Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Petty moves from a petty man.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

In after Baud. Damn.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Let me file that under fuck it.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

This fight is for everything.

People are weird.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

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115Comments

  2. 2.

    hells littlest angel

    God we need to hold the House and Senate.

     

    That’s pretty well said.

  3. 3.

    cain

    We will. I think the needle is shifting. The revelations of this commission is startling and it’s getting people’s attention.

    ETA – my goodness, #3!!!!

  4. 4.

    MisterForkbeard

    @PsiFighter37: Maybe? He’s got a low approval rating, but our generic ratings are pretty excellent and Biden still wins when matched up against actual Republicans.

    Still a really tough lift during a midterm year.

  5. 5.

    Kropacetic

    Who’s this John Cole fella? A new front pager? Welcome. We like pet pics.

    As far as Biden’s 33%, he isn’t on the ballot this year. Also, I recall Deval Patrick being in worse shape than that a few months before his successful reelection.

  9. 9.

    SpaceUnit

    I’m taking these poll numbers with a sizable helping of salt.

    Our corporate MSM just can’t quit the GOP and their usual bothsides bullshit isn’t working so well anymore.

  13. 13.

    Kropacetic

    @Omnes Omnibus: This. Also when voters reengage there’s at least a risk they’ll notice Biden isn’t the doddering fool the media is trying to create out of whole straw.

    @Alison Rose : It’s okay, John, we know you’ve been busy with your quiche porn.

    I’ve seen and participated in a lot of fetishes, but that’s new.

  18. 18.

    SpaceUnit

    @M31:

    Exactly.  I’m totally a bot.

     

    ETA:  And I really hate it when I get asked to click on the all images with a mailbox or a bicycle or some stupid shit in them.  It’s not like I go around asking people to generate prime numbers.

  19. 19.

    Layer8Problem

    It’s good to see the proprietor of this shebeen walking amongst us saying “Don’t you people have homes?“

  21. 21.

    eclare

    @PsiFighter37:   Joe still beats TFG in a matchup according to that poll.

    But that was buried in I think the fifteenth paragraph, according to the Jen Rubin op-ed in the WaPo.

  26. 26.

    tom

    Since this is an open thread, Twitter has sued Elon for trying to weasel out of his agreement to buy the company, and it’s a doozy. Inter alia, the suit calls his withdrawal a “model of hypocrisy “, and noted that the agreement has no “no financing contingency and no diligence condition.”

    Laying in the popcorn.

  27. 27.

    satby

    ‘@JC: I could swear I saw you being funny on a thread just yesterday.

    I signed up to potentially sponsor a Ukrainian refugee (or more, depending on family status). At Welcome.us you can fill out a profile and it’s shared with refugees eligible for the humanitarian parole. Like Match.com for sponsorship, though no commitment unless all parties agree. Just in case anyone else is interested in finding out about it.

  31. 31.

    TS

    @cain:

    The house republicans really shot themselves in the foot by refusing to be part of the investigative committee. We could have had their pushback over and over – instead there is no-one on the committee interested in the basic GOP take on the event.

    Keep the public hearings going all year & there could be some good results for democrats in November.

  32. 32.

    Phylllis

    @HumboldtBlue: Absolutely disgusting. They’re all bulked up with their bulletproof vests and other tactical gear, and literally turned tail and fled. Firing is too good for them; they should be shunned by all and sundry, including their own family members.

  37. 37.

    Steeplejack

    For anybody interested, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) is coming up on TCM at 8:00 EDT. WWII veterans return to civilian society. Won seven Oscars, including best picture. Starring Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Frederic March, Myrna Loy.

    Recently discussed here at Balloon Juice.

  47. 47.

    danielx

    @HumboldtBlue:
    Rooting for injuries.​
     
    eta: reminded that “rooting” is Australian for “fucking”. Going to have to come up with a different word.

  49. 49.

    Starfish

    @PsiFighter37: I think this is misreading the mood.

    People may not want to vote for a President who is near 80 in 2024 (This may be part of why DeSantis is polling better than Trump as well), but they do want to clobber some ghouls who are going to “thoughts and prayers” their way through school shootings, force elementary school children to experience the magic of childbirth, and let women die of ectopic pregnancies.

  52. 52.

    Bill Arnold

    @HumboldtBlue:
    Do you think DJT wrote those? I’m betting no, written by Scavino or whoever is his tweetTruth(?) boy now after listening to an incoherent rant, and given the go ahead, maybe after a tweak or three.

  53. 53.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Steeplejack: I saw it several years back on TCM (Robert Osborne was still the host). Excellent movie and a rare portrayal/acknowledgement of PTSD and serious physical damage involving WWII vets.

  54. 54.

