Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

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

Not all heroes wear capes.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The revolution will be supervised.

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

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

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Microcosm

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The Trump swing voters in diners across Western New York have a tough decision in front of them.

Rich asshole Chris Collins committed a felony and lied about it while trying to enrich himself and his family with insider information. Pretty much all of the Republican Party hierarchy went around yelling “fake news” and sticking up for Collins so that an indicted soon-to-be felon could be re-elected to his seat, even though he was stripped of his committee privileges. Right before pleading guilty to save his failson’s skin, Collins snuck his most important tchotchkes out of his DC office without telling staff that he was going to plead guilty, and then broke up with them over text. Now the Republican leaders who buried themselves completely up Collins’ rectum are all vying to run for Collins’ seat. One of them will be selected by the party.

So, our Trump voters could ride their mobility scooters and confederate flagged pickup trucks to the polls to vote for someone who lied to them on behalf of a rich scumbag. Or, they could vote for a pretty decent Democrat, Nate McMurray.

I’m actually a little interested to see how this turns out. NY-27 is R+11, so quite a few MAGA hats will have to stay home or flip allegiance to get Democrat Nate McMurray elected. My guess is that he might squeak out a win in the special and lose in the next general (like Kathy Hochul did the last time this seat was up for grabs because a Republican did something bad). But I really don’t see any chance that the Fox News indoctrinated seniors at local diners will change their minds no matter how many times they get fucked over.

On the topic of Fox and indoctrination, read Margaret Sullivan’s column today.

Reader Interactions

84Comments

  2. 2.

    Barbara

    So in one of yesterday’s many threads we had a discussion about “Club Fed,” and how DOJ treats family members in related crime schemes. I deduced that for some reason Collins was pleading to avoid having his son face worse consequences. From the story linked in the post:

    Everything changed, they said, on Sept. 3, when federal prosecutors in Manhattan sent a letter to the judge. In that letter, prosecutors suggested breaking the Collins insider trading trial in two – and putting the congressman’s son, Cameron, on trial before him.

    That meant Cameron Collins quite possibly would face jurors while his father was continuing to fight his own indictment.

    That would maximize the legal danger that Cameron Collins faced – so the congressman picked a safer alternative. He agreed to plead guilty in hopes of minimizing his son’s legal risk.

    “He had to do this to protect Cameron,” said one source with longtime ties to Collins.

    It always seems to come as a shock to white collar criminals like Collins that their particular case is not the prosecutor’s first rodeo.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Here we were calmly bantering about grammar downstairs and you had to go and sneak in “snuck.”

    ;)

  5. 5.

    Leto

    @NotMax: In the most sincerest of blog traditions: fuck your rules! Or in pop culture references: Rules? Where we’re going we don’t need rules. Also everyone hates Nazi’s, so… ?

  8. 8.

    kindness

    Old Republicans getting screwed by our government is a boon to Republican electioneering. They just blame Democrats/Hillary/Obama or which ever Democrat they are running against.

    Facts are fungible in Republicanworld.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    Thanks for linking that great column by Sullivan. This line in particular should be chiseled over the front door of every media company:

    That public opinion be based on facts — not weaponized falsehoods — is about the most crucial work the media can do.

    Exactly right. On a related note, commenter Ivan X recommended a long read in a thread yesterday, a piece by Ethan Zuckerman in MIT Press called QAnon and the Emergence of the Unreal. It captures the challenges of this age of competing realities particularly well, IMO.

  12. 12.

    Yarrow

    Speaking of Fox indoctrination, I was at the gym other other day. My gym is quite varied in terms of who goes there. People of all ages, racially very mixed. I’m on the treadmill and an older white woman gets on the treadmill next to me. She’s punching at the screen trying to get something to happen. Finally she looks at me and asks how to get the TV to come up (TV access is one option on the built-in screens). I tell her what to do and she says that’s not what she usually has to do but the TVs just aren’t working right. (Narrator: It is what she has to do–they all work the same way.) Then she says, “They just don’t want us to watch Fox.”

    Okay, entitled, grievance-wielding white lady. Because you can’t figure out how to work the TV on the treadmill some mythical “they” is trying to stop you from watching Fox. I set my screen to MSNBC just to piss her off.

  13. 13.

    Fleeting Expletive

    I left what I thought was a pretty good comment at the dead thread below on impeachment drafting.
    I’m waiting on a car repair after having had it towed on Monday. Arrgh!

  14. 14.

