Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

Cole is on a roll !

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

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

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

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: ‘We’ve Got to Be Smarter’

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: ‘We’ve Got to Be Smarter’

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Mark your calendars for next Tuesday:


… “We’ve got to be smarter as a country in terms of who has access to what, in particular assault weapons,” said Harris, who was joined by Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering and other Democratic politicians. “And we’ve got to take this stuff seriously. The whole nation should understand and have a level of empathy to understand that this could happen anywhere in any peace-loving community. And we should stand together and speak out about why it’s got to stop.”

Earlier in the day, Harris called for reinstituting a national assault weapon ban…

A few hours later, in a short speech given in the heart of Highland Park, Harris offered condolences from President Joe Biden.

“You know that you have a whole nation that cares deeply about you, and stands with you. This is an incredibly tight community. I know that,” Harris said. “And this person will be brought to justice, but it’s not going to undo what happened. And we’re here for you and we stand with you.”

Just hours before Harris visited Highland Park, Gov. J.B. Pritzker advocated for a state-level ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines while also calling for similar action on a federal level.

“We urgently need federal regulation on the weapons of war and high capacity magazines that are used only for mass murder,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Illinois is not an island, and even with … some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, our state is only as safe as the state with the weakest laws — many of which border Illinois.”…

Heed the Science Guy!

Reader Interactions

184Comments

  2. 2.

    Anyway

    “Delaware Brezhnev”??!??! Grrrrrrr. Fortunately most of his readers wouldn’t get the reference

  5. 5.

    Anyway

    Btw, feel disheartened that there doesn’t seem to be anything in the works for Brittney Griner to be released. She’s been held there too long. Is there anything we can do to help?

  9. 9.

    hells littlest angel

    Anyone who doesn’t love Kamala Harris is — at best — a weirdo.

  10. 10.

    Geminid

    Some Pennsylvania politics news:

        Call them “Never Mastrianos.”

    A group of Republicans with long records of service in government and politics will form a super PAC  Wednesday to support state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee for Governor, in a rejection of the Republican nominee, State Senator Doug Mastriano.

    Chris Brennan, The [Philadelphia] Inquirer 

  12. 12.

    Immanentize

    @Anyway: There is very likely tons of shit in the works on Griner, like there is for every American held.

    Who says nothing is in the works? Twitter? You didn’t get a personal candygram about what the State Department is doing? Or do you just think we should end sanctions for Griner’s return? Or maybe sell Russia arms to fight Ukraine for her? We could use the excess $ to fund the Iranian opposition?

  20. 20.

    Immanentize

    @Geminid: Yes, he has some colorful nom de guerre like, “man who kills babies and eats their livers.” Seems like a good trade.

  23. 23.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: I wish there were more Barbara Edens in my life. Perhaps likewise diaphanously clad? I’m obviously old.

  30. 30.

    Soprano2

    Tucker, of course, has found a way to blame women for all these young men committing mass shootings. See, women are always telling men they are bad and wrong, so it’s no wonder the young men decide to shoot and kill a bunch of people, it’s their only response to being mad that “mommy” is trying to control them. Or something, it’s pretty incoherent. “We should treat mental illness, but look at all these drugs for depression young men are being prescribed these days, that’s bad” is not exactly a coherent message.

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    @Immanentize: This is shaping up to be a bad cycle for Pennsylvania Republicans. Besides the Governor race, they have a weak Senate candidate up against the widely popular John Fetterman. This can’t but hurt down ballot Republicans.

    There will be bitter Republican infighting in the aftermath. It looks  like these “Never Mastriano” establishment types are willing to fight it out with the radicals.

  32. 32.

    Immanentize

    @Soprano2: I’ve written about this here before, but saying that legally life begins at birth will upset just about every area of our laws. Contracts, property, benefits, torts — everything.

    It will likely have, if upheld, serious effects on international trade as well.

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: I heard something about that too, but the reasoning was that Griner and another American being held (whose name escapes me) would likely be part of a package deal because exchanging Griner for the arms dealer would be “disproportionate.”

    What a nightmare for Griner and her family. I think it’s likely the Russian authorities planted the pot on her to gain a pawn.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Must see TV?

    Girl in the Picture, Netflix’s new true crime documentary, is a challenge to director Skye Borgman’s own crown. In 2017, she made Abducted in Plain Sight, an account of the long-term abuse and kidnapping, not once but twice, of Jan Broberg by her parents’ friend and neighbour Robert Berchtold. In a crowded field, the bizarreness of the almost-incredible tale still stood out. If it had been a novel, you would have thrown the book aside as the work of a fool in a fever dream.

