Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Not all heroes wear capes.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Cole is on a roll !

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

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

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

Let me file that under fuck it.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

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Archives for September 2019

Happy Reminder Open Thread: #MoscowMitch Is *Very* Annoyed with Us

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As a good bidnizman, McConnell believes the #MoscowMitch label is damaging his personal brand. He’s for sale to any sufficiently wealthy buyer, not just the GRU! So he vented with Hugh ‘Ambulatory Cream Cheese Sculpture’* Hewitt:

… “It’s modern-day McCarthyism,” McConnell said during a radio interview on Salem Media Group’s “Hugh Hewitt Show” when asked about the nickname he received after blocking Democrats’ efforts to pass bipartisan election security bills…

McConnell faced heavy scrutiny following his decision in July to block requests from Democratic senators to pass bills aimed at strengthening America’s election infrastructure by unanimous consent.

The move came a day after former special counsel Robert Mueller publicly warned that Russia was trying to interfere in the 2020 elections as we “sit here.”…

“These pundits are lying, lying when they dismiss the work that has been done. They’re lying when they insist I have personally blocked actions which, in fact, I have championed and the Senate has passed. They are lying when they suggest that either party is against defending our democracy,” he said during the Senate floor speech.

The bills blocked by McConnell would require the use of paper ballots and direct campaigns to report offers of assistance from foreign governments to the FBI.

*h/t Betty Cracker

Alternative #hack, too also:

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Dan Crenshaw May Be the Dumbest Person on the Planet

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He said this. Out loud. For everyone to see. A member of congress is handing out guns to people who couldn’t pass a background check.

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Ben Ray Lujan (NM03) Town Hall

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About 120 people turned out for Ben Ray Lujan’s town hall tonight. He’s the representative for Northern New Mexico and the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House of  Representatives.

No obvious MAGATs. The district is pretty thoroughly Democratic.

Lujan gave an overview of legislation the House has passed, but of course not the Senate, and then opened things up for questions.

The one question I was interested in was about impeachment. It was from a woman who said she was from Las Vegas, NM, and came from a Democratic family and had been a Democrat all her life.

The question was a little scattered, although she seemed to be disappointed in the Democratic Party – “not what it used to be” – I took this to be for not being more assertive on impeachment. Luhan started his answer with a short recap of bills passed. I think this was a bit defensive in response to the criticism, which he may have taken differently than I did.

He became visibly emotional when he addressed impeachment. “I don’t think I should look forward to investigating the President of the United States.” Coming out in favor of impeachment hearings seems to have been a difficult decision for him. He talked around the question a bit and was clearly uncomfortable in a way he wasn’t with any other question. “I don’t pride myself on this.”

He also said that Nancy Pelosi is in a different place than Jerrold Nadler on impeachment, but didn’t expand.

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GOP Venality Open Thread: Trump Is Stealing From the Military for His ‘Wall’

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SupPport My OuR tROOPS!!! Even the Repubs aren’t buying this feral hog in a poke. Per Politico, “Trump defends cash grab for border projects as lawmakers lash out”:

… Defense Secretary Mark Esper informed congressional leaders on Tuesday of the cash grab from more than 100 military projects — such as upgrading military bases both at home and abroad — that will now be used to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. The move prompted an immediate uproar from lawmakers, who cried foul that the president had infringed on Congress’ appropriation authority.

Of the $1.08 billion in cuts coming from military facilities inside 23 U.S. states, 55 percent came from states Hillary Clinton won, versus 45 percent from states won by Trump, according to a POLITICO analysis.

Hardest hit was New York, where $160 million that was expected to go towards updating the engineering center and a parking structure at the U.S. Military Academy is being diverted…

(A whole bunch of red-state moms with kids in high school are currently screaming at their local reps, because West Point is a biiig draw for aspiring STEM students whose parents can’t afford to get them into Stanford.)

… Asked by reporters what he told members of Congress who would see projects in their districts affected by the diversion of funds, Trump said Wednesday he had delegated that task to Esper, who had “very good conversations” with “various” members, the president said.

“I didn’t tell [them] anything,” he said of the move. “The secretary of Defense spoke with members of Congress and explained it to them and I think he felt very good about it.” …

Preznit Toddler-in-Chief: Blames the stolen cookies on the dog Secretary.

And, of course:

… The cuts would fall even harder on two U.S. territories: Puerto Rico, which stands to lose $403 million worth of projects, and Guam, which would lose $257 million. Puerto Rico is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria’s devastation in 2017 — and its government has come under repeated criticism from Trump, who denounced it last week as “one of the most corrupt places on earth” even as the island was facing a lashing from Hurricane Dorian.

The five projects in Puerto Rico are primarily to rebuild after severe damage from Hurricane Maria, a senior defense official said…

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Kitten Bleg: These Sweet Cuties Looking For Homes

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cute kitties

Newest jackal AmyBlueKat has two little foundlings all healthy and ready for their new homes. She’s even willing to transport. Right now they are in the Dallas area.

I found Maysie and brother Big Tux living in the woods beside a busy street in Texas.

They have been spayed, neutered, fully vaccinated, and dewormed.

They have been living indoors and outdoors, and are comfortable around people, other cats, and dogs.

They are very loving!

I will gladly transport them anywhere a good home awaits!

She doesn’t say they need to go together, but I can vouch that two are twice as much fun, but not really twice as much work. And look, they won’t need more than kibble, few toys, a quick vet visit, a litter box, and a lap or two.

You know you need them! Contact AmyBlueKat at amybluekat – at – gmail – dot -com or send me a note and I’ll connect you.

And welcome AmyBlueKat, we look forward to having you join the raucous playroom we call Balloon-Juice.

 

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Open Thread: “Does Joe Biden Want to Be Doing This?”

