Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

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

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Let’s finish the job.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

People are complicated. Love is not.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Telling it like it is…

Telling it like it is…

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I started following then-Biden campaign aide (current deputy press secretary) Andrew Bates on Twitter after seeing him swat down some dumb Trump bullshit about Ukraine with extreme prejudice in the run-up to the election. He hasn’t lost his touch.

I hope no one makes him delete that tweet. Open thread!

Reader Interactions

208Comments

  3. 3.

    Eggbert

    For those who have been patting themselves on the back that diplomacy was working so a military buildup for both deterrence and, if the worst should happen, response was not needed, well your diplomacy just failed!

  8. 8.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Eggbert: Didn’t you post this thing yesterday? And didn’t you not get any takers then?

    Why am I responding now? Just dumb, I guess.

  12. 12.

    different-church-lady

    Nice to see the WaPo picking up on something LGM was spotlighting yesterday:

    Some conservative media hosts ridiculed Biden’s warnings of an attack. Now they say it’s his fault.

    We need more of this. They’re not even trying to hide their madness anymore, so nobody should call it anything but madness from now on.

  16. 16.

    Scout211

    @Baud:What happened to their state charges?

     

    Cauvin was convicted last spring of murder and manslaughter in a state trial and was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison. Lane, Kueng and Thao, will face a state trial in June on charges of aiding and abetting in the killing, which was pushed back so the federal proceedings could take place first. They have pleaded not guilty to those charges.Source.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    @scav: I’m so pleased the irresponsible fuckwit parents in Michigan are being prosecuted. In so many of these cases involving deranged teen shooters, an adult could and should have stopped them. ETA: The Newtown shooter’s stupid-ass mother supplied him with guns (paid with her life). The Parkland shooter was staying with the goober parents of a high school friend who knew he had assault weapons in the house and did nothing.

  23. 23.

    oldgold

    After being warned to strengthen my office’s cyber security on Monday, I  started wondering what our offensive cyber capabilities might be. Apparently, they are the best in the world by some distance.

    I read this afternoon that Biden has been presented with some options. NBC reports this:

    Two U.S. intelligence officials, one Western intelligence official and another person briefed on the matter say no final decisions have been made, but they say U.S. intelligence and military cyber warriors are proposing the use of American cyberweapons on a scale never before contemplated. Among the options: disrupting internet connectivity across Russia, shutting off electric power, and tampering with railroad switches to hamper Russia’s ability to resupply its forces, three of the sources said. “You could do everything from slow the trains down to have them fall off the tracks,” one person briefed on the matter said.

  24. 24.

    Kay

    Right Wing Watch
    @RightWingWatch
    · 2h
    Lauren Witzke, the Delaware GOP’s candidate for Senate in 2020, has nothing but praise for Putin and “his Christian nationalist nation”: “I identify more with Putin’s Christian values than I do with Joe Biden.”

    A lot of these being unearthed. I knew it, but I guess I didn’t know how broad and deep Putin-love was on the Right, including the religious Right.
    Let’s hope they bet on the wrong horse.

  27. 27.

    Miss Bianca

    @Eggbert: 

    So, first you rag on Adam for saying diplomacy isn’t working, then you gloat because diplomacy isn’t working? Look, clown – if you expect to be taken *seriously* as a troll, you’re going to have work a little harder on displaying some consistency in your positions.

  28. 28.

    sab

    @Betty Cracker: Having had a troubled step-teen I have a lot of sympathy for most of these parents ( e.g. Columbine) but when your school administrators call you in and hit you upside the head with a 2×4 you really ought to take notice.

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    @Yarrow:

    Someone yesterday was asking for good news sources on Ukraine. The FT has been really good and they’ve now made their coverage free to read.

    Very interesting. Thanks for the info.

  34. 34.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Kay: What’s amazing is that they openly say they identify more with the openly racist, anti-semitic state that literally murders reporters and protestors (and who had more severe mandates than us) than the democrats who… want you to be nice to gay people.

    Though some of these chucklefucks believe that Dems are murdering conservatives anyway, so maybe that’s how they’re mind-pretzeling their way out of it.

  37. 37.

    Yarrow

    @Kay:

    I knew it, but I guess I didn’t know how broad and deep Putin-love was on the Right, including the religious Right.

    Really? I thought it was obvious by this time. Russia has been working on influencing the cultural aspects of the Right in the US by involving themselves in all of it. Funding the NRA. Funding Republican candidates. Creating relationships with influential religious groups. Funding white supremacy organizations. It seems obvious to me that they have funded religious right organizations but I haven’t seen that for sure. But things like Franklin Graham asking people to pray for Putin just a few days ago make it seem pretty clear there’s a substantial relationship there.

