Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Bark louder, little dog.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

In my day, never was longer.

A consequence of cucumbers

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Come on, man.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

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Late Night Open Thread: Happy Thought to End the Day…

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Not a professional myself, but “Less than 15% of our hull has been breached!” somehow doesn’t seem like the happiest rally for the S.S. Greedy Old Perverts…

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85Comments

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
    Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
    Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
    Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
        – Omar Khayyam

  3. 3.

    GregB

    Has anyone compiled a GOP’s list of just how much of a pack of degenerates the GOP’s Tea-Party class turned out to be?

  4. 4.

    efgoldman

    This time in 2010, Dems and their supporters were in denial about the tea partiers. We made our usual mistake of assuming US voters were too smart and rational to fall for RWNJ bullshit, not taking into account the importance of stay at homes.
    Eight years later, we seem FINALLY to have learned our lesson, and to be angry enough to swarm the polls.
    Keep it going!

  6. 6.

    SFAW

    @GregB:

    Has anyone compiled a GOP’s list of just how much of a pack of degenerates the GOP’s Tea-Party class turned out to be?

    All of ’em, Greggie.

    ETA: [Does his best Moe Howard “Why I oughta …” in Adam’s direction.]

  7. 7.

    Roger Moore

    There are probably no more than 30-40 House Repubs who really want to get in a big impeachment fight on behalf of Trump. For most others, if protecting Trump is easy, they’ll protect him. If it’s hard, many won’t want to be in that fight

    Count me as skeptical of this one. If the Republicans don’t want a big fight, they can put up a token fight instead. That would mean voting no on everything, but not breaking out all the stall tactics and dirty tricks. That way you can answer your in-party critics- hey, you voted no on everything- while still knowing in your heart you didn’t do anything crazy to protect the guy. Besides, the Republicans who are left in Congress under this scenario are the ones who could get reelected under the most challenging circumstances, so they’re not going to be too afraid of anything going forward.

  8. 8.

    efgoldman

    @GregB:

    Has anyone compiled a GOP’s list of just how much of a pack of degenerates the GOP’s Tea-Party class turned out to be?

    No need. All of them, Katie

  10. 10.

    Mnemosyne

    I think the other assumption is that now they’ll be able to run “clean” Republican candidates who can claim that they didn’t vote for the tax bill, so it’s safe to vote for them. This will probably work in some places, unfortunately, but hopefully not enough for the Repugs to keep the House.

  11. 11.

    efgoldman

    @Roger Moore:

    That would mean voting no on everything, but not breaking out all the stall tactics

    Assuming they get blue waved out of the house, once in the minority they have no way to stall. The house isn’t the senate. There are no tactics available to the minority

  12. 12.

    seaboogie

    These fuckers. If you want good government, elect Dems. We fix deficits, make things work pretty well (more or less), and have a desire to make government work for pretty much everybody, no matter who you fucking voted for.

    But if you want a bunch of cynical, hypocritical, craven grifters who are in thrall to Oligarchs, willing to ruin everything for their corporate masters, and you want your angry racist/misogynist funny bone to be tweaked on the regular – go GOP – they will never disappoint.

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne

    In personal news, it looks like I’ll be having knee surgery in July to repair my ACL. Before it can be scheduled, I have to go in for a CT scan of the knee (I already had an MRI) to see if the surgeon needs to do a bone graft first. If he does, I get to have 2 knee surgeries in 6 months. Yay.

  14. 14.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Mnemosyne:
    I don’t know. I’m no expert but the overall national mood is very anti-Trump and by extension anti-GOP. If they managed to hold the House I would be very suspicious. Historical trends are on our side as well; the president’s party typically gets decimated in mid-terms elections. I would encourage the Democratic party to contest the election if this occurred and evidence suggesting shenanigans existed.

  15. 15.

    patroclus

    This the best environment for a Democratic gain in the midterms in my lifetime. Previously, it was 1974, which I remember well (although I wasn’t eligible to vote yet). I was also alive for 1964 and the LBJ landslide in a presidential year but I don’t really remember it. But I do remember 1982, 1986 and 2006. In ’74, Nixon had just been forced to resign and Ford had pardoned him and there had been the oil embargo and gas lines and economic decline and Ford’s stupid WIN campaign. But Trump and today’s Republicans are far worse than Ford and the then-Republicans. If we play this right and remain energized, I think we can do better than we’ve ever done in my lifetime. And possibly the best ever (although 1930 and 1954 were also quite good).

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    @patrcolus

    And possibly the best ever (although 1930 and 1954 were also quite good)

    Gonna have to go beyond any stretch of the imagination to surpass the big flip of 1890.

