Kevin McCarthy’s statement about Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s comparison of the requirement for members to wear masks on the House floor, in its entirety:
“Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling. The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling.
“At a time when the Jewish people face increased violence and threats, anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Democrat Party and is completely ignored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Americans must stand together to defeat anti-Semitism and any attempt to diminish the history of the Holocaust.
“Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.”
Someday, perhaps, the average asshole in the Republican Party will make a distinction between criticizing Israel and anti-semitism, but today is certainly not that day.
Elon Musk Is Wrecking The Sky
Baud
By voice vote, I’m sure.
trnc
Nah.
Baud
See, he’s going to have to walk this back once Trump tells that the 2020 election was the greatest atrocity in history.
trnc
@Baud: Wait, I thought the Capitol Police uprising against the peaceful tourists on 1/6 was the greatest atrocity.
NotMax
But does not condemn Greene.
Baud
@NotMax:
They ain’t going to condemn their future minority leader.
Matt McIrvin
Most of the people in the world seem to have trouble with that distinction from both directions, so I’m not holding my breath.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: Truth.
Kay
You would think even their supporters would be tired of the mask whining by now.
A solid year of listening to these people whine about masks. They’re absolutely miserable individuals. Greene is just pure malice and resentment. 100% negative energy. Has anyone ever heard a positive word come out of her mouth? She created a negative, nasty exercise video. I think that’s a first. In a genre that is defined by earnest, upbeat affirmations she made it hateful.
geg6
@NotMax:
Yes, that’s the tell. Kevin McCarthy is not a very bright guy, is he?
cain
@NotMax: GOP continues the Hastert rule – no Republican be wrong. It’s so nice when they follow the rules of a sexual predator but then the GOP consists of many sub species of human with craven and condemnable human traits.
patrick II
@trnc:
Not as long as it is their interest not to.
randy khan
@Baud:
As long as she never rises above minority leader, it wouldn’t be so bad. I doubt she could control the caucus, even with firearms.
Lacuna Synecdoche
Kevin McCarthy:
Says the minority leader of the party most supported by anti-semitic organizations and movements like the KKK, neo-Nazis, QAnon, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, end-time “Christians” praying for the destruction of Israel as concomitant with Armageddon and the Rapture, and so on …
trnc
@Kay: I was quite surprised that the biggest WATB in the world, DT, didn’t get so much as a grimace from all the supposed he-men in the republican party when he went full throttle on “I’m the victim.”
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@randy khan:
Nobody can. She’s as good a candidate as any for the thankless job of herding those cats.
trnc
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
If they didn’t have double standards and projection, they wouldn’t have anything left.
Old School
@randy khan:
It’s worth a shot.
Jeffro
…thanks Kevin McCarthy, minority leader of the Republic( ) Party…
I know they do it to signal…something…to their fellow Qdiots, but maybe they could get a new schtick or something. It’s “Democratic Party”, jackass.
lowtechcyclist
@Old School: :golf clap:
guachi
Jennifer Rubin tweeted to Doug J’s NYT Pitch Bot account. Makes me wonder if she’s ever read this blog.
Jeffro
She did it a week ago too and I wondered the same thing. Every now and then I’ll see something in a column of hers that makes me wonder if she’s stopping by occasionally. Hope so!
lowtechcyclist
Has anyone asked Kevin McCarthy to quote specific things that Dems have said that are allegedly anti-Semitic? Or do they just let him get away with pretending that the Dems have said horrible things about Jews, despite the reality that there’s no ‘there’ there?
Gravenstone
@Old School: or twenty…
Kay
@trnc:
I think part of what we’re seeing is the effect of small donors on the Right. They’re all raising a lot of money off of keeping the small donor base jacked up and angry. That’s why they don’t control Greene- she controls them. They want the money she brings in.
It’s just really poisonous on that side. It’s all hate and anger. I don’t know how they cut the knot because they’ll become more and more dependent on small donors as they promote more and more Greenes.
Gravenstone
@lowtechcyclist: Asking for specifics? Who do you think you are, Jen Psaki?
James E Powell
Greene is the paragon of who & what Republicans are all about. She is a much bigger media star than McCarthy and I would suspect that she is a lot more popular among the Republican voters.
Will anyone mention this to McCarthy?
cain
@James E Powell: Of course, owning the libs amps their base. She doesn’t actually give a shit about govt or anything – she’s there to be a clown. She has no acumen to do any kind of policy work or even negotiation skills.
Eventually, she has to make an argument to her constituents that she did something for them. But if all she has is circus drama stuff – her competitors will eat her alive if she has any kind of weakness.
lowtechcyclist
@Gravenstone:
Nah, she’s smarter than I am, and way better looking, too.
SFAW
Is it wrong of me to wish that a large meteorite, or perhaps a 16-ton weight, falls in McQarthy? That guy gets more vile and disgusting by the day, if not the hour.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
The Party of Assholes. Greene, Boehbert (sp?), Gaetz and Cawthrone (sp?) are merely shit-stirring brats in Congress. It’s really a god-damned shame for the districts they “represent.”
