Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

So many bastards, so little time.

So very ready.

Be a wild strawberry.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Most of you should go to bed and try to be better Jackals in the morning.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Let there be snark.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

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

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

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Archives for 2020

GOP Venality Open Tread: The Incapacity Defense

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I’ve seen a bunch of people noting that Trump’s Wildwood rally last night lacked the zip his proponents have come to expect. Which might be related to something else media views noted:

If you’re old, like me, you may recall that President Reagan was obviously deteriorating though the course of his second term. He was never that bright, but he increasingly lost his ability to hit his mark and rattle off his lines with a snap in his step and a twinkle in his eye. But the people around him were both skilled and dedicated when it came to covering up for him. Once he was out of office, they didn’t hesitate to short-circuit any Iran-Contra investigation by yowling that It would be too cruel to punish a dying man who had no idea what miscreant foreigners might doing under his imprimatur… successfully eliding a lot of the guilt of men like George H.W. Bush, his successor.

If you’re really old, or cherish long-held grudges, you’ll also remember Nixon’s phlebitis ‘scare’; when it looked like Tricky Dick might not have the good sense to get out of DC while he could, the GOP trial balloon suggested that the mere possibility of going to prison might kill Our President, which would be ‘murder by media’, tsk tsk.

Obviously, at the moment, the Permanent Republican Party finds Trump more useful in the Oval Office than he would be out of it (whether in jail, or in exile). But if the millipede’s worth of falling footwear continues, do they step away from their protective circle, let the world see how bad Trump’s mental state really is, and insist (once again) that we need to move on for the sake of national healing?

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BMFA

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I had to run a couple of errands today. One was at the home improvement big box, where I picked up an order. As we waited for my item to come out of the back, and as we inspected it, the young woman manning the counter and I were chatting. She had kind of an alternative look and a good sense of humor, and we were joking about my order, nothing political. She made some mention of “the orange one” and I said, “Oh, you mean Cheeto Benito.” She thought that was funny.

Anyway, as I was driving to my next destination, I was wondering why she thought it was safe to make a political comment to me. New York is a blue state, but there are plenty of Trumpers in Western New York. I’m a middle-aged white-looking guy, so not an obvious non-Trumper.

Then I got to the grocery store and saw this, and I remembered the obvious: I’m not a humorless asshole, so she could assume that I’m not so far up Trump’s rectum that I even put a Trump sticker on my spare tire.

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Is it Time for Pentagon Papers 2: Electric Boogaloo?

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The White House is claiming that Bolton’s book is top secret, especially the criming parts (probably). The Times has it. The Post probably has it too. The obvious thing to do if Trump continues this ridiculous charade is to publish the parts that relate to Trump (which the Times has already sorta kinda done, in summary form), just as those two papers did back in 1971.

The other obvious thing that could happen is that Bolton and his mustache of destiny could transport themselves to literally any media outlet in this here US of A and tell their story using his piehole, which we here at Balloon-Juice have on good authority works well at saying things, since he was able to use it to tell Eliot Engel to investigate Trump. Most of the things he says are fucking stupid, but the point remains.

Either way, this fucker’s story is going to get out, only when when and how are at stake.

Open thread.

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I Love The Unknown

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The post title is from a song by Clem Snide, that has this lyric:

They asked him

“Hey, where’s this bus going?”

And he said, “well, I’m really not sure”

“Well then how will you know where to get off?”

And he said, “the place with the most allure”

It looks like the place with the most allure, at the moment, is no testimony from Bolton. Aides are saying that the only firm vote for witnesses is Mittens, and the Angel Moroni and his wife both know that firmness is not his strong suit. Murkowski is meeting with McConnell this morning to stare slowly at the swinging watch, and the Post is casting McConnell’s position as he “did not yet have” the votes to block Democrats from calling witnesses.

