On the subject of immigration - I just fired the lawyer who was supposedly helping me get my mom a green card. She neglected to tell me that after the DHS approval procedure there is a whole other procedure involving State with more forms and waiting time. What she promised would take 90 days is going to take the better part of a year. I finally got through to someone at State on the phone yesterday after three days of trying, and discovered that not only does she have to have a medical exam to prove she's not Typhoid Mary, we have to also assemble a whole bunch of paperwork proving she can support herself.
At every stage of the process I've been told there's only one more step, and each time there's another. I think I have finally figured it out, but I need to still do a bunch more paperwork. Oh, and the only place they can do the consular interview is Johannesburg, SA. She's a 79 year old woman with a bad hip and chronic fatigue. The trip to Joburg will be so hard on her she'll need a day to recover before going to the interview. The lawyer told me that the interview could be done in Gaborone where she lives, but apparently not.
The whole process is so hostile and unpleasant it's no wonder so many people just come here illegally. And this is all for the widow of a US citizen, mother of two US citizens, and current citizen of the one of the US's closest allies. I can only imagine what it's like for refugees dealing with this whole mess in a second language.
and current citizen of the one of the US's closest allies
I didn't know you were Russian.
If you peel off my skin there's another, smaller me inside.
This is my covered dish of corruption. I'll need the pan back.
1 That's fucking enraging togolosh, I hope you get that worked out.
The women with the brain tumor who was taken out of the hospital by ICE agents a few days before they were going to operate.
The rescinding of those directives protecting trans students with regard to using the bathroom. Holy fuck does this enrage me. This is just after that study was published showing the decline in teen suicides after same-sex marriage was legalized. Can't wait till we see an uptick in bullying and suicides by trans kids who just want to fucking pee Jesus Fucking Christ.
3 is great.
4: I will march to the gates of hell for anyone who can enforce correct usage of the term "refute".
The administration moving swiftly along to target recreational marijuana states.
Also good luck to the Togotrioska!
I'm going to start peeing in the hallways outside bathrooms out of solidarity with my trans brothers and sisters. Perhaps we could have a piss-off where a bunch of protesters pound down coffee and beer until their bladders are nearly exploding and then just pee everywhere but the bathroom. The downside is someone has to clean up the mess. And getting arrested for public indecency and ending up on a sex offender list. Apart from that it's a solid plan.
As the radio contests say, "Void where prohibited."
Those two Indian programmers (and a bartender who was protecting them) shot in Kansas for looking Middle Eastern.
Perhaps we could have a piss-off where a bunch of protesters pound down coffee and beer until their bladders are nearly exploding and then just pee everywhere but the bathroom.
The piss off is a good idea. But where? RNC headquarters?
12: I don't know if the bartender was a bartender. The stories I saw just say he was a regular there.
I posted these in another thread but they probably belong here.
I thought this was well done, but a sarcastic duh is appropriate: http://theweek.com/articles/681360/president-trump-pitiless-warmonger
Hate is an appropriate response to this: http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/sanctimony-cities/
The deportation campaign is the opening phase of a mass pogrom of the undocumented population, likely to be rounded up in a for-profit gulag somewhere in the Southwest. You-Know-Who barely bothered to hide this on taking office except to cloak it in language about "bad hombres." I'm trying to refrain from lecturing anyone about priorities but I hope someone down there is prioritising what is potentially a modern American Holocaust.
OTOH the unfolding of the Russia scandal is fascinating. I've been watching it since it first broke during the campaign itself, and I didn't dare believe that it would reach Nixonian flameout proportions this quickly, nor that it would lead to actually serious investigations, both of which seem to be happening.
I'm also happy to see this happening.
The deportation campaign is the opening phase of a mass pogrom of the undocumented population, likely to be rounded up in a for-profit gulag somewhere in the Southwest. You-Know-Who barely bothered to hide this on taking office except to cloak it in language about "bad hombres." I'm trying to refrain from lecturing anyone about priorities but I hope someone down there is prioritising what is potentially a modern American Holocaust.
OTOH the unfolding of the Russia scandal is fascinating. I've been watching it since it first broke during the campaign itself, and I didn't dare believe that it would reach Nixonian flameout proportions this quickly, nor that it would lead to actually serious investigations, both of which seem to be happening.
I'm also happy to see this happening.
I don't know if the bartender was a bartender. The stories I saw just say he was a regular there.
Right. I guess I was confused because when he went to go hide from the law at Applebees, it was the bartender there he confessed to.
Huh. Not sure how that double-posted.
The off-duty LAPD officer shooting at a group of junior high students after grabbing and dragging one of them, that was my boiling-point moment. Also, the part where he, clearly lying, claims that the little kid he's dragging threatened to shoot him. "I said I'd sue you," cries the child. And anyone who's ever deal with junior high students knows that "I'll sue you" is absolutely their response to perceived unfairness, because they're still pretty optimistic about the power of the law. All this because one of the girls in the group cut across his lawn and he flipped out. A grown man who gets into it with kids! Pathetic, if it weren't so dangerous.