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You think anyone other than Joe Biden has the power to stop him, right now? Eugene Robinson, at the Washington Post “It’s still Biden’s race to lose”:

The big news in the Democratic presidential race is that not much has changed since Joe Biden jumped in…

For me, the striking thing is how little the race changed over the summer. Since late May, Biden’s support has never gone below 26 percent — his nadir after getting sliced and diced by Harris in the first debate — and no other candidate has climbed as high as 19 percent.

Polls in the key early primary and caucus states tell the same story. The RealClearPolitics average shows Biden with a solid lead in Iowa, a slim lead in New Hampshire, and huge leads in both Nevada and South Carolina. If those numbers hold and he wins all four of those states, it’s pretty much game over…

At 76, Biden has to show that he’s still sharp and vigorous enough to vanquish Trump and then serve four years in the most demanding job in the world. In the first debate, he seemed old, tired, at times befuddled. Since then, in my view, he has been much better, though questions remain.

If Democrats choose Biden, they will have a nominee who can get carried away while telling stories, who can mix up names and dates, who can be a font of malapropisms. His top-tier rivals speak in crisper, more well-formed sentences; heck, Buttigieg speaks in whole polished paragraphs. But as voters decide who’s best to beat Trump and repair the damage he’s done to the nation, I believe they want more than eloquence. I think they’re looking for “electability,” whatever that means; they’re looking for a fighter who won’t back down; and they’re looking for leadership…

… The most glowing line on Biden’s political CV is the eight years he spent as Obama’s vice president… And the image of the Obama presidency is being transformed with every second that El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago remains in office. The Obama presidency can now be seen as an oasis of blessed calm between two Category 5 political tempests. Obama came in after the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush and before the catastrophic presidency* that we are now enjoying. The further we get from it, the better this image of the Obama years is going to look, and all the better for Joe Biden as it does.

For all the racetrack touts and analytics, Biden has one very strong political advantage going for him. People just want things to get back to normal again. They want a president who isn’t manifestly unqualified and clearly half-mad. They want their Twitter accounts to go back to featuring dogs and cute pictures of the grandkids. They want a Congress that can work smoothly enough so that they can go back to ignoring it again. In fact, they’d like a government that can work smoothly enough so that they can go back to ignoring it again. I am not one of these people and, very likely, you’re not, either. But there are a helluva lot of them out there, and I suspect Joe Biden appeals to them more than any of his rivals do. He is a president you can forget about, at least for a moment.


But whatever you think of the NYTimes‘ Mark ‘This Town’ Leibovich, he’s got a predator’s eye for a candidate’s weaknesses…

“How badly do you want to be president?” Joseph R. Biden Jr. was asked after a recent speech in Prole, Iowa. The answer to such an inquiry would appear self-evident in the case of Mr. Biden, who began his running-for-president routine more than three decades ago; in other words, very badly, one would assume.

But the question, posed by a reporter, seemed to come at Mr. Biden as a bit of a curveball — a variant of the “Why do you want to be president?” riddle that CBS’s Roger Mudd famously stumped Ted Kennedy with 40 years ago. The former vice president paused.

“I think it’s really, really, really important that Donald Trump not be re-elected,” Mr. Biden said, more of a rationale than answer. He then launched into a classic Biden roller derby of verbiage in which he listed all the reasons he found Mr. Trump so distasteful. He landed on a question to himself.

“Could I die happily not having heard ‘Hail to the Chief’ play for me?” the Democratic front-runner asked. “Yeah, I could,” he said. “That’s not why I’m running.”

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Guest Post: “Orange Fever” in India

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Thank you, Schroedinger’s Cat:

I am afraid that the scrapping of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is just the beginning, it has little to do with the development of Kashmir. Prime Minister Modi’s agenda for India in his second term is to change India’s constitution and pave the way for a majoritarian state which is a democracy in name alone. 94 years after its formation the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) is the closest to achieving its goal of the Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation).

The international media is missing the RSS agenda behind Modi’s actions. Before he entered politics, Modi was a pracharak or a fulltime evangelist for the RSS. Just like the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee before him. There is no daylight between what the Sangh wants and what the BJP wants.

BJP is the political front of the Sangh, an all male grassroots fraternal organization that has had only one non-brahmin sarsangchalak (chief of the Sangh) in its almost hundred years of existence. According to some estimates, a group that makes up around 5% of the population of India. Also with two exceptions spanning 16 years, all the other sarsangchalaks have been Marathi brahmins. The Sangh still does not admit women. For a group that purports to speak for all Hindus its leadership is drawn from a tiny slice of Hindu male brahmins.

India is as complex as Europe would be if it were one country. India is home to two major language families and twenty two official languages. India also has the second largest population of Muslims in the world. The Sangh sees this diversity be it religious or linguistic as inherently problematic. Their dream India, which they call Bharat, is united under the saffron banner of Hindutva speaking as one in one language, Hindi. Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists are considered Hindu for the purposes of this classification but Christians and Muslims are not. Sangh ideologues have argued that diversity made India weaker and an easy prey for the British in the 18th and the 19th centuries and the first wave of Muslim invaders from Central Asia a thousand years ago and later. The way for India to go back to its former greatness is to unite under a banner of a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation).

Britain has been forgiven but BJP and its sympathizers want Muslim citizens of India to pay for the sins of the central Asian invaders and also for the formation of Pakistan. Their claims about a Hindu rashtra are inspired more by the nationalistic fervor sweeping Europe in the early twentieth century than they are by ancient India. Here is what Madhav Golwalkar, the most influential sarsangchalak who held the post for 43 years had to say about Hitler’s Germany in a book published in the 1940s.

…To keep up the purity of the nation and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of Semitic races – the Jews. National pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.

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