The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Richard Day's picture

    LAWRENCE O'DONNELL REMAINS!

    By Richard Day on Wed, 05/31/2017 - 11:06pm |

    Lawrence O'Donnell at the NYC Women's March on 5th Ave. Jan 21st, 2017.jpg

    There have been all these rumors of O'Donnell's demise at MSNBC.

    jollyroger's picture

    Trump, Capitalism's Most Grotesque Contradiction

    By jollyroger on Tue, 05/30/2017 - 12:55pm |

    Josh Marshall has a nice chart that gives a cozy back of the napkin feel to the sale of one country to the phenomenally rich autocrat of another (nominally less powerful) country.

     

     

    With Kushner Revelations, The Worst Case Scenario Comes Into View

    Richard Day's picture

    DENIAL

    By Richard Day on Tue, 05/30/2017 - 7:14am |

    I had this great Memorial Day Weekend.

    My son and I watched the Twins game; and we won!

    Somehow when your team comes from behind and wins and is Numero Uno in the standings.

    tmccarthy0's picture

    How Do We Defeat the Spectacle?

    By tmccarthy0 on Fri, 05/26/2017 - 11:50am |

    Let's face it America, we love a good or a bad spectacle, amirite? It is the only thing that can explain how we ended up with Trump. 

    The Society of the Spectacle is my go to work for figuring out the Trump era. Our backward tumble towards intellectual darkness is happening at lightening speed, and it is a little bit scary.  But the Spectacle itself is a shining beacon to individuals craving a modicum of agency over their own lives. 

    jollyroger's picture

    Comey and Rosenstein wore wires. That's what the FBI does

    By jollyroger on Fri, 05/19/2017 - 10:38pm |

    Among the scattershot defenses mounted by the Trump's pitiable defendersf:

     

    Why didn't Comey turn Trump in as soon as Trump started leaning on him?

     

    Who says he didn't?

     

    Work with this hypothesis.

     

    Comey to his immediate superior: ( Rosenstein) "Trump is attempting to extort me to conspire in cover up.  He's still got some ambiguity available. "(January 27)

     

    Rosenstein:"See where it goes.  Wear a  wire."

     

    Evidently, Trump did not stay awake through Donnie Brasco.

     

    Orion's picture

    Radical Second Things: This is the Chance for Americans to Rebuild and Take Control

    By Orion on Thu, 05/18/2017 - 12:37pm |

    The United States is in crisis mode and feels like it has since roughly 2014. There were abnormal and bizarre mass shootings like the Aurora shooting in 2012 that seemed to be hinting at something weird but life still seemed normal. When the Obama administration's militarization of the police collided with racial tensions in Feguson, Missouri, however, the U.S. got crazier than I've ever seen.

    ¨He´s a good guy¨

    By Flavius on Thu, 05/18/2017 - 8:17am |

    The President to the Director

    ¨I hope you  can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go..He

    Is a good  guy¨


    Take but degree ( the law*) away, untune that string  ,

    and hark  what discord follows! Each thing meets

    In mere oppugnancy . The bounded waters

    Should lift  their bosoms higher than the shores,

    And make a sop of all this solid globe.

    Flashback

    By A Guy Called LULU on Thu, 05/18/2017 - 12:36am |

    The many reports I have seen where pundits share their shock and awe that Trump allowed a Russian into the Oval Office have brought me a laugh from the past.  

    jollyroger's picture

    Abu Shiksa is dead! Long live Goyische Kopf!

    By jollyroger on Tue, 05/16/2017 - 7:58pm |

    Knowing, as we do, that Jimmy Carter's Secret Service nickname was "Deacon" is not without elucidative contribution to our understanding of the man, nor are "Lancer" and "Rawhide" utterly incomprehensible as "reductios" for JFK and Reagan.

     

    With this in mind, we may be forgiven, I think, for drawing unflattering inferences vis-a-vis the esteem in which President Trump is presently held in the Holy Land from the recent memo circulating out of Shin Bet HQ.

     

    CVille Dem's picture

    Back From The Abyss? Not So Fast

    By CVille Dem on Sat, 05/13/2017 - 5:52pm |

    Tuesday night was a symptom.  The disease of rot is much worse.  From a TPM commenter, this pretty much sums up the problem, but to carry on with the health metaphor, it doesn't provide a prognosis, or a treatment.  We are in big trouble:

    The long term picture is what is most worrying: the damage is extensive. Very extensive. People are under the impression that this is an anomaly (and it is, to be sure) that will be corrected with an election. 

    It won't.

    Hating 62 million people

    By Flavius on Fri, 05/12/2017 - 12:59am |

    is not just wrong , but also could  be how  we ´ll  blow it . The way we  lose the next election.

    The initial clause is  the most important one . The reason to do the right thing is , it´s the right thing.  But... it is nice to win. And immensely important to  those who will be desperately damaged while this nonsense continues.

    Richard Day's picture

    I GOT NOTHIN!

