Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

After roe, women are no longer free.

I was promised a recession.

Come on, man.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

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

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Georgia Runoff Races / I Can’t Think of a Better Way to Spend 22 Minutes

I Can’t Think of a Better Way to Spend 22 Minutes

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I cannot think of a better way to spend 22 minutes than to listen to this speech by one of our two new GA senators, Senator Raphel Warnock.

I watched this last week and wanted to share it then, but I have been feeling kind of blue for the past couple of months and I didn’t have the heart to put it up.

So many of our Democratic senators are amazing human beings, and we are lucky to have them in public service.  I can’t think of a single Republican senator who is fit to even shine Warnock’s shoes.

Open Thread.

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    Also, when I googled for Jen Psaki’s press conference today, all I could find was a FOX link that said Jen Psaki had snapped at sniped at Steve Doocey Peter Doocy in today’s press conference.  I would like to watch the who press conference, so if anyone has a link, let me know.

  2. 2.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    His son, Peter Doocy, I expect. He’s been a right thorn in her side at just about every presser she’s held, always trying to set her up with gotcha questions. I hope she did snap at him; he deserves it.

    I believe Wonkette usually has a link each day to the Psaki press briefings. Will see if I can manage to link to today’s.

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Nope, nothing at Wonkette today, sorry. Sometimes they forget.  BTW, edit function is working only erratically (iPhone 8-plus, Safari) — hence this separate comment instead of an ETA in #2.

  6. 6.

    cckids

    @WaterGirl: Hello, WaterGirl; I wanted to thank you for your words of encouragement when I was so down in the vaccine thread, I appreciate the kind thoughts. And apparently anonymous bitching online works, because I just got dose #1 of Pfizer ???? I think I had forgotten how to hope.

    Sometimes you can’t see how deep in the weeds of despair you are until someone shows you a path out. Thank you !

  11. 11.

    cckids

    @WaterGirl: Done! Thanks for the reminder!  It’s nice-our store got 190 doses; 130 going to employees. It’s been over a year since we’ve been happy together here ? So much relief!!

  12. 12.

    Doug

    Could anyone else hear a congregation in their mind at various points in the speech going “Tell it!” or “Yeaa-ah!” or “Amen!” ?

    Because I sure did.

  15. 15.

    M31

    So many of our Democratic senators are amazing human beings,

    I was trying to think of a Republican senator that is even a moderately decent human being, and I’m coming up blank. Maybe Romney is not a complete and utter piece of garbage, but merely a clueless, blinkered, out-of-touch rich guy who can rise to the level of ‘not as awful as the others’ on occasion. Is that as high as they go?

  16. 16.

    M31

    I mean, ‘not as repellent as Ted Cruz’ is about the lowest bar you could set, and a lot of them are having a hard time meeting it

  17. 17.

    Ruckus

    @M31:

    I’d say in the last 50 years, I can’t think of any better. That is of course, a very low bar, because he’s only good in comparison to utter crap.

  18. 18.

    Jeffro

    Thanks, WaterGirl!  Senator Warnock is amazing, agreed.

    If anyone’s spirits need additional boosting, this piece is good!  Joe Biden’s Next Victory.

    I know it’s an opinion piece, but whew, the knives, they are getting SHARP!!!  (and witty) Run the old playbook at your peril, GQP, we’re on to you!

    With the success of the covid relief bill behind them, President Biden and Democrats are now turning to the next phase of their plan to accomplish their core goals and reap the political benefits: not just infrastructure, but infrastructure plus a great deal more.  It all hinges on this critical truth that the ARP revealed, one that should determine the shape of the Democrats’ strategy: In the end, Republicans will not support this initiative, no matter what they say or do along the way. And that’s fine.

    This is the Democrats’ basic plan: Propose something ambitious with benefits spread throughout the public, meant to achieve ends even Republicans say they want. Invite the opposition to help, and listen to their ideas. But rather than chasing them for months, make visible but finite efforts to negotiate with them, while assuming that in the end they won’t support the bill. Do whatever is necessary to pass it, then take all the credit.

    and the funny this is, we can keep doing this on issue after issue, ’cause we’re the center-center party, after all, supported by majorities on nearly every last little thing.
    Take raising taxes on the rich and big corporations, for instance…

    McConnell’s threat to withhold GOP cooperation is meaningless. Republicans could once again find themselves opposed to something the public is extremely happy about with nothing to show for their opposition.

    For instance, Republicans will say they’re waiting to see how the bill is paid for before they decide whether to support it, but that’s a ruse. If Democrats decide to do what they did with the ARP and pay for it the way Republicans pay for wars and tax cuts (by tolerating a higher deficit), Republicans will say they can’t go along with that because they’re so deeply concerned about the debt.
    On the other hand, if Democrats decide to finance it with tax increases on corporations and the wealthy, Republicans will say they can’t agree to that either, because such tax increases would be a dagger thrust into their very souls.

    I LOL’d at that one, oh yes I did…  =)

  20. 20.

    narya

    Hey, WG; so sorry for the blueness on your part . . . the struggle IS real. Thanks for all of your work here; I am so grateful for you.

  22. 22.

    JanieM

    @Ruckus: Edward Brooke?

    I would also vote for Bill Cohen before I’d vote for Romney, if someone put a gun to my head and said I had to choose one or the other.

  24. 24.

    David Fud

    He is one of my Senators.  He is so eloquent, and I am very happy to see him speak to the Senate and our nation.  We all need to be hearing what he has to say.

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    @M31:

    I was trying to think of a Republican senator that is even a moderately decent human being, and I’m coming up blank.

    I think there are a fair number of Republican senators who are decent human beings, at least to the people they encounter in person.  The thing that’s amazing is how people who seem perfectly decent when you meet them can be so awful when it comes to setting public policy.

