it takes a village: “We won’t stop until we get results.”

 

our democratic dugout

 

 

 

From twitter world….. We want answers on This Russia Stuff

 

WHY NOT? YOU HAVE A SPY BOAT THIRTY MILES OFF OUR SHORES…

WE WANT ANSWERS.

A QUICK WAY TO GET A TORRENT OF INFO IS TO FURTHER ANGER THE 

INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

 

  THIS IS NOT GOOD.

 

MUST READ THREAD

 

https://twitter.com/davebernstein/status/832046022918623233

SHE HASN’T BUDGED OFF HER POSITION THAT TRUMP WON’T LAST FOUR YEARS

 

 

All we can do is ask our elected officials to leave it on the field. we don’t expect Miracles, just do the best they can with the hand they were dealt.

 

 

 

      this is your Thursday thread

 

75 Comments

  1. Morning reese…Thanks buddy…Love the Dugout we have though I still say you should add CA Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom..Reminds me a lot of JFK without having Marilyn around…:)

    Morning Meese…61 and sunny this morning here in Tampa…Sure seems like the Cons want to keep deflecting instead of doing their jobs they were elected to do….To protect us from this Russian invasion headed by Trump would come to mind seems like.

    • {{{Batch}}} – so good to see you. The Rs were elected to destroy the government and funnel all the tax revenue into the pockets of their masters. They are doing their jobs. Definitely breaking their oath of office, but doing their jobs. As are the Russian infiltrators in our government. Their jobs aren’t good for America or Americans, but they are doing them.

      • {{{{fitz}}}…I don’t think they are doing the jobs they were elected to do. They were elected to serve the citizens that elected them not to cover each others ass and to pander to the lies and misdirection Dump spews out with every breath.

        • They aren’t doing the jobs we Dems elect our reps to do. Remember their constituents hate the federal government and want to see it shut down. EPA, OSHA, Clean Water… all that is “government overreach” impinging on their freedoms. That’s why it’s so hard to take the Rs down – the media-created meme is gawd’s word writ in stone for the R voters. They do not accept facts, the government is the enemy, so they elect people who promise to shut it down – and intend to keep those promises.

    • Good morning, Batch! I don’t have any problem including Gavin. Before the Big Cheeto, I would’ve said he doesn’t have enough foreign policy experience. Now? He has more than enough (and he’s quite intelligent). It’s time to run a west coaster for the big job.

      • Good morning to you too dear…Newsom comes across very well any time I’ve heard him speak about many different subjects so he’s definitely someone to keep an eye on.

    • Great to see you, Batch, listened to any nice jams lately??!!

      LOVE me some Gavin Newsome, totally want him in the conversation.

      Upper 30’s here in NE Wi but heat wave coming- 50’s, maybe a 60. Would enjoy it if I weren’t so worried about what that bodes for summer ;(

    • Yeah, I’m looking forward to voting for Gavin for our next CA governor! I think he’s got the chops to take over from the sui generis Jerry Brown.

  2. {{{rto}}} – that’s it. Won’t stop til we get results (or get stopped – which would be temporary but not helpful). Reality-based people ask of their reps no more – and no less – than they ask of themselves. To do the best they can for the people, nation, and Constitution they represent in the given situation with the information they have at the time.

    At work of course so in and out. Back when I can. {{{HUGS}}}

  3. 31 in chicago metro going up to 41. Hello all! Trump is declaring war on whistleblowers…. not a good idea if I’m him especially if the whistleblowers are from the i.c.

    • Yeah I thought it was foolish during the campaign for trump to go after the IC and I think it’s even dumber now…

    • Love that you used the word Whistleblower. In my mind it is the appropriate word, leaks are when a 3rd party is given or hacks data and ‘shares’ it. A Whistleblower is a member of the organization, has something to lose and is motivated by ethics to call out their organization based on something they themselves have seen. My 2 p.

      • {{{CBD}}} – yup, that’s why there are whistleblower protection laws (however poorly enforced).

  4. Hi, Reese, and mornin’, Meese!

    Love the dugout, Reese, and thanks for the morning thread! Was tickled to see that you included the Castro twins.

    Y’know, I’m wondering…if the Rethugs refuse to investigate Thing’s ties to Russia, will it take the intelligence community to blow this thing out of the water? I for one do not see how this state of affairs can continue indefinitely. Sooner or later, something’s gotta give, and I would prefer a massive “reveal all” from the i.c. to a terrorist attack on the USA.

    Stay warm in Chicago, Reese! I’ll check in and out as my day goes on.