15: It's nice to know that it's sanctimony to object to Pence's support for conversion therapy and general awfulness in regards to gay people like me. (He's done a lot more than that article suggests.) I'll be sure to share that with my rather socially conservative family in Indiana - years of Pence have pushed them leftward on GLBTQ issues but that must just the reluctance to offend their shift managers described in the article.
Jeff Sessions revoking Obama's ban on private prisons. And 10,000 new ICE hires. I guess we now know where the extra capacity to manage the round-ups is going to come from.
And anyone who's ever deal with junior high students knows that "I'll sue you" is absolutely their response to perceived unfairness
No kidding. My kid is always going on about suing people. I don't know where he got that and I know he doesn't really understand how it works.
Junior Moot Court: "Bored Straight".
To the OP question, I'm not sure such a thread on a weekly basis adds value unless it comes along with an understanding that we try to keep off topic rage out of other threads, or something similar embedding its role as a pressure release valve. Otherwise it's just more space for our rage.
I hope 17.1 is hyperbolic but I worry that it won't turn out to be. I don't think it's clear enough to the average person that the real goal is not just deporting foreigners who didn't go through legal channels in the first place. What the likes of Bannon really want is something as close to 'peaceful ethnic cleansing' as they can get. And once you normalise treating large numbers of ordinary people like scum it becomes that much easier to move on to groups that you might have thought would have higher levels of legal protection. So they move on to revoking green cards on flimsier and flimsier pretexts, and who knows what the voters end up countenancing. Sort of the dynamic Arendt points out in Eichmann in Jerusalem where the Dutch started by making a distinction between Jews who are stateless and those who are Dutch nationals, but end up giving everyone up.
24: I picture it being an ICYMI type round-up of the most egregious acts of inhumanity of the week. But of course there are many other more comprehensive round-ups online, so this definitely isn't necessary.
The ICE on the plane. There is no goddamned reason for it. They have the person's name, they know he/she is on the plane, and they have no other way to figure out how to get him/her besides demanding papers of everyone on the plane? Give me a break. They're doing that so they get attention.
What do we call it? It's "security theater" at airports when we have to take off our shoes. "Deportation theater?"
I suspect (given demographics) that I have a lot of DACA students who may be afraid to come to class right now. Trying to figure out how to ensure they can get the material (I also teach the same class online) without drawing attention to it.
And it doesn't take a lot of enforcement actions, or a competent program of any sort, to instill widespread fear.
Kevin Drum this morning
Steve Bannon says that President Trump appointed all his cabinet members with a common goal: "deconstruction of the administrative state." Meaning what?Meaning the system of taxes, regulations and trade pacts that the president says have stymied economic growth and infringed upon U.S. sovereignty. Bannon says that the post-World War II political and economic consensus is failing and should be replaced with a system that empowers ordinary people over coastal elites and international institutions....Oh. Bannon is supposedly the brains behind the Trump operation, but this still sounds like gibberish to me. Combined with his calls for increased "sovereignty," "economic nationalism," and an epic twilight battle against Arabs for the soul of humanity, I assume this is just a politically correct phrase that describes his personal jihad against non-Christianity without quite saying so. In particular, Bannon's "deconstruction" appears to encompass a war against Muslims, secular humanists, liberal Catholics, and maybe Jews. But it's so crude to say that out loud, isn't it?
In any case, I eagerly await huge crowds of Trump supporters waving signs that say "Deconstruct the Administrative State!!!" What will the competing signs say?
"Deconstruct the Administrative State to protect my Medicare from the Government."
29.1: The formatting/style in that first line briefly scared me.
The text of the House ACA repeal/replace bill was just leaked. It's as fuckeristic as everyone thought; good news is it's DOA in the Senate because of what it does to Medicaid, had already been delayed from public consumption already because the CBO scored it horribly, and takes the unpopular step of taxing employer plans for revenue (the Cadillac tax revived). (Maybe also effectively dead in the House.)
The text of the House ACA repeal/replace bill was just leaked. It's as fuckeristic as everyone thought; good news is it's DOA in the Senate because of what it does to Medicaid, had already been delayed from public release because the CBO scored it horribly, and takes the unpopular step of taxing employer plans for revenue (the Cadillac tax revived). (Maybe also effectively dead in the House.)
27: The flight attendant asked said to have "papers" ready before shifting to "photo ID". Does "ICE" use the "papers" language? I've been asked for ID but never for "papers". I don't think I've heard the phrase except in movies set in Europe from 1933 through the fall of the Berlin Wall.
I don't know why I put ICE in quotes.
We'll know it's really hit the fan when they start phasing in the mock-German accents.
they move on to revoking green cards on flimsier and flimsier pretexts
They are already bullying people into signing away their green cards.