    But the story behind Girl in the Picture is, if anything, even sadder and stranger, as it traces the deepening mystery behind an apparently simple hit-and-run case. In Oklahoma, a 20-year-old woman is found, groceries scattered about her, by the side of a road, and dies of her injuries – which, it is noted by staff, are quite unlike those you would expect to find on a car accident victim – in hospital soon after. Her much older husband, Clarence, is under suspicion, and their two-year-old son Michael is placed with a foster family. The deceased is identified as Tonya Hughes and her mother is called. When she answers, she tells them her daughter died as a toddler.

    And that’s just the beginning. This story has more twists and turns than the road to Sa Calobra

  39. 39.

    Jinchi

    @Geminid: 

    The NYT and others had an article about that. The Russians essentially want to trade a hostage in exchange for an arms dealer.

    Viktor Bout, 55, a former Soviet military officer who made a fortune in global arms trafficking before he was caught in a federal sting operation, could be the price for any deal. Russian officials have pressed Mr. Bout’s case for years, and in recent weeks Russian media outlets have directly linked his case to Ms. Griner’s. Some, including the state-owned Tass news service, have even claimed that talks with Washington for a possible exchange are already underway, something that U.S. officials will not confirm.

  40. 40.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: I am not so sure about the “planted pot” issue. There have not been big denials by the Griner side (which would be smart in any case) except a somewhat weak — “the vape cartridges were already empty.” Maybe yes, maybe no. It is a bullshit charge in any case, but I am not certain the Russians needed to plant anything. There were other US folks with high profiles they could have planted stuff on at that moment.

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: The Russians might have known that Griner vaped hash oil from surveilance on a previous visit. They did not need a dog to smell it at the airport. I bet they have at least one dog at that airport who is trained to register a positive response upon a signal from its handler.

  43. 43.

    Tony Jay

    I’m slumped on the couch with the boy (he’s got Covid, again) watching Wreck It Ralph 2 and glancing at my phone.

    Even in this entirely relaxed and receptive state I’m having a major problem keeping up with the high velocity firehose of resignations gushing forth from Flobalob’s rapidly deflating ‘Government’.

    Last I checked we were at 23, but that was, like, minutes ago.

    I sure picked the wrong day to give up snorting popcorn.

  44. 44.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense:

    the Biden crack pipe

    I sent for mine via the USPS web site, but it hasn’t arrived yet? Did you get yours?

    Meanwhile, nice to catch you! I was in Gloucester last weekend and had 1+1/2s at about 11/pound. Are your prices settled from last year?

  49. 49.

    Kropacetic

    @Immanentize: To a lot of Americans, pot is common and innocuous. It’s also the sort of thing law enforcement here may turn a blind eye to, at their discretion.

    I definitely don’t rule out the possibility of Russia having planted it, but I find it more likely they seized an opportunity to throw the book at her unreasonably to act against the US.

  51. 51.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Anyway: i read somewhere that there may end up being a prisoner exchange because the Russians want an arms trader released here.  Also, Griner is famous so you know her. There is another former military American who has been imprisoned there quite a bit longer.

  52. 52.

    Josie

    @Immanentize: I was getting ready to write a similar comment, but it was not nearly as succinct as yours. My late husband was a criminal defense attorney in a border county and had no respect for either the border agents or the DEA.

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: Hot enough? Shit… The other day I went out at 5 am and came back inside about 6;15-6:30 soaking wet with sweat and then spent the rest of the day rotating ice packs to all parts of my body that would cramp up with every move I made.

    I’m f’n dying here.

  57. 57.

    Immanentize

    @Josie: Yes, so true. One of my Attny friends in San Antonio ended up “cross examining” a dog by getting every record from every stop and searched and figured out that dog’s ‘alert signal’ was probably as useless as evidence as him scratching his neck.*

    Police know how to lie.

    * No offense to neck scratching dogs.

  59. 59.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: I wanted to let you know that I got a call from the Lucas Kunze campaign on my cell phone on Sunday. It was a nice young man who wanted know if I was aware that Lucas Kunze was running for Senate, and wanted to know what issues I felt were most important for the candidate to address. I told him I was concerned about people being able to vote, and abortion rights, and how overturning Roe will have all kinds of consequences that the people who were for it haven’t thought about yet. The call showed on my phone as “potential spam”, but these days I answer all the calls because I never know when it could be someone calling about my stepson’s death. I was glad I talked to him.

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    @Kropacetic: My friend Stephanie avidly follows the NFL. She says the league has quietly relaxed enforcement against cannabis use. I always thought that if anyone needed cannabis for pain management, it was pro football players.

  61. 61.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: Y’know how I knew you were out of sorts? No Blech from you in days. We might get some rain today which is needed. We are in mild drought. But it’s gonna be near 90 today.

  62. 62.

    Soprano2

    @Immanentize: The lawyer who was interviewed seemed to believe that the 14th Amendment would pose some problems for people who want to pass “fetal personhood” laws. With the Supreme Clerical 6, who knows?

  64. 64.

    Soprano2

    @Immanentize: Yes, it had a strong “how dare mommy tell me what to do” vibe. I swear, so many problems seem to be caused by men’s resentment that their mother controlled their life when they were a child, although it sounds like Tucker’s mother was a piece of work.

