Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

No one could have predicted…

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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

All hail the time of the bunny!

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

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

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

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

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Reader Interactions

189Comments

  2. 2.

    O. Felix Culpa

    He definitely has the Frenchie chest and bat ears. His head is smaller and legs longer than a Frenchie’s though; must be the Boston Terrier side. And yes, Frenchies tend towards the…portly. In a dignified way, of course.

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    He’d fit right in at this here digital clambake. Except for that being expired thing.

    Some people love to get the last laugh, even in death.

    A tombstone in Iowa is causing a bit of a stir because of a message hidden in plain sight that some people find offensive.

    Each tombstone reads something different – some even with hidden messages, like the one for Steven Paul Owens.

    The first letter of each phrase on his tombstone in the Warren-Powers Cemetery reads “F— off.” Source

  14. 14.

    Soprano2

    This is an interesting view of the Jan. 6th hearings from TPM:

    I’m not sure I agree with all of this. But TPM Reader JB captures an important part of what’s happening in these hearings.

    Politically, the best thing about hearings is the optics. So important.

    Dems are in charge. They sit on high and Trumpers come before them, either in person or video, and are asked to explain their behavior in public.

    This in itself is unprecedented in Trump era, and important for demoralized Dems. This process is in itself a “consequence” for Trumps’s actions we have not had before.

    It’s possible only because the Dems and Cheney control the hearing, so it feels like a court or “the authorities”. This is different than the impeachment trials because the other side never gets to appear. The GOP congressmen don’t get to grandstand and spew abuse, lies and bullshit. They aren’t fucking there. Trump isn’t tweeting garbage throughout.

    It’s not “fair” or “balanced.” Honestly, it’s a show trial, but one that is long overdue and warranted. And it’s ok because this is not a Court and the key purpose is not to reveal truth. The value is to demonstrate the anti-Trump forces do have power.

    Trump forces understand this, which is why Bannon, Meadows and other refused to show. Once they appear, they’ve already lost.

    it’s the antidote to the Bitch Slap.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    Because of his comparative stockiness, Pete isn’t as good a jumper as the more svelte and athletic Badger, so Badger still has one place he can go to escape puppy harassment: the bar stools at the counter.

    @Betty: They mostly get along, but Badger doesn’t want to play all the time, and Pete does.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @Soprano2: 

    It’s not “fair” or “balanced.” Honestly, it’s a show trial, but one that is long overdue and warranted. And it’s ok because this is not a Court and the key purpose is not to reveal truth. The value is to demonstrate the anti-Trump forces do have power.

    I think he took the rhetoric too far here.

  19. 19.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Info that you might find interesting (or not):

    Was in GN earlier this week. The block of buildings that housed the Playhouse movie theater was partially/completely demolished; I assume it’s for the construction of some new abomination. The Squire — or at least, its marquee and the art gallery it houses — is still there.

  20. 20.

    NeenerNeener

    Hard to believe that’s the little butterball that shocked Badger by running into the room a few months back. They grow up so fast.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    Pete is such a darling.  Too big to be messed with by an owl at this point.

    @rikyrah:  Good morning.  How is your sister?

  23. 23.

    Elizabelle

    @Soprano2:

    Honestly, it’s a show trial, but one that is long overdue and warranted. And it’s ok because this is not a Court and the key purpose is not to reveal truth. The value is to demonstrate the anti-Trump forces do have power.

    I don’t agree with this part at all.  Show trial?  Excuse me?  Not concerned with the truth?

    Bannon etc. didn’t show because their lying asses would have to be under oath.

    And the hearings are utterly improved by not having the poo-flinging circus clowns howling.  More of that, please.

  24. 24.

    Danielx

    Yes, it is possible to get Covid after vaccination and two boosters, and yes it sucks.

  25. 25.

    Frank Wilhoit

    @Baud: Fight fire with fire and all that, but that is not even the primary reason to turn up the heat. The primary reason is to make them lose their nerve sooner. They always lose their nerve, but often so late that it makes little difference. We can make them lose their nerve right out of the box in most cases, and that is what we need to do. And, since performance, is the only thing they understand, then performance is how we need to do it.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I give you, the great defender of free speech, the Muskmouse!

    SpaceX employees fired after writing letter criticizing Elon Musk

    At least five employees were fired by private rocket company SpaceX after drafting and circulating an open letter criticizing founder Elon Musk and calling on executives at the start-up to make the company’s work culture more inclusive, according to two people familiar with the matter.
    ……………………….
    SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell sent an email saying the company had investigated and “terminated a number of employees involved” with the letter, the New York Times said.

    The newspaper said Shotwell’s email said employees involved with circulating the letter had been fired for making other staff feel “uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views”.

    Yes, because Musk is so easily made to feel “uncomfortable, intimidated, bullied, and angry” by anyone who does not fall to their knees and kiss the ground he walks on every time he meanders by.

    The earlier open letter to SpaceX executives seen by Reuters had called Musk a “distraction and embarrassment” to the company he founded.

    In a list of three demands, the letter said: “SpaceX must swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon’s personal brand.” It added: “Hold all leadership equally accountable to making SpaceX a great place to work for everyone” and “define and uniformly respond to all forms of unacceptable behavior”.

    It’s that last bit that got them fired. I mean, if the richest man in the world can’t engage in unacceptable behavior without repercussions, what’s the point?

  29. 29.

    dww44

    @Elizabelle: Strongly agree ,with the added advantage  of telling the story of January 6 with the voices and faces of those in the room, as it were.

