Tweet du Jour

With thanks to commenter Joe Schmo at Joe.My.God.:

Oops!

This one's gone viral, but I have to post it here.

A crowd at Modesto’s City Council erupted into laughter when Don Grundmann, the co-organizer of a Straight Pride event planned for that California city in late August, slipped while arguing to the assembled chamber and councilmen.

“We’re a totally peaceful racist group,” proclaimed Grundmann, defending his cause and inspiring a facepalm from one councilwoman and gales of laughter and cheers from the crowd.

And the crowd went wild.

More Like This, Please

Democrats in general should pay attention to this: Sen. Sherrod Brown laying out what these tax cuts really mean:

Wow, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone explain how wretched the GOP tax bill is for middle America as well as Sherrod Brown explained it pic.twitter.com/m8ooxLGBab

— 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙆𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙨𝙨𝙤𝙣 ⚡️ (@Patrickesque) December 1, 2018

Via Digby.

2016: Parting Thoughts

Thanks to Balloon Juice.

Today's Must-Read: Useful Idiots

Paul Krugman (and why has this man never been appointed to a high-level government position? We need someone like him.) lays it out:

On Wednesday an editorial in The Times described Donald Trump as a “useful idiot” serving Russian interests. That may not be exactly right. After all, useful idiots are supposed to be unaware of how they’re being used, but Mr. Trump probably knows very well how much he owes to Vladimir Putin. Remember, he once openly appealed to the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Still, the general picture of a president-elect who owes his position in part to intervention by a foreign power, and shows every sign of being prepared to use U.S. policy to reward that power, is accurate.

But let’s be honest: Mr. Trump is by no means the only useful idiot in this story. As recent reporting by The Times makes clear, bad guys couldn’t have hacked the U.S. election without a lot of help, both from U.S. politicians and from the news media.

Let me explain what I mean by saying that bad guys hacked the election. I’m not talking about some kind of wild conspiracy theory. I’m talking about the obvious effect of two factors on voting: the steady drumbeat of Russia-contrived leaks about Democrats, and only Democrats, and the dramatic, totally unjustified last-minute intervention by the F.B.I., which appears to have become a highly partisan institution, with distinct alt-right sympathies.

He goes on from there, and no one gets away unscathed. Read it.

Footnote: The President's final press conference makes a nice coda.

Today's Must-Watch, Part 2

Elizabeth Warren takes no prisoners:

The look on Stumpf's face as Warren finished up is priceless. If looks could kill. . . .

Here's the background.

The manager instructed her to push accounts but not to tell the customers about the downfalls and fees of new accounts. "Make them read the paperwork." She replied, "But you know no one ever reads the paperwork." His response: "Exactly."

Quote du Jour

Today's Must Read

This post from Digby on Elizabeth Warren.

You Can Always Count on Bill Maher

There was so much stupidity in the news this morning I almost gave up, but then I ran across this:

At least someone is using his brains.

There Has To Be An Award For Things Like This

I < 3 Kathy Griffin:

Kathy Griffin had the extreme pleasure of bumping into Michele Bachmann at a political event; the two ladies recognized one another and when they started to speak an assistant filmed the exchange, supposedly for Bachmann's website. Kathy, always on top of her game, decided to ask the tea party princess if she'd attend a rally to repeal DADT — and when Bachmann said no, Griffin followed up with, "Were you born a bigot or did you grow into one?" Boom.

On the Bright Side

Nancy Pelosi is the only Democrat with balls:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi struck a combative tone tonight, rejecting the Medicare "doc fix" passed hastily through the Senate Friday until Senate Republicans allow a vote on jobs measures that have passed through the House.

"I see no reason to pass this inadequate bill until we see jobs legislation coming out of the Senate," said Pelosi in a statement.

I wish we could see this kind of cojones from the White House.

She's also gone after the Republicans in general on their corporate coziness:



Q: Do you think Mr. Barton should step aside as Ranking Member on the Energy and Commerce Committee? And do you think his sudden firestorm that's blown up around his comments represents kind of a turning point for the Republicans, and this attitude you describe of favoring big business?

Speaker Pelosi. A turning point for them supporting Big Business? They've always been on that track.

Q: Is this comment too far?

Speaker Pelosi. Well, let me just say that — that was one comment. I think it's important to note that it was not inconsistent with comments made the chairman of the Republican Study Committee — a part of the Republican leadership, Representative Tom Price. He said: "BP's reported willingness to go along with the White House new fund suggests that the Obama Administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style 'shakedown' politics."

So I think that Mr. Barton's comments fit comfortably among the leadership of the Republicans in the House of Representatives. It's up to them to decide who's in the leadership of their committees. But he is not alone in his association with sympathy for the oil companies.

As I said before, people in the Gulf are suffering from BP's negligence and recklessness. Republicans in Congress are apologizing to BP.

I <3 Alan Grayson

Why, oh why aren't there more Democrats like him?