Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III Is Trump’s AG Pick

Today in bearing witness to things that are not normal, we note that outgoing US Attorney General Loretta Lynch will be replaced with a man deemed too racist to serve as a federal judge by the US Senate in 1986. Via TPM:

Sessions’ nomination will likely be met with opposition in the Senate. While serving as a U.S. attorney in Alabama, Sessions was nominated for a federal judgeship in 1986, but he was never confirmed due to past racist comments. He withdrew his name from consideration and went on to be the Alabama attorney general and later a senator.

During the 1986 hearings to consider Sessions, J. Gerald Hebert, a Justice Department prosecutor, testified about how Sessions talked about a lawyer representing a black client. Herbert said that he once told Sessions that a judge had called a white lawyer “a disgrace to his race” for representing black clients. In response, Sessions said, “maybe he is,” Herbert said. Herbert also told Congress at the time that Sessions had called the NAACP “un-American” because the group was “trying to force civil rights down the throats of people.”

An African-American prosecutor testified to Congress that Sessions had called him “boy” and once joked that he felt the Ku Klux Klan “was O.K. until I found out they smoked pot.” Sessions denied called the prosecutor “boy” but not the other comments.

Though Sessions is likely to meet opposition from Democratic senators, it’s not clear how Republicans will approach his nomination now that he is one of their colleagues.

Trump’s picks so far: a white nationalist for Chief Strategist, an Islamophobic nutjob for National Security Adviser, and a walking monument to the Confederacy in name and outlook as AG. He is who he said he was.

ETA: Appending my comment below: I don’t know what more Democrats need to know to conclude that the only proper response to the incoming administration is implacable resistance. They should have a convo with Rep. Lewis. He knows a little something about how to stare down racist goons.

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112 replies
  1. 1
    JMG says:

    On Jan. 20, the United States government becomes the avowed enemy of the vast majority of mankind. That isn’t promising for it or mankind.

    ReplyReply
  2. 2
    mai naem mobile says:

    Kay suggested in previous thread attaching voting rights bill to Sessions’ confirmation. Excellent idea.

    ReplyReply
  3. 3
    tobie says:

    I gather Pompeo’s in line for the CIA. His one claim to fame is a 48-page addendum he drafted to the House Benghazi report. Clearly a rabid partisan. Oh dear god.

    ReplyReply
  4. 4
    Betty Cracker says:

    @mai naem mobile: Agreed. Also, I don’t know what more Democrats need to know to conclude that the only proper response to the incoming administration is implacable resistance. They should have a convo with Rep. Lewis. He knows a little something about how to stare down racist goons.

    ReplyReply
  5. 5
    Oatler. says:

    I remember when Homer Simpson watched a donut being incinerated sobbing “This just can’t be happening!” Trump has burned my donut across the Rubicon or whatever. Also, wasn’t Jefferson Beauregard a Sweathog?

    ReplyReply
  6. 6
    Cacti says:

    Maybe Bernie or Liz Warren can be a character reference for him.

    He seems to have a lot of economic anxiety.

    ReplyReply
  7. 7
    Betty Cracker says:

    @Oatler.: That made me smile, which I needed. Thanks!

    ReplyReply
  8. 8

    Didn’t a Republican Senate already reject Sessions once over racist remarks? He was denied a Federal judgeship in the 80s I think. Doesn’t that matter any more?

    ReplyReply
  9. 9
    mkro says:

    No worries, Dana Millbank and Chris Cillizza have assured me that the Trump pivot is just around the corner

    ReplyReply
  10. 10
    The Dangerman says:

    #Calexit. And we’ll build a wall. Well, we want Vegas, too.

    ReplyReply
  11. 11

    J. Beauregard Sessions III sounds awfully economically anxious.

    EDIT: dangit

    ReplyReply
  12. 12
    Cermet says:

    Yet Hillary lost. Somehow these remarks by small handed dick head didn’t get enough attention to dem voters to be effective. Someone wasn’t spending their money well …the other didn’t need to spend thanks to our corrupted media.

    ReplyReply
  13. 13
    comrade scott's agenda of rage says:

    I work for an executive agency, thankfully not one that can be as politicized as DoJ or one that’s likely to be whacked (Dept of Ed). Nonetheless, once Cheetoh Donnie and the rest of the goons are installed, watch for the massive outsourcing. The Bushies were the first ones to really do this systematically across the gubmint but these people will do it on steroids in those departments that aren’t designed to implement a Brownbackian conservative agenda. We all live in Kansas now.

    None of this should surprise anyone. It’s to be expected. Of course our response should be implacable resistance but I doubt Schumer will get that memo. Nancy Smash has endured this before, I hope she remembers what to do.

    ReplyReply
  14. 14
    comrade scott's agenda of rage says:

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Didn’t a Republican Senate already reject Sessions once over racist remarks? He was denied a Federal judgeship in the 80s I think. Doesn’t that matter any more?

    No.

    Thus endeth today’s episode of One Word Answers.

    It happened in 1996 btw. Let the normalizing begin! Sigh.