  38. 38.

    Mike in NC

    We spend a lot of money on the Intelligence Community. I suspect Vlad can’t even go take a dump without somebody on our side knowing about it.

  41. 41.

    sab

    @Brachiator: Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s Finance Minister, used to report for the Financial Times. Her mother was from Ukraine and Chrystia herself speaks Ukrainian.

  43. 43.

    Gin & Tonic

    Stupid fucking “leftists” finally open their eyes. Fuck you, you chucklefuck, you were cheerleading Putin for years. You should be up against the wall right now

    I did not think that Russia would invade Ukraine. The pushback from Kiev and other European allies to US warnings, coupled with the long history of Western intel deceptions, were the main reasons. I was wrong.
    — Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 24, 2022

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Charlie Pierce has a post about the crusader angle. Here’s an excerpt he quotes from Rod Dreher, who says the leaders of Western gov’ts are going to have a hard time rallying (white Christian) citizens to the anti-Putin cause:

     They have no hope of doing so with a country in which they have abused and alienated a huge number of people for the crime of being white, heterosexual, culturally conservative, or clinging bitterly to their bigoted churches. We saw just the other day that Justin Trudeau actually seized the bank accounts of people supporting the trucker protests, under the guise of fighting domestic terrorism. I have absolutely no doubt that Washington will try the same. The woke left, having marched through the institutions, are weaponizing them against parents, children, families, church people, conservatives, and other deplorables.

    God, what a whiny ass.

  46. 46.

    Miki

    @Scout211: Another BFD in Minneapolis. The defense by each defendant was “The MPD made me do it.” Didn’t work, even though they were/are right that the department’s culture is and has been violently racist for decades. The most recent criminal convictions of cops in Minnesota is not, presently, a fluke, even if it is desperately fragile, still.

    Still … these verdicts prove that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” MLK, again.

  47. 47.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic:

    The next one is lovely:

    Russia’s attack is illegal.

    It’s also exactly what US would have done had Russia done to Canada what US did to Ukraine: pledge hostile military alliance membership; back a coup; pour in weapons used to attack civilians; thwart diplomacy.

    Except US would have done it years ago.

  48. 48.

    Gin & Tonic

    @sab: Chrystia is good people, but she hasn’t been at FT in a long time. And while FT may be good, it would be better if you (all of you, not singling out you specifically) followed Ukrainian and not foreign sources. The Kyiv Independent is a very good place to start.

  53. 53.

    Almost Retired

    @Gin & Tonic:  The Kyiv Independent is excellent.  I started following it after watching some of KI journalist Oleksiy Sorokin’s appearances on MSNBC.  His vivid description of the facts on the ground today in Kyiv on Katy Tur’s show was gut-wrenching.

  54. 54.

    sab

    Didn’t Putin launch himself into political prominence years ago by false flag blowing up an apartment building (and its occupants) and blaming it on Chechens?

  59. 59.

    Jinchi

    @Kay: “I identify more with Putin’s Christian values than I do with Joe Biden.”

    Yet another rightwinger looking into Putin’s eyes and thinking he sees a soul behind them.

    Putin doesn’t have any Christian values and unless you’re part of the Russian Orthodox church, he doesn’t share yours at all.

  61. 61.

    Danielx

    Will somebody PLEASE tell me how the pie filter works? Have never used it, but the time has come.

  62. 62.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Eggbert: ​
     

    For those who have been patting themselves on the back that diplomacy was working so a military buildup for both deterrence and, if the worst should happen, response was not needed, well your diplomacy just failed!

    I’m still going ‘WTF?!’ about this one.

    The core is ‘ if the worst should happen, response.’ The only meaning I can ascribe to that would be the prospect of U.S. military intervention in Ukraine – thanks but no thanks.

    And the ‘military buildup for deterrence’ part means nothing without that ‘response’ threat behind it, which I doubt was going to deter Putin, because he would have been just as skeptical as everyone else that we’d get involved.

    So yeah, Putin didn’t take whatever off-ramps diplomacy might’ve offered, but we’ve got no reason (other than his absolute certainty in his own words) to believe Adam’s massive buildup would have resulted in a different outcome.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

     for the crime of being white, heterosexual, culturally conservative, or clinging bitterly to their bigoted churches.

    The constant, whining self pity is really the best part. I started to read a long article about Ginni Thomas but I had to stop because it’s all this stuff- it’s all how they’re hated and victiminized by “woke” people. Just so, so tired of it. I don’t think it should be taken seriously, by anyone. It isn’t true and just because they have decided it is true does not mean I have to go along.
    I’m basically being ordered to have a completely dishonest relationship with these people where I have to pretend they are victims in order to get along with them. What’s the point? I don’t believe any of it so it’s not “understanding their perspective” at all.

