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You are here: Home / Elections / 2022 Elections / Late Night Open Thread: Shame on the GOP (Georgia Edition)

Late Night Open Thread: Shame on the GOP (Georgia Edition)

by Anne Laurie|  December 4, 202211:09 pm| 100 Comments

This post is in: 2022 Elections, Local Races, Proud To Be A Democrat!

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Jungle Book came out in 2016, when at least one of his sons would have been like 4

— post malone ergo propter malone (@PropterMalone) December 5, 2022

You could argue – wrongly, but at least it would make sense – that Republicans had to go to the wall for Walker when the majority was still up in the air.
To do it now is just humiliating, a zombie power-seeking reflex among people like Cruz and Graham. https://t.co/QhnKgnPGzS

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 24, 2022


Glad to see the closing argument for this Senate race is "My vampire remarks were taken out of context." https://t.co/zlFnJVSuYm

— Wyeth Ruthven (@wyethwire) November 30, 2022

Take it for what you will, but the most conservative version of the model we've been writing up has Warnock still winning by +0.75 as the modal outcome. Hard to overstate what a tremendous deficit Herschel Walker and the GOP are facing here in the #GASen runoffs.

— Lakshya Jain (@lxeagle17) December 4, 2022

NEW: Hershel Walker got a tax break the last two years on his TX home intended only for your primary residence — possibly running afoul of both Texas tax law and Georgia rules for establishing residency for both voting and running for office: https://t.co/N1xp0oXNZC

— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) November 23, 2022


Late Night Open Thread: Shame on the GOP - STOCKPILE

(Nick Anderson via GoComics.com)

Democrats fight for the future of American Democracy while all the Republicans are interested in is saving their party. https://t.co/NTASYtVfS6

— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) November 19, 2022

I don't like Herschel Walker but I do feel some kind of way about watching a broken black man get used up by white men in college, by white men in the NFL, and then by white men in the GOP and not be there to pick up the pieces once they're done with him. Vote for Warnock though.

— I Smoked Twitter (@BlackKnight10k) November 19, 2022

To top it off, they put him up to this because they think black people in GA are as dumb and broken as Walker is but without all the touchdowns. But black people are acutely sensitive to these kinds of games and white people just further embarass themsevles with their vote.

— I Smoked Twitter (@BlackKnight10k) November 19, 2022

Aaaand here’s the Notorious Butter Goblin for the worst possible take…

Actually most black people from the south don’t sound like that. You can see this in his opponent, also a black guy, from the south, just without brain damage. https://t.co/mRgIV3Bksm

— William B. Fuckley (@opinonhaver) November 17, 2022

Hoist upon their own petards:

Trump has succeeded in doing what Mitch McConnell has tried for weeks to avoid: making Georgia a referendum on Donald Trump.

Now is the time to organize for Raphael Warnock as if your life depends on it.

— Max Burns (@themaxburns) November 16, 2022

is way more dangerous to him than a hundred dinners with fascists. It's the one thing that will lead Republicans to abandon him, to save their own hides.

— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) December 1, 2022

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Reader Interactions

100Comments

  1. 1.

    Alison Rose

    December 4, 2022 at 11:17 pm

    JFC and I thought it was embarrassing for Democrats when Dennis Kucinich was on the scene. More and more often, I really wish California would just fucking secede so we can take our economy and our non-psycho politicians and say fuck all y’all.

  2. 2.

    Nicole

    December 4, 2022 at 11:20 pm

    I’ll be glad to see Walker lose, as Warnock should get a full term as Senator, but it won’t bring me the glee that Dr. Oz’s loss brought. I read a very satisfying article reporting that Oz wants his TV show back but it’s a no-go as his campaign turned off his largely woman audience. So, now no Senate, and no TV show. He must be so glad he threw his lot in with Trump. Worked out so well. 😂

  3. 3.

