Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

White supremacy is terrorism.

After roe, women are no longer free.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

The willow is too close to the house.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

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

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Vive la France

Vive la France

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206Comments

  2. 2.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I had expected Macron to win, but I really thought it would be a 10 point margin.  Better than I expected.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    sounds like a good, healthy margin– I just heard on NPR this morning that there were predictions it would be down from 2017

    and a quick google tells me the margin is down a bit, from 66-33 to 58-42

  9. 9.

    Yutsano

    How does one say curb stomping in French? That’s basically a blowout especially considering how close it was last time. Viva le France!

  10. 10.

    Hoodie

    Better than I would have expected. I get the sense he picked up some momentum from Le Pen’s close affiliation with Putin, along with what was a pretty strong performance in the debate. I would be interesting to know what the turnout was, there was some thought that parts of the left would stay home. Maybe that wasn’t the case.

  12. 12.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Yutsano: My French friend wrote this to me on 8 April:

    Thanks. You should not be worrying too much, though. I don’t think we can do worse than the one you had previously :grin:

    Prophetic words!

  14. 14.

    Calouste

    When Le Pen père was in the run-off way back when, he got about 20% in the first round. In the run off against right winger Chirac, he barely got anything more, because all the lefties held their nose and voted for Chirac. Le Pen fille got in the run-off twice with about 20% in the first round, and in both cases she doubled her share of the vote because right wingers rather vote for a fascist than a centrist.

  15. 15.

    debbie

    This is sure to break Ukraine:  //

    Russia has reached the Freedom Fries stage. Russian stores and restaurants are renaming Chicken Kiev.
    It’s now, depending on the place, Chicken Crimea, Chicken Friendship, Butter Chicken, Chicken Vyatka (?), or, ingenuously, Chicken Kirov.
    — Slava Malamud ?? (@SlavaMalamud) April 24, 2022

  18. 18.

    Hoodie

    @debbie: Maybe that is some sort of equivalent to jumping the shark, you start renaming foods concurrent with a military overreach.

  20. 20.

    Mike in NC

    OT: I pretty much forgot that Orrin Hatch was still alive until yesterday. On the subject of extremist Mormons, Hulu is coming out with a miniseries based on the book, “Under the Banner of Heaven”, about the fundamentalist LDS church in the southwest. Read it a number of years ago and it was very good.

  22. 22.

    debbie

    DougJ has competition:

    While exit polling in France shows Emmanual Macron winning in a 17-point walk over Marine LePen, at this Ohio diner, over plates of french fries, these 5 unvaccinated truckers have a different opinion.
    –The New York Times tomorrow, probably.
    — soonergrunt ?? A Capybara Appreciation Account (@soonergrunt) April 24, 2022

  23. 23.

    Peale

    @Calouste: idk. I think I’ll feel relieved this afternoon. It’s nice to get a semblance of a win, before I can go and fret about the Filipino elections.

  25. 25.

    JMG

    The first time, Macron was a new candidate. This time he was the incumbent, and French Presidents are always unpopular. His approval rating is lower than Biden’s, but he got a big majority anyway. Protests are a way of life in France about everything, but when a decision must be made, most voters there go for stability.

    PS: Voter turnout is estimated at 72 percent. That’s the lowest in a French presidential election final in over 50 years. It would be the highest turnout in an American presidential election EVER.

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    Je suis soulagé.  I am relieved.  *whew*

    I knew that Macron was ahead, but a few too many publications went with scare tactic headlines in the run up to voting.  (Looking at you, FTF NY Times.)

  31. 31.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Omnes Omnibus: I know this flies in the face of your avowed optimism, but 40% of a nuclear-armed permanent member of the UNSC choosing an out and proud fascist is not a result worthy of foam fingers and raucous applause.

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Peale:

    the Indians howl with laughter at this “butter chicken” the Russians are serving. 

    The blandness!  And what’s this – breading?

  33. 33.

    Diceros bicornis

    @Hoodie: 28% abstention is what is being reported. Early still for good stats. Also hearing Macron could end up as high as 60% – the polls have just closed so all votes not yet counted

  36. 36.

