Despair is a sin. (Potus 45 Catch-all thread April 27, 2018)
April 27, 2018 6:07 AM Subscribe
Our Story so far: In the past day ( or 100 years ) Donald J. Trump called into Fox for a 1/2 hour and caused Robert Mueller to call W.B. Mason and order another bulletin board, spool of colored yarn, and box of thumbtacks.
This can't end soon enough, but take comfort in the fact that Mueller is doing everything right, and IN TIME, it'll all work out and our faith in our Nation will be restored.
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This post was deleted for the following reason: Alright, the people have spoken: they want a post with one or more external links as per usual. -- goodnewsfortheinsane
Pelosi's announcement seems especially tone deaf in a time when there is a large progressive wave fueled by anti-Trump sentiment.
I see a lot of people dismissing Cynthia Nixon primarying Andy Cuomo. I think these people are WAY out of touch with the feeling that the DNC status-quo isn't meeting expectations.
posted by mikelieman at 6:15 AM on April 27, 2018 [4 favorites]
I see a lot of people dismissing Cynthia Nixon primarying Andy Cuomo. I think these people are WAY out of touch with the feeling that the DNC status-quo isn't meeting expectations.
posted by mikelieman at 6:15 AM on April 27, 2018 [4 favorites]
It's like they think the goal is to get David Brooks to hold his nose and vote for a Democrat
posted by thelonius at 6:17 AM on April 27, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 6:17 AM on April 27, 2018 [4 favorites]
RTFA
posted by ericost at 6:18 AM on April 27, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by ericost at 6:18 AM on April 27, 2018 [5 favorites]
The Congressional religious-dude flap is highlighting the most plainly obvious problem with American Christofascism that American Christofascists seem completely oblivious to: Christianity is a big fucking tent. Right now, rightist Christians all seem to be on the same side only because they're in opposition to non-Christians/Christian Leftists. If they actually win that fight? They're going to have to put Gilead on hold for a decade or two for the intense internecine battles that are completely 100% inevitable in this scenario. Obvs the Catholics will be the first to go (Paul Ryan will pull a Mike Pence and convert to Protestantism before you can say "transubstantiation") but once that's accomplished? Speaking in tongues: yea or nay? King James or NIV? Full immersion baptism or nah? Ladies: do you cover your hair, and if so when, and if you do, with what? Etc etc etc forever.
It's almost as if not having a state religion of any kind is a pretty practical idea! Huh.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:19 AM on April 27, 2018 [20 favorites]
It's almost as if not having a state religion of any kind is a pretty practical idea! Huh.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:19 AM on April 27, 2018 [20 favorites]
This diary at DailyKos has a "insider" perspective on the DCCC biz from someone (fellow Kansan Chris Reeves) who I respect.
I can't really get with this part: "if someone didn’t tell him at this point “this is going to be really uphill and you are going to face difficulties” then the party would also be party to malpractice by failing to tell him the truth." As if the DCCC is doing this purely out of altruistic concerns for the candidate they are discouraging, and not also to make things easier for the candidate they've chosen to support.
I can personally understand and give benefit of the doubt to the whole of his argument, however. It only makes sense that the DCCC is going to support some candidates more than others, even if I don't necessarily agree with their choices.
posted by history_denier at 6:23 AM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
I can't really get with this part: "if someone didn’t tell him at this point “this is going to be really uphill and you are going to face difficulties” then the party would also be party to malpractice by failing to tell him the truth." As if the DCCC is doing this purely out of altruistic concerns for the candidate they are discouraging, and not also to make things easier for the candidate they've chosen to support.
I can personally understand and give benefit of the doubt to the whole of his argument, however. It only makes sense that the DCCC is going to support some candidates more than others, even if I don't necessarily agree with their choices.
posted by history_denier at 6:23 AM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
Scott Pruitt Is Forced to Confront Reality: sitting through his 6 hour hearing
posted by The Whelk at 6:24 AM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 6:24 AM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]
This is why I have long side-eyed any Catholic who got involved with them. And Mike Pence tries to say he's an "Evangelical Catholic" - whatever the fuck that is - so he'll be the first to go over.
Ryan is too busy worshiping mammon and the golden statue of Ayn Rand he's created to notice.
posted by asteria at 6:25 AM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
Ryan is too busy worshiping mammon and the golden statue of Ayn Rand he's created to notice.
posted by asteria at 6:25 AM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
So we're not even pretending to have links in the FPP anymore?
posted by everybody had matching towels at 6:28 AM on April 27, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by everybody had matching towels at 6:28 AM on April 27, 2018 [10 favorites]
Rightwing Catholics are one step above Israeli Jews in the "people Evangelicals treat like allies only because it's convenient but really think are more or less unpeople" rankings.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:30 AM on April 27, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:30 AM on April 27, 2018 [8 favorites]
I think these people are WAY out of touch with the feeling that the DNC status-quo isn't meeting expectations.
