Happy Thursday, Everyone. It’s all I can muster, bringing You a Higher Love.
Happy Thursday, Everyone. It’s all I can muster, bringing You a Higher Love.
Even though 3Chics Politico is written and curated by three women: Ametia, Rikyrah, and SouthernGirl2, I must nominate this as one of the most engaging blogs I've found. Devoted to politics and culture, these three shine a light on contemporary life with humor and spirit.
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aEi0Q2hCMrw
“…you know, he’s been great at getting himself elected…”
Harbored, resentfully spitted out and rehashed petty jealousies…at a public forum in his newly-minted capacity as deputy DNC chair….will only make a small, mediocre, unimpressive, self-aggrandizing, self-interested and undeserving deputy DNC chair look even smaller and even less impressive and undeserving in any party leadership role…
Somebody please buy some of these Democrats a clue…and the savvy necessary to deftly navigate and respond to questions that try to drag down the one universally popular and tried and tested politician in their midst…
Democrats at work…bad-mouth, blame and trash their own all while demuring and getting all reverentially mealy-mouthed when talking about the Putin-owned buffoon playing pretend in our White House that he and his oligarch puppets and white supremacist minders have hijacked, and are busy wreaking havoc on our democracy and country…
“… Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.) spoke Wednesday at the University of Minnesota, where he said that former President Barack Obama deserved some of the blame for the Democrats collapsing in 2016.
“Speaking of presidential politics, was President Obama responsible for some of the failures of 2016 and if so, how?” one of the moderators asked.
“Yeah, he was,” Ellison said.
Ellison, who serves as the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Obama could have been a better party leader.
“I totally voted for many things that he supported … But Barack Obama could have been a better party leader, and I think that the fact that he wasn’t has put his legacy in jeopardy,” Ellison said.
Ellison said Obama’s legacy will not revolve around the building that will be constructed to hold his presidential papers in Chicago…”
Someone needs to tell Keith Ellison that his slip is sloppily hanging out, and that this is not how you ‘rebuild’ or move the Democratic Party along…
This is precisely how to ensure that folks like Keith Ellison not only never have the credibility or clout to ever lead or influence – as he and his ilk so desperately and self-interestedly crave…it’s also the quickest way to lose interest, necessary support and buy-in needed to successfully unify, rebuild the party, and coalesce behind future candidates…
The stark petty jealousies these folks nurse will always be their undoing…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LZwhnCm0ed8
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/855223904566222848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefault%26f%3Dpragmaticobots%26t_i%3D58721%2520http%253A%252F%252Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%252F%253Fp%253D58721%26t_u%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fpragmaticobotsunite.com%252Fthursday-evening-thread-almost-the-weekend-wind-down-5%252F%26t_e%3DThursday%2520Evening%2520Thread%253A%2520Almost%2520the%2520Weekend%2520Wind%2520Down%26t_d%3DThursday%2520Evening%2520Thread%253A%2520Almost%2520the%2520Weekend%2520Wind%2520Down%26t_t%3DThursday%2520Evening%2520Thread%253A%2520Almost%2520the%2520Weekend%2520Wind%2520Down%26s_o%3Ddefault%26l%3D%23version%3D959f95a8085cc212026b5887b6967b09
https://twitter.com/IndieWire/status/855084897660284929
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/855215048809209856
https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/855205946221633536
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/855189368838991873
https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/855157055728095233
Please delete this post SG ⬆️⬆️…landed in wrong spot..
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/855157835424038912
https://twitter.com/jonfavs/status/855147218847678465
https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/855145103408680960
Senator Mazie Hirono put the racist backwoods Attorney General in his place. *BOOM*! And I’m here for it! Racist buffoon has no business as Attorney General.
https://twitter.com/maziehirono/status/855140104754667523
https://twitter.com/maziehirono/status/855139776701313025
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/855134054383050753
Choking her and dragging her down the stairs by the neck? I wish a mofo would. Bet he won’t do it again?
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/855131305234878464
Tee hee, Southern. I just love you! I know that no one would even THINK of putting their hands on you.Especially someone like him. (smile)
He doesn’t respect women whatsoever. And he sat at Fox and raked in millions bashing black people into the ground and harassing women.