    James E Powell

    @Mike in NC:

    Orrin Hatch is the a hole who said there was no question that Republicans would vote to confirm Merrick Garland for the supreme court, then refused to hold hearings.

    There are varying degrees, but every Republican is an a hole.

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic:

    …40% of a nuclear-armed permanent member of the UNSC choosing an out and proud fascist is not a result worthy of foam fingers and raucous applause.

    I say celebrate the 60-40 victory today, and get right back to work for a stronger victory tomorrow.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    @Gin & Tonic:   Please, G&T.  The French did the right thing.

    We do have to get the deplorables deprogrammed, or, failing that, back under their rocks.  It is pretty much a worldwide problem, with some happy exceptions.

    But we can take pleasure in a good result, today.

  41. 41.

    Matt McIrvin

    That’s a much bigger margin than I was expecting. I thought it was neck-and-neck.

    Macron himself isn’t great, but, you know, for Christ’s sake, any Le Pen should not be a serious threat.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    I look forward to a time when we can feel good that our candidate won but not that we escaped disaster

    Have we in the US ever had that since Ike and Stevenson? (When we’ve lost, it’s been a disaster.).

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    @MattF:   Yup.  We should put up a Hall of Shame on that.  Identify those wastrels, and the outlets that published that crap.

    Mostly, I am glad the French do not have to contend with an Electoral College.  It is a chaos agent, and needs to go.

  45. 45.

    zhena gogolia

    Two nights ago I dreamed that LePen won with 98.4%. Everyone was saying it must have been a Putin-style victory, but no one could do anything about it. Glad it was just a dream.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    @Elizabelle:

    We do have to get the deplorables deprogrammed, or, failing that, back under their rocks

     
    The tactic of repeatedly beating them in elections is a good way to do that. We should try it sometime.

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Gin & Tonic: Macron beat the polls.  It was a better result that Biden vs Trump or HRC vs Trump.  Better result than the Brexit vote in Britain or any subsequent British elections.  I’ll take my wins where I find them.  If you want to look for reasons to be down about this result, I can’t stop you.

  49. 49.

    Diceros bicornis

    @Gin & Tonic: no but it’s worthy of a sigh of relief and a vow to come back and keep fighting. Legislative elections are coming up in a month…

  50. 50.

    mrmoshpotato

    Orrin G. Hatch

    (R-Utah) GUILTY GUILTY

    Via CNN, Hatch’s Consensual Cocksucking-gate’s votes.

    Fuck ’em!

  51. 51.

    Calouste

    @Elizabelle: Journalists love them some right-wing extremists, especially the entitled legacy hires at the FTFNYT. Why? Because writing about them doesn’t take any effort, it’s all about simplistic hate and grievances, not about actual complicated policies.

  53. 53.

    japa21

    @Omnes Omnibus: I would be hard pressed to say that all 40% who voted for LePen are in favor of fascism, just like all the 43% that voted for Trump are out and out racists and lovers of authoritarians.  40% is a long way from a majority.  Would I prefer it had been 65-35 or greater?  Of course.  But I am happy for these results and hope that the people of France work to keep the LePen types at 40% or preferably less.

  54. 54.

    Another Scott

    “Vote for the neoliberal investment banker! It’s important!!”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  55. 55.

    trollhattan

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    My limited understanding is polling among the young was skewing towards Le Pen–kids, you know–and with lower than normal turnout I’ll guess the young did not turn out. Could be a reason he exceeded the polls.

    Whatever the reasons, it’s a good day for European democracy. Doesn’t make Orban’s easy reelection any less bitter, though.

  56. 56.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:   We win a lot, as you know.

    But:  the Electoral College makes it more difficult than it should be.

  57. 57.

    Barbara

    What a relief. Le Pen really is Putin’s puppet, bought and paid for. I don’t pretend to understand French political parties, but it’s striking how current parties in so many countries see the future only in the rear view mirror. This is obvious on the right but it’s a problem for some labor-oriented parties as well.
    Whatever personal defects Macron has, Le Pen was straight up promising allegiance to Putin, whose arrogance and disdain for average people make Macron look like a puppy. It still shocks me that she received so many votes.

