Voter suppression is definitely THE issue. As for "wealthy supporters"....

...we actually have them, and gods bless them.

What I find hilarious (well, maddening, really) is the knee-jerk hostile reactions of some to any reference whatsoever to a "donor class" of Democrats. Kamala Harris was reported to have recently participated in a meeting of Democrats of the donor class, and the buzz is she might be garnering support for a presidential run. Amid the flutter of excitement here at that prospect of her candidacy were the usual gripes that amount to "REAL Democrats wear sackcloth and carry a begging bowl, and the rich can go to hell."

sigh

As far as I can tell, we are lucky to have some millionaire/billionaire Democrats. They are Democrats, for gods' sake. There are not as many of them as there are conservatives, and we should kind of cherish and nurture them, not lump them in with the Kochs. We need them on our side.

People like the Kochs, DeVoses, et al. are powerfully driven by their ideology, often religious. When you believe you have The One And Only God on your side, you can do amazing things. Jihads and Crusades, the slaughter of millions, that kind of thing.

~~~~~~~

Hm. I remember the continuous screeching here that Obama was "spelunking" (caving in)...

...that he was throwing (pick a constituency) "under the bus," that he "promised" single payer (he did not) and reneged, and on and on ad nauseum. The perfidy of the man knew no bounds, apparently. Those of us who understood his patient strategy and defended it were driven into the BOG for the duration of his presidency. I mean, really, eight damn years.

See, I don't forget these things.

Worse, because Obama was never one to toot his own horn excessively (or even very much at all) his name got attached to the stereotypes about the plan by low-information voters and every bump in the road was magnified to a gaping chasm and attributed to him as a failure. Leftish voters who should have known better participated in this game, too.

The few red state governors who adopted the ACA and helped it succeed attached their state's name to it (KYnect, for instance) which was fine, but allowed the vilification of that "damn Obamacare" to proceed apace. Other red state governors went out of their way to be unhelpful.

When Barack Obama left office he was asked about the future of his landmark legislation, given how much the GOP wanted to destroy it. He opined that it was not going to be easy to get rid of, now that people actually had something so essential. And he was right about that. It's possible, because the GOP has devolved into something malicious. But it is not going to be easy.

What is it about hardcore GOPers that makes them crotch-sniffers? I know that's vulgar...

...but their interest in sex is prurient beyond belief. They are obviously disgusted by sex -- it's what their fascination with contraception and abortion is all about: dirty unauthorized sex. And now this. They can take a break from describing abortion in excruciating detail and start obsessing about describing sex-reassignment surgery in slobbering detail.

Gods they are disgusting. They need to get a life and leave other people alone.

That's a helluva vivid line, isn't it? One for the history books...

Interesting line about "struggling to master the levers of power," too.

I remember that one of the knocks on Hillary was how dangerous she would be "because she knows where the levers of power are." Like it was a bad thing instead of a measure of competence and experience in governance. *holes. Now look what we have.

You're wrong about that. She's gutsy as hell, went all thru the campaign on the Trump story...

She faced down Trump's mockery and threats of violence at his campaign rallies. She's young, and looks small and not imposing -- and she's female. And true to Trump's bullying nature, he picked on the person who looked small and helpless. Bellowing about the lying media and fake news, he singled her out by name: "There's Little Katy Tur. Look at her!" And the mob turned to look.

It got bad enough that at least once the Secret Service came to her after the rally and voluntarily escorted her back to her car, and when those guys fear for your safety, maybe you should too.

Katy did not back down. She got thinner. Her hair got thinner. But she did not give up.

You think she's carrying water for Trump and the GOP? Really?

I'm glad to see that MSNBC is giving her a try at her own desk. She started out a little nervous, a little unsure of how to manage a panel, and she's gotten better all the time.

So here's to "Little Katy Tur," standing tall.

Moose and Squirrel beg to differ. Wherever Boris and Natasha are, is up to nogoodnik. nt

Hopefully Mueller can make him sing: "Treason's just another word for nothin' left to lose."

A cozy relationship. Such a good foundation for business transactions such as selling your country.

Hmmmm.

This is such a pile of barnyard byproducts it almost reads as though someone is using...

... Google translator while tongue is planted firmly in cheek.

Want to try again?

Watched the fire top the ridge the other night, as the ash fell like a light snow...

Fortunately we are not getting sundowners, so the fires are (as the Fire Chief said) fuel-driven and not wind-driven. All day today we had a light breeze from the ocean, so I was able to open the house and cool it off.

But you never know.

On the first day of this fire that started at Lake Cachuma, all the campers were evacuated lickety-split -- so much so that any number of tents and some RVs were left behind and went up in flames. All the campers -- that is, except the 90 or so kids plus 40 adults who were at a summer camp around a bend in the road. They were trapped and told to "shelter in place." There were some fire-professionals there. And finally, after several hours, they were able to be rescued and some buses from the Chumash Tribe drove in and took them out.

Good luck and good neighbors.

Fires are a fact of life in California. When we had the Gap Fire 7 or 8 years ago it was in the foothills just in back of our tract. Practically a dozen people gathered in my neighbor's driveway to follow its early progress, including a houseful of college students who passed the time landmarking their young lives by the major fires they had witnessed.

Any child knows fires respect no boundaries. Any child knows that firefighters are special, that they risk their very lives to protect us and our homes. That includes the volunteers and the prisoners who volunteer.

The long droughts have weakened the trees of the forests in So Cal, so in many cases they've become infested with bark beetles and are now dead. The Central Coast where I live is a lot of chaparral. It's all fuel.

Fires respect no boundaries. It's all-hands and mutual aid agreements not just in California but throughout the Western states. It's expensive as hell. We need our tax money to come back to us as per agreement in order to manage what Nature deals out.

It takes a special kind of stupid, a special kind of entitled asshole, to squat in Washington appointing Cabinet members tasked with destroying the very departments they are supposed to run.

Gods help us.