Men like him think they can get away with treating women any kind of way because of their money and power. And then he’d retaliate against them if they didn’t go along. He really needs to go to jail.
Possible Evil Legislation Alert
https://mobile.twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/855009459676033024
https://twitter.com/TheDemCoalition/status/855097438591496194
The New Yorker
@NewYorker
The White House and the Pentagon were either deceiving Americans or just don’t know what they are doing. Or both. http://nyer.cm/n4rplYk
So much for all the effusive praise and touting of Mattis as somehow ‘honorable’…and as some ‘common sense’, knowledgeable ‘general’ who will bring sanity, clarity and ‘high-mindedness’ to what is for all intents and purposes, a complete farce…
I’ll say it again, anyone who’s willingly aligned themselves with, or joined forces on any level with the Putin-controlled, incoherent, ignorant, nepotistic buffoon and his merry circus of corrupt, incompetent white supremacists, is not only not honorable, but completely reprehensible and extremely dubious and suspect in my opinion…
Mrs. Maxine Waters ALL DAY LONG! Yessss
Ms Maxine is fierce!
https://twitter.com/politico/status/855094901863837697
Who are they fighting? They control the WH and both houses of the Legislative Branch….who is fighting them?
……………………..
White House is ‘gearing up’ for a government shutdown fight
04/20/17 12:58 PM
By Steve Benen
It’s one of those annoying details that the political world probably doesn’t want to think about, but current funding for the federal government expires a week from tomorrow. Without an agreement or an extension, the government will shut down at midnight, April 28.
The conventional wisdom, which I’ve largely believed, has said for weeks that a shutdown is very unlikely, but signals from Donald Trump’s White House suggest such an outcome is quite possible. Politico reported late yesterday, for example:
…………………………
The smart play is for the parties to quietly extend current spending levels, keeping their powder dry for the next big budget battle. Indeed, the real fight is likely to be in the fall, when the debate shifts to the next fiscal year, which begins in October.
But Team Trump is saying it doesn’t want to wait that long: it wants to fight now over funding in the current fiscal year. It sounds like GOP leaders are offering some modest, face-saving options for the president, but the White House is saying it wants more.
https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/855050571958583296
One of their vilest of men and his posters might be gone, but FOX ‘news’ is still a rat-infested stinkhole that continues to contaminate and damage the very fabric of society.
Worse, they’ve trained and now released – and injected some of their very worst into our mainstream media…including those women who are now being hailed as ‘victim turned heroes’, but who for years voluntarily, enthusiastically and gleefully participated in the evil, outright racism and sexism targeted at other women outside the FOX stinkhole..
As far as I’m concerned, Megyn Kelly – who’s bff’s with Michele Malkin, Greta Van Susteren, Gretchen Carlson, Andrea Tantaros etc, are just as vile and despicable and complicit as Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson etc…and any number of people who’ve worked and continue to work at FOX ‘news’ …and who have willfully for years, made a cushy living out of proudly inciting hate, destroying our democracy and unapologetically launching racist and sexist attacks specifically targeted at innocent folks..
https://twitter.com/CharlesPPierce/status/855100111709503489
https://twitter.com/OKnox/status/855101201615953920
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/855097744813416448
‘Trump amdministration’ has to be the most ridiculously laughable and most Orwellian and farcical of concepts ever…
https://twitter.com/TPM/status/855087666144182273
But will he get to ever enjoy it…
That one gets or has money does not in fact mean that one gets to enjoy it in peace..
Just ask Bernie Madoff who’s languishing in jail and whose two children sadly, are now both dead…one by suicide…
A corrupt, evil life lived exploiting and hurting others, and the consequent illgotten spoils that come of it, isn’t nearly always the end of the story..
Whether it plays out publicly or not, be assured that Karma always, always has its day…
Why Richard Cordray is still on the job at the CFPB
04/20/17 11:22 AM
By Steve Benen
In an era of Republican dominance, the future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is very much in doubt. Ask congressional Republicans which federal offices they’d most like to eliminate, and it’s a safe bet the CFPB would be the first agency most of them mention.
