Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Consistently wrong since 2002

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Books are my comfort food!

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Good lord, these people are nuts.

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

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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

Republicans in disarray!

Let there be snark.

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

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

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

A norm that restrains only one side really isn’t a norm – it’s a trap.

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

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

The willow is too close to the house.

You are here: Home / Politics / GOP Death Cult / Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: What, You Mean Actions Have Consequences?!?…

Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: What, You Mean Actions Have Consequences?!?…

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I’d joke Jared Kushner spent the evening calling all his foreign ‘business allies’ in countries with no extradition treaties… but I seriously doubt Jared/Jarvanka have the collective IQ to understand how much trouble they’re in.

Seriously, though, this video clip is a schadenfreudelicious treat:

Trump Army in disarray!

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    Patricia Kayden

    Louise Jacob must be on some heavy drugs because “we” are not all responsible for what happened on January 6th. Trump, his sycophants and his idiot, racist supporters bear the entirety of the responsibility for their actions.
    President Biden needs to work on getting through a progressive agenda and not focus at all on so called unity or healing. We can’t unify with insurrectionists.

  2. 2.

    Phylllis

    Anybody else side-eyeing neighbors who were out of town last week

    ETA: @Patricia Kayden: Yeah, there is no way in hell I can ‘reconcile’ with people who think violent overthrow is the way to go.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Imagine how helpful it would be if @JoeBiden were to show some grace, call on Democrats to stand down, practice the healing he keeps preaching. Why won’t he?

    We offered to let Trump resign or be 25th. That was us showing grace. Republicans rejected it.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    trump has been “working really hard” on the 2022 PGA tournament. That’s funny, I thought they said he was working really hard at his presidential duties.

  6. 6.

    TS (the original)

    Imagine how helpful it would be if @JoeBiden were to show some grace, call on Democrats to stand down, practice the healing he keeps preaching. Why won’t he?
    — Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) January 11, 2021

    It takes a special kind of person to react to the events of the past week by condemning Joe Biden.
    — Downersville Board of Zoning Appeals (@DownersVille) January 11, 2021

  7. 7.

    Martin

    Deserves reposting from a prior thread

    House Democrats Briefed On 3 Terrifying Plots To Overthrow Government

    The first is troubling, the 2nd isn’t terrifying, and the 3rd is terrifying.

    On a private call Monday night, new leaders of the Capitol Police told House Democrats they were closely monitoring three separate plans that could pose serious threats to members of Congress as Washington prepares for Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.

    The first is a demonstration billed as the “largest armed protest ever to take place on American soil.”

    Another is a protest in honor of Ashli Babbitt, the woman killed while trying to climb into the Speaker’s Lobby during Wednesday’s pro-Trump siege of the Capitol.

    And another demonstration, which three members said was by far the most concerning plot, would involve insurrectionists forming a perimeter around the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court, and then blocking Democrats from entering the Capitol ― perhaps even killing them ― so that Republicans could take control of the government.

    I’m at least please that conservatives are considering a protest for (checks notes) antifa communist Ashli Babbitt.

    Democrats were told that the Capitol Police and the National Guard were preparing for potentially tens of thousands of armed protesters coming to Washington and were establishing rules of engagement for warfare. In general, the military and police don’t plan to shoot anyone until one of the rioters fires, but there could be exceptions.

    rules of engagement for warfare deserves to be reflected on.

    One topic of discussion was the need to put every member of Congress through a metal detector before the inauguration. A member on the call told HuffPost that there was an “eyes-wide-open realization” that Capitol Police needed to take precautions against “all these members who were in league with the insurrectionists who love to carry their guns.”

    Ok, so we can’t trust members of Congress.

    Another area of concern was the Trump administration’s involvement in tamping down an insurrection. “I don’t think anyone has confidence that the folks at the Pentagon, that may or may not even be needed for some of this, or the Department of Homeland Security, where we don’t even know who’s in charge, are going to be cooperative,” one member told HuffPost.

    And we may not be able to trust the Pentagon or DHS.