  30. 30.

    narya

    TIL that one traditionally makes ricotta cheese from whey, NOT from milk. I attempted making mozzarella last year–it was successful, but I ended up with SO much whey. I used the whey in baking, but it still felt like a lot of it to manage. I’m excited to try this, though–make the mozzarella, then immediately use the whey to make ricotta. (A coworker gave me rennet & citric acid; as she shuttled through pandemic hobbies, she’d offload extra stuff from the previous hobby, and I was the beneficiary of the cheesemaking supplies. Blessed are the cheesemakers . . . )

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    ‘@SFAW

    Plans have been afoot for a while to transform the main drag adjoining the LIRR station into buildings with shops at street level and low-rise apartments above. Now if only someone would have the gumption to open up a bakery again.

    Last time was there (2019) at least one-third of the storefronts were empty. Can’t imagine things didn’t spiral further downward once COVID arrived. Last supermarket in commercial district in town also closed up shop since then. And it’s not exactly a ZIP code known for being low on the socio-economic ladder.

  32. 32.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud:

    Agreed. And it’s not a “show trial” or any other kind of trial. He’s using unhelpful rightwing rhetoric. The earlier points he makes are interesting, though.

    ETA: And I see Elizabelle was ahead of me at #23. You go, girl! :)

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    Yeah, that was a bit over the top.

    To me, this hearing is more like a “real” hearing than those in recent history. People are asking questions, marshaling facts and organizing information. When did they adopt the wretched format where every committee member gets five minutes to blow complete bullshit that they can pipe to their crazed base later?

  34. 34.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: Oh, I think he’s wrong about what the key value is here. I think the key value is to use video, e-mails and other written evidence and testimony to tell a coherent story about what happened before and on January 6th, so that people who aren’t like us can understand what happened. I wouldn’t call it a “show trial” because it’s not a trial at all. I want Democrats to keep repeating, over and over, that Republicans had a chance for a “bi-partisan panel” to look into this, but they rejected it because they didn’t want any kind of investigation at all! It’s actually a constructive hearing because half the members of the committee aren’t turning it into a circus.

    I heard a story on NPR this morning where they interviewed people about whether they were watching or listening to the hearings, and what they were getting from them. Only one person, a woman, said she wasn’t paying any attention at all. Of course she brought up the price of gas as being more important, and then said she didn’t understand why they were wasting their time because it happened 2 years ago, why does anyone still care. I wish the interviewer had been able to ask her if she also thought the 9-11 hearings weren’t worth having, because they happened 2 years after the event! I mean what an idiotic thing to say…..

  36. 36.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I think it’s hysterical that after all the hype of this guy his Twitter posts are “red wave coming!” and “I’m supporting Ron DeSantis!”

    What a bore he is.

  37. 37.

    Karen S.

    My dear old dad is probably one of the last people on his street to subscribe to a daily newspaper. He subscribes to three—the two Chicago dailies and the Daily Herald, a paper that covers Chicago’s northwest suburbs. When I was visiting Dad the other day, I learned from the Herald that there are 8 or 9 GOPers vying for the GOP nomination to run against Tammy Duckworth in November. I skimmed the candidates’ answers to the paper’s questionnaire about their positions on various issues. One of the questions asked if they believed that Pres. Biden is the president. Each answer was some variation of “The 2020 election was totally unfair!” or “There is evidence in Georgia and Arizona that there was shenanigans!” It’s strange that these people seem to live in a distorted parallel universe. Fortunately, it’s hard to unseat an incumbent so Duckworth should be fine.

  38. 38.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @narya:

    I’d be interested to hear how that works out. I worked for a time at a goat dairy, milking the goats and making cheese, and we fed the extra whey to the chickens.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: Only one person, a woman, said she wasn’t paying any attention at all.

    She’s not alone, neither am I. The only thing I would get out of these hearings is higher blood pressure and I really don’t need that just now.

  40. 40.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Elizabelle: ​
     

    And the hearings are utterly improved by not having the poo-flinging circus clowns howling. More of that, please.

    Best of all, the Rethugs did that to themselves, by refusing to agree to any any of the more inclusive options the Dems proposed.

  41. 41.

    Soprano2

    @Steeplejack: I don’t know, I suppose it was to be “fair”. I like the way this committee is doing it, having one member ask all the questions at each hearing (and having counsel ask some questions) rather than each member taking turns. That gives it more gravitas, because it doesn’t seem like every member is grandstanding to get 30 seconds on CNN. So many Congressional hearings have the feeling of people trying to get famous on TV rather than actually trying to gather information.

  43. 43.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: I think Kay nailed it earlier in a discussion about elite media Substackers who are obsessed with reversing changing social mores that don’t center themselves. The same mindset applies to tech douche-bros like Musk and many others (see the crypto workplace turmoil) who complain about free speech when criticized by people with less power while gravitating toward fascists who are actually suppressing it via government.

  44. 44.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I would not call it a “show trial.” That would mean they all got shot in the back of the neck at the end of the proceedings.

  45. 45.

    Percysowner

    After 55 hours I finally have power back! Columbus had a huge outage that mostly got resolved yesterday afternoon, except my street. The power company thought we were on, but no! We are on a funny little separate grid that they didn’t get fixed until 11:00 last night. Fortunately I had a couple of places I could camp out, so it wasn’t too awful most of the time. Now all I have to do is let the AC to cool the house down from a balmy 81 degrees and throw away most the stuff in my fridge.

    My poor cat will be so happy when I’m back, because I couldn’t take him with me, so I just kept running back to feed him and give him water.

  46. 46.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I find the hearings curiously refreshing. They’re calm, measured, and fact-based. They’re building a compelling narrative using almost entirely the words of highly placed Republican officials and apparatchiks. No histrionics at all.

    The videos of the violence and His Orange FAILED Highness are definitely unpleasant and could lead to blood pressure spikes.

