Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

I was promised a recession.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

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

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Incremental Progress

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128Comments

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Dan [email protected]
    Who’s going to tell her?

    Elise Stefanick

    Today’s anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid reminds us to reflect on the critical role these programs have played to protect the healthcare of millions of families. To safeguard our future, we must reject socialist healthcare schemes.

  6. 6.

    zhena gogolia

    So nice to see this positive politics post first thing in the morning. Thanks, AL!

  8. 8.

    zhena gogolia

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    They really just compete to be the worst people on the face of the earth, don’t they? They all need to take a trip to a Montana fly-fishing shop so Dan Bailey can tell them what’s what.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Alexandria [email protected]
    When you accidentally let your billionaire funder-talk slip out on TV, you say things like “a healthy ruling class”

    Justin Baragona
    @justinbaragona
    · Jul 29
    JD Vance says that the country is run by “childless cat ladies” who don’t have a “direct stake in it,” specifically naming Pete Buttigieg and AOC.

    “If we want a healthy ruling class, we should support more people who actually have kids.”

  20. 20.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So I’ve had Moderna and Pfizer, both cycles. Shooting for the trifecta with a J&J jab.

    This is because I’m back in filthy courthouses with stupid unvaxxed people, forced to do so by too many judges in too many rural circuits who rule as if it is a personal fiefdom in accordance with the prejudices of ignorant hilljacks as they ignore the Chief Justice on opening and safety. Did I mention that our completely retarded (and no nicer word should be applied) legislooters have stripped Andy Beshear’s ability to address the pandemic?

  26. 26.

    frosty

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
      Yeah, that Stefanik quote is amazing. I thought “Keep your government hands off my Medicare” was great, but this one outdoes it.

  27. 27.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    Will report on the trackers, the 5G and Magneto power that’s sure to emerge this time.

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    I saw an interesting article in Politico, titled “Crypto currency industry fears big hit in infrastructure bill.” Language in the bill mandates that trades in Bitcoin and assets  be subject to the same reporting requirements as stocks and other assets. Industry advocates are crying foul:

          Perianne Boring, founder and president of the Digital Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview….” The idea of shoving this into a congressional mandate or as a revenue generator for something completely unrelated, is not the preferred way or the right way to get the best policy.”

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: And the elected chair of the House Republican Conference. The GOP is just chock full of high quality hires.

  32. 32.

    Zinsky

    Given the recent disclosures about Trump pressuring the DOJ to declare the 2020 election “corrupt”, Trump’s recorded phone calls to Georgia’s Raffensperger and the assclown ? in Arizona to change the election results, and his utter dereliction of duty from 11/6/20 to 1/20/21, I hope House Democrats impeach the slimeball a third time via the process outlined in the Constitution (nothing says it has to be a sitting President) and charge him criminally with election fraud!

  34. 34.

    germy

    Priorities:

    LAS VEGAS (AP) – U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada had three surgeries and an outpatient procedure over the past 10 months for cancerous tumors on his kidneys and a cancerous spot in his esophagus, the Republican congressman disclosed Friday.

    Amodei told The Associated Press that he did not reveal the cancer when he first learned of it last September or his surgery before the November election because he didn’t want it to be used against him in his reelection campaign.

    The 63-year-old Republican said if someone had asked him about it at the time, he would have truthfully answered about his condition and said of his hospital stays, “I didn’t check in under aliases or anything else.”

    But, he said, “there’s no way I’m going to go out and volunteer it in an election cycle.”

    https://wnyt.com/politics/nevada-rep-amodei-discloses-cancer-on-kidneys-esophagus/6190333/?cat=10104

  38. 38.

    Leto

    @Geminid:  Wonder how Perianne thought we should’ve handled a “currency” that has no value and is basically only used for the drug trade, arm sales, and human trafficking? Wanker.

  39. 39.

    Geminid

    @hueyplong: This is like how the Corporate Transparency Act, mandating disclosure of the real owners of shell companies, was attached to the defense authorization act during the lame duck session. Congress easily overrode trump’s veto of the bill. A writer from Forbes Magazine called the CTA the most significant anti-corruption legislation in decades. New York Representative Carolyn Maloney was a key sponsor..

  43. 43.

    Warblewarble

    Garland is no show pony .Actions of DOJ will have and are meant to have consequences. Keeping powder dry and firing for effect are more important than showy gestures.