    Aleta

    The University of Florida will pay $50,000 for Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is a senior adviser for President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, to speak on campus next week.
    …
    ACCENT Speakers Bureau (is) the student organization that’s hosting the event. … ACCENT is run by UF’s student government and pays speakers using students’ activity fees, which are $19.06 per credit hour. …

    UF students will be allotted one ticket per person. …

    Tampa Bay Times

  15. 15.

    Leto

    @NotMax: I have a theory about gantlet and gauntlet: remember the classic ‘80’s arcade game Gauntlet? I think that started it. Purely conjecture, but a good starting place for language detectives.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    @Aleta:

    Is it really appropriate for a university to pay for a married guy and his mistress to speak to students, or has Junior’s divorce finally gone through? Just wondering.

  20. 20.

    Marcopolo

    I too think Margaret Sullivan is the bees knees and tend to agree with just about everything I’ve ever read by her.

    But then I am confronted by the real world and polls like this:

    Just 4 in 10 Republicans say they think President Trump discussed an investigation into Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden during a phone call with Ukraine’s president, despite Trump acknowledging having done so, according to a new Monmouth University poll.

    I honestly wonder what percentage of our voting age population actually has a good grasp on this thing we call reality. It’s certainly not over 50%. I am afraid it is more like 25%. And it is definitely not often “shared.” I have a neighbor who voted for Trump. He truly refuses to engage with real, verifiable information regarding the President, our country, and the world on an ongoing basis. This pretty much makes it impossible to engage with him. Both his wife & BiL (who lives with them) loathe Trump. I cannot even imagine how that works.

    Anyways, on a positive note, I gave to Nate on 9/30 so he could include my donation in his 3Q fundraising totals.

  21. 21.

    Aleta

    10:30 a.m.: House Democrats to subpoena White House for documents in its impeachment inquiry focused on Ukraine

    In a memo issued Wednesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said that the White House’s “flagrant disregard of multiple voluntary requests for documents — combined with stark and urgent warnings from the Inspector General about the gravity of these allegations — have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena.”

    The subpoena will be issued Friday.

    Post

  27. 27.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Marcopolo:

    I have a neighbor who voted for Trump. He truly refuses to engage with real, verifiable information regarding the President, our country, and the world on an ongoing basis.

    ‘Refuses’ is the key word.

  28. 28.

    japa21

    @RL: Two stents. Appears to be doing well, but this will raise serious health and age issues going forward.

  30. 30.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @RedDirtGirl: Yes. I grabbed the the CBS livestream at random. They say there’s nobody at the podium yet, so instead they’re showing a live image of the White House.

    Not sure it’s live though, I don’t see any little orange guy ranting from the balcony.

  31. 31.

    germy

    @RL:

    “During a campaign event yesterday evening, Sen. Sanders experienced some chest discomfort. Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted. Sen. Sanders is conversing and in good spirits. He will be resting up over the next few days,” said Sanders’ senior adviser Jeff Weaver on Wednesday in a statement. “We are canceling his events and appearances until further notice, and we will continue to provide appropriate updates.”

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-78-canceled-events-notice-hospitalized/story?id=66003850

  34. 34.

    Ohio Mom

    @RL: From what I just googled, looks like he had a couple of stents put in. That is a procedure, not at all in the same category of heart surgery. Shouldn’t slow him down much.

    I have mixed feelings about this. An open heart surgery would have given him a cover for dropping out.

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    @japa21: I hope it is a graceful way for St. Bernard to make his exit. From what I truly hope is his last presidential bid, as a “Democrat”, ever.

  36. 36.

    BC in Illinois

    A combination of items:

    1) Bernie Sanders had chest pains yesterday, underwent a heart procedure to remove blockages, and now has two stents in his heart. As someone who, 18 months ago, had chest pains, underwent a heart procedure to remove blockages, and now has three stents in his heart, I wish him a safe and full recovery. Four months after my heart thing, I ran a 5k race (poorly).

    2) The Dow has now lost 900 points since 10AM yesterday.

    3) Nancy Pelosi is now holding a press conference, along with Adam Schiff.

  38. 38.

    JanieM

    @Leto:

    I have a theory about gantlet and gauntlet: remember the classic ‘80’s arcade game Gauntlet? I think that started it. Purely conjecture, but a good starting place for language detectives.

    From Bryan A. Garner’s Garner’s Modern American Usage —

    gantlet; gauntlet. Although the latter is more common in most senses, the former is still preferred in one of them. One runs the gantlet … but throws down the gauntlet…. The trend, however, is to use gauntlet for all senses (a trend reinforced by the 1977 Clint Eastwood movie, The Gauntlet)….

