Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You cannot shame the shameless.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

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

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

He really is that stupid.

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Friday Morning Open Thread: Ides of March

Friday Morning Open Thread: Ides of March

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Mood of the morning.


 
Speaking of women who will slay morons with a single quip…


(I’m guessing GVP is ‘gun violence prevention’)

Reader Interactions

97Comments

  2. 2.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Let me offer the first blecch of the morning. (I prefer the canonical Mad magazine spelling.)

    Got up at 3:20 to give the housecat her midnight snack and made the mistake of checking my phone before going back to sleep. I saw the horrible news from New Zealand, and now sleep will not come. I guess this will overshadow everything else today. Double blecch.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    For any who have ever been involved in a play, have ever seen a play, have ever heard of a play, there’s much fun to be had from the micro-series Empty Space on Amazon Prime.

    Admit to being skeptical going in as it is a series of webisodes (usually two strikes right there) but ended up more than pleasantly surprised. Now and again ventures to put a fingertip over the top, however holds back from becoming overly broad farce. (N.B.: SiubhanDuinne and MomSense, you’ll both like this, methinks.)

    Also too, noticed that the Brit series Miranda is also on Prime now. Over three seasons the redoubtable Miranda Hart pulled out all the comedy stops, sent out for more and then pulled them out too. Although am not much of one for re-watching episodic TV already ingested, I’ve made an exception and added this to the queue to curl up with just for those times when a silliness boost is in order.

  7. 7.

    Royston Vasey

    Brenton Tarrant, an Australian citizen who is believed to come from the northern New South Wales town of Grafton, entitles his document ‘The Great Replacement’
    Tarrant outlines his motivations: including to “create an atmosphere of fear” and to “incite violence” against Muslims while offering up autobiographical details.
    In it he claims he had “brief contact” with Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Behring Brevik and that Brevik gave a “blessing” for his attack.

    NZ Police have not confirmed that Brenton is one of the men in custody over the shooting. They have said one man has been charged.
    Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said an Australian citizen was involved in carrying out the attack.

    New Zealand was not the original choice for the attack but Tarrant wanted to send a message that “that no where in the world was safe”.
    “I only arrived to New Zealand to live temporarily whilst I planned and trained, but I soon found out that New Zealand was as target rich of an environment as anywhere else in the West,” he writes.

    Yes. It is a terrorist attack.
    RV in NZ

  9. 9.

    BC in Illinois

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    On the Christchurch shooting, the statement from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, is right on point:

    Many of those who will have been directly affected by this shooting may be migrants to New Zealand, they may even be refugees here. They have chosen to make New Zealand their home, and it is their home.

    They are us.

    The person who has perpetuated this violence against us is not. They have no place in New Zealand. There is no place in New Zealand for such acts of extreme and unprecedented violence, which it is clear this act was.

    For now, my thoughts, and I’m sure the thoughts of all New Zealanders, are with those who have been affected, and also with their families.

    It makes me wish for / work for / look for a day when our own leaders can once again talk like this. People who come here for refuge, people who migrate here, people who look to make their home here . . . they are us. People who threaten and kill the refugees and the migrant — or people of another religion — have no place here.

    People who see “good people” on both sides of this kind of thing, have no place. Anywhere. I find myself joined with the people of New Zealand in their sorrow and shock. I am envious of their leadership.

  12. 12.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Donald J. Trump
    Verified account @realDonaldTrump
    VETO!

    Stephen Colbert
    ‏Verified account @StephenAtHome

    Mr. President, you misspelled “Beto.”

    614 replies 4,952 retweets 42,065 likes

  15. 15.

    Major Major Major Major

    From the Onion…

    Beto O’Rourke Announces He Starting Obama Cover Campaign

    EL PASO, TX—Revealing plans to “put his own spin” on beloved stump speeches and talking points, Beto O’Rourke announced Thursday that he was starting a Barack Obama cover campaign. “I’ve always loved Barack’s early stuff from back in ’08, even ’04, and I think diehard fans will go crazy when I cover all his greatest hits,” said the 46-year-old White House hopeful, clarifying that he and his campaign aides had spent several months “just going through Barack’s catalog” to memorize the former president’s platform…

  17. 17.

    Steeplejack

    Okay, I got up, made coffee and have done one of my daily crosswords. The housecat got to work early too; she’s dozing at her workstation, although her tail tip is swaying to indicate that she is monitoring the situation.

    I’m going to aim for quiet normalcy today, I think. I had a few errands I was iffy about, but maybe it would be good to get out and about and away from the news. It’s supposed to get up to 70° here in NoVA, cloudy with maybe a bit of rain in the midafternoon. Quite nice.

    Back to the crosswords.

  19. 19.

    Joey Maloney

    There were apparently two missles fired at Tel Aviv last night from Gaza. This is unusual, Hamas usually targets the communities right outside Gaza and doesn’t aim for central Israel.

    Hamas says it wasn’t them and I have no way to evaluate the truth of that statement. But an uptick in attacks can only help Bibi, and he and Hamas need each other. They go together like cholera and dirty water. Their symbiosis is to each use the other to distract from their own incompetence and corruption.