  44. 44.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Geminid:

    Y’know, it occurs to me that an industry doesn’t really have clout unless it shows that it benefits the common weal, like with jobs, tax revenue and the like.

    If you’re not paying taxes, don’t have large campuses involving rent/purchase of real estate and equipment, don’t have a giant cohort of domestic employees and your business model is all about facilitating tax evasion and money laundering for scammers, hackers, narco traffickers, human traffickers, child porn and gun running, it’s going to be difficult to generate legislative sympathy.

  45. 45.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    Its how the Dutch make up for being hideously racist shits for most of their history….

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    @Zinsky: 
    I’m still fucking furious that sanctimonious skyscraper Comey played right into his hands with his announcing the reopening of the investigation right before the election. That’s exactly what Zelensjy was smart enough to know not to do.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    “So if tomorrow I could wave a wand and every American is vaccinated, in fact we would be out of the woods.”

    Biden refuses to use magic vaccination wand. -All Faux News asshats

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MomSense: Zelensky had to consider the possibility that the DEMs might win.

    eta: and Comey forgot to consider the possibility that trump might win.

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    Former President Donald Trump suffered twin setbacks when the Justice Department cleared the way to release his tax records and disclosed a memo showing he had urged top officials last year to falsely claim his election defeat was ‘corrupt’

    “setbacks”

    FUCK ME SIDEWAYS, REUTERS!

  52. 52.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    True. Our “make up” infrastructure in the 22nd and 23rd centuries should be amazing, assuming we survive.

    Wonder what the Yonkers, Orlando and Paterson seafronts are going to look like? Will there be boardwalks?

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney first introduced the Corporate Transparency Act a decade ago. So when you ask somebody, “Guess which woman in Congress just got a powerful financial reform measure passed!” and they answer, “Katie Porter!? Elizabeth Warren?!” you can say, “No. Caroline Maloney.”

    And they’ll say, “Who?”

  55. 55.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    Not a bit. I had the Moderna cycle for first jabs; the second shot rocked my world for 30 hours. After that, Pfizer 1 stung, but no side effects. Pfizer 2 was a breeze.

  61. 61.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @MomSense:

    Mine was 30 hours of fatigue, headache, earache, fog and renewed loud tinnitus (that had faded a few years ago).

  62. 62.

    Ripley

    @Geminid:

     Perianne Boring, founder and president of the Digital Chamber of Commerce

    LMAO Oh my fucking god…  Please, tell me this is an adult human being who walks around doing adult things.

    “I’m a pirate spaceman ninja!”

  64. 64.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Just Chuck:

    Such a socially beneficial means of exchange, really. Speeds you right past all that yucky statist currency control.

  65. 65.

    gene108

    @germy:

    America was/is hideously racist and our infrastructure is an embarrassment.

    America inherited its racism from settlers like the Dutch.

    Like many people born after independence, I had no experience of living under the Dutch rule to be able to say how bad or good it was. At school we learned a thing or two about the nature of colonialism. But that is precisely the question.

    How much do we know about how our ancestors lived through those 300 years, when we know that they were killed, tortured, raped, suppressed, enslaved at home, sold as slaves abroad, forced into hard labor, sent to exile, treated as non-citizens on their own land and stripped of all dignity as human beings?

    Going by the available literature in Indonesia, the Netherlands or anywhere else for that matter, we know very little about the humiliation they had to go through. We celebrate Indonesia’s independence this week like we have done every year since 1945, honoring the heroes who fought during the revolutionary wars in the late 1940s and early 20th-century thinkers who started the campaign for independence for the Dutch East Indies.

    That is really as far as our collective memory takes us. We are celebrating an ahistorical independence anniversary. What about those 300 years from the time the Netherlands started to impose control over global spice supplies from Indonesia by violent means? We know of the 1621 killings of almost the entire population of 14,000 people on Banda Island. But we know little of the intervening years between that massacre and the war for independence in 1945-1949.

    SNIP

    Dutch literature of the 17th, 18th and 19th century is filled with glorification of how their tiny country ruled the world to become the wealthiest nation on earth. The VOC, the Dutch East Indies Company, has been touted as the first truly multinational company. Grossly absent is the cruelty and brutality as the Netherlands seized control of the spice trade and the transatlantic slave trade. These are not in their collective memory. In the United States, we get glimpses of the horrors that African slaves went through, and some of these stories have turned into bestseller books…

    This article was published in thejakartapost.com with the title “COMMENTARY: How bad, how cruel were Dutch to us?”. Click to read: https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2018/08/23/commentary-how-bad-how-cruel-were-dutch-to-us.html.