    ReplyReply
  15. 15
    dedc79 says:

    @Major Major Major Major: One of the oddities of America – supposed american patriots naming their kids after some of our worst traitors

    ReplyReply
  16. 16
    Kay says:

    @mai naem mobile:

    Get something! Get something big! Chuck Schumer is supposed to be this tough guy ace negotiator. True, not true, who knows? Show us.

    A new voting rights law or no racist AG for you, conservatives. They all lied and said they’d pass one after Roberts gutted the one we have. GOP leadership is on record as promising that. We can have a better one now. Updated to cover their latest suppression schemes.

    ReplyReply
  17. 17
    Felonius Monk says:

    I am somewhat confident that some of Trump’s more egregious choices for cabinet positions will not make it through Senate confirmation. Then the fun begins because (1) it is doubtful they will have thought far enough ahead to have a backup candidate, and (2) Trump will become angry with the Repub Senate for not confirming his choice and that will begin a major shitshow

    Popcorn will be our friend.

    ReplyReply
  18. 18
    Weaselone says:

    @Cermet:

    Hillary spent the money on adds showing actual clips of Duke Daintydigits saying just this sort of crap. The problem is that political adds of this type simply are not that effective at convincing voters, especially without confirmation from actual news sources.

    ReplyReply
  19. 19
    SFAW says:

    @Cermet:

    We fucking get it already.

    Maybe there can be an auto-post-generator, so you’ll have even more venues to tell us — indirectly, of course — how much you fucking hate Hitlary. I’ll e-mail Cole, I’m sure he’ll get right on it.

    Maybe Alain can help, too.

    ReplyReply
  20. 20

    @dedc79: it’s not odd at all. These so-called patriots are still fighting the war of southern secession.

    ReplyReply
  21. 21
    Weaselone says:

    @Felonius Monk:

    I wouldn’t count on Trump’s picks not getting through the Senate. They may not have in 1986 even with a Republican majority, but the Republicans are different now, even many of those who were actually in the Senate in 1986.

    ReplyReply
  22. 22
    SenyorDave says:

    To any person who says that Trump is not a racist, GFY! How many GD examples do we need:
    1. The Central Park Five (I was in NY area during that time, the cit was on edge, and Trump was a fucking disgrace)
    2. Birther several years after PBO released his birth certificate
    3. Steve Bannon
    4. His general attitude toward African Americans during the campaign (you have nothing, no jobs, no education)
    5. His AG nominee couldn’t become a judge because he was too racist for the GOP back in the day!

    I want every Democrat coming out against this pick, if Joe Manchin can’t, let him switch parties.
    I want the NAACP, ADL, HRC (Human Rights Council), every group that cares about human rights making noise

    ReplyReply
  23. 23
    Gin & Tonic says:

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Doesn’t that matter any more?

    Nothing matters any more, comrade.

    ReplyReply
  24. 24
    Elie says:

    So those who voted for Jill Stein and Gary Johnson can now see the effects that they didn’t think mattered. Also anyone who stayed at home on Nov 8. I don’t have the stats on my fingertips but I read that Trump actually did better with Hispanics than Romney.

    Am I disappointed in what I see coming from this administration to be? I am not disappointed — I expected that which is why I worked to stop it — albeit unsuccessfully. What remains a great source of ongoing depression and anxiety for me is my fellow Americans — those who delivered our country into the worst kind of authoritarianism, most likely because they believed that black and brown people were getting too much. They voted to oppress and suppress the other so that they could feel good about themselves. I just don’t know how I can ever forgive them or forget this. I just don’t know what to do with the darkness in my heart…

    ReplyReply
  25. 25
    rikyrah says:

    Republican proposes charging anti-Trump protesters with ‘economic terrorism’
    The Hill

    Brooke Seipel

    A Republican state lawmaker is proposing a bill that would allow authorities to charge protesters with committing “economic terrorism.”

    Washington state Sen. Doug Ericksen proposed the bill Wednesday that would also allow authorities to charge protesters with felonies for a range of other crimes already on the books.

    “I respect the right to protest, but when it endangers people’s lives and property, it goes too far,” Ericksen said in a press release Wednesday. “Fear, intimidation and vandalism are not a legitimate form of political expression. Those who employ it must be called to account.

    “We are not just going after the people who commit these acts of terrorism,” he added. “We are going after the people who fund them. Wealthy donors should not feel safe in disrupting middle-class jobs.”

    The proposed bill would make protesting a class C felony should it cause any sort of “economic disruption” or “jeopardize human life and property.” Such a proposal would mean violators could face five years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both.

    ReplyReply
  26. 26

    @SFAW: I wrote an auto-Berniebot a couple months ago but it was too horrifying to unleash, you’re welcome.

    ReplyReply
  27. 27
    boatboy_srq says:

    Trumpence: Making America White Again.

    ReplyReply
  28. 28
    hovercraft says:

    Reposting an optimistic interview with My President.
    Obama Reckons with a Trump Presidency
    Inside a stunned White House, the President considers his legacy and America’s future.
    By David Remnick

    “This is not the apocalypse,” Obama said. History does not move in straight lines; sometimes it goes sideways, sometimes it goes backward. A couple of days later, when I asked the President about that consolation, he offered this: “I don’t believe in apocalyptic—until the apocalypse comes. I think nothing is the end of the world until the end of the world.”…..

