Tiny Desk

Tedeschi Trucks Band

"Just As Strange"
"Don't Know What It Is"
"Anyhow"

Samantha Bee

Taibbi

Is it possible Matt could be losing the battle he's constantly fighting against having a solid opinion on anything other than how fucked up it all is?

Well, no - he gets about half-way before sinking back into his comfort zone of "Yeah but the Democrats".

But still, it's a pretty good synopsis. (Rolling Stone)

The impact of the DeVos implosion was twofold. First, the Democrats realized they could and should fight back. Second, Republicans found the downside of party-line votes. Many received a torrent of abuse from constituents who demanded they vote DeVos out.

"I have heard from thousands, truly, thousands of Alaskans who have shared their concerns about Mrs. DeVos," said Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who dealt with protests outside her Alaska office and later estimated that 30,000 constituents called to complain.

Murkowski announced that she would pull her vote for DeVos, as did Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. A senator voting against his or her own party's nominee is the Beltway equivalent of an eclipse or a volcanic lightning strike – rare and frightening to the natives.

True to form, the Democrats – they have been a step behind Trump for a while now – never managed to peel off a third defector to defeat DeVos. But Republicans still suffered the indignity of needing Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie, another thing that had never before happened in the Senate's history.

Here's the O'Jays tune Taibbi mentioned in the piece - the one 45* used as his entrance march at CPAC. It seems a little odd. If you're touting the glories of having all the money and lusting for power, why do you pick that particular cut?  But then, it's not really odd at all considering 45* has done every shitty thing more or less out in the open, so it fits perfectly: Being a money-grubbing rent-seeking leech is how he got to be the hero they all love to adore - and aspire to be - with the bonus of doing things the Libtards hate, in ways that make the Libtards cry.

These things generally don't happen by accident.

For The Love Of Money --The O'Jays

Money money money money, money [Repeat: x 6]

Some people got to have itSome people really need itListen to me why'all, do things, do things, do bad things with itYou want to do things, do things, do things, good things with itTalk about cash money, moneyTalk about cash money- dollar bills, why'all

For the love of moneyPeople will steal from their motherFor the love of moneyPeople will rob their own brother

For the love of moneyPeople can't even walk the streetBecause they never know who in the world they're gonna beatFor that lean, mean, mean green

Almighty dollar, money
For the love of moneyPeople will lie, Lord, they will cheatFor the love of moneyPeople don't care who they hurt or beat

For the love of moneyA woman will sell her precious bodyFor a small piece of paper it carries a lot of weightCall it lean, mean, mean green

Almighty dollar
I know money is the root of all evilDo funny things to some peopleGive me a nickel, brother can you spare a dimeMoney can drive some people out of their minds

Got to have it, I really need itHow many things have I heard you saySome people really need itHow many things have I heard you say

Got to have it, I really need itHow many things have I heard you sayLay down, lay down, a woman will lay downFor the love of money

All for the love of moneyDon't let, don't let, don't let money rule youFor the love of moneyMoney can change people sometimes

Don't let, don't let, don't let money fool youMoney can fool people sometimesPeople! Don't let money, don't let money change you,It will keep on changing, changing up your mind.

Like I said, he's done all the shitty things right there in front of us, but 63 million voters decided it was all OK as long as they were able to engage with him in a years-long mutual ego massage, substituting dreams of hitting the lottery retroactively for the reality of guys like Donald Trump stripping them of any chance they ever had to make it any farther than are right now.

And:

Tweet From Yesterday

BIG: Rep. Schiff confirms that he's seen evidence of Trump/Russia collusion that's "more than circumstantial."
pic.twitter.com/DPQ3Zu8Yxr

— molzy (@bitchyologist) March 22, 2017

Today's GIF

Speaking Of 45*

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.

--Voltaire

hat tip = David Ferguson, Raw Story 

Today's Today

FDR signed the Beer and Wine Revenue Act on March 22, 1933. 

Of course, there was always a way around prohibition if you were properly connected. The more things change.

American History Museum on Twitter

Yay Tweety

Chris Matthews gets up on his hind legs and starts talkin' sense.

And we are left to wonder a coupla things - whether or not Phil Griffin knows about this, and if we missed the freeze warning for hell.

The Turnaraound

WaPo:

The 2016 election was just a month away when Steve Curtis, a conservative radio host and former Colorado Republican Party chairman, devoted an entire episode of his morning talk show to the heated topic of voter fraud.

“It seems to me,” Curtis said in the 42-minute segment, “that virtually every case of voter fraud I can remember in my lifetime was committed by Democrats.”

On Tuesday, Colorado prosecutors threw a wrench into that already dubious theory, accusing Curtis of voter fraud for allegedly filling out and mailing in his ex-wife’s 2016 ballot for president, Denver’s Fox affiliate reported.