    RaflW

    December 4, 2022 at 11:28 pm

    To the ‘people think southern accents make people sound stupid’ faux-argument, we of course have the counter: Sen. John N Kennedy [R-Cornpone] who was Phi Beta Kappa at Vanderbilt, then a J.D. from (no. 8 ranked) UVA School of Law in 1977, and capped it off with a bonus degree from Oxford. He works that folksy aw shucks Buford T Justice crap every chance he gets.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    December 4, 2022 at 11:35 pm

    @Nicole: Yes, but at least he has more time to spend with his crudités. That’s something, right?

  5. 5.

    MisterDancer

    December 4, 2022 at 11:36 pm

    @Alison Rose: More and more often, I really wish California would just fucking secede so we can take our economy and our non-psycho politicians and say fuck all y’all.

    Yes, because abandoning tons of people in The South who have been working for decades to overcome bigotry and prejudice is what the good guys do.

  6. 6.

    craigie

    December 4, 2022 at 11:39 pm

    @Alison Rose: ​
     
    +1000

  7. 7.

    jonas

    December 4, 2022 at 11:40 pm

    the main reason he’s called “stupid” seems to be because he speaks in a heavy regional dialect, with lots of colloquialisms.

    I immediately thought of this:

    Skinner: Superintendent, I hope you’re ready for mouth-watering hamburgers.
    Superintendent Chalmers: I thought we were having steamed clams.
    Principal Skinner: Oh, no, I said, “steamed hams.” That’s what I call hamburgers.
    Superintendent Chalmers: You call hamburgers steamed hams.
    Principal Skinner: Yes, it’s a regional dialect.
    Superintendent Chalmers: Uh-huh. What region?
    Principal Skinner: Uh, upstate New York.
    Superintendent Chalmers: Really. Well, I’m from Utica and I never heard anyone use the phrase, “steamed hams.”
    Principal Skinner: Oh, not in Utica, no; it’s an Albany expression.
    Superintendent Chalmers: I see.

  8. 8.

    jonas

    December 4, 2022 at 11:42 pm

    @Nicole: He must be so glad he threw his lot in with Trump. Worked out so well.

    “You might remember me as the friendly television medical pitchman Dr. Oz. But today, I’m here to talk to you about something serious: ETTD…”

  9. 9.

    Chetan Murthy

    December 4, 2022 at 11:43 pm

    @MisterDancer: With respect, your position only makes sense if you *can* overcome.  If you cannot, then all you’re doing is fruitlessly chaining the rest of us to that boat anchor.

  10. 10.

    FlyingToaster (Tablet)

    December 4, 2022 at 11:47 pm

    @MisterDancer: Whenever my frustration gets to the point where I think “Better off without ‘em”, I remember I’d be cutting off most of my family and in-laws.

    Born-n-raised in KCMO, edumacated in IN, here in the People’s Republic Commonwealth of Massachusetts since ‘87.

    I’m leaving noone behind.  But I reserve the right to fucking shoot back.

  11. 11.

    Alison Rose

    December 4, 2022 at 11:48 pm

    @MisterDancer: But we’re not the federal government. How would it be abandoning anyone? People in CA could still donate and find other ways to help people in the rest of the US, just like we here have donated and helped Ukraine and other nations. And I have said numerous times that it is fucked up that someone’s zip code can determine their human rights, but at the same time, it’s fucked up that my rights might be curtailed by a GQP Congress or SCOTUS, when my own state government would disagree with things they want to do

    ETA: I do not and would not say something like “Fuck Texas, let ’em secede” because THAT would be abandoning people. A blue state choosing to do so is not abandoning anyone because we do not have any control over them.

  12. 12.

    RaflW

    December 4, 2022 at 11:51 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: So just pull up the ladder, huh. I’m not buying the ‘with respect’ throat clearing.

    I lived in TX in the 1990s, when to most folks it woulda seemed nuts to be openly gay. But there I was! Yes, I eventually got the wherewithall to move out. But it’s not like that mobility is available to tons of marginalized folks.