  61. 61.

    Barbara

    @Another Scott: ​
     This is what I mean by how the heck did other French parties so badly serve their constituents that none could come close to challenging Le Pen or Macron. At least not for the top job.

  72. 72.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Elizabelle:

    We do have to get the deplorables deprogrammed, or, failing that, back under their rocks. 

    The deplorables are “reprogrammable meatbags” as driftglass calls them.  FOX could tell them the exact opposite thing tomorrow from today’s marching orders, and they’d turn on a dime.

    As for getting the Nazi trash to go back under their rocks, possibly.  But with all of the red meat being thrown, ie. Don’t Say Gay bill, CRT lies, etc, beating them back at the polls will be an ongoing effort as usual.

  73. 73.

    Calouste

    @Barbara: Mélenchon (left winger) was only 1.2% behind Le Pen in the first round. You wouldn’t have heard about it in a lot of media, because it didn’t fit the narrative.

  74. 74.

    debbie

    It’s also a real pleasure not to hear anything about disputing the results or demanding a recount.

  75. 75.

    oldster

    Now I wish there was a way to sweep the Putin enablers out of the German government.

    Baerbock is good, thank god, and young: she got it right about Nordstream 2 many years ago, and she is saying the right things now.

    But Scholz is a huge disappointment. We knew that Schroeder was bought and paid for; we knew that AfD was a Kremlin front. Austria is always atrocious. But no one expected Scholz to be this bad, esp when German public opinion is supportive of greater involvement.

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @Barbara: One thing that reporting on this election made me realize is how much the Socialist Party of Mitterand and the Republican Front(?) of Chirac have declined. I think they finished in single digits in the first round.

  80. 80.

    debbie

    @oldster:

    We need more than sweeping them out. We need to understand how they can continue supporting Putin in light of his actions.

  81. 81.

    Carlo Graziani

    Aux armes, citoyens!

    Formez Vos battalions!!

    Marchons! Marchons! Qu’un…

    Well, let’s not go on with the lyrics, it’s a good tune anyway. Color me relieved.

    And, I bet Putin is pissed as hell. Another one of his inside straight plays somehow fails to pay off. What a khuylo.

  88. 88.

    Carlo Graziani

    @WaterGirl: Oh, Wow. I wish I could recall the Nym of the BJ commenter who referred us to this longform blog post, a work of sheer genius, worthy of an Orwell essay, that made me envious of her writing skill, and which explains the etymology of “khuylo” and the history and significance of its application to Putin perfectly. Everyone should read the whole thing.

  90. 90.

    JMG

    I was in France for the 2012 election, when Hollande, the Socialist, won. He then proceeded to destroy the Socialist party by after having campaigned against German-imposed fiscal austerity, promptly went along with it. The left voters rightly saw this as a betrayal, and Melenchon, who was a fringe candidate back then, has now more or less united the left behind him.

  91. 91.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Carlo Graziani: The commenter was whatever The Fat White Dutchess’ new nym is; the blogger is a friend of hers, and that post was indeed a work of genius. I have it bookmarked at home, where I am not.

  92. 92.

    Sure Lurkalot

    I read that TFG said at his hate fest last night that our elections should be like in France. Of course the message was “no fake mail in ballots” but I could be open to a Sunday in person election based on the popular vote.

    I actually used to believe we’d be rid of the electoral college in my lifetime. Must have been about the same time when I believed Americans preferred a democratic form of government.

  94. 94.

    Brit in Chicago

    @Baud: I was jubilant when Obama won a second term but, in hindsight, I don’t think a Romney victory would have been a disaster. If he’d won a second term, there would have someone competent and sane (unless you think Mormonism is crazy) in charge when the pandemic struck. Possibly even a net gain, though there would certainly have been losses.

  99. 99.

    MazeDancer

    Macron has an approval rating in the 30’s. And he just achieved a 16 point victory.

    Will take le meme chose of people voting to save Democracy in the midterms.