  64. 64.

    Yarrow

    @Danielx:  Click on the picture of the pie just under the end of the post and above the word “Filter.” The pie filter opens up and you can add names.

  65. 65.

    Avalune

    308.

    Leto
    FEBRUARY 24, 2022 AT 6:09 PM

    @danielx: at the bottom of the main post, before the comments start, you should see a pie icon with the word “filter” below it. Click/touch the pie icon. Up will pop a box with three options: Commentors, Filtered, Settings. In the Commentor box, type in the name of the person/entity you want to filter, then press “Click to Add” that’s to the right of the name. They will now be instantly filtered on this post, and every other post.

    If you ever want to review who you have filtered, click on the “Filtered” tab. You can un-filter them through that if you change your mind later.

  68. 68.

    Ken

    @danielx: Damn but there are a lot of trolls active this evening.

    Does the targeting of Balloon Juice means the trolls’ bankers have money to waste, or just that they’re really bad at choosing their targets?  I mean, all due credit to the reach and influence of this nearly-top-10000 blog — but its reach and influence is that of a nearly-top-10000 blog….

  69. 69.

    Yarrow

    @Kay:  It’s really weird to read UK political stuff. They use the word “woke” in all sorts of variations all the time. “Woke mob,” “Wokeists,” etc. I see it used far more in UK political Twitter and press than here in the US now.

  70. 70.

    Ken

    @zhena gogolia: I guess the idea is that both-siderism applies, even if you have to invent a wild fantasy what-if scenario for one side?

    (I know, unfair to the comics’ long history of what-ifs; in the DC universe, there was a non-zero chance that Jimmy Olsen would be turned into a giant ant.)

  73. 73.

    Ken

    @Jinchi: Yet another rightwinger looking into Putin’s eyes and thinking he sees a soul behind them.

    Maybe they see the predatory emptiness and think “Oh, that’s exactly what I see in the mirror.”

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @Yarrow:

    Ginni Thomas is this huge power broker on the Right. The absolute nerve of her complaining that people with BLM signs in their windows are crushing her. Maybe it’s not about her. Has she ever considered that?

  76. 76.

    Leto

    @Ken: their god, Bothsider-olos, is a jealous and petty god. Always demands to be fed, constantly craving attention/adoration, and they’re all too happy to do it.

  77. 77.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Yep. Florida is about to pass a law, the “Stop Woke Act,” to end the phantom persecution. Meanwhile, the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill will also advance and be signed into law, resulting in very real persecution. It’s nuts.

  79. 79.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    I wonder if the antiwar protests in Russia will balloon tomorrow. I hope so.

    I hope so, too, but I am also worried about the safety of the protesters.  They have to be very brave to protest in such an oppressive state.  That said, the biggest thing that would make the protests grow would be the Russian army getting bogged down far short of its goals.  I sincerely hope we get to see proof.

  80. 80.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: They think they’re the victim if everyone doesn’t kowtow to what they think is their obvious superiority over anyone who isn’t them. Or, as I asked one of them who was whining about how all of “them” were taking the good jobs,  “How does it feel to have to stand in line rather than always being at the front of the line?” I didn’t get a response, but I didn’t expect one. They think they deserve to be first in everything.

  83. 83.

    Leto

    @Kay: is she an old white lady, who came from batshit insane parents, and is used to getting her way? Ofc she hasn’t considered it’s not about her. She and her worthless husband are part of the reason the SC is just seen as a sham. Literally nobody buys his excuse that she doesn’t influence him. We’re into the, “stop pissing on me and telling me it’s rain” territory here. And Roberts whiny ass, “Don’t tell us how to run things over here” is comical. I have no faith that his court wouldn’t simply strike down new ethics legislation for them as being “un-Constitutional” and some type of “overreach”. Just patent bullshit.

  85. 85.

    zhena gogolia

    I am picking up some Ukrainian from trying to decipher the Kyiv Independent articles. And I listened to Zelenskyy’s speech. He is really rising to the occasion.

  86. 86.

    Scout211

    @zhena gogolia: CHAUVIN

    Yes, you are correct.  I just cut and pasted that paragraph so I am going to blame CNN. ?
    They have since corrected it.

    Chauvin was convicted last spring of murder and manslaughter in a state trial and was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison. Lane, Kueng and Thao, will face a state trial in June on charges of aiding and abetting in the killing, which was pushed back so the federal proceedings could take place first. They have pleaded not guilty to those charges.

  88. 88.

    SpaceUnit

    The woke thing kills me.

