Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

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

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

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

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

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Archives for July 2018

Sad Sacks After Dark Open Thread: Sean Spicer’s Me-dia Tour

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Just another two-bit apparatchik in the machinery:

… There was a time, not too long ago, when people were forecasting a gloomy outlook for Spicer’s post–White House career. His six months behind the podium as President Trump’s press secretary had been defined in the public consciousness by a blur of brazen lies and barely trying spin—his sputtering press briefings immortalized on Saturday Night Live, his legacy shaped by his most humiliating meltdowns. (Remember the “Holocaust centers”?)

When he resigned, outside observers mercifully unschooled in the ways of Washington assumed that his role as an agent of misinformation—and his willing participation in Trump’s culture war on the press—would result in some sort of negative consequence for the career communications professional.

How quaint…

Standing amid a throng of fans, his face illuminated by camera light—the event was being covered by C-SPAN and RT, as well as another roving camera crew—Spicer reveled in his triumph.

“I’m having a blast and enjoying this, and frankly I’m blessed by the amount of opportunities that have come my way,” Spicer told me. “And that’s a pretty good way to go through life.”…

Once you’ve sold your (tiny, low-rent) soul, that feeling of weightlessness!

AT A BJ’S WAREHOUSE CLUB, not a bookstore:

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A Couple of Important Data Points

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While nothing is ever guaranteed and hope, while necessary, is not a strategy, there are a couple of important data points that I think need to be highlighted. The first is new polling by NBC and Marist.

Here’s the pdfs with the actual surveys and responses for Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

The most recent Quinnipiac Poll, which was done farther out from the Helsinki summit than the NBC/Marist poll has the President back right around his hard floor of support.

I know a lot of folks were very concerned about the rise of the President’s approval rating to that 45% mark just post Helsinki, but as has happened every time he’s gotten one of these momentary upticks, the next round of polling sees his approval numbers go right back to his hard floor around 38%. And honestly, with the handfull of spikes in support that never seem to stick, the President’s hard floor is also his long term ceiling of support.

Finally, Senator Cruz has now challenged Congressman O’Rourke to five debates between now and the general election in November. Up till now he’d blown off and ignored Congressman O’Rourke’s challenge for six debates between the end of the primary and the general election.

I’m in complete agreement with Dan Pfeiffer and Josh Marshall that this indicates that the Cruz campaign’s internal polling is not good.

Stay focused!

Open thread.

 

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Let’s Give It Up For Our New Back- and Front-Pager!

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Folks,
I have the sincere pleasure of announcing that, starting today, Major Major Major Major is helping with the site on the back- and front-end! Over the past year, he’s been very helpful and has developed some custom programming to enhance our experience here. When I decided to move the On The Road forms to the live site so that we can have a purer test server, I gave him back-end access but that seemed like a tease, so he’s now on the site as well.

Since Major Major Major Major will have access to the site, I asked if he’d be interested in posting. Gracious as always, he confirmed his interest and had a great idea for a regular semi-monthly feature: Book Recommendations, a dedicated space to ask for and give reading recommendations. The idea came from the lively discussions that have happened when he’s asked for recommendations in the past, with several commenters suggesting it as a feature. (If you have ideas for what format this might take, please share them in the comments!)

I’m sure he’ll find other suitable topics to post on, as I’ve encouraged him. I know that, as he pokes around the site and sees what makes it all tick, he’ll have suggestions to simplify, speed up, and improve it. This will be welcome by all, no doubt!

On a related note, in trying to work on some issues the past few weeks, I’ve had to experiment and then restore the server from backup, and this has caused some havoc with folks’ On The Road submissions. It made sense to move that function over so that I can delete and restore the test server as needed, and so for now the On The Road form is offline. I expect there will be some more changes coming soon, and we’ll announce them when appropriate.

 

Please give it up for a great addition to the team. His developer skillset will help make this site much better and will allow us to do some more custom WordPress work than I would dare alone. He’s a great guy, and I know everyone pretty much knows and loves him, so I hope this news falls on kind hearts.

 

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Colorado Pet Bleg: Meeca Needs a New Home

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Scout has cousins and one of them needs an assist. From Carrie, who is the person to Scout’s cousin Luna:

My brother is in need of some help. He’s in the middle of a nasty divorce and their poor dog is stuck in the middle of it. She’s a 10 year old Husky with a sweet temperament. I don’t believe she’s been around cats, but she has been around dogs with no problems. If anyone happens to know of someone looking for a new furry family member, can you PM me? Her name is Meeca.

Meeca lives near me, so if you are in Colorado or nearby, we can probably easily arrange a meet and/or transport. Please email me at whats4dinnersolutions (at) live (dot) com and I’ll put you in touch with Carrie. Let’s see if we can’t get Meeca the home she deserves.

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Let The Rosenstein Impeachment Shitshow Begin

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Two of the dumbest members of congress, Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, have wrangled several other nitwits in the freedom caucus into putting their names on this:

Conservative members led by Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), along with 9 cosponsors, introduced articles of impeachment against Rosenstein shortly after a meeting with Justice Department officials concerning document production.

“For 9 months we’ve warned them consequences were coming, and for 9 months we’ve heard the same excuses backed up by the same unacceptable conduct. Time is up and the consequences are here. It’s time to find a new Deputy Attorney General who is serious about accountability and transparency,” Meadows said in a statement.

“Multiple times we’ve caught DOJ officials hiding information from Congress, withholding relevant documents, or even outright ignoring Congressional subpoenas—and now we have evidence that Mr. Rosenstein signed off on a document using unverified political opposition research as a cornerstone of a FISA application to spy on an American citizen working for the Trump campaign,” Meadows continued.

The document they are claiming about is the FISA bit on Carter Page that Devin Nunes lied about in his memo and that Jim Jordan has still apparently not read. Literally every person I have read that deals with FISA or the law has read the released FISA application and said it was fine, and you don’t need to be an expert to see that Nunes clearly was lying about the FISA application in his memo.

It used to be this was the kind of things that one or two members of Congress would say, and the idiots like Streiff at Red State or that lunatic Andy McCarthy at National Review would repeat at length for their drooling commentariat, but we’re now to the point where we have elected the commenters at these website to Congress, so this is where we are. I have no idea what happens next, but it will involve a great bit of Republican lying and stupidity, on that you can be sure.

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Secretary Pompeo Testifies Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

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The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has just begun its hearing with Secretary of State Pompeo. He is expected to address concerns regarding the President’s recent summit with Putin, his own recent remarks and the President’s tweet about Iran, as well as US relations with NATO and the EU. Here’s the live feed.

Open thread!

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Wednesday Afternoon Open Thread

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We get a ton of butterflies in the yard. The four types I see most often are monarchs, giant swallowtails, Gulf fritillaries and zebra longwings. The latter is pictured below:

We have a played-out parsley plant that is serving as a butterfly nursery. I’m not sure what sort of caterpillar this is:

Looks like a monarch caterpillar except for the orange dots. Can anyone identify it?

Open thread!

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