Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

The words do not have to be perfect.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

When we show up, we win.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Put It Away, Rep. Moon

Open Thread: Put It Away, Rep. Moon

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Nobody wants to see your “manly firmness“…

…That last word, calling for replacement, shows a lack of the necessary firmness and the need for the resolution, according to Moon. “It was not meant to downplay their womanhood at all. We just want them to know, every man and lady who is representing us, that we are demanding, as citizens of Missouri, that Obamacare be repealed and make it clear we don’t want a replacement.”

Moon said he does not believe that being a male makes him a better lawmaker than his female colleagues. “I know there are some women who are much smarter than I am and I tip my hat to them.”…

From the evidence here, Missouri has “much smarter” women, men, puppy mill survivors, livestock, and possibly the more advanced class of house plants, too also.

***********
Apart from remembering Voltaire’s prayer (“Lord, make my enemies ridiculous”), what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

87Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    So I guess Brian Williams will soon resign from NBC? Don’t see how he comes back from this, at that network.

    Which continues to employ Mrs. Greenspan.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Under Obamacare, if your manly firmness lasts for more than four hours, you can afford to see a doctor.

  3. 3.

    gene108

    I just had a good interaction with a cop. Literally like 5 minutes ago.

    I had gotten some pizza at the local pizza place.

    There are two traffic lights between it and my abode.

    I make it through the first traffic light just as the light was turning yellow / red. I check my rearview mirror and there’s a car gunning it through right on my tail. I was half a mind to stop, but when I saw the car was following me so closely through the light, I was glad I did not as he would have rear ended me.

    The car is still tailgating me, so I think I sped up on instinct to put some distance between myself and the car.

    Almost home, the car behind me starts flashing its police lights and I get pulled over.

    The officer asks for my info and lets me off with a warning.

    Happy I did not get a ticket.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    There are so many villages in this country who are collectively stupid enough to send their idiots to congress or legislatures. They’re nearly all in red states, too.

  7. 7.

    jl

    @Elizabelle: Laura Logan still around CBS? Seems like she did worse than Williams. I notice what looks like a Logan clone doing war reporting from the Middle East. Is that her replacement?

    Edit: sorry, Lara Logan. Wiki says she is still on leave. Not sure she was forced because of what I thought.

  8. 8.

    Ruckus

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    I think we should admit that sending your town idiot out of town is an nice way of keeping them from getting run over when they walk about town playing all three monkeys(of course they got this wrong as well, see, hear, speak all evil is their motto) at the same time. Of course the consequences might be better for everyone if they just got run over.

  10. 10.

    Josie

    The phrase ” manly firmness” needs to be worked into a rotating tag line somehow. I would hate for it to be lost to history.

  12. 12.

    Nicole

    Moon, R-Ash Grove, said he wasn’t intending to demean or insult the three women. The phrase is taken from the grievances against King George III in the Declaration of Independence, Moon said, and isn’t meant to disparage women.

    “It is just like going to war,” Moon said. “You want a soldier to fight like a man. If a woman is in the trenches, you want them to fight like a man, too.”

    Uh, Mr. Representative? Is that you down there in that hole? Could I please take that shovel for you, sir? No? Okay, then. Carry on.

  14. 14.

    PurpleGirl

    A term of art from my days in utilities law:

    “Firmest non-firm capacity”:

    1) Firm capacity is the amount of energy available for production or transmission which can be (and in many cases must be) guaranteed to be available at a given time. Firm energy refers to the actual energy guaranteed to be available. Nonfirm energy refers to all available energy above and beyond firm energy.

    2) Firm energy is often available at substantial discounts over nonfirm energy sold on the spot market. Energy producers such as hydroelectric plants and wind farms may may have nonfirm energy available due to unexpected weather or seasonal conditions.

    3) The meaning of firm power depends on the context in which it is used, and may have different meanings to different parties. It can be synonymous with firm energy, mean capacity to provide firm energy, or both.

  16. 16.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Roger Moore: There’s plenty of Red Oregon and Washington, too, it’s just that there aren’t that many of of them and they live for the most part in sparsely populated counties.

  17. 17.

    Mike in NC

    @Nicole: Moon, the asshole from Ash Grove, wants to take away health insurance from 200K people in his state. Yet we can guess that manly man will coast to reelection.