    Still, never say never; stranger things have happened.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    @Mnemosyne: The GOP still is trying to make the case that the tax bill is a net political win for them (polling suggests that’s …dubious), so even if they’re thinking along those lines in private, they’d never say so.

  19. 19.

    Feebog

    Take a look at the Cook Political report. At this point I would predict about a 40 seat pickup for the good guys.

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne

    @lgerard:

    Sessions is lucky he was allowed to be there at all. Remember when Spicer traveled all the way to Italy with Trump because Trump promised that he could meet the Pope and then had the rug pulled out from under him at the last second? I almost felt sorry for the asshole.

  21. 21.

    Roger Moore

    @patroclus:

    although 1930 and 1954 were also quite good

    I think we’ll have a hard time topping 1932, when the Democrats (and their coalition partners in the Farmer-Labor party) picked up 101 seats in the House. That was something of a special case, though, because they benefited from an unusually drastic reapportionment as well as a wave election. There hadn’t been any reapportionment after the 1920 census, since the Republicans controlled the whole government and recognized reapportionment would hurt them electorally, so the reapportionment after the 1930 census had double the normal effect.

  22. 22.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Mnemosyne:
    Good luck. At least hopefully your knee will get repaired.

    And look on the bright side, you could have
    sciatica. A co-worker of mine has that and his job involves a lot of walking and standing for hours on end. Not fun as you could guess.

  23. 23.

    Yarrow

    @dmsilev:

    The GOP still is trying to make the case that the tax bill is a net political win for them (polling suggests that’s …dubious),

    When the tax bill comes up I like to cite Mitch McConnell’s comments from December:

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., insisted Americans would respond positively to the tax bill.

    “If we can’t sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work,” he said.

    Another line of work? Sounds great.

  24. 24.

    SFAW

    @Mnemosyne:

    In personal news, it looks like I’ll be having knee surgery in July to repair my ACL.

    So you won’t be able to kick ass and take names for about, what, 6 or 8 weeks? On the other hand: if you do your usual GOTV work, waling around with a cane (or similar) may get people to vote the way you want them to, out of sympathy.

    Also: Maybe we can start a GoFundMe to bribe importune LMM to visit you in the hospital after the surgery. Of course, if he does that, they better have a crash cart nearby.

  25. 25.

    Mandalay

    @GregB:

    Has anyone compiled a GOP’s list of just how much of a pack of degenerates the GOP’s Tea-Party class turned out to be?

    I don’t have a list, but I like this story about Tea Partier Dave Brat who ousted Eric Cantor:

    Brat’s refusal to hold town hall meetings has exposed him to mocking on social media that he’s unavailable to his constituents, criticism that is similar to the barbs Cantor faced when tea party activists derided him as a Washington insider who had forgotten his district.

    Apparently there is a decent chance he will be kicked out in November.

  26. 26.

    SFAW

    @Yarrow:

    Another line of work? Sounds great.

    Agreed. On the other hand, I can’t recall seeing a job posting where they’re looking for a “motherfucking traitor.”

  28. 28.

    Ruckus

    S.S. Greedy Old Perverts
    While this may in fact be a better actual description of them I prefer
    SS Greasy Old Poop

    And yes I left out the periods on purpose.

  30. 30.

    patroclus

    @Roger Moore: Well, 1932 was a Presidential year; not a mid-term. So we’re looking for a non-coattail year. And the other candidate mentioned – 1890 – was in an era where I’m not sure I would have even been a Democrat. So I’m sticking with 1954, 1930 and the best in my lifetime – 1974.

  31. 31.

    Mnemosyne

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    I do have sciatica, but it’s not acting up right now. Tell your coworker to look up “pigeon pose” yoga poses — sciatica gets aggravated by tight hamstrings, and pigeon pose stretches will help.

    @SFAW:

    No joke: I am one (1) degree of separation from LMM through multiple people. In fact, I know someone who is on a business trip to work with him even as we speak. You have NO IDEA how frustrating it is.

    At this point, I’m pretty sure he’s going to visit my office while I’m out on leave with my knee surgery, because that would be just my luck.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    As it’s open thread –

    The pull of the deep blue sea.

    Earth’s oceans generate a second, tiny, previously-unknown magnetic field, ESA satellites find

    The ebb and flow of salty water, caused by our Moon’s gravitational pull, can induce their own magnetic field — one which a trio of European Space Agency’s (ESA) satellites has mapped in exquisite detail.

    Known as “Swarm”, the trio of satellites was blasted off into orbit back in 2013 to help us better understand the planet’s magnetic field. Most of that field is produced by the churnings of molten iron in the Earth’s core, functioning like a massive underground dynamo. There are other secondary effects, however, such as those produced by human activity — and those are the effects Swarm was intended to peer into.

