Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Battle won, war still ongoing.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

The revolution will be supervised.

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

House Speaker candidate unfamiliar with how to win non-gerrymandered election.

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

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

This fight is for everything.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Bark louder, little dog.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

I really should read my own blog.

When we show up, we win.

Consistently wrong since 2002

This really is a full service blog.

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Reader Interactions

129Comments

  3. 3.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: This was scheduled to go up 90 minutes ago.  Oh well.

    Someday you’ll hit the sweet spot, where the delay before the post appears exactly matches the delay before the press conference starts, and we don’t have to scroll through 30 minutes of “We Will Begin Shortly”.

  4. 4.

    Tarragon

    I’m hoping the President takes questions and that we get to hear more about the Ukraine package and the recent success with the Senate vote.

    I have a feeling any questions would be about something more Florida

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    @Ken: I’ve been assuming that the White House has staffers monitoring us just to make sure that never happens.

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    ABQ cops arrested a suspect in the murder of four Muslim men. Tweet from the police chief:

    We tracked down the vehicle believed to be involved in a recent murder of a Muslim man in Albuquerque. The driver was detained and he is our primary suspect for the murders. We will update the media later this afternoon.

    Glad the cops tracked the fucker down quickly.

  9. 9.

    Tarragon

    @dmsilev: “…and finally, we have deployed three HIMARS systems to South Palm Beach to support FBI operations there.”

    That’s good value for my tax dollars.   I’ll allow it.

  10. 10.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @zhena gogolia:

    Even by political news standards that was head-hurtingly stupid.  She tried? She tried what?  What possible legitimate purpose could she have asking “Is this good news for John McCain?”  Her attitude, like asking questions like that is just a game, is worse than the question.

  12. 12.

    Anyway

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Even by political news standards that was head-hurtingly stupid.  She tried? She tried what?  What possible legitimate purpose could she have asking “Is this good news for John McCain?”  Her attitude, like asking questions like that is just a game, is worse than the question.

    Every Rethuglican talking point must make its way to the media ecosystem. Raison d’etre for the village

  14. 14.

    MazeDancer

    Thank you, Vlad, for the great assist in NATO expansion.

    The Finns and Swedes are notorious fighters. Especially in the snow.

  15. 15.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Anyway: I mean, at least frame it honestly: “Given that Republicans commit crimes and that their base likes them committing crimes and is angry when Democrats catch them, do you think committing this crime and being caught by a non-partisan DOJ during a Democratic Administration might help Donald Trump with his base that likes it when he commits crimes?”

  16. 16.

    geg6

    @zhena gogolia:

    I like her dad a lot more than I like her.  She (her dad) may not have been the father (or mother) she wanted, but at least she did some groundbreaking stuff in journalism.  Katie herself is the poster child for CW, white bread, insider garbage.  And don’t get me started on her mannequin of a husband.

  19. 19.

    Another Scott

    @Anyway: Brad DeLong asks a good question:

    So Why Doesn’t the Democratic Party Technostructure Send Me Something Like This Every Week?

    “A range of resources in discussing the Inflation Reduction Act:

    * Letter from 126 economists supporting the Inflation Reduction Act

    * Statement from bipartisan Treasury Secretaries supporting the Inflation Reduction Act

    * Statement from bipartisan IRS commissioners supporting the Inflation Reduction Act

    * Congressional Budget Office score or the legislation, showing more than $300 billion in savings over the budget window, including deficit reduction in 2023 and 2024

    * Analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, showing deficit reduction of up to $2 trillion over two decades

    * Tweet thread by Chye-Ching Huang on the false claim that the bill raises taxes on the middle-class

    * Tweet thread by Jean Ross on the false claim that the bill will hurt domestic manufacturing

    * Tweet thread by David Kamin on the false claim that the tax enforcement funding will be focused on middle-class Americans

    * HHS analysis finding that the uninsured rate fell to an all-time low in the first part of 2022, in significant part due to the ACA improvements extended in the Inflation Reduction Act (additional graphics here)

    * As President Biden wrote in his May 2022 Wall Street Journal op-ed: “We will likely see fewer record job-creation numbers, but this won’t be cause for concern. Rather, if average monthly job creation shifts in the next year from current levels of 500,000 to something closer to 150,000, it will be a sign that we are successfully moving into the next phase of recovery—as this kind of job growth is consistent with a low unemployment rate and a healthy economy.”

    * The economy created an average of 164k jobs per month in 2019 – the year before the pandemic began.

    * There were 7 months during Donald Trump’s presidency when the economy created fewer than 100k jobs per month. In fact, exactly 3 years ago – in July 2019 – the economy created just 78k jobs.”

    When was it back in The Day… 1985? 1987? 1989?… that every morning the fax machine at the NBER (a non-partisan thinktank) would burble out the “Daily Line for Republican Newsmakers” for Marty Feldstein and company. The “everyone talking about the same thing” echo effect was—and still is—effective for the Republicans.

