Here are some odds and ends for your consideration.
Little Big Man
Our pup Pete is a hefty micro-dog! Since he’s growing fast, I have to take him to the vet monthly for weigh-in so we can give him the right heartworm/flea prevention med dose. As of today, he weighs damn near as much as Badger now, and he’s only five months old. Big trouble for poor little Badger boy, who better whip the young upstart’s ass while he still can!
Ugly Pig Man
Yesterday, in an interview with disgraced ex-The Hill staffer John Solomon, Trump again attempted to drag the head of a hostile foreign state into a domestic political feud. Adam alluded to this in last night’s war update post, but I think it deserves more attention, for “bearing witness” purposes if nothing else (TPM):
“As long as Putin now is not exactly a fan of our country, let him explain — because Chris Wallace wouldn’t let me ask the question — why did the mayor of Moscow’s wife give the Bidens, both of them, three and a half million dollars? I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it. I think we should know the answer. Now, you won’t get the answer from Ukraine. I think Putin, now, would be willing to probably give that answer. I’m sure he knows.”
To recap, on Tuesday, the former U.S. president asked a foreign dictator — who is actively committing war crimes against civilians in a country that is allied with the U.S. — to produce political dirt on the current U.S. president. The mind. It reels.
Education Plan vs Florida Man
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is a breath of fresh air after the horrid Betsy DeVos – and a huge improvement so far over the Obama admin’s Arne Duncan too. WaPo reports that next month, the department will publish new Title IX rules that protect trans students from the cruel school sports ban policies championed by ambitious red state governors.
Speaking of red state presidential aspirants, Florida’s meathead governor is having delusions of grandeur. Florida Politics quotes DeSantis comparing Biden to himself in a Fox News segment:
“The contrast between a doddering, quasi-senile President who has to have his press team clean up his remarks after every time he opens his mouth, versus somebody like me who’s out there — I’m very direct, I mean what I say, I lead, and I get things done,” DeSantis said. “They understand that people view Florida as really being the leader of our country in many respects. We’re really leading the free world.”
Reader, we in Florida are NOT leading the country, and we are not leading free world, except perhaps in the production of bizarre news filler items about scary reptiles emerging from residential toilets. DeSantis referred to Biden as “Brandon” several times during the interview because that never gets old. Please, fellow Democrats, I’m begging you. When the time comes, help us FL Democrats punt this evil, smarmy motherfucker into the sun. Trust me, it’ll be to everyone’s benefit.
That’s it — that’s the post. Open thread!
Jerzy Russian
If your two dogs were attending elementary school, a possible playground taunt could be “Pete rules, Badger drools!”
Fair Economist
Good to hear the Biden administration will be using Title IX against these outrageous trans bans. His administration has been amazing at getting a zillion things done.
Jerzy Russian
Also, the Florida governor is a real asshole. Every time I think he has reached the asshole limit, he finds a way to exceed it.
UncleEbeneezer
“Please, fellow Democrats, I’m begging you. When the time comes, help us FL Democrats punt this evil, smarmy motherfucker into the sun. Trust me, it’ll be to everyone’s benefit.”
Would love to. Just let us know the right time, orgs to support and ways we can help etc.
MattF
I get the feeling that Ron DeSantis thinks he’s so absolutely wonderful that he doesn’t need to pay any attention to anyone but Ron DeSantis. That’s a weakness.
Betty Cracker
@Jerzy Russian: He really is such a dick. A Hannity-class asshole. Possibly he’s overplayed his hand because he’s the governor of Florida instead of Alabama, but maybe not, given this state’s 2020 presidential outcome. I await November with hope and trepidation — mostly the latter, tbh.
gvg
He is such a dipshit. Pardon my language. He has bullied UF into inadequate Covid response and just upped the stupidity. People have died because of him.
Baud
Biden stands up to Putin, DeSantis stands up to trans pre-schoolers. I’m pretty sure I know which leader the free world would choose.
Mike in NC
At the supermarket this afternoon, the cashier looked bored. So I said to her, “I’ve never seen you without a mask before. You’re a beautiful young woman”. Hopefully that made her day.
Martin
I just think it’s great that the Republican governor of Florida has declared war on his states largest employer.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
What’s the general consensus on the Will Smith/Chris Rock thing around here?
Dangerman
Everyone’s benefit, including Trump’s, if he wants to hobble the fucker for 2024.
2liberal
about the sports ban on transpersons – there are a lot of rules about medications and modifications applied in general to sports participants. I personally don’t like the idea of a trans person who grew up male and building a fit male physique changing to female and breaking a lot of records. I that’s actually happening with swimmer in California. This is a first world problem and I don’t think it is cruel, even though done with cruel intentions by red state governors who are just plain NFG.
germy
Let’s prove them wrong
Mustang Bobby
He’s a leader, all right: in Covid deaths, for one thing. Unforgivable. And the way he talks he sounds like his manhood is small enough to f*ck a Cheerio.
NotMax
Remember when we considered Anita Bryant the epitome of a Florida wackaloon?
//
Kay
Well, just see how he plays nationally.
Media swooned for Chris Christie too as a brash conservative leader who people supposedly loved and he’s a pundit now.
John Kasich, Scott Walker, Mitch Daniels, Bloomberg. All of these people were supposed to be wildly popular nationally and none of them were.
delk
If you want to say Fuck You Biden then have the balls to say Fuck You Biden. Fucking giggling third grader.
Ken
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): We think the White House Press Corps reporter who asked about them should be fired.
UncleEbeneezer
Love to see it:
Hoodie
@Baud: True, but the success of such obvious assholes as Trump and DeSantis does give some clue as to why so many countries have such shitty leaders. Yeah, a lot of these guys are thugs who distort institutions and and rule by corruption and intimidation. But in a lot of cases, a not insignificant number of people supports these assholes, i.e., there are a lot of dumb shits willing to fall in line behind them. It’s not exactly a new phenomenon here, either. Richard Nixon won in a landslide in ’72 against a bona fide war hero. It’s the old retort to “this is not who we are” – well, maybe it is.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I admit that quote from DeSantis shocks me. I am apparently still not cynical enough.
Gin & Tonic
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Who the fuck cares? Seriously.
Kay
@germy:
It’s absolutely why they’re doing it, they’re all doing it, and it would be delicious to prove them all wrong.
They’ll be stuck with all these low quality Trump hires and they’re probably paying them some insane amount.