  19. 19.

    KG

    I really hate the “we are citizens of Missouri” part. You are not a citizen of Missouri except for in the most arcane legal sense of the word and only to determine if particular courts (usually federal) have jurisdiction to hear a case involving you. You are a citizen of the United States of America. Because the United States of America is actually a nation state and Missouri is not. Allowing the states to retain a sense of sovereignty is turning out to be a terrible decision.

  22. 22.

    Citizen_X

    I am so changing my name to Manly Firmness. Did he get that name from Jack London, who gave us Ernest Everhard?

  23. 23.

    chopper

    @Botsplainer:

    When it comes to cops this is considered a ‘good’ interaction. Well, he didn’t get his skull caved in by officer friendly, so I guess that does count as a win.

  24. 24.

    KG

    @kdaug: some days in really feel like Icabod Crane on Sleepy Hollow. Like last night:

    Abby: hey, you’re the guys that put freedom of the press in the constitution
    Crane: we did not anticipate the 24 hour news cycle

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    So, yes, the job interview I went on where I really, really wanted the job was a sham — confirmed for myself today that they hired the temp who had been covering it. Very annoyed. I have another interview tomorrow, but I’m not sure it’s a position I would want.

  27. 27.

    eemom

    At some point, there’s gotta be a 300+ post on this blog about Jon Stewart’s announcement this evening — featuring a heated argument about false equivalence — doesn’t there? Or am I hopelessly behind the times?

  28. 28.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @KG:

    Allowing the states to retain a sense of sovereignty is turning out to be a terrible decision.

    Federation isn’t a bad thing, especially in big/populous countries. The American implementation, with certain states acting all sovereign and shit while getting back more from the federal government than they pay in, is piss-poor by comparison with other countries that followed its model. And state legislatures are almost all terrible.

  30. 30.

    jl

    Moon sounds really upset about something. Wonder what it is. Drug treatments for ‘man problems’ are already covered by insurance, right? How about vacuum pumps? How old is he? Does he have to wait for Medicare and is upset about it?

    Someone needs to ask him. Might just be a minor coverage issue.

  32. 32.

    KG

    @pseudonymous in nc: most of the other countries that adopted federalism or federation governments weren’t made up of individual parts that already considered themselves sovereign. I understand the historical reasons for our unique system of federalism, but fuck all if it doesn’t lead to a lot of stupid. American history can be defined by two constant battles (that often overlapped): issues of racial equality; and, federalism

  35. 35.

    kindness

    As a median liberal the good Lord has made my domestic enemies ridiculous.

    Sadly that appeals to them & they vote more than median liberals do.

  36. 36.

    Arclite

    I love when he doubles down, she smacks him again (from TPM):

    “It is just like going to war,” Moon said. “You want a soldier to fight like a man. If a woman is in the trenches, you want them to fight like a man, too.”

    McCaskill was not entirely satisfied with Moon’s explanation.

    “It probably just is not a very effective way to communicate with a wide swath of people,” she told TPM Tuesday afternoon. “Using a phrase like ‘manly firmness’ is probably not gonna — he said it was a historic reference, well he’s referring to a point in time when women were chattels and didn’t have the right to vote. I think we can update our vocabulary.”

  37. 37.

    Belafon

    @pseudonymous in nc: Agreed. A country with 300+M people with one decision making authority would be horrible. What needs to happen, though, is that the lower – ie, state – government need to use federal rules as the starting point. Instead, too many states think they are autonomous, especially those that mooch the most.

  38. 38.

    Arclite

    @gene108: Wife had a shitty experience with a cop yesterday. A homeless guy suddenly jumped into the crosswalk, so she slammed on the brakes. He walks past her and then she goes. Cop pulls her over and gives her a ticket for not yielding to pedestrians in a crosswalk. He was a complete asshole about it.

    She comes home and describes the entire situation. Turns out she’d followed the law as written. So we have to go to court and explain to a judge. Sucks.

  41. 41.

    Mike E

    I’m backstage at rehearsals for a fairytale production, 600 seat venue… assistant props just whammed out a dragon’s butt complete with detachable tail to go with its finely wrought head on a pole, all by deploying a sewing machine. Impressive.

  44. 44.