    I was watching the news a few months back and saw the lawyer for the three peckerwoods that murdered Ahmaud Arbery stand up in court and complain that his clients were victims of a woke mob.

    So basically if you’d look askance at cold-blooded murder in the light of day you’re woke.  Got it.

     

    ETA:  Assholes.

  89. 89.

    RaflW

    Aeroflot is still flying to/from Cancun, Bangkok, Tokyo Haneda, etc. I suppose there might be non-Russians trying to leave Moscow, but honestly, IMO an enterprise 51% owned by the Russian gov’t should not be able to leave Russian Federation airspace at this time.

  93. 93.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    I will never ever forgive Roberts for gutting the VRA. Just the disrespect of that, the wholly unnecessary …discarding of something people fought and died for – what arrogance.

    He’s lost control of the nut jobs on that court. Good. He deserves them.

     

     

  94. 94.

    trollhattan

    @sab:

    Now, if Ginni were to point towards Clarence in the passenger seat and say, “Not this fucker” then I’d have to cut her some slack.

  95. 95.

    Cacti

    @SpaceUnit: When you understand that when a right winger says “woke” what they actually mean is “n*gger”, it makes a lot more sense.

    Lee Atwater would be proud.

  96. 96.

    debbie

    @zhena gogolia:

    Is there an English-language version? I just came across this tweet from a Kyiev Independent reporter:

    ⚡️⚡️⚡️BREAKING:Ukrainian troops in full control of the Hostomel Airport, Russian airborne force eliminated.— Illia Ponomarenko (@IAPonomarenko) February 24, 2022

    I hope this is the good news it sounds like.

  97. 97.

    trollhattan

    @Kay: ​
    His basically saying “Yeah, well, we fixed discrimination so it’s not needed.” was ballistic-level awful. Gilded cage much, J. Roberts?

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    @Miss Bianca: That was word-for-word what Adam wrote in his post on Ukraine on Monday.

    For those who have been patting themselves on the back that diplomacy was working so a military buildup for both deterrence and, if the worst should happen, response was not needed, well your diplomacy just failed!

  100. 100.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Ken:  I mean, all due credit to the reach and influence of this nearly-top-10000 blog — but its reach and influence is that of a nearly-top-10000 blog….

    I’m not sure that’s true any more. Not whether BJ is higher in rank (whatever that means) than nearly-top-10000 but that its reach and influence are small.

    I started to get long winded. Instead, just consider that Adam Schiff was willing to come to the site not for just one but two sessions to discuss his book.

  102. 102.

    cain

    @Baud:

    Opening up a new front – nobody wants this war except Putin. It’s going to be hard times for everyone and one man is to blame for it.

  104. 104.

    grammypat

    Speaking of telling it like it is, these border guards gave it their all.

    Every single soldier guarding Zmiinyi Island, or Snake Island, in the Black Sea has died, Zelenskiy said.

    The Ukrainian president said he will honor the soldiers posthumously.

    Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7)

    Reportedly audio from Snake Island in Black Sea:

    -This is a Russian military ship. I suggest you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary victims. Otherwise we will open fire on you.

    -Russian military ship, go fuck yourself.

    They were all killed https://t.co/QmD9RkYamE
    February 24, 2022

  106. 106.

    sab

    @Kay: He worries about his legacy. Good. His will be worse than Taney’s. Taney was bad but strong. Robert’s will be bad and weak.

  107. 107.

    RaflW

    @Betty Cracker: Rod really should just move to Budapest. It’s a nice city (per my one, three night visit). But then he’d be an immigrant, and he’d have to confront that yes, people do migrate for reasons other than seeking free welfare payments (he gets his welfare dollas from whoever funds AmCon).

  108. 108.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: That’s PupCake!   I loved CatCake so much and wasn’t able to find a pup version, so that was the first pie filter image I asked Avalune to make.

    She is so talented.

  110. 110.

    SpaceUnit

    @Cacti:

    I’ve come to the conclusion that ‘woke’ really doesn’t mean anything.  It’s just an existential howl of despair and denial by those who have hit a moral rock-bottom.

    It’s the noise a person makes when they’ve got no argument or excuse.

  111. 111.

    Yarrow

    @Kay:  There is no one more of a victim than the white lady wife of a sitting Supreme Court Justice. I can’t even imagine how she makes it through the day.

  112. 112.

    Miss Bianca

    @SpaceUnit:

    So basically if you’d look askance at cold-blooded murder in the light of day you’re woke.

    And the funny thing about that is, they think it’s an insult.

  117. 117.

