Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Let’s finish the job.

Republicans in disarray!

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

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

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

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

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

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

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

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

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

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

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

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

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Archives for October 2019

The Dim Possibility of Showing Some Restraint

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Man, I hate to give Brooks any attention, but this is about perfect:


In case you haven’t been following along, Brooks did what he usually does when everything is bleak, it’s the middle of the night, he’s all alone and the dummies might be right: he masturbates onto the page, rolls over and goes to bed.

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Thought Exercise On Renewable Energy

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Sorry about this morning’s OTR post, restoring my laptop’s hard drive after repair went long after I gave up and went to bed last night. I’ll post it Monday.

I’ve been pondering this renewable energy question off and on recently and figured I’d open it up to discussion to broaden my thinking.

The question is: if you pay a surcharge for renewable energy from your electricity provider, is it better to then be wasteful or at least a “big consumer” of that clean electricity in order to increase demand for clean electricity and thus spurring more investment in renewables, or should you try to be as energy-conscious as possible and not leave lights on, keep the thermostat down/up, etc.?

In this scenario, the electricity that comes in your house is technically a mix of renewable and dirty, but you pay a surcharge to have clean energy equal to your usage added to your provider’s feed. If every customer chose this option, all the electricity provided to your home would be from renewable sources.

My thinking is that, since demand increases investment/supply, it’s desirable to consume more electricity once you’re setup to pay the premium as described above. More investment in renewable energy is a good and a larger supply/higher percentage renewable in the renewable/dirty mix that my provider supplies is also a good. So except for wasting some money, it seems to me like wasting electricity is actually a good here.

If your supply is already 100% renewable (from a provider, not your own solar/wind/etc.), I’m undecided if it makes sense to be a “big consumer” or not.  Again, increasing demand means more investment in supply in your locality and region, and provides the market/investors evidence that such demand might exist in other under-served areas. Since a major goal of us who pay the surcharge for renewable or are willing to pay higher rates or invest in infrastructure like solar is to make a better, carbon-free world, there, perversely, seems to be a clear incentive to be wasteful here too. But I’m not sure.

 

What think you?

 

 

Consider this a non-political open thread.

 

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Schiff’s Memo

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Last night, Schiff, Engel and Cummings released a letter with attachments documenting some of the more damning details of Trump’s attempt to extort the President of Ukraine into announcing that he was investigating the Bidens, in return for release of military aid. Here’s a story that covers the high points, with the letter itself embedded at the end. The letter comes after a closed-door deposition of Special Envoy Kurt Volker, who is one of the bad actors who flipped on Trump because he doesn’t want to go down in flames. I’ll leave the sophisticated analysis to Cheryl and Adam, but suffice it to say: texts bad, Trump’s fucked.

So, anybody with minimal reading comprehension can understand that Trump committed a bunch of illegal acts that make him a danger to the country. Yet the Republicans in the House and Senate, with one minor exception I could find (Sasse) haven’t said a god damned thing. Yesterday, Gym Jordan left the committee meeting saying that Volker added nothing new (not linking to Fox News, sorry). In fact, Senator Ron Johnson defended Trump’s request to the Chinese.

What the hell is it going to take for these assholes to turn on Trump? This piece in the Post details how right wing media will shit on any of them who flip, but My God at some point a few of them will have at least a speck of courage, won’t they?

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Friday Morning Open Thread: Absolutely TGIF

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I have already scheduled posts later today on both Warren *and* Harris… which no doubt means at least one if not two impending BREAKING NEWS dumps. Or at the very least, some inadvertent Blogmaster bigfooting. You’re welcome, and remember I earn exactly as much for producing this stuff as you paid for reading it.

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Kurt Volker Testifies

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Kurt Volker, the former Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, gave a deposition today to the House Committees on Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs. It went for 9 or 10 hours. I’ve seen a couple of statements from Republicans trying to spin what the meeting contained, but the committee chairs released a letter tonight with text messages between Volker, Rudy Giuliani, Andriy Yermak, a representative of Ukraine’s President; Bill Taylor, the US Ambassador to Ukraine (replacing Marie Yankovich, who wouldn’t go along); and Gordon Sondland, the US Ambassador to the European Union. It’s straight-up what Trump confessed to, putting the squeeze on Ukraine, via withholding the military aid Congress voted, to get or manufacture dirt on the Bidens.

A selection of tweets containing significant text messages from this release:

 

Open thread!

 

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Respite Open Thread: Some Serious Respite

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Okay, before I turn everything off for the night, I needed some respite. And then suddenly babies started showing up everywhere. So here they all are.

And my very own daily cuteness. Sometimes I just sit in the backyard and watch everyone play together. Dogs, cats and ducks.

great dane and duck friends

Feel free to add to the momentary relief with cuteness of your own.

Respite open thread.

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