If I had to put money on it, I’d bet that Bolton doesn’t testify. Letting Democrats ask Bolton questions under oath is just too dangerous to the whole enterprise. Though, I have to admit that not letting him testify will lead to hundreds of campaign ads smashing the weaker Republicans who don’t vote that way, so I’m not 100% sure.

It’s pretty common to know how something is going to turn out in the end. The ring had to go back into the fires of Mordor, Harry had to kill Voldemort, Samantha and Endora had to burn Darren at the stake after one martini too many, and Trump’s gonna skate. But god damn can there be a lot of filler material in the middle.

Open thread.

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Targeting Veterans With Disinformation

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There’s plenty of disinformation out there, from plenty of sources. Often it is aimed at particular demographic groups. Vietnam Veterans of America became concerned about disinformation targeted at veterans and went to the Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments to ask for help. They didn’t get any. VVA has since prepared a detailed report and testified to Congress.

Kristofer Goldsmith has done much of the organization’s investigating. An in-depth portrait of him here.

Facebook pages, Twitter and Instagram accounts, have spread memes and political commentary in the veteran community, often pro-Trump and  championing veterans and denigrating liberals and minorities. Some of the accounts counterfeit the look of authentic veterans’ groups like VVA.

For instance, the Russian Internet Research Agency — a troll factory with Kremlin ties and the target of U.S. indictments and cyberattacks — bought at least 113 online ads aimed at U.S. veterans and followers of veterans advocacy groups during and after the 2016 election, according to VVA’s report.

Many pages are operated from Asia and Eastern Europe, and some even have Iranian ties, Goldsmith said. One popular page created in the United States — “Vets for Trump” — was hijacked by an administrator in North Macedonia.

…

One page, “Being Patriotic,” was cited in former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation as a product of the Internet Research Agency. It amassed 200,000 fans at one point, the Mueller report found. But other pages, like one focused on veterans but run from Vietnam, shared identical memes created by the IRA but with the page title cropped out.

One of the objectives seems to be to whitewash Russian and Chinese behavior to convince veterans that Russia didn’t interfere in the 2016 elections, for example. Or that ISIS was threatening military families in America.

It appears that the federal agencies don’t have any plans or programs in place to help veterans deal with this targeting.

The material targeted at veterans carries many of the same messages as other disinformation for other groups. The targeting makes it more plausible, focusing on the group’s special concerns and vulnerabilities. Other groups are targeted for their concerns and vulnerabilities.

The Washington Post article and the deep dive on Goldsmith are both worth reading. If you’re interested in how disinformation works, take a look at the report. Their focus is on veterans, but it’s relevant for all of us.

Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner

 

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What Kind of Fuckery Is This?

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Last night the news broke that McConnell doesn’t have the votes to block a vote on having witnesses. What this means isn’t clear, but if there’s anything clear about this whole ordeal, it’s that Comrade McConnell is going to engage in the maximum fuckery possible. In last night’s comments on a post with a different topic, Martin made this point:

As part of the process, they have a vote of whether to consider witness. That’s the vote in question here. Then there’s a process of submitting witness requests to leadership, I think it is, and they introduce individual motions for votes. They don’t need to introduce every rando request, but things they think are relevant. It could be none will pass. There will probably be some negotiating in how the motions are structured, whether individual witnesses, open or closed session, all that garbage.

That sounds possible to me, but as the ever-shifting needs of the weaker links in his caucus to have fig leafs of “I did too vote for witnesses” bump up against the desires of safe seat Senators to just get it over with, how this thing ends up will probably be at least a little unpredictable.

That first story linked brings up a Republican talking point that witnesses will cause the impeachment to be delayed by a side trip into the courts as witnesses resist their subpoenas. My understanding is that this is bullshit: Roberts will rule from the bench and his ruling is final. Congress has the sole power to impeach and remove, and there is no appeal for a ruling from the presiding officer, the Chief Justice.

I’m sure Trump, who has skirted the law by dilatory legal actions for his whole life, disagrees, but unless anyone can cite a non-wingnut legal authority, I’m thinking that any witnesses called will show up.

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