NotMax
@Kay
Also too, Rudy G.
And Fred Thompson.
germy
@Kay:
You can take the Moonves out of the network, but you can’t take the network out of the Moonves.
Kay
@NotMax:
They make a lot of bad picks. A LOT. I think I’d do better conducting a random Twitter poll.
Old School
@germy:
He did hedge a little. Here’s the quote when you click through:
Kay
@germy:
They’re hoping. They’re most comfortable when the Manly Men of the Right are in charge. Like the one at the top of the page- the fucking bully who attacks high school students.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: If Batboy couldn’t sufficiently fuck up the governorship and instead used it to launch a senator-for-life jerb, what is a reasonable expectation for DeSantis to go off the rails in the meantime? “His turn” and all that.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
ROFL I find it hard to believe that dude will cut it on the national stage.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Jonathan Chait went back to the pre-trump days to get a handle on De Santis
Dreams from Our Founding Fathers. Get it?
Kay
@germy:
They loved Chris Christie because Chris Christie is a bully and so is DeSantis. He’s perfect for them.
Cameron
That’s President DeSantis to you, Ms. Cracker.
Peale
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Chris Rock, Will Smith and Jada Smith are all wealthy celebrities with access to microphones and expensive lawyers if they need them. There is no reason to be forced to take a liberal side, a conservative side, or a public position.
clay
I bet Biden isn’t too senile to send federal aid to Florida the next time a hurricane runs through. A lesser man would throw that quote back in Ronnie’s face, but Biden won’t.
coin operated
Does anyone have a short explainer about the $3.5M? I don’t remember seeing that *anywhere*
Edited…nevermind…it’s in the TPM link
AliceBlue
@NotMax: Don’t forget Tim Pawlenty!
germy
Definitely. First of all they’re comfortable seeing their taxes lowered. And then when the Manly Men cause chaos, they’re comfortable winning ratings and status by reporting on it.
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Human beings make decisions. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes impassioned. We fuck up small things all the time, and we forgive each other for doing so. This was one of those things.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@germy:
I hate to say it, but can’t say it’s a bad bet at this point given Biden’s approval ratings, historical patterns re: midterm elections during a president’s first term, high gas prices, etc. Inflation also poses risks as the Fed tightens monetary policy and raises rates; if they raise rates too high, too fast then the economy could be sent into recession, though this likely wouldn’t occur until 2023 or so. Many economists I’ve read in Yahoo! Finance have said the Fed is behind the curve on inflation and will have to hike faster than they necessarily would have if they’d acted sooner
oatler
“We’re the Adults in the Room because the Democrat Left is evil trans hippies bought by Soros.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
ROFL
This guy is a dimwit;
DuhSantis obviously didn’t get Biden’s “Not gaff” was mocking both Putin for his “Biden is senile” nonsense and messing with Putin’s head with the unstated threat, so DuhSantis set himself for the same pantsing. Second, the “Floridah Man, leader of the free world” is just so easy mocked.
germy
That’s what I thought about Trump. I laughed when he won the nomination.
germy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It’s also not a bad bet when CBS, ABC and NBC all shape the narrative. “Inflation! Crime! Why isn’t Kamala at the border?!”
NotMax
@Kay
Yup. Confusing swagger with popularity, bombast with substantiation. The pairings do not automatically go hand in hand.
trollhattan
CBS would like to announce that the shock of losing the leadership of Les Moonves has not affected their commitment to excellence, not even a little.
Kay
Ginni Thomas was energetically lobbying prestigious Right wing lawyers to help her overturn a US election and in doing so caused a “rift” among them:
She hasn’t apologized or even deigned to speak to the public about her attempts to invalidate the votes of 81 million people– the people, incidentally, who employ and pay her husband- but the fancy lawyers? To them she’ll grovel.
I’m also interested to find out that according to Mrs. Thomas “most” of Clarence Thomas’ former clerks also supported an insurrection. I wonder where they work now. Hopefully not for the public.
dexwood
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Not worth discussing.
Betty Cracker
@2liberal: It IS cruel, and it’s also pointless. When DeSantis signed the ban on trans girls in sports, he had to import a Connecticut resident to stand there and look approvingly upon the bill signing because it’s not an issue in Florida. It’s not an issue anywhere, really. See this comment by Sister Golden Bear for context.
I’m not saying there will never be edge cases — on a planet with billions of people, maybe there are or will be. But trans people participating in sports isn’t a real problem now, and we should deal with any situations that emerge on a case-by-case basis instead of otherizing vulnerable kids.
Matt McIrvin
@2liberal:
You were lied to by people with bad motives. Lia Thomas went from being a high-ranking competitor in men’s swimming to a high-ranking competitor in women’s swimming, with consistency in her relative rank in the two categories–she seems to have gotten no great advantage by transitioning. Sister Golden Bear has been talking about this.
Even if it WERE a problem–we’re talking about violating the basic civil rights of children over a supposed issue with fairness in the elite ranks of sports. The idea that there’s going to be this epidemic of people claiming to be fake trans people in order to cheat at sports is absurd and it’s just not a good enough reason to persecute children.
JMG
@germy: The tell in this statement is that it completely reverses the normal power dynamic between TV and pols. Republican elected officials and candidates need access to CBS News, not the other way around. What this guy was really saying is “My corporate bosses think the GOP will win the midterms so they need access to lobby/bribe for the special interests of CBS Corp. the mass media industry firm.” CBS News is the prostitute, and CBS the corporation is the madam of the bordello.
Mallard Filmore
“The contrast between a doddering, quasi-senile President who has to have his press team clean up his remarks after every time he opens his mouth …”
I was given to understand that Trump is no longer the President.
Kay
@germy:
How the one and only investigation they ever cover is Hunter Biden. They’re ridiculous people.
VOR
@Hoodie: Republicans love to accuse Dems of “virtue signaling” – taking stances just to send a message. DeSantis and company are engaging in “Vice Signaling”. They are picking fights against the helpless and powerless to tell their base base – “yes, we really are that big of an asshole.” Because they know that’s what the base wants – a giant asshole to own the libs.
germy
@Old School:
When Democrats are in charge the networks need lots of Republicans on their shows for “balance” and when Republicans are in charge the networks need lots of Republicans on their shows for “that side of the equation”.
I wish network executives would just be honest and admit they don’t want to pay a higher wealth tax.
