Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

Let there be snark.

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

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

No one could have predicted…

“woke” is the new caravan.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

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

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

We still have time to mess this up!

Battle won, war still ongoing.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: Wisconsin, Can’t You Do Better Than This?

Open Thread: Wisconsin, Can’t You Do Better Than This?

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Did we ever find out, she asked rhetorically, why RonJon spent July 4th, 2018 in Moscow, meeting with Putin’s assistants?

Is there a challenger who stands a decent chance of ousting this putz?

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  8. 8.

    Old School

    Looks like Johnson returned to the chambers:

    Andrew Solender

    @AndrewSolender

    Ron Johnson really toughing it out. He’s basically been the only one in the Senate chamber for the last hour as clerks power through the bill. Rick Scott came in briefly to chat. Now Johnson is reading something.

    4:26 PM · Mar 4, 2021 from Washington, DC

  10. 10.

    Spanky

    People out to destroy him? I don’t think he knows what that means, but I’m willing to help educate him.

  12. 12.

    randy khan

    If Johnson leaves for any period of time, some Dem should slip in and ask if there’s any further objection to waiving reading of the bill.  Just for kicks.

  13. 13.

    John Revolta

    I was gonna say that RoJo had at LEAST better stick around for the reading part but I see that didn’t happen. Christ, what an asshole.
    Like the filibuster, they need to change the rule so that if you want to hear a bill read you have to BE THERE to hear it. Maybe make your whole caucus stay too.

    ETA: And now I see he’s back in there. Good. Somebody must’ve called him on the carpet. Asshole.

  17. 17.

    Brachiator

    First relief bill: $2.2 trillion

    Second relief and funding bill: $2.3 trillion

    United States: forecast for nominal GDP of USD 25.3 trillion in 2024

    If Johnson is going to play with numbers he should put them into some context.

  18. 18.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Is this the same Ron Johnson who spent the 4th of July in Mother Яussia?

  23. 23.

    Another Scott

    Rhetorically, it was no big deal:

    A top Republican senator shocked his colleagues when he suggested, after returning from a trip to Moscow with fellow GOP lawmakers, that U.S. sanctions targeting Russia were not working and the Kremlin’s election interference was really no big deal.

    Now, the senators who joined him for the series of meetings with senior Russian officials are sharply disputing not only Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) conclusions—but also his account of what went on behind closed doors in Moscow.

    […]

    Shocked, shocked I say!!1

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    On Wednesday night, Giuliani got on a pedestal about the dangers of “misinformation” and how it endangers democracy.… Source

    The snark writes itself on this one.

  25. 25.

    Geminid

    Ron Johnson stands out among the wackier Republican Senators if only for representing a purple state. He has not yet announced for reelection, and it looks like Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher (WI-8) intends to run for that Senate seat regardless of Johnson’s decision. At age 37, Gallagher is a young man on the make, and may be tougher for a Democrat to beat than Johnson.                                                                   Gallagher shows up often on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, where he and the host talk about their dream of a really big Navy.

  26. 26.

    bbleh

    Oh please. It’s Marjorie Taylor Johnson. He’s just getting his face on tv and getting the yokel a**holes to cheer for him being a yokel a**hole.

    it ain’t complicated. It can’t be, given who’s involved.

  31. 31.

    Ruckus

    @John Revolta:

    Nobody talked to him.

    First, why bother? As others have stated, he may not be exactly as dumb as a post, there is the real possibility that he is dumber.

    Second, who would want to talk to him? Anyone? No one?

  32. 32.

    sab

    @Steve in the ATL: As an historian of Balloon Juice, this is normal and you are hyper sensitive

    // I don’t mean this

    Actually I do mean this. Snark to Steve who might countersnark.

  33. 33.

    Old School

    Is anyone following along with the reading of the bill?  Would it be noticed if 10 pages were skipped every now and then?

  36. 36.

    Woodrow/asim

    @Geminid: Hilariously, there’s a right-wing asshole radio guy who’s also named Mike Gallagher (ugh).

    I know this Gallagher because he’s one of the ones who “converted” when Rush got really popular; his show was hosted out of my home area and I used to call in pre-conversion, in the early 90s.

    …christ, so many assholes.

  39. 39.

    Woodrow/asim

    @Ruckus: he may not be exactly as dumb as a post, there is the real possibility that he is dumber.

    If you win votes via stunting — and the current iteration of these assholes do, far too often — then pulling stunts isn’t dumb. There are different kinds of Intelligence; just because Johnston’s comes with some odious, horrific implications doesn’t make it not “smart” for who he is, and the roles he thinks will get him votes.

    The trick is assuming, as a lot of “our side” does, that stunting is the only way to win.

  42. 42.

    cain

    Fellow Oregonians/Northwesters – local news have been reporting that vaccines have been going at a pace of 33k a day this week. Does this seem like a realistic number? It was supposedly 25k a day last week.

    4 days would have vaccinated all of Hillsboro (110k) so I’m wondering if there is any truth to that. I would think that teachers would have cleared the hurdle in a week or so given time and opportunity.

  43. 43.

    Geminid

    @Woodrow/asim: I used to listen to that Gallagher’s show back when he had the morning slot Hewitt now occupies. I heard him emphasizing in 2017 that the alleged Russian propaganda compaign could not have changed a single vote. And I remembered how the year before Gallagher wouldn’t shut up about the rumors that Hilary Clinton suffered from Parkinson’s disease, which were exposed as a Russian plant.                                                               Hewitt is a much slicker, smoother advocate.

  50. 50.

    JustRuss

    @cain: I’m at Oregon State U, we had a townhall today with some state health officials.  They said the vaccination rate has been constrained by supply problems, but that they’re seeing supply ramping up significantly.  I didn’t think we’d see that much improvement so quickly, but those numbers could be real

    I’ll add that I volunteered at a vax center last week, and with the personnel on hand we could have vaccinated a lot more people if we’d had more vaccine.  So if more vaccine is coming in, I can believe it’s getting used.

  51. 51.

    Mousebumples

    @Woodrow/asim: I started up a monthly donation to them after we (Wisconsinite here) won in November.

    They did great work. Time to support them and keep it going.

  52. 52.

    Pooh

    A lot to shake out as far as the Dem field here (also Wisconsonite) but Gallagher is the guy who has People Here Who Know Things the most worried because he’s better able to present as an actual human being.

     

    ETA: Wikler is a gd boss, he did a lot of great stuff for November.

  54. 54.

    cain

    @JustRuss: ​
    I’ll add that I volunteered at a vax center last week, and with the personnel on hand we could have vaccinated a lot more people if we’d had more vaccine. So if more vaccine is coming in, I can believe it’s getting used.

     
    Oh wow, that’s great – I think I would like to spend a weekend and volunteer. I’m not good at jabbing people, but I can help in other ways. Got a link for volunteer opportunities?

  58. 58.

    VOR

    For The Hill, Morgan Gstalter writes, “The obituary for a Wisconsin woman who died late last month included a simple request: In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) opponent in 2022. Carol Lindeen of Madison died on Feb. 24 in her sleep at the age of 81. The mother of four raised her children to avoid topics like politics and religion at social functions, according to her daughter. However, Laurie Lindeen told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that her mother has expressed regret later in life over her politeness. Carol Lindeen was reportedly ‘furious’ about Johnson’s recent remarks at a Senate hearing to read unproven claims about ‘provocateurs’ and people pretending to be supporters of former President Trump participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.”

  59. 59.

    JustRuss

    @cain:

    Got a link for volunteer opportunities?

     

    Sorry, no. I got connected through a friend of a friend, don’t know how she got hooked up.

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