    Imagine the surprise among ESA’s researchers when the satellites stumbled into a whole new magnetic phenomenon.

    “It’s a really tiny magnetic field. It’s about 2-2.5 nanotesla at satellite altitude, which is about 20,000 times weaker than the Earth’s global magnetic field,” Nils Olsen, from the Technical University of Denmark, told BBC News.

    What set the satellite trio apart from its peers — and enabled this discovery — is the way they ‘see’ water. Other devices we’ve sent in orbit record tides as a change in sea-surface height, but Swarm’s magnetic instruments view the movements of the entire column of water, all the way down to the seabed. Source

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:

    No joke: I am one (1) degree of separation from LMM through multiple people.

    He has been doing a bunch of work with Giant Evil Corporation recently, so it’s not that surprising.

  35. 35.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Mnemosyne:
    I didn’t know you did. I’ll let him know next time I see him, which will probably be tommorow.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yarrow:

    It’s because the specific HMO I’m stuck with through my primary care doctor sucks rocks and takes FOREVER to approve anything. I don’t want to switch until this knee thing is done because I don’t want to have to re-start from square one, but I will have a new doctor who belongs to a different HMO next year.

    (Weird situation with my insurance: the specific HMO I have to use depends on what my doctor is signed up with, not the insurance company. It’s complicated.)

  37. 37.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne: That’s weird. Hopefully you can find a better primary care doc next year. Didn’t the one you have now drop the ball on your referral to get your knee checked out?

  39. 39.

    mainmata

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Aaaaannd at this point, we introduce you to Cosy Bear and his friends in Russia busy working right now to sabotage just enough voting machines in the right red districts to keep the HOR red. The electoral officials in red states have already said they’re not going to do anything to protect the vote because they think it’s all theirs. We’ll see.

  41. 41.

    T S

    It’s funny how dead certain so many are now that the House will flip. There’s a lot of time between now and november, and trump has been trending upward slowly in the approval ratings. WTH, but he is.

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    @mainmata:

    (A) If we can replace all of the blue state Republican House members, we have a majority again.

    (2) Operations like Cozy Bear only work in close elections. If you have hundreds of people per precinct finding out on election day that their name was removed from the voter rolls, or if the records show that thousands of registered Democrats just happened to vote Republican, even the dimmest Trump voter is going to smell a rat.

  44. 44.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    @efgoldman:

    This time in 2010, Dems and their supporters were in denial about the tea partiers.

    In our defense, the Tea Partiers were presented to us via the MSM as a colossal joke— just a bunch of flighty old biddies in stupid hats who couldn’t utter a comprehensible sentence under penalty of death.

    The Daily Show really screwed Generation X; laughing at the RWNJs lulled us into complacency when we should’ve been enraged and terrified.

  46. 46.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Mnemosyne: Yep. Though the main difference between now and then is how badly the House is gerrymandered. That’s going to be hard.

    I mean, in 2016 we got something like 49% of the vote and 45% of the seats. I’m pretty sure 2018 will be something like 53-58% of the vote (more likely in the middle of that), and the seat breakdown will be pretty close.

  48. 48.

    efgoldman

    @hervevillechaizelounge:

    laughing at the RWNJs lulled us into complacency when we should’ve been enraged and terrified.

    Actually this is a Dem ailment going back to at least the 80s. Dem candidates and partisans listened to the Reaganauts, and Newtnik, and the Tea Partiers and thought: The electorate is too rational to believe the bullshit. Therefore, president Dukakis, President Kerry….

  51. 51.

    T S

    @Mnemosyne: It’s very possible…but I wouldn’t get invested in the preferable outcome. I mean, invest time to make it happen, but any dumb thing can happen in America.

  52. 52.

    efgoldman

    @T S:

    But they love that rat smell if they think it means they’ll win.

    Based on your posts, you have given up. Go roll into a ball in a corner and leave the rest of us alone.

  56. 56.

    lgerard

    Down goes another republican

    Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger announced Tuesday night that he is resigning from office amid talk of an FBI investigation into his activities.

    Gov. John Kasich, talking to reporters Tuesday, said he was praying for Rosenberger.

  60. 60.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @T S:
    The historical trends are there as Mnem said. If the House doesn’t flip that will be horrible but all that means is that the election results will need to be contested by not only the Democratic party as a whole but all ordinary citizens who are against Trump and the GOP. Mass protests will need to happen, as they did in places like they did across the Eastern bloc at the close of the Cold War, showing opposition against gerrymandering itself. The message of the fundamental unfairness of gerrymandering and it’s undemocratic results I think would be a strong one. These protests would put immense pressure on the GOP; the message being that you have no real mandate and therefore no legitimacy to rule.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    @T S:

    Define “invested.” I’m planning to donate and volunteer to get my preferred outcome. What’s your plan, other than sitting on your ass?