  101. 101.

    JMG

    I should add that within both the Socialist and the traditional center-right parties that were the heirs of deGaulle, corruption has been rampant for a long long time.

  104. 104.

    burnspbesq

    @Carlo Graziani:

    I’m amused by the way the author misrendered the names of Ukrainian football clubs as though they were NFL teams. Kharkiv Metalists? Sure—as soon as we can refer to 1849 San Francisco.

  105. 105.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Gin & Tonic: incidentally, today’s NYT Magazine has an article (paywalled) on a new coinage in use in Ukrainian: apparently “рашизм” in Cyrillic (I copy-pasted, of course), which is pronounced “ruscism”.

    I expect that one to start showing up in Adam’s evening posts soon enough.

  106. 106.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:

    The Constitution could end up being a suicide pact.

    I think we might need to drop that into conversation more often.  Get the concept out there.

    The Founders were sure right about separation of Church and State, though.  Problem is that rightwing tending to fascism HAS become a religion.

    And the liars who promote it are hiding behind the First Amendment.

  107. 107.

    zhena gogolia

    @Carlo Graziani: This has been discussed on the Slavic listserv. It is not new at all. It goes back at least to 2015.

    ETA: I haven’t read the article because I’m kind of sick of Snyder, but that isn’t the right pronunciation.

    ETA: The point is is rhymes with the word for fascism/fascists.

  108. 108.

    Elizabelle

    @ Brit in Chicago and @Baud:   With VP Paul Ryan queued up?  Do we forget that?

    That said, Romney is what passes for a principled and decent guy, on that side of the aisle.  And he does possess some decency, in there with other aspects of his personality.

  109. 109.

    Calouste

    @JMG: The problem with recent French presidents seems to be that they listen a lot to economic advisers who think that France should be more like the US, where the French voters want France to be like France, with 35 hour working weeks, six weeks vacation, and retirement in your early sixties.

  110. 110.

    Gin & Tonic

    @burnspbesq: So much else in that piece was so good, that this was an easy one to let slide, especially from someone presumably unfamiliar with Ukrainian football.

  111. 111.

    zhena gogolia

    @Carlo Graziani: To be clear, I’m quoting the following.

    I hate to rain on his parade, but… a little search shows that the word “Rashism” has been used in print at least since 2015:

    [PDF] ceon.rs
    World War II 2.0: Digital memory of fascism in Russia in the aftermath of Euromaidan in Ukraine
    E Gaufman – Journal of Regional Security, 2015 – ceeol.com
    … Pro-Ukrainian commentators have also used the word ‘Rashism’ (conflation of ‘Russia’ and
    ‘fascism’) to emphasize the aggressive intentions of Russia. Another word that is often used …

    It is my pleasure to point out the article of a friend and a college Elena Shmeleva, also from 2015:

    [HTML] Интернет-коммуникация: новые тенденции в русском словообразовании
    ЕЯ Шмелева – Верхневолжский филологический вестник, 2015 – cyberleninka.ru
    … , -ист слова рашизм (идеология «великорусскости», от пренебрежительного названия
    России – Раша, Рашка) и рашист (тот, кто придерживается идеологии рашизма) имеют …

    As you can see, the two definitions are a bit different, which is not uncommon.

    Now that there is a Wikipedia page it might become more popular, of course.

  112. 112.

    James E Powell

    @JMG:

    At the time, it seemed like the entire world’s center-left (left-center?) parties embraced austerity. A grievous error.

  117. 117.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Carlo Graziani: Zhena gogolia is right on the origin and pronunciation. But I can add that there’s also a derisive pronunciation of “Russia,” at least among western-exposed Ukrainians, close to “RA-sha,” which mirrors the first syllable of рашист.

    ETA: I see that referenced in her later comment.

  119. 119.

    Carlo Graziani

    @zhena gogolia: Hm. To an anglophonic ear, I can see why “ruscism” would make a more compelling portmanteau than “rashism”. The former does more work to actually indict Russia. Possibly this is wasted effort in Slavic languages?

    ETA: Seeing Gin & Tonic’s explanation now, which makes sense.

