So, what do we do? I am at a total loss.

I'm serious, it's an absolute mystery to me what we do. We hold ourselves to a higher standard that we KNOW the other side will not only not uphold, but will fight tooth and nail to avoid even looking at. They lie, they cheat, they bribe, they cover up, and they win. All the fact-checking in the world doesn't do a thing to them, but the slightest accusation of impropriety paints our side with the broadest brush.

Do we do the same? Do we start buying elections? Do we start bribing and covering up? I know the moral high ground doesn't mean anything, but do we need to abandon our principles? Do give up women's reproductive rights to win elections? Do we give up on gun control? Do we give up on LGBTQ+ rights? Do we give up on equality for POC? What do we do to fight the cesspool on the other side of the aisle without diving headfirst into it?

The wealthy own the mass media. CNN and MSNBC aren't run by liberals, they're run by corporations, and you can look pretty hard and still not find any liberals or progressives on the boards of those corporations. The right has muddied the water so much you can walk on it, now. Facts are over. There's no such thing. When a bunch of people on the right still believe in Pizzagate, we've lost the war on facts. So, what do we do? Where do we go from here?

I'm so frustrated I can't even think straight. All I see are walls going up. Traps being set by the right and the far right that we keep face planting into. Now we're going to lose Franken, a tiger in the Senate, and Moore's still looking good to win in AL. I'm grinding my teeth into splinters.

Our leaders have held back on attacking for years in the "spirit of bipartisanship" in order to make it seem like trying to reach across the aisle and bridge the gap, but every time we do, we get our arms grabbed and dragged further and further to the right. The GOP has given up any pretense of any sort of integrity or principle in favour of *actual nazis* and *child molesters*. There is no depth to which the GOP will not sink in order to gain and hold on to power.

Trump's personal banking information handed over to Robert Mueller

Source: The Guardian

Donald Trump’s banking information has formally been turned over to Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating whether the president’s campaign conspired with the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election.

Deutsche Bank, the German bank that serves as Trump’s biggest lender, was forced to submit documents about its client relationship with the president and some of his family members, who are also Deutsche clients, after Mueller issued the bank with a subpoena for information, according to multiple media reports. The news was first reported by Handelsblatt, the German newspaper.

Deutsche Bank declined to comment. The bank told Bloomberg in a statement that it always cooperated with investigating authorities.

It also indicated that any investigation into Trump personally may not be limited to the question of whether or not the president sought to obstruct justice when he fired the former FBI chief James Comey. Instead, said Ryan Goodman, a New York law professor and former Pentagon counsel, it showed that Mueller was possibly examining whether the president could be compromised by Russian interests.



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/05/donald-trump-bank-records-handed-over-robert-mueller?CMP=share_btn_tw

7 Reforms after Trump

This just showed up on my Twitter feed (from Keith Boykin), and I thought it was an interesting and compelling short list of things the next Democratic government should work on:

https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/937494552100966400

7 Reforms After Trump

1. Repeal Shelby v Holder

2. Repeal Citizens United

3. Abolish electoral college

4. Apply anti-nepotism law to White House

5. POTUS candidates must release tax returns

6. Presidents may not self-pardon

7. Special counsel has power to indict president

Republican House Members Have Polarized More Than Their Democratic Counterparts

From The Crosstab: http://www.thecrosstab.com/2017/07/22/congress-polarization/

When last we chatted, I talked of how congressional elections have shifted to reflect national politics more than local influences. Importantly, I noted that this may be less the result of ideological “polarization” — the process by which the beliefs of partisans move left/right — and more the result of partisan “sorting.”

But polarization does exist, and it is real. This is especially true of elites in government: congresspeople in particular.

Ian McDonald, a visiting professor at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon had the incredible idea to graph the distribution of House members’ ideology over time. Using the distribution of a mathematical representation of ideology called DW-NOMINATE, McDonald showed how Republicans have moved right on mostly-economic policies over time, while Democrats have generally stayed ideologically the same.

I have added to his graphic (which appears on the left below) with a second mathematical representation of ideology in DW-NOMINATE – a so-called second “dimension” – to show how Democrats have changed in ways McDonald’s graphic does not show. This second dimension is often referred to as a “social” dimension, mainly encompassing the shift in views towards race that started to flip the parties in the last 1960s.