Other developments:
1) Several major cities are reporting that significant numbers of people are calling departments of human services to dis-enroll themselves from WIC, Medicaid, and other services to which they are legally entitled because they are afraid of being targets for deportation.
2) New federal policy is going to have many, many more people detained while waiting for their immigration court cases. Given the backlog in immigration courts (and lack of Congressional interest in funding more judges), a lot of people are going to give up and agree to "voluntary removal" so their families in the US don't have to live with their breadwinner in prison. Of course, removal puts them back in their country of origin with all of the issues that sent them to the US in the first place.
I suppose I already aired this at The Other Place but I enraged by the reports on Betsy DeVos' mixed fee-fees* about signing away trans rights. I'm, what, supposed to feel bad for her? Supposed to feel like she's kind of on our side despite everything? I do not, and I resent being in some way asked to.
*I hate this locution but it is the piece of mockery I need right now.
Saw this, Heebie. They're planning additional expert-witness-in-gerrymandering classes because the demand was overwhelming. The prof who started it is totally hot, though, so you should probably insist on the original classes.
Yes. I don't see why it was so broadly reported. That story was easier to find than factual details in stories of why she wasn't qualified.
40, 42 I don't believe it for one fucking second.
I don't think it matters if it is or not.
It matters even less than whether or not in his heart of hearts Trump is antisemitic or not.
It's amazing how much petty sniping and ass-covering is going on via the press. (Ivanka and Jared are totally trying to get Dad to do better, guys!) It's like everyone in the WH/Cabinet is spending 90% of their day trying out stories on reporters.
It definitely does not have to be a weekly series if 24 and 38 represent the general opinion!
I made pate de campagne this morning. It might be the grossest thing I've done before noon and definitely before a full cup of coffee. Anyway, the phrase should definitely be switched to you don't want to know how pate is made.
I spent some portion of last night talking to fellow Canadians about our fears which are so far from valid and need no sympathy but have gone from 0 to like 2 on at 100 scale. A lot of '...but not your type' around which (a) makes the racism clear; (b) reminds one of that poem. I'm super disappointed in the Canadian gov't's response (nothing), and the Canadian media's response (films of refugees walking over the border into the waiting RCMP's arms). The CPC is just horrific. What is wrong with the world/my country/the US?
Let's not forget the one where Trump wanted a trillion dollar infrastructure plan but was shut down by NEC director Gary Cohn.
41: Yep! I did apply, and I hope I get it, but I'm also not expecting to get in. I'll definitely do the regional version if so.
To the OP question, I'm not sure such a thread on a weekly basis adds value unless it comes along with an understanding that we try to keep off topic rage out of other threads, or something similar embedding its role as a pressure release valve. Otherwise it's just more space for our rage.
To respond a little more to this - I think current politics are so fundamentally distressing that I would never request people try to keep the rage out of other threads. If commenters would find that to occur naturally, then sure.
Put me down as in favor of weekly threads to rage about discuss the administration. There's a lot going on, and there is a lot that people can miss. I think that having some structure to the way we digest and analyze it all will help boost our shared understanding of the big picture.
The Welsh teacher (Muslim of course) who, en route to the US with his students, was taken off a plane in Iceland for no apparent reason. He had a valid visa and everything.
If you want to be more confused than outraged, but sure there's something fishy going on, Intercept on Manafort's finances. It was known he'd bought a bunch of NYC property while working for Yanukovych; the new part is that he took out multiple home equity loans for more than their total value, including one loan covering a previous one he had already gone delinquent on.
Reading between the lines, my best guess is more elaborate disguising of Russian payments. I know cash purchase of real estate is a common way to launder money because there are few procedural checks; maybe the same is true of debt service payments.
Totally personal, rather than political:
But I made a decision at work today. Totally reasonable one. One that is my right to decide.
Got an email (lots of other people cc'd) from one of our project managers* publicly over-ruling me, and telling everyone it was not my decision to make. Written in a properly dickish tone, as well. A piece of territorial pissing by the project management team.
----
Cue one call from me to the managing director and a long conversation in which it was made very clear that it very much fucking is my decision to make.
So, I've clarified that I can indeed tell them to fuck the fuck off. So, next week ...
* I am several grades their senior in the org chart. I'm senior to their boss. But there are strange 'matrix' responsibilities here where it's not _always_ my prerogative to over rule them. This was not one of those cases.
You should start the email with:
A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the age of Men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand! Men of the West!
What's driving me batty this instant? POLLEN. Fucking trees.
58: Do you get some kind of email vindication to all, or just quietly bask in victory?
60: My spring allergies which usually start mid-April are acting up. Admittedly we did do some dusting and I can't rule out that as the cause, but I'm not looking forward to three months of allergies.
Is the the politics thread? My Love Letter to the Deep State.
The text of comment 33 was leaked in advance in comment 32.