  120. 120.

    zhena gogolia

    @Carlo Graziani: I’ve been seeing it in tweets that Adam has posted. But maybe I see it because it’s in Cyrillic. Not sure I’ve seen it transliterated. I thought it was fairly widespread, but maybe only in Ukr/Russ.

    It’s poignant, because “fashisty” is what Russians use to refer to Nazi Germany.

  121. 121.

    zhena gogolia

    @Carlo Graziani: It’s pronounced rah – SHIST-i, not rooshisty.

    ETA: As with most translations, you’re going to lose a lot of secondary associations if you try to capture it with something like “ruscism.” I don’t think it will work. I almost used рашисты here the other day, but as a non-Ukrainian I don’t think it works coming from me.

  124. 124.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Carlo Graziani: Part of the problem is that the short “u” phoneme as in “bug” is not present in Ukrainian. The flat “a” is the closest analogue.

  125. 125.

    Dangerman

    @Mike in NC: I assume Orrin Hatch will be buried in Utah…

    …which could present a problem given Utah is kind of a dry state; I’m not sure it’ll be easy to get a 12 or 24 pack in the local stores for the appropriate “regards”.

  126. 126.

    Brachiator

    @Calouste:

    where the French voters want France to be like France, with 35 hour working weeks, six weeks vacation, and retirement in your early sixties.

    Of course the French can achieve this only by settling on economic stagnation and becoming a second rate nation. This fate would be even worse had Le Pen been elected and been free to try to push immigrants out of the economy.

    The UK, on the other hand, seems intent on becoming a third rate country as the Tories push for an absurd and futile combination of laissez faire economics and crony capitalism.

  128. 128.

    Sloane Ranger

    Listened to the BBC interview some French voters this morning. Several left wingers were saying that they disagreed with almost all of Macron’s policies, but they’d be holding their noses and voting for him because it was more important to keep the Fascists out.

  129. 129.

    Ruckus ??

    @Calouste:

    It wasn’t always any better before Ike picked RN.

    Politics is a battle between nothing changing and very slow progress. Because humans. And our system has it’s flaws, like every other system known to humans. Some want no rules, some want blandness, some want complete overturn to something better, some want complete overturn to something worse, and some have their heads so far up their butts that they could be related to SFB. It takes all kinds to make a human race, and we got em. The last 75 yrs has been a time of greater change because of communication. And it goes both ways, better communications go both ways – better and worse information gets better and worse politics.

  130. 130.

    trollhattan

    Meanwhile, war-criming that’s not technically a war crime.

    Dozens of civilians who died during the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian city of Bucha were killed by tiny metal arrows from shells of a type fired by Russian artillery, forensic doctors have said.
    Pathologists and coroners who are carrying out postmortems on bodies found in mass graves in the region north of Kyiv, where occupying Russian forces have been accused of atrocities, said they had found small metal darts, called fléchettes, embedded in people’s heads and chests.

    “We found several really thin, nail-like objects in the bodies of men and women and so did others of my colleagues in the region,” Vladyslav Pirovskyi, a Ukrainian forensic doctor, told the Guardian. “It is very hard to find those in the body, they are too thin. The majority of these bodies come from the Bucha-Irpin region.”
    Independent weapons experts who reviewed pictures of the metal arrows found in the bodies, seen by the Guardian, confirmed that they were fléchettes, an anti-personnel weapon widely used during the first world war.
    These small metal darts are contained in tank or field gun shells. Each shell can contain up to 8,000 fléchettes. Once fired, shells burst when a timed fuse detonates and explodes above the ground.
    Fléchettes, typically between 3cm and 4cm in length, release from the shell and disperse in a conical arch about 300m wide and 100m long. On impact with a victim’s body, the dart can lose rigidity, bending into a hook, while the arrow’s rear, made of four fins, often breaks away causing a second wound.
    According to a number of witnesses in Bucha, fléchette rounds were fired by Russian artillery a few days before forces withdrew from the area at the end of March.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/24/dozens-bucha-civilians-killed-flechettes-metal-darts-russian-artillery

  131. 131.