Tony Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Are they making a movie together? I hope it’s a comedy. They’re both funny guys with great chemistry. 8-)
CaseyL
I oscillate between a hope that voters in general are disgusted with the sheer toxicity the GOP is pushing and will vote against that toxicity, and a dread that… they aren’t, and won’t.
I also worry about vote-suppression and vote-counting shenanigans, as GOP-led states compete to see who can pass the most egregious election laws.
misterpuff
New NFL competition: P A D Punt Ass Dicks
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@germy:
Yes, it’s true that news corporations can shape the narrative and people’s perceptions. That being said, high inflation is very real and it poses risks to the economy. It’s eating into people’s incomes as well
germy
@Matt McIrvin:
Republicans who are suddenly worried about female athletes… have they expressed any concern for Brittney Griner?
germy
@Tony Jay:
a remake of “Slap Shot”
scav
Can’t spell FLop without FLorida. And they do lead the OPeration.
catclub
This is how I view the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, and GOP candidates getting majorities in Florida. A lot of people (benighted, lazy, whatever) want that to happen.
WaterGirl
Such a sweet pic! Poor Badger for not yet realizing he may not be king of the castle once Pete is older, but lucky Badger to have Pete for a buddy.
It was interesting seeing my kitties when they welcomed Tucker – who was just their size when he arrived – as he turned into a 40 lb. pup
Sweetest was when Miss Willow took Tucker’s side when he and Mr. Bear had a little tussle when Tucker was just a baby. Miss Willow sided with the baby and defended him instead of defending “her own kind”, Mr. Bear.
VOR
@CaseyL: The world has serious problems. There is a global pandemic. Climate change. The biggest war in Europe since 1945. Possible nuclear confrontations. And all the GQP has to offer is conspiracy theories and Culture War. I keep fantasizing the electorate will wake up and realize Republicans really don’t care about solving real problems in their lives.
Kay
“Obnoxious” is too soft a word for 3 days of Republicans accusing this woman of being a pedophile.
But- she’s better than they are and she beat them.
catclub
Based on personal savings and corporate savings, BOTH are better set to deal with this than at any time in the past.
TaMara
So what are the thoughts if the orange circus peanut runs again and desantis runs? Do they cancel each other out? Is it a no-holds-barred WWE match-up? Do they split the flaming nutjobs between them and some other scum rises to the top? I’m trying to figure out how this will work for them.
smedley the uncertain
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Who gives a shit… Children at play
catclub
@VOR:
Taliban only had Culture war…. and ak47’s, and they won Afghanistan.
Betty
@Kay: It’s instructive that his clerks are considered her family. I assume their family. He is so deeply connected to her that it is impossible to believe he wasn’t supportive of her insurrection efforts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: I remember in 2017 when MSNBC reacts to trump by firing a whole bunch of people– Krystal Ball, Touré, Ronan Farrow, I forget who else– and signed on Peggy Noonan and Hugh Hewitt and maybe a few others. Chris Hayes, Lawrence O’Donnell and Joy Reid were rumored to be on thin ice. Then militant anti-trumper Nicolle Wallace became their break-out star.
Baud
@Kay:
Nice. There’s that number again.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@catclub:
The US isn’t Afghanistan
@catclub:
This is true, so that’s a silver lining. Hopefully, supply chain issues get resolved and the Fed doesn’t react too strongly
Kay
Madison Cawthorne did the only thing that will ever cause Republicans to sanction a Republican- he smeared powerful Republicans:
100% about them. Just no public interest at all.
Baud
@Kay:
“We absolutely did not do any cocaine.”
Kay
@Betty:
The thing I find most appalling about the insurrectionist Right is that they had no qualms, at all, about throwing out the votes of 81 million people. Mine. Yours. 81 million of us- erased.
I don’t think they can operate in a democracy. They don’t share our values.
eclare
@JMG: Excellent point.
Martin
@2liberal: You seem to be under the impression that sports are fair. They aren’t. The vast majority of sports go to the winner of genetic lotteries. The rest of us need not apply.
A huge underlying component of ‘we have the best swimmers’ is some very diffused notion that we are the deserving human feedstock of the planet. That’s what that gold medal proves – when the eugenics wars break out, the US will win. That’s of course not front of mind, but it’s in there. The rejection of this is why curling has gotten more popular. It doesn’t reflect a genetic lottery, at least inasmuch as the participants were born sighted and with functional limbs. I don’t need to be built like Usain Bolt or Simone Biles to succeed.
Transgenderism more than anything else throws a wrench into our perception of the benefits of winning a genetic lottery.
Look, I’m old enough to have experienced Jimmy the Greek openly speculating whether white people would have a place in the NFL once all these fast twitch, proven through life in the jungle savage black men moved in. Fairness has never been an actual property of sports. But we use sports to define what we think should constitute fairness. It’s why ‘meritocracy’ was a warning, not an aspiration, because ‘meritocracy’ would be used as a cudgel to defend discrimination. Does Simone Biles work incredibly hard to lead her sport? Absolutely. Is it possible for Zendaya to work hard enough to beat Simone Biles? No way in hell. Impossible. She’s 5’10”. The laws of physics don’t permit it. But we pretend that it’s possible, because meritocracy.
Sports are so unfair that they’re fully segregated, and yet we seem to think we can square that with ‘separate but equal’. So yes, you can take this inherently unfair, segregated space and try and make equal, but it’s not possible, and anti-transgender laws are about pretending that you can, at the expense of a single at-risk group.
You can’t even begin to dig out of this situation without starting with the realization that segregated sports are axiomatically unfair.
Matt McIrvin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): To me, that incident is an A-1 prime example of my not being required to express a take on everything.
Betty
@Kay: My Congressman, Scott Perry, is one of the leaders of the Right in the House. It was personal when he led the effort to nullify my vote. I don’t understand why more per are not infuriated by that.
Kay
@Baud:
I didn’t think they did drugs and had orgies before but they’re freaking out so much now I do.
It’s tough because Cawthorne is an insane serial liar, but he could be telling the truth about this one thing.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
People like DeSantis are working assiduously on that.
//
Betty Cracker
@TaMara: I wonder that too. I’ve been hoping the simmering hostility between them erupts before DeSantis builds a maga-dope cult beyond Florida. If the two had a throwdown in FL only, I think DeSantis could win. But if Trump turns his brainless cult outside of FL against DeSantis, maybe he can be contained.