  65. 65.

    Kropacetic

    @Geminid: This is good. I’m also team “this is none of an employer’s business.” Employers don’t own you and shouldn’t be telling you how to spend your time off, least of all preventing an activity that may be locally legal.

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    @Leto: i think the little kid lit the second rocket right next to the back of the car, yes? With dad standing right there?

    Dingus indeed!

  68. 68.

    Kropacetic

    @Matt McIrvin: Look what you made me/them do” is every abuser’s motto.

    Makes sense, then, how it’s being used lately to justify every GOP policy excess.

    ETA: And Russian military aggression.

  69. 69.

    Tony Jay

    @Miss Bianca:

    Nope.

    27!

    Mostly Principal Private Secretaries, with a few ministers mixed in. These are the people who serve as senior bannermen to their ministers, doing most of the actual hands-on work. Government doesn’t really function without them.

  70. 70.

    Leto

    @Immanentize: aaand upon enlarging that twitter vid, I think they stored the extra fireworks near the rear of that car? And then the exploding bottle rocket shot sparks into that pile. To quote Han Solo, “Great shot, kid, that was one in a million!”

  72. 72.

    Immanentize

    @Leto: Have you seen Top Gun Maverick yet? I laughed out loud when they described the mission. Obviously intended to make people like me laugh out loud.

    But I’m giving no spoilers.

  73. 73.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: That is an interesting primary. I don’t know of any big policy differences betwen them, but Mr. Kunze(sp?) and Ms. Valentine have very contrasting personal profiles. The two seem to have potential strengths, but in different ways.

    Either one will have an uphill battle if nominated. But I keep seeing Republicans wringing their hands over Eric Greitens. They say he is their only candidate who can lose that Senate seat, and I take them seriously.

  77. 77.

    Starfish

    @Immanentize: You are being unnecessarily flip about this.

    Usually, what people want for a prisoner is a prisoner exchange. You are proposing  ridiculous nonsense to make fun of the other commenter, and it is deeply unkind.

    Griner had a letter released yesterday, and we learned that people in charge of facilitating calls with her wife have been falling down on the job, and they are communicating through letters only right now.

    That piece, where Griner gets to stay in touch with her family, should be taken care of. It is a big deal that it is not being taken care of.

  78. 78.

    kalakal

    @Miss Bianca: Here’s the score as of 45 minutes ago

    BBC News – Boris Johnson: Embattled PM vows to keep going amid Tory revolt
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62065534

     

    The especially big tell of Johnson’s weakness is his folding to Nadhim Zahawi who threatened to quit unless he got the Chancellorship displacing Johnson’s own choice, Liz Truss. Now Truss is as thick as pig shit but for some inexplicable reason is seen as the likely successor and may now quit herself. Zahawi is hitherto most famous for cementing his street cred by claiming the heating bill for his stables on expenses. As Chancellor he’ll be held responsible for soaring fuel bills _ “My horses are warmer than you kids” is not a good message to send.

    This is real pass the popcorn time.

    Starmer  came up with a real zinger, describing those like Zahawi rushing to Johnson’s aid as “The Charge of the Lightweight Brigade”

  82. 82.

    Leto

    @Immanentize: I thought it was the man in the blue shirt who threw something in, but nope, large spark went arcing into the pile. Bottle rocket explodes, spark goes into the pile, sort of lights some stuff and it explodes, kid yelps from spark hitting him, man goes to check pile, sees the impending doom, doesn’t warn kids or anyone else, initially plugs his ears (whaaaa???), and then KABOOM!

    Ofc not quite as spectacular as the time San Diego set off 7000 fireworks at once.

  83. 83.

    Liminal Owl

    FYI: The Thin Black Duke is currently hospitalized following an unexpected medical event yesterday. Tests are happening; hopefully a treatable cause will be found soon and discharge will occur.  I can provide a few details on request and will update as appropriate.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: It looked to me like the first one misfired, shooting to the back of the car, where I suspect is where they kept the box with all the other fireworks they were gonna set off. The spark went in the box and it was time to get the hell out of Dodge.

  85. 85.

    Tony Jay

    @kalakal:

    I know. Bullied by Nadhim frigging Zahawi. Shameful.

    What’s next? Getting a live on TV wedgie from Timmy Mallett?

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    @Starfish:

    Griner had a letter released yesterday

    I am not making shit up. Russia has asked for certain sanctions to be lifted for her return.

    So she wants to have her PR people work this deal? I wonder if the President was even given a chance to read her plea before the news folks started braying about it. This is a very bad idea when trying to negotiate a release (or exchange) of a foreign national in the middle of an international conflict.

  90. 90.

