She smiled widely and then leaned in with genuine concerned and quietly pressed for details: “So what are you tired of?”
I couldn’t come up with an answer that seemed sufficient in the thirty seconds we had remaining before our takeout orders were ready (and honestly I didn’t feel right baring my soul surrounded by complete strangers in front of a full deli case) so I laughed and said, “Oh, you know!”—and quickly changed the subject.
But on the way home her question was still hanging there in my head: What am I tired of?
Hatred.
That’s it. I’m tired of hatred—like, really tired.
Carter Page
From Cato Institute senior fellow Julian Sanchez:
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing held shortly after the release of his scathinging report on the FBI’s investigation of erstwhile Trump aide Carter Page, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz had a telling exchange with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn):
Blackburn: Let me ask you this, how often do you find mistakes in a FISA Application?
Horowitz: This is actually the first time my office has done a deep dive into a particular application. We’ve done higher level reviews on the FISA process and have found various issues at a higher level, but this is the first time we’ve been able to delve in this way.
Blackburn: It’s a fairly fairly unusual occurrence?
Horowtiz: Let me put it this way, I would hope so.
Presumably Blackburn had expected a rather different response: That the embarrassing catalog of omissions, errors, and misrepresentations that the IG’s office found in applications for FISA surveillance of Page were extraordinary and unprecedented—suggesting some special vendetta against the Trump campaign. Horowitz’s discomfiting, candid reply deserves to be unpacked, because it implies at least three important points worth bearing in mind.
She’s vibrant, outspoken, mature (but not old), and has a fiery spirit that would allow her to stand toe-to-toe with the insults and misogyny remarks she’d undoubtedly get in a debate with Trump.
For me, her “politics” are agreeable/compatible so I could see voting for her.
Regrettably, she’ll most likely never get on the ballot. Even if she happened to move up in the polls, there are still far too many people in this country who are unable to accept a woman president (which is why I have strong doubts that Elizabeth will make the cut).
NBC News political analyst Jonathan Allen got checked on Twitter for taking an old Bernie Sanders clip out of context, as Sanders Communications Director Mike Casca warned Allen to “always watch the full video when you get pitched” opposition research.
In preparation for Tuesday night’s CNN/Des Moines Register debate, Allen tweeted an old quote from Sanders regarding deceased Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and suggested it might be a relevant indicator of inconsistency on Sanders’ part.
“Bernie Sanders voted for regime change in Iraq repeatedly before he voted against it. It could come up tonight,” Allen wrote, then added “‘Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator who should be overthrown, and his ability to make weapons of destruction must be eliminated.’- Bernie, ‘98″.
The MAGA’s voice and posturing have obscured the lines between fact, information and elevated ignorance to stupid and currently border on lunacy.
Ignorance Definition: Lacking knowledge about something or deliberate disregard for information regarding facts or events. (I’m calling stupid on this one).
Stupid definition: “slow of mind; obtuse, given to unintelligent decisions or acts; acting in an unintelligent or careless manner.” Example: Trump Rally.
We are all ignorant at times about issues, but choosing to remain that way is stupid.
Given today’s access to information, stupid is a treatable condition but comes with a caveat – responsibility.
At Bloomberg campaign headquarters, in New York, the campaign’s chief strategist, Harland Dorrinson, said that the poll numbers made it clear that “Mike’s ads are having exactly their desired effect.”
“If this many people are willing to vote for Mike to make him stop airing ads after he’s spent only two hundred million, imagine how many will vote to stop him after he spends another eight hundred million,” Dorrinson crowed.
The trial can’t begin until the House passes a resolution naming the impeachment managers. That’s Nadler’s job, and he will undoubtedly be lobbied by everyone and his dawg for one of those spots (Side bet: he will name himself and Adam Schiff, so the other spots are really the only ones unknown at this point), but he will take his time. And then the Articles of Impeachment goes to #MoscowMitch for his tender mercies.
Anyway, I’m betting that this thing doesn’t get any “Kinetic Action” (Hawt!) until after MLK Day, even if Pelosi does push the button tomorrow.