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
A) Their districts voted for them, so fuck their supporters
B) I DO have compassion for the people who voted against them, however.
piratedan
makes you wish for the days where you could simply disagree, saying something along the lines that we don’t believe this to be true… due to x, y and z. Instead every conflict, real or imagined, has to be treated as if one’s very own personal existence and identity of self is threatened by disagreement.
There are times when I wish that we could simply cut thru the bullshit… lets have a vote, lets expel MTG and every other election results disbeliever from the Congress. I mean in all honesty, how can we continue to compel them to serve, against their own firmly held beliefs KNOWING that THIS election was a fraud. How can we continue to assault their own personal integrity in this fashion when they should be out in their districts, manning the barricades fighting for an election result that they honestly believe was a political outrage thanks to our inherently dishonest system of elections, that is backed by these judicial entities that they have mistakenly placed their trust in. The stain that they must endure is a burden that can only be carried for so long, until their next appearance on Hannity.
MattF
It should be noted that equating mask requirements with the Holocaust justifies taking any steps whatsoever against them, including violent resistance. Greene is not merely being rude— she’s advocating violence.
Another Scott
In other news, …
Elections always, always, have consequences. There’s much more that can be done at the local level to make things better. We can’t lose sight of that.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ksmiami
@cain: I call them plague rats. It helps
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: Let me clarify. It’s a god-damned shame for those who didn’t vote for their bullshit, and it’s a god-damned shame for projects that actually need to be done in their districts, because you know they don’t give a damn about actually helping people.
Ksmiami
@guachi: I think she reads balloon juice…it’s a repository of moderate thinking
waspuppet
@Kay: I mean, what else do conservatives have to do all day? Work real jobs? That’s for suckers who will never get on TV.
Someday, perhaps, the average asshole in the Republican Party will actually apologize for something as opposed to the usual partisan attack disguised as an apology, but today is certainly not that day.
Central Planning
Why does everyone get the sarcasm in the title of this post but not the “Kids don’t need masks!!” post?
Soprano2
You would think, wouldn’t you? One of the women at Jazzercize actually knows someone who is terrified that all of her vaccinated family and friends are going to “shed” their new virus all over her. So, this isn’t just a crazy thing someone the internet made up – there are people who actually believe it! I hope they all start wearing masks to protect themselves from “virus-shedders”. Wouldn’t that be hilarious and ironic and insane?
I figured out last night while at Jazzercize why insisting that fully vaccinated people still need to wear face masks bothers me. It’s because it plays into the Republican fantasy that what liberals really want is to force people to wear face masks forever. “You want to muzzle me foreverrrrrr!!!!’ they whine. No, we don’t you idiot, we just want people to be protected from a deadly disease. But if we tell them they still can’t take their masks off even after they’re fully vaccinated, they think that’s what we’re doing.
Soprano2
Well, it is a day ending in “y”. It seems to me that she’s advocating some kind of violence against liberals most days.
Elizabelle
@Ksmiami: In all seriousness, I do think Jen Rubin might scroll through Balloon Juice from time to time. It makes me wonder what other sources she follows, and they are likely changing by the week and month.
Hi Jen!!
Cameron
Nancy Pelosi, She-Wolf of the House Rostrum!
Elizabelle
FWIW, I truly do not want to talk or read about Congresscritter Taylor-Greene (R-Lunacy).
She does not deserve my attention.
And: ETA: Madison Cawthorne just got married. He is or was honeymooning in Dubai. I only know this because some people are whingeing about him missing Congressional sessions to take his trip; it’s not like Congresscritters don’t get a lot of time off already. Me, any day he is not on the House floor is a good one.
OzarkHillbilly
“Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference is proud to dance cheek to cheek with the Proud Boys and other anti-Semites.”
Soprano2
In a completely predictable way, McCarthy takes the occasion of condemning Greene’s odious comparison to slam Democrats. It’s revealing that he can’t do it without that. He’s giving with one hand and taking away with the other, which makes the condemnation a lot weaker. I’m surprised he was able to summon the gumption to make the statement at all. I thought they were cool with having Nazis in their party now.
Cameron
To slightly alter an old chestnut: “What is the frequency, Kevin?”
Elizabelle
@Soprano2:
They are. It is one of their “freewheeling passions.” They just don’t want the rest of us to notice that.
Have Republicans had anything to say about Belarus seizing that journalist/dissident off an international airliner? Forcing it down to do so? Maybe they have.
PPCLI
@Jeffro: If they are consistently going to refuse to use the Democratic party’s real name, we should refuse them the same curtesy.
But never mind variations on “Republican”: Call them “the Trump party”.