  47. 47.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: I don’t know, it’s pretty satisfying to hear all these Republicans talking about TFG losing, and how crazy he and all the people around him were. I think another value of this hearing is to show that not all Republicans are TFG fans, and that they knew at the time that this scheme was wrong.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    I think the’ve done a great job but this last one I think they spent too much time on outlining and then taking apart the Right wing theory that the VP can overturn an election. It’s a ridiculous theory, none of them believed it and spending so much time on it makes it more important than it is, or was.

    It was a pretext for overturning an election and remaining in power. If they hadn’t have used that they would have some used some other elaborate lie. I get that Right wing lawyers who are employed by Mike Pence have to produce memos knocking this theory down, but the rest of us shouldn’t be forced to listen to tendentious, quasi legal analysis that they all knew was bullshit.

  51. 51.

    Soprano2

    @Betty Cracker: I once asked a white guy who was complaining about how “they have to give all the jobs to black people and women now” how it felt to have to stand in line rather than always being at the front of the line. He looked at me and walked off, but didn’t answer the question. These people think they have earned the right to always be at the center of everything, to be the people who set the rules of how things are supposed to be. They’re losing that power, and they’re furious about it!

  52. 52.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay:

    Disagree. We were not the audience for that hearing, and it was necessary to hit that bit of disinformation hard.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    ‘@Kay

    spending so much time

    Can’t properly affix a coffin lid with a single nail.

    Repetition of fact may even break though to at least a portion of those deluded by repetition of lies.

  57. 57.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Do you think there’s an upside to dragging his carcass across the pond to house and prosecute at great expense to the U.S. taxpayer? I’m open to arguments that it is, but I’m not convinced it’s worth the trouble.

  58. 58.

    Geminid

    @Baud: The CBS radio news reported that the U.S. offered a set of assurances to the U.K. in the event extradion was made. One was that Assange serve out any prison term in Australia.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I was really annoyed by Pence’s lawyer. I don’t think he added anything. It’s his job to accept any crackpot Right wing theory and do any “legal analysis” he’s ordered to do but I really don’t want to listen to it.

    Luttig can provide essentially the same testimony without the fawning and the excuse-making of the Pence employee.

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  I thought it was a compelling hearing.  Even the “Saint Pence” crap, and his bible thumping legal/admin staff.  When did the word “Babylon” last appear in a Congressional hearing?

    And will have to read Judge Luttig’s remarks; it was remarkable that he made himself available, in person, because — as he reminded at the end — they will try this again in 2024.

    This one was more geared to the truly devoted, but it sliced and diced John Eastman quite nicely.  And I guess he and Giuliani are the entry points for going at Trump?

  61. 61.

    Immanentize

    @zhena gogolia: Hete is my favorite show trial on film:

    “Wanted in fourteen counties of this state, the condemned is found guilty of the crimes of murder, armed robbery of citizens, state banks, and post offices, the theft of sacred objects, arson in a state prison, perjury, bigamy, deserting his wife and children, inciting prostitution, kidnapping, extortion, receiving stolen goods, selling stolen goods, passing counterfeit money, and, contrary to the laws of this state, the condemned is guilty of using marked cards and loaded dice. Therefore, according to the powers vested in us, we sentence the accused here before us, Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez [known as ‘the rat’,] or any other aliases he might go by – to hang by the neck until dead. May God have mercy on his soul.
    Proceed!”

  62. 62.

    Soprano2

    We had to take our dog Nitro to the emergency vet last night. He had the weirdest cut on his belly – it looked almost like a surgical cut, and it was on the bottom of his belly. The ER vet couldn’t understand how he got it, either – she took a pic and sent it to our regular vet. I’m going to be interested in what our regular vet thinks about it. As far as we know he’s never had surgery, but OTOH we only got him 3 years ago and he’s around 16, so he could have had surgery and we wouldn’t know about it. He also didn’t seem to be bothered by it at all – he didn’t try to lick it or paw at it, and didn’t seem to be in pain from it.

  63. 63.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay:

    As a Pence guy, of course he was smarmy and annoying. He also provided compelling testimony. His smarm is the charm for the evangelical audience out there, and don’t think some of them weren’t watching. Neither you nor I were the target audience for yesterday’s hearing and our feelings about the witnesses don’t matter. ;)

  64. 64.

    Elizabelle

    @Geminid:  Assange serving any sentence in Australia sounds fine by me.

    He’s been in sanctuary and then UK jail for so long that the world has turned for him, too.  Don’t think Assange seems so brave and truth-telling now.

    Reminds me that Cambridge Analytica still has not faced investigation, or justice, either.  What’s going on with that?  These bad actors do not just disappear.  You have to take them out.

  65. 65.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    So I was short of CLEs this year, and had to get a bunch in a big way – so I’m at the KBA convention in Owensboro, a small city in Western Kentucky.

    To show what we face nationwide, I’ll relate a discussion I was in.  Me and some brand new patent lawyer were talking to a Thomson Reuters marketing rep – generic lawyer stuff. Unbidden, a personal injury lawyer from the hinterlands (late thirties, pasty, puffy and stupidly wearing a suit) started whining about Fortune 500 companies putting up pride imagery and positive pride statements, about how that alienated people who don’t believe in that and was “bad marketing”. My response was along the lines of “the vast majority of their revenue is generated by the far larger groups of people who live in urban spaces where this sort of thing is popular. They’re not worried about Cletus in his rural manufactured home, and gain far more with the imagery.”

    He didn’t like that, and stomped off.

    They’re so used to only speaking to each other that they can’t envision a larger world.

  66. 66.

    Ken

    @Baud: Now they just have to find a country that will take him.