I'd certainly rather have these threads serve as a sort of heat sink for rage, and a deterrent to ubiquitous threadjacking. Not that it's ubiquitous, but I definitely have been less likely to click on threads for fear that it'll be another, well, WTFuckery.
Again, rage will out; I'm not asking otherwise. Just nice to have a bit more breathing room.
So okay, in one of the other places where I spend my time, people keep saying "it's clear that the Republicans are planning that there will never again be elections". My automatic response is that the US is a very large enterprise with, actually, fairly strong democratic norms, and it's pretty difficult - no matter the Reichstag fire - to simply declare that there won't be elections.
But maybe I'm wrong? People say it with such conviction.
Do folks think that the Republicans are planning on getting rid of elections and just Trumping forever? Is that what all this signals?
67: It would be crazy to think that there won't be national elections, not in my lifetime, barring an asteroid impact comparable to the one that killed the dinosaurs, etc. I think Republicans have every intention of gerrymandering even more freely, disenfranchising even more people, making it even harder for people who have the right to vote to actually exercise that right, completely removing state authority over every issue where it benefits them and devolving all power to the states where that benefits them... but elections will be held.
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return
Like Jack who yanked Sally's curls
Who then depantsed young Roland
Who purple-nurpled Tim
Then invaded Poland
The fossil record is actually not very specific about whether or not elections occurred near the K-T boundary, before or after.
Do folks think that the Republicans are planning on getting rid of elections and just Trumping forever?
It wouldn't surprise me if some Republicans(Bannon) want that, and may even be actively planning for it. And there a plenty that would go along with it, as long as they get theirs. The thing about Republicans is that the don't actually value democracy, except in as much as its a route to getting what they want.
But I also think the democratic norms are very deep - even to the extent that they are perfunctory - and you don't get to cancelling elections without violent oppression and an ensuing civil war. I don't think Chamber of Commerce Republicans would be down with that.
What 68 said. The closest thing to a permanent calamity I can think of would be some wild reduction of the franchise. But cancelling elections seems incredibly unlikely to me.
Also scam elections are pretty easy to hold. Way easier than cancelling them.
Yes, radical disenfranchisement is coming. Another tactic, which this bunch does not seem up to pulling off, is disqualifying or weakening possible opponents. A biased FEC that's happy to apply the letter of the law to one party say.
The permanent calamity is going to be a nuclear arms race in Asia.
On the plus side, I just got my son so that he reliably says both syllables when he says "horror". His long time reluctance to go beyond the first would really make it awkward to discuss the political environment.
In soviet America, elections stand in for you.
Re 62
I suspect an email will go round from the MD piblicly clarifying who is in charge, i.e. Me.
I'm not particularly status conscious but given it is me working the 12-14 hour days, rather than shuffling paperwork snd pising off every day at 4:30, trying to hold this shit together, I am fucked if I am going to be told by someone else who couldn't do this how we do our job.
70
There is conjectural evidence of screwage near the KT boundary, based on the presence of iridium in the accompanying strata, which suggests a rain of left-handed platinum-iridium wood screws, traditionally (at least at my alma mater) a signal of being, as they said, "screwed to the wall."
On the other hand, we have no evidence of party affiliation among dinosaurs, so this is all somewhat conjectural.
50: My husband is a white Canadian green card holder, but he's sort of scared. We were on the fence about whether he should go for US citizenship in a year and a half, but now we think it might be safer. And he is not at risk! But the fear is still there.
Enragement of the week is definitely Bannon's "deconstruction of the administrative state." One Dartagnan, at Daily Kos notes that this is straight out of the Heritage Foundation playbook.
The crippling or wholesale elimination of Federal agencies that ensure we receive such things as clean air, clean water, fair labor laws [etc. etc.], has been a goal of far-right "thinkers" for decades. Their rationale, propagated by corporate and industry-funded think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, has always been that that the existence of these "unelected" agencies represents a mortal threat to American "sovereignty and self-government." This is exactly the line Bannon was peddling at CPAC today. It is delusional, right-wing garbage.
...
"Deconstruction," in the pie-in-the sky fevered dreams of the Heritage Foundation, means exactly what it sounds like, as the report linked above [actual Heritage report] illustrates-- a process by which no Agency regulation for protection of the public may occur without Congressional approval.
This goes toward the REINS Act and related bills (Midnight Rules Relief Act and others) I was fussing about a few weeks ago.
One thing Republicans have excelled at in recent years is gaining control of state houses and governorships, and locking in effectively uncontested Congressional seats. One route to expanding the state-level gains they've made is to give Congress a lot more power.
I volunteer for an adult literacy program, and tutor a group of ESOL students once a week. (I am not a qualified and certified ESOL teacher, btw. Wouldn't these students be better off with a certified ESOL professional? Yes. But for a number of reasons, having to do with time, money, support, and the lack of all three, they don't have access to regular ESOL courses). Anyway, one of my students came to our tutoring session the other night, only to tell me that she couldn't stay. Was she sick? No, not that. She was too upset and worried to focus on vocab and verb tenses, because that morning she had seen a co-worker "taken away."