    I mean, being on the margins often impacts one’s earnings and access to generational wealth transfers, to name just a couple factors. And, y’know, sometimes even if the political culture is fucked, people actually like being where they are from. The rest of their kith and kin are there, the foods and folkways fit, etc.

    And to the spurious claim that the south is “that boat anchor”, we wouldn’t have had our VP as the Senate tiebreaker the past two years if that southern state of Georgia hadn’t elected two Dems in 2020.

  13. 13.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 4, 2022 at 11:53 pm

    I for one would like it if nobody seceded from the country

  14. 14.

    Mike in NC

    December 4, 2022 at 11:56 pm

    @Nicole: We may never understand why the TV quack Oz wanted to run for a PA Senate seat. He apparently made millions selling snake oil to gullible imbeciles (AKA Republicans) and built mansions in NJ.

  15. 15.

    Anyway

    December 4, 2022 at 11:56 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Yes. Combine the two Dakotas already!

  16. 16.

    livewyre

    December 4, 2022 at 11:56 pm

    I thought we established secession as a legal fiction about a century and a half ago in any case.

  17. 17.

    Alison Rose

    December 4, 2022 at 11:57 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Okay, Lordy. My comment was obviously meant as facetious frustration. It’s never going to happen, with any state, so it’s not really worth having a debate where people’s morals are called into question. As a Californian, it is increasingly maddening that far right shitheads have so much control over the government of the entire nation. So in my daydreams, yes, I like to imagine my state as its own country so that I didn’t have to worry that my life and autonomy could be swiped from me at any moment. I promise everyone here: My daydreams are not magical and will not become reality.

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    December 5, 2022 at 12:02 am

    @Alison Rose: ​ Besides: if you guys go the rest of the Left Coast is going as well.

  19. 19.

    Chetan Murthy

    December 5, 2022 at 12:05 am

    @RaflW: I grew up in Texas in the 70s/80s.  And I know this: they want me dead.  They want my famiily dead.  People who think that somehow if they just beg harder, they can get control of Texas …. well, maybe they will, maybe they can, but I’m done holding my breath.

    As Murc over at LG&M put its so well: it is a lead-pipe cinch that sometime in the next 15-or-so- years, the GrOPers will take the trifecta.  And when they do, American democracy will be over.  When that time comes, do you really think “vote harder” is going to work?  It’ll be time for AR-15s, not mail-in ballots.  So yeah: I think all decent people should move to Blue states.  And yeah, it’s expensive, but if you were to move here, you could help change that.  And if you think moving to California is expensive, wait’ll you find out how expensive it is to be a refugee, fleeing a war.

  20. 20.

    eclare

    December 5, 2022 at 12:09 am

    @MisterDancer:   Thank you.

  21. 21.

    Steeplejack

    December 5, 2022 at 12:10 am

    @RaflW:

    Sen. John Kennedy:

    High school valedictorian, BA with magna cum laude at Vanderbilt, JD and Order of the Coif from Virginia, law degree with First Class Honours from Magdalen College at Oxford, and the most cynical Foghorn Leghorn impersonation mankind has ever seen.
    https://t.co/6xiV06PXf5

    — Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) December 4, 2022

  22. 22.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 5, 2022 at 12:20 am

    @Alison Rose:

    I promise everyone here: My daydreams are not magical and will not become reality. 

    You’re not a genie? :(

  23. 23.

    Rusty

    December 5, 2022 at 12:21 am

    I’m tired of the press behaving as if Trump just picked Walker, or the losing candidates in NH, AZ, PA and so on.  In the end, each was selected by the Republican base over more moderate and experienced candidates.  The media and a lot of establishment Republicans don’t want to face that these candidates are the actual representation of the party.  When given a choice, these folks are what turn on the party faithful.  They aren’t out of touch with the party, they are the Republican party and a lot of establishment press and “respectable” Republicans don’t want to admit that openly or tacitly supporting the Republicans is supporting exactly these folks.  None of them, including Trump, created where the Republican party is today.  They just came to the auditions and won the roles.