    One Democrat on the call also raised the issue of security for members coming from their residences to the Capitol, as well as traveling to Washington, given recent confrontations at airports and on flights between some protesters and lawmakers. One member who spoke to HuffPost said the Capitol Police didn’t have a satisfactory answer about that concern.

    And just moving around might be a problem. Ok. Things are almost as fucked as they could be.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Martin:

    Another is a protest in honor of Ashli Babbitt, the woman killed while trying to climb into the Speaker’s Lobby during Wednesday’s pro-Trump siege of the Capitol.

    They so love their martyrs, I propose we give them more.

  9. 9.

    John S.

    @OzarkHillbilly: We don’t create the martyrs, they do. Insurrectionists have no qualms about feeding their own into a wood chipper for a lost cause. That’s how martyrs are created.

  13. 13.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Martin: “In general, the military and police don’t plan to shoot anyone until one of the rioters fires, but there could be exceptions.”

    I wish the police would do the same when faced with unarmed Black people.

  14. 14.

    RSA

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Louise Jacob must be on some heavy drugs because “we” are not all responsible for what happened on January 6th.

    I suspect there was pushback, because a day later…

    This Tweet is from an account that no longer exists.

  17. 17.

    Patricia Kayden

    Good.

    New: A judge has revoked Lin Wood’s privileges to argue in Delaware because of his “toxic stew of mendacity, prevarication, and surprising incompetence.”“I acknowledge that I presided over a small part of the legal world in a small state. However, we take pride in our bar.” pic.twitter.com/J7YgsdLW7d— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) January 12, 2021

  19. 19.

    Martin

    @raven: I think the problem is the timing and coordination. I agree, it shouldn’t be hard to address. I mean, I think we’re at a point we call the airlines and tell them they’re going to fly the lawmakers on their own plane and board them on the tarmac so they can skip the terminal.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    No unity is possible with people who are repeating the Big Lie. Acknowledge the decisive win of the Biden-Harris ticket and the absence of widespread fraud unequivocally, or GTFO. That’s got to be the position, not just of elected Democrats but also of us peasants in the hinterlands.

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    Republicans want forgiveness, for Trump and for themselves, without the necessary reckoning of wrong done and without enduring any penance. Republicans know they would not have shown a Democratic POTUS the mercy that they are demanding Democrats show Trump. I would say, no way; they’ve got to take their medicine first.

  24. 24.

    Kirk Spencer

    I recall an insightful line from a Callahan book. “No absolution if you’re not part of the solution.”

    I think it applies here.

  25. 25.

    debbie

    @Amir Khalid:

    They need to be confronted with what they have done in their quest for power. They need to be told where they can stick their forgiveness. Period.

  26. 26.

    FridayNext

    Remember the last time we chose unity over democracy? We got the end of Reconstruction and 100+ years of Apartheid.

    Hard pass this time, but thanks.

  27. 27.

    Warblewarble

    American reality is that trumpian malcontents are what they are and choose to remain out of choice. They are they are the embodiment of  THE LAW of INFINATE CORNUCOPIA, now and always they will be dangerous  and resentful.

  31. 31.

    Hildebrand

    @Phylllis: Yes.  Our Trumper neighbors came back late Friday night – took down their Trump sign (finally), scraped the Trump stickers off their cars, and took down their Facebook page – which had mentioned going to DC. The blinds have been drawn since.   Methinks they are laying very low.  The worst part – they took their nine year old daughter.

  32. 32.

    Platonicspoof

    @Martin:

    And just moving around might be a problem. Ok. Things are almost as fucked as they could be.

     

    Make it thousands of Covid asymptomatic insurrectionists and we get a bit closer to 100% fucked.

  34. 34.

    Morzer

    @John S.: I see nothing wrong with increasing the number of woodchippers.  That’s my gesture of compromise with their “economic anxiety”.

  37. 37.

    Punchy

    This self-pardon idea is stupid as shit.  If it were allowed, you’d literally have a king; the Pres would break any and all laws, and then at the end of every month, just issue himself a pardon.  He could murder every political opponent to prevent impeachment, then just pardon himself.  I cant believe the country is really asking itself “is this allowable?”