    “But he’s committed all these crimes!”

    “Yes, but we’d have to have Julian Assange in our country for the duration of the trial.”

    “Good point….”

  68. 68.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I disagree, I think they had to spend a lot of time knocking it down because too many people have come to believe it’s legitimate. You have to repeat things a lot to get them to break through to people’s brains.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    There was no ambiguity in what was supposed to happen, no “legal analysis” required, which is what Luttig said. They created ambiguity. I don’t have to entertain their crackpot theories- Mike Pence’s legal advisors do because they are employed by Mike Pence but I don’t.

  71. 71.

    Soprano2

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: They’re so used to only speaking to each other that they can’t envision a larger world.

    That describes a lot of people where I live, too. They can’t stand the idea that other places are different from here. Everywhere in the world is supposed to be “comfortable” for them, at least in their opinion. How dare any place be different!

  72. 72.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: But Pence’s lawyer was there. Right there. And although I don’t believe these folks are the sanctimonious priests they portray, even that was a nice double edged sword. Made me dislike the whole crew more, made some people nod when he referred to Daniel.

    By the way, why are these creeps such lazy bible people? Daniel in the Lion’s Den? Really? OMG! Its like they just listened to popular music — in this case The Band — for all their relevant stirring biblical references. Phonies with a capital PHONE.

    The real value of this hearing is that all the witnesses are Republicans. Whether good Rs or bad. It is not a show trial — feels more like a mafia trial in which most of the witnesses are Mafia members — including accountants and low lovely soldiers.

  73. 73.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Elizabelle:

    Here’s a link to Luttig’s prepared statement. Powerful stuff. Given his labored delivery–which was fine in my view, but many even on this here top 10k blog had a hard time with it–I can see why the committee did not have him read it.

    The tocsin warning Luttig delivered at the end of the hearing, about the “clear and present danger” of the Trumpists’ continuing plans to overthrow democracy was compelling and invaluable.

  78. 78.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: That might be true. But some Catholics who cut ties with the church are none too shabby in that department as well.

    It would be smart for the wingers to start banning the Bible, because reading it leads to all sorts of … Thoughts.

  79. 79.

    Elizabelle

    @O. Felix Culpa:   Thank you!  Yeah, I was a person who was put off by the exceedingly slow delivery, but recognized it might be aphasia.

    Although, even if not, props to him for being there and being so forthright.

    This hearing did not have as many soundbites or easy takeaways (“The big lie was the the big rip-off, $250 million …”) but it’s another brick in the foundation.

    Chairman Thompson mentioned a tip line as he closed, and Jamie Raskin (?) and others make it sound like witnesses are coming out of the walls.  So who knows what is going on behind the scenes.  The J6 may be having a bigger impact than many expected.

  80. 80.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: I knew someone would come up with the next line; it IS a full-service blog, after all.

    @O. Felix Culpa: Absolutely. The thought of ending up with fresh mozzarella AND fresh ricotta, for the (high) price of a gallon of non-homogenized milk from a local farmer makes me happy. And any remaining whey will end up in bread or something. Truly, the main thing holding me back from making more mozzarella was all of the whey I had to find a way to use. (I’m constitutionally incapable of just dumping it. But then, I get spent grain from my home brewer friend, so . . .)

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    The people invading the capitol were not relying on a legal theory – they were not there because of ambiguity in the electoral count act. Luttig rejects this as any kind of good faith legal analysis, and I do too.

  83. 83.

    Soprano2

    @Immanentize: The real value of this hearing is that all the witnesses are Republicans. Whether good Rs or bad. It is not a show trial — feels more like a mafia trial in which most of the witnesses are Mafia members — including accountants and low lovely soldiers.

    Yep, not a liberal in sight. Makes it a lot harder to say they’re all just liberals who are out to get TFG.

  86. 86.

    japa21

    @Kay: ​
      Slightly disagree. Most people have not heard this theory before and it is obvious that the authoritarian party is thinking of using it again in the future. It’s important people recognize it when they try it again.

  88. 88.

    narya

    @Soprano2: I agree. And my normie friend and I listened to Day 2 on Monday on our way back from camping–and yesterday he watched by himself. The challenge is that the Iran-Contra hearings disgusted him; all of that obvious criminality, and no consequences. I’ve been providing Context Context History Context, and arguing that it’s still worth doing these hearings. He does keep saying “I’m glad I’m old; they’re destroying my country.”

  89. 89.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: Though I’m sure every person who makes that claim would turn on a dime if VP Harris tried to use it in January 2025. Maybe that would be a valuable lesson, assuming the Democrat is elected. Harris could announce:

    “As has been known since four days after the election, the Democratic candidate does have a majority of the electoral votes and has won the election. However I am setting aside the votes from Texas, Alabama, and both Dakotas just because as Vice President I can. This gives the Democratic candidate an even larger majority.”

  90. 90.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay:

    Actually not true, as borne out by the clips of rioters saying “Pence could have overturned the election/electoral votes and didn’t, the traitor!” That absurd legal theory took root in the RW political ecosphere and people tried to kill Mike Pence because of it.

  91. 91.

    Soprano2

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: You’re welcome. I think it’s valuable for liberals who live in TFG-loving areas to provide this kind of information. I think it’s hard for people who live in mostly liberal areas to understand just how much all these people love TFG.

    Some outfit called Liberty Alliance listed the public school in my city as one of the top 12 most “woke” places in Missouri, based on a training course for teachers that was written about in 2021. In conservatives’ minds, having a diversity training for teachers makes this a “woke” school district! This is an area that voted over 60% for TFG, where all the elected officials are Republicans and only two of the state reps are Democrats, and they think it’s “woke”. *rolleyes

  92. 92.