Martin
@Kay: Culture wars are still wars. Once you’ve asserted that you want to wage a culture war, adding guns is more of a minor detail than anything else.
The right has been telling us for years that they want this resolved with violence. We can reject that way of resolving problems all we want, Ukraine shows that you can bring all the noble ideas you want to a gunfight, but eventually you get forced into participating in a gunfight. I think Adam has been trying to tug people to this reality for a while.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I watched about 30 seconds of the clip in which Cawthorn spun the tale, and he sounded like a clout-chasing dweeb trying to impress the macho douchebag interviewer. I think he’s lying, even if the Republicans really are having orgies and doing coke.
Kay
@Martin:
I’m pretty much there. I have this idea I’ll do well against them. It’s maybe insane and over confident but the truth is I think I can beat any of them :)
I don’t think of them as “tough” and since I’m around so many I feel qualified to judge.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Peale:
@Martin:
These takes are similar to my own. It’s seemed like everybody and their mother on the internet has been talking about it when there’s way more important stuff going on
Martin
It was in 1860. The pace at which the GOP is backsliding on civil rights is alarming. They are actively working to make the peaceful transfer of power in the US impossible – where the winner of elections will be who is willing to fight hardest for it, not in the vote, but in terms of who is most willing to literally kick in the front doors of Congress.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I wonder if the extremely calculating DeSantis is cold enough to be patient. He’s only 43. Whatever happens in the next two years, the odds of him outlasting trump are pretty good.
I think the Georgia governor’s race will be a window into how destructive trump is willing to be in pursuit of vengeance, if he actually undermines Kemp (assuming Kemp beats Perdue). And I don’t think that grudge is nearly as personal as someone actually running against him
Martin
@Kay: Yeah, my interactions with them is that they’re fundamentally cowards. Doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous though.
Tony Jay
@germy:
With Jared Leto playing all of the Hanson Brothers?
I’m intrigued. Pitch me some cinematic woo.
gene108
@Kay:
As an NJ resident, Gov. Christie was enormously popular, until he wasn’t. People admired how he “told it like it was”, and admired his brashness. It’s just that NJ residents apparently have some ethical standards and were aghast at his ordering the closing of access to the GWB to punish the mayor of Ft. Lee for not endorsing him.
Conventional wisdom was that a Republican, who can appeal to Democrats would be a cinch to win the presidency. Unfortunately, the Republican Party moved away from that thinking with the election of President Obama.
I mean Mitt Romney was the ideal centrist candidate – governor of a Democratic run state, signed into law sweeping healthcare reform, etc. – but the Republican voters were not embracing that shit in 2012. Romney had to run away from his record.
Edit: I don’t see Florida’s Republican voters rejecting DeSantis for his fucking up the state’s COVID response or for anything else he’s done.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: How are you guys and the kid feeling?
Tony Jay
@Kay:
Or you could just ask Baud straight out if he was there and can vouch for Cawthorne’s version of events. 8-)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
I thought I read a comment of yours not long ago (like a week or two ago) telling someone else not to worry, that the GOP is losing?
Matt McIrvin
@Martin: A lot of these people are not actually GOOD at violence. They have the urge, maybe have the weapons, but they’re not organized or disciplined about it.
They can kill soft targets though. I’m the softest of targets. But not everyone is.
Peale
@Kay: I’m surprised they didn’t tell him to lie and say it was Ilhan Omar and AOC, who is totes into his real manliness, like all those liberAl women really are. But when they scurry like this, then I believe there was an orgy with coke and probably more.
germy
What the heck is this?
SuzieC
Just say the word Betty, just say the word. Tell me where to direct my contributions to defeat DeathSantis.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Great points. I am 100% assuming DeSantis will run in 2024 based on how he’s acting now, but who knows? It really is remarkable how he transformed himself from his 2018 persona. He was always a rightwing asshole and was performative about it in rightwing spaces. But for the first two years of his term, he wasn’t nearly as obvious about it to the general public. He didn’t really start strutting around and ostentatiously aping Trump until the pandemic.
JoyceH
@MattF:
That public event where he berated the high school kids for wearing masks was very revealing, IMO. When he was done making his statement, he didn’t even acknowledge the kids’ presence, he just stalked away. I call baloney on the notion that they’re passing all these wacky laws on the behalf of kids – kids are wallpaper as far as he’s concerned.
Baud
@Tony Jay:
Cawthorne was definitely not invited.
Primer Gray (formerly Yet Another Jeff)
@AliceBlue: Timmentum!!
Miss Bianca
Tell you what, DeSantis: you get ready to debate doddering ol’ Uncle Joe. That way the rest of the free world can point and laugh when you get your ass handed to you.
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Bad boys, bad boys
What you gonna do?
Every hot take about this sad incident has been a waste of time. But that is true about most Internet hot takes about anything.
I will say that Chris Rock was a pro for continuing. As they say, the show must go on, and he pulled himself together with grace.
Easy visual gag for next year’s Oscars. The host comes out surrounded by three very beefy bodyguards.
I DID appreciate Amber Ruffin’s Oscars Recap, from the Seth Meyers Show.
JoyceH
@Betty Cracker:
That’s a pretty good guess, and more likely than not.
On the other hand, he spoke about older Republicans he’d grown up admiring and then they behave like this, etc, and it occurred to me that there IS an older Republican who seems to enjoy being mentor/idol to the younger wingnuts, and that is Roger Stone. And Stone has… history.
Old School
Here’s the article the Tweet links to.
Kay
@Tony Jay:
He lied about his friend leaving him to die in a car crash.
This wasn’t a red flag to Republicans. Just fine with him until he lied about them.
MisterDancer
I appreciate the comments here, for answers so far.
Not to your asking this question, Goku, yet: There’s some real racist/sexist/homophobic shit around this I’ve had to help friends engage over on FB. Glad I don’t have that crap here, too :)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
There was one take I thought was interesting that I saw on r/blackpeopletwitter, that went along the lines of this:
“For the rest of his career, Will Smith’s Oscar win will be associated with this moment. That he wasn’t escorted out by security, is a reminder of two Americas. That if you are rich and famous, rules are different. That he sat back in his seat proves Will knows that…”
JAFD
Meanwhile, up the coast, from Tom Moran, Editorial Board Editor, The Star-Ledger – [email protected]
<< Are folks leaving Jersey? Nah!