  72. 72.

    Matt McIrvin

    @MomSense: I had generally mild side effects from the Moderna but the oddball thing after the second shot was stomach upset. Not nausea, more stomach rumbles, and it might just have been from eating some junky food around that time.

    The vaccine that knocked me on my ass was Shingrix.

  73. 73.

    Ken

    @Ripley: @Baud: The power of the real Chamber of Commerce is that they have dues-paying members, and use those funds for lobbying activities.  I wonder if this Digital Chamber of Commerce has any members other than its founder and president.

    And would any sane person want to ask Bitcoin users for money, or accept it if offered?  You’re certain to be contacted a couple weeks later by a couple of bulky fellows with Russian accents who say “we did you a favor, now we need you to do a favor for us….”

  75. 75.

    MomSense

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Stepmom also had a really bad reaction to Shingrix.  Had Bell’s Palsy – and some other bizarre things. She recovered fully but it was scary.

  78. 78.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Baud: ​

    Curious what 4 in 10 Dems think is wrong with the party.

    I’ve always wondered if we have our own, lefty version of The Crazification Factor. Not exactly the same mental makeup as the RWNJ version but something that explains this.
    My working theory (developed this morning) is that this number represents a combination of Blue Dog types (WE’RE SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY!!!!) and Our Progressive Betters (IT’S NEVER ENOUGH!!!! BIDEN IS A NEOLIBERAL CORPORATE SCHILL!!!!!!!).

    The problem with the latter is that they never typically identify themselves as Democrats, they’re the lefty version of glibertarians.​​​​

  80. 80.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: “All my friends say we mustn’t live in fear, so they dance on the interstate. Some even do it carrying knives with the point up, and wearing plastic bags over their heads. But I’m kind of worried….”

  81. 81.

    Geminid

    @Baud: She could well have been in on the child care credit. Maloney has a lot of seniority and sounds like a hard worker. She has served in Congress since 1993.

    I was interested to see that Caroline Maloney was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is a graduate of Greensboro College. According to Wickipedia, Maloney visited New York City in 1970 and decided to stay.

    Born in 1946, Maloney would be part of the Congressional “gerontocracy” people sometimes complain about.

  84. 84.

    Cameron

    @Baud: Part of it may be people who are fixated on a specific issue. The issue can be very important, but there are a ton of such issues and the government can only handle so many at one time.

  86. 86.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    I’m super moderate (used to call myself “conservatively progressive”), but I’m starting to see everything as being broken by conservatives to such a point that there are way fewer institutional needs to hold off on big changesshould some decent consensus arise.

  88. 88.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @NotMax: Dick Bong, Ace of Aces, flew one of my favorite WWII planes — the P-38 Lightning, supposedly nicknamed Der Gabelschwanz-Teufel (Fork Tailed Devil) by the Luftwaffe. Antoine de Saint Exupery flew the French variant.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @Baud: It could be the 20% at either end of the party who have reservations along the lines of, too far, not far enough; or, too fast, not fast enough. Not objections so much as reservations. The really strident criticisms I see of Democratic policies are coming from people outside the party: Republicans on the right, and “Brogressives,” as Mr. Lobster calls them, on the left.

  92. 92.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @MattF: ​

    Trump’s lawyers haven’t given up.

    Someone in the comments says the court aspect is already decided, that delay is built into the process rather than a win for Trump, and is likely to be short – whatever that means.

  94. 94.

    mrmoshpotato

    @MomSense:

    Second Moderna jab had me hallucinating.  Got me good. 

    Can you tell us what a purple monkey dishwasher looks like?

    (I really hope it’s not a purple monkey washing dishes.)

  95. 95.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    As a party that actually tries to do things right, almost no one agrees that the sausage that finally results is what we should be doing because there are a hundred opinions of what works best.  You see it a lot here, and yet we are (very) faithful Democratic voters.

  96. 96.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Baud: Maybe the dissatisfied are concerned about the slow pace of things. I know a lot of people are. We live in an age of impatience. And there is the possibility that one of our Senators from a red-Governor state could keel over.