    Scout211

    I don’t have a subscription, but the title of Margaret Sullivan’s piece in the Washington Post really made me almost think about subscribing so I could read it. If someone here has a subscription, I would love to read an excerpt. The trend in the news today of whole articles starting with “might,” “could,” “should,” “would” etc., are so annoying, frustrating and more importantly they are not news!

    Her opinion piece: Please, pundits, stop trying to predict the future. You’re bad at it.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/07/06/pundits-wrong-roe-abortion-jan6-trump/

  93. 93.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: I totally believe that is true. And it’s Lucas Kunce, I misspelled it, sorry. I don’t know what to think about Ms. Valentine, she’s a late entry into the race. She has the Busch fortune behind her. I guess we’ll see what primary voters want. Watching the news now is hard, because every other ad is a Republican campaign ad telling people how terrible Joe Biden/Nancy Pelosi/the Squad are, and how you should vote for them to run for the Senate because they’ll fix everything. I find myself wishing even one reporter would ask these candidates what their actual plan is to fix inflation and high gas prices. No one ever asks them that!

  94. 94.

    Ken

    @Leto: New from Tom Clancy, The Fire-Dragon Gambit. The Chinese flood the US with defective fireworks, knowing that after July 4 over 27% of the population will be in the burn ward.

  95. 95.

    Immanentize

    @Liminal Owl: Omg. I hope he is ok. You know I have some (sad) experience in this regard — can I help? Is he visitable? Can I bring you anything? Please give him my best!

  96. 96.

    Starfish

    @Immanentize: Let me tell you what the Biden administration has done for all those people from Afghanistan that had their extensive paperwork filed so they could come to the US.

    Diddly squat.

    I am bitter about this because we paid the $500+ filing fee for one person.

  98. 98.

    Ken

    @Geminid: I always thought that if anyone needed cannabis for pain management, it was pro football players.

    I thought they had access to the good stuff, and doctors who were willing to dispense it with a bucket.

  104. 104.

    Immanentize

    @Ken: I preferred his earlier work, Orders from Grecco in which an authoritarian populist aspirant in Athens secretly arranged the unannounced closure of all Greek Diners in America just before a holiday weekend, crippling America.

  105. 105.

    Leto

    @Scout211: I have a subscription via my military service (free sub), so here ya go:

    Pundits, by tradition and definition, are supposed to have expertise in a particular field and the scholarship to back it up. Although we’ve come to know them as journalists, academics or former political players who hold forth in print or on TV, the Sanskrit-derived term originally referred to a wise and learned person who counseled kings or advised judges on Hindu law.

    But recent events suggest that a lot of today’s pundits are a far less lofty breed: They are bad-take artists — especially when it comes to making political predictions.

    And their flagrant wrongness seems to draw virtually no repercussions, unless you count being mocked on Twitter. That’s why it was so delightful to see my colleague Erik Wemple catalogue some of the confident predictions that, never fear, Roe v. Wade certainly would not be overturned.

    But abortion rights was hardly the only wrong call lately.

    “The Jan. 6 committee has already blown it,” decided David Brooks, who holds one of those New York Times appointments as an op-ed columnist that rival the Supreme Court in their tenure. That was the headline of his column in early June, a few days before the first televised hearing, using his precious space to opine that the hearings would be pointless since whatever relative minutiae they turned up would fail to address the deeper problems of our nation. Their purported goals — breaking through the noise of today’s politics and proving how deeply Donald Trump was involved in the insurrection planning — weren’t nearly broad or meaningful enough.

    “No offense,” Brooks wrote, “but these goals are pathetic.”

    As it happened, though, the hearings haven’t “blown it” by any measure. Millions of Americans are watching, many are riveted, and the testimony is clearly important for accountability. They may even change some hearts and minds. (TV viewership is no measure of the deep significance but, for the stunning testimony of White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson last week, more than 13 million Americans tuned in, according to the Los Angeles Times, exceeding viewership for every 2022 NBA Finals game except for one.)

    Brooks has lots of company in Pundit Tower.

    “Nancy Pelosi just doomed the already tiny chances of the 1/6 committee actually mattering,” wrote CNN’s Chris Cillizza last summer.

    “If you ever held any hope that the House select committee … might … help us understand what happened in the lead-up to that day and, in so doing, provide us avenues to keep it from happening again, you should give up those hopes now.” That failure, he reasoned would be due to the House speaker’s decision to reject two of the five nominees — Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana — that Republican leadership wanted on the panel.

    Pelosi’s move, Cillizza wrote, would doom even the possibility of the committee being perceived as bipartisan or independent.

    In fact, of course, refusing to seat the obstreperous loudmouth Jordan, in particular, has been a saving grace. The hearings have been dignified, compelling and — because they have featured so much testimony from Republican officials and have been led in part by Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — actually have come off as nonpartisan. They seem focused on truth-seeing rather than making cheap political points.

    More recently, Cillizza has changed his tune, for examples with a headline last week evaluating Hutchinson’s testimony as “utterly devastating” for Trump.