    Bill Arnold

    @danielx:
    Also, “fascinating”:

    Reminder that when you say something is “fascinating” you are actually saying you have been enchanted by this guy. Fascinus, the embodiment of the divine phallus. “Fascinate” derives from the Latin verb “fascinare” – meaning to bewitch through the magical power of the fascinus. pic.twitter.com/QABPED3Tfq
    — Gareth Harney (@OptimoPrincipi) February 26, 2022

  56. 56.

    prostratedragon

    @HumboldtBlue:  Amazing,  horrible.  Talk is cheap,  but at the very least I’d have been as afraid of justifying myself after a failure like that — to the end of my days.

  58. 58.

    Jackie

    Holding the House starts with voting the 10 Republican traitors who attended the Dec 21 meeting with TFG out of office!

  59. 59.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kropacetic:

    I’ve seen and participated in a lot of fetishes, but that’s new. 

    You’re why YouTube is now showing me ads for a local fetish bar.

  61. 61.

    persistentillusion

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:  The interesting comment my father made (WWII vet, basically catch-22, serving at a airbase in Morocco) was that his cohort had 3-6 months to destress. It took that long for troops to get home. Lots of time to talk to men who had the same experience they had. In Vietnam and subsequent conflicts, they went from the battlefield to home in 24-48 hours. No wonder coping has difficult.

  64. 64.

    prostratedragon

    @satby:  Given that 1. I know a decent print is on YouTube and 2. I have the DVD, why am I frustrated that I  won’t be back home for an hour to see this broadcast? Tis a puzzlement I’ve experienced with other movies.

  65. 65.

    Scout211

    Newsom signed the bill similar to the abortion laws recently passed in several states, but for guns. https://www.kcra.com/article/gov-newsom-signs-bill-allowing-californians-to-sue-gun-industry-after-violence/40590108

    Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed legislation into law that would allow lawsuits against gun makers and distributors after gun violence.

    The genesis for the bill, AB 1594, was a decision by the Supreme Court not to block a Texas law allowing private citizens to sue people who provide or assist in abortions.

    The California bill creates a legal standard for allowing residents, the state’s attorney general, and local governments to sue the industry in civil court, beginning in July 2023. Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, authored the legislation. It requires the industry to take “reasonable” efforts to make sure that their products are not used unlawfully.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @Scout211:

    the state’s attorney general, and local governments to sue the industry in civil court,

     
    Well, that’s not copying Texas. Texas got around the lawsuit by prohibiting government officials from enforcing it.

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack

    @satby:

    Sometimes I wonder about posting these notes. Streaming is the thing now, but the Balloon Juice demographic skews older, so . . . still watching cable?
    ¯_(ツ)_/¯

  75. 75.

    Subsole

    @SpaceUnit:

    This.

    The massive pile-on from the Right, the greasebag media, and select elements of the “Left” make me think the douche-signal has gone up.

    Someone over in Conservatopia saw some internals they REALLY don’t like and they are calling in everything they have…

  77. 77.

    David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch

    @Baud: Also I don’t see how they get around federal preemption as Congress granted gun makers immunity in 2006.

  79. 79.

    Subsole

    @tom:

    Ell Oh – and I cannot stress this enough – Effing Ell.

    What are the odds he slime-trails his way out?

  80. 80.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Steeplejack:

    Sometimes I wonder about posting these notes. Streaming is the thing now, but the Balloon Juice demographic skews older, so . . . still watching cable? 

    ¯_(ツ)_/¯

    Without TCM notes, I wouldn’t know about Famous Boners!

  83. 83.

    piratedan

    @Jackie: let them run their campaigns from jail imho….

    still sitting here watching all of these youtube and web podcasts where everyone on the Right and twitter itself knew what was going down and apparently no one was working at the FBI for that month is damning.  I would like to think that it’s mandate should be altered significantly to start shutting down this fascism that is coming from the pulpit and the gun shows.

  84. 84.

    Subsole

    @Bill Arnold:

    Wait.

    Stop.

    Hold. The. Phone.

    Isn’t there some kind of ladies’ hat called a “fascinator”?

     

    Also, good to see Balloon Juice After Dark is getting started a little early.

  85. 85.

    Steeplejack

    @prostratedragon:

    There is a weird—possibly fake—sense of “connection” to some part of the world when we take in a “broadcast” rather than running the whole process ourselves. Like listening to the radio or a YouTube playlist rather than a specifically chosen CD. And there can be a pleasant overtone of having “someone else” in charge (even if not really). Like being served or “waited on.”

    I have experienced it myself. It is a weird thing and a puzzlement.

  86. 86.

    Subsole

    @persistentillusion: I have heard similar. One of the few good things about Iraq is we seem to have learned our lesson on transitioning soldiers back to civilian life.