People are now living in fear; and I find it sickening and enraging. And also, I am so over this "we need to reach out to disaffected Trump voters" theme that has generated so many "we liberals need to blame ourselves" essays in the past few months. I'm sorry, but the voters who support these cruel and stupid policies are just crummy people who don't want to support any candidate, or any policy, that you or I would support, and who probably never will.
84- Yeah insulting them is bound to get you the electoral results you want.
Yep, it will. Because there are other people in the country too, and seeing someone standing up to the racist assholes who voted for Trump will inspire them to vote more often and more consistently.
I don't think name calling is gonna cut it. You want to stand up you better be prepared to kick some ass.
The appropriate word for their immigration policy is "terrorism." They are literally trying to scare immigrants into leaving and/or staying away. That's why you have these high-profile outrages like dragging people from hospital beds and checking papers on domestic flights.
87: Like that white guy who murdered the Indian-American engineer in Kansas the other day? A profile in courage for sure. I don't want that guy's vote.
White people as a whole are not yet a minority in America, although they will be before too long, but angry racist white men already are a minority, and boy do they ever know it. But the solution is not to cater to them.
West Virginia and Kansas aren't swing states. Wisconsin and Michigan are, but the solution for Democrats isn't to go to Racine and Macomb County and try to soothe the bruised fee-fees of the working-class white people™ there. It's to go to Milwaukee and Detroit and drag every black person in sight to the polls.
I agree with 91. Obviously, we should still support policies that would benefit WWC folks, including Medicare for all and an increase in the minimum wage.
I also agree with 88. I wonder how Ali Jr. fits into that: seems more Keystone than Nuremberg.
And the 2016 election wasn't decided in those areas anyway. It was decided in the UMC exurbs of Pittsburgh and Orlando, where Trump tapped into a latent enthusiasm among UMC white people that both parties had mostly ignored for decades because it's horrifically contrary to their expressed values. And it won him the presidency because regular people don't care about party platforms, and a huge number of them hold view that are horrific.
93 And a whole bunch of people thought Clinton was going to win, and so didn't go to the effort. And voter suppression worked. And the FBI. (I thought the Vanity Fair article that puts a share of the blame for Comey on Lynch was fairly persuasive -- they all thought Clinton was sure to win, and played their cards with that in mind.)
And as if on cue, there's been a fire at a mosque in Tampa.
Ogged is right in 88 and holy shit about Muhammad Ali Jr.
Fuck Trump and fuck the racist shitheads who voted for him and support this shit.
86. Wikipedia (my emphases):
"A few weeks after the election, the leader of the Unitary Socialist Party, Giacomo Matteotti, requested, during his speech in front of the Parliament, that the elections be annulled because of the irregularities.
"But after a few days, on June 10 Matteotti was assassinated by Fascist Blackshirts and his murder provoked a momentary crisis in the Mussolini government. Mussolini ordered a cover-up, but witnesses saw the car that transported Matteotti's body parked outside Matteotti's residence, which linked Amerigo Dumini, a fascist prominent in Mussolini's personal escort, to the murder.
"Mussolini later confessed that a few resolute men could have altered public opinion and started a coup that would have swept fascism away. Dumini was imprisoned for two years. On his release Dumini allegedly told other people that Mussolini was responsible, for which he served further prison time.
"The opposition parties responded weakly or were generally unresponsive. Many of the socialists, liberals, and moderates boycotted Parliament in the Aventine Secession, hoping to force Victor Emmanuel to dismiss Mussolini.
"On 31 December 1924, Blackshirt leaders met with Mussolini and gave him an ultimatum--crush the opposition or they would do so without him. Fearing a revolt by his own militants, Mussolini decided to drop all trappings of democracy."
So, maybe the answer is "a few resolute men", because I don't see where a strongly responsive opposition party is going to come from in the next couple of years. (Italy continued to hold sorta kinda elections throughout the Fascist period, BTW.)
Is gswift still around to tell us that all of this stuff is perfectly legit?
"Santa Cruz police: Homeland Security misled city with 'gang' raids that were immigration related
Police chief says department will no longer work with Department of Homeland Security"
I'm pissed off the DNC isn't even willing throw liberals a bone. Fuck you DNC!
Wait, I thought the complaint about the DNC election was that the (neo)liberals were refusing to throw leftists a bone. But then I don't really understand disputes that start by characterizing Tom Perez, of all people, as a corporate stooge.
100: They'll save liberals, but not the vegan liberals.
What's the vegan position on penis-enlargement bees?
As long as it means that Keith is still my rep, I'm not actually that put-out. I'm dubious about the actual amount of power that position carries anyhow.
Tom Perez's politics aren't the problem. As a person he's fine. Good, even. He's the least offensive member of that wing of the party. The trouble is that the power structure behind that wing is basically responsible for the really, truly shitty position that the democrats find themselves in today, with state after state in Republican hands. And, what they've demonstrated is that they still run the place.