    Citizen Alan

    @japa21:

    Honestly, I can’t help but wonder how much of that 40% was actually leftists who voted against macron because they think le Pen will usher in the new socialist revolution.  How do you say Susan Sarandon in French?

  133. 133.

    Glidwrith

    @MazeDancer: I’m not familiar with Slovenian politics. Since a populist is usually bad news, can I assume the PM being thrown out of power is a good thing?

  134. 134.

    Kay

    On Friday afternoon, the small convoy of semitrucks, pickup trucks, minivans and other cars drove to Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks’ East Bay home to protest her support of an abortion rights bill. As they honked and used bullhorns in the quiet residential neighborhood, neighbors gathered to heckle them right back, yelling at the truckers to get off their street.
    Livestreams posted by convoy participants show police arriving to protect Wicks’ home, which eventually prompted the group to move on. It was here the convoy members made their mistake, driving onto busy, one-lane College Avenue on the Berkeley-Oakland border. There, slowed down by the usual Friday afternoon traffic, they were sitting ducks outside the Safeway. A large group of kids, armed with eggs purchased at the grocery store, began pelting the convoy.

    In the aftermath of its defeat at the Rockridge Safeway, the convoy has returned to Sacramento Raceway Park. It’s unclear what its future plans are, but according to its website, it has raised nearly $1.9 million in donations.

  140. 140.

    brendancalling

    @WaterGirl: I had two interviews at two different schools in Philly, and another this Friday. I also have an interview here in Burlington on Wednesday, although that’s mainly my backstop. I wanna get back to Philly.

  141. 141.

    Ksmiami

    @debbie: Or we can suspend all German business transaction with the US until they remember that we are the leader and they’re the client state. Tighten the screws

  144. 144.

    Kay

    @trollhattan:

    They get really excited when they make contact with the first truck – jumping up and down.

    The convey were surprised and disappointed by their reception. I can’t imagine what goes on in these peoples head at this point- they have convinced themselves they’ll be greeted as liberators.

    Also-weren’t we told repeatedly they objected to vaccine and mask tyranny- that was the specific grievance? They went there to scream at people about abortion.

  146. 146.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Kay: They just want to be mad, Kay. Petulant children.

    I do love the ridiculousness of being driven out with eggs. ?

  149. 149.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:   LOL.  And this in a time when we are told eggs are scarcer and more expensive.

    You go, kids.

  150. 150.

    zhena gogolia

    @Spanky: I’m watching This Is Spinal Tap for the first time in my life. It’s pretty funny. Christopher Guest is hilarious. I love when Tony Hendra is explaining that Philly is the rock capital of America.

  152. 152.

    BC in Illinois

    President Macron, on Twitter:

    À celles et ceux qui ont voté pour moi, non pour soutenir mes idées mais pour faire barrage à celles de l’extrême droite, votre vote m’oblige. Ce soir, je ne suis plus le candidat d’un camp, mais le Président de toutes et tous.

    To those who voted for me, not to support my ideas but to block those of the extreme right, your vote obliges me. This evening, I am no longer the candidate of one camp, but the President of all. [par google traduction]

  153. 153.

    Calouste

    @Kay:

    [the anti-abortion convoy] has raised almost $1.9 million in donations

    I remember one of the grievances Martin Luther had against the Roman Catholic Church was that you could basically buy your way into heaven by making donations to the church. It seems like current day evangelicals just have a little more circuitous way to try to achieve the same effect.

  155. 155.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    They yell at them “we’re fighting for your freedom too!” but I don’t think the kids heard them over their celebrations of each direct egg hit.

  156. 156.

    Steeplejack

    I went over to LGM to read the Orrin Hatch obit (very good, by the way) and happened to catch this Paul Campos gem in his piece on the Michigan GQP:

    Grifters like DeSantis, Cruz, Hawley, etc., are trying to position themselves to grab the tiara should it tumble from Dear Leader’s magnificent coiffure, but that’s only going to happen when Trump is either dead, completely incapacitated physically and mentally, or in prison after the successful completion of Merrick Garland’s super secret and therefore all the more devastating investigation into the incredibly obscure and complex question of whether Donald Trump led a seditious attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, on live TV that one time.