    • {{{Diana}}} – pvl45 and the Rs want an attack. It would give them cover for practically anything as it did for W. But insulting and going after Intel was a mistake on their part. Intel isn’t taking that lying down and they are likely to do the “reveal all” first. (And possibly to know where the attack would be coming from and stop it in a way that does not give the Rs credit before it happens.) There are changes that can be made to the Intel departments but those changes have to be sub rosa – and acceptable to those departments – or they aren’t going to work.

  5. Thanks, rto…outstanding as we’ve come to expect from you (but hey, no pressure!) Like bfitz, I’ll be in and out today due to work. And I do need to spend some time over at the orange today. I’ve been slowly working on messaging everyone in the group over there, and the end is in sight. I’ve tried to break it up a bit so JanF isn’t buried in requests to be added here, but as the Village Over There is winding down fast, I need to finish that up.

    A cold 25 degrees here today, which is actually seasonable, but the warmer winter makes it seem really cold. The forecast is for high 50s on Saturday; the flora and fauna must be even more confused than us bi-peds.

  6. Morning Meeses! It’s chilly but sunny here on the Texas Gulf Coast. My comment to VonsterTX today – “What’s with the seasonal temperatures all of a sudden?” “I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” was her reply.

    Thank you reesetheone for the great post, espousing the principles we Villagers all agree with! I take heart from hearing sane language coming from sane people. It’s a serious antidote to the wackiness flying all around.

    Imagine the startlement the Intelligence Community must feel when they realize they might end up being looked upon as the saviors from this treasonous group of bandits masquerading as our new administration! They’re probably not used to being hailed as the good guys.

    And now for coffee and toast with apricot jam!

    • Thank God for them. Real patriots. I mean, they’ve done shitty stuff in the past, and have given us a black eye more than once, but they hate the fucking Russians even more than we do and are just as determined to take the Trump regime down.

  7. Good Morning, fellow Pond dwellers. 53 and partly cloudy right now. It’s supposed to rain off and on all day. We shall see. Thank you for the lovely bouquet of topics, Reese. I would like to see more action from the Republicans but can understand why they’re dragging their feet. Once tRump is gone, so are the chances to destroy the social net. If we’re really fortunate, tRump will take the party down with him. A girl can dream, can’t she?

  8. Warning: mini-rant ahead

    When we started eliminating civics from curricula, we ensured we were raising a nation of numbskulls!

    I just saw someone posting on my Indivisible group FB page that WE HAVE TO START PROTESTS AT OUR SENATORS’ OFFICES!!! THEY ARE NOT GOING TO STOP GORSUCH’S HEARINGS!!! WTH is the matter with our SPINELESS SENATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Repuglicans wouldn’t hold hearings on Garland. Why are they giving in?!!!?!!!?!!!!

    So I simply asked, “How are supposed to stop the hearings?”

    Response: The same way the Republicans did.

    It’s possible I’m unaware of some arcane Senate rule which would allow the minority party to stop the hearings, but I rather doubt it. So, am I wrong? Is their a rule or strategy which would enable us to do what the Republicans did to Garland? Or is this just more of the ZOMG! reactionary stuff that I’ve come to expect from our allies and probable political neophytes? /end rant

    It does make me think that one of the more valuable tasks we could undertake is civics classes for the newly-awakened. I don’t have the teaching skills or the knowledge to do this, but I think I’m going to start making inquiries with some of the groups I’m working with to see if anyone does. A one-day Civics Workshop would be better than nothing…

    • I agree I saw this rant by a FB friend the other day, and I was hold on, wait up.. the Dems can’t block the cabinet nominees. They don’t have enough votes. And they’re not doing nothing. They’re pulling all nighters, going to the press, and banging away on it day after day. They can’t block the nominees, but they are doing everything they can to make sure we all know how corrupt those people are.

      • Reid blew it up to ram 329 judges through…. so far court is the only thing slowing Trump Down…. Thanks Harry!

    • I would ignore them as they like protesting more than getting stuff done. Garland gets a hearing IF most on the far left make a binary choice in November.

    • I hope you mentioned to these people that the Dems don’t have to votes to block this?…don’t have control of the Senate?…

      • Since this is someone I’ve not actually met, I pointed out that I am far from an expert on Senate rules, but I couldn’t think of any way the minority party could block the hearings, although there was still a slim-but-real chance we can block the confirmation…and that I welcomed the chance to learn of any ways our senators could block the hearings. So I mentioned it while trying to avoid being downright confrontational.

        There’s just so much ignorance out there. I don’t mean ignorance as a pejorative; I mean ignorance as “that which has not yet been learned.” It’s exhausting to see this day-in and day-out, but I do. I’m going to be sending emails to some key people at area Democratic clubs and broach the subject of workshops. Maybe bringing in someone from the League of Women Voters is another way to start. I’m just spitballing now, but I see this as a real challenge, because it’s a distraction and an energy drain to combat this sort of reactive outrage based on lack of knowledge. I also think it would help some of the political neophytes to be less reactive, and that can only be good for their ability to resist over the long haul.