We should have the wind at our backs for 2018, but if its that crowd still pulling the strings, well, I have some serious concerns.
On a more positive note, the Democrat won the special election today that determined control of the Delaware State Senate.
Delaware has shitty beaches compared to South Carolina. Why don't we take that state?
Yeah, maybe the people who drove us into a ditch should hand the keys over.
Also, with Perez busy, who's going to be Maryland's Governor now? Hogan is vulnerable, but it will take a heavyweight to take him down.
Apparently, now is the time to join the Democratic Socialists of America, according to a bunch of people who probably would think Ellison was a corporate stooge if anyone to the left of him was running.
To my mind, it's more important that the DNC just fucking finally named a new chair already. But I'm not a registered Democrat either, so what do I know.
I'm a registered Democrat but I haven't let them redo the circumcision.
It really has dragged out for months.
That whole thing where the DNC imploded five months before the general election doesn't seem to have turned out for the best.
Mostly, local elections make it important to be registered. Also, I don't have any tattoos so I can still be buried in a registered Democrat cemetery. If the pet cemetery isn't an option.
So much is nonpartisan here that I think the only thing I couldn't vote in as a non-Dem* was the Presidential primary.
*Not including Democratic party offices.
There are -- I kid you not -- big storm clouds brewing over the scheduling of my ward's DFL endorsing convention. I got dragged to one of those, as you may remember, a few years ago, and "shambolic" would have been too great an approbation to bestow. If any five people had had the same agenda, they could have totally overthrown everything. I just wanted it to be over so badly by the end. Put them suspected terrorists in a room full of aging south Mpls hippies who are inherently suspicious of organization, and they'll sing like canaries.
On the other hand, if they are serious about being The Tom and Kieth Show, I am down with that.
The DNC also elected the vice president of UNITE HERE as vice chair, btw. That plus Perez as chair suggests that they may be serious about engaging more closely with the activist unions, which is a good sign.
I'm sleepy. I'm going to revert to thinking about Salma Hayek.
In other good news, our state party chair got elected to the DNC Executive Committee. As I've mentioned many times before, our state party has been enormously successful at winning elections in recent years, so hopefully she can bring greater awareness of that success and the methods behind it to the national party.
NMM to Bill Paxton.
No pause play because it's enraged me as well as saddened me. Way to talented and way too young. A really great everyman actor. RIP
It will be hard to watch Independence Day now.
I lost track of his career after the 80s. I'll always think of him as Hudson from Aliens and whatever that vampire's name was in Near Dark.
I think of him from Big Love and also I confuse him with a bunch of other actors like Bill Pullman, apparently.
Is gswift still around to tell us that all of this stuff is perfectly legit?
Why, you readying another Holocaust reference? There's already a pogrom comparison in the thread. Go ahead and whip up a frenzy you ignorant fucks because in the end what's important is that you get to feel virtuous while bearing none of the consequences.
Do you even read what you link to?
"During the enforcement action, authorities encountered 11 illegal aliens at the operational locations who were detained initially on administrative immigration violations due to their association with suspected members of a transnational street gang," Schwab said. Of those detainees, one remained in custody Thursday, "due to his criminal history and possible ties to the ongoing investigation," Schwab said. He also said no children were left unattended during the investigation.
Flippo said six of the 10 detainees were taken to a federal facility. Of those six, five were released on GPS monitoring and one was released immigration forms. Four others were given the same immigration forms -- known as a G-56 -- at their homes, Flippo said.
For the readers smart enough to know 10 out of 11 detainees being released isn't Dachau 2.0, yes there is a good fight here, but it's probably largely going to be on the budget side. ICE can't just hire another 10,000 people and triple their holding facilities at a whim, it has to be in their budget.
Dachau 2.0 is a strawman and you know it.
Local law enforcement thinks they were misled by the feds. Feds say LLE should listen more closely and read between the lines. It's the old 'you knew I was a scorpion when you agreed to carry me across the river' defense.
For what it's worth gswift, I do not think that you are a nazi, nor do I think it is particularly OK for people to suggest that you are. Not that I agree with you or anything. For one thing, you could cut down on holding facility costs by getting rid of due process. That would reduce the length of detention dramatically.
I'd like to hear more from teo about the methods he mentions in 125.
I should say that my opinion about Perez vs. Ellison is completely uninformed, both about the candidates and the job, and based solely on my strong bias against the Democratic establishment.
And also I liked the idea of having a muslim front and center.
Also, gswift isn't a nazi.
Perez was a good Secretary of Labor. Ellison is a good Representative. They're both good. My only concern was that Ellison be able to continue to serve in Congress, so I'm happy.
Gswift isn't a nazi. He is, however, too close to the procedural impossibilities of what an incompetent administration is trying to do, to respond to the actual goal of the administration, which is to terrorize and terrify a vulnerable population. Terrorizing them is super cheap and not resource intensive.