But, our Stable Jenius is taking things well in stride…
Sherrod Brown had it right with his slogan, “The Dignity of Work”. He was speaking directly to Trump’s disillusioned and infuriated voters. He didn’t speak down to them; he understood what they wanted and what they needed – good paying jobs. Joan C. Williams, author of “White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America” presents a compelling assessment of how the Republican Party led us to Donald Trump. In her 2016 essay entitled: “What So Many People Don’t Get About the US Working Class”, she retold this story, sent to her from a friend:
“The thing that really gets me is that Democrats try to offer policies (paid sick leave! minimum wage!) that would “help” the working class. A few days’ paid leave ain’t gonna support a family. Neither is minimum wage. WWC (white working-class) men aren’t interested in working at McDonald’s for $15 per hour instead of $9.50. What they want is what my father-in-law had: steady, stable, full-time jobs that deliver a solid middle-class life to the 75% of Americans who don’t have a college degree. [Now, about 66%] Trump promises that. I doubt he’ll deliver, but at least he understands what they need.”
Williams goes on to say: “I fully understand why transgender bathrooms are important, but I also understand why progressives’ obsession with prioritizing cultural issues infuriates many Americans whose chief concerns are economic”.
Today, ideas like: transgender bathrooms, opposition to tax-breaks for the 1%, breaking up the big banks, Russian espionage, or # MeToo, won’t make Donald Trump a one-term president because we’re drowning in identity politics and lack a unified message.
She wanted to compose music about the human experience, authentic music about real people. So she put ads in social media and haunted public places. She sought out and interviewed 100 people over three years. She based an album on those interviews, Running in Borrowed Shoes.
She later wanted to experiment with a more aggressive beat. She invented an alter-personality. As Hael, she created this a month ago.
Frances Langum watches the continuing drama of Fox News, so you don’t have to. In this week’s episode, Geraldo scampers back onto the plantation. He had been pretty upset at my President, frightened during the imminent start of WW III. But now that it’s over, he’s ready to join in blaming Democrats for the entire thing. Seems Trump was distracted by impeachment.
It is hard to avoid a suspicion that verges on certainty that my President initiated the crisis for political effect. Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger provides statistical evidence on two intertwined points. The public does not believe Trump claims that the killing of Soleimani made the United States safer. Any wag-the-dog strategy has not worked.
Tommy Christopher notices a Fox News poll that has bad news for Trump, but points out that viewers curious about what it shows would likely miss it on Fox. They would get the full story by watching MSNBC.
At The Moderate Voice, Evan Sarzin writes with empathetic skepticism about the money soaked Bloomberg campaign, attempting to answer: what makes Michael run? Does Michael Bloomberg really want to be your President?
Jonathan Bernstein sees the Republican party resisting the tide of history on healthcare. Opponents of Medicaid expansion are retreating in some places, losing in others. If Obamacare is overturned in the lawsuit Republicans are pushing, they will pay at the ballot box. They are in that box.
Libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara considers the question posed on quora. Why can’t libertarians name a single successful libertarian experiment in running a country? Michael dodges the question. Libertarians don’t try to run anything. They are against running things. A functioning government is, by definition, evil.
So is there a country, any country, with no functioning government, one in which libertarianism prevails?
North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz writes with familiarity and compassion about those living in grief, having lost a loved one. Well meaning folks compliment them on their strength in the face of pain. Those who maintain after that devastation, he says, are not paragons of strength or even virtue. Survivors just try to survive. I’m old enough to have gone through it a few times, and I have witnessed it as well. Pastor John is right.
The good Christians of Beltrami County have voted to ban refugees. PZ Myers explains the effect on the weather. You know, a few of my out-of-state friends had unkind things to say about bigotry here in Missouri after the Republican state legislature erected a bust of Rush Limbaugh in the State Capitol rotundra (No I’m not kidding). But even Missouri is on record as welcoming refugees.
M. Bouffant at Web of Evil joins in twitter combat. A free plant based meal is provided at the Golden Globes awards. Someone objects to typical Hollywood lack of choice. And our Web denizen points out the obvious, along with appropriate impatient insult.
