutes and read the famous oppo research brief about Trump, which is available on BuzzFeed and elsewhere.

The thing that really made me think there might be something to it was the part where he had the prostitutes piss on the bed that the Obamas slept on. Because he hates them so much.

That just sounded, to me, *exactly* like something he would do. If it's a tissue of lies, which it might be, it is very well and insightfully done.

I often think that Trump's run was mostly payback for Obama zinging him at the press roast. He's still pissed off at Graydon Carter for saying his fingers are short. Like, 30 years ago.

A true piece of work.

Wheeee!

Good luck to all. Stay safe out there!

[Girl from the North Country]

From today's Independent (full link follows):

Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who investigated Donald Trump’s alleged Kremlin links, was so worried by what he was discovering that at the end he was working without pay, The Independent has learned.

Mr Steele also decided to pass on information to both British and American intelligence officials after concluding that such material should not just be in the hands of political opponents of Mr Trump, who had hired his services, but was a matter of national security for both countries.

However, say security sources, Mr Steele became increasingly frustrated that the FBI was failing to take action on the intelligence from others as well as him. He came to believe there was a cover-up, that a cabal within the Bureau blocked a thorough inquiry into Mr Trump, focusing instead on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

It is believed that a colleague of Mr Steele in Washington, Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who runs the firm Fusion GPS, felt the same way and, at the end also continued with the Trump case without being paid.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-russia-dossier-file-investigation-hacking-christopher-steele-mi6-a7526901.html

Given that, among others, a past UK Ambassador to Russia has vouched for this Steele guy as a reliable and competent agent, surely there's a reasonable chance that this stuff will eventually sink Trump? Or do you all, as is often the case, think I'm being over-optimistic and Pollyanna-ish?

[sapient]

What you are asking of him here belongs, I think, to us.

When "us" meets an armed government with no scruples, "us" loses. See Syria. Perhaps Obama has something else in mind, or maybe he knows some way forward. Trump is replacing people who have cared for our government with his own vicious hacks. It won't end well for us.

surely there's a reasonable chance that this stuff will eventually sink Trump?

One would think. I have no confidence that it will. Look at these Congresspeople, who can't wait to tear people's personal security away, to destroy all ethics accountability, to remove the Congressional Budget Office's ability to account for the huge cost of destroying the ACA, which is being done for spite. There is nothing decent about these people, and they don't seem to care at all about the country or the people in it. And most people aren't even thinking about the horror story that their foreign policy will be.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

"... surely there's a reasonable chance that this stuff will eventually sink Trump?"

If that were true, Trump would have sunk without a trace, a year ago.

Yet, here we are.

Given the demonstrated behavior and beliefs of the congressional GOP, the Teabaggers, the Alte-Reich, and their media enablers, it is hard to come up with a scenario that gets Trump removed from office.

Well, except for a junk-food induced coronary.

"Help us Col. Sanders, you're our only hope"

[russell]

When "us" meets an armed government with no scruples, "us" loses.

Obama postponing or cancelling the inauguration would, rightly, be seen as a truly extreme act, possibly a coup. I doubt it's something he can even do, legally or otherwise.

Whatever remedy is needed is going to have to come from the people who live here. Obama, much as I admire him, can't "save us" from a Trump presidency.

We have a process, Trump won by that process. If the process was compromised by bullshit, more shame on us. There is not going to be a way to unwind it, or figure out who "should have" won if only X Y or Z didn't happen.

Barring truly remarkable events - a real smoking gun of collusion and conspiracy with a foreign government, obvious clinical insanity, some act of blatant and obvious criminality - Trump is going to be POTUS.

And if not him, Pence.

We have no political protocol available for any other outcome. For good or ill.

So it's time to deal with that. If we want things to be otherwise, *we* have to make them otherwise.

Fortunately, this is not Syria, and is unlikely to become Syria. We may find our own special way to be a disaster, though.

[Girl from the North Country]

And if not him, Pence.

Yes, that is the obvious corollary to all discussion of the impeachment or otherwise ouster of Trump. Many people I knew during the primary process said that Cruz would be worse than Trump as President, what is the feeling here about the relative appallingness of Trump versus Pence, as much as it can be gauged with what we know of both so far?

[Nombrilisme Vide]

Pence would be a predictable, levelheaded rightwing Republican extremist. He'd likely have less friction with the Republican Party so their agenda would advance more smoothly with less time wasted placating and pandering to Trump's ego, but there would be significantly less chance of the nation abrogating its treaty obligations or getting into an unprovoked war. So it would be little better - and indeed, probably in some ways worse - than under Trump, but a lot more predictable.

[wj]

Get some training in how to manage and respond to hostility and threats (or reality) of violence.

If memory serves, that kind of training was routinely available during the Civil Rights movement in the middle of the last century. The good news is, we already know how to do it. I wonder if anyone actually is doing it....

[wj]

When "us" meets an armed government with no scruples, "us" loses. See Syria.

It is certainly true (2nd Amendment fanatics to the contrary notwithstanding). But it also makes an enormous assumption: that the willingness to use that armed force runs past those at the top all the way down to the folks who would actually be on the front lines.

If met with violence, the troops would act. But while some (as we have seen in various police actions) will cheerfully act violently regardless, I question whether they would be a sufficiently large portion of the whole. (Note that we are not talking here about the police, who have one set of experiences from dealing with the public. We are talking about the military, who have a very different set of experiences.)