    I know we argue about what’s happening with Garland, but that’s funny.

  160. 160.

    wetzel

    Fascist candidates make elections a ratchet to totalitarianism. If they win, you can’t get them out. A true fascist, like Trump, will use extra-Constitutional means to stay in power.

  161. 161.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @AxelFoley: Agreed.  Any win against the GOP is a win.  Any other way of looking at it is a version of “heightening the contradictions.”

  162. 162.

    Cameron

    @MazeDancer: Outstanding! I’ve been hoping that could be my getaway place when DeSantis finally gets around to declaring martial law here in Florida.

  165. 165.

    Cameron

    @Kay: “The Battle of Rockridge Safeway” will have a cherished place in wingnut lore for the next…..fifteen or twenty minutes at most.

  166. 166.

    J R in WV

    I have noticed that in statements from Ukrainian officials, the name of the attacking forces is always spelled with a lower  case “r” — as in russian forces did whatever despicable things yesterday!

  167. 167.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    Speaking of politics, in my judicial race in the Louisville exurbs, I am literally the only registered Democrat running in any race in the largest demographic lump county of this three county circuit (Kentucky judicial elections are nonpartisan).  I’ve been publicly shamed and barred from events (which has pissed off the local candidates I’ve interacted with at a ton of events – they like me). Today, I learned from a GOP candidate for jailer (he likes me a lot) that a number of my yard signs placed with others in the public right of ways around this most populous county were collected and placed in a county dumpster behind the county courthouse. I went, and sure enough, they’d pulled up a solid 10 signs (strategically placed) from a village of about 4000.  They’d separated the signs from the frames and then wrecked half the frames. Of course, everyone else’s signs are still up.

    I have a solid suspect in who caused it to happen. It’s the c*** who shut me down at the GOP judicial forum, who has known me for over 20 years and whose husband used to share office space with me.  You could see her driving route with regard to removed signs – she lives in the center of the removal area, and the lifted signs include some I placed on exit ramps.

    Was I filled with insensate, inchoate rage?  Yes. Will I place three in her yard in the dark of night with a “fuck you, Debby and Mike, I know what you assholes did” note attached at the bottom? Perhaps…

    Am I saving the bulk of my remaining signs for the other counties in the circuit? Yes…

  169. 169.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was warned before Jan. 6, 2021, about the threat of violence that day as supporters of President Donald Trump planned to mass at the U.S. Capitol, according to new testimony released late Friday by the House committee investigating the insurrection.
    One of Meadows’s top aides, Cassidy Hutchinson, told congressional investigators she recalled Anthony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official who also held the role of a political adviser at the White House, “coming in and saying that we had intel reports saying that there could potentially be violence on the 6th. And Mr. Meadows said: All right. Let’s talk about it.”
    Hutchinson added, “I’m not sure if he — what he did with that information internally.”

    Carol Leonnig @CarolLeonnig 1h
    This decision to allow a USSS agent – who is sworn to be above politics -to serve as a Presidential political adviser crossed a major line for @SecretService. It was approved by current director James Murray at Trump’s urging, a decision that infuriated current and former agents

  171. 171.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @zhena gogolia:

    I adore all those Christopher Guest movies. Spinal Tap is wonderful, as are A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman, and the rest. But by orders of magnitude, my all-time favourite is Best in Show.

  174. 174.

    Brachiator

    @BC in Illinois:

    To those who voted for me, not to support my ideas but to block those of the extreme right, your vote obliges me. This evening, I am no longer the candidate of one camp, but the President of all.

    Well said. Good luck to him.

  175. 175.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Investigators also have found evidence that Meadows repeatedly communicated with GOP Reps. Scott Perry (Pa.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) before and on Jan. 6, 2021. Hutchinson identified Perry, Jordan, and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) as the leading proponents in Congress “who were raising the idea of the Vice President doing anything other than just counting electoral votes on January the 6th.”