But at least for now, the CFPB still exists, and its director, Richard Cordray, is still on the job – a dynamic a Wall Street Journal piece recently described as “the greatest mystery in Washington.”
Why hasn’t Donald Trump kicked him to the curb? Let’s unwrap this mystery.
The way the CFPB is structured, its director is not just another member of an administration. Instead, when President Obama chose Cordray for the post in 2013, it was for a five-year appointment, which doesn’t end until 2018.
Trump, of course, would love to replace Cordray with someone who’d be far friendlier with the financial industry and less aggressive on protecting consumers, but as USA Today recently reported, “the law says the director may be removed by the president only for ‘inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.’”
The estimable David Dayen explained the White House’s dilemma this week.
From TOD:
CEB
April 20, 2017 at 10:35 am
Even when he and the ret of his gang are cleared out, we will still bear the shame and the responsibility because 62 million US voters willfully pulled the lever for him and less than 50% of the electorate did not even participate in such a crucial election. We are clearly showing the world that collectively we are all that many of them have said that we were for many years. Eight years of enlightened leadership are not enough to repair the sins of the past and to set a better future;this is the work of a generation or two. Now that more of us see the devastation that can occur when ruthless, ignorant, and greedy people are allowed to steer our ship of state into the shoals, we can get serious about shoring up the holes in our society, laws, and political systems that set the stage for this. All of our ugliness is now in clear view of everyone here and abroad; what are we prepared to do to change the tide? A-A’s and various Latinos (not the privileged Cubans) have tried to tell everyone, but no one believes anything until it happens to them and to those that they love and respect. To paraphrase the poem “They Came for the Jews”:
They came for the African-Americans, but I did not protest because I am not Black and they have served their purpose.
They came for the Japanese-Americans and I did not protest because I am not Japanese-American and I am a patriot.
They came for the immigrants and I did not protest because my people immigrated several generations back.
They came for Muslims and I did not protest because I am not a Muslim and this is a Christian nation.
They came for the Indian-Americans and I did not protest because I am not Indian and they are taking our tech jobs.
They came for the Sikhs and I did not protest because I am not a Sikh and I fear what I do not understand.
They came for the women who spoke out and demanded better treatment and equality and I d id not speak out because I am not a woman and because I am a woman who believes in patriarchy.
They came for working class white males and we were so blind with hate and animus that we voted for our own destruction and there was no one left to protest.
If true…no wonder they stuck with him as long as they did and paid out the lawsuits.
https://twitter.com/jonfavs/status/855069362507481088
https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/855066368714125314
Amerikkka looked away from O’Reilly predator ways because…. racism.
There’s also an immoral, sexist, women-assaulting/preying, megalomaniacal buffoon with a well-documented dubious history, now playing pretend in our White House and being cheered on and normalized …by the very same folks who not only tsked, tsked, but found the energy to endlessly rail against and forcefully pursue indictments against a certain comedian and actor named Bill Cosby…and have continued to not just destroy and erase whatever unrelated legacy he built, but have also without mercy, also gone after and essentially indicted his philanthropic phd wife of over 50 years…and have gleefully turned her into a pariah too…
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/19/17
Warren: Trump poised to deliver knock-out blow to middle class
Senator Elizabeth Warren talks with Rachel Maddow about following the history of the erosion of the middle class in the United States and the fight to protect the working class from Donald Trump’s agenda
LIZA
https://twitter.com/irin/status/855065229901869056
It is a horrific story, to be sure. They also apologized for what happened at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. I have a Facebook friend, an activist who has been covering Dozier and she took her grandkids to the Florida state capitol to hear these apologies. She’s been posting pictures of them all week.
You know, SG2, I believe these apologies are necessary and they have to be done to make these egregious acts an undisputed and fully documented part of history. And the hope is, of course, that we learn from history and we do better.
But we also see the lives that were wrongfully stolen and lives that were devastated and no one was held accountable. The real truth here is that for some there will be no real justice, and that is a hard fact to face.