Rutgers-Eagleton released a poll last week stating that 36% of New Jersey residents want to leave the state, a new high.
I don’t believe it, for starters. People have jobs and friends, and huge numbers say they’re happy with the schools, health care, and entertainment options. Plus, leaving would create its own hardships. Stray more than two or three states away, and you can’t get good pizza or bagels. Go to Texas, and you’re suddenly raising your children in a land where most people vote for Ted Cruz, over and over. I couldn’t do that.
The poll’s director, Ashley Koning, agreed that many of the poll’s respondents were probably bluffing. The poll, she said, is more a measure of discontent, and there is plenty of that going around.
Especially among Republicans. Asked to rate New Jersey’s quality of life, 74% of Democrats called it “excellent” or “good.” Among Republicans, only 47% agreed. Red Jersey is feeling grouchy.
“it’s a sign of the time,” Koning says. “It’s a trend we’re seeing in national polls as well.”
And in politics, rage is a great advantage. It motivates people to vote, as we saw during the red surge in November, when Republicans gained seven seats in the Legislature and nearly knocked off Gov. Phil Murphy.
Roger Ailes, the evil genius behind Fox News, turned this into an art form long before Donald Trump arrived. Listen to Fox News, and you’ll hear non-stop anger. Listen to its competitors, like Newsmax, and it’s even worse.
That’s the real value of this poll, it shows a new partisan split in the level of rage. Rutgers-Eagleton has been asking this same question for years, and as recently as 2010, there was little partisan difference.
And a final note: Our population is growing, not shrinking. It was 8.8 million in the 2010 census and grew to 9.3 million by 2020. Treasury reports show that the fastest growth is among the wealthiest segment of our population. Demand for homes in New Jersey is beyond robust.
Polls aside, the exodus story is a fantasy. >>
geg6
@Kay:
Same here. Every one of them that I know (and in Beaver County, PA, that’s a lot) is fool and a coward.
They are all freaking out around here because the new district maps put us in the same district as much of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh. Which means that it will most likely be a Dem district again since this shitty county, which has been losing population at a pretty good clip ever since it became a majority GQP district, cannot possibly outnumber the much larger Pittsburgh suburbs we’re now part of. My congressional district and state legislative districts are now majority Dem. Previously, my congressional district was very competitive (Conor Lamb) and is now much stronger Dem. My legislative district was majority GQP (49%) and is now strongly Dem (54%).
I love it.
MisterDancer
Everyone say it with me: It’s Not the Crime that Gets Ya. It’s the Coverup.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator: she is terrific!
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Don’t select one take and assume that it is significant. In fact, it says more about you and your values than it does about the incident itself. But this is also the nature of Internet hot takes.
ian
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Their lovechild will bring about the masking of the seven seals, so that the four horsemen will ride the wave of the apocalypse. The streets will run red with cranberry juice, and children will wail in the streets.
West of the Rockies
I assume most everybody here has seen Cawthorn’s Tweet in which he beats the living crap out of a rotting sapling? He sure tuckered out fast.
Brachiator
@Kay:
Sources say that McCarthy asked when they next round of orgies were scheduled and if he should bring anything to drink.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
What do you mean by that?
patrick II
I have stated here that Donald Trump is a traitor – – only to be corrected that, technically, you can’t be a traitor unless you are cooperating with an external entity we are at war with. So, I went with that view only to be corrected that we don’t have to be at war for someone to be a traitor. So, after both objections, I am going with – – and you can criticize me if you wish – – Trump is a traitor. In part, because we don’t really formally declare war anymore, we just get involved in fights with other countries. Secondly, Russia, which requires no formal declaration, is certainly at war with us. And finally, what Trump does with the aid of external forces, is so harmful to our country that there is no other term that aptly describes the seriousness of his crimes and the appropriate punishment he should be held to. For me, Traitor it is.
Kay
@geg6:
The costumes are very tough though. And the trucks.
I may get a D House member too, if she can win. Marcy Kaptur. She’s in a much more competitive district- from Biden +15 to Trump +3 but she’s a pro and I think she can pull it off.
I think I’m leaving Ohio when I retire. It’s just too far Right for me. I can’t live in a state that has lesser rights for women. I really, really value agency and the control of the religious right just makes me squirm. It makes me feel suffocated.
I like the north and the midwest and I love the Great Lakes so I’ll move to Michigan. I only have one grown kid who stayed in Ohio and he’s on the Michigan border anyway, so it’s just a hop over to him. You can stay in PA, so that’s nice.
MisterDancer
Without pointing fingers at anyone’s else take on this right now: I’ve learned stuff about how other Black folx process these situations from this event. It’s resonating for reasons, and not just because of the fame/infamy involved. There’s a lot of situations going on that aren’t obvious, and wern’t obvious to me when I first spoke up.
I’ve learned, in other words.
That said: I really am not invested, right now, in diving too deep into it. I’ve been doing it elsewhere and, like I said, I really have appreciated having a space where I didn’t feel like I needed to be on constant defense every time I refresh, given the scope/ubiquity of this.
I will say that it’s not a shallow incident, no matter the glitz and glamour it occurred it — and that we oft-ignore, usually for healthy reasons…but sometimes, there really is a core of realness in the Hollywood mix.
And of course, if nothing else, we are talking about real people, at the end of the day. As someone who’s been on stage since a kid, and had Weird Shit done to him over a tiny amount of fame — it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
Ken
That really does capture the tenor of some of the denials. Even if they had been in a coke-fueled orgy the night before, why not just say “never happened”? Instead they sound like someone who’s under a curse to only tell the truth, and trying to avoid telling the whole truth.
Ken
Long COVID dementia?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MisterDancer:
I’ve seen some pretty bad comments on Reddit about Jada/Will, along the lines of them having a “cuckold marriage” and Jada being a terrible person in general. I don’t really follow these people, so I don’t have any idea if they’re “good people” or not, but I don’t find it surprising that some people would take the opportunity to attack the woman when she didn’t do anything. It wasn’t Jada who assaulted Chris Rock
Brachiator
Some sad show biz news, from the BBC.
I certainly wish him and his family well.
Ken
Also his lips moved.
WaterGirl
@West of the Rockies: what?
West of the Rockies
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Three wealthy, celebrated people had an extremely public spat. None came out looking great or covered in glory. I suspect Smith especially regrets the event.
West of the Rockies
@WaterGirl:
Youtube has it as Madison Cawthorne Beats Up Tree to Own Libs.