    Garner says using “gauntlet” for both senses is at stage 4 of his language change measure — i.e., almost universal.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: He should be okay if they can successfully treat the blockage with stents. (Not a medical professional, but I’ve seen several elderly relatives have similar surgeries with excellent results.)

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    C-Span corrects its language. Backs away from Sanders “suspending his campaign”; it’s just cancellation of current events until further notice.

  42. 42.

    Jeffro

    @RL: Just saw that as well. Wow.

    Jen Rubin’s piece today – forget the plea to Romney – is a mind-boggling statement on where we are today. “…what Pompeo, Barr, and trumpov are attempting to ‘prove’ is the entirely false assumption made by Putin and reaffirmed by trumpov in Helsinki. Barr is gallivanting around the globe looking for Putin character witnesses.”

    Forget trumpov. We have a US Secretary of State and a US AG willing to throw in with a hostile foreign power to prop up its primary puppet. Wowzers.

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    I Just Binged Season 1 of Succession and It Feels Like I Was on a White People Safari

    Damon Young
    Yesterday 12:30pm

    I don’t remember exactly what Kotaku staff editor Natalie Degraffinried said a month ago when attempting to convince me to watch Succession. But knowing Natalie, I’m certain it involved some combination of “these white people” and “wild.” What I do remember was that she was the fourth or fifth black person in the last two months to implore me to watch this show, and each ask wasn’t “Hey, if you have the chance, you should check out this cool little show I’ve been watching” but “THESE WHITE PEOPLE ARE INSANE!”

    Now, were each of these people that excited about the show, or did they just know me well enough to know this was the best way to convince me to watch a thing? I don’t know. But I just completed season one last night, and this was the best decision I’ve made since that time six summers ago when I ran out of ketchup and started putting BBQ sauce on fried fish sandwiches. (I don’t make many great decisions.)

    The show is about the Roys, a Murdoch-ey family running a Fox News-ey media conglomerate; a universe where the poorest of the show’s regular characters are merely millionaires and not billionaires. And if watching the trials and tribulations of the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent sounds about as exciting as colonoscopy prep, I don’t blame you! I felt that way too! When the show premiered last year and I read some press about it, it felt like the screen equivalent of the meme where someone says or does a thing that literally no one asked for. Plus I’m a black American and a black Pittsburgher. I have three PhDs in whiteness studies and I’m doing coursework for a fourth. I know white people like beards know lint. How hoteps know ash. How Kappas know chapstick. Why would I need to know more?
    ………………..

    The petty is the most crucial element here because I think we sometimes categorize the actions of a Rubert Murdoch or a Donald Trump or the still-not-yet-dead Koch brother as a cavernous, amorphous, and conspiratorial evil. (I know I’ve been guilty of that.) But these men and these families are much more small-minded than that; the decisions much less worldly and much more centered in id. They just want to be in power, to stay in power, and to horde it like chipmunks stashing acorns. And while this sort of ruthlessness results, eventually, in evil, it stems from picayune personal shit.

  46. 46.

    germy

    @NotMax:

    Congressional health insurance is pretty damned good and all-encompassing.

    What irritates me are the republicans (and conservative democrats) who think the rest of us should rely on a mishmash of high deductible/co-pay unreliable plans.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    I always wonder what is going on behind the scenes when Pelosi and others make the press wait so long for the presser to start. Maybe another round of subpoenas!

  49. 49.

    japa21

    @rikyrah: All due to those DemocRATS and their impeachment crap. See what they are doing to this country. Businesses are afraid that they will lose the great Orange One and are panicking.

  50. 50.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Can the admins please block the Progressive Insutance adds on this site as NSFW? They are showing naked pensis.

  51. 51.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Elizabelle:

    I always wonder what is going on behind the scenes when Pelosi and others make the press wait so long for the presser to start.

    They’re wondering how many hours the networks will show an empty podium if it’s a Democrat’s.

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elizabelle: There is a new round of subpoenas, according to MSNBC, which I have on in the background because I suspect this press conference will be significant.

  55. 55.

    Jeffro

    For what it’s worth, trumpov is denying that he ever wanted a moat filled with snakes and alligators at the border.

    Anyone waking up from a long-term coma today is going instantly wonder exactly what the hell is going on. Just like the rest of us, every day.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    Pelosi and Schiff’s press conference just started a few minutes ago. Pelosi starting off with drug prices. Wha?