        • Morning Sherry…I’ve got to go back to the tried and true with the ignorance you’re talking about…They keep listening to your’s truly, the wind bag independent, Bernie Sanders. He rants and raves about one thing and one thing only and that’s the worldview of his starry eyed supporters. They have no idea about the workings of Gov’t because they don’t listen to anything but what comes out of Sanders mealy mouth.

          • Srsly! you can’t educate people who react to facts with outraged bluster about how you’re part of the Establishment.

        • When I was in high school one of my English Teachers said this about some students who didn’t do an assignment because they were out sick…”ignorance is no excuse”…we all laughed then but now I get it…it was up to the student to educate themselves as to any work that was assigned while they were sick…really this is a big problem with people today…I had a lot of friends who get most of their news via FB and other social media and never try to check the sources…I totally agree about the reactive outrages especially when based on lack of knowledge…

        • I think that’s all you can do. Just have a response ready, that explains the situation, and how the government actually works. Then launch into an alternative action that can be done to move the ball forward. Then maybe a gentle admonishment that attacking your own team only weakens the strength of Dem leaders, instead you should be bragging about what they’ve accomplished so far and issuing threats to Repubs and Trump of what’s yet to come.

          This shit is ridiculous. Republican voters are ride or die for Trump. He’s failing left and right and centre and looks like a loon and they’re still not criticizing him. Yet so-called Dem voters are tearing Dems apart because they can’t magically have a majority and magically give them what they want? You know what leftier than thous, ya fucked up, Clinton wasn’t good enough for you so you bitched about her and gave us Trump, just fucking keep complaining about Dems and see where it gets you.

          And on another note, good eye on noticing and analysising the comment sections. I’ve been noticing them more and more lately. They’re infested with trolls and bs artists, and I think it’s really hurting the message and brainwashing people.

    • I hope you mentioned to these people that the Dems don’t have to votes to block this?…don’t have control of the Senate?…

  9. Good morning, dear Meese. I don’t know the exact temperature in MPLS/ St Paul this morning, but “not cold” is about right.

    • When you’re a follower of TYT and think hyperbole is the way to get clicks. (And either Perez or Ellison [not sure which now] responded: We’re friends.) mic drop

      • UGH on TYT. They are only a couple steps removed from InfoWars at this point.

        Okay, maybe a SLIGHT exaggeration, but…

        • Right? I used to watch them, then they completely lost their mind! It was like watching a car wreck happen, as they slowly slid into the Slanders cult.

  10. Howdy RTO and fellow Villagers!

    RTO, thanks for the great post!

    I forgot to mention, spent Valentine’s Day at my local Democratic Club meeting. It’s such a great club. Lots of women. Lots of reasonable people. We got a bunch of new recruits, which is also good, as long as they actually participate (we had a flood of people come in when we were doing our Presidential endorsement to try and throw things to TJSFV but HRC still got over 75% of the vote. Now we have a rule that you have to have attended meetings for two months before you get to vote).

    Things are really heating up here in SD. People are feeling that Issa is very vulnerable — Doug Applegate will be making another run — and I talked to one Democratic Central committee guy (very interesting fellow, family is Chaldean) who thinks we might even be able to seriously challenge Duncan Hunter. Hunter has been weakened by scandal, for one, and he is ducking town halls, for another, and we might have the right guy to run against him.

    All this is very exciting!

    • {{{OtherLisa}}} – howdy right back. Great news in SD – what i refer to a “an opening to slip through the lines” – go for it! Every seat we swing is 2 points closer to taking back Congress. (Wish I had such news. Here in bloody-red AR all our candidates are bloody-red and so is the money that supports them. Hard to get anybody who has the time and money to run against them so we mostly don’t. sigh.)

    • I’d like to see Issa go. We’re still trying to get rid of our Tea Party lovin’ Rep. Mimi Walters. Sigh.

  11. According to twitter, trump is having a presser for the ages…and not in a good way.

  12. I just finished reading Joy Reid tweets on the press conference. Trump has gone off the deep end. Where are my tranquilers?

  13. Reese, My bro, great write up, don’t you need a 75 plus year old someone to add to the bullpen, / S

    • Well, trump will reinforce his message about the media on saturday in florida… it will be effective. Only a united democratic front slows that down.

    • Why he stays at Fox is beyond me. He clearly has a moral center, unlike some of the other folks there.

Comments are closed.