    Leto

    @Kay: agreed. RBG’s dissent was spot on. The intellectual legacy that the right wing is bestowing on all of us, via Judicial Watch and the Federalist Society, is one of just zero intellectual integrity. Their reasonings are slipshod at best, and just wholly dishonest most of the time. Like so many other government institutions, right wingers have driven it straight into the ground. Promise made, promise kept.

  118. 118.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl: Ah, I see. So the creature is merely continuing its ragging on Adam. Not only useless, but can’t even be useless in its own words.

  122. 122.

    sab

    New to me pie: what is that seal as icing on a cupcake? I love seal chow best of all, but seal cupcake is excellent.

  124. 124.

    Roger Moore

    @Gin & Tonic:

    We need allies too much for me to spend a lot of time being angry at people who recognize they were wrong.  Welcome to the team, kid; just don’t expect to be accepted as a star the day you change teams.  If you were that bad for that long, you get to sit on the bench and cheer the other guys on.  Maybe you can get back on the field when you prove you’ve really learned your lesson.

  125. 125.

    sab

    @sab: We shouldn’t talk up the pie filter characters. Pretty soon the whole comment section will be pied (or pastried)  just to see the possibilities.

  128. 128.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: CorgiCake works just as well.  I believe all the pie filter animals are pretty easygoing, they will keep showing up day after day, whatever you call them. :-)

  129. 129.

    Kalakal

    @Yarrow: It’s still a little bit of a novelty to them, they see as the perfect get out of jail free card, anyone criticising them isn’t doing it on reasoned grounds but are instead consumed by a hate filled idealogy that threatens all of civilisation.

    Many in theUK often follow trends in the US but with a built in 3 month delay

  131. 131.

    Kent

    @SpaceUnit:

    I’ve come to the conclusion that ‘woke’ really doesn’t mean anything.  It’s just an existential howl of despair and denial by those who have hit a moral rock-bottom.

    It’s the noise a person makes when they’ve got no argument or excuse.

    Using “woke” in any argument is like Goodwin’s law on the internet.  When you invoke the Nazi’s in any argument you have lost the argument.  Likewise when you use “woke” in in any discussion you have also lost the argument.  There is no surer sign that you are talking with some douche than when they use the term “woke”

  134. 134.

    Roger Moore

    @Danielx:

    Will somebody PLEASE tell me how the pie filter works? Have never used it, but the time has come.

    In case nobody else has gotten there:

    1. Click on the picture of a pie between the post and the first comment.
    2. Scroll down to the name of the poster you want to add to the pie filter.
    3. Click on that poster’s name.
    4. If you accidentally pie someone you didn’t mean to, don’t panic. You can select the “filtered” tab and remove people by clicking their name.
  137. 137.

    cain

    @Roger Moore: I’ve never really used the pie filter.. I just learned how to scroll past such posts and merrily go on my way.

    Then again, I’ve been on these here online forums since I was 16 years old.

  138. 138.

    debbie

    @sab:

    There’s a more recent video that I won’t share. Many of the protesters are being arrested, esp. the older women.

  139. 139.

    RaflW

    @Kay: Former Mexican drug cartel flunkie is also pro-Putin? And running for the US Senate as a Republican. Really a top-quality political party they’ve got there.

  141. 141.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay: ​
     
    I keep saying this in slightly different ways: conservatives want to be persecuted. It’s right there in the Sermon on the Mount that it’s good to be persecuted for believing in Jesus. If they can’t find some real persecution, they’ll happily make some up so they can feel righteous.

  143. 143.

    WaterGirl

    @stinger: That page also has the man from Ukraine who is putting his children on a train and sending them to safety, while he stays to fight.  Heartbreaking for all.  Not sure if the (apparent) wife was going with the children or staying in Ukraine.

  145. 145.

    moops

    Remember when TFG was withholding arms shipments to Ukraine, and extorting them to open a bogus investigation into Biden? That “perfect” phone call that we still haven’t received a transcript of?

    Where do you think he got that great idea?

    Now remember his off-the-record meeting with Putin a few months before? The one where TFG refused to let anyone take notes?

  146. 146.

    Scout211

    The “woke” thing is very weird. And of course the “woke mobs.” Where are they? I heard they did come after Aaron Rodgers.  He did tell us that.  I didn’t actually see any mobs but would the man lie to us?

    Remember during the Obama administration when all the right wingers had memes and posted homemade road signs telling us to “wake up sheeple!”

    So during the Obama years we needed to wake up. And now we are woke. But that’s wrong?

    I am so confused. ?

  147. 147.

    sab

    @WaterGirl: I was wanting to nag you to get rid of the cookies after Epiphany/12th night, but they seem to be not Xmas or seasonal at all, and also very cute. I hope you keep them.

