Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

The words do not have to be perfect.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

The National Guard is not Batman.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

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Archives for 2014

North Korean Hackers Heroically Spare America Exposure to Insipid Film

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Sometimes, when the terrorists win, we ALL win:

LOS ANGELES — North America’s three largest multiplex chains – Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment and Cinemark — on Wednesday canceled bookings for “The Interview,” a crude comedy that had prompted a threat of terror against theaters.

Together with Carmike Cinemas, which decided not to play “The Interview” late Tuesday, the four exhibitors control more than 19,200 screens in the United States and Canada, ending any prospect of a serious theatrical release.

This sounds as driven by movie house legal team skittishness than any credible threat, but all’s well that ends well.

Open thread.

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Afternoon Open Thread

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As Betty pointed out below US normalization with Cuba is vastly overdue, and it turns out that Cuba deal has been in the works for 18 months and involved Canada and the Vatican as intermediaries.  And nobody had any idea.  No wonder Republicans are going completely apeshit.

HURT.  FEE-FEES.

Also, open threadness.

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This Is Why Some People Shouldn’t Be On Social Media

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Sometime people forget that others can see their tweets, especially their employers. So you can imagine the controversy San Jose police officer Phillip White who had the above delightful things to say in response to protestors caused. And these are just a few of his deleted tweets. White, who has been on the police force for 20 years, has been placed on administrative leave.

America’s police force: continuing to make citizens feel safe and their actions valued, am I right?

Team Blackness also discussed a controversial picture involving Leigh Anne Tuohy, the inspiration of The Bind Side; a Florida copy who pulled someone over for playing “F**ck the Police” and Japan McDonald’s possible french fry shortage!

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What this five-cent cigar needs is a good country

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For years, I grew up with tales of both sets of grandparents’ visits to Cuba via an easy ferry boat ride from Florida. One set went to gamble and explore the local clubs. The other set went to pester the Catholic Cubans about Protestant Jeebus.

I’ve always longed to follow in the boat-wake of the first set, listening to music and watching 1950s-vintage American cars roll by while sipping a mojito and perhaps even breaking my smoking ban with a big fat cigar. But as the embargo dragged on, I began to believe it would never happen.

Well, maybe I’ll get my chance after all:

WASHINGTON — The United States will open talks with Cuba aimed at restoring full diplomatic relations and opening an embassy in Havana for the first time in more than a half century after the release of an American contractor held in prison for five years, American officials said Wednesday.

President Obama plans to make a televised statement from the White House at noon about the breakthrough, which opens the door to a major international initiative that could help shape his legacy heading into his final two years in office.

Thanks, Obama!

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Yay Team Cheney Torture Awesome Force GO!

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So, how did America react to the Senate torture report?   Well, I certainly got a chuckle out of Fox News host Andrea Tantaros proclaiming that torture made America “awesome” and all, but the problem is that’s exactly what America thinks.

Six in 10 Americans say the CIA’s treatment of suspected terrorists was justified, more than half think it produced important, unique intelligence – and 52 percent say it was wrong for the Senate Intelligence Committee to issue a report suggesting otherwise.

Those results in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll underscore the public’s sense of risk from the threat of terrorism, and specifically the extent to which majorities support controversial measures to combat it. Indeed just two in 10 flatly rule out torture in future cases.

A plurality, 49 percent, believes the CIA did in fact torture suspected terrorists; 38 percent think its actions did not amount to torture, with the rest unsure. Regardless, the public by a broad 59-31 percent also says the agency’s interrogation actions were justified.

One reason is that 53 percent think these interrogations produced important information that could not have been obtained any other way. Just 31 percent reject this claim, a focus of the recent debate.

So yeah, solid majorities in favor of “enhanced interrogation techniques” because “they work”, and “got us intelligence we could not have otherwise gotten”, and that the Senate Democrats should never have released the damn report at all.

Also, 47% found the report unfair to the CIA, and 57% think there should be no charges against those responsible (only 1 in 3 want to see prosecution.)  Hell, even 46% of self-identified liberals and 46% of registered Democrats believe the CIA actions were justified.

The majority of the country is no different from Dick Cheney in this respect.  Some 13 years after 9/11, we’re still a nation of bloodthirsty monsters. Politically this issue is a loser for team D and they know it, and you’d better believe we’ll hear over the next two years how those weak, Neville Chamberlain liberals should never be allowed to be in charge of foreign policy anymore.  This report is going to go away very, very quickly.

Yay Team Torture!  America is firmly a charter member, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon.

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Sign-up notes

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Charles Gaba blew it this time.  His projections were, for him, way off:

 I was off by about 6% on my HC.gov estimate through the 4th week. On the other hand, this is good news because it means that the actual enrollment total is 126K higher than I thought…and that’s just via Healthcare.Gov…. assuming the 75/25 ratio is accurate, it should mean that instead of the 3.1 million national total I had estimated for 12/12, it should be closer to 3.3 million!

Open enrollment for coverage starting January 1, 2015 is over for Healthcare.gov states.  Several states running their own exchanges either added overtime or scheduled a different close-out date.  Those dates will close in the netx week.  People who attempted to get into Healthcare.gov but could not but called the help desk are being given time to complete their applications.  The surge has subsided and the systems fundamentally worked well enough.

Autorenewals will start in the next couple of days for Healthcare.gov states. If people are autorenewed and see a premium that they hate come in the mail, they need to pay the premium for January, but as long as they switch plans by January 15th, their new policy can start on February 1st.

This thing is fundamentally working as designed right now… now we just need the Supreme Court to not fuck it up.

 

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Small Steps

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Of course the best news is that “the least-productive Congress in modern history” is over, at last. More sausage-ingredient details here, in the Washington Post:

… Asked about the conclusion of the unproductive congressional session as he boarded an elevator, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) paraphrased the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: “That which cannot be spoken must be passed over in silence.”

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Apart from the ceremonial invocation of good riddance to bad rubbish, what’s on the agenda for the day?

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