    Immanentize

    @Elizabelle: forget the tip line. The critical thing Rep. Thompson said at the end was the invitation to those still sitting on the fence to contact the committee. That was super critical and well timed. Translation — “You didn’t believe us before when we said we know everything, that all the pieces are before us. But now you know you have every reason to believe that we have the goods on you. Did you like how we slipped in the fact that Eastman asked for a pardon? Well we have the complete list and you might want to come talk to us about that — and other things (etc.)”

  93. 93.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Soprano2:

    I mean, the smug certitude on this clown’s face, where all of American society needs to defer to the most common view of the most parochial, least worldly holler-dwellers is Holy Writ.

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    ‘@Kay

    That it was crackpot is unassailable but beside the point when it comes to assigning motive. It percolated up to become the crux (if not the holy writ) of the last act of the push to seize power, aided and abetted by the likes of Hawley and Gosar. And the whole sorry lot of them came perilously closer to pulling it off than not.

  98. 98.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Yes, but unfortunately too many of them have seized on it after the fact as being something that’s real, when it’s not. Sadly the committee has to spend time knocking that idea down so hard that it can’t get up again.

  99. 99.

    MisterDancer

    Also on TPM, this is interesting, given how many people want Garland’s head, right now: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/doj-fight-with-jan-6-committee-bursts-into-the-open

    It appears the DoJ, n a court filing, is saying that the Jan. 6th Committee isn’t providing information the DoJ needs for current court cases around the Insurrection. Which is different than how a lot of the chatter has seen the situation.

    The letter became public through the ongoing criminal case against several members of the Proud Boys. Prosecutors attached it to a court filing consenting to the defendants’ request to push the trial date from August until December due to the potential impact of the transcripts. The filing noted that the letter was sent to the committee on Wednesday.

    “It is now readily apparent that the interviews the Select Committee conducted are not just potentially relevant to our overall criminal investigations, but are likely relevant to specific prosecutions that have already commenced,

  100. 100.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Immanentize:

    Good point. Between Raskin’s comments and Thompson’s closing…invitation…the remaining rats should be squirming in their ships, to mix my metaphors. :)

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    IMO, we spend way too much time in this country “analyzing” the ravings of Right wing nut lawyers and the smarmy, careerist “respectable” Right wing lawyers who give the nuts cover.

  103. 103.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I think that the information on the DNC that Assange put out was received from Russian intelligence, and I see his actions as part of the larger Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 election. So I have no problem with him being tried even if it’s on charges not directly related to the election.

    I have a lot of animus towards Assange because I think he helped elect Trump. He had a personal hostilty towards Hillary Clinton, and he took it out on our country. So I’m eager to see him tried. I have no problem with Assange (If convicted) serving out a sentence in Australia if that is the deal.

  104. 104.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @debbie:

    Ms. O grew up in the fundamentalist world. They memorize a lot of bible verses (sword drills, anyone?), but what they learn is selective and the interpretation even more so.

  105. 105.

    Immanentize

    @Gin & Tonic: not at all! I was just thinking of Daniel and the Sacred Harp and how he got lost in sin. Also, King Harvest is one of my top 10 all time fave songs. Republicans could learn a lot from the Grange movement.

  107. 107.

    kalakal

    Like several posters I find these hearings both therapeutic* and satisfying. It’s the remorseless piling up of the evidence, the building up of a structure implicating TFG & his acolytes, the use of Repubs own words and testimonies to demolish the lies and evasions. This isn’t Dems declaiming how criminal and dangerous Jan 6 was, while true that would be easily dismissed, it’s the MAGA rats doing it. I was impressed from the very beginning how they went full blooded straight at TFG, no wasting time on the foot soldiers and middle rankers. And no euphemisms, straight out the declaration that this was an attempt to overthrow the US government. I found Luttig yesterday utterly compelling, espescially his stark warning for the future. This wasn’t news to us Jackels but it is to a lot of people

    *the insurrection video was not therapeutic, that was horrific

  108. 108.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay:

    Once again, there’s a direct line between the ravings of these rightwing lawyers and the attempted murder of Mike Pence.

    That’s important evidence in my world.

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    ‘@Kay

    Even an outhouse cannot be dismantled and its component parts consigned to the junk heap without wielding tools.

  110. 110.

    Immanentize

    @debbie: i still love Golden Books — but not the Bible ones. Mr. Dog (the dog who belonged to himself) by Helen Wise Brown might still be my favorite.

  112. 112.

    kalakal

    @Karen S.: I have had conversations with white guys who will suddenly get on to the evils of immigrants.

    When I point out I’m an immigrant* it tends to stop them in their tracks. I’ve even had the “Oh we don’t mean you…”

    I suspect that my skin tone is fish belly may have something to do with it

    * Strictly speaking I’m not an immigrant, I’m a permanent resident

  114. 114.

    Soprano2

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I go back to my mother telling me several years ago that she didn’t care that there were gay people, she just wished they’d go back in the closet so she didn’t have to see them! She hated seeing gay people on TV and in public, being out and proud of being gay. She wanted them to have to hide and be ashamed, because that’s how it was when she was younger and that’s what she was comfortable with. The whole world was supposed to conform with what she was comfortable with. That’s how conservatives think in general in my experience

    ETA – I’m listening to the first part of the hearing, and I can see why Luttig’s presentation drove people crazy. Sounds like either overcoming a stutter, aphasia or having had a stroke to me. It’s rare that people talk like that all the time.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    @Danielx: 

    Luttig said it. He said they “got wrapped around the axle” entertaining, analyzing, spending weeks on, this crackpot theory. I don’t want to be dragged into being wrapped around the axle with them. It’s a Right wing lawyer problem- they have to pander to their bosses because they have their eye on their next job on the Right- I don’t.