    In the bad-takes Hall of Fame, though, it’s hard to top Mick Mulvaney’s prediction in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece that Trump — whom he served for a time as acting chief of staff — would do the right thing if Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

    “If He Loses, Trump Will Concede Gracefully,” the headline asserted.

    Instead, we got a deadly riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump’s ceaseless campaign to deny the legitimate election results.

    Far for being ostracized for such a view, Mulvaney landed a plum spot with CBS News as — yes — a pundit. A top CBS executive explained the bizarre move: Mulvaney would help provide “access” to Republicans as the midterm elections approach.

    We all fall prey to the temptation to consult our crystal balls. I failed at it spectacularly myself when asked by New York magazine years ago, along with many others, to predict whether Trump would make it through his first term. I said he would but wouldn’t run again in 2020, and I suggested that America would then have its first female president in Kirsten Gillibrand. Since then, chastened somewhat, I’ve tried to resist making predictions, even in a subject area I actually know something about — like the fate of local newspapers.

    There’s a secret society at Yale, supposedly made up of “campus wits,” that calls itself The Pundits, famous for undergraduate pranks, including streaking through the university’s libraries clothed only in their self-regard and hosting naked parties.

    Professional pundits ought to keep such images in mind whenever they are tempted to peer into the future. More than likely, they’re at high risk of exposing themselves.

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: I don’t know what to think about Ms. Valentine, she’s a late entry into the race. She has the Busch fortune behind her.

    Well, that’s a big strike against her. Tells me all I need to know.

    (I refer to them as the “Busch crime family”) (a lot of women’s bodies have been left in their wake)

  108. 108.

    Immanentize

    @Starfish: Bull fucking shit. I have been involved, personally, in helping 26 people (so far) in that circumstance get here. Including people who were family members of an interpreter. Things are happening. Your propaganda is old.

  109. 109.

    SFAW

    @Tony Jay:

    I sure picked the wrong day to give up snorting popcorn.

    There’s no wrong day to stop! Based on my extensive medical background — I was in a hospital once — I would think that snorting popcorn would induce an aneurysm, an embolism, nasal ouchies, DVT, OU812, and mogo on the gogogo (that most dreaded of diseases).

    So, stay safe! Friends don’t let friends snort p-corn!

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: Two fun Valentine facts: she credits Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth with helping persuade her to throw her dressage hat into the ring. When Valentine announce her candidacy, the former state senator considered to be Kunce’s main rival quickly dropped out and endorsed her.

  113. 113.

    Leto

    @Immanentize: people being assholes. Don’t know if you enabled sound, but people were freaking the fuck out, running for cover, thinking that the person was firing a gun or something like it.

  115. 115.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: From Fred Kaplan at Slate

    However, the last few paragraphs of a long story about Griner’s plight in Sunday’s New York Times suggest that an exchange wouldn’t be so improper or improbable after all. The article quotes Shira Scheindlin, the former judge who presided over the Bout trial, as saying that a swap might not be a bad idea—as long as Russia freed not only Griner but also Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was arrested on espionage charges in 2018.

    interesting side note: the judge who presided over Bout’s trial thinks his sentence– the 25 mandatory minimum– was too long and 11 years is sufficient.

  116. 116.

    Lapassionara

    @Soprano2: what I want the press to ask Republican candidates is whether they support Rick Scott’s plan to sunset Social Security and Medicare? And if they say they don’t support it, follow up with “and will you disobey Mitch McConnell’s order to vote for it?

  117. 117.

    Ken

    @Tony Jay: Government doesn’t really function without them.

    Setting aside the possibility that that’s the goal, how difficult will it be to find replacements? Assume that incompetency and past criminal behavior are not a bar; the bottom of the barrel may be thoroughly scraped.

  119. 119.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: Despite her family’s wealth,Trudy Busch Valentine pursued a career path as an RN. She worked in that profession for some years before retiring to philanthropy.

    Ms. Valentine’s life is an example of how wealth is not neccesarily a shield against adversity. Her husband died of cancer at a fairly young age, and she lost a son to an opioid overdose.

  121. 121.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    Oh fun!  I haven’t even checked the prices lately.  It’s been a crazy summer so far.  I used to buy them off the boat from my friend’s husband but he was naughty and had a baby with someone from the he deli counter at Vegetable Corner so I need to find a new supplier.

    I have been buying fresh bluefin and I’m pretty sure it’s more expensive than gold. So good though.

  122. 122.

    Soprano2

    @Lapassionara: Yep, that too, plus ask about all the other awful stuff in Scott’s plan. Make them own it! You know they’d do it if it were a Democrat. I get tired of hearing Republicans whine about “Biden’s inflation” and “Biden’s high gas prices” without saying one word of what they would do to fix either of these things, plus of course Biden isn’t responsible for either of these things.

  126. 126.