    Even in the midst of what he can only see as a disastrous turn of history, Obama retained the uncanny capacity to view his quandaries as if he were drafting a research paper. “A President who looked like me was inevitable at some point in American history,” he said. “It might have been somebody named Gonzales instead of Obama, but it was coming. And I probably showed up twenty years sooner than the demographics would have anticipated. And, in that sense, it was a little bit more surprising. The country had to do more adjusting and processing of it. It undoubtedly created more anxiety than it will twenty years from now, provoked more reactions in some portion of the population than it will twenty years from now. And that’s understandable.”……

    How did he speak with his two daughters about the election results, about the post-election reports of racial incidents? “What I say to them is that people are complicated,” Obama told me. “Societies and cultures are really complicated. . . . This is not mathematics; this is biology and chemistry. These are living organisms, and it’s messy. And your job as a citizen and as a decent human being is to constantly affirm and lift up and fight for treating people with kindness and respect and understanding. And you should anticipate that at any given moment there’s going to be flare-ups of bigotry that you may have to confront, or may be inside you and you have to vanquish. And it doesn’t stop. . . . You don’t get into a fetal position about it. You don’t start worrying about apocalypse. You say, O.K., where are the places where I can push to keep it moving forward.”……

    …….Obama dismissed the notion that the Republicans had captured the issue of inequality. “The Republicans don’t care about that issue,” he said. “There’s no pretense that anything that they’re putting forward, any congressional proposals that are going to come forward, will reduce inequality. . . . What I do concern myself with, and the Democratic Party is going to have to concern itself with, is the fact that the confluence of globalization and technology is making the gap between rich and poor, the mismatch in power between capital and labor, greater all the time. And that’s true globally…….

    …….And I know how to build a bridge to that new social compact. It begins with all the things we’ve talked about in the past—early-childhood education, continuous learning, job training, a basic social safety net, expanding the earned-income tax credit, investments in infrastructure—which, by definition, aren’t shipped overseas. All of those things accelerate growth, give you more of a runway. But at some point, when the problem is not just Uber but driverless Uber, when radiologists are losing their jobs to A.I., then we’re going to have to figure out how do we maintain a cohesive society and a cohesive democracy in which productivity and wealth generation are not automatically linked to how many hours you put in, where the links between production and distribution are broken, in some sense…….

    ……And I think that, whatever shape my Presidential center takes, I’m less interested in a building and campaign posters and Michelle’s dresses, although I think it’s fair to say that Michelle’s dresses will be the biggest draw by a huge margin. But what we’ll be most interested in is programming that helps the next Michelle Obama or the next Barack Obama, who right now is sitting out there and has no idea how to make their ideals live, isn’t quite sure what to do—to give them resources and ways to think about social change.”

    “Veterans Day often follows a hard-fought political campaign, an exercise in the free speech and self-government that you fought for,” he said. “It often lays bare disagreements across our nation. But the American instinct has never been to find isolation in opposite corners. It is to find strength in our common creed, to forge unity from our great diversity, to sustain that strength and unity even when it is hard……

    It’s a long read, but worth it.

    ReplyReply
  29. 29
    Elie says:

    @Weaselone:

    We still have the filibuster. That is our hope.

    ReplyReply
  30. 30
    JMG says:

    @Elie: Actual vote totals do not confirm exit polls showing Trump doing better than Romney with Hispanics. Exit polls are the least accurate of all polls.

    ReplyReply
  31. 31
    rikyrah says:

    @Kay:

    tell the truth.

    ReplyReply
  32. 32

    At the gym this morning, a WWC guy assured me that Congress would never privatize Medicare because there’d be a revolt. I used to believe things like that, but if Trump is president, anything can happen.

    ReplyReply
  33. 33
    elm says:

    @Iowa Old Lady: That doesn’t matter anymore. In the 80s, the Republicans may have thought they couldn’t win elections with/despite naked racism. Now they know otherwise.

    ReplyReply
  34. 34
    SFAW says:

    @Kay:

    GOP leadership is on record as promising that.

    Well, in addition to normalizing bigotry and misogyny, Trump’s campaign also normalized all-lying-all-the-time, so it seems unlikely and Rethug would give two shits about being “on record.” Before this campaign, they could probably be shamed. But now? Joseph Welch would blow his brains out.

    ReplyReply
  35. 35
    boatboy_srq says:

    @Iowa Old Lady: when there were ACTUAL ETHICAL REPUBLICANS (however few), it did make a difference. That flavor of Republican got hounded out of the party a while ago (courtesy Gingrich, DeMint et al).

    ReplyReply
  36. 36
    WereBear says:

    @Kay: A new voting rights law or no racist AG for you, conservatives. They all lied and said they’d pass one after Roberts gutted the one we have. GOP leadership is on record as promising that. We can have a better one now. Updated to cover their latest suppression schemes.

    Yes a zillion times!

    No wonder we all need spreadsheets…

    ReplyReply
  37. 37
    catclub says:

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    watch for the massive outsourcing.

    So WDC and the beltway bandits will get even richer, the lobbyists for those beltway bandits will be even more influential – just what the rubes were voting for!