Curtis, 57, was charged in Weld County District Court with one count of misdemeanor voter fraud and one count of forgery, a Class 5 felony, according to local media.

The case is the only voter fraud investigation related to the 2016 election that has resulted in criminal charges in the state, the Colorado secretary of state’s office told Denver’s ABC affiliate.
In sales, it's called The Turnaround. You take a negative, restate it, and either make it a positive or at least make it sound better or deflect the criticism or duck your responsibility, etc.

"We never go out anymore"
=
"Gee, honey - I guess I was being selfish; I just wanna keep you all to myself"

"It's expensive, but it's worth it"
=
"It's the best quality product you can buy and the investment you make today will pay off for a long time."

In politics, it's a way to slam your opposition and invite the inference that you're a swell guy by comparison. And it can be a very effective tactic when you're selling your way into power - which is how it works now. We don't evaluate the resumé to make an informed decision. We vote for the one who looks good and sounds OK and carries fewer negatives - the one with the better Marketing Campaign.

But it gets full-blown destructive when it flops all the way over into the kind of Authoritarian Gaslighting we've seen from the Trumpsters (most recently), and from guys like Mr Curtis for a coupla generations now - because eventually:

• Every accusation is a confession
• Every boast is an expression of inadequacy
• Every warning of a threat is a statement of intent

Get woke - stay woke.

Today's Tweet

Al Franken v. Gorsuch is worth watching

“I had a career in identifying absurdity. And I know it when I see it.”https://t.co/cwKFUkk0oH pic.twitter.com/wA4b3KoVNR

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 21, 2017

Keith

NEW VIDEO: 60 days in, let's face it. By his own metrics, his people are idiots, and @realDonaldTrump is a Loser. pic.twitter.com/HSGzo1aiyj

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) March 21, 2017

The Onion

WASHINGTON—Rushing toward the president as he pressed the eight-inch bit into his temple, several White House aides managed to wrestle a drill from Donald Trump’s hand Monday while he attempted to remove Obama’s listening device from his skull. “Obama implanted a microphone inside my head to record everything I say!” Trump reportedly shouted shortly before three White House staffers pinned him to the floor and pried apart his fingers to seize the power tool. “You don’t understand, he can hear everything we’re saying! Obama can even hear my thoughts! I have to get it out! I can feel it! I can feel it! I can feel it!” At press time, staffers were panicking after Trump locked himself in the bathroom and began cutting his stomach open with a razor blade in an attempt to find the tracking chip he said The New York Times had put in his food.

Today's Tweet

Comey just confirmed both political parties were hacked in 2016 by Russians—but that only Democratic info was released.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 20, 2017

Take a candidate we've been conditioned to dislike - for a good 25 years now - and just play up everything negative even more. Hammer on it night-n-day. It's especially effective when "the dirt" just happens to include the magic word "email", which of course links nicely to the more recent negative inferences about Hillary that were set in place over the last 5 years or so.

Eventually you can move the needle enough to make a difference.

Because advertising works. The world is being run by some pretty smart people (current POTUS notwithstanding), and smart people don't spend $500 Billion a year on shit that don't work.

Keith

Keith Olbermann at GQ

Tiny Desk

Corrinne Bailey Rae

She needs a really great producer, and some better backing vocals, but it sounds promising.

Ignore The Obvious

The house is burning, Trump is casually strolling away carrying matches and an empty gas can, and the GOP congress critters are busy bitchin' about who called the fire department.

(more or less - Garry Kasparov, via Twitter)

Today's GIF

Sean Spicer preparing for the press briefing

Dots

The federal budget is a statement of our values. And our values are now nothing but the kind of Friedmanesque "Rational Self-Interest" that says as long as I get what I want everybody else can take a flyin' fuck at a rollin' donut.

John Oliver:

This is not a philosophy of governance. This is a fucking robbery.

Selective Quote

"When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter. Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot."

--Franciso D'Anconia, Atlas Shrugged

The quote is from a speech aimed at shaming the Mooching Masses, and it's the usual junk that developmentally stunted Libertarians love to fantasize about when they rub one out, but there's a truth hidden in it that rings pretty solid right now when the roles are so obviously reversed.

The producers are the workin' guys being fucked over by the Rent-Seekers (aka: Looters, Wage Thieves, Corporate Welfare Leeches, Coin-Operated Politicians, etc) - under the full protection of the Daddy State.

Bonnet Chronicles

WATCH: This Bonnet Chronicles video about Ben Carson has me laughing so hard I'm crying. So good!! https://t.co/zOinFUazCk pic.twitter.com/sF9FuD36Z2

— Yashar (@yashar) March 19, 2017

Tami Roman