    […]

    To be fair, the information is out there and really easy to get if one wants to look for it. But making it even easier for the press and the pundits to see the “daily line” (or whatever) is probably money and time well spent. Lowell at BlueVirginia.US does a daily roundup every morning (which can be kinda overwhelming at times because there are so many links.

    tl;dr – too much of the press isn’t going to report the Good News unless it’s packaged up in a bow for them.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  20. 20.

    raven

    @geg6: Her dad is now her mom and a news chopper pilot.\

     

    n June 2013, Tur publicly came out as transgender,[20] and in 2014 revealed that she was undergoing hormone replacement therapy.[21] In August 2014, following gender reassignment surgery, she applied to a court to change her name and gender marker from male to female.[22] Reflecting on her transition in a 2017 interview, Tur stated, “What I have is not political. It’s a medical condition that was treated. I’m cured. I’m done. It’s not a mental illness. There are differences in the brain.”[23]

    In 2017, Tur said in an interview that her daughter Katy had become estranged from her because of the transition. Katy said in response that they “were not on speaking terms for a little while” but that it was not because of the transition.[24]

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    @HumboldtBlue: Yep. Saw a news report on it last night, and there is understandably a lot of fear in the community. The cops sound sure that they have the right man.

  29. 29.

    James E Powell

    @Another Scott:

    too much of the press isn’t going to report the Good News unless it’s packaged up in a bow for them.

    And even then . . .

    I do agree with DeLong & you & everyone that Democrats need to create packages & push them. What really helps is if very Democrat says the same things, exact same words. No “but some” Democrats.

  33. 33.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Betty Cracker:

    I saw one as well. Having never targeted because of my gender, race or religion, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to be that victim, what goes through one’s mind. The worry about your dad or son or brother or husband because a racist fuck is on a murder spree must be terrible.

  36. 36.

    Mike in NC

    Just saw a very recent photo of Lindsey Graham and he appears to be morphing into Trump: gained quite a bit of weight, bigger jowls, even the hair is similar. Waiting to see if he starts to comb his hair straight back over his ears, TFG-style. Of course like almost every Republican pol, he’s wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt, and solid red necktie. Creepy.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: Tur said “Republicans are saying blah blah blah, do you have any response?” I’m not thrilled about that sort of bullshit, but I hate the game, not the player.

    Bash was agreeing with a Republican operative that Trump’s predictably whiny, aggrieved screed was sheer political genius. I see a big difference. YMMV.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, both in Congress for more than thirty years, in a Democratic primary in a deep blue district in a deep blue state, couldn’t figure out how to answer when asked if they supported Biden’s reelection

  45. 45.

    RaflW

    @Another Scott: I feel like much of this IS packaged up in a nice bow for them. Probably via press releases and even press avials on the regular.

    Reporters get bored very easily, especially by good governance by Democrats. And more than that, the narrative must be obeyed.™

  48. 48.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Baud:

    Ted Cruz is getting ratioed because he tweeted, “You knew Hillary would make this about herself”

  50. 50.

    HumboldtBlue

    On a lighter note, this is very funny. When a prank is actually funny.

    @Baud:

    Indubitably.

    And sweet Jesus slapping a blind man with a fish, these Trumpers are not very bright.

    Last night, I posted a screenshot of top replies on TheDonald about the Mar a Lago raid, almost all of them violent. One user, bananaguard62, referenced a “civil war.” Well, it turns out bananaguard62 is Tyler Welch Slaeker, awaiting sentencing for storming the Capitol on 1/6.

  51. 51.

    Salty Sam

    @raven: and Alyssa Farah Griffin was all over it, “it’s great news for Trump”

    AAAGGHH!

    Despite your warning, I watched that, and felt my IQ dropping as it played.  I swore off this sort of stuff a long time ago, gotta be more vigilant in the future!

  52. 52.

    trollhattan

    @Baud:

    Still got it.

    Man, but for some Rooshins and Comey and the FTFNYT, what might those four years have been like.

  54. 54.

    HumboldtBlue

    Folks in Russia are not happy with the FBI.

    News of the raid landed in Moscow with a thud, as angry propagandists embellished the search with made-up details, claiming that “one hundred FBI agents” and hordes of police dogs rummaged through Mar-a-Lago. On Tuesday’s broadcast of 60 Minutes, Korotchenko angrily condemned the raid: “There is a straight-up witch hunt happening in America. Trump, as the most popular politician in the United States—who has every chance of prevailing in the upcoming presidential election—was chosen as such a witch,” he raged. “They won’t just be vilifying him, they will be strangling him. These raids, involving dozens of FBI officers and police dogs—this is worse than McCarthyism, my friends! This is a symbol of inordinate despotism.”