  117. 117.

    NotMax

    ‘@Kay

    I’ll put it another way as well.

    Figuratively pulling back the curtains on the wizards and exposing them for what they are and what and who they represent is a good thing. Discrediting the rhetoric a step toward discrediting the men (or women) and thence discrediting the movement they represent or espouse.

  118. 118.

    JPL

    @Percysowner:  Once I lost power for three plus days because of storms in the area.   It was in October though so not terrible.   The other day I lost power for a hour and it was awful.

    Poor kitty.

  119. 119.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: That would outweigh the hassle, I mean. It’s not like every crime that could be prosecuted is. Just wondering if this one is worth it.

  121. 121.

    Scout211

    I didn’t remember that Eastman was such an awful person until his current involvement in the insurrection planning made him a public figure. From The Advocate:

    If you’re following the January 6 committee hearings and related news, you’re seeing the name John Eastman come up a lot — and if that name sounds familiar, there’s good reason.

    Before Eastman, a former law professor, tried to throw the 2020 presidential election to Donald Trump, he was a major activist against LGBTQ+ rights. In 2011, he became chairman of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, a group with the primary mission of opposing marriage equality, although it has taken up some other conservative causes too. NOM’s website still lists him as chairman and the well-known anti-LGBTQ+ activist Brian Brown as president.

    . . .

    At NOM’s March for Marriage in 2014, Eastman likened fighting marriage equality to fighting slavery. “The courts should never take away controversial issues away from the voters in this country,” he said. “And that’s absolutely right. The last time the court tried to do that a century and a half ago on the slavery question, Abraham Lincoln refused to comply. He said if we let the court be the final word, we cease to be our own rulers.”

    That same year, NOM sought to defend Oregon’s same-sex marriage ban in court, since the state’s attorney general refused to defend it. Eastman said at the time that NOM was compelled to defend the ban because its Oregon members voted for it in 2004. However, a federal judge ruled in 2014 that NOM did not have the legal standing to do so. The ban was struck down shortly thereafter. Eastman has argued in support of bans in other states as well.

    Among Eastman’s other greatest hits, compiled by GLAAD and others, he has said marriage should be limited to male-female couples because it’s for procreation; voiced support for Uganda’s efforts to criminalize homosexuality, potentially imposing the death penalty; questioned Kamala Harris’s eligibility to be vice president, even though she was born in the U.S.,  because her parents were not citizens at the time of her birth; said homosexuality is barbaric and will undermine marriage and all of civil society; and opposed gay-straight alliances and LGBTQ-inclusive lessons in schools.

  122. 122.

    JPL

    @Danielx:  It’s surprising that people are still willing to pay Turley for his analysis.    He’s not even a good at spreading fake legal advice.

  123. 123.

    Miss Bianca

    @OzarkHillbilly: Y’know, I keep hearing this “Musk is the richest man in the world” stuff, and I keep wondering, what the hell happened to Jeff Bezos? How many billions is Musk actually sitting on, compared to him?

  124. 124.

    SFAW

    @NotMax: ​
     

    Plans have been afoot for a while to transform the main drag adjoining the LIRR station into buildings with shops at street level and low-rise apartments above.

    You mean South Middle Neck? Or stuff closer to the station? Because (I think) that’s been a format that’s been around that area since we were kids.
    But, yeah, lots of storefronts empty. At least Leonard’s is still in business. And plenty of people still double-park on Middle Neck Road.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @MisterDancer:

    The select committee has a tiny investigative staff and nothing NEAR the resources of the DOJ. Why on earth is the DOJ relying on the select committee investigation? What if there had been no select committee? The mighty DOJ with their multi billion dollar annual budget then couldn’t prosecute the Proud Boys for seditious conspiracy?

  128. 128.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize: 
    You think it was easy for Tuco to do all that? He could have taken the easy way out, like his brother, Brother Ramirez, but he chose the harder path.
    But I’m sure he regretted not being around for his mother.

  129. 129.

    JPL

    Didn’t Eastman say he didn’t talk about matters before the court?

    What does this mean (link)

    OMG, Mrs. Thomas asked me to give an update about election litigation to her group. Stop the Presses!,

  131. 131.

    zhena gogolia

    @Elizabelle: Taglines (some paraphrased as I don’t have time to look up exact quotations):

    Clear and present danger

    The P Word

    rubber-room stuff

    orderly transition

    Get yourself a great f-in criminal lawyer

    Fifth . . . Fifth . . . Fifth

  133. 133.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: ​
     

    It’s so weird, the way it’s been possible to sell them on the idea of ‘woke’ corporations. The #1 thing they’re ‘woke’ to is their bottom line. They’re doing all that Pride stuff out of some combination of selling more of their product and hiring and retaining good workers. If they thought it was a drag on sales – and no big corporation rolls out a marketing campaign without testing its appeal to a fare-thee-well – they wouldn’t be doing it.

  135. 135.

    narya

    @Kay: I believe the issue is whether any of the testimony the J6 committee received rebuts or otherwise damages evidence that DOJ intends to use in prosecution of insurrectionists.

  136. 136.

    Ken

    @Kay: Possibly the DOJ’s interest is in charges arising from combining the two sources?  For example if the testimony to the committee and the testimony to DOJ agents disagree, that would be the basis for a charge of perjury and/or lying to federal authorities.

  137. 137.

    Geminid

    @Baud: If Assange had gone  back to Sweden and faced the sexual assault charges the two women brought against him, he’d have done easy time in a Swedish prison and been out years ago. Sweden might not have extradicted him

  140. 140.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    The DOJ can get anything they want out of this committee. They have the power to do that. I guess I don’t understand why conducting a public spat with the committee is a good use of their time.