Jeffro
@Jeffro: this very issue is trending on Twitter, how’s that for coincidence?
has nothing to do with me of course…Dems are just fed up with the petty insult…
Citizen Alan
@Elizabelle: I had thought that they were waiting to see what Biden did so that they could condemn it as making things worse no matter what decision he made
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: Call them the “Insurrection Party.” And the “Trump Humpers.”
They are so nasty and immature. “Democrat party.” That’s a good one! Not.
karen marie
Kevin McCarthy got into the pillow guy’s crack stash.
Jeffro
@PPCLI: “trumpov Party” – the majority of them would just wear it as a badge of honor
“Republic( ) Party” helps point out what they’re doing and how stupid/childish it is
But either’s fine
Captain C
I’m pretty sure McCarthy would be among the first to push people onto boxcars if TFG demanded it.
smith
@Elizabelle: The Traitor Party, or go all the way and say Confederates
Soprano2
OMG, I just saw a post on FB from one of my conservative friends of a Bill O’Reilly tweet alleging that a Chinese whistleblower said at least 5 million fake ballots were flown to the U.S. to be used by Democrats in the election. I pointed out several problems with this scenario and asked him if he was really this dumb.
Citizen Alan
@Jeffro: How about the publican party? Most of them are fake Christian enough to get the reference and be offended by it.
Steeplejack
DougJ has had some good ones lately.
Bonus link to an idiotic Douthat piece, “How Michel Foucault Lost the Left and Won the Right.”
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Who the hell is Michel Foucault?
trollhattan
He seriously writes “Democrat Party” in an official statement?
Antifa made him do that.
Timill
@Baud: A swing voter…
Jeffro
@Citizen Alan: that one works as well!
zhena gogolia
@Central Planning:
Hard to define, but the level of exaggeration is different. Also, what mistermix says about Pelosi has no effect on anything. But I truly thought when I saw the headline about kids that he was about to make an argument that children should not wear masks.
Kathleen
@Elizabelle: She subscribes to Eric Boehlert’s Press Run substack.
Jeffro
Steeplejack
@Baud:
French philospher who studied power and social systems and had a sort of left-hipster cred in certain circles.
Léon gave us Foucault’s pendulum.
The thought of NYT diner denizens contemplating either of them is hilarious to me.
schrodingers_cat
@guachi: Is Baud, Jennifer Rubin?
Elizabelle
@Kathleen: Good for Jen. I like Eric Boehlert too.
Jeffro
@schrodingers_cat: this is a rumor that I’m happy to chuckle at and then help spread
Miss Bianca
@mrmoshpotato:
Yeah, tell me about it.
karen marie
@trollhattan: I’m astonished that people are more offended by “Democrat” (par for the course) and ignore him pinning the problem of anti-semitism on Democrats.
senyordave
@Soprano2: Without knowing your friend, I would say yes.
Mike in NC
Packing tonight for Florida. Will try to leave room in my suitcase for a Kevlar vest.
topclimber
@PPCLI: I like RepubliCants. You only change one letter and you remind folks that 1) with RepubliCants in charge, there’s a lot of things they don’t let many people do, like voting and 2) with RepubliCants in charge or not, somehow they can never come up with positive legislation.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@geg6: Nope, not bright at all.
Gravenstone
@Elizabelle: If he only now got married, then his previous excuse of missing myriad votes to fulfill his husbandly duties seems a trifle premature, no?
Emma from Miami
@Jeffro: How about the Americo-Russian party? Or the Insurrectionist party?
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
Sure, whatever.
Having been that kid when I was a kid, I learned the hard way that when you show that something gets under your skin, the shitty kids will keep on using it on you.
And with all the ways the GQP is horrible to the people of this country completely aside from their being a danger to democracy itself, getting riled about “Democrat Party” seems like a total waste of time.
There aren’t enough hours in a day to deal with all the shit they throw around that actually matters. This is one thing we can afford to treat as being beneath a response, because it is.
debbie
@NotMax:
Ah, the Age of the Non-Apology Apology has returned! //
topclimber
@Jeffro: I suppose Republickins is too subtle, what with the obvious allusion to the Trumpian tongue baths of the GQP.
Miss Bianca
@topclimber: It may be “too subtle”, but I like it. I plan to steal it for some future use.
Cameron
Republichen? Though I guess ‘lichen’ is too advanced an organism.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@schrodingers_cat: No, Jen wears pants.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steeplejack:
I remember reading that Michel Foucault petitioned the government of France against age of consent laws. Highly likely that he was a pedophile or at least sympathized with them to the point that he thought sex with children was a-ok with few exceptions. Doesn’t negate any of his other ideas of course. Just kind of ironic considering how much Q-Anon and the American right obsess over pedophiles, that a possible pedophilia apologist has “won” them
Elizabelle
Kudos to the WaPost for not letting McCarthy get away with his lying about the Democrats.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Yeah, that one flew right over my head.
Elizabelle
WaPost also included this tidbit.