Florida House apologizes for Dozier School for Boys abuses
Lloyd Dunkelberger News Service of Florida
4:34 p.m Wednesday, April 19, 2017
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state–regional-govt–politics/florida-house-apologizes-for-dozier-school-for-boys-abuses/7kwimfOvnZekwvUvzZRw1N/
The sheriff shot 2 of the boys and claimed they tried to escape when he just stopped the car, pulled them out and shot them. He killed one and the other played dead. It’s so horrific.
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/19/17
Erik Prince acted as Trump envoy in Russian meetings: report
Rachel Maddow shares reports that Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater and brother of Donald Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos met with Russian officials while working with the Trump team.
Roy Moore becomes the latest Alabama Republican to fall
04/20/17 08:41 AM—UPDATED 04/20/17 09:39 AM
By Steve Benen
When it comes to the state’s elected leaders, it’s been a rough 10 months for Alabama. In June, Mike Hubbard (R), the state’s former House Speaker, was forced to resign in disgrace after being convicted of multiple felonies. Last month, Robert Bentley (R), the state’s then current governor, was forced to resign as part of a plea agreement in the wake of his sex/corruption scandal.
And then there’s state Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore (R). The Alabama Media Group reported yesterday:
Moore’s term on the state bench wasn’t up until 2019, but the suspension is effective immediately, and it has the effect of ending his judicial career. Because of his age, AL.com’s report added, “he cannot run for the office again.”
Debate over pesticides enters Donald Trump’s ‘swamp’
04/20/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
At first blush, it may seem like an obscure, technical debate. The Associated Press reports that a four-year review conducted by government scientists of three pesticides – chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion – found that they “pose a risk to nearly every endangered species they studied.” Federal agencies are poised to issue findings on how to limit use of these pesticides.
The story takes on a broader political significance, however, when we consider what one of the pesticide manufacturers is up to. The AP explained:
As one might imagine, Dow is pointing to its own research, which is in conflict with the information compiled by government scientists.
If this sounds familiar, there’s a good reason. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s controversial far-right choice to lead the agency, decided two weeks ago to side with Dow Chemical – against the advice of the EPA’s researchers – on the use of chlorpyrifos, one of the insecticides in question.
Quick Takes: What’s Up With Pence’s Investigation Into Voter Fraud?
by Nancy LeTourneau April 19, 2017 5:30 PM
* Because Trump depends on our short attention span to avoid accountability for his lies, I’m going to occasional revisit the outrageous one he told about 3-4 million people voting illegally. His attempt to cover that one up was to say that he was appointing VP Mike Pence to lead an investigation into the matter. So what’s up with that? Here is the most recent report I could find. It’s from NPR over a month ago:
I’m loving Higher Love this morning….
https://twitter.com/Impeach_D_Trump/status/855063506625773568
Hillary Was Right. Trump Is Temperamentally Unfit to Be President.
by Nancy LeTourneau April 20, 2017 7:00 AM
Just as comparing Trump’s actions with things he has tweeted in the past shows a level of hypocrisy that is unparalleled in politics, an occasional review of what Hillary Clinton said during the campaign can show us how well she identified the risk this country would be taking if we were to elect him as our next president. Today I’m thinking of all the times she described Trump as “temperamentally unfit for the presidency.”
I was reminded of that warning when I read what Ryan Lizza wrote about “the continuing fallout from Trump and Nunes’s fake scandal.” To put this in perspective, it all started when the president became furious that AG Sessions recused himself from the Trump/Russia probe after it was revealed that he lied during his confirmation hearing about meetings with the Russian ambassador. In his fury, Trump tweeted that Obama had wire tapped him during the election.
We now know that at the time Trump sent that tweet, he didn’t even know the process for obtaining eavesdropping warrants from the FISA court. But in a fit of rage he made up a scurrilous lie about his predecessor and ran with it. What Lizza wrote picks up what happened from there.
So after the president lied, the White House mobilized to find something…anything…that would justify what he had tweeted during a burst of outrage. That is where former National Security Advisor Susan Rice comes in. As Lizza explains, she had to log her “unmasking” requests on a White House computer, which Trump aides had access to. They grabbed some of those intelligence reports, showed them to Nunes, and he told the press that he had seen “evidence” that Trump associates had been surveilled. The president and right wing media immediately announced that he had been vindicated and Susan Rice was accused of doing something criminal. Sebastian Gorka went so far as to say that Watergate was a little spat in the sandbox compared to what Rice had done.