    In my family, Christmas stuff after 12th night is extremely unlucky. My Catholic husband says we have until Candlemas (Woodchuck Day).

  149. 149.

    different-church-lady

    @Eggbert: I didn’t see Adam’s comment, and I didn’t know you were mocking him. Seems mock-worthy on the surface, but perhaps he was being sarcastic.

    In the end there’s not a lot of cards in our deck.

  150. 150.

    gwangung

    @Scout211: The one thing about the “anti-woke” crowd that I’m sure of? They’re making shit up. ALL OF IT.

    None of the stuff they ever post every checks out. And when you call them on it, they deny it and keep making up more shit.

  151. 151.

    Roger Moore

    @trollhattan:

    His basically saying “Yeah, well, we fixed discrimination so it’s not needed.” was ballistic-level awful. Gilded cage much, J. Roberts?

    To me the worst part about this is that it’s a complete rejection of the political question doctrine.  The 15th Amendment gives Congress the power to protect the right of people of all races to vote.  Choosing how to do that is 100% a political question, and exactly the kind of thing the Supreme Court is supposed to steer clear of.  Instead, they decided that Congress and the President were wrong to pass the law they did, so it should be thrown out.  It’s a massive power grab by the Supreme Court, because it says they can toss any law not because it’s unconstitutional but because they think the legislature made a mistake by passing it.

  154. 154.

    debbie

    @Scout211:

    The RWNJs started cancel culture back before Obama when they decried The War on Christmas. There was a website where people could post their Christmas outrages (“I will never shop at Target again. I asked if they carried Baby Jesus and they said NO!!!!!”) It made for great reading, back when the internet was fun.

  155. 155.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Betty Cracker: Also, while it got lost in the shuffle, the Texas governor declared war on trans kids and their parents.

    Texas governor orders healthcare workers, teachers, and others to report parents of transgender kids for child abuse. Felony child abuse.

    Gov. Greg Abbott said those who fail to report instances of minors receiving gender-affirming medical care could face “criminal penalties.”

    And for good measure it also requires teachers, healthcare workers, etc. to out trans kids to their parents.

    Fucking monsters.

  156. 156.

    Lyrebird

    @Avalune: So did you do the (ETA: Penelope duck) cupcake art, too?  Adorbs!

    I haven’t used the pie filter in more than a year I guess.

    @Danielx: It’s even got a feature where you can toggle Miss Bianca’s and other’s responses on or off.  Enjoy the snark, or look at… let’s see I’ve got little Valentine hearts here.

    Hmm..  Was wondering if the hearts would say “Bite me!” but they say more ordinary Valentine things.

     

    A little humor can be good in dark times.

  159. 159.

    Lyrebird

    @Sister Golden Bear: Fucking monsters.

    So true.  I got pretty naseous reading what Dreher said.  How dare he????  When trans kids and their families are being treated like this.  But that is how they roll.  UGH.

     

    Lots to fight here.

  160. 160.

    Old Man Shadow

    @Kay: Yeah. Evangelicals in America have been getting pretty cozy with Russia. They see in Russia everything they want for America: a controlled market that enriches the elites? Check. An all powerful strong man who will hurt their enemies and protect them for foreigners? Check. A nation-state in bed with the church? Check. Oppression of their hated minorities? Check.

    They want that Hell on Earth here.

  161. 161.

    RaflW

    @Patricia Kayden: I see a lot of accusations that Russian oligarchs give a lot of money to UK Conservatives. My cursory look suggests that this isn’t straightforward to pull off, but probably more legal than it would be in the US (though through laundering and other dark money processes, I don’t doubt RU money flows in some ways in US Repub circles as well). Anyone know how the Putin’s plutocratic rich funnel money to Boris & pals in Westminster?

  162. 162.

    RaflW

    @Sister Golden Bear: That anti-trans shit dropped the same day that a bombshell report also got published about how Abbot’s friends were very much in control of screwing millions of Texans with outrageous energy bills in the freeze-up fuckup Abbot also helped usher in.

    He was gonna attack trans people no matter what, surely. But the distraction-timing is another layer of evil.

    eta: More here

    @keranews
    The former top manager of Texas’ electric grid said in court Wednesday he was following Gov. Greg Abbott’s directions when he kept electricity prices as high as legally allowed in the aftermath of last February’s devastating blackout. @KUT

  163. 163.

    Lyrebird

    @different-church-lady:

    Seems mock-worthy on the surface, but perhaps he was being sarcastic.

    In the end there’s not a lot of cards in our deck.

    Hi DCL: I think Adam was more upset than sarcastic.  Or sarcastic against Macron and German Leader Guy because he was upset.