RSA
Right now there are 37 Jewish members of Congress, all but two in the Democratic Party. I think Nancy Pelosi probably has much better lines of information about anti-Semitism than Kevin McCarthy does.
James E Powell
A record number of journalists are finally recognizing – and saying out loud – that the Republicans have gone crazy and are destroying our democracy. What they never say is that America’s business big shots could shut this shit down in a matter of days if they so desired. Clearly, they do not.
In the days right after January 6th, a number of large corporations declared that they would not donate to insurrection promoting Republicans. They’ve all quietly resumed donations. I’d say that’s an excellent story for investigative reporters to pursue.
Matt
@Kay:
Last I checked, it’s not possible to make campaign contributions from a locked ward. These people need serious help before they hurt others.
smith
This, of course, is the whole dynamic behind pwning the libs, and Cleek’s Law. I’ve recently concluded that it’s a big part of the motivation for the MSM’s use of phrases like “freewheeling passion” to describe unhinged lunacy, and the persistence of Cletus Safaris, such as the repugnant recent effort by FTNYT. They are simply joining in the game of pwning the libs, with the measure of success being how many howls of outrage can be elicited from the left. It’s a mystery to me why they want to do this, since, as far as I know, right wingers don’t watch, read, listen to, or subscribe to MSM outlets, so who are they trying to please? Maybe it’s just a desire to join in the cultural moment, or virtue signalling to their uberrich owners.
Cameron
@James E Powell: It certainly is an excellent story, and if the business big shots weren’t funding the journalists, maybe some of the journalists would pursue it. Actually, some of them probably are, but they’re people I’ve never heard of.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Steeplejack
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I’m not sure Ross Douthat is a reliable guide to anything, much less Foucault’s influence on “the right.” They’re not a super philosophical crowd.
Captain C
@Steeplejack: “What? Who’s Fuckit and why should I care? You’re not from around here, are you?”
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ugh. Nina Turner, never, never, never.
@karen marie: Ignored that dig by McCarthy, because it’s so ass-backwards and repellant.
Really, it still surprises me how much the GOP lies, plain, outright, bald-faced lying. And how they apparently don’t feel they pay a price for that.
The WaPost pointed out what a money-making machine Taylor Greene is. Money, money, money, money.
Old Man Shadow
They realize that being openly anti-semitic is still something they have to apologize for (for now anyway), but they don’t really mean it, so there’s zero remorse, zero punishment for the offender, and plenty of “yeah, but the other side is worse!” bullshit.
I suppose it should bring me a degree of comfort that the GOP doesn’t feel secure enough yet to openly flying swastikas, but that’s a pretty fucking low bar.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s kind of the worst on both fronts because she has a normal Democratic campaign but now all the Lefties hate her, because (obviously) she betrayed them.
So she’ll be a slightly less popular Democrat than she would be if she hadn’t have gone crazy.
lowtechcyclist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I didn’t know jack shit about Nina Turner (only barely aware that she wasn’t Tina Turner’s daughter or kid sister or something), but that sounds like all I need to know about her.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not to make excuses, but the only source we have for that quote is Peter Nicholas in his article at TheAtlantic (cited by the HuffPo story):
No date, no other information about when she said it, the context, etc. TheAtlantic story is dated July 27, 2020.
I don’t like circular firing squads, myself. Especially when so much is at stake.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think if you’re going to redefine as uberLefty, which she did, you have to stick with that. This thing just makes no sense on any level. Normie Democrats will think (understandably!) that she’s ultra Lefty and Lefties will be mad too.
Can you just reinvent every 5 minutes? Who has time for this?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
you mean Turner? I don’t know how somebody who, effectively, campaigned for Donald Trump, twice, could ever have a normal Democratic campaign. Or why Katie Porter would endorse that person.
Sparkedcat
@Jeffro: It is called the Republan Party. You leave the ic out of the word.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well, she CAN, and is, because the vast majority of people pay no attention. There will be people here who still think she’s that energetic up and comer who was interested in voting rights and those are involved Democrats. That’s what she was. My husband met her and told me she’s religious. He thought she was like a Right-leaning, religious AA Democrat. I’m still not clear on why he decided “religious” but he did. That was before the Bernie rallies and none of them read Twitter and that.
He told me, and I quote, “she exudes integrity”. Before. He met her at a voting regulations conference.
JMG
On a cheerier note, just went to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. In the line behind me were a gaggle of teenage girls, looking at their phones and chatting up a storm. They were there to get vaccinated. Made me glad to see them.
Edmund Dantes
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1397231701772935172?s=21
Just asked Sen. Joe Manchin if he would invoke the nuclear option to blow up the filibuster if Republicans block the Jan. 6 commission bill.
“No,” he told me. “I can’t take the fallout.”