    Suzanne

    @Immanentize:

    Fetterman is owning Oz — mostly by mercilessly mocking him. I love it.

    Fetterman is doing a great job doing what I suggested yesterday, which is “making his enemies ridiculous”. He’s capturing the right tone, which is smirking at these terrible people. We really really need to dunk on these clowns. All the time. Short, snarky. None of this “when they go low, we go high”.

  127. 127.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense:

    Lobster Jones
    — by Momsense

    he was naughty
    and had a baby
    with the deli counter woman
    at the Vegetable Corner;
    so
    I need to find a new supplier
    now.

  130. 130.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    People expect Dems to be Barbara Eden granting them their every wish with nod of their heads.

    I was always more of an Elizabeth Montgomery wiggling her nose kind of guy.

  131. 131.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @rikyrah: as I think Josh Marshall pointed out, they’d basically be issuing themselves a subpoena in those circumstances, but to someone like Gym Jordan, and people who pay attention to him, it sounds like tuff-guy hard-ball

  133. 133.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: and she lost a son to an opioid overdose.

    Not to minimize her loss or make fun of it, but that is a common cause of death in that family.

  134. 134.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Baud: On the flip side anyone talking about a 2024 Primary pretty quickly signals that it’s time for me to use the “unfriend/unfollow/block” functions.  But you are right.  It is absolutely sad, pathetic and enraging that despite Biden passing Infrastructure, Economic Recovery, Gun Reform, putting an amazing Black woman onto SCOTUS, getting us widely vaccinated, ending the war in Afghanistan, helping Ukraine survive Russia’s illegal invasion, helping reinvigorate NATO, and being the only person on the planet who has beaten Trump head-to-head in an election while getting the most votes in US history…supposed  Progressives are spreading shitloads of GOP/Russian smears of him.

    This is the difference between our side and the GOP.  Trump was an absolute catastrophe and probably, hands-down the worst president in history.  Yet he was still leading by a mile in the last CPAC poll for 2024 Republican Nominee.  Hell, even the people who are bravely providing testimony for the 1/6 Committee are almost all on record saying they still will vote for Trump in 2024.  They understand the importance of supporting the PARTY much better than we do.  “Vote Red No Matter Who” never even needs to be said on the other side.  It is assumed.

    We love to clutch our pearls about how our side refuses to “go low”, in the famous words of Michelle Obama.  But that is precisely what going low is.  Backing the Party and the Incumbent with little/no griping.  But way too many people on our side find that more objectionable than the prospect of Fascism.

  136. 136.

    The Moar You Know

    Whoever is acting on behalf of Griner needs to STFU yesterday and let the professionals handle it or she’s gonna be in that goddamn Russian prison for the rest of her life.  Or executed on live TV.  That could happen.  As far as the Russians are concerned, a American black lesbian is not worth the cost of feeding her – that’s something Americans need to keep in mind here, that’s how their society works – and we’ve seen what putting pressure on the Russian government to “do the right thing” has led to.  The American government is doing all that they can, which until the Russians decide to play, is not going to be much.

  137. 137.

    Betty Cracker

    @Suzanne: I also like that style — the times demand it, IMO. Val Demings is doing a great job of dunking on Lil’ Marco here in FL. Don’t know if it will be enough in this hell state, but she’s giving the little twerp the eye-rolling responses he deserves, and it’s good for my morale if nothing else!

  138. 138.

    Ken

    @UncleEbeneezer: Hell, even the people who are bravely providing testimony for the 1/6 Committee are almost all on record saying they still will vote for Trump in 2024.

    “Thank you, and on your way out we have a small confidential poll. If you really would vote that way, please put a white ball in the urn. If you’re only saying that because you think you’ll be shot in the face by a “lone wolf” screaming about your betrayal, put a black ball in the urn.”

  139. 139.

    SFAW

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​
     

    But that is precisely what going low is. Backing the Party and the Incumbent with little/no griping.

    No, it’s not. “Going low” is taking and promulgating fear-based and punitive positions. Such as “THOSE people are going to take your guns away so that they can let in MS-13 murderers, who will then force your (white) daughters into prostitution and drugs and voting for Demon-craps!” and “THOSE people will vote for Dems to make sure they keep getting gummint handouts/benefits that THEY DON’T DESERVE, so we gotta make sure they ain’t allowed to do that.”
    That the Rethugs know that however “low” they go, it will not lose them many votes (among the “faithful”), is what some call “reading the room.”

  140. 140.

    MisterForkbeard

    @hells littlest angel: During the primaries, I told my elderly mother that I really liked Harris and was going to enthusiastically vote for her. Her first response was “Is she the lady with the laugh?”

    She really likes Kamala now, though. She’s just a very authentic, warm person who can still lay a smack down if needed.

  141. 141.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: Isn’t there a suspicion that one male member of the Busch family murdered someone and got away with it? The thing is, I won’t tar her with the sins of other family members, to me that’s not fair.