    In any case, I slept right through it. I went to bed way early to pay off several days’ sleep deficit and didn’t hear the booms or the sirens or anything. Only found out when I was talking to someone on the literal other side of the planet and they asked me about it. You know you’re bad off when the NYT knows about it before you do.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The SPLC has fired co-founder Morris Dees because…

    “As a civil rights organization, the SPLC is committed to ensuring that the conduct of our staff reflects the mission of the organization and the values we hope to instill in the world. When one of our own fails to meet those standards, no matter his or her role in the organization, we take it seriously and must take appropriate action,”

    Dees responded,

    “I think the Southern Poverty Law Center is a very fine group and I devoted nearly 50 years of my life to it and I’m proud of its work,” Dees said, “About being fired, all I can say is it wasn’t my decision and I wish the center the best.”

    And just for emphasis

    Dees’ biography appeared to have been removed from the organization’s website.

    I wonder if my unsigned, unread, and unwanted copy is now a collectors item?

  25. 25.

    Raven

    @Steeplejack: Lil Bit now sleeps on the floor because her breathing is so loud. Last night at midnight she crawled under a table where there is a box fan and it fell on her. It was really loud and I woke up startled, went out and got my flashlight and found in on top of her and her just sleeping away! I moved out to the couch and at 3am the damn back door blew open and the alarm siren blasted me off the couch!

  26. 26.

    satby

    So, I talked to Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s chief of staff last night and told her he’s been getting some love here. We may see him pop in to say hi one of these days.
    I told her we’re mostly nice.

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    I told her we’re mostly nice.

    Did your nose grow a foot? Did your pants spontaneously combust?

  30. 30.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: She might notice you if you enter the race for president. Forget about it though because she backed Jill Stein after Bernie dropped out. She has terrible taste in candidates.

  32. 32.

    Raven

    Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar met for breakfast with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday, but not without bringing his boyfriend along.

    Varadkar, Ireland’s first openly gay leader, tweeted about the breakfast held at Pence’s home in Washington, saying “it’s great to be back here for a really warm reception.”

  34. 34.

    JPL

    The Guardian has live updates about the shooting including condolences from various world leaders. Although it’s meaningless, I wish that our president offered his thoughts. I guess his last tweet was to Breitbart.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: I love this part:

    “I lived in a country where if I’d tried to be myself at the time, it would have ended up breaking laws,” he said. “But today, that is all changed. I stand here, leader of my country, flawed and human, but judged by my political actions, and not by my sexual orientation, my skin tone, gender or religious beliefs.”

  37. 37.

    Jeffro

    I’m glad that trumpov’s “I have the police, I have the military” comments are getting at least a little play in our both-sides media today, as is the overall threat from white supremacist violence. More sunlight please, Villagers, much more

  42. 42.

    satby

    Oh, happy news! One of my exchange daughters from 2016 will be back in the U.S. for a college semester starting this August. She doesn’t know where the program will place her, but reunion!!!
    Edit: she just pinged me on Instagram.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    @satby: I hope you warned them that this is Baud! Country.

    Although it would be kind of fun to have the first BJ presidential debate with him.

  49. 49.

    satby

    @NotMax: yes, Qunoot. She applied for another competitive scholarship program (I think for teaching?) and was one of only two students selected from her country.

  50. 50.

    satby

    @Baud:

    Although it would be kind of fun to have the first BJ presidential debate with him.

    That would be great actually, wouldn’t it? Jackals would ask better questions.

  52. 52.

    Leto

    @satby: Ask her if she can bring some Green Beans Coffee? (That was shade the good mayor threw at Schultz via tweet, referenced in Adam’s thread below)

    @debbie: Words fail me on this. Shitbook is trying to delete all copies but the scum of the internet will keep it alive and circulating. Sickening and horrifying.

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack

    @Raven:

    It’s always something!

    I have resigned myself to getting up and giving the housecat something in the middle of the night. It shuts her up—she is pretty much deaf and has no “inside voice”—and it doesn’t take any longer than going to the bathroom. And we don’t get into long arguments about how she can be hungry again after having a snack right before bedtime. The key thing is not to look at the goddamn phone before I try to go back to sleep.

  54. 54.

    satby

    @satby: I will say that it’s great that the 16 year old who wanted to grow up to be a YouTube star has matured into a nearly 20 year old who volunteers as a tutor.

  57. 57.

    JPL

    @debbie: The White House released a generic thoughts and prayers statement, but nothing directly from the president yet. Trump probably feels honored that the murdered referred to him as a symbol of white identity.

  59. 59.

    Jeffro

    @JPL: No doubt.

    This is the same guy who, when asked about that RWNJ Coast Guard guy who got busted before he could kill dozens of ‘them’, said that “it was a sad thing”. No condemnation of the guy, no calls for people to stand down, just that “it was a sad thing.”

    I think deep down, he meant that it was sad the guy got busted.

  61. 61.

    JPL

    The anchor of CNN New Day John Berman is all over the president for his use of language that incites people to violence.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    Solely to have something running in the background, flipped on a before she became a big star Rita Hayworth film. Wouldn’t mention it except find it most amusing that the on screen description of the movie identifies her as Elizabeth Taylor, who would have been five years old at the time..