As I wrote previously and Lizza now confirms, all of that was a lie too.
Mike Conaway Isn’t an Improvement on Devin Nunes
by Martin Longman April 19, 2017 3:30 PM
Do you remember the ironically named Arbusto Energy corporation that George W. Bush ran into the ground in the 1980’s? From 1981 to 1986, the chief financial officer of Arbusto was a former high school football star and personal friend of the future president named Mike Conaway. Conaway would later be the beneficiary of a controversial mid-decade redistricting effort that took place at Tom DeLay’s direction. It carved out a congressional seat that Conaway has occupied since January 3, 2005.
Now, Conaway may be a Bush family kind of guy, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know that the man who savaged Jeb for being “low energy” is still pretty popular with his constituents. So, if you thought that the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Trump’s Russia connections was going to be more robust with Devin Nunes having recused himself, you should think again.
With Nunes on the sidelines, Conaway will be calling the shots as the effective chairman of the investigation. And, as Ryan Lizza reports, the early indications are far from promising.
Despite his promises, Trump’s cybersecurity plan doesn’t exist
04/20/17 10:09 AM
By Steve Benen
Two weeks before his presidential inauguration, Donald Trump met with leaders of the U.S. intelligence community, who briefed him on the Russian hacking scandal. Almost immediately after the private discussion, Trump straight-up lied about he’d learned, insisting in a statement that intelligence professionals told him Russia’s operation had “absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election.”
The intelligence community hadn’t said that at all. Trump just made it up.
But in the same written statement, the Republican added that the nation’s cyber infrastructure is at risk and he announced that his team would produce new cybersecurity plan “within 90 days ” of his inauguration. A week later, he had a related tweet pointing to the same deadline.
Politico published an interesting status-check today.
It’s quite a fine-tuned machine, isn’t it?
Maxine Waters @MaxineWaters Apr 18
The President is a liar, his actions are contemptible, & I’m going to fight everyday until he’s impeached.
2,750 replies 18,395 retweets 57,843 likes
TRUTH
Maxine Waters @MaxineWaters
It can’t be lost in the chaos that Trump’s campaign is still under FBI investigation for colluding w/ Russians to undermine our democracy
855 replies 15,859 retweets 30,189 likes
Maxine Waters @MaxineWaters
Trump will not release his taxes b/c he has something to hide. He’s only out to enrich himself, his wealthy cabinet, & White House swamp
732 replies 7,576 retweets 18,649 likes
Benghazi Jim Halpert @Wilson__Valdez Apr 18
Oh look it’s Maggie “Don’t blame me I was just an innocent bystander” Haberman. Absolute trash.
2 replies 8 retweets 17 likes
Paul Krugman @paulkrugman
Note: When journos who hyped email pseudo-scandal pile on over HRC campaign errors, it’s partly CYA over their own role in Trump disaster
9:35 AM – 18 Apr 2017
304 replies 3,278 retweets 7,417 likes
Nate Silver @NateSilver538
It’s telling that there’s been *some* media self-reflection on how it covered Trump, but really none at all on how it covered Clinton.
350 replies 5,956 retweets 13,221 likes
The TV show Underground is back to taking a part of the soul as you watch. Last night’s episode was a reminder of last season, when it would take days for you to recover from watching.
Agreed. This show is stunningly, chillingly, laying out the Souls of Black folks, like NO OTHER.
CATO is Patty’s SLAVE-CATCHER! Poor Devi, he sold her Soul to those white devils.
Patty snatched Cato’s Soul-FULL STOP
It will take me until the Sunday to be over this episode. I don’t know if I can watch it again.
Good Morning, Everyone 😄😄😄
Good Morning, Everyone. Whew! I was SWEATING BUCKETS, from the flu & watching “Underground”
Clara, THO! Did Ernestine underestimate how angry she is with Hicks?
Underground had me shook. My nerves were shredded.