My answer in both cases is the same: count the votes, manually, because in both cases I think (at least, in Stein’s case, I hope) that they’ll prevail.

When I was in high school, the thing my parents were most proud to show to whomever I was dating at the time was the photo in our family album of the two of them at some film festival in Bal’more, with my dad beaming between Waters and Divine. My dad also proudly recounted how he would visit Edith Massey’s junk shop…

Playing Devil’s advocate here, I think he’s badly mangling the way laws over conflict of interest work. That is, the President is, in fact, exempt from them.

The thought of all those rabid, vicious assholes turning on him en masse makes me kinda giddy.

Good catch. Thanks.

I’m hoping that the whole part at the end, where she sleepwalks into cutting a bitch and then wanders into a hotel and gets caught by the white devils, is part of her plan. But from her expression, it really didn’t look like she was planning that at all. But her following per pocketwatch made me think she was planning…

But then, it’s not like Teabaggers really give a shit about gay youth being cast out on the street. Hell, they’d probably applaud it as part of good ol’ healthful conversion therapy to beat the sin outta them.

I was just starting to feel better after going on a run this morning, and then I read the story about a Gold Star family getting booed by first-class passengers on some flight this weekend, and then I remembered that this motherfucker is going to be sending our nation’s young men and women into combat — some of them…

Ugh, this shit is so tiresome. Here’s the thing: the Office of the First Lady has a budget, a staff, a whole shitload of interest groups who have urgent matters that the national profile of the First Lady could greatly aid by talking about; in short, a national platform with which to advocate for matters of importance…

I am reminded of that speech in The Contender (badly mangling a remark by Napoleon on character and fitness for command) which, in the film, went like this:

wasn’t pretty white enough

You seriously don’t think that the modern Presidency involves a role for the (fine) First Spouse which the President’s spouse is expected to fulfill? If Michelle Obama had come in and just spent her days in the residence reading books, can you even imagine what a racist shitstorm would have ensued?

God, this brings back memories. Used to be a union rep for the grad students on my campus. The Chief Steward was caught negotiating with the State away from the negotiating table, and we promptly called a vote of no confidence. The CS immediately called the state union chief — the grad students union had merged with…

I can’t imagine Melania has any intention of fulfilling the duties— or even an idea what they are — of being First Lady.

The DNC and Third Way Democrats make me think of an abused partner who keeps staying with the abuser in the vain hope that he/she might change someday. I think they decided decades ago that nobody in this country actually likes Democrats (despite that their policies are preferred by large majorities the moment you…

You might not remember the 2004 election, in which Bush and the Republicans won by razor-thin margins, and then immediately declared a “mandate” and proceeded to ram through every awful bill they could, entirely on party-line votes (and then sometimes only by pulling procedural shenanigans to force their fence-sitters…

btw, the always-superb “Yo, is this racist?” blog has helpfully posted a Syllabus for White People to Educate Themselves, and it is excellent reading to (ugh) get “woke af” as the kids are saying these days.

Never forget the reactionary logic of the white supremacists who run this country: anything short of fawning, scraping, obsequious subservience is a challenge to your authority and must be met with overwhelming force. Thus the imperative “apologize!” with the unspoken “or else.”

I can never recommend HyperboleAndAHalf’s superb take on depression highly enough. The way she talks about going through it — and just how clueless people are who haven’t been through it themselves — is really insightful (and the author is also a really good writer, so it’s a pleasure to read).

“Tells it like it is,” “Isn’t afraid to speak his mind,” etc. is all dogwhistle for “he demonstrates publicly that he has all the same vile beliefs that I do, but isn’t too chickenshit to voice them like I am, and thus his rhetoric provides me with validation that I won’t ever have to stop being an awful fucking…