Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The revolution will be supervised.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

We still have time to mess this up!

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

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

In my day, never was longer.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

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

Their freedom requires your slavery.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread (and Tom Levenson 8 pm Zoom Reminder)

Open Thread (and Tom Levenson 8 pm Zoom Reminder)

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Open Thread.

I’ve been away from the blog for most of the day, the only thing I’ve seen is the sad news about Penelope Pearl.  What’s been happening on the political front?

⭐️

And one last reminder about the Tom Levenson zoom about his book at 8pm BLOG TIME (aka Eastern).

We are opening the “doors” at 7:30 for conversation as people arrive, and then the event program starts at 8.

So if you’re thinking “oh shit, I meant to sign up for that” or if you are wondering if it’s too late, it’s not.

If you’re interested in joining us, send me email and I’ll send you the link.  Time gets away from all of us these days, so I will watch this thread and my email for any late deciders.

 

Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    MisterForkbeard

    Boo! I can’t make the book event. No plans to record it anywhere, right?

    Maybe somebody responsible can take some notes for me :)

  2. 2.

    Glidwrith

    Shit for brains has shorted us vaccine. Govenor of Florida sent the goon squad to seize the computer of the whistleblower who was showing he was manipulating COVID numbers.

    You know. FUBAR.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    I just sent you one. I have zero issue being fashionably late…

    AND i JUST GOT YOUR RESPONSE!

  6. 6.

    Glidwrith

    @WaterGirl: Details:

    https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/07/world/covid-19-coronavirus/trump-administration-officials-passed-when-pfizer-offered-in-late-summer-to-sell-the-us-more-vaccine-doses

    The initial 100 million doses equals 50 million people. No more Pfizer vaccine until midsummer.

    Moderna can only do 10 million people by year’s end

    ETA:  https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-01/pfizer-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-emergency-use-what-to-know

  7. 7.

    PsiFighter37

    Looks like Biden is bypassing Flournoy for SecDef and picking a retired general (Lloyd Austin) for the job. Not to concern troll much, but I am getting the distinct feeling that Biden is getting boxed into picking folks more for demographic reasons than because they may be the most qualified in his mind. Also, I honestly do not love the idea of generals running the Pentagon. Didn’t love it with Mattis either.

  10. 10.

    PsiFighter37

    @WaterGirl: None of the retired generals who were SecDef did a good job so far (George Marshall and Mattis). No reason to believe Austin will be any different. I wonder if Gillibrand will vote against Austin on principle – she was the only one who voted against Mattis. Don’t understand why Flournoy wasn’t picked (she was the obvious choice), and this seems likely to be problematic – I just don’t think any retired generals have managed the political side well, with Colin Powell being the person who failed the most when in a seat of prominence.

  12. 12.

    zhena gogolia

    Sorry about the book chat but I’ve been on Zoom all afternoon. Can’t take any more.

  14. 14.

    MisterForkbeard

    @WaterGirl: I’m not a big fan of generals in any government position, though if you’re going to do it then SecDef is… defensible.

    I think this might have been to counter the “Biden’s only hiring corporatist warmongers” crap I’m seeing on the left. But since that was always bullshit to begin with, it’s probably not related.

  18. 18.

    schrodingers_cat

    @zhena gogolia: It started the night of elections. You are not the only one that has noticed.

    I am not too happy about generals running the Pentagon as a matter of principle but Biden has earned my trust and I am going to wait before I add my voice to the chorus of concern.

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl:

    Oh my god. Not enough to mess with the testing and PPE, now with the vaccine.

    Not surprising from a pile of shit mobster crime family.

    I hope we bury all of these fuckers under the prison.

  21. 21.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

     

    @PsiFighter37:  what makes you say Flournoy is a better pick?  I would say her advocacy for invading Syria is disqualifying.

    Austin is a good guy (photo) and he was very loyal and helpful to the Obama/Biden administration.  But even if he shouldn’t be the pick because of valid concerns of a former military officer heading DOD, that doesn’t mean Flournoy is a good pick.

  24. 24.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @WaterGirl:

    There may valid reasons to support or oppose Austin, but Flournoy isn’t a good pick.  Certainly if Austin supported invading Syria I would find that disqualifying.

  25. 25.

    satby

    @WaterGirl: Adam has a whole post on it, but when Obama fired Matthis Austin replaced him and worked with Obama-Biden during the rest of the term. They like and trust him and that’s good enough for me.

  26. 26.

    WaterGirl

    @satby: That’s good to know.  How is that possible if he has only been retired from the military for 4 years?

    That math isn’t making sense to me

    Plus I am watching this thread in case someone wants to get on the zoom, so I can’t go to Adam’s thread at this point.

  33. 33.

    CaseyL

    I had some work issues that went way past my nominal quitting time, so it couldn’t be helped – but I am still really really bummed to have missed this.

    My apologies, Tom! Hopefully you’ll do this again.

  36. 36.

    lurker

    @WaterGirl: hope you guys had a good zoom. i had something come up and had to miss it. for better or worse, it came up early enough that I did not email about the code. i figured watergirl should know

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