  141. 141.

    Betty Cracker

    @Scout211: I’m not seeing a pending comment.

    @Baud: Seems like a high-profile espionage and press freedom trial would be a hassle in that it would create global controversy and consume scads of federal resources, but maybe that’s incorrect.

  144. 144.

    JPL

    @Baud: Next we’ll discover it’s the spouses of the Barrett, Kavanaugh, Alito and Gorsuch

    Nothing would surprise me.

  145. 145.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Immanentize:

    @Baud: That might be true. But some Catholics who cut ties with the church are none too shabby in that department as well.

    It would be smart for the wingers to start banning the Bible, because reading it leads to all sorts of … Thoughts.

    There’s a reason why the Roman Catholic Church was perfectly happy to keep their services in Latin for so long.

  146. 146.

    The Moar You Know

    Do you think there’s an upside to dragging his carcass across the pond to house and prosecute at great expense to the U.S. taxpayer? I’m open to arguments that it is, but I’m not convinced it’s worth the trouble.

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s like when HR finds out you punch a co-worker.  It’s their favorite kind of termination because everything is automatic.  You’re not staying.  Fired, paycheck, escorted out, personal crap sent home, done.  Same with a nation that has the ability to catch someone who spied on them.  Arrest (including the time-honored tradition of being kidnapped and hauled with a hood over your head to a waiting plane), trial (show or otherwise), guilty verdict, imprisonment or execution.  Maybe spy swap if you’re worth anything.  Nobody will swap for Assange.  He’s proven to be an unreliable actor for anyone he’s working for.

    I’d agree it doesn’t make any cost/benefit sense, but that’s not why you do it, you do it just to make the point.

  149. 149.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Karen S.:

    When I was visiting Dad the other day, I learned from the Herald that there are 8 or 9 GOPers vying for the GOP nomination to run against Tammy Duckworth in November.

    Eight or nine idiots wasting time and burning money.

  150. 150.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay: Members of the committee (Raskin among others) have taken a few public shots at the DOJ.  Could be bureaucratic pushback.

  151. 151.

    Baud

    Usually, we lament when our justice system doesn’t prosecute privileged white collar criminals and focuses on low level minority drug offenders.

  152. 152.

    Kay

    I posted this excellent Propublica story about how an AA educator was targeted by Right wing political operatives in Georgia. 

    But there’s a postscript to this story. The same Right wing groups who savaged and smeared the AA educator backed school board candidates in May of this year and these were the results:

    Local school board races usually don’t earn the attention or funding of national political action committees. Four Cherokee school board candidates did with lackluster results Tuesday. Branding themselves 4CanDoMore and endorsed by the 1776 Project PAC, the candidates threw some serious charges at the district during the campaign. They contended Cherokee schools peddled pornography in their media centers and nurtured Marxist s in their history classes.That proved a tough sell to Cherokee voters with two of the four losing by wide margins to incumbents, and the other two trailing in contests that will go to runoffs. 

    These people lose a lot of school board elections. They’re a loud enough minority to chase an AA educator out of the district but they don’t have the numbers to even win low turnout school board elections, even with backing from national Right wing groups.

    Christopher Rufo gets glowing profiles in the NYTimes but he loses a lot of local elections.

  153. 153.

    JPL

    @mrmoshpotato: They’re correct about voting in GA, since several people voted twice because Donald told them they could.   Supposedly there were a few thousand questionable votes, but most were resolved.   When people came forward and admitted to voting twice because they thought they could, the story went away.

  154. 154.

    evodevo

    @Soprano2:  A fresh cut? Or an old one? any dog of ours always had wire cuts from all the field fence around here; doesn’t have to be barbed wire, either. Most of the time they got them trying to squeeze through a hole in someone’s fence. the cuts will be on the top of the head, the back, or the belly when they do this stuff…

  156. 156.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I’d rather see the feds focus on the rampant white collar political and financial corruption than Assange, if I could only pick one of those things. I’m not excusing what Assange did — he can rot in hell for all I care. But it seems like he’s been thoroughly squashed by his own actions and would never voluntarily set foot in this country again, so the latter seems like more of an ongoing threat than that deranged garden gnome.

  158. 158.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Reasonable people can have different views about individual prosecutions.  I just see no reason Assange shouldn’t be tried, especially after Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner were convicted and served their time.

  159. 159.

    mrmoshpotato

    Look at the physique of our formerly little Pete! He’s a bruiser!

    The wrastling (yes) will be epic.

  160. 160.

    evodevo

    @debbie: Yes….this. They cherry-pick endlessly to bolster whatever version of dogma their little sectarian minds have clamped onto…if you want to turn someone atheist, make them read the bible cover to cover…

  162. 162.

    Immanentize

    @SFAW: Tuco’s brother was a Republican.

    Did you see the Bishop of Worcester (DUI) has declared the only tuition-free Jesuit school in the area (poor and BIPOC kids) no longer “Catholic” because the flew a BLM flag and a Pride Flag? No Catholic rites can take place on the school grounds anymore.

  163. 163.

    citizen dave

    @Soprano2:  One time our cat was bleeding from her abdomen, and I eventually figured out it was due to a nail head sticking out at the bottom of the basement stairs (trim on the side) that she had run across, etc. Glad everything is OK with Nitro.

  164. 164.

    Ken

    @lowtechcyclist: Just last year the Pope issued a statement limiting the use of the Latin mass, because many Catholics are still mad about Vatican II’s requirement to use the vernacular.  And it’s been sixty years since Vatican II.