Betty Cracker
Huh:
How do you “exaggerate” something like that? Either they did coke and invited him to orgies, or they didn’t.
catclub
this will get twice the coverage of GwBush admin destroying email, or having it on systems outside the government, illegally. Which is to say not at all.
Brachiator
@MisterDancer:
I appreciate what you are saying here.
And what you say about the complicated nature of fame is very true.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: so he wasn’t invited and that was the exaggeration?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
That’s certainly sad. I’d read recently that he’d been stepping away from acting gradually over the last 10 or so years, needing someone to tell him his lines through an earpiece on set
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Footsies and wine coolers.
Geminid
@geg6: I also lucked out in redistricting. The new Virginia map puts Greene County in the southwest corner of the new 7th District. The 7th has gone from D+1 to D+7, according to Mr. Wasserman of Cook’s Political Report, so Abigail Spanberger will probably be my next Representative.
Twenty miles away, my Charlottesville friends may be stuck with the odious Bob Good, as the new 5th District is thought to be a couple points more Republican (no-good Good won by 5 points in 2020). Demographic and political trends may put the 5th in play later this decade, though.
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
RE: In fact, it says more about you and your values than it does about the incident itself.
Nothing malicious.
Don’t you think that a reaction to public events might include your own interests and inclinations, if not your own biases?
You selected one statement out of thousands that pop up on the Internet. What about that statement got your attention?
In this or another thread, I was going to ask your opinion about science fiction, whether you watch any of the Trek shows, and if you are anticipating the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
I watched a YouTube video of some people reacting to a tv series called Halo, maybe based on a video game. With all the discussions about violence, I thought it interesting that they kinda cheered some scenes showing children being murdered by aliens, as though this indicated that the series would be “hard core.” It’s fiction, and I don’t think that this says that they condone violence. But still…
And yes, this probably says things about me.
dww44
I scanned the comments and didn’t see any about the resurrection (if that’s the proper term) of the Ukraine/Biden/Hunter/3 /12 million dollars payment. It’s interesting and, honestly, concerning that Trump voiced this when he did, never mind the possible treasonous connotation that can be affixed to them. (See Charlie Sykes). CNN has been running with the story all day that the DOJ investigation of this is heating up.
Why did I think that this issue was pretty much settled. Is some nefarious entity goosing this story for political gain, a la Benghazi! or is there enough there there?
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator:
In this case, probably that it indicates the villains would be as villainous as they are in the game. Though the Halo series does gray things out over time as they usually do in these long-running franchises.
Old School
@Betty Cracker:
It was at most five people.
eclare
@Brachiator: That is sad. I’m glad he has a big extended family for support. He and Demi are on good terms, along with the kids from that marriage.
Geminid
@Ken: The specific denial that cocaine was consumed makes me think that people were snorting Adderall. If I was offered a line of cocaine and a line of Adderall I would never take the Adderall. But pharmaceuticals seem to be thought as not exactly illegal by many people, including Republicans.
I saw that an associate of Matt Gaetz’s wingman Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty earlier this month to felony distribution of what is reported to be Adderall. His sentencing is now in the purview of the federal judge scheduled to sentence Greenberg in May.
UncleEbeneezer
@MisterDancer: One of my fave podcasters, comedian Randolph Terrence (of ThreeGuysOn podcast) did an interview with Dr. Apryl Alexander (a licensed therapist) to discuss the whole thing. As they noted repeatedly: it’s a LOT to unpack. There are so many angles to view it from: misogyny, toxic masculinity, race, respectability, ableism etc. that it’s pretty much impossible to choose just one. All complicated by the personas that Jada and Will, willfully choose to embrace as extremely public and often messy people. She urged everyone to hold off on quick comments and simple statements and instead to listen and explore it all with special focus on the nuances and intersections of so many issues. And reminded everyone that there is so much we don’t know about the backstory between Rock, Smith and Jada, that we are all just speculating big time.
It’s not available for free yet, but I believe it will be soon on threeguyson.com. It was a really interesting discussion.
Rod and Karen at TheBlackWhoTips podcast also had an interesting discussion.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
RE: I watched a YouTube video of some people reacting to a tv series called Halo, maybe based on a video game. With all the discussions about violence, I thought it interesting that they kinda cheered some scenes showing children being murdered by aliens, as though this indicated that the series would be “hard core.”
Makes sense. And this may represent my own aesthetic limitations. I know that there are a lot of people hot to see their favorite video games transformed into movies and TV shows. For them it is all entertainment. Which is certainly true.
But to see child actors in expertly staged scenes where you see their limbs blown off and their bodies ripped apart by alien weapons in what is ultimately a very pedestrian SF story didn’t appeal to me.
And you are right that the mayhem was meant to show how villainous the aliens were, and how badass some arriving human soldiers were. The show is ultimately about badass futuristic space weaponry.
trollhattan
“Tetris, the Movie” will be lit, believe me.
Brachiator
@UncleEbeneezer:
Thanks for the tip. I may check this out.
I did listen to TheBlackGuyWhoTips podcast. Rod noted how he refused to immediately issue a hot take, and deliberately stepped back from some Twitter discussions.
He and his wife offered a compassionate perspective on the event.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: Yeah, I don’t recall the games actually showing a lot of graphic carnage like that–it’s implied, and though the games are rated M for violence, they’re a lot less explicitly gory than others out there. But it is a game that’s all about shooting enemy aliens with futuristic weapons.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Old School: as I forget who said on twitter, “key bump” is pretty specific. I have not, to my knowledge, been in the same room as cocaine in thirty-odd years. We talked about lines in my time. I have heard people talk about bumps, never key bumps.
Brachiator
Another story in the news. From the BBC.
I think that everything about this decision to exclude the cyclist is stupid.
Urban Suburbanite
I watched a bizarre rally in Seattle this weekend. It was hyped up as an anti-mandate rally, which made no sense because those were dropped. There was also a lot of concerns about the potential for violence and local fascists coming in geared up.
The actual rally was ridiculous – one of the organizers pulled out, and the event staff (a bunch of them are involved in fascist fuckery or being public nuisances) fumbled around for a while trying to set up. They wouldn’t even start until the anarchists ninjas showed up – everyone from the cops to press dicked around on their phones until then. Then it was followed by some insane Qanon ramblings about underground Satanists and Bill and Melinda Gates (also telling the audience they were warriors for burning relationships with their families for paranoid idiocy), terrible singing (and even worse dancing), and the head nuisance announcing her running for governor. There were also a couple Republicans there – Joe Kent (I think Adam Silverman has mentioned that fascist ghoul before) and Jim Walsh (a state representative who’s all in on anti-vaccine stupidity).