  24. 24.

    Alison Rose

    December 5, 2022 at 12:23 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Not last I checked, although I’m short enough to probably fit inside a medium-sized lamp.

  25. 25.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 5, 2022 at 12:28 am

    @Alison Rose: I hear that!

    Unrelated: I just found this and it was worth a few minutes of my time.

    Hulu has something called “a very kitty cocktail party” it is exactly what you hope it is. pic.twitter.com/aZHijze7Gv

    — ☕️ 🍵 (@TynanPants) December 5, 2022

  26. 26.

    Ken_L

    December 5, 2022 at 12:34 am

    It’s hard to believe any wavering voters will swing to Walker because he appeared with two of the Senate’s most obnoxious pricks. It’s not so hard to believe it will persuade some to swing to Warnock, but I’m sure Republicans know what they’re doing.

  27. 27.

    Randal Sexton

    December 5, 2022 at 12:37 am

    @Alison Rose: There is a somewhat oldish book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotopia which kinda has this idea, except Oregon and Washington also join in.   I liked it back inna day.  But a lot of what has made this country still a place where hope and the future of humanity lives comes from the people who live in those parts of the country where the worst part of our history comes from.  The states with the highest percent of people descended from the slavery system are of course the former confederates.  Its those people whose steadfast work at advancing the ideals we free revere – one inch at a time – we cannot abandon.   This is why I think we in the West, PNW, cannot abandon this union.   -phew- this is probably a dead thread.  Where John Lewis comes from I would not give up.  Where Stacy Abrahms comes from, I will not retreat from.  (Alison I know you are true too ).

  28. 28.

    Sister Golden Bear

    December 5, 2022 at 12:38 am

    @Alison Rose: Agreed, sometimes venting is just venting.

  29. 29.

    gene108

    December 5, 2022 at 12:42 am

    @Chetan Murthy:

    With respect, your position only makes sense if you *can* overcome. If you cannot, then all you’re doing is fruitlessly chaining the rest of us to that boat anchor.

    Neither of us would be where we are in this country, if nothing had been overcome.

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    December 5, 2022 at 12:47 am

    Hoist upon their own petards

    Pet peeve.

    A petard is a type of bomb, a primitive form of grenade. One (if unfortunately situated) can conceivably be hoist by it, or even hoist from it, but upon it is nonsensical construction.

  31. 31.

    Captain C

    December 5, 2022 at 12:49 am

    @Ken_L: They may be trying to goose turnout.  Not sure why you’d ever use those two, but like you say, they must know what they’re doing.

  32. 32.

    RaflW

    December 5, 2022 at 12:49 am

    @Chetan Murthy: As a very political gay person, I know it isn’t about begging. It’s doing the work of organizing. And, yes, I moved to a blue state. Which then dabbled with a red trifecta about a decade later (MN under the execrable Tim Pawlenty). So even blue states that usually look stable can wobble.

    But we beat em back and overturned the table on them on LGBTQ issues. Electorally, and by building power. It’s why in invest in orgs like New Georgia Project and the Movement Advancement Project.

  33. 33.

    Captain C

    December 5, 2022 at 12:53 am

    That Lindsey on Fox bit (from the TikTok) is weird:  1) Lindsey’s whole pitch plus the whole screen setup reminded me of one of those late night 2nd- or 3rd-tier prosperity gospel types who spend 1/3 of the show taking bible verses out of context and the rest appealing for cash, and 2) Every so often I thought I saw a not-fully suppressed snarl jump onto his visage for a brief second, like he’s just really pissed about something but he can’t really talk about it, not directly.  I couldn’t say whether he’s true believer enough to be legit that worried about a Walker loss and therefore a 51-49 Senate that is less obstructable or some weird shit we can only speculate about.