    Mike J

    @efgoldman:

    We have to be the only place in the country that knows or cares when the equipment truck leaves for spring training, let alone makes a “news” story out of it,

    Not any more.

  47. 47.

    Mike E

    @efgoldman: Heh, the students have that tradition of covering the court with streamers when the home team hits their first bucket…not the same, I know. But fun.

    Unbelievably great games in that venue. I saw the L-Train play there…you just want to reach up and pull down a piece of history from the rafters. Fenway is definitely on my bucket list, but this gym is a pretty great sports venue too.

  49. 49.

    BruceFromOhio

    @efgoldman: Dude. Its February. FEBRUARY. You don’t even have to look outside to know what it’s like, you can catch it all on Massdot traffic cams. Or just listen to the howl of the next nor’easter, or the crick-crack-crunk of your siding and windows on another arctic night.

    You find a body stuck in a snowbank, how do you revive him? Tell him pitchers and catchers report in ten days. Fuck yeah, you know when the equipment truck leaves, there is fuck all else to think about.

  50. 50.

    TS

    @Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):

    I was once the “external” interviewer for one of these positions. I recommended someone else – the other three on the panel looked at me as if I was poison & appointed the temp. Completely unfair to the others who applied – they had not a chance.

  52. 52.

    Mike J

    Candidate for rotating tagline

    He said the festive nature of libertinage would have been sullied had he known that the women were being paid for sex.

  53. 53.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Looks like O’Donnell is devoting his whole show to Stewart. I knew the star-fuckery was gonna be out of control. At least he had Lizz Winstead call in.

  54. 54.

    danielx

    @Nicole:

    Uh, Mr. Representative? Is that you down there in that hole? Could I please take that shovel for you, sir? No? Okay, then. Carry on.

    Today’s Win on the Intertubes.

  55. 55.

    BruceFromOhio

    @efgoldman: When I bought the current homestead, there was this big-ass rake-looking thing in the garage that the previous owners left behind. I asked the realtor about it. “That’s a roof rake.”

    Eh?

    “This is the snow belt.”

    Yes. It is, indeed.

  56. 56.

    danielx

    Moon said he does not believe that being a male makes him a better lawmaker than his female colleagues. “I know there are some women who are much smarter than I am and I tip my hat to them.”…

    Are there any witnesses out there who will verify that this Moon fellow has a pulse and can fog a mirror?

  61. 61.

    jl

    To all snowbound BJers: I am available for roof raking and snow removal of all kinds, as long as I can go downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, shoe-shoeing, snow camping and required lounge hanging-outing for recovery whenever I want. I promise, I will get ‘most’ of the work done before I go back to CA.

    Need cash and various living expense in advance for the work , though, and travel expenses to various resorts and Adirondack state park.
    I will buy all my own booze, though. I promise.

  64. 64.

    jl

    @efgoldman: They should be careful for what they wish for. Let’s see who they get to replace Stewart. Maybe they will recruit in-house.

    Black and Mandvi would be harder on GOP than Stewart. I think they are too busy with their own stuff though.

  65. 65.

    esc

    My last interaction with cops was when a couple of them in tactical gear pulled us over in rural Illinois because we were supposedly “going a little fast” during our cross country move. Out of state plates, biracial couple, I guess the drug enforcement guys profile that. If we hadn’t had a baby and two irritated cats with us and DoD stickers on the windshield, they would have probably tried to search our car.

  67. 67.

    srv

    Ethan Czahor, a newly-hired aide to Jeb Bush’s campaign-in-waiting, resigned today after controversy about his past offensive tweets and remarks.

    I weep for the 1st Amendment.

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    We could buy one down the hardware store,

    Not ’round these parts, you cain’t. None within 50 miles. Looking for one (to replace the one that broke the other day) was not unlike going into a Market Basket back in the summer and looking for fresh food.

  69. 69.

    Suzanne

    Would Louis CK take Stewart’s spot? He’d be amazing. Aisha Tyler would be great, too.

    I am so depressed thinking about the murder of Kayla Mueller. Both she and Abdul-Rahman Kassig seemed like just the most wonderful people. The kind of people I wish I had the cojones to be. There are vigils for Mueller around here, since she was an Arizonan.