The whole thing was a shit show, but it did demonstrate that the Q cultists, fascists, and some fringe Republicans are starting to merge together.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ken
@Baud: Wine coolers with crushed vie-ag-ra.
(Do we still have that filter that rejects comments with spammy keywords?)
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: At least he didn’t “misspeak”. I never knew there were so many ways to spell LIED.
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Oh, they are losing. Don’t get me wrong. But so was Russia before they invaded Ukraine.
Look at what’s happening. The GOP is making no effort at national policy. What they are trying to do is lock down states where they still have legislative control to maintain that control. Biden lost Texas by 5 points, and the GOP response is to turn everything up to 11 – a combination of energizing the base, but also giving the legislature increasing power to decide who the outcome of an election is. That’s their only real mechanism for national victory.
But they are absolutely losing the culture war. Badly. If this were checkers, they could gracefully admit it. But this is a culture war. This is the whole ballgame – 400 years of cultural authority going down the drain, and there will be nothing graceful about the defeat, so the more they are losing, the less graceful you can expect them to get. Jan 6 was very ungraceful. It’s just a start.
You seem to be worried about winning and losing. I’m not. Dems are winning. There’s no question. I’m worried about violence and how the GOP are going to register their loss of cultural authority.
Everyone is focusing their attention on the batshit stuff that Ginni Thomas sent to Mark Meadows. This is what Mark wrote back to her:
This is the ballgame to them. We sort of blow it off as random nuttery and bigotry, but it’s life and death to them, and it’s going to continue to be a shock to Democrats when their reaction is as one of life or death. The GOP has no mechanisms to ease them into this new liberal future. It only knows how to pour more fuel into the fire, and it’s just a matter of time before it blows.
eclare
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: All I ever heard about were glass topped tables…
Martin
@Brachiator: Video games as movies are a tricky topic. In the case of Halo, there’s a pretty large amount of world building in writing that far exceeds anything in the games. The movie is an adaptation of the writing, not of the game.
And so that scene is a signal of that – that the movie is being true to the books and not to the game, because killing children in video games is pretty taboo, but perfectly reasonable in books and movies.
Here’s a pretty funny video of a video game journalist (and holder of a degree in English) reading all of the Halo novels.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Obviously it’s a lie. He starts by saying they invited him to their parties. I don’t think so!
Martin
@germy: A trap.
Martin
@trollhattan: It comes out later this year.
WaterGirl
@Martin: I generally agree with you, and I am always glad that you are here, but I have to disagree with this:
in many ways, this next 2 years is the ballgame to us, as well. No one I know is blowing this off and random nutty. I would say that It’s life and death to our side as well. Results in 2022 and 2024 are going to basically determine whether we stay a democracy or slip past the point of no return (for years / decades at least) into autocracy.
Mallard Filmore
@Betty Cracker: Only SOME of us did coke.
Ruckus
@MattF:
That’s 2 FL “political” dipshits that think that about themselves, all the while having exactly zero rational to do so.
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
Oh, hi, missed this first time through.
We’re pretty much the Good (9m) the Bad (44f) and the Meh (49m).
The boy got over his temperature after a day and has been joyfully off school and paying PC games with some coughing for a week. Lady Jay has a different annoying symptom every day, nothing major but she’s just tired all the bloody time and it’s wearing on her. I had one day of yack and a night of uncomfortable sweats and I’m basically just suffering a shitty cold with the odd headache.
That said, I’m coughing now and will probably be in a coma tomorrow. This Covid stuff, it malingers.
Martin
@WaterGirl: It’s life and death because of the election interference. But we don’t see putting (or failing to put) a black woman on the Supreme Court as an existential crisis. They do. They will go to war over it, which is why they are so determined to shape the court at all costs, and have no problem finding hundreds of lawyers and lawmakers to commit felonies to stop it.
We’re responding to them having burned down every institutional check except for the very last one. It’s only here at the tipping point that we’re responding, because we blew off all the other objections as being whiny babies and we are now shocked that they’re willing to burn democracy down to win.
trollhattan
@Martin: Heh, why the hell not? Silicon Valley fail biopics seem quite the thing lately. Have been watching “The Dropout” and it’s pretty good. The corporate paranoia level once they formalize the tech fraud, I suspect is not exaggerated. Amanda Seyfried’s channeling Holmes is utterly eerie, from the Holmes videos I’ve seen.
Martin
@trollhattan: I mean, maybe there’s a good story there? I’m pretty skeptical as someone who is quite invested in video games and their history. But as ‘The Big Short’ showed, you can make a pretty fucking good movie around a pretty dull topic if you get the mechanics right.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: I appreciate the update. At least you aren’t having to worry too much about the boy. Small favors?
That sounds pretty crummy for the rest of you. I hate these people who made Covid worse for everyone else.
I hope you recover more quickly than you expect and that long Covid has no interest at all in your household.
I did find myself wondering this afternoon… if you are still writing when you are feeling low energy and ill with Covid, would you say half as much or say the same things but with fewer words. :-)
WaterGirl
@Martin: I can’t argue with that. We were very slow on the uptake. Until the past few years, most of us didn’t recognize how many chinks there were in the armor of our democracy.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
From what I’ve read, a bump is just a reinforcement of the original line, something to keep the high going. So to speak.
Miss Bianca
@Jerzy Russian: Pete: still so fuckin’ cute I can hardly stand it.
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
Actually I started writing a short screed today after Flobalobalov’s latest piss in the face of common decency (it’s in the extra early morning thread) and worried that I’d lose ranting energy (because I have been a bit brain-foggy at times), but as it turned out I had to rein myself in and stop myself launching into a few thousand word diatribe just so I could make breakfast.
The body might be weak, but the bile is always willing. 8-)
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@WaterGirl: There are plenty of “normies” who have no idea how extreme R’s have gotten, or how extreme they will “govern” when they are back in power.
The media helps ensure the “both sides” perception that helps mask and conceal this extremism.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: Impressive!