    ReplyReply
  38. 38
    Kay says:

    2014:

    But Clyburn said the vast majority of his colleagues were prepared to support a VRA fix that, while not perfect, was a step in the right direction. Sources familiar with talks agreed with that assessment, adding that it was important not to conflate outside activists’ stated opposition with any serious interest in derailing efforts on Capitol Hill.
    If a VRA rewrite fails to advance in the House, Democrats say, blame will rest squarely on Republicans.

    What’s the hold-up, conservatives? If you’re not racists pass a law to protect voting rights.

    Since when do people get the benefit of the doubt for years and years when they do nothing to counter the reasonable assumption they’re all racists? Am I supposed to ignore what’s right in front of me? The GOP Congress has agency. They’re adults. At what point do they ACT? Pass a law. Then we’ll talk about whether you get the benefit of the doubt.

    ReplyReply
  39. 39
    Mnemosyne says:

    Some idiot in my racist cousin’s Facebook feed posted a meme with a (white) soldier talking about how we all have to stop protesting this election because American soldiers died to protect our right to vote.

    I replied with a picture from the Edmund Pettis Bridge saying that those were the kind of people who actually died for the right to vote. I’m assuming I’ll get blocked for it.

    ReplyReply
  40. 40

    This administration keeps getting better and better. Now that David Duke lost his election in Mississippi, I guess he’d be a good fit for the E.E.O.C., or maybe the civil rights division of the Justice Department.

    ReplyReply
  41. 41
    WereBear says:

    Also, bouncing a new idea off of people:

    Many have begun to whine that they only voted for Trump for economic reasons, they’re not racist!

    Well, they can prove it. I have begun asking them: so…

    Will you repudiate your vote for Trump?

    Two in person responses were, “Uhhhh” and basically running away, the other got kinda gobsmacked and maybe I made a dent.

    Anyway, might come in handy at Thanksgiving for someone…

    ReplyReply
  42. 42
    boatboy_srq says:

    @Iowa Old Lady:Teahadis are in total denial about what the people they vote for plan to do. This is how Governor Voldemort could get elected twice despite all his ugly work in FL. They are convinced that all the things their candidates plan will only affect Those Other People© and that they themselves are automagically exempted from the effects.

    ReplyReply
  43. 43
    catclub says:

    @WereBear: so what, you can have all the laws you want but I doubt that AG would faithfully enforce them.
    Would probably spend the rest of his time appealing them.

    ReplyReply
  44. 44
    Another Scott says:

    Kinda OT, but election and “path-forward” related. TheHill:

    Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) won’t officially join the Democratic Party even though he was appointed to a leadership position within the Senate Democratic Conference this week.

    “I was elected as an Independent and I will finish this term as an Independent,” Sanders said at a breakfast Thursday morning hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

    Sanders has long caucused with Democrats as an independent. That has annoyed some Democrats as Sanders’s star has risen on the left. They are frustrated by his influence within a party that he refuses to embrace.

    Sanders on Wednesday was named chairman of outreach, a newly created leadership post designed to leverage his reach and popularity to engage working class and young voters in the political process.

    Much Mavericky.

    Kinda makes one wonder what the term “Independent” means to Bernie. :-/

    It’s not surprising, and I guess having him (mostly?) pissing out is better than the alternative, but still… And who knows, he might (maybe?) be able to do some good when he’s not taking time off to write a book and so forth.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (“No, I’m not bitter. What makes you think that?”)

    ReplyReply
  45. 45
    permafrost says:

    @Cermet: Congrats on your fascist getting elected, termite.

    ReplyReply
  46. 46
    Elie says:

    @JMG:

    Well that is one small comfort, I guess.

    Doesn’t do much however for the impact of all those people who actually did vote for him with enthusiasm. When I see what is happening, its hard not to remember that there are people here where I live, people that I know, who WANTED this. Its still a shock to me and is a deep hurt that I feel to my bones….

    ReplyReply
  47. 47
    catclub says:

    @Kay:

    But Clyburn said the vast majority of his colleagues were prepared to support a VRA fix that

    who is lying here? Clyburn or his colleagues? Either way, forget it, its chinatown.

    ReplyReply
  48. 48
    NotMax says:

    Repeating.

    Especially if you’re calling an R congressperson, remind them that Sessions is someone who Reagan backed away from and withdrew from nomination.

    ReplyReply
  49. 49
    Calouste says:

    So that means Rudy 9/11 is going to get Homeland Security then? Christie is obviously not going to get anything, he’d be lucky to stay out of jail (although he probably knows too much to risk him to sing). And what for Gingrich? State or Ambassador to the UN?

    You know that pretty much everyone who was supportive during the campaign is going to get rewarded.

    ReplyReply
  50. 50

    @hovercraft: I was very happy to see him talking about how massive automation is coming but it’s up to us as a polity whether we let that destroy the labor force or use it to equitable ends (presumably with taxation and redistribution).

    @boatboy_srq: one of my friends keeps posting memes about how it sounds like trumpets. My favorite was.