  28. 28.

    UncleEbeneezer

    “I watched this last week and wanted to share it then, but I have been feeling kind of blue for the past couple of months and I didn’t have the heart to put it up.”

    I feel you.  Biden taking the Presidency, Covid #’s going down, the ARP etc., all have me thrilled, but I’ve been in a bit of a sustained funk too, for the past month or so.  Obviously things like the Insurrection, mass shooting and the killings in GA are huge downers, but I think it goes even beyond.  I suspect in my case it is a combination of:

    1.) PTSD/lingering effects of 2020.  Covid, wildfires, attempts to dismantle the postal service etc.  It was ALOT.  I’m guessing it will take time for the 2020 anxiety/stress/depression to really start to wane (though I DO feel better already, to some extent).

    2.) Exhaustion from the past 4 years.  I’ve been Organizing and engaging in various political fights since 2017.  I try to take breaks for self-care, but still it’s exhausting.

    3.) The reality of just how hard it is to address Climate, Racism, Voter Suppression, Gun Violence etc.  We’ve made great strides but it’s so frustrating that reforming the filibuster, Statehood for DC, HR-1 are still so difficult to get done.

    4.) The sad truth that 40% of the population is doubling-down on horrible shit (xenophobia, voter suppression) and too many people, even on the left, are still so damn indifferent.  It’s depressing.

  29. 29.

    WaterGirl

    @Roger Moore:

    I think there are a fair number of Republican senators who are decent human beings, at least to the people they encounter in person.  The thing that’s amazing is how people who seem perfectly decent when you meet them can be so awful when it comes to setting public policy.

    I would venture to say they APPEAR TO BE DECENT HUMAN BEINGS at times, but they are not actually decent human beings if they can legislate the way they do, and if, as representatives in government, they believe their POWER is more important than democracy or the best interests of the people they are supposed to serve.

  30. 30.

    Miss Bianca

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    too many people, even on the left, are still so damn indifferent.  It’s depressing.

    When they’re not being indifferent, they are putting the “ass” back in “asshole” by amplifying anti-Biden and anti-Democratic propaganda. I gotta stay off FB – I ended up unloading on some guy I’ve known for a long time who, just like most of my other white male lefty acquaintances, is dedicated to finding Democrats at fault for just fucking everything. After I took him to task for his anti-Bidenism, Z. just lost it and decided to let me know, in excruciating detail, that Biden was basically the Worst Human Being in the World, at which point *I* lost it and told him how sick I was of the smug white male lefty privilege that allowed guys like him to stay pure and woke and not have to deal with the day-to-day realities of being a woman or POC in this country, to whom the fact that Democrats in general, and Biden in particular, were the only party and politicians who were prepared to do ANYTHING at all for them. Still steaming.

    I should really know better.

  31. 31.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Miss Bianca: I’ve been pretty good at excising people like that from my world.  I either unfriend them, or they get sick of me and bolt.  But I still have a few that I have to work with locally.  We focus on our stuff (policing) but never get into any general politics talk because I know that they will jump to NeoLiberal!!1! Biden/Pelosi etc. bullshit in a heartbeat and it will make my head explode.

    What really has me frustrated is that not a single one of my white  relatives has said a damn thing about stopping Anti-Asian Hate, despite us all having an adopted family member (my nephew) who is originally from China.  Even the Dem-voting ones aren’t speaking up (as far as I can see) and it just disgusts me.  Whiteness is a hell of a drug.

  32. 32.

    Eunicecycle

    @WaterGirl: I agree with you. That was a very mild rebuke, at worst. It was like she was explaining something to a young child, which is appropriate considering it was Doocy.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @Eunicecycle: How she manages to give the same answers to the same questions day after day is beyond me – all without referencing the fact that she has answered this same question probably 20 times already.

    I imagine she is a very patient mom.

  34. 34.

    Miss Bianca

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Whiteness is a hell of a drug.

    Tell me about it. The response to first Obama, and then Trump, and now Biden/Harris among the extreme lefties and extreme righties of my acquaintance have led me to the conclusion that there actually *isn’t* a “left wing” and a “right wing” among most white Americans so much as there is a “white wing” – a white wing which gets extremely butt-hurt about Democrats in particular not catering to *them* and *their* priorities exclusively. So, the fact that Democrats are trying their damnedest to promote local, state, and federal legislation and policies that will help women, minorities, POC, LBGTQ folks to be as fully American as white men? Yeah, fuck THAT shit. They’re all either neoliberal sellouts or libtard squishes.

    Fuck Whiteness.

  35. 35.

    dww44

    @WaterGirl: So on the money.  I have a Republican State Senator and a Republican State Representative, as well as a Republican Congressperson.  While I’ve long given up on the latter having any independence of thought (at least he didn’t vote to overturn the election results), I’ve been considering contacting the other 2 to see where they come down on the voter suppression bills come out of the state legislature.  I’ve kinda been reluctant to do that as I don’t want my fears confirmed.  Nice people though they are, they all fall in line.  Always have and always will. They will have some fake rationale for why it’s all about election integrity.

  36. 36.

    currants

    @WaterGirl: Thank you so much for posting that.  I seldom have a chance to listen to longer pieces and this was so well worth the time. I believe I’ll send his campaign a monthly donation starting this week.

    Thank you again, and I hope your blues lift.

  39. 39.

    Felanius Kootea

    Watched it last week and was really moved.  I wondered how his Senate colleagues who back voting restrictions could look him in the eye after that speech, but I’m sure they did.  Shameless lot.

  40. 40.

    AJ

    I’m sorry you’ve been feeling blue Watergirl!

    You do so much for us here and I know many of us are so grateful. Hope your days are getting brighter ??

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