    Lots better care, more managed reintegration, longer timetable and better gradation of steps, etc. At least, that’s what I hear.

  88. 88.

    Subsole

    @FelonyGovt: Yep. Ancient cities were pretty vibrant, color wise. Crazy, right?

    I follow a historian named Bret Devereaux on twitter. He constantly points out that people in the past were people, and thus liked to look pretty. It sounds obvious, but never really occurred to me until someone mentioned it.

    I grew up thinking the Middle Ages were drab, and Antiquity was either gray rock, white rock, or brown rock depending on whether we were talking Mycenae, Rome, or Egypt.

    Go check out his blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry. Lots of fascinating details about daily life in Ancient times.

    (Plus, he beats the absolute melas zomos out of Ancient Sparta. Which is always worth the price of admission.)

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack

    @eclare:

    Yeah. And we’re overloaded with choices in our lives, so sometimes it can be nice to have some made for us.

  92. 92.

    piratedan

    if you’re Nonna Pelosi and we’ve all just had names dropped on who was conspiring with the President to initiate a soft-coup of the government…. do you just go ahead and offer up a vote to expel all of those GOP Congressional representatives that were involved and prevent them from serving in any capacity in the Government.

    I see that as a win-win… if they get removed, awesome send those shit-kickers home.  If it fails, it doesn’t matter anyways, because the gloves are off and you can make your campaign ads all about the party of treason.

  93. 93.

    kindness

    Polling.  I seriously doubt the polling and the value of any polling now.  November is a long way away and no doubt the Supreme Court will drop a couple more doozies before the elections.  We’ll do OK if we can keep the MSM from becoming Fox News.  We’re doing a terrible job on that front.

  94. 94.

    persistentillusion

    @Subsole: I hope that’s true, ’cause the guys (and women) who just got dropped off didn’t fare well. And that’s a dis-service to them

  101. 101.

    FelonyGovt

    @Subsole: Thank you. Now following Bret Deveraux and his blog.  I guess all my life I’ve thought these ancient statues were all white, with staring vacant eyeballs. These colorful reconstructions blow me away.

  102. 102.

    raven

    @persistentillusion: After the end of WW2 they sent the First Marine Division to China for a year. I had 10 days between Vietnam and the University of Illinois ( I was in the rear with the gear so the transition wasn’t that bad).

  106. 106.

    Citizen Alan

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I found it very difficult to watch the video that came with this tweet on account of the fact that the the city council was so white it actually burned out the screen on my phone.

  107. 107.

    Starfish

    Can you guys write some tweets for me about how everyone deserves a Dr Pepper? I’m taking a break bc I deserve a Dr Pepper. Thx Peppers ❤️
    — Dr Pepper (@drpepper) July 11, 2022

    Did someone give the Dr. Pepper social media manager a heads-up that their product would be prominently included in the January 6 hearings today, or was their vacation just really well timed?

  108. 108.

    Jackie

    @piratedan: I’m with you, but doesn’t it take 2/3 of the House voting yay? I’m afraid that’s not going to happen.

    Dems, Indies, and Never Trumpers need to vote them out. I can’t wait to see the political ads!

  109. 109.

    catclub

    @tom: the judgement for specific performance against Musk should come about a nanosecond after the case is closed.

  110. 110.

    raven

    @Steeplejack: Don’t forget Harold John Avery Russell, he won the Oscar best supporting actor. He lost his hands in a training accident but played a sailor in the film.

     

    For his role as Parrish, Russell won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1947. Earlier in the ceremony, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for ”bringing aid and comfort to disabled veterans through the medium of motion pictures.”[6] The special award had been created because the board of governors wanted to salute Russell, a non-professional actor, but assumed he had little chance for a competitive win.[7] It was the only time in Oscar history that the academy awarded two Oscars for the same performance.[8]

    Wyler called it “the finest performance I have ever seen on the screen.” But Russell earned under $10,000 for his performance and did not receive residual profits.[6]

  114. 114.

    StringOnAStick

    @catclub: We have a neighbor who works in a senior technical capacity at the blue bird; he’s a D but wanted the deal to close because if it didn’t “our stock price is going to take a big hit”.  I didn’t say that maybe not selling the company to a fascist who wants to enable other fascists is more important than the stock price.  He might be a D but apparently does not think deeply about what his company has enabled.

  115. 115.

    satby

    @Steeplejack: There is a weird—possibly fake—sense of “connection” to some part of the world when we take in a “broadcast” rather than running the whole process ourselves.

    I have felt that too. Just the vague sense that other people in other places are also “sharing” the experience of stopping to watch the same thing you are right at that moment. Even, or especially, when it’s a movie that’s 74 years old.

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