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Yeah, it’s pretty much “surgery now or a guaranteed knee replacement in 15-20 years.” Not replacing the ACL will cause damage over time to the rest of the knee, so better to fix it now than to let that happen.

  70. 70.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Fair Economist: You mentioned Nixon getting on the chopper yesterday(I think), you know that chopper(Marine(or Army) One) is in Yorba Linda at the Nixon Library. The plane that he got on after exiting the chopper is in Simi Valley at the Reagan Library(it changed it’s call designation midway over Missouri after Nixon was no longer President).

  71. 71.

    T S

    @efgoldman: Phonetically, your handle is perfect. EF Goldman. F- Goldman. I’m sure I’m not the only one who reads it like that.

    Are you this bad in real life too? How?

  73. 73.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    @Mandalay:

    Brat’s refusal to hold town hall meetings has exposed him to mocking on social media that he’s unavailable to his constituents,

    He’s available to the people who paid for him. Aren’t they the same thing?

  74. 74.

    magurakurin

    @Major Major Major Major: hey, you’re in my neck of the woods…well, sort of. Different island. You are lucky, the weather has been really nice. It looks like a storm headed for Saturday night Sunday morning. Have you been to Osaka? did you go to Tsutenkaku area (map link)? I really like that area. The old Shinseikai Market place is really funky and all the kushikatsu places are good to eat at. Also the Don Quioxte store right by the Doubutsumae Subway entrance is a good place to see deep in the heart of Osaka people.

  75. 75.

    Fair Economist

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: No, I didn’t know that the Nixon library had the departure helicopter. I’ve been to the Nixon library, but I didn’t remember a chopper. I didn’t think my mind was *that* far gone, but a little googling showed the chopper came in 2006, which was after I visited.

    Maybe I’ll revisit it, to throw garlands of thanks on the chopper.

  78. 78.

    lowtechcyclist

    “Less than 10” more House GOP retirements still to come, like that was no big deal.

    Seriously, even another half-dozen at this late point in the cycle would be a Big Fucking Deal, even if we hadn’t already had a mammoth number of GOPers calling it quits. And Stivers isn’t ruling out 8 or 9 more.

    This is amazing, it really is.

  79. 79.

    randy khan

    @MisterForkbeard:

    If the Dems get something at the top of your range, it will be a bloodbath. Gerrymanders are designed to work in non-wave years; in a wave year, rather than protecting incumbents, they make them more vulnerable.

  80. 80.

    randy khan

    By the way, if the numbers I saw yesterday are accurate, the House Republicans are way past 15% in retirements already – they hold 237 seats and there were 45 retirements (per one of the Ryan threads) as of yesterday morning, which is nearly 19%. Add 10 more and it would be 23%, which is incredible.

  81. 81.

    H.E.Wolf

    I’m way, way late to this defunct thread, but speaking of curious incidents in the nighttime…. our new friend T S popped up with his anti-Democratic, pro-Trump, and (eventually) profanely hostile comments between 1-3 AM East Coast time. That’s 8-10 AM in Moscow, so he was probably just getting into work.

  82. 82.

    Dev Null

    @MisterForkbeard: I might be wrong, but it’s my impression that gerrymandering delivers the goods in non-wave elections, but can be an utter disaster for the gerrymander-ers in wave elections.

    The point of gerrymandering (IIRC) is to move just enough opposition party votes into safe districts that the opposition party’s strong districts become much weaker while your “safe” districts are only marginally weaker.

    Trivial made-up example – take four R+10 districts, change the lines so that they become four R+6. Meanwhile, the D+12 district becomes even or lean R by a bit.

    (There’s also moving all the D voters into a single D district, painting marginal R districts redder, but let’s go with the first practice because it’s clearer.)

    Trouble is (for the gerrymander-ers), if you have a wave election of (for purposes of the example) D+8, those four R+6 districts might all go D, versus staying in R hands had they all remained R+10.

    I haven’t looked recently, but I seem to remember Sam Wang guess-timating Dems needed +6 to overcome the effects of gerrymandering … but if Ds can do that, a lot of red districts turn blue… like falling off a cliff. It can be a YUUUGE effect.

    (Apologies if everyone knows this … I haven’t seen this discussed in detail here, but I don’t always read BJ comments.)

  84. 84.

    Mnemosyne

    @T S:

    Then you should have said that rather than claiming that a website that raises tens of thousands of dollars for Democratic candidates is sitting around wishing and hoping, jackhole.

  85. 85.

    JDM

    Well, I’d accept a 15% hull breach if Scotty was in charge of repairs. Trump and Co., not so much.

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