    God: “and the End shall be heralded by Trump/Pence…”
    John the Revelator, writing: “heralded… by… trumpets…”

    ReplyReply
  51. 51
    SFAW says:

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    At the gym this morning, a WWC guy assured me that Congress would never privatize Medicare because there’d be a revolt.

    At which point, you should have whacked him upside the head with a straight bar (you can take the weights off first), and shout “Are you a fucking moron? The Rethugs have been saying they want to do this for years, yet people keep electing them. Wake the fuck up!”

    Since you’re a “little old lady,” he wouldn’t dare hit you back.

    Well, actually, if he voted for Trump, he probably would. And then shoot you, just for good measure, as a way of expressing his economic anxiety.

    ReplyReply
  52. 52
    The Moar You Know says:

    Hey, that was 1986. Even conservatives were pussies back then. By 2016 GOP standards he’s a dope smoking liberal.

    ReplyReply
  53. 53
    catclub says:

    @boatboy_srq:

    Teahadis are in total denial about what the people they vote for plan to do.

    I am surprised I have heard as much opposition to blowing the budget through infrastructure spending as I have. Whether it is serious, I have no idea. I thought they would say we are in a crisis ( we are always in a crisis when they decide to spend money) and forget about all they said before about blowing up the national debt.

    ReplyReply
  54. 54
    SenyorDave says:

    I understand playing the long game, and trying to trade a VRA fix for approval of Sessions, but we are talking about having a racist cracker as the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. I think they should come out early and hard, bring up his background immediately. The damagae he could is incalculable, he will go after every group he doesn’t like and use the power of the police to destroy them. Think about how many times this happens on a state level, look at IN this election cycle.

    POLICE RAID INDIANA’S LARGEST VOTER REGISTRATION OFFICE FOLLOWING FRAUD ACCUSATIONS FROM GOP.

    I haven’t seen any follow-up, I suspect the story will just die. But they accomplished their goal.

    People died trying to prevent people like Sessions doing the sort of shit he will undoubtedly do.

    ReplyReply
  55. 55
    Kay says:

    There should be a condition for each confirmation. Another one could be we get a real investigation of the FBI agents in the NY office, including subpeonas for any communications with Team Trump. Half the country believe the FBI work for Donald Trump as an individual. They have no credibility. It needs fixed.

    ReplyReply
  56. 56
    catclub says:

    @Calouste: Even if Romney takes State, to try to give Trump establishment cover, I cannot imagine him lasting more than 6 months. Donnie loves to say “you’re fired.”

    ReplyReply
  57. 57
    Hungry Joe says:

    Five’ll get you ten* that the GOP will defend Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions III by braying about Robert Byrd’s once-segregationist past.

    * Confederate dollars

    ReplyReply
  58. 58
    catclub says:

    @Kay:

    There should be a condition for each confirmation.

    I think that ‘should’ is doing a lot of work here.

    ReplyReply
  59. 59
    Another Scott says:

    @Elie: There are a lot of surprising (to me at least, maybe to many of you) things being reported about exit polls. Maybe they’re right, but one does have to wonder: given the massive fail in the polling this year (Sam Wang says it was off 4-6% and that has never happened before in modern Presidental races), how much can we trust exit polls? We know they only talk to a tiny number of somehow “representative” precincts. But they don’t know a priori whether they will be representative of the final results or not.

    I’m not trying to say they’re wrong without evidence, but I think we need to be careful about them (and someone needs to ask these exit polling outfits to show their work to the general public).

    Learning the wrong lesson is at least as bad as not learning the lesson at all.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

    ReplyReply
  60. 60
    SFAW says:

    @Calouste:

    Christie is obviously not going to get anything,

    Trump might create the new position of “White House Concierge,” just for Cristie.

    “Go get me a Supermachogrande from Starbucks, NOW!”
    “Go get my shoes shined. NOW!”

    and so on.

    ReplyReply
  61. 61
    Couldn't Stand the Weather says:

    General Sherman said about Georgians back in 1863, “They wanted this. They will get it. Good and hard.”

    These low information Trump (forgive my repeating myself) voters will, too.

    No, I am not bitter. Just disappointed.

    End rant.

    ReplyReply
  62. 62
    Cckids says:

    @The Dangerman:

    #Calexit. And we’ll build a wall. Well, we want Vegas, too.

    Of course! Hey, if you’re leaving, we’re leaving.

    ReplyReply
  63. 63
    piratedan says:

    @rikyrah: and maybe the added bonus of losing their voting rights as a felon because of conviction?

    ReplyReply
  64. 64
    Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap says:

    @Hungry Joe: Both sides baby !!

    ReplyReply
  65. 65
    Ohio Mom says:

    @Iowa Old Lady: I hope you took his name, so in the awful event Medicare is privatized, you can find him and ask him how’s that working out for him.

    In my neighborhood there are a disproportionate number of families with kids with disabilities. We all moved here because the school system has fabulous special ed services, and we are crammed into this end of the district because that’s where the cheaper houses are.

    It always amazes me how many of these families are Republicans. I always think, To the extent that their kids are getting what they need, it’s because of the votes I made in favor of the people and taxes that will give them those things; to the extent that my kid doesn’t have what he needs, it’s because of them.

    I am so tired of saving them.