  165. 165.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I don’t know that much about Assange’s personality, but but it seems like he has plenty of narcissism and misogyny in his make up, and that may have led him to his current predicament.

  166. 166.

    Kay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Agree. I just think it’s unwise for the DOJ to engage in it, given the difference in size and power between the select committee and the DOJ.

  168. 168.

    Immanentize

    @O. Felix Culpa: Yes Yes. That woman. But what really is on a name?

    Ok, not a Golden Book, but the trippiest MARGARET Wise Brown book ever is Little Fur Family. Check it out (the Little Fur son actually finds a more little fur creature. What?)

  169. 169.

    Soprano2

    @kalakal: They say “immigrant” when they mean “scary black and brown people”. All the euphemisms they are allowed to use hurt the discussion, because it allows them to deny what they are clearly saying. Like the idea that “people voting in cities” are fraudulent clearly means “black people voting is fraudulent”, but of course reporters don’t say that’s what it means.

  171. 171.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I am not sure that the Committee (legislative branch) is willing to yet be the errand urchin of the DOJ (executive branch). What I hear them saying when they say “we haven’t decided yet on a referral” is, when we finish we can give you all. Until then, things are going pretty good with our narrative and we don’t yet want to risk the biscuit.

  173. 173.

    James E Powell

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Just read Judge Luttig’s statement. Thank you for the link.

    I’d like to think that everyone in the press/media would read it, but I have my doubts. It’s more than one page & there are no pictures.

    One of the hoped-for results of these hearings would be to get the press/media to stop treating the Big Lie, the coup attempt, and the ensuing voter suppression efforts as a normalized, legitimate political dispute.

  174. 174.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: This is a version of a defense we used to call, “I did it and I am really sorry.” Part of the defense is to convince the jury you have suffered enough already. But for this to work with a jury, the defendant must be contrite.

    If the test of a good prosecution is whether someone has already suffered enough, people who have been jailed pre-trial, had their homes and property foreclosed upon, had their family threatened with indictments, their kids put into foster care — well, we would never try those people.

  176. 176.

    Soprano2

    @evodevo: It was a fresh cut; it wasn’t there on Wednesday, then suddenly was there on Thursday. We have a fenced yard and live in the city. We’re both scratching our heads over how he could have gotten cut on the bottom of his belly like that.

  177. 177.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Immanentize:

    Little Fur Family is our absolute favorite! I often give it as a baby gift. Lots of people know her Good Night Moon, but not as many do Little Fur Family, which is at least as endearing.

  178. 178.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize: Fair enough. FTR, I didn’t mean to suggest that Assange has “suffered enough” — I hope he gets an irradicable case of the crabs. My point was in his current sorry state, he’s less of an ongoing menace than he once was and is therefore lower on my priority list of villains who should be prosecuted.

  179. 179.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    His current sorry state is the result of his evasion of justice.  If he’s set free without a trial, I don’t know that he wouldn’t go back to being a threat.

  181. 181.

    Immanentize

    @O. Felix Culpa: Good night Moon is a sap story compared to Little Fur Family. Grumpy Granddad, and the ending:

    Sleep, sleep, my little fur child …

    This is a song.

    How odd that book is. But I think it suits a child’s mind, rather than an adult’s. The Immp got that one a lot as a child.

  182. 182.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Soprano2: The “show trial” thing bothers me immensely. It’s not.

    I really hate that framing and it’s vastly inappropriate to use it. The rest of it, I sort of agree with – except that it’s absolutely ‘fair’. Republicans had multiple opportunities to run this equally with Dems and they didn’t take it. And it is about getting at the truth, which is why it’s not just Democrats talking – this is the Administration’s own employees.

    You know, I think the only thing I agree with is that it demonstrates some kind of Democratic power.

  183. 183.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Immanentize:

    My boys loved it too. I think they found it comforting.

    Margaret Wise Brown was like Mr. Rogers, in that they both seemed singularly attuned to a child’s mind and emotions. She died far too young.

  184. 184.

    Matt McIrvin

    The thing about a court performing a criminal trial is that it’s under a mandate to favor a presumption of innocence. That’s not necessarily the best way to get at the truth–it’s intentionally biased in one direction because the possible consequence of unjust punishment is so terrible. But this is not a criminal trial.

  186. 186.

    CaseyL

    Both the DoJ and the J6 Committee are doing important work; but they’re pursuing two different goals and strategies.

    DoJ is going for a deterrent effect: prosecuting the ground troops, as it were, to make cosplaying insurrection less attractive going forward. They are also targeting the dead-serious insurrectionist/traitors, like Proud Boys and OathKeepers, to not only deter but to destroy the networks altogether. DoJ is going from the ground up.

    The J6 Committee is going from the top down. They are targeting actual people in power, people in government offices, who were fomenting insurrection from the inside. The Committee needs to name names, put the proof out for the public to see, alert the citizenry to the ongoing menace and (hopefully) prevent future attempts. They’re using the traitors’ own words and images against them.

    These are both important paths. But they will conflict.

    I do happen to agree that the current danger is too acute for the DoJ’s laborious process to be useful for heading off another attempt. The DoJ is carefully picking apart the conspiracy, building ironclad cases against individuals. Which is necessary!

    But what is also necessary is to get things done quickly, because the midterms are almost here and the GOP is poised to continue (not start: continue) wrecking the democratic process NOW.

  189. 189.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize: ​
     
    I’m not Catholic — well, technically, I might be, since my Mom was a (lapsed) Catholic — but my understanding was that the Jesuits were the more intellectually/theologically advanced subset of Catholics. Of course, my understanding may be completely fucking worng. But if I’m right about that, one wonders why the Bishop of Wormtown would see fit to open his bigoted piehole/blowhole.

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