  70. 70.

    danielx

    @jl:

    With entitled chutzpah like that, I’m only surprised you haven’t been offered a gig at AEI or the Heritage Foundation.

  71. 71.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I kept hearing that Stewart “changed the media’. John McCain is still all over the TeeVee, ABC hired Bill Kristol. CBS hired Newt Gingrich and Condi Rice. Joe Scarborough was hired to host the likes of Ron Fournier and Mark Halperin– they feature Condi Rice in their ads. Richard Cohen, Charles Krauthammer and George Will still have their columns, they’ve been joined by Michael Gerson and Marc Thiessen. I shudder to think the shape we’d be in if Craig Kilborn had stayed with the show.

  72. 72.

    lamh36

    @Trentrunner: meaning what exactly?

    Since Stewart will be retiring later this year, that means he wont’ be around during the campaign season, unless I read that wrong?

    Tell me, who other than Stewart or Colbert would approach the Clinton campaign with a little less coronation? Seems to me, we arleady have seen the vaccum that the MSM has when it comes to Clinton.

    The Daily Show at the least tried to be equal opportunity in terms of who they will skewer.

    The coverage of Jeb and HRC from the MSM will be soo obnoxious.

  74. 74.

    maeve

    @gene108:

    A while ago I had a similar interaction with a cop – a friend and I were driving around and trying to get a good view of the Aurora which were predicted to be good – they were on the Northern Horizon and it was hard to find a good spot both without city (actually town) lights and a view that wasn’t blocked by mountain, It was 2 am.

    So after our last effort we were driving through town and cop car lights went off behind us – we parked and I had time to find my license and pull out my insurance (my friend “joked” that I should pull them out before the cop came up so I wouldn’t get shot)

    Turns out my headlights were off – my eyes had become so dark adapted that I didn’t realize it as we drove through the part of town with street lights – plus my left rear brake light didn’t work – but he actually just wanted to talk to me long enough to make sure I wasn’t drunk…which is perfectly valid. And it allowed me to diagnose that the left rear brake light is a circuit problem (it works when the headlights are on but not when they are off) rather than a lightbulb problem.

    Small town/white privilege (my friend and I are white ladies in our 50s/60s) – but that is how everyone should expect cops to behave.

  75. 75.

    jl

    @danielx:

    ” With entitled chutzpah like that, I’m only surprised you haven’t been offered a gig at AEI or the Heritage Foundation. ”

    They thought my swagger was lacking and not enough ‘manly firmness’. Turned me down.
    You sound slightly impressed. I need small bills, I’ll let the interview slide. I’ll e staying in nearby hotel anyway.

  78. 78.

    jl

    @lamh36: Maybe the approach of another presidential election cycle would break him like a dry twig. I think I’ve seen him throw almsot subliminal micro-flinches when he introduces GOP primary spots.

  79. 79.

    Chris

    @lamh36:

    When I got to know Stewart and Colbert, it was as a ray of sanity under the reign of the worst president since before the Great Depression (and strong contender for worst president ever), an outlook they continued to bring during the insanity of the teabagger era. Suffice it to say, it won’t be the same without them.

    And yeah, I know Stewart had his “both sides do it” moment, but I still found his show to be lightyears better than anything in the mainstream media.

  81. 81.

    lamh36

    @Smiling Mortician: that was in response to who would replace Stewart.

    But yeah if nothing else, without Daily Show we may never have had John Oliver, Steve Carrell, Colbert, Samantha Bee, etc…

  82. 82.

    David Koch

    I’m really worried bout Brian Williams. How is he gonna make it on a measly $5,000,000 this year? He might have to liquidate part of his art collection to make ends meet.

  84. 84.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Kropadope: Unfortunately, they’re pretty trivial ones. The really big lies, like “Saddam has a viable nuke program”? Totally OK.

  85. 85.

    wasabi gasp

    Good thing the Declaration of Independence makes no mention of King George getting bitch slapped.

  86. 86.

    Interrobang

    Did someone point a wand at these guys and yell “Riddikulus!” or something? Someone let the Ministry of Magic know that somebody is fucking with Republicans.

  87. 87.

    Starfish

    @gene108: Do you live in Maryland? The cops there were the most reckless people on the road putting people in dangerous situations so they could give a ticket.

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