It remains clear that the DNC has not yet figured out that Trump didn't win because of Russian interference, or Comey, or all that noise, he won because people are really really angry about the status quo. The same blindness caught the GOP off guard in the primaries. I'm not sure the GOP has come to grips with it either.
Sure the outside interference played a role, but it should have been no contest, not close enough to matter. They continue to blame everything but themselves.
posted by Bovine Love at 6:30 AM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
It remains clear that the DNC has not yet figured out that Trump didn't win because of Russian interference, or Comey, or all that noise, he won because people are really really angry about the status quo. The same blindness caught the GOP off guard in the primaries. I'm not sure the GOP has come to grips with it either.
Sure the outside interference played a role, but it should have been no contest, not close enough to matter. They continue to blame everything but themselves.
posted by Bovine Love at 6:30 AM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
The problem with the DCCC is that they haven't earned the benefit of the doubt at all, and Hoyer hasn't been exactly burning up the airwaves in defense of progressive outcomes let alone candidates.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:31 AM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by zombieflanders at 6:31 AM on April 27, 2018 [3 favorites]
Agin, as a Catholic, Ryan doesn't speak for me. The guys with white collars and blacks clothes speak for the hierarchy, and Ryan's definitely not even one of them.
American Catholicism is, indeed, a big tent, and a lot of us are over on one side of it, away from the folks with one-track minds and hands curled into fists.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:34 AM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
American Catholicism is, indeed, a big tent, and a lot of us are over on one side of it, away from the folks with one-track minds and hands curled into fists.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:34 AM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
It remains clear that the DNC has not yet figured out that Trump didn't win because of Russian interference, or Comey, or all that noise
I understand that you're confident that this is true, but I think it's worth noting that Nate Silver, whose job it is to make sense of the data, believes that Clinton's analysis of the causes of her loss is largely accurate. In particular, the Comey letter (and subsequent coverage) was decisive. Here is 538's exhaustive analysis of what happened. Here's an extremely TLDR version.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 6:37 AM on April 27, 2018 [8 favorites]
I understand that you're confident that this is true, but I think it's worth noting that Nate Silver, whose job it is to make sense of the data, believes that Clinton's analysis of the causes of her loss is largely accurate. In particular, the Comey letter (and subsequent coverage) was decisive. Here is 538's exhaustive analysis of what happened. Here's an extremely TLDR version.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 6:37 AM on April 27, 2018 [8 favorites]
The whole Ryan pushing out the chaplain thing feels like Pinocchio trying real hard to kill Jiminy Cricket so he can keep playing on Pleasure Island.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:37 AM on April 27, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:37 AM on April 27, 2018 [6 favorites]
Like I tell people, I don't vote Democratic because of the Democrats. I vote Democratic because of the Republicans.
posted by Naberius at 6:38 AM on April 27, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 6:38 AM on April 27, 2018 [9 favorites]
This thread is off to a terrible start. Can we reset. Or go back to the old one?
posted by Catblack at 6:39 AM on April 27, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by Catblack at 6:39 AM on April 27, 2018 [7 favorites]
The Comey letter coincided with the final dip in her polls and her defeat, but as a whole I think the Swiss cheese model of catastrophe applies.
posted by Artw at 6:42 AM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 6:42 AM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
I am also in favor of deleting this thread and starting a new one with actual links to actual stories.
posted by Tevin at 6:42 AM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Tevin at 6:42 AM on April 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
It remains clear that the DNC has not yet figured out that Trump didn't win because of Russian interference, or Comey, or all that noise, he won because people are really really angry about the status quo.
Can we please stop pushing this line? Trump won because of bigotry. There is documented evidence of this. To the extent that his voters were driven because of opposition to the status quo, it was because it was shifting in a manner where the privileged were losing power in society.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:43 AM on April 27, 2018 [14 favorites]
Can we please stop pushing this line? Trump won because of bigotry. There is documented evidence of this. To the extent that his voters were driven because of opposition to the status quo, it was because it was shifting in a manner where the privileged were losing power in society.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:43 AM on April 27, 2018 [14 favorites]
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It's rather amazing that the idea of the Democratic Party intervening on behalf of centrist candidates and against progressive candidates has gone in less than 48 hours from being derided as a conspiracy theory to being acknowledged as perfectly normal and appropriate by Democratic leadership.
Pelosi's announcement seems especially tone deaf in a time when there is a large progressive wave fueled by anti-Trump sentiment. Seeking to actively discourage younger, more progressive, Democrats from voting seems to be counterproductive, but it is apparently the official policy of the Democratic Party now.
posted by sotonohito at 6:11 AM on April 27, 2018 [9 favorites]