  63. 63.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    Forget about it though because she backed Jill Stein after Bernie dropped out. She has terrible taste in candidates.

    Then Booker has lost my vote.

  64. 64.

    TS (the original)

    @JPL: Given what he is likely to say – NZ and the world is better off if he says nothing

  65. 65.

    JPL

    @TS (the original): and here it is
    My warmest sympathy and best wishes goes out to the people of New Zealand after the horrible massacre in the Mosques. 49 innocent people have so senselessly died, with so many more seriously injured. The U.S. stands by New Zealand for anything we can do. God bless all!

  66. 66.

    Betty Cracker

    When we have a real president again rather than a semi-sentient comments section from a crackpot YouTube channel, I hope he or she will allocate significant resources to rolling back white supremacist terrorist groups. IIRC, the US government sent a drone after US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki (and killed his US citizen teenage son too) for radicalizing terrorists online.

    There seems to be a lot of online radicalization of white supremacists too, and they telegraph and now live-stream their terrorist attacks. The New Zealand terrorist is just the latest. The white supremacist who carried out the Pittsburgh synagogue terrorist attack was also active online. So was the deranged Coast Guard officer who was apprehended before he could carry out his massacre. So was Dylann Roof, etc.

    It’s a real problem. But right now, the POTUS has a pinned tweet of his interview with Breitbart News, a racist hate site that has “black crime” tags. So obviously we’ll have to wait until that mofo is gone before tackling this serious problem.

  68. 68.

    TS (the original)

    @JPL: The only thing he can do for the people of NZ is to shut up and stop inciting RW violence.

  73. 73.

    JPL

    @montanareddog: Best wishes was a nice touch.
    Is anyone watching Morning Joe? CNN has been talking non stop about the president’s language, and I wonder if Joe is also.

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    Trump tweeted a Breitbart News piece on himself (of course) earlier today — no words, just a Breitbart-branded link to the Trump interview. Now that tweet has been deleted and replaced by a generic “thoughts and prayers” tweet about the New Zealand terrorist attack, which has since been followed by the usual unhinged ranting about the FBI.

    Fascinating that Trump (or more likely a minion) pulled the Breitbart tweet. Breitbart is a racist hate site, sure, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from elevating it repeatedly in the past. And of course he installed its boss as chief policy strategist when he was first elected, and its financial underwriters, the Mercers, are prominent Republicans.

    So, why did he pull the tweet? Just speculation, but maybe the Trumpsters got a heads-up that the terrorist in NZ was active in the Breitbart community. He’d find plenty there to stoke his white supremacist hatred.

  81. 81.

    The Pale Scot

    @Royston Vasey:

    but I soon found out that New Zealand was as target rich of an environment as anywhere else in the West

    BS, more likely it seems that NZ has looser gun laws (at first glance, I could be wrong) than Oz. So frustrated ammosexual got his freak on.

  82. 82.

    Steeplejack

    @JPL:

    Joe and Mika were both out today, but Willie Geist and the panel were hammering Trump on his speech in a fairly long segment.

  83. 83.

    Soprano2

    Why does anyone invite Kellyanne Conway on his/her show? I was lying in bed last night, trying to sleep, when I heard Chris Cuomo come on the TV downstairs (I keep telling my husband not to watch CNN before he goes to bed, but he doesn’t listen to me!). He was “talking” with Kellyanne, only what was really happening was she was interrupting and not allowing him to finish more than a sentence or two. She is one of the rudest guests I’ve ever heard on one of these shows – “You aren’t talking about topic ‘X’ I want to talk about, what’s wrong with you” is one of her favorite tactics. I wish they would all boycott her, since she’s so awful. She talks over anything the host is saying that she doesn’t like.

  86. 86.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker: I did not know he pulled the tweet, since I try to stay on Real Press Sec. for updates. He has moved to jexodus and obama though I guess he’s watching fox and that’s what they are covering. . .

  89. 89.

    The Pale Scot

    @satby:

    the 16 year old who wanted to grow up to be a YouTube star has matured into a nearly 20 year old who volunteers as a tutor.

    Then there’s hope? Right?

  92. 92.

    Steeplejack

    @The Pale Scot:

    She likes it wet and she likes it fresh!

    The cat wrangler has had limited success with an automatic feeder when I’ve been out of town. But thanks for the suggestion.

  96. 96.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    <a href="

    While you're still horrified by the mosque shooting, I'm going to share something I don't normally share. Because tomorrow, it won't be so fresh, and that feeling you have right now, where even a small, kindhearted country like NZ isn't safe won't be filling your heart the 1/— Vianna Goodwin?️‍???? (@GoodwinVianna) March 15, 2019

    “>This thread about the NZ shooting is worth reading and sharing. The woman who wrote it is a Muslim in the US who describes what she’s encountered in the last few years and her growing fear.

  97. 97.

    debbie

    @Betty Cracker:

    I know you’re long gone, but I’d bet the tweet was pulled because the interview was the one where Trump said he had bikers, cops, and military members to protect him if the big, bad liberals came at him. Implied violence, no?

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