  55. 55.

    Ken

    @HumboldtBlue: angry [Russian] propagandists embellished the search with made-up details

    Anyone want to start a pool on which US pundit or reporter will be the first to uncritically echo one of the embellishments?

  57. 57.

    Cameron

    @HumboldtBlue: Damn.  Ol’ Fascist Joe Biden.  How could I have been so blind?  So lucky that Russian media are there to give me a sober internationalist view.

  58. 58.

    sab

    @HumboldtBlue: “Hordes of police dogs” Those critters are expensive to buy and even more expensive to train. Does any departmemt in the country have even a dozen?

  59. 59.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    NOW: Donald Trump is currently searching for a criminal defense attorney in case he is indicted by the DOJ, Rolling Stone reports.

    — Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) August 9, 2022

    In other news, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden were enjoying their best lives today.

  61. 61.

    Ken

    @HumboldtBlue: Dang, I was afraid of that, as I was typing. As the old saying goes, a lie can run around the world before a betting pool gets its boots on.

  65. 65.

    Fair Economist

    Has the White House gotten really good at manipulating the news cycle? Five days running we’ve had killer good news:

    Friday – record jobs report
    Saturday – IRA proceeds to debate
    Sunday – IRA passes
    Monday – Trump raided
    Tuesday – Major Russian airbase destroyed.

    The House passes the IRA on Friday, so we just need something for Wed and Thu to round out the week.

  66. 66.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    Donald Trump is currently searching for a criminal defense attorney in case he is indicted by the DOJ

    The only person outside of the DoJ that knows what was taken in the raid and why.  The person who is refusing to share that information with the rest of the country.

    @Fair Economist:

    Has the White House gotten really good at manipulating the news cycle?

    Only in the sense that if you ignore the news cycle and just do your job well, it eventually pays off.

  72. 72.

    danielx

    @David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    NOW: Donald Trump is currently searching for a criminal defense attorney in case he is indicted by the DOJ, Rolling Stone reports.

    Assuming he can find anybody to represent him, hope said criminal defense attorney is smart enough to require say a $2 million retainer – up front, cash on the table or its equivalent. Only way to guarantee payment from TFG, especially if he loses in court.

    “You didn’t get me off! I’m not paying you a fucking dime!”

  88. 88.

    HumboldtBlue

    @dm: ​ 

    I would think so, but I think at this point it’s just generic faux outrage in support of Trump.

  89. 89.

    dm

    I wonder if the RNC will pick up the tab for his criminal defense they way they’ve been doing for his other legal problems?

  90. 90.

    HumboldtBlue

    @dm:

    Last I read, the RNC told Trump they would stop paying his legal fees if he announced a bid for a second run.

  92. 92.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s not just Nadler and Maloney.here’s  been some  equivocation about endorsing a Biden run going around the House Caucus. Representative Ocasio-Cortez  (NY-17) evaded the question when she appeared on CNN’s State of the Union on June 12. The next day’s Guardian headline was:

          AOC refuses to endorse Biden as Democrats doubt his ability to win.

    CNN’s report on the interview did not exactly show Rep. Ocasio-Cortez refusing to endorse Biden. She just hemmed and hawed when Dana Bash tried to pin her down, finishing with “should he run again, I think I, you know, I think…we’ll take  a look at it.

  93. 93.

    Bupalos

    So, Katie Tur is…Whatever… but I think this actually is pretty good for Trumpism, if not Trump. There’s no other course to take, of course, if the dude is selling state secrets he doesn’t exactly leave you a choice. But I do think we’d be in a better place right this minute with electoral prospects and positioning if it wasn’t necessary to kick this hornet’s nest. And right now everything- including a lot of the stuff in the landmark bill we’re passing* which is huge and popular- depends on the midterms.

    And those midterms depend on us getting to some extent out of the Trump vortex of spectacle.

  94. 94.

    West of the Rockies

    Serious question… might there come a point when some Trumpers (2?  1,000?  A million?) say, “Fuck it, I’m tired of losing.   I will just sign off from even caring about politics, quit voting, and act like I never supported Trump anyway. “

  95. 95.

    Baud

    @Bupalos:

    I don’t know. Up till now, people were complaining about not being inspired because Garland wasn’t doing anything. Hard for me to say how this plays out politically.  But as you say, we have no choice.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    It’s stupid.  If Biden decides he’s heathy enough to run, who’s going to primary him? No one. No one serious, anyway.

  97. 97.

    Anyway

    @Fair Economist:

    Has the White House gotten really good at manipulating the news cycle? Five days running we’ve had killer good news:

    Friday – record jobs report
    Saturday – IRA proceeds to debate
    Sunday – IRA passes
    Monday – Trump raided
    Tuesday – Major Russian airbase destroyed.