    This feeling may also be because I started calling the Republicans on the Oversight Committee, asking for a review of Trump — the Committee’s answering machine isn’t taking messages. I got up to number 6 of 24. Their staff people are the smuggest assholes. I don’t have the heart right now to continue. Back to doing the laundry and tidying the kitchen.

    ReplyReply
  66. 66
    Central Planning says:

    @Felonius Monk:

    Trump will become angry with the Repub Senate for not confirming his choice

    Objection. Assumes facts not in evidence.

    I think the republicans will just roll over for him and give him whatever he wants.

    ReplyReply
  67. 67
    hovercraft says:

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Didn’t a Republican Senate already reject Sessions once over racist remarks? He was denied a Federal judgeship in the 80s I think. Doesn’t that matter any more?

    No that does not matter. Those GOPers were sane, and could be shamed and embarrassed by their actions. This iteration of the GOP is so desperate for power and so afraid of the wombats it’s cultivated that they will confirm virtually anyone the Shitgibbon nominates. Have we heard how the Granny Starver feels about the likes of Bannon and Gaffney being elevated into positions of great power, of course not. They all knuckled under and helped this travesty to occur, none of them who were not out there on a limb denouncing the Shitgibbon have clean hands. Another quote from the article I posted at # 28:

    As we rode toward the airport, Obama talked about Trump. “We’ve seen this coming,” he said. “Donald Trump is not an outlier; he is a culmination, a logical conclusion of the rhetoric and tactics of the Republican Party for the past ten, fifteen, twenty years. What surprised me was the degree to which those tactics and rhetoric completely jumped the rails. There were no governing principles, there was no one to say, ‘No, this is going too far, this isn’t what we stand for.’ But we’ve seen it for eight years, even with reasonable people like John Boehner, who, when push came to shove, wouldn’t push back against these currents.”

    They will not offer any resistance, so we must.

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  68. 68
    Kay says:

    @SenyorDave:

    The governor of North Carolina is making blatantly racist accusations about “voter fraud” to discredit a close election. Remember him? The business-friendly moderate mayor who has turned into a raving Right winger?

    Voting rights are a gaping head wound. Bleeding. Conservatives get worse every single cycle.

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  69. 69
    boatboy_srq says:

    @catclub: There will always be resistance to SOME spending, and there probably are a few who remember what a mess Shrub made his first year or so. But there is a near-complete disconnect far too many experience.

    I’ve actually overheard back executives celebrating the imminent demise of Dodd-Frank and the forthcoming tax cuts – as if license to defraud and diminishing the tax base while the US still has a deficit were suddenly something to celebrate.

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  70. 70
    Ohio Mom says:

    @Mnemosyne: I’ve long told people that no soldier won me the right to vote, it was women in bloomers. Because it was.

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  71. 71
    LAO says:

    Since Trump’s election, I’ve learned a lot about myself. The news about Sessions would ordinarily throw me into a rage and lead to lots of ranting. But, instead, the constant drip of horrifying appointments and equally horrifying news, have left me totally numb. Another defense attorney asked me what I thought and I just shrugged.

    I fucking hate the electorate. I hate the Country we are.

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  72. 72
    Mnemosyne says:

    @Cermet:

    Yes, it’s a total mystery why Hillary lost in just enough states to give Trump the electoral college. It must have been the economic insecurity, or because she was a bad candidate. No other explanation at all. Nope.

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  73. 73
    D58826 says:

    @Kay: The election results were razor thin in Cooper’s favor and the result of votes found late on election night. There will be a recount and that will be controlled by the GOP. McCory will be reelected by hook or more likely by crook

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  74. 74
    JMG says:

    Flake of Arizona announced he’ll support Sessions. He is going to be confirmed. People of color to be subjected to police state. Also people like us. Also, Sessions wants to charge Clinton. Suggest Arizonans here call Flake’s office. Then picket it.

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  75. 75
    NotMax says:

    @catclub

    Probably figure all that’s needed is to cut the 136% of the federal budget allotted to foreign aid.

    “Idiots. All of them.”

    – Mrs. Peachum, The Threepenny Opera

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  76. 76
    Vhh says:

    @rikyrah: This will for when it is realized that it will apply also to wingnuy protesters.

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  77. 77
    Mothra says:

    Every word of that comes up in his confirmation hearings. Every word.

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  78. 78
    hedgehog mobile says:

    @Cckids: Colorado and New Mexico, also too.

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  79. 79
    Felonius Monk says:

    @rikyrah: IANAL, but I think this is pretty much unconstitutional right out of the box.
    I would preclude a union from striking. It would prevent an organized boycott of a product or merchandising scheme. Ete., etc. A law like this would have prevented lunch counter sit-ins during the 60’s.

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  80. 80

    In a snarky thread on Facebook one of my friends commented “Actually, it’s a popular misconception that the civil war was about slavery, but really it was about ethics in gaming journalism.” Lol.

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  81. 81
    Kay says:

    @D58826:

    I;m sorry to hear that. Shame we don’t have free and fair elections anymore, huh?

    He was the “moderate mayor of a city” in the New South, Mr. McCory, correct? One of the “good Republicans” we could all count on to tamp down the most regressive and racist conservative impulses? That worked out well. He’s now ranting about black people committing voter fraud to hang onto power.