  97. 97.

    Geminid

    @debbie: That’s what Ms. Boring sounds like. She could be grifting. Or maybe she is self funding, and just wants to be Somebody.

  99. 99.

    Fair Economist

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Because neutralizing immunity falls off pretty quickly, I don’t think getting a whole bunch of shots in sequence would be all that useful. Getting bolstered every 3 to 6 months would be a better try for sustained high immunity. I also found my third challenge, in my case 2 Moderna after having had it, less problematic than my second, so maybe repeated boosters won’t be much of a problem.

  101. 101.

    zhena gogolia

    Love this. Perfect.

    As I've said before, the Trump presidency and its media apologists were just one protracted riff on the Austin Powers Swedish penis enlarger sketch, "Yes this is my bag, baby." https://t.co/8I09V7FDnB— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 30, 2021

  103. 103.

    germy

    A federal judge in D.C. erupted in anger at a Jan. 6 riot defendant and his lawyer for refusing to cooperate with court officials on COVID safety requirements.

    "When did you go to medical school?" https://t.co/cb1y1yTvVA

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 31, 2021

  105. 105.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     

    Elise Stefanick

    Today’s anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid reminds us to reflect on the critical role these programs have played to protect the healthcare of millions of families. To safeguard our future, we must reject socialist healthcare schemes.

    “To safeguard our future, we must reject socialist healthcare schemes.” Reject sociailst schemes like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid…

    This Stefanicq woman is dumber than a fuckin’ rock, isn’t she?

    To be able to speak two different things from the same mouth like that, it’s almost as good as being a comedian.

    Thanks for sharing, Ozark.

  107. 107.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    About the only thing our useless federal judiciary gets righteously pissed off about enough to do anything with speed or certitude about is the sacred calendar.

    Everything else is dithery.

  110. 110.

    J R in WV

    @S. Cerevisiae:

     One of the bridges between Duluth and Superior is named for Bong, legend has it that he flew a P-38 under the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth.tly

    There is 16mm news film of Chuck Yeager flying under bridges on the Kanawha river here in Charleston WV, out of the AF base in Dayton OH.

    Strictly against all the rules, but Chuck was never one much for rules. He used to race cars on narrow country roads around Lincoln county, WV. Was one hell of a driver of anything from Chevys to the X-1 spacecraft series.

  111. 111.

    Geminid

    @Kathleen: Last year, Carolyn Maloney beat “progressive” challenger Suraj Patel in the Democratic primary by only 4%.

    In 1992, Maloney won her first Congressional election in what had been called the “Silk Stocking District” of the upper East Side. Previously, it had been in the hands of Republicans, but redistricting  changed it some.

  112. 112.

    frosty

    @J R in WV: I just saw a short History Channel bio of Bong this morning. He may or may not have looped the Golden Gate Bridge, but he did fly down Market Street in San Francisco, so low he could see in the windows and knocking down some poor woman’s laundry hanging out to dry. General Kenney chewed him out, then had him go back and help her with the laundry.

    He also raced cars before he got into aviation.

  113. 113.

    J R in WV

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    So my sequence was March Moderna, June Pfizer and J&J mid August.

    Dude, mid-August hasn’t happened yet… pretty sure J&J wasn’t available at all last August.

    According to the FDA…

    On February 27, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the third vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

    ETA: No offense intended, I can’t tell what month it is without a computer… just struck by the mid-August here in July.  ;~)

  115. 115.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @frosty: Yes.  My other fav WWII plane is the F4U Corsair, aka “Whistling Death.”  You can tell I’m big on nicknames.

  117. 117.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Baud: 3 in 10 are unrepentent chaos agents of #ourrevolution.

    1 in 10 are holdover lester maddox democrats who still don’t trust a party of linqoln.

  119. 119.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @germy: maybe he wanted to serve from the grave, like nv state sen dennis “qhost pimp” hoffs (r – qathouse)

  120. 120.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @MomSense: you can take the man out of ken starr’s retinue of crack climpton inquisitors, but you can’t take the climpton inquisition out of the man

  121. 121.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Geminid: clearly, maloney is a neoliberal fascist shill propping up endstage kapitalism.

    justice democrats must primary her.

  128. 128.

    Richard

    @Baud:

    2 of the 4 think the platform is not progressive enough, one doesn’t really care about politics, and the other is a closet republican.

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