I should say that my opinion about Perez vs. Ellison is completely uninformed, both about the candidates and the job, and based solely on my strong bias against the Democratic establishment.
Your 110 made me think about the old adage (analogy ban) that, "the backup quarterback is the most popular guy in town."
I had the thought, a couple weeks, that a world in which Sanders had been the nominee and won would have been vastly superior to the world that we're living in. But a world in which Sanders had been the nominee and lost would probably have been worse -- in that it would have discredited the left and youth wings of the party in a way that would have taken a while to recover from.
That isn't intended to re-fight the primary, I have no strong opinion about how much better or worse Sanders would have been than Clinton. I just thought that "worse" is a possibility.
111: Also, with Perez busy, who's going to be Maryland's Governor now?
Brian Frosh. (Sorry, I haven't read beyond 111 - maybe someone already said this.) Granted, Frosh is being coy about running, saying he's 'considering running for reelection as Attorney General'.
Salma Hayek
On-topic because Mexican and Middle Eastern.
She'd have to move to Maryland, but yes, I don't think it would be wise to count her out.
Since this is the political thread, allow me to vent for a moment. This morning I watched a Sunday show focus group with miscellaneous voters in which several respondents mouthed GOP talking points. The one that got to me was this: 'Trump is too draining the swamp, that's the regulatory state that has a bunch of unelected bureaucrats (tm) telling everyone what to do all the time, something that exploded with the last administration.'
(Note how close this is not just to what Republicans have been saying for years, but to Bannon's "deconstruction of the administrative state".)
Were I running one of these focus groups, I'd find it desperately frustrating not to question such respondents: Well, these unelected bureaucrats are employees. They're hired to tell us e.g. what level of arsenic in the water is safe for us. What other arrangement would you like? Should members of Congress determine that? They're elected, obviously. But they don't have the knowledge to determine arsenic levels. They're not scientists; they'd have to hire people. And anyway, they're legislators; they pass the laws, but they don't carry them out: that's the Executive branch. And the chief Executive, the President, is obviously elected, but s/he doesn't know about arsenic levels either. S/he'd hire people to figure that out. That's the current system we have. What other system would you like?
Anyway. I observe that people are really unwilling or unable to think about things. Blow me away with a feather.
the actual goal of the administration, which is to terrorize and terrify a vulnerable population. Terrorizing them is super cheap and not resource intensive.
Exactly, so could we please not do that work for them with a bunch of online hysteria?
FM is correct that the removal of due process is a way to speed up the turnover and they've proposed extending that to people who've been in the country for two years rather than 14 days. I do think that's a winnable fight in court though.
This is a good article about the DNC race and the relationship between activists and the establishment: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/02/26/why-did-keith-ellison-lose-the-dnc-race/?utm_term=.478486e64f4f
Brian Frosh. (Sorry, I haven't read beyond 111 - maybe someone already said this.)
No, I think you and Spike are the resident Maryland politics experts.
That's the current system we have. What other system would you like?
One where nobody cares how much arsenic is in the water, because they don't.
I'm pretty sure people do care how much arsenic is in the water. That's my go-to example for just that reason.
I think this has the right perspective on the DNC race: https://medium.com/@MattBruenig/be-clear-about-what-happened-to-keith-ellison-78e31bad6f76#.wg1dsd98t
147 They don't care how much arsenic is in your water, parsi.
We're actually running this experiment in Michigan, right now.
150.1 is probably true. My argument needs an additional step.
That is to say: apparently my imagined citizen interlocutors are infants who somehow suppose that human beings in one state remain healthy with one level of arsenic, while those in another state may require another level. So these things should be set by the states: each state should therefore hire its own set of experts to set the level. Because that's more, um, efficient, and would be, er, cheaper.
Bleh. Anyway, I'm off.
Exactly, so could we please not do that work for them with a bunch of online hysteria?
I don't think posting/venting here is exactly drumming up a bunch of hysteria so much as it is discussing the underlying terror campaign.
I had the thought, a couple weeks, that a world in which Sanders had been the nominee and won would have been vastly superior to the world that we're living in. But a world in which Sanders had been the nominee and lost would probably have been worse -- in that it would have discredited the left and youth wings of the party in a way that would have taken a while to recover from.
This is good.
Rumble At The Museum:
http://www.startribune.com/shoving-match-erupts-inside-minneapolis-institute-of-art-one-involved-had-look-of-neo-nazi/414817964/
157: We're outraged in part because the election was stolen and in part because Trump is so beyond the pale destructive. I don't get how Clinton's moderate-ish-ness compared to Sanders' lefty cred has hardly anything to do with our fury.
You know, with Spicer's recent "check everyone's phone" stunt, I was just thinking that at some point, some leaker is going to get busted. They can't be shielded by the administration's incompetence forever.