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  82. 82
    sherparick says:

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage: A particular problem is that Schumer knows Trump and has received hundreds of thousands in campaign donations from him and his family (Son-in-Law Kushner is rich in his own right and he and his family have a long history of donating to Democrats in New Jersey and New York. That is why Kushner’s Dad ended up with a target on his back when Chris Christie was New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney.)

    Believe the autocrat. http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2.....-survival/

    Also, Matt Yglesias and Vox have decided its time to get SHRILL and HYSTERICAL: http://www.vox.com/policy-and-.....corruption

    @Elie: Well, yes, I guess there is a difference between the parties. Someone needs to send this flash to Glenn Greenwald and the fellows at Jacobins.

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  83. 83
    SenyorDave says:

    @LAO: I fucking hate the electorate. I hate the Country we are.

    I’ve come to the conclusion that most white people in this country are racist. Most are casual racists, embracing institutional racism and the like, but apparently a showman like Trump can get them to express their inner racist. The idea that the GOP will oppose him on Sessions is ludicrous. Even a supposed moderate like Snow will have no problem voting for Sessions.

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  84. 84
    D58826 says:

    @SenyorDave:

    and trying to trade a VRA fix for approval of Sessions,

    We will get the racist cracker but would not hold my breath that the other half of the trade will be honored.

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  85. 85
    Betty Cracker says:

    @Ohio Mom: Excellent rejoinder, which I am filing away for future use.

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  86. 86
    AliceBlue says:

    @SFAW:
    Speaking of hitting–has anyone else heard about the Trump supporter punching a Hillary supporter in the face at a Brooklyn restaurant a few days ago? Digby referenced it in one of her columns.

    I don’t understand why these people are still so enraged. They got what they wanted.

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  87. 87
    Kay says:

    BREAKING: President-elect Trump is nearing a settlement in the Trump University fraud suits in New York & California, a source tells CNBC.

    Hey Betty_ tell the people in Florida Trump screwed they won’t be getting any of this settlement because they have a corrupt state AG.

    California and NY protected their people from Trump Family robbery. The corrupt FL AG collects a pay check from the same people Mr. Trump robbed, with her blessing. Shame we have to pay these deadbeats. Can’t Ivanka and her husband put Bondi on The Family payroll?

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  88. 88
    catclub says:

    @AliceBlue:

    I don’t understand why these people are still so enraged. They got what they wanted.

    Now they are entitled. Worse. Anti-muslim, anti-latino hate crimes are up dramatically. Not a surprise to me.

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  89. 89
    LAO says:

    @Felonius Monk: This is my favorite thing about republicans. They scream and yell that criticism and scorn from private citizens violates their 1st Amendment rights to express their political beliefs. While meanwhile, what the state rep proposes in an actual violation of the 1st Amendment because it is premised on state action. I’m going laugh because I’m all cried out.

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  90. 90
    Mnemosyne says:

    @Another Scott:

    I will keep repeating this: I do NOT want Bernie anywhere near the levers of power unless we know for sure that he no longer speaks to Tad Devine. We really don’t need that idiot accidentally (or “accidentally”) telling the Russians everything about the Democrats’ strategy.

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  91. 91
    catclub says:

    @Kay: I am surprised. The Trump legal strategy is usually is delay, counterclaim, delay, delay.

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  92. 92

    @AliceBlue: @catclub: they didn’t get what they wanted. What they WANT is to punch women in the face with impunity. What they got is a president-elect who was a conduit for that rage.

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  93. 93

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Considering Sessions has spent decades in the Senate, his colleagues are not about to block him. They’re too cozy in their wonderful little circle of power, even the Democrats among them.

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  94. 94
    hovercraft says:

    @Cermet:

    Someone wasn’t spending their money well …the other didn’t need to spend thanks to our corrupted media.

    It’s funny how the problem with your theory about money being spent unwisely is contradicted by the second half of your statement. The media gets to broadcast their message for free. Their message this election was Hillary corrupt, e-mails, untrustworthy, any and every GOPer who wanted to go on tv to repeat and reinforce this media narrative was given a platform. Every Hillary surrogate who came on was asked to defend these points over and over again, every Shitgibbon surrogate went on brushed aside any questions about the Shitgibbon and then proceeded to hammer on the same media narrative. So no matter how she spent her money she was always fighting a two pronged battle, with the media and the other side both pushing the same narrative and talking points, no amount of money could fully combat that. And yet in spite of that she still nearly pulled it off, and I suspect she would have if not for the Comey letter. She withstood the attacks from Bernie, purity ponies, the GOP, even in their most divided moments they never took their eyes off of her, they spent four years attacking her and laying the groundwork for this, the Shitgibbon, and the media. Tell me who else could have withstood that and still come so close.

    So please STFU about how weak a candidate she was, she took all of those punches and is still standing, your guy whined like a baby at even the slightest of criticisms.

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  95. 95
    tobie says:

    @Kay:

    Can’t Ivanka and her husband put Bondi on The Family payroll?

    They have. She’s part of the transition team.