    I’m not gonna armchair general.  Or armchair shrink.  Sounds like a bunch of people who saw that really bad things were about to happen have been upset for a while.  Like Gin & Tonic.  Sorry my phrasing is probably poor.

    People who are yelling at each other because they are upset is one thing.  People stirring shit up by saying opposite things from one post to another, well, that reminded me to re learn how to use the pie filter.

    The various people I’ve read making hair-on-fire comments and posts that diplomacy was not enough or not working?  I would bet money they would really have been glad to have been wrong.

    Stopping a moment in honor of the lives already lost.

  164. 164.

    Immanentize

    @Scout211: “Woke” is the non-normative word white people use as a substance-absent perjorative when they mean “people who advocate directly for equal treatment and hstorical accuracy.” 

  165. 165.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: i could say so much about Roberts and the current Court, but maybe it is better vented on my students tomorrow.

    BTW another foot of snow here tomorrow.

  166. 166.

    Immanentize

    @Sister Golden Bear: I am shocked people don’t realize this is warm up for post-Roe days. Every Doctor and State employee will be required to turn in women who have miscarriages. To be investigated for suspected abortions.

    Make 1984 fiction again, please?

  167. 167.

    zhena gogolia

    Kyiv Independent:

    Major Ukrainian cities threatened by early morning offensive. Russian invasion forces are expected to launch attacks against the Sumy, Chernihiv, Kherson, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, and Kharkiv regions during the early morning, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada announced. Kyiv will be attacked at 3 a.m., media sources report. Citizens are encouraged to report enemy military activity to the military or local authorities.

  168. 168.

    different-church-lady

    @Lyrebird: There’s probably a lot of background to Adam’s outburst that I’m not aware of.

    I guess, from an only vaguely informed perspective: it was pretty obvious diplomacy wasn’t going to work, but it couldn’t just be abandoned either. And a hot war has quite a few… “side effects”, shall we say.

    In the end I’m more inclined to play the safe side of Cole’s admonition from earlier today.

  172. 172.

    Cameron

    If the wingnuts love Putin so much, tell them to vote for him in ’24.  They’re probably too ignorant to know that they can’t.

  173. 173.

    Miss Bianca

    @Roger Moore: Someone on this here blog – it might have been you! – said something about how these assholes all want the thrill of feeling victimized without all the hassle and expense of actually being victims.

  174. 174.

    different-church-lady

    @zhena gogolia: ​
    Because the entirety of Ukraine is a breakaway republic from Ukraine.

    Man, the horseshit isn’t lasting even a few hours at this point.

  177. 177.

    RaflW

    @Immanentize: We’re gonna have to dust off our massive civil disobedience chops. Seeing Russian protesters and Ukrainian citizens risk arrest +/or death makes one start to realize what really, really playing for all the marbles means. I hope we don’t have to go that far. But even the 60s in the US wasn’t without casualties.

  178. 178.

    different-church-lady

    @Immanentize: ​
      you’re giving them too much credit. It’s a word they think is an insult, so they just use it compulsively without thought.

  179. 179.

    Miss Bianca

    @Scout211:

    So during the Obama years we needed to wake up. And now we are woke. But that’s wrong?

    It’s the WRONG KIND of woke. Evidently.

  180. 180.

    Immanentize

    @RaflW: this is a thing the right wing agitators have not appreciated:

    Civil disobedience implies your arrest. That is in part why one does it. To challenge an unjust law — by getting arrested! Ask Thoreau.

  181. 181.

    Miss Bianca

    @sab:

    My Catholic husband says we have until Candlemas (Woodchuck Day).

    I take it to Candlemas, myself. Then I ritually and solemnly unplug the tiny LED-lit glass Christmas tree that is our sole Christmas decoration effort.

  183. 183.

    Immanentize

    @Miss Bianca: here’s my thing.

    The right is opposed to being awake (woke), and they always praise a GOAT, but hate Sheep(le).

    But at the godly moment of judgment do they really want be asleep and goats?

  184. 184.

    Miss Bianca

    @Old Man Shadow: You know what I’ve never understood about Evangelicals – or authoritarians – is, as I saw it written in a children’s book once, “How do ye ken you’re one of the Elect, anyway?” 

    Or, in other words, how can you be so *sure* you’re going to come out on the winning side after the Rapture or the Fuhrer comes? Have you never stopped to consider what might befall you if, as it turns out, you’re not one of the Elect?

  185. 185.

    Ken

    @germy: Cooper Lund: “I thought it would be cute to tuck in the cat and now…”

    I was expecting “the doctors in the emergency room say they should be able to save my arm.”

  186. 186.