  176. 176.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    The convoy participant who is livestreaming says calmly “it’s convenient for them because the Safeway is right there”.

    Big flaw in the battle plan

  177. 177.

    Bupalos

    @Brachiator: I’m not sure what is supposed to make a country “first rate” if not time to actually practice freedom. Also I think there’s a fair amount of research suggesting marginally reducing working hours doesn’t significantly negatively impact productivity.

  181. 181.

    persistentillusion

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Or you could do what a friend of mine did in 2012 after the 8th time her Obama sign was stolen or vandalized. (Red town in a blue state.) Got a Realtor friend to get her a real estate sign (metal and heavy), put an Obama sign on each face of the sign and using clear plastic tape, tape the bejesus out of the sign.  Placed it in her front yard, next to a metal fence and, with a chain and padlock, chained it to the fence.  Made the neighborhood Neo-nazi kids crazy.

  186. 186.

    Ruckus ??

    @Kay:

    They went there to scream at people.

    FIXIT for you. Code words work with them because they know that no one knows what the hell the code actually means. The basically get to scream at everyone and make noise, be seen, be heard, and in their minds yell about everything wrong with the world.

    If they only had mirrors……

  189. 189.

    J R in WV

    @zhena gogolia:

    Wife is doing well. Will see the neurosurgeon next week, still has the original post-op bandage on her neck below her right jaw.

    My role now is to keep her calm, and from doing too much too soon.

    Thanks for thinking of us! The support from the B-J commentaries has been a big help for me !!

  191. 191.

    ian

    @Ksmiami:

    Or we can suspend all German business transaction with the US until they remember that we are the leader and they’re the client state.

    Sometimes I wonder what goes on in your head.

  192. 192.

    Dan B

    My partner’s former brother in law is from Senegal.  He despises Macron for what he’s done in Mali and I assume other former colonies.  Sounded as though he might have preferred Le Pen because of Macron’s treatment of Mali.  I believe she would have been far worse.

    I don’t know what transpired with Mali.

  193. 193.

    Ken

    @Calouste: I remember one of the grievances Martin Luther had against the Roman Catholic Church was that you could basically buy your way into heaven by making donations to the church. It seems like current day evangelicals just have a little more circuitous way to try to achieve the same effect.

    But not, perhaps, the same destination.

  195. 195.

    Geminid

    @Dan B: The French waged war against insurgents in Mali for most of the last decade. This person’s grievance against Macron might come out of that conflict.

  203. 203.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The unspeakable vermin of the Village are of course talking more about LePen picking up a couple of percentage points than Macron cleaning her clock.

  204. 204.

    Carlo Graziani

    @Brit in Chicago: 

    I was jubilant when Obama won a second term but, in hindsight, I don’t think a Romney victory would have been a disaster. If he’d won a second term, there would have someone competent and sane (unless you think Mormonism is crazy) in charge when the pandemic struck. Possibly even a net gain, though there would certainly have been losses.

    I’ll add a little—polite—pushback to this, because I see a good deal of plaudits in profiles about people such as Romney, Ryan, and McCain that give them credit for the sense that they showed when theit political careers were not at any kind of risk, but which fail to mention the utterly craven pandering to which they were perfectly capable of stooping when they felt that they needed to out-ignorant their election opponents.

    Romney disavowed the ACA, a health policy not different in its essentials from the one he supported and signed into law as Governor of Massachussets, because he needed to sign on to the GOP’s toxic “everything Obama wants must die” purely destructive platform. He coyly played footsie with birtherism, and campaigned on fatuities such as “binders full of women”, while showing his true colors in that secretly-recorded video in which he confided his view that Obama voters were freeloading welfare-dependent dead weight.

    All of which by way of saying that as President, his political obligations would have been to Q and to Wall Street.  Looking to his post-2012-loss behavior for guidance on a Romney Presidency is too alternate-universe. He was free of having to cater to an annoying national electorate at that point.

  205. 205.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ksmiami:

    The kind of high-handedness you propose is how Putin operates. It is offensive to America’s allies, and ultimately doesn’t work.

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