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    December 5, 2022 at 12:55 am

    @Major Major Major Major

    Knowing I won’t be exposed to that increases the pleasure derived from canceling Hulu last month by at least a hundredfold.

  35. 35.

    Carlo Graziani

    December 5, 2022 at 1:00 am

    What a strange mood you guys are in. The state of Georgia is apparently on the verge of re-electing a Black Democratic Senator.

    I didn’t expect to live in this world even a few months ago.

  36. 36.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 5, 2022 at 1:01 am

    @NotMax: weirdo

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    December 5, 2022 at 1:03 am

    @Major Major Major Major

    Flatterer.

    :)

  38. 38.

    Chetan Murthy

    December 5, 2022 at 1:10 am

    @Carlo Graziani: I donated to GOTV in Georgia, so sure, it might be a great thing.  But remember that the Dems got on 48.5% of the vote in this election.  We literally don’t outnumber them by the only metric that matters.  Literally.

  39. 39.

    Steeplejack

    December 5, 2022 at 1:13 am

    @Randal Sexton:

    I liked Ecotopia, but it was very much of its time. Should be on the shelf with your Richard Brautigan and the Whole Earth Catalog.

    (I think Brautigan holds up fairly well, but maybe that’s just nostalgia on my part.)

  40. 40.

    James E Powell

    December 5, 2022 at 1:13 am

    @Chetan Murthy:

    We literally don’t outnumber them by the only metric that matters.  Literally.

    I am almost certain that we outnumber them. We & our allies just don’t often vote like them.

  41. 41.

    Wapiti

    December 5, 2022 at 1:15 am

    @NotMax: In French, petard also has the meaning of “to fart”. So it could be a double entendre by Shakespear. But still not hoisted upon.

  42. 42.

    frosty

    December 5, 2022 at 1:20 am

    @Alison Rose: California can’t secede. Bakersfield would immediately secede from the coast and join up with Nevada. God knows what Shasta would do – decide to be part of Eastern Oregon and Idaho? Do we really think San Francisco and LA could get along?

    State boundaries aren’t a whole lot more rational than what the British did to the Middle East. California as a Blue State is the cities. Pennsylvania without Pittsburgh is Alabama.

    /rant off/

    ETA other than secession I like everything you write.

  43. 43.

    ian

    December 5, 2022 at 1:28 am

    I propose better debate: team vampire, or team werewolf?

  44. 44.

    frosty

    December 5, 2022 at 1:28 am

    @Major Major Major Major: I’m with you. Secession would make the 1947 India Partition look like child’s play. My County is 2/3 Republican. My street is probably 3/4 Trumpies. Think I’d survive if PA decided it would be a “Blue State”?

    Show me how it works without massive murder and theft and I’ll consider it.

  45. 45.

    frosty

    December 5, 2022 at 1:31 am

    @Mike in NC: Yeah, I don’t get it. Oz had a good gig. Hell, Trump had a good gig and both fucked it all up by taking one step too far and getting the grift, scams, and (for Trump) illegalities out in the open. Big fucking OOPS there.

  46. 46.

    frosty

    December 5, 2022 at 1:33 am

    @Alison Rose: Take my last comment with a grain of salt then. And maybe a tequila chaser LOL

  47. 47.

    frosty

    December 5, 2022 at 1:37 am

    @Chetan Murthy: I keep saying this. There are no Blue States. There are states that have enough urbanization that they vote Democratic statewide. That’s it. Outside the cities it’s Republican.

  48. 48.

    frosty

    December 5, 2022 at 1:39 am

    @Alison Rose: You and me both. Had a conversation with a 6’2″ friend who’s wailing that since he’s got older he’s less than 6′ now. My response? You sonofabitch you had it to lose!!!!

  49. 49.

    frosty

    December 5, 2022 at 1:41 am

    @Ken_L: Wavering voters won’t even recognize these two obnoxious pricks, or even know that they’re Senators. Or even know what the Senate is.

  50. 50.