  38. 38.

    MattF

    Did not anticipate that Trump would back out of pardoning his minions. It’s also true that a self-pardon invites an indictment. And, needless to say, Trump will maintain an unshakeable belief in his own innocence, so he doesn’t see any need for a self-pardon.

  39. 39.

    Martin

    I should add, we use a system very similar to that at work.

    In order to maintain the new occupancy protections at work, we use cell towers and wifi. We’re doing the equivalent of a Stingray to do a handshake with every phone that arrives on campus, giving us your phone number. Works even if your phone is asleep. And we’re using that combined with wifi to count how many people (and who they are) are in each space using triangulation.

    In our case we have some additional work to associate the phone information with the person, but the feds just call up Verizon.

  40. 40.

    Martin

    @Baud: Won’t help. If your phone is on, even if it’s asleep or in airplane mode, it handshakes. It does that for wireless 911 and for EAS.

  41. 41.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So Biden’s behind the Coup. Sounds like the Conservatives haven’t learned shit, that’s this constant gas slighting themselves that is turning them into incompetent buffoons.

  42. 42.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Every morning I wake up, get a sense of the last 24 hour news cycle and inevitably I can sum it up in three words:

    Fuck. Those. People.

  43. 43.

    Amir Khalid

    @MattF:

    Did not anticipate that Trump would back out of pardoning his minions.

    But it’s no surprise at all, is it, that he’s backing out of it in a fit of petulance.

  44. 44.

    mrmoshpotato

    On ABC World News Tonight a reporter said Trump is so pissed about a self-pardon being risky that he won’t pardon anyone else. If he can’t have one, nobody can.

    Please let this be true.  A bunch of shitbags getting indicted because Dump is a stupid, selfish manbaby would delicious!

  46. 46.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @MattF: Why? Trump threw them under the bus within 24 hours. Trump’s whole game is to get other people to break the law for him and then claim he never knew the person.   I am sure once the dust settles and they get a clear picture what happened it be a lot of  “that dirty so and so Biden robbed me, someone should do something, do what ever it takes!”  at his staffers until one of them came up with this dumb idea.

  47. 47.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @MattF:

    Did not anticipate that Trump would back out of pardoning his minions

    I saw a snarky observation on this yesterday.  He’s not issuing pardons because the only people that know how to do that have left the administration.  And since Hair Furor doesn’t know how to do anything himself…

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    we should all just move on from the Jan 6 insurrection since all those people “are ready to explode.”

    Explode away, fascist shitbags.  Just don’t get any guts on Hillary’s supporters.

  51. 51.

    evodevo

    @debbie: This is “fundagelical” thinking…they do this with sex abusers in their churches all the time….it’s a pattern of their thinking….”don’t call the cops over this obvious child molestation!! The perp says Jeebus forgave him, so now we must also! And the victim has to hug him up in front of the whole congregation…”  This is NOT a joke or a guess.  I know someone this happened to…and it’s happened hundreds of times all over this country…

  54. 54.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Martin: Since the inauguration and all of its associated speeches should be held in an indoor, secure location, I’m all for a massive thunderstorm hitting DC on the 20th.  Let Mother Nature drown the fascist trash.

  55. 55.

    karen marie

    The mind boggles.

    House GOP Rep. Pete Sessions met with terrorists who attacked Capitol and killed officer. He told them to “keep fighting.” They listened. Out of a consciousness of guilt Sessions deleted this tweet.

  57. 57.

    Kirk Spencer

    @FridayNext: I have to disagree. That was neither the first nor the last time we chose forgiveness without redemption.

    There’s Nixon. Iran Contra. Obama’s decision to ‘look forward’.

    You can’t forgive unless there is reason to believe the perpetrators will indeed correct their behavior; that they will contribute to a solution. Their word is worthless, it must be a contribution of deed and it must be more than token.

    Without a solution there can be no absolution.