Signal Boost: Not One Penny protest at Capitol Hill for the tax vote tonight:

Herb and shallot compound butter

We made a quick and fast video this week because things got a little away from us. But trust me, this one will make a lot more sense after next week's video when we spatchcock and roast a turkey and use this butter all over it!

Of course it's super easy to customize this one. Your herbs of choice, and the acid of your choice. You can even add lemon zest to this, but my hubby doesn't think that lemon and turkey go all that well together so he used a bit of Tabasco sauce and a dash of vermouth for the acidity. Tailor this to whatever you're using it in. The flavour profile should complement what you're going to use it on. Leftovers are super easy to store. Roll them in parchment or wax paper and pop it in the fridge or freezer.

Libyan Media Dismisses CNNi Report on Slavery After Trump Undermines Network in Tweet

Source: Mediaite

It appears we are now witnessing the real-world implications of President Donald Trump telling the rest of the world that American media outlets are disseminating “fake news.”

In case you missed it, Trump took to Twitter over the weekend to slam CNN International, claiming that the news outlet reflected poorly on the United States, and delivered fake news to other nations. “The outside world does not see the truth from them!” Trump added.

Since Trump told the international community to dismiss the reporting of CNN International, it looks like some are already taking heed. Libyan media is now questioning the authenticity of a bombshell report by CNNi that revealed refugees being bought and sold as slaves in Libya.

The timing of Trump’s CNN International tweet is more than a bit interesting considering that hours before he sent it, it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed into law a punitive measure that would force foreign media outlets to register as foreign agents.

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/online/libyan-media-dismisses-cnni-report-on-slavery-after-trump-undermines-network-in-tweet/

Trump, at event honouring Native American code talkers, calls Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas."

Great response to the latest Trump idiot tweet.

So, after the horrific attack in Egypt, Trump of course tweeted something ridiculous:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/934131805409697792
Will be calling the President of Egypt in a short while to discuss the tragic terrorist attack, with so much loss of life. We have to get TOUGHER AND SMARTER than ever before, and we will. Need the WALL, need the BAN! God bless the people of Egypt.

And of course, people are pointing out how ridiculous, nonsensical, tone-deaf, tasteless, and downright wrong Trump is. Here's my personal favourite:

https://twitter.com/KenTremendous/status/934137158700384257
We need a WALL between us and MEXICO, a CATHOLIC-MAJORITY NATION, to respond to an ATTACK *AGAINST* MUSLIMS in EGYPT, a MUSLIM-MAJORITY nation, because I am an IDIOT who understands NOTHING about ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, I am very STUPID, and I'm playing GOLF RIGHT NOW.

Franken is a trap and it's lose-lose for us.

A couple of different ways this might all go down.

1) There's an investigation and Franken is found to be a serial creep. Seems unlikely, but it's out there. We lose a Democratic lion in the Senate who has been a very strong and loud voice standing up against GOP appointees and policies. I'm sure we'd all like to think that this would allow us to bring down other big name molesters (like Trump himself), but we all know that the right wingers do not hold their people to the same standards that we do ours.

2) The women are discredited and the allegations are found to be entirely spurious. This allows the GOP to paint the accusers of people like Trump and Moore as spurious as well, even though a) the accusations are nowhere near the same severity and b) they are well documented and not anonymous. And the media will report it as a "These ladies over here have been debunked, what does that mean for Trump and Moore's accusers?" This has the add-on effect of pushing real accusations of molestation and assault back underground just as women were starting to make some headway exposing well-known (within their industries) molesters like Harvey Weinstein, Louis CK, Andy Signore, and Brett Ratner.

3) Something in the middle. Franken is determined to be a slight creep. He apologizes, issues a statement, everyone moves on. The right uses this as a way to shield their much bigger, more dangerous, and horrific creeps with a "Well, you kept yours in power! Why shouldn't Moore be in the Senate if you're not going to deal with Franken?" and they get to bash us over the head with it in the next election cycle.

The good news: There is a hint that people are starting to get a bit fed up with the lies, obfuscation, moralizing, and moral relativism of the right. That is where the real change is going to come from. Bubbling up from the ground as voters decide that they've had enough of being obviously lied to in order to enrich the already mega-wealthy.