    I am enjoying the Orange Menace’s predicament but hate that all the good news from the WH and Congress is getting lost. It’s so hard to get the MSM to pay attention to Ds accomplishments and now they have a great reason to ignore it.  Grrrr.

  100. 100.

    Geminid

    @Baud: People are hedging their bets. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was speaking at a high point of scepticism about Biden. On the other hand, Rep. Ihlan Ohmar was asked the question a couple days later and responded that “of course” she would endorse Joe Biden.

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: well, that case is somewhat less surprising. I don’t expect AOC (!) (DSA-Insta) to be on-message with the party

    ETA: @Geminid: that was a surprise, at least to me

  103. 103.

    Emma from Miami

    @Ken: Want to start a pool on when they find Putin’s instructions to the Great Orange President?

  104. 104.

    Baud

    Speaking of possible more good news, Biden is expected to take some action on student loans this month.

  105. 105.

    Geminid

    @sab: Both Nadler and Maloney are in their 70s I think. Maloney might be 80.They both might as well retire, and maybe the one who wins the primary will retire after this term.

    Maloney did do some good work getting the Corporate Transparency Act through the last Congress.

  107. 107.

    sab

    @Geminid: She is two years younger than Biden, not in as good shape cognitively, and bitching about his age. Didn’t his mom live to 100?

    ETA Nadler was just being Nadler, which we all can live with.

  110. 110.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Maybe Biden will endorse one of the proposals floating in Congress for student loan relief. Eric Swalwell has a good one I’ve heard. And I like the principle of an initiative that Conor Lamb proposed: a $10,000 credit that can be used to pay down debt or applied to new education costs.

    Endorsing a legislative proposal would give Biden more reason to extend the payment moratorium past the election.

  112. 112.

    sab

    Ohio is expecting its new Intel Chip plant to start building in September. And then Biden signed the CHIPS Act. We might even have more jobs, and some of those will pay handsomely.

  115. 115.

    Geminid

    @sab: There is a third candidate in the race who (I think) challenged Maloney last time. He might slip by the two oldsters.

    When New York’s high court threw out the Democratic gerrymander there was a lot of rushed decisionmaking by Democratic Reps. Nadler and Maloney might have worked something out if they had more time. Nadler could have run in the 10th CD, which has no incumbent.

  116. 116.

    sab

    @Baud: Won’t help my stepkids, who stupidly took out non-federal loans.

    Kids just won’t listen to their elders. I obviously learned absolutely nothing in my first forty years of life.

  118. 118.

    sab

    @Baud: Go Ryan! I think he might win this.

    He is a good campaigner, and one of his faults in DC is he spends too much time at home in the district, so he knows Ohio.

  119. 119.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: I don’t know much about him, but an up-and-coming young Democrat with a sense of the role of Obama and Biden in the party and in politics rather than on twitter? Sounds promising

    Suraj Patel, who previously worked for the Obama White House, answered, “Yes.

    ETA: Though I suspect with Maloney and Nadler is less that they’re too caught up on twitter but watch every minute of Morning Joe, and all the Sunday shows, and read the NYT op/ed page

  120. 120.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Speaking of the NY 10th CD, ex-Mayor Bill DiBlasio dropped out of the primary and hardly anyone noticed. He said that he was finished with electoral politics and people were like, “ya think?”

  121. 121.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @danielx:

    Assuming he can find anybody to represent him, hope said criminal defense attorney is smart enough to require say a $2 million retainer

    Given Trump’s reputation as a difficult client, and as someone who doesn’t pay his legal bills, plus the number of hours it would take to research and present a defense in case this large, plus the amount of public relations work that’ll be requiredplus appeals, and so on… I’d say $2 million is low-balling it.

    $10 million should be the minimum.

  122. 122.

    sab

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I even like Olivia Newton-John, but Mika’s tribute made me turn off the tv. OLNJ audience was not entirely DC preppie tweens. The Hannah Montanas of her youth. And Hannah Montana grew up and became a real performer.

    Just ick. Olivia Newton-John had a long career. And the fans weren’t all tweens. Mika often sucks.

  125. 125.

    Subsole

    @Baud: I was not ready for that.

    Say, aren’t the Stones swingers?? I mean, more power to them, but…Alex Jones? That guy? That’s who you invite into your marriage????

     

    @HumboldtBlue: Privilege does tend to make one exceedingly stupid. S’what happens when you allow the normal survival mechanisms engendered by consequence to atrophy.

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    I believe that I can answer this one for you – an extremely shitty man, one with all the grace and intelligence of a box of fresh dog diarrhea, IOW some one like Alex.

  129. 129.

    Ruckus

    @Fair Economist:

    They don’t need to get good a manipulating the news cycle because they don’t need to hide from it, like the last guy. And that’s because they make good news, not dump truck loads of shit like the last guy.

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