Joe Manchin ladies and gentlemen.
followed up with this
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1397236809625706499?s=21
Manchin won’t blow up the filibuster over this but he just put out statement with Sinema saying: “We implore our Senate Republican colleagues to work with us to find a path forward on a commission to examine the events of January 6th.”
brilliant strategy
Frankensteinbeck
@James E Powell:
Facts not in evidence. Without the batshit crazies, there are not enough Republican voters to elect a dog catcher. Any elected Republicans who are not batshit crazy need those crazies to get elected. The asshole rich need those crazies and the elected Republicans to get anything they want. The crazies have neither reason nor desire to negotiate with the rest of the party.
Further: The rich were entirely in favor of more Covid bailouts, and of punishing Trump and the insurrectionists. McConnell gave them the middle finger on both issues. The rich have a great deal of power in the Republican Party, but when push comes to shove it is the extremists who get their way.
smith
@Edmund Dantes: Sure, makes sense: surrender before the battle and there won’t be any fallout.
Epicurus
Bret Stephens disagrees with this conclusion (quelle surprise!)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: except she pretty much confirmed she said it
prostratedragon
Finally!!
Senate Confirms Kristen Clarke As First Black Woman To Lead DOJ Civil Rights Division
zhena gogolia
@prostratedragon:
Great!
Cameron
@Sparkedcat: Isn’t ‘ick’ the most important part?
Geminid
@Another Scott: Turner said it, and if you knew very much about Nina Turner, you’d know she meant it.
Kathleen
@Kay: I remember when she was involved in voting rights and I eagerly voted for her when she ran for Secretary of State.
Soprano2
I just got an e-mail saying our Restaurant Revitalization Grant was approved!!!! That’s incredibly fast for a government program – I think I sent the application the first week of May. That’s going to help us a lot, and it was easy to do – I didn’t need an accountant or lawyer to fill it out. Thanks, President Biden and Congress!!!
jimmiraybob
I also have to add a nope. Reasonable evaluation and nuance is hard work. Hard I tells ya. And besides, anything short of ignorance and stupidity runs the risk of the MAGA-force hanging them.
Elizabelle
@prostratedragon: Yea! Wonderful news. I look forward to hearing a lot about Kristen Clarke, and all of Merrick Garland’s very good DOJ team. Vanita Gupta.
It is a pleasure learning there are people in the world like attorneys Clarke and Gupta. We are fortunate to have them in public service.
raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: fuck her weak shit
Citizen Alan
@jimmiraybob: Every iota of the GQP’s support for Israel is derived from the Religious Right’s support for Israel. And every iota of the RR’s support for Israel is premised on the delusional religious dogma that says America must support Israel in order to fulfill biblical prophecies that end with Jesus coming back to properly exterminate all the Jews.
Another Scott
In other news, … GovExec:
(These are estimates of total costs from 2021 – 2030.)
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57130
Not having sensible arms control is expensive, and will get more expensive as time goes on… Diplomacy is important.
Cheers,
Scott.
eclare
@Soprano2: Wonderful!
Elizabelle
Susan Collins was the only GOP senator to vote for Kristen Clarke’s confirmation. Props for that.
Disappointed in Lisa Murkowski.
Martin
Wow. What a great story.
It explores how the CDC fucked up early on with Covid, believing that it couldn’t be aerosol based on some old studies that they misinterpreted. This is why the early focus was on surface cleaning and not masking. I suspect a lot of Asian policy was based more around what they directly observed in various diseases and less on a specific scientific study. Thrown in are various biases by people along the way to new evidence and to evidence from outside the medical field.
This is right up Tom Levinson’s alley.
prostratedragon
@Soprano2: Yay!! Must be a huge relief. Mentally, that is.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I can see why he detected a whiff of religion: Turner definitely has a true believer vibe that probably predates the Sanders campaign. Wouldn’t surprise me if she gets Jesus in a big way someday and becomes extremely dogmatic and offers opinions on who’s going to burn in hell. Some people seem to be built that way.
Booger
@Timill: well played
karen marie
@Elizabelle: Running errands this morning, I caught a snippet on NPR that the Mexican president is copying the GOP playbook – anyone and everyone who’s critical of what you’re doing is partisan. He’s accusing the central bank and plans to replace the head with someone on his side, and he’s questioning the legitimacy of elections (but presumably not his). I can’t even.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: The Republican voting positions on these positions is absolutely ridiculous.
Lisa Murkowski? Hard to believe Collins voted for Kristen Clarke. Do she and Murkowski take turns being the 51st vote?
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This makes me really disappointed in Katie Porter. Maybe Turner is the best choice for this election, but I’d be pretty skeptical.
prostratedragon
Meanwhile, in the world of attorneys who at best are selective in their advocacy of civil rights, this is from an actual court filing:
mrmoshpotato
@karen marie:
Well I got some bad news for when he tries to make the US pay for his stupid, racist, border wall that can be cut through with a Sawzall!
Also, prepare to get fucked, Mexican farmers!
Mike in NC
@Old Man Shadow: Swastika tattoos are permissible as long as they are “tastefully” done and can be covered up when the occasion warrants. It’s in the GQP handbook.
