I believe Ivanka actually did divest from her common stock of the Trump Organization and converted all her equity. So I can’t criticize her on that - that’s actually decent. However, she did it because of her husband’s role in the administration, not her father’s. She also is not currently involved with the clothing…

When he was running, Trump’s campaign was premised upon the whole idea that he was a businessman, not a politician. But if he was a true businessman, wouldn’t he accept that if Ivanka’s line was just not selling so well, the best business decision would be to pull it? Like, isn’t that the whole point - if it doesn’t…

No, it wouldn’t. Cut funding is cut funding. The secretary could help determine how the funding gets allocated, but they have to work within the confines Congress gives them.

I meant that if Dems are genuinely serious about stopping DeVos, they wouldn’t bother with symbolic sleepovers that can’t actually stop her. The only viable way to prevent her confirmation is to get one more Republican to commit to voting against her - and yes, that means making a deal. Vote trading is nothing new,…

Do you really believe that Trump or the GOP need Carson to request reductions? I’m pretty sure they’re doing that one regardless.

I disagree. I’m actually fairly familiar with HUD from some previous work I did. HUD is largely regional in nature (which makes sense). Most of the regional offices are fairly autonomous and run themselves with little input from Washington - and that makes sense, because the regional offices will be far more familiar…

Except they don’t have a spine. If they genuinely wanted to stop her, they’d have to make a deal with a Republican to dissent - but that might mean owing the Republicans one down the line. They know, the way it stands now, she will get confirmed with Mike Pence casting the tie-breaker. This all-nighter will not stop…

Let me answer: yes, it is too PC.

Not sure this is helpful. Democrats cannot stop her alone - you need at least 3 Republicans to vote against her. Collins and Murkowski are already on their side, they need one more. Why not spend time and energy talking to Republicans who have expressed unhappiness or distrust of Trump (McCain, Graham, Rubio, etc.)?…

Or you’re actively moving your cause backwards (but that probably didn’t occur to you, did it?)

Doesn’t “effective” really mean that it actually advances the goal? You can cause as much tension as you like, but if you don’t actually advance towards your goal, I can’t term that “effective” in any sense of the word.

This is a good point - one would need a decent amount of privilege even to do this. And if that’s the case, that dramatically limits the numbers of people who can participate, and that decreases the effectiveness. I’m all for protest, but protest in a way that actually has a meaningful impact. I’m not sure how…

I think it’s pretty smart - modern American liberalism has, to me, shown a worrying pattern of myopic fixation on particular issues or people to the exclusion of others. It is, from a progressive perspective, idiocy to boycott LL Bean, a company that actually practices things progressives allegedly love - domestic…

It’s just a school dedicated to religious study - that’s it. Some of them are just focused on a single faith tradition, and some of them take a more diverse view that studies multiple religious and spiritual traditions. I went to the latter, which was pretty neat.

That’s what gets me - there are so many things a deceased person would want to share, and THIS is what he says? Not “hey, it’s awesome over here, they’ve got unlimited apps” or “tell your mother the lock combo is 5-16-28" or “avenge me” or any other really profound statement. But this guy chooses weight loss.

One of my friends is on the Autism spectrum and struggles mightily with phone conversations. If it’s really too much, you shouldn’t feel bad about asking a friend (somebody you trust) to call on your behalf. My friend has drafted scripts and given them to people to make calls on his behalf, and it actually seems to…

‘I find the mediums hysterical, precisely because of how bad they are at this whole thing. When I was in divinity school, we actually took a class on histories of things like divination, necromancy, spiritualism, etc. - its kind of fun, even for the nonbeliever. And we actually had a woman come in who described…

Not to mention that LL Bean is a (nearly) 100% made in America brand (and pays a living wage regardless of country of origin). But no - one of the board members likes Trump, so all that must be thrown out! This is why I don’t publicly identify myself as a liberal or progressive to a lot of people - because we seem to…

It’s not a “crack” - it’s Lisa being Lisa. A few elections ago, the Alaska state GOP turned on her and endorsed a far-Right Tea Party type, and she wound up having to run a write-in campaign and actually won. Ever since then, she’s been kind of at arm’s length with the party. But she is certainly one of a few…

It’s not even “protect Christianity.” It’s “protect white, Calvinist, evangelical Christianity.”