  59. 59.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    No unity is possible with people who are repeating the Big Lie. Acknowledge the decisive win of the Biden-Harris ticket and the absence of widespread fraud unequivocally, or GTFO. That’s got to be the position, not just of elected Democrats but also of us peasants in the hinterlands.

    Agreed, though my minimum includes a good bit more.  Those Republican Congresspersons who were still claiming fraud and theft after the last contested states certified their results shortly before Thanksgiving all need to publicly apologize.  That includes all those who voted against accepting the Democratic electors from one or more of those states, even if they say they were Just Asking Questions because (they claimed) it hadn’t been settled that there was no possibility of fraud.  Any who won’t apologize must get expelled from Congress by the agreement of both parties.

    And of course any Congresspersons who encouraged, aided, or abetted last week’s insurrection must be expelled.

    And they must do a decent job of policing their state parties as well, to ensure that insurrectionists and those who spread lies that set the climate for the insurrection, either apologize or are removed.

    Finally, they must renounce the longstanding culture of lies that their politics has relied on for many years now.

    THEN we can talk about unity.

  61. 61.

    karen marie

    @Amir Khalid: While they’re planning more of the same – in DC again and in all 50 states!

    You have to hand it to those sniffing about “unity” – they have an astonishing ability to compartmentalize.

  62. 62.

    Ken

    @evodevo: I’ve always wanted to hear of one of those cases where the victim, forced to hug their attacker, stabbed them and then said “I’m sorry Jesus! He forgives me, you have to also!”

  63. 63.

    Skepticat

    @frosty: If you find any extra sleep let me know. I’m good with 6 1/2 hours but it’s been creeping down lately. 4 1/2 last night.

    I have a nasty case of fibromyalgia, which is painful and often leads to sleep disturbance, but nothing is as disturbing as current events. My anxiety levels are way too high. Even though my last action before shutting down the computer at night is to scroll through funny websites, I’ve found that CBD and melatonin gummies not only have let me sleep through the night, but they also let me wake refreshed, a novel and pleasant experience. Of course, then I’m stupid enough to turn on the computer, as I work online. I find myself popping a CBD gummy or two during the day lately, as they take the edge off.

  64. 64.

    Brutusettu

    the “stop the steal” might have expected a Brooks Brothers Riot event.

    And were willfully ignorant to the fact that the rally would be filled with QAnon and Oath Keeper-curious types.

     

    Egregiously lying about stolen elections is on par with actually stealing an election.

     

    Stop the lying maybe?

  66. 66.

    karen marie

    @Baud: I recently transcribed a murder trial where the case was circumstantial. They placed the murderer with cell phone use tracked by cell towers but also by Google location. If that’s turned on, your device is tracked by any wifi hotspot you pass. The device doesn’t even have to be turned on.

  68. 68.

    Richard Guhl

    You know who else preaches a similar message about unity and healing after an outburst of violence?

    Guys who beat their wives.

    “Sure, I gave you a black eye and bloody lip, but just forgive me, because you provoked me.”

    And like those cases, there’s an implicit menace.
    “If you call the cops, it’ll be worse next time.”

  69. 69.

    frosty

    @Hildebrand: We’ve got a neighbor whose Trump signs and Gadsden flag are finally gone. I thought maybe they’d seen the light, but your speculation about going to DC (just a 2-hour drive) is another possibliity,

  70. 70.

    JanieM

    @Martin:

    I think we’re at a point we call the airlines and tell them they’re going to fly the lawmakers on their own plane and board them on the tarmac so they can skip the terminal.

    I may be missing something, but it seems like there’s a problem of trustworthiness no matter who “we” are dealing with. How do we know where any given pilot’s loyalties lie? And that apparently goes for anyone anywhere at this point. Secret Service, Capitol Police, LEO in general, armed forces in general.  ??

  71. 71.

    Jay

    @Skepticat:

    yurp, self medicating.

    ”Thank you 2021, but I have finished my free 7 day trial, and I am declining your offer.”

    On the bright side, most of us Jackals are “still alive*”,

    *(Crood’s reference).

  72. 72.