I wonder what the administrations going to do when they finally catch somebody.
The one thing I remember from raising a baby is that if the shit is big enough, there will always be a leek.
I think they're all leaking.
Sure, but at some point one of the Bannon people is going to figure out how to get one of the Preibus people busted. Its going to be a shitshow.
They probably won't kill a white guy.
164: Cuckservatives are only technically white.
People who need people who need people who need people who are their wives are the luckiest people of all.
158: I was taking what NickS said to be more that if Sanders had won the primary but lost the general, the narrative of "we lost because we flirted with the left and we need to moderate" would be over the top. It's ridiculous now and it's infuriating; if there was even the slightest sliver of justification for it available it'd be disastrous. Already there's a tendency for party elites to go that way. (Those Dems that do should be primaried.)
I think protests would still happen, but there'd be less energy to them. Or maybe people would be more angry about being told by elite voices the Democratic party just isn't neoliberal enough, and there'd be more protesting? Clearly, I'm no good at counterfactuals.
If sanders had lost the general (which he would not of) I would not be arguing that we need to change nothing about our message going forward as the Hillary wing is doing.
dalriata's understanding is correct. I was thinking, apropos of the DNC election, of intra-Democratic politics. I think a Sanders nomination and loss would have significantly hurt the position of the left-wing within the Democratic party.
I think a Sanders nomination and loss would have significantly hurt the position of the left-wing within the Democratic party
I don't think the overall level of influence of the left would be much different than today, though... you would have to assume that it had been much more influential for Sanders to have gotten the nomination. So, maybe that influence would by now be on the ebb in that event, but it would be coming from a higher place.... end result would be probably about the same as today.
There would be shit ton of accusations about the hubris of the left, though, in a way that you don't see pointed at Hillary all that much.
Last film of the festival was Trumped. Spoiler alert: the guy fucking wins. It's so unbelievably depressing.
I'd like to hear more from teo about the methods he mentions in 125.
The main thing has been a serious effort to incorporate the Young Dems into the state party's decision-making structure, along with a reliance on the Young Dems to do GOTV for priority races. The Statewide Coordinating Committee, which is the governing body for the party as a whole, is structured so that each State House district has three members, one of which is required to be a Young Dem.
On the other side, the state Young Dems have a subgroup known as the Volunteer Coordinating Committee, or Volunteer Corps, who provide most of the "ground game" for the state party. Crucially, this group is largely autonomous and is not controlled by either the Young Dems or the state party apparatus. Group members collectively decide which races to target and go on to do the actual work for those races themselves.
This structure has been phenomenally successful over the past few years. Democrats now have control of the State House, and to some extent the governorship (it's complicated), and at the municipal level, which is officially nonpartisan, progressives have control of the Anchorage Assembly and mayoral administration. None of this was the case when I moved here a little over five years ago. Back then Republicans basically ran everything here.
173: But why does it work, esp. 173.2? Increased enthusiasm?
I looked it up. I'm too old for the young Dems here. It's a little confusing to tell which local party subgroup meetings I should attend, if I'm going to start doing that. The most likely one meets in a tavern and has a horrible looking website.
That does indeed sound 'tariat-appropriate.
I really like understated, fast-loading, blog pages.
Interesting, thanks teo. Seconding Mossy's question. Any theories?
Is there a middle aged Dems? I mean, youthful energy and idealism is all fine, but where can Gen Xers go to harness jaded realism as a force for good?
Yeah, increased enthusiasm, as well as a sense of ownership of the process because of the autonomy, AFAICT. Both the Young Dems and the Volunteer Corps are very deliberate about being welcoming and inclusive to anyone who wants to participate, which also helps. The Volunteer Corps does group volunteering with local non-profits in non-election seasons to keep building camaraderie, which is another factor.
131, 132, 137: The Trump administration's stated policy of removing many millions of people from life in America is monstrous. Carrying it out will require many monstrosities, large and small.
Green card update: The bastards want a certificate from the police in every place my mom has lived since age 16 certifying she's not a crook. She's lived all over Africa. This is going to be fun. Anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of interacting with third world police departments should try. Compounding things, for some reason her housekeeper stole her birth certificate and marriage license and has disappeared. It's like she's being punished for dedicating her life to helping poor people. If she was willing to lie she could be here on a visitor's visa tomorrow but good christian she is, she won't. The notion that immigrants are not properly vetted is risible.
On the plus side I get to sign a form asserting that my mom has never engaged in extrajudicial killings, prostitution, or narcotics trafficking. I'm taking it as an exclusive 'or' just to be on the safe side.
Sorry, togolosh, that's miserable.
The green card process seems like such a mess--my partner applied for an EB-1 almost a year ago, and we're still waiting for it to come through. Her employer only paid about a third of the cost and her lawyers did a terrible job of explaining how the process works. Her employer also screwed up her H1B renewal, although that finally got sorted out after several months of confusion. You would think universities do this often enough they'd get it right.