WaterGirl
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Yes, most of our mainstream media spews propaganda on a daily basis. Appalling.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Don’t at all like playing the part of a tattletale, but this to my mind ran smack afoul of the new take a time out policy.
Jeffro
The DeSantis 2024 strategy is just…breathtaking. YES, Ron, America couldn’t get enough of trumpov, so much so that we kicked his sorry ass out after one term, by 7 million votes, so this is indeed the model you want to follow here. “Asshole Squared”. Nay, “Asshole Cubed“.
Jeffro
And I have to believe that at some point, perhaps on a nationally televised debate state, Uncle Joe will actually speak those very lines.
(please FSM!)
Captain C
@Betty Cracker: Maybe they invited him to watch porn over rum and cokes? Still seems very unlikely, not to mention oddly specific.
Miki
My Little Big Man is having his Nut Job next Tuesday. We got him a surgery recovery suit to replace the cone of shame, and he looks damn cute in it. Hope it works ‘cus the cone is a real bummer for some doggos, and I have reason to believe this is one of them (i.e., he’s a sensitive guy).
Jeffro
Excellent take that I may be borrowing for the next couple of election cycles… ;)
Jeffro
Because the Dems don’t make 1/10th of the noise about it that they should.
Ruckus
@patrick II:
Sounds right to me.
Dictionary.com says the definition of traitor is:
a person who betrays a friend, country, principle, etc
Seems to fit just fine.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
It’s not a lie, it’s an exaggeration.
There was coke there, just not everyone indulged.
There were orgies, just not everyone was getting some.
Kevin thinks that saying the wrong quiet part out loud is not good for the rethuglican party.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Thank you. I hadn’t made my way through that whole thread yet.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: It’s kind of rich that the guy who said “Putin pays 2 people, this person and that person” is now punishing someone else for saying the quiet parts out loud.
MagdaInBlack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: A key bump is taken off the tip of your key, scoop it with the key. I never had any interest in coke, I was a stoner. But I had friends who seemed to enjoy it
And that specific tells me our young man has some friends to do as well.
Ksmiami
@Kay: I love Michigan and despite some Calvinists around Grand Rapids, it’s way more moderate than Ohio. And plenty of need for someone like you to be involved politically and make a difference. Plus Canada by train is so lovely and easy
Jeffro
@Kay: The Great Migration 2: go where the sanity is. (Or, for GQP voters, go where the insanity is).
I’m not being flip. It’s not data, but I feel like I hear more and more folks talking about visiting/living in/retiring to states based on how crazy their state governments are acting.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: well, he can’t come right out and say “everything I said was true, but I wish I’d just kept my mouth shut”
or finesse it: “When I said ‘orgies’ and ‘cocaine’ with members of Congress…well…that was really the stuff that Roger Stone and MTG talked me into. So only one real member of Congress”
Jeffro
@Geminid: nooooooooooo (re: the 5th)
I have to go take a good look at our D candidates – there are three, and the only one I know of is Andy Parker. Heart in the right place, head perhaps not what we’re looking for.
Ruckus
@Martin:
Conservatives were “right” for a very long time in this country. Until they weren’t. I’d say the last really “right” president they’ve had was Eisenhower. Since then they have gotten more and more ridiculous and more and more having to do stuff that really, really screws the country and 99% of the people in it, including of course, their supporters. Their actions have cost us a depression and a recession so close to being a depression that it was difficult to see the difference. My parents went through the depression, I lost most everything in that thing we aren’t calling a depression but should have. (In Marin county, the supposedly wealthiest county in CA, there were people sleeping beside the RR tracks that run N-S through the middle.) Conservatives have no idea how to organize and run a country or state that is larger than a bread box. Their ideals are about how to steal everything not tied down because it is their right to do so. Their methodologies can not exist in a world that is supposed to be free and run reasonably for the majority. And it could sort of work when the country was smaller and the amounts being stolen were reasonably small and spread out. But a united country of the size we are, where everyone is supposed to have a chance can not stand the trauma of one half of the political system trying to steal everything not tied down. And much that is.
Kay
@Jeffro:
I don’t know if anyone else is doing it. I’m doing it because I have standards. I’m just not living in a state where women don’t have the full set of rights to bodily autonomy. It’s appalling.
Ruckus
@Kay:
I had a smart ass reply all set up but just no.
I see no reason to live in a state that does not do at the very least, the minimum that is required of an actual democracy. So that leaves out any conservative state. Now of course that means they won’t change and will get worse and they will select conservative senators that not only don’t mind screwing most of their constituents but will take glee in it. So realism may keep the house but the senate will have not enough realistic members and congress will become absolutely worthless, instead of 27% useless.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: The problem with the Big Sort is that they end up with way more states and land area than we do. Which, because of our constitutional structure, means that the crazy ends up with permanent control of the federal government.
And this probably ends with them trying to break us one way or another. The tanks roll in and the bombs come down, like Ukraine, only they’re American tanks and bombs.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: I’m old enough to remember Rene’e Richards.
These culture war things go in cycles. The war is never truly over, not as long as GQPers get elected – they will always try to drag us back.
Forward!
Biden has a lot of power, running the federal government and he knows how politics works. I like our chances in the fall and 2024.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Matt McIrvin: I wasn’t proposing it as a solution: was just observing that it seems to be happening more and more, or at least, more and more folks in my orbit are considering these kinds of issues (instead of just ‘where are my taxes going to be lowest?’ and ‘where can I live that’s not so goddamn cold all the time?’
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: +1
DeSantis can wait. He’s not going to run against TFG, I don’t think.
We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
@Ruckus: IMO Civil Rights was the inflection point. Until the 60s, ‘conservatism’ controlled both parties. But Civil Rights broke that – Democrats gave up the south by backing civil rights and replaced those voters with POC. That immediately raised the stakes – that minorities could run the country. That took a LONG time to start to manifest because Democrats were still pretty conservative but the more Democrats have embraced that inevitable reality, the more Republicans have lost their shit.
So yeah, I agree, Ike was good. They really went to shit after that.
sab
@Kay: If your aim is access to Republicans then bad hires is an inevitability, because modern Republicans only hang out with bad people.
J R in WV
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
There is some inflation, I think mostly it’s profit stealing by the corporate overlords, who saw average people getting uppity and decided to put us back in our places at the bottom.
Your opinion may vary, but that’s where I put 95% of the blame.
Primer Gray (formerly Yet Another Jeff)
@ian: Great…another Demi Moore movie…