Another Scott
In other news, … WH.gov:
It will be after meeting NATO, G7, and EU leaders.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There is a seat next to me and zhena gogolia for you, socially distanced of course! We discussed EW protege her white board there too!
Steve in the ATL
@Elizabelle:
QFT!
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@schrodingers_cat: Hopefully she gets trounced in the primary.
Steve in the ATL
@prostratedragon: it’s about damn time. Hard to believe she’s the first. No, it’s really not. Which is sad.
Elizabelle
@Steve in the ATL: Ummmm ….
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Citizen Alan:
Including Jesus?
Ruckus
@cain:
I’ve known clowns and you are disrespecting them by comparing them to republicans.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Murder-suicide is a little easier when you can resurrect yourself.
Steve in the ATL
@Ruckus:
And you lived to tell the tale? Someone page Omnes!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat: heh, my impressions have been mostly favorable, even I’ve been a bit mystified by the fervor she inspires in some– Lawrence O’Donnell’s fawning approaches the creepy line– but this strikes me as incredibly stupid and self-indulgent
Ruckus
@PPCLI:
The trump disaster.
Geminid
@MisterForkbeard: There are 8 candidates running in the OH 11th Democratic primary. Four, including Nina Turner, are former state legislators. Another, Shontel Brown, is a Cuyahoga County Council member and Chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. Three others are political novices. Brown and Turner are thought to be leading the rest.
Nina Turner was a featured speaker at the initial People’s Party Convention last August, along with Cornell West, Chis Hedges, Marianne Williamson and Jesse Ventura. Most backed a program of running third party candidates starting this year, culminating with a Presidential candidate in 2024. Turner said she would choose to stay and fight it out in the Democratic Party, but allowed that an inside/outside strategy could be effective.
Feathers
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think he had a genuine belief that the repression of an sort of sexuality, including that of children, was wrong. He was also firmly anti-psychiatry, so he seems to have little concern for the negative consequences of all that freedom on the individual who possessed it. Apparently, in his personal life Foucault was a gerontophile who preferred sadomasochistic relationships with elderly men.
You learn the most interesting things when procrastistudying for papers on Foucault adjacent topics.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: Every rational person has a fear of clowns
ETA: They’re creepy AF.
Baud
Baud!/Foucault! 20XX!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle:
If I’d had to bet on one R supporting KC, I would’ve gotten that exactly wrong.
Lyrebird
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Probably depends on which clowns you’ve met. But really I just wanted to thank you for sharing your lovely memorials to your puppehs.
Best to you!
schrodingers_cat
This is what Katie Porter endorsed. As a Congresswoman from California she could have sat this one out, instead she endorsed the only non-Dem in the race. The one who didn’t vote for Hillary or Biden.
The probability that this stunt endorsement gets you the presidential nomination in 2024 approaches zero. Put that on your tiny white board and smoke that, Katie Karen Porter.
catclub
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I have often thought that about rational people.
WaterGirl
@MisterForkbeard: If Nina Turner is the best choice in this election, the Dems are doing it wrong.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I had wondered if she may have gotten too big for her britches.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
Doing it so so so wrong.
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Many of the black women I follow on Twitter like Shontel Brown.
Geminid
@mrmoshpotato: Turner could lose, but she won’t be trounced. She has raised a ton of money, and has ardent support among Sanders fans. With such a large field and no runoff, 35% could win this contest, maybe even 30%.
For various reasons, we seem to entering a period with large candidate fields. I’ve come around to thinking that we will need ranked choice voting to keep cohesive minorities like the Democratic Socialists of America* from winning plurality victories. Runoffs would also work, but they cost, and this an impatient age where people want a quick result
*The DSA are going all out for Turner. The local college chapter canvassing door to door is not numerous, but nationally the DSA are fundraising and phone banking.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
It’s problematic because there’s a crowded field and no runoff or ranked choice voting procedure. It allows people to win with a very low share of the vote. That’s a problem even when none of the candidates are concerning.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@WaterGirl: between this and her efforts to step up on Maxine Waters, one does wonder if she’s been reading a bit too much of her own press
catclub
@Soprano2:
Good luck with that! I hope we don’t have you reporting in two years “I didn’t know I needed a lawyer and an CPA to fill out the application.”
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What happened with Waters? Is that the committee assignment issue or something else?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: that’s what I was referring to
mrmoshpotato
@Geminid: It’s still my hope. :)
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah, bad on Katie Porter. I wonder why she stepped into … this electoral contest.
Baud
@Baud:
I see Geminid said it earlier and better.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Lyrebird: Thank you.
Geminid
@mrmoshpotato: It’s my hope too. Shontel Brown is pulling in a lot of money, and her recent rapping fundraising appeal in Twitter shows a very likeable and engaging personality. This will be a hardfought campaign. I suspect district voters will hear a lot about that half a bowl of shit, and wonder if the bowl is half full, or half empty.