  143. 143.

    James E Powell

    @Scout211:

    Re: Margaret Sullivan’s opinion piece.

    Brooks & Cilliza are not pundits. They are Republican propagandists. Sullivan knows this but won’t say it.

  144. 144.

    Geminid

    @Suzanne: Michelle Obama’s now-infamous saying had its own context, and I don’t think she intended to prescribe campaign tactics for Democratic politicians.

  145. 145.

    James E Powell

    @rikyrah:

    a serious vacuum in the Democratic Party: The lack of leaders making a comprehensive case about right wing radicalization degrading our national life on so many fronts.

    Agree with this times a million.

  146. 146.

    Served

    @Betty Cracker: State-level Dems are really tearing it up right now across the country, and it’s amazing to see. 2018 brought a whole new class into the spotlight and our bench feels deeper than it has in a long, long time.

    Pritzker is tearing it up lately as well, retweeting a glib NRA tweet with this message:

    Governor JB Pritzker
    @GovPritzker
    And 100% of mass public shootings happen with guns. As Governor, on behalf of the people of Highland Park — leave us the hell alone.

    “Leave us the hell alone” is a powerful rallying cry for a host of liberal causes right now.

  149. 149.

    Betty Cracker

    @Scout211: Here’s an excerpt:

    Pundits, by tradition and definition, are supposed to have expertise in a particular field and the scholarship to back it up. Although we’ve come to know them as journalists, academics or former political players who hold forth in print or on TV, the Sanskrit-derived term originally referred to a wise and learned person who counseled kings or advised judges on Hindu law.

    But recent events suggest that a lot of today’s pundits are a far less lofty breed: They are bad-take artists — especially when it comes to making political predictions.

    And their flagrant wrongness seems to draw virtually no repercussions, unless you count being mocked on Twitter…

    It’s a good column, IMO.

  150. 150.

    cain

    @Immanentize: I did too…

    I just wish that someone in the back spoke up how they did something like that back home shooting critters – so it’s not impossible!

  154. 154.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: Auggie III (or is it IV?) has had 2 women turn up dead in his bed. Petie is the original bad seed, tho I haven’t heard much of him lately. I seem to recall there were accusations along the lines you mention but details escape me just now.

    The thing is, I won’t tar her with the sins of other family members, to me that’s not fair.

    That’s fine, and if somehow she fell into my social circle, I’d give her the benefit of a doubt and some time to prove otherwise, but that ain’t happening. Besides, she’s not applying to be my friend, she wants to be my senator. In my experience the apple rarely rolls far from the tree and a bunch of political ads on TV and the radio are hardly trustworthy sources.

    That may be unfair to her, but something tells me that with her money, she’ll be OK anyway.

  155. 155.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack: ​
     

    MIT guys were the balloon perps.

    Yes, I know. That was sorta the point.
    Streaking is “The Pundits” big prank? GMAFB.
    The Balloon Prank, putting a “Campus Police” cruiser on top of the Great Dome — something I actually saw, my wife and I were driving on Mem Drive that morning — (allegedly) thermite-welding the Harvard Yard gates closed – those are all pranks.

    e to the u du dx,
    e to the x dx, baby!

  156. 156.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    the only thing I know about the Busch family is that the elder sister of a high school friend briefly dated one of the Augies in college– she’d be about 60 now, whichever Augie that might have been– and urban legend has it that Harry Caray had to hightail it to Chicago because he got caught in flagrante with one of the Mrs Busch, which raises the question: How drunk was said alleged Mrs Busch?

  157. 157.

    Steeplejack

    @Served:

    Nice to have a link that gives the context:

    And 100% of mass public shootings happen with guns.

    As Governor, on behalf of the people of Highland Park—leave us the hell alone.
    https://t.co/biBV75pWxA

    — Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) July 6, 2022

    He was responding to an @NRA comment that said: “Since 1950, 94% of mass public shootings occurred in gun-free zones.”

  159. 159.

    Steeplejack

    @SFAW:

    So why did you say, “Yeah, that was pretty awesome, Elis,” after linking to the balloon caper? Murky writing at best.

  161. 161.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: and urban legend has it that Harry Caray had to hightail it to Chicago because he got caught in flagrante with one of the Mrs Busch, which raises the question: How drunk was said alleged Mrs Busch?

    From what I’ve read, that is more than an urban legend.

    As far as getting into bed with Harry, he was a funny and personable guy, which in my experience is very attractive to a lot of women. Not that I am either funny or personable, my experience has been that of the guy who lost the girl to the funny and personable guy.

  163. 163.

    Ksmiami

    @UncleEbeneezer: I think he’s been pretty subdued lately while we need more leaders to articulate what the fight is about. He needs a new communications team

  164. 164.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack: ​
     

    So why did you say, “Yeah, that was pretty awesome, Elis,” after linking to the balloon caper?