    Immanentize

    @Miss Bianca: ahh but the Calvinists have an unassailable answer to that. The difference between those bestowed with grace and those who are not is the same difference as that between them and others.

  187. 187.

    Miss Bianca

    @Immanentize: What cracks me up is that they’ve apparently forgotten their Bibles to the point where they think Jesus was a goatherd, not a shepherd, and they’ve blanked out the part where being one of Jesus’s sheep – as opposed to one of the goats – was supposed to be a GOOD thing!

  188. 188.

    Immanentize

    @Miss Bianca: they have fallen victim to the “rule of goats.”

    PS big complaint: why is “Shepherd’s Pie” always made with beef in the US? Shouldn’t the be “Cowherd’s Pie?”

  194. 194.

    sanjeevs

    @RaflW: The U.K. has almost no laws on political donations. As long as you are on the electoral register you can donate as much as you like. So Russian oligarchs or their families obtain golden visas  and then make donations.

    Foreign Secretary Truss defended this the other day

    Truss rejects claim Russia-linked Tory donations influenced sanctions policy – video | Politics | The Guardian

    In addition there is a supine police force which never investigated the illegal funding  of Vote Leave (Brexit).

    And in truth, I think all the Putin linked parties receive much more ‘benefit-in-kind’ via Vlad’s troll farms than actual cash.

  195. 195.

    Gin & Tonic

    @zhena gogolia:

    Kyiv will be attacked at 3 a.m., media sources report

    It’s now 4:00 am, and things seem quiet so far.

    I know, fog of war and all that, but I’ve seen several reports that the Russian troops are not, shall we say, all that invested in their mission. First contact with someone who’s armed and defending his country seems to be a wake-up call.

  197. 197.

    Ruckus

    @West of the Rockies:

    I checked the other day and I had two in the filter. I don’t think they’ve commented here in quite a while but just in case, there they sit. However. In the last 3 days I’ve added 4 more, which is almost my record since forever. I’m pretty stingy with the block, but today is just about the last day I’d want to read absolutely stupid shit, so in they go.

  199. 199.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:

    I understood that I am an American citizen, born here and everything. Are there countries where you have to be white or a christian to be a citizen? Or am I mistaken and it’s a requirement?

    OK, yes I know, conservative asshole(s)….

  200. 200.

    Lyrebird

    @different-church-lady:

    Old thread now, but either way, thanks for the thoughtful reply.

    In the end I’m more inclined to play the safe side of Cole’s admonition from earlier today.

    Sounds wise to my ears!  I should do more of that.  And decline more invitations to arguments, as I think the Thin Black Duke was saying.

  202. 202.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Roger Moore:

    I keep saying this in slightly different ways: conservatives want to be persecuted. It’s right there in the Sermon on the Mount that it’s good to be persecuted for believing in Jesus. If they can’t find some real persecution, they’ll happily make some up so they can feel righteous.

    Well yeah, but it’s the being all whiny about it and publicly feeling persecuted by these trivial indignities that – speaking as a born-again Christian – comes across as an anti-witness.  I mean, if being a Christian means perpetually going all Dennis-the-Peasant “help, help, I’m being repressed, come see the violence inherent in the system!” on account of trivial shit, why the fuck would anyone in their right mind want to become a Christian?  Sounds pretty damn miserable.

  203. 203.

    Subsole

    @Roger Moore:

    Good observation.

    I would make a small tweak – they don’t want to be persecuted. They want the righteous aura of having been persecuted.

    They want to have marched on the Edmund Pettus bridge, without going to the march. See?

    They want to be black, but without being black. (Which is, like, deeply fucking weird…)

    I think it is because their inner lives are pretty hollow. Because whiteness doesn’t actually offer a culture , but rather an anti-culture (white is just a very subtle way of saying not brown), it leaves you feeling very, very empty.

    It’s like the rich kids pretending to be working class – because they feel they didn’t work for it, and don’t deserve it. This is their way of having an inspiring superhero backstory. It’s why they start foaming at the eyeballs when people mention white privilege. You’re closing off their chance at feeling like they aren’t frauds.

    (Which, again, is deeply fucking weird.)

    I guess what I’m trying to say is these are deeply insecure people trying to appropriate other peoples’ struggles to alleviate the deep, almost subliminal feelings of inadequacy conservative whitebread culture instills in them by failing to provide much of anything but a long list of shit you are not allowed to enjoy because The Help do it.

    Of course, a LOT of them are just nasty, bigoted, pigshit ignorant assholes.

    And some, I must admit, were actually pretty damned decent people – at least when I knew them.

  205. 205.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @sab: My husband and I usually keep our Christmas tree up until Super Bowl Sunday (which is roughly the same time as Groundhog Day/Candlemas).

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