Dan B
@Martin: That’s a great story told well! Marr is another unsung hero of this pandemic. Well, she’s got a few great songs about her determination.
Another Scott
@Baud: Cleveland survived decades of Dennis Kucinich in various elected offices. If they want to pick Nina, it’s their business – I’m not going to get worked up about it. She’s a known elected quantity there, not some celebrity who’s never held elective office.
Are we going to get upset with her other endorsers like Rep. Mondaire Jones and AG Keith Ellison and Robert Reich??
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I missed the Maxine Waters thing. What happened?
WaterGirl
@Another Scott:
Yes. :-) We need Dems, not people like Turner.
edit: I don’t think for a minute that Turner is a team player, or that she is anyone we could count on in a pinch. Am I wrong?
Baud
@Another Scott:
I think Porter came as more of a surprise.
pajaro
So Kevin does know his way around the anti-semitism ….
Some of you may remember, back in the fall of 2018, the Repubs. were using the migrant “caravans” coming from Central America as a campaign issue. Trump repeatedly said they needed to be kept out, since they were full of criminals coming to kill real America kids. A number of adds were run in support of the Republicans that argued that they were the last line of defense, and that there were “globalist elites” funded by George Soros who were paying for these caravans to come to the US. So we know who the globalist elites are, right? Someone decided to take these warnings both literally and figuratively. He found out that, at a Pittsburgh synagogue, a group called HIAS was engaged in helping migrants. He got in his car, brought his automatic weapon, and engaged in the worst act of terrorism against Jews in US history.
I know it will shock, shock you to know that our boy Kevin McCarthy was one of the Republican candidates who was running the “globalists are funding groups that are going to get us killed” ads. When it was pointed out to him that the ad kind of looked bad after the atrocity at the synagogue, he quietly took it down, but he never said he was sorry for running it.
So yes, Kevin McCarthy knows what he is talking about when he accuses others of anti-semitism.
Geminid
@Another Scott: If Turner is elected, it’s not Cleveland I would be worried about, but rather the unity of the Democratic Congressional Caucus. If you really don’t like circular firing squads, Turner is the last person you would want there. She’ll be gunning for every Democratic Representative outside the Progressive Caucus, and some in that caucus as well. She’s the last person Speaker Pelosi needs to have around.
Another Scott
@Baud: Why?
People are complicated. We know she’s ambitious, based on the rumors of her trying to get important committee seats out of turn. We know she’s a fighter – one doesn’t get to be a Member of Congress without being that. We know that politicians make all kinds of calculations that seem nonsensical (why did Pelosi endorse Kennedy over Markey? Why did Uncle Joe send Rahm to Japan?). We’re not always going to be happy or understand, but of all the things to get upset about an endorsement in a primary seems pretty low on the list to me. Maybe Nina’s a terrible choice. I wouldn’t vote for her in a primary. But nobody there cares. ;-)
Beating up on Porter is a bad idea, IMHO. She’s a strong voice for oversight that has been severely lacking for far too long. Too many MotU types want her gone. Us beating up on her isn’t going to affect Nina’s race in any way, but…
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: “Nina” is a toxic, erratic tent-pisser with five years of nutty quotes to feed into Ohio. My guess is she’d probably win that general race, and be an albatross around the neck of a Democratic Senate candidate already in a tough race. Ask Mitch McConnell and Tim Ryan if they want “Nina” to win that primary. I’m guessing you’d get two different answers.
I’m surprised that Keith Ellison apparently hasn’t learned anything from the last five years. I usually have a higher opinion of him. Robert Reich has been trying to publicly work out his guilt for having worked for Bill Clinton for twenty years. He should do it with his shrink and leave the rest of us out of it.
The stakes are too high for that kind of self-indulgent preening.
Baud
@Another Scott:
I didn’t think she was part of that of that crowd. I knew Ellison and Reich were. If my initial impressions were off, then they were off. I’m not going to sweat it, but now I know.
Geminid
@pajaro: Republicans romanticize, even idealize the Jewish people who live in Israel. They are much more ambivalent about the Jewish people living in the U.S.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: I will look up later whether Turner endorsed Katie Porter early, or what their connection is. Could just be paying back a favor.
I have no sympathy for shit-stirring “Democrats”, though.
(On that note, I get some emails into my junk file from Alan Grayson, who is considering throwing his whatever into the Florida Senate race, I guess. No way, whackadoodle. That lane is clear for Senator to be Val Demings.)
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: I don’t know.
But she has support there, and lots of endorsements there. People know who she is. If they want to vote for her, it’s not my place to say that I know better when I don’t.
What are people going to do if she wins the nomination? 2+ years of shunning??
If people don’t want her to win, donate to Brown. Porter’s endorsement really doesn’t matter and beating up on Democratic women is counter-productive.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
We’ll deal with whatever we have to deal with. But we can express preferences about a primary.
mrmoshpotato
Hopefully. It would be a shame if opponents passed on that…errr…shit.