    “The Pundits” are Elis a/k/a Yalies.
    Apparently, their idea of a “prank” is streaking through campus libraries.
    I was giving an example of a real prank, and snarking (or being ironic?) by (intentionally) mis-attributing an actual prank to The Pundits.

    I have sometimes been accused — not necessarily unjustifiably — of being abstruse, but in this case, all the info was pretty much there.

  165. 165.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: the size of a man’s apparent self confidence.

    Ding ding ding… We have a winner. Yeah, I kinda came into my own in my mid 30s, post divorce, due to a combination of factors.

  166. 166.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @SFAW: When people lament that our side won’t “go low” they mean we won’t do everything possible to win.  It can come in many forms.  But it all amounts to doing whatever-it-takes.  But our side only wants our elected officials to do that, but not ourselves.  Our side gets upset by being asked to vote!!!  You simply don’t see that shit from GOP voters.  It puts us at a tremendous disadvantage when we have to fight not only GOP/Russian efforts to spread voter apathy but also those from our own side.  It’s time to generate enthusiasm for Mid Terms, not to talk about how we need a different candidate in 2024.  And I can’t help but notice that the people in my world doing this shit are the very same ones that spent 2016 spreading anti-Hillary bullshit and then did the same to Biden in 2020, even after he decisively earned his place as the Dem POTUS Nominee.

  167. 167.

    Tony Jay

    @SFAW:  But it’s so moreish!

    @Ken: It’s more that the form of Government we have can’t properly function without people filling the roles of PPS than the people resigning being of any notable quality. GOP appointed judges are generally sacks of shit, but if they all resigned tomorrow it would still shut down the US court system.

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    31? Christ, that’s almost more resignations than Flobby’s got kids!

    He’s done. When Michael ‘Murdoch Owns Me’ Gove slithers out from behind the curtains to tell you you should resign, you’re already resigned.

  168. 168.

    SFAW

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​

    When people lament that our side won’t “go low” they mean we won’t do everything possible to win.

    Not really. Or maybe it’s another case of (figuratively speaking) people using “bemused” when they mean “amused”?

    The “go low” meme came to the fore during the 2016 DNC Convantion, when Michelle Obama said “When they go low, we go high.” It was a comment on the different foci (or focuses) of the two parties with respect to “issues” they raised or hammered on. The Rethugs have always been happy to demonize Blacks and other (non-white) ethnic groups, LGBT people, and so on; Dems don’t do that. So the only overlap with “we won’t do everything possible to win” is that Dems (generally) will not try to demonize groups (other than RWMFs/Rethugs); sort of “I’ll do anything, but I won’t do THAT.”​

  170. 170.

    livewyre

    @UncleEbeneezer: That’s why I focus on determining the direction of the fire rather than the presumptive good faith of the one firing. From recent experience, anyone can participate in an attack campaign, even if they’ve supposedly been on the right side for ages.

    What I’ve come up with is that harm is harm no matter where from. Sides aren’t chosen by flags or slogans or association, but by action. If somebody’s participating in a campaign to discredit those doing the actual work on our behalf, and can’t be persuaded to stop, then they’re not on the right side of history. We have to stop what’s being done. That’s all.

  172. 172.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @UncleEbeneezer: no matter how many times, and how badly, they lose, every time they venture outside of D +20 districts (and twitter), the anti-Dem left has convinced themselves they’re “the base” of the Democratic Party

  177. 177.

    J R in WV

    @Liminal Owl: ​
     

    I took Wife to the ER with inexplicable symptoms last Feb. It is a teaching hospital, and still took 3 days to come up with a diagnosis. Surgery followed in April which appears to have corrected the spinal stennosis, and she is much improved now.

    Best wishes to the TBD — please let him know that he has hundreds if not thousands of Jackals pulling for his quick improvement. If you need help breaking him out, just let us know. And take care of yourself also too!!

  178. 178.

    Kathleen

     

    @UncleEbeneezer:  It’s funded and coordinated by the folks who told us on Twitter their goal was to destroy Democratic Party. Media love them because they’re part of the Rodent procreating because they hate and I do mean hate Democrats and will subject any Dem President to these non stop propaganda attacks. I have theory about what is fueling this vile and vicious attacking from all sides but I’ve said enough.

  182. 182.

    Yutsano

    @Liminal Owl: ​ Oh my goodness! Please do keep us updated. And please get us an address so we can start the casserole brigade. All my love and healing light to you two.

  183. 183.

    dnfree

    @Liminal Owl: oh, best wishes that they find the cause and he will be on the way to recovery.  He and you both make valuable contributions here.

  184. 184.

    Chris T.

    @Tony Jay:

    Even in this entirely relaxed and receptive state I’m having a major problem keeping up with the high velocity firehose of resignations gushing forth from Flobalob’s rapidly deflating ‘Government’.

    Are you saying that the Johnson is de-tumescing?

    Er, Johnson Government.

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