    Kattails

    @frosty: Oh God I see all of you– thought it was just me with the sleep thing.  People are telling me I need to calm down a bit, relax, don’t worry so much.  I’ll worry less when the majority of people get a grip on the reality we are in right now, not to panic, but to be clear eyed about the threat. We’ve all watched this shit escalate for the last four years and had it brushed aside. Dammit.

  73. 73.

    LivingInExile

    Baud.  They not only can track you’re cell phone, they can tell if you’re not wearing pants!

  74. 74.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Hildebrand: Our Trumper neighbors came back late Friday night – took down their Trump sign (finally), scraped the Trump stickers off their cars, and took down their Facebook page – which had mentioned going to DC. The blinds have been drawn since. Methinks they are laying very low.

    @frosty: We’ve got a neighbor whose Trump signs and Gadsden flag are finally gone. I thought maybe they’d seen the light, but your speculation about going to DC (just a 2-hour drive) is another possibliity

    I’ve never liked the slogan, “If you see something, say something.” Yet here’s a chance to do what soi-disant patriots have been hectoring the public to do. Why not report those suspicious actions to the FBI?

    [Edited, for the fun of adding a rhetorical question]

  75. 75.

    Princess

    @evodevo: I low-key think this is the source of QAnon — fundegelicals who have been victims and/or perpetrators of abuse in a church that gives them no way to process it, projecting outwards as a way to deal.

  76. 76.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Patricia Kayden: President Biden needs to work on getting through a progressive agenda and not focus at all on so called unity or healing.

    President-elect Biden needs to work on getting to his inauguration in one piece. This notion of traveling by train from Wilmington – via 100 miles of track, much of it through lightly-populated areas crawling with right-wingers (looking at you, Cecil & Harford Counties!) which will have to be thoroughly swept and then guarded by LEOs of dubious loyalty, with no good means of extraction should something go amiss – is insane.

  78. 78.

    leeleeFL

    I am marginally concerned that Jonathan Turley does not grasp his own denseness and stupidity, and Jonah Goldberg does.  My brain is having trouble processing this occurrence.  Is this the long-expected end of days?  Or are they just F–KING with us for s-its and giggles?

    Not sure it matters…. Dog!   I am so tired!

  80. 80.

    artem1s

    I’m sure the loons are all over whatever is left of Parler or the dark web screeching about how Obama finally took over the country.  And the media will happily play clips of the Traitor-in-Chief boasting about how his inauguration was so much bigger than Biden’s.

    I hate 2021 so far.  Can I haz more arresting and prosecuting terrorists plz!

  82. 82.

    J R in WV

    @Martin:

    If your phone is on, even if it’s asleep or in airplane mode, it handshakes. It does that for wireless 911 and for EAS.

    I’m good then. Since we have no cell service at home, due to the geography of the mountain cove the house is in, our phones stay off until I need to make a call while out to town. After the call is over, I turn it back off.

    A charge lasts weeks that way!

    Plus, not identifiable nor able to be located via the cell network~!!~

  83. 83.

    J R in WV

    @JustRuss:

    @JanieM:  I know a few pilots.  The one who isn’t a wingnut also isn’t an American.

    I think most American pilots get their start flying in the Air Force, which of all the military branches appear to be the one most taken over by RWNJ theocratic monsters. Probably because the AF controls the strategic weapons,  B-52s, B-1B and B-2 bombers, etc.

    Which are necessary to the religious theocrats who want to spark Armeggedon, the end of the world, so they can all rapture away from this world into the world ruled by Jesus. Unfortunately, they will then discover that destroying the world the Lord gave us to protect and care for means you are no longer eligible for post-life duty in Heaven.

    So weird.

    Anyway, that may be why many of the pilots you know are RWNJs, served in the Air Force to learn how to fly, were brain washed there.

  87. 87.

    J R in WV

    @Hildebrand:

    I agree with the other jackals who recommend you turn them in. No way to know how badly they misbehaved… call the FBI tip line, tell them just what you told us. Trip to DC, now hiding their former obvious support for der Trump. You can leave the 9 y o daughter out of it to be kind.

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