I know it’s gonna to come as a shock to you that another old white guy in the senate said something totally self-serving, completely ignorant, and patently offensive.

Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch warned Tuesday that efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in the Senate might be complicated because once the public “is on the dole, they’ll take every dime they can.”

There is the distinct possibility that he just stumbled on his words and meant to say, “once the United States Senate is on the dole from insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry, they’ll take every dime they can get.”

Seriously, upon completion of his remarks, the entire Senate committee cleared the joint immediately.  There’s poor old Orin sitting there by his lonesome.  Well, except for an aide who leads him to the bathroom every hour, but is now trying like the dickens to hide for fear of everyone knowing she drew the Lead Orin straw this week.

I did not photoshop this picture.  They were like, “Let’s get the hell outta Dodge.  Did you hear what that old fool said to voters?”

The problem with Obamacare is that it’s way too healthier.

Thanks to Bryan for the heads up. 

I’m just gonna leave this right here.

Senator Diane Feinstein’s Mike Flynn time line.

You might want to bookmark that an keep adding to it.

 Thanks to Deb for the heads up.

Let’s give a Holy Toledo to Murad Hamedallah of Toledo, Ohio.

A man called the police to report that Hamedallah was heard screaming that he had been shot as he was getting out of his car.

The caller told police he watched Hamedallah walk towards a garbage can on Manhattan before eventually falling to the ground.

When crews arrived, they found Hamedallah with a single gunshot wound that went through his penis and right thigh.

Police found a bullet hole in his driver’s seat; the gun was found behind the garbage can on Manhattan.

The wound was self-inflicted.

Quote of the day:

Hamedallah was taken to St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo for serious injuries. He’s expected to be okay.

Okay?  Oh, I dunno about that.  He may live, but okay?  No, not okay.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.

“A shockingly large percentage of these Obama-Trump voters said Democrats’ economic policies will favor the wealthy — twice the percentage that said the same about Trump.”

Greg Sargent, writing in the Washington Post, revealed results of polls and focus groups taken by Democratic pollsters since the election, and the above quote is the over-arching theme; many people who voted for Obama in 2012 switched to Trump in 2016 because they either believed Trump better represented their interests, or opposed Hillary as a candidate.  The studies found that over and over, it was clear that the Democrats have lost serious ground with working class whites.  I believe there are several reasons for this: First, working class wage growth has been stagnated since the Reagan years, virtually destroying the American dream of a home, a car, and higher education.  Second, the Republican noise machine has successfully targeted this group since the early 90’s, blaming Democrats and liberal policies for the working class’s woes.

What’s happened?  Well, for one, starting with Bill Clinton, the Democrats have allowed themselves to be dragged farther and farther to the right.  As staunch liberals died off, the new generation of Democrats, lead by Clinton, adopted more conservative policies including limiting welfare, don’t ask don’t tell, and DOMA.  He took one stab at healthcare reform with Hillary leading that effort which ended in failure.  For the rest of his White House days, he was embroiled in scandals, some manufactured but some stupidly self-inflicted.

During those years, the Democrats, rather than being staunch supporters of workers and US industry, tried to walk the fine lines between liberal-moderate-conservative to avoid being labeled by opponents, and stopped defending labor and the Working Joe as Republican policies to push industry and money offshore seriously damaged US workers.

The inexorable slide was slowed a little by the rise of Barack Obama and his populist/social justice agenda.  He spoke clearly to the working class, and they came to him by the millions. However, after he was elected, he was effectively stymied in many of his initiatives because of Great Recession as well as the weakness of the Dems and pervasive stonewalling by Repubs.  The only significant legislative legacy for Obama was the ACA, which is now threatened with repeal after the Dems were swept out of office in 2016.  Now they are thrashing around trying to make sense of the shocking loss in November.

The Democrats ignore these findings at their own peril.  The opportunity to make huge gains in 2018 and 2020 are there; all the Dems need do is grasp the message and policies that propelled the party to dominance for the 40 years begun by FDR.  They need to reclaim their legacy of being the party of the middle and working class.  Until they do that, they will continue to flounder.

It’s time to stop licking wounds.  It’s time to acknowledge the mistakes and poor leadership in recent years and get to work.

Burnet County, Texas, Republican District Court Judge James Oakley is a straight ticket Republican who I suspect thought he died and went to heaven when Donald Trump was elected.

Judge Oakley just got a reprimand from the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct because he publicly on damn Facebook commented that a convicted African American defendant needs “a tree and a rope.”

Oh for Pete’s Sake.  A whole big giant reprimand.  But he also got four whole hours of sensitivity training.  Four.  Whole.  Hours.

Thanks to Brian for the heads up.