    By Richard Day on Wed, 05/10/2017 - 3:56pm |

    Sally Q. Yates.jpg

    I just kept thinking about Yates.

    I am old and have no yearnings (so to speak) anymore.

    But damn!

     

     

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ON TUESDAY NIGHT

    By Peter Schwartz on Wed, 05/10/2017 - 9:55am |
    This is my high-level take on the Tuesday Night Massacre, boiled down to the "big beats," as we screenwriters like to say...
     
    • GOP uses Trump to knock off most qualified candidate ever (Hillary).
     
    • Trump sputters, so GOP uses Comey to run Clinton through and simultaneously set up Trump for impeachment.
     
    • GOP uses this boorish "yokel" to get back into power, but they're embarrassed by his crude mouth and behavior..so they use Come

    Get ready for President Pence

    By Flavius on Tue, 05/09/2017 - 11:47pm |

    Well I 'll start it.

    5 30 pm today was the start of Trump´s ceasing to be President.

    Theoretically if a powerful enough group of Republican Grandees got to him this could still be cut  off at the pass.

    But that would have had to happen before 5 30 and it didn´t. No rational politician /human being would have issued this afternoon´s statement that the head of the FBI had to be fired because his handling of the Hillary email matter was unfair to her. That had to have been Trump´s own invention. 

    librewolf's picture

    Can We Arrest the Congress for Robbery and Attempted Murder?

    By librewolf on Sun, 05/07/2017 - 8:01pm |

    open gravesMy life is on the line as are the lives of millions of others. My continued existence depends upon access to an expensive mix of medications and medical care for I live with a double-lung transplant. My yearly out-of pocket expenses are already over $20,000 a year. With the "improvements" proffered by Trump and the Republicans, that amount will at least quintuple - just for the insurance, and forget about deductibles and co-pays. Without a medical "lifeline" I will die. I suspect that most of us will have someone we know or love who will lose their lives.

    Obamacare´s repeal/replacement

    By Flavius on Thu, 05/04/2017 - 8:21am |

    is now expected to pass  the house this week.

    The devil is in the details of course, and those won´t be known until the senate acts , but I think the glass is half full.

    We´ve now become a nation that believes  in  Government Health Care. Repeal without replace turned out to be a non-starter.  .  

    A consequence is that from now on the health care debate won´t be about whether but   how .

    At least some degree of Government responsibility will be a given. And most importantly some lives will be saved/improved as a result.

    Richard Day's picture

    TRUMP FEELS OUR CONSTITUTION ARCHAIC

    By Richard Day on Mon, 05/01/2017 - 12:44pm |

    Constitution of the United States, page 1.jpg

     
    ALLRIGHTY THEN
     
    And many others follow this lead.
     
    Of course this just underlines the fact that the Main Stream Media sucks?
     

    Why Bernie Matters

    By HSG on Fri, 04/28/2017 - 1:44pm |

    Opponents of Bernie Sanders have been having a field day. Over the past couple of weeks, the Vermont Senator has taken a number of shots. A writer at Slate rather absurdly knocks him for 1) hosting a popular podcast allegedly characterized by shoddy production values and softball questions.

    Eric

    By Flavius on Tue, 04/25/2017 - 1:06am |

    In the spring of 1953, we suddenly shifted from being occupiers to allies. In Bonn the US Representative was no longer High Commissioner, just an Ambassador.

    And we were no longer required to wear our uniforms off duty but rather encouraged not to.

    The personal consequence was that my contact with Eric rather than being mildly disapproved by the battery commander became a non-issue. That contact mostly consisted of Saturday nights drinking white wine at the main local bar, the University Club, or rather the German of that. University was something like Universitatis, and I haven't a clue what the word for Club was.

    On a Brit equivalent closing for campaign speeches

    By artappraiser on Mon, 04/24/2017 - 7:07pm |

    For those in the mood for Brit humor, see some of the answers to her tweet:

    French politicians end speeches with "Long live the Republic, long live France". Yanks do "God bless America". What is the Brit equivalent?

    — Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) April 23, 2017

     

     

    Richard Day's picture

    THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES

    By Richard Day on Sat, 04/22/2017 - 10:43am |

    Hca33.jpg

    The Emperor's New Clothes is a famous fable from afar.
    Or created in another age OF REASON?
    The fable posits that there are these two con artists who invade the empire and somehow become part of the King's Entourage.
    And somehow, these cons talk the king into believing that they are tailors who might produce the perfect line of clothes and that this king would prove himself to be at the forefront of this new line.
    So these con artists feign to present to the leader this new line of clothing that involves invisible thread.
    And they enthrall this great leader with their invisible threads.
    And this King ends up parading naked in front of his throng of adorers.
    In front of his dominion.
    So this six or seven year old speaks up:
    THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!
    And the crowd goes nuts, so to speak.
    And the crowd laughs in unison.
    And the King is embarrassed.
    hahahahhahahahah

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