  57. 57.

    gvg

    @Mnemosyne: It’s not directly the University, it’s the Student organization, and they get money and have a good deal of discretion on how it’s spent. When I googled to find the story, I also found that UF had to pay $66,000 to a conservative group who sued them for treating conservative groups differently than other groups. It was settled August 2, so…am guessing they decided they can’t nix this. I think the lawsuit was related to Spencer speaking. Disclosure, I work for UF and also am an Alumni. I was working the day Spencer spoke and the campus was a ghost town. Administration instructed classes to be dismissed and any employees who were distressed by the neo Nazi be allowed time off. They fought the speech but apparently because we are a public university, found they couldn’t “censor” him.
    I don’t know how they will handle this, it’s not quite the same as a fight picking Nazi group.

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    “Clean government. That’s more of a challenge.” — understatement by Speaker Pelosi

    We are investigating. We are litigating. Mentions one year anniversary of Khassogi (?) murder. While administration is schmoozing with [his killers].

  63. 63.

    Elizabelle

    The dark days of the revolution — the times have found us. — quotes Thomas Paine

    A time of urgency. Threat to the constitution. A system of checks and balances.

  64. 64.

    Elizabelle

    We see the actions of this President being an assault on the Constitution. … Schiff to podium.

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    Schiff on danger facing journalists all over the world. After remarks about Khassogi. (Sorry I don’t know his spelling)

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    Deeply concerned about Pompeo’s effort to interfere with witnesses. Any effort by him or POTUS to interfere will be considered obstruction. And allow an adverse inference as to underlying facts.

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    Cummings noticed a subpoena that will go out for documents from White House … Thursday Volker appears; Friday the inspector general. …deposition next week with former US amb to Ukraine …(this is all known …)

  70. 70.

    germy

    The beltway media doesn’t care about the cost of prescription drugs. She can’t get them to ask a question.

  71. 71.

    Marcopolo

    @Elizabelle: I think it is great that Nancy speaks in complete sentences & paragraphs unlike some in our leadership. I also think it great that she shows such a wide breadth of knowledge & awareness of what is going on. I just wish she would, in the words of my 9th grade English teacher, give us an overarching thesis to give some structure & a throughline to what she is commenting on. As it is it comes out like a string of not necessarily associated comments.

    And there she kind of said it, “our ongoing work on behalf of the American people.”

    I do like that she is forcing the reporters to ask non-impeachment related questions first.

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    Pelosi: “Anything on HR 3? Does anyone in this room care about the cost of prescription drugs and its effects on American families.”

    Silence. They do want to know about funding for border wall, though, and trade issues.

  73. 73.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @MattF: The TA supervisor in the German department where I did my grad work would periodically agitate to ‘bring back English strong verbs!!’

    We TAs trying to teach German strong verbs to first year students would smile politely and shudder together,

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    word salad from Nancy on gun violence. Does not sound like much is going on.

    They really want to ask about impeachment. Is a full House vote off the table?

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    Pelosi says some GOP are nervous about a full vote on the House floor.

    @RedDirtGirl: Yea! Was wondering. I love that she is in her calm blue suit with white.

  78. 78.

    Elizabelle

    Q: POTUS wants to confront WB.

    Schiff: WB has right to remain anonymous and protection. Trump wants to make this all about the WB and infer they’re treasonous. Blatant effort to intimidate witnesses, [attempt to foment] violence.

    talks about quid pro quo with Ukraine. No attack on WB will change that.

  79. 79.

    Duane

    @Jeffro: I’m still trying to get it through my thick skull how working with foreign goverments to undermine our own isn’t treason. I’m open to a liberal interpretation of treason I suppose.

  80. 80.

    Fleeting Expletive

    My best friend had an emergency balloon angioplasty + stent this weekend. She has endured months of harassment from Demon Donna who lives downstairs from her. My friend Chris has been Donna’s target often and their interactions have been bad, management has done nothing. They’ve applied for a restraining order & probably lawsuits and criminal complaint will ensue.

    They were describing the blockage, and I said yeah, the “widowmaker” artery is the Left Anterior Descending Artery. Her sister asked how I knew that (not a medical person) and I said I remembered it from “St. Elsewhere”. That’s true, it was, and it just stuck with me.

  81. 81.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Betty Cracker: I once commented here that I was an adjunct prof of German at U of FL 65-66.

    Humidity so strong already at 7.30am when I’d walk to early class. Was before Disney went in at Orlando, so was a pretty quiet area, except for students.

    First time I’d ever seen Spanish moss.

    And my now ex totally freaked out over the cockroaches!

  83. 83.

    NotMax

    @Ladyraxterinok

    Palmetto bugs is so-o-o much more cuddly and friendly, don’tcha know.

    The ones in Florida (and sometimes the boldest in Hawaii, too) could double as dive bombers.

    ;)

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