Another Scott
@Baud: Yes! Primaries are where we should duke it out. And to be clear, (and probably repetitive), I’m not saying that Nina is a good candidate for Team D. People are obviously free to have strong feelings about her.
But just as we didn’t throw Pelosi under the bus for endorsing Kennedy, I don’t think Porter should be punished for her endorsement.
YMMV. ;-)
+++ATH
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: if the little Kennedy had actively worked to elect Donald Trump, twice, I would’ve been first in line to shove Pelosi under that bu
ETA: there should be things from which there is no coming back, and endorsing Jill Stein should be one of them
Baud
@Another Scott:
I don’t know what you mean by punishment. I think less of her now. And I regard Turner as not just less than ideal, but as outside the range of reasonableness. But YMMV, and it’s ultimately not my decision.
Another Scott
@Baud: By “punishment”, I thought someone here at B-J commented that they were taking their usual regular donation to Porter and directing it to Brown instead. But it doesn’t seem to be in this thread.
Oh well.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: A number of Democrats in the House Progressive Caucus have endorsed Turner, including Caucus Chairman Pramila Jayapaul. Porter is the latest.
Steve in the ATL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’ll drink to that!
A 2018 Austin Hope cab, for the record
Steve in the ATL
@Geminid: not a fan of Jayapaul either. I’m too old for people who can’t be trusted. And I’m young by B-J standards!
James E Powell
The Ohio 11th congressional district is D+32. It’s one of those “put all the Democrats in one district” type gerrymanders. The special election will be very hard to predict because the turnout will be very low.
Does Brown have the support of the precinct committee persons? They & the preachers are the ones who will get the voters out.
Baud
FWIW, other than the surprise and disappointment factor, I don’t see a reason for Porter to be treated any worse than any other Dem who supports Turner.
Another Scott
@James E Powell: It looks like early voting starts July 7 and primary election day is August 3. We’ve got weeks of fun ahead.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I think Katie Porter’s endorsement gives credibility to Nina Turner. This one really is a zero sum game, for me at least, because I lost a lot of resect for Katie Porter over this. I expect her to be way smarter than that, because she usually is.
I imagine Katie will lose as much respect as Turner wins.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott:
It’s really far from Washington.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: How else do you communicate your feelings about this to Katie Porter?
If I get really bad service at a restaurant, I am not one to give a good tip anyway. How do you communicate that they did a bad job if there are no consequences?
Hopefully when Katie Porter’s donations drop off, she will get the message.
I am not, however, suggesting that we run a progressive against Katie Porter. That would be purity pony territory.
Geminid
@Steve in the ATL: Well, I did not say I was not a Jayapaul fan. But I in fact am not a Jayapaul fan. She did do some good work in July 2017, when she made peace talk with Democratic Caucus leaders after the very wrenching caucus blowup over emergency border funding.
Jeffro
Who are these people? Did anyone say they were more offended by “Democrat” than ‘pinning the problem of anti-semitism on Democrats’?
Sorry, just channeling my inner Psaki ;)
Jeffro
@topclimber: love it
@Emma from Miami: love this also
@topclimber: might be
@Sparkedcat: also like this!
Jeffro
Um, ok. I think I can handle being hacked about it and hacked about/acting on other issues as well, but ymmv.
Or, as you say, sure, whatever. =)
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: “Dear Congresswoman Porter:
I have followed your House career with interest and have previously , enthusiastically, donated to your campaign. The news of your endorsement of Nina Turner for the 11th House seat fills me with dismay….
Please do better.
Signed,
WG, a big fan, who is not made of money.”
If you want her to get a message, tell her the message. Don’t assume that **not** doing something means that something you want will follow. (Politicians listen most carefully to their voters and donors. They don’t listen to people who don’t/can’t vote for them and people who don’t donate to them.)
(I know you know all that. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
J R in WV
This McCarthy motherFuqer has the gall to say:
While American Republican Fascists are violently attacking Jews, Asians, Blacks, and Democratic voters at will, McCarthy has the utter gall to blame all that violence on the Democrat Party? While the GQP Repukes foster secession and insurrection? Fuck that motherfuqer with a giant chain saw~!!~
He can’t even spell Democratic correctly…
Soprano2
@catclub: I may need them to help me track how to spend it to make sure I stay within the parameters of the program. It was literally info about your business then “how much you made in 2019” and “how much you made in 2020”. The difference is what you get. I had to provide copies of tax forms and bank statements. When I checked the site today it was closed to new applications.
J R in WV
@Mike in NC:
NO, no, don’t do that.
WEAR the vest, all the time!!!
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@karen marie: andres manuel lopez obrador: “meet the mexican bernie sanders”.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Another Scott: yes.
dipshits the lot of them.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Geminid: i hope laughing pramila turned into a crying indian after super tuesday.