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  96. 96
    SenyorDave says:

    @Kay: I couldn’t imagine this going to trial, I hope the plaintiff’s lawyers used all the leverage they had once Trump won. I assume Trump will get some of his billionaire buddies to pay it, or steal from his charity. He sure as hell ain’t going to write a check.

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  97. 97
    Brachiator says:

    Today in bearing witness to things that are not normal, we note that outgoing US Attorney General Loretta Lynch will be replaced with a man deemed too racist to serve as a federal judge by the US Senate in 1986.

    i’m hearing on the radio that the racism problem was a long time ago, trust Trump, why so sensitive, what’s the big deal, he was joking, there is no racism in America.

    I’m also hearing stuff like: “You know who else was castigated for being totally dumb and unprepared? Reagan! And he turned out to be the most bestest greatest President Kind Grandpa that America ever had! Give Trump a chance!”

    @Major Major Major Major:

    What they WANT is to punch women in the face with impunity.

    It ain’t a punch in the face. It’s a grab in the p#ssy.

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  98. 98
    Kay says:

    i hate to break it to those outside NY and CA but we have lousy state lawyers. All they had to do was join the lawsuit and they could have gotten a settlement from the Trumps. We all know they’re too corrupt to go to trial. Of course he settled. He can’t testify under oath.

    It’s malpractice. They robbed their own citizens to suck up to Mr. Trump. They didn’t have to DO anything. Bondi could have sat on her ass lunching with lobbyists and shared the settlement. They’re bad lawyers.

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  99. 99
    catclub says:

    @JMG:

    Actual vote totals do not confirm exit polls showing Trump doing better than Romney with Hispanics. Exit polls are the least accurate of all polls.

    I saw an explanation of this. Exit polling typically takes place in swing districts, so the Latinos in swing districts are MUCH more likely to be wealthier than average, than the majority of Latinos found in non-swing districts.

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  100. 100
    NotMax says:

    @PaulWartenberg2016

    if so, dibs on the AL governor appointing Roy Moore to fill out the rest of the term.

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  101. 101
    Mnemosyne says:

    @Ohio Mom:

    Yeah, but this jackass was careful to put “men and women” in his Soldiers did everything! meme, so I didn’t just want to make it about mostly white suffragettes. That’s why I went for the Selma march.

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  102. 102
    SenyorDave says:

    @catclub: Eventually Trump would have had to testify. Besides, the judge had already strongly encouraged both sides to settle. My guess is he told the Trump people they would probably lose, and he told the plaintiffs that they would be better off financially by settling. As I said, just a guess.

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  103. 103
    Bobby D says:

    Sessions! JFC!!! It’s “all racists, all the time” with this bunch. Bannon, Sessions…everytime I think my emotional state is regulating and I’m psyching up to grind out and survive the next four years, they toss another racist in the mix. I just feel like screaming and crying. This is going to be far worse than I even imagined. I work in fed civil service in env protection…my life’s work goes buh-bye as the climate deniers and resource rapers take over the agencies tasked with being stewards of our lands (several of which I’ve worked for in my career). It feels like a surreal downward spiral and I can’t right the emotional ship.

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  104. 104
    Mnemosyne says:

    @Felonius Monk:

    A law like this would have prevented lunch counter sit-ins during the 60’s.

    And the problem today’s Republicans would have with that is … ?

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  105. 105
    Calouste says:

    @Another Scott:
    The polls for the 2015 UK General Election were off by 4-6%, leading to a narrow win by the right.
    The polls for the 2016 Brexit referendum were off by 4-6%, leading to a narrow win by the right.
    The polls for the 2016 US Presidential Election were off by 4-6%, leading to a narrow win by the right.

    Notice a pattern?

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  106. 106
    catclub says:

    @SenyorDave: I was surprised the GOP did not give him a delay ( by law!) until at least Jan 2021.
    Given that they insisted that cases against Clinton go ahead, and rank hypocrisy is what they do.

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  107. 107
    amk says:

    @Cermet: Congrats on your promotion as the latest bj troll.

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  108. 108
    Another Scott says:

    @hovercraft: Paul Ryan won’t pretend the GOP is unfied (May 11)

    “And now, Donald trump will lead a unified Republican government, and we will work hand in hand on a positive agenda to tackle this country’s big challenges.”(November 8)

    Words mean nothing to the GOP.

    They own it. They’re happy they own it. They want credit for owning it. Let’s make sure they get all the credit they want, and more.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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  109. 109

    @Calouste: the polling error in 2016 for the presidential election was just over two standard deviations. This might not have happened in modern presidential elections but by definition it happens around five percent of the time.

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  110. 110
    Betty Cracker says:

    My 18-year-old says she’s going to move to Canada. I told her 1) she’ll freeze her ass off, and 2) she should stay and fight back because this is her country. But honest to dog? I’d probably be thinking the same thing if I were her. I hope it’s just idle talk. We’d miss her.

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  111. 111
    gogol's wife says:

    @Bobby D:

    Try to hang in there. We have to survive this.

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  112. 112
    O. Felix Culpa says:

    @Major Major Major Major:

    it’s up to us as a polity

    I first read this as “us as poultry.” May the fowl make a noise, lest we become hens led to the slaughter.

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