    James E Powell

    December 5, 2022 at 1:46 am

    @NotMax:

    A petard is a type of bomb, a primitive form of grenade. One (if unfortunately situated) can conceivably be hoist by it, or even hoist from it, but upon it is nonsensical construction.

    The petard was bigger than a grenade; it was used to blow open doors. It was usually in a box of some kind.

    Although I often see & hear “by,” the original as Hamlet said it is “with”

    There’s letters seal’d: and my two schoolfellows,
    Whom I will trust as I will adders fang’d,
    They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
    And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
    For ’tis the sport to have the engineer
    Hoist with his own petard: and ‘t shall go hard
    But I will delve one yard below their mines,
    And blow them at the moon

    Hamlet , Act III, scene IV

    Back then, I guess, “to the moon” was just not considered feasible.

  51. 51.

    Citizen Alan

    December 5, 2022 at 1:47 am

    @Carlo Graziani: I agree that’s great. But still, we can’t be blind to the fact that Warnock is in a close race with someone so grossly unfit to be a Senator as Walker. It is nightmarish to me to think that 49% of the American people (or at least Southern Americans) would probably vote for a confessed hatchet murderer if he won the GOP primary.

  52. 52.

    frosty

    December 5, 2022 at 1:48 am

    Wow, I’m talking too much for a semi-lurker! Time to hit the sack and revisit this in the morning.

  53. 53.

    billcinsd

    December 5, 2022 at 1:56 am

    @Chetan Murthy: Where would you be now if Californians had seceded in 1965? That’s what you want for today’s 10-year old Chetans

  54. 54.

    piratedan

    December 5, 2022 at 2:04 am

    I feel dirty about the whole damn thing…  everyone on the GOP side using everyone else… the GOP for using Walker and all that implies about how they feel about minorities and their ability to make a decision about the candidates, much less issues.  The fact that Walker is apparently okay with being used (and compensated financially) as a political pawn.  The obvious hypocrisy of the actions of Walker’s life in contrast to the policy that he nonsensically espouses.  The fact that the media treats this seriously, reinforcing the charade; all so they can go back to the well with all of the horse race commentary and then as a fallback, all things 45.

  55. 55.

    James E Powell

    December 5, 2022 at 2:06 am

    @Citizen Alan:

    They really hate the rest of us & they vote accordingly.

  56. 56.

    Randal Sexton

    December 5, 2022 at 2:13 am

    @Steeplejack: Am a fan of Trout fishing in America, and Confederate General From Big Sur.  Of course I grew up in the locale and time, and wandered thereabouts, looking for abalone, and jade.

  57. 57.

    Brachiator

    December 5, 2022 at 2:23 am

    @piratedan:

    The fact that the media treats this seriously, reinforcing the charade.

    Once Trump got elected president, the universe began to tilt towards farce.

  58. 58.

    patrick II

    December 5, 2022 at 3:06 am

    Every time you hear “unitary executive” think “terminate the constitution”. It’s the same thing dressed up in less criminal sounding language. It is not a new thing for republicans to say no law, constitutional or otherwise, bounds a republican president.

  59. 59.

    Joey Maloney

    December 5, 2022 at 4:01 am

    @Wapiti: In the 19th century there was a stage performer in France whose act was, I shit you not, fart impressions. Such as, “the fart of a virgin” would be a tiny little high-pitched queef and “the fart of the same girl after her wedding night” would be a long, lusty Harley-Davidson rattler. He would also play music on a bugle stuck up his butt. His stage name was “Le Pétomane” which is generally rendered in English as “The Fartiste”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Pétomane

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    December 5, 2022 at 4:04 am

    @James E Powell

    “With” makes perfect sense, as opposed to “upon.”

    Back then, I guess, “to the moon” was just not considered feasible.

    The B.K. years.

    Before Kramden. :)

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    December 5, 2022 at 4:09 am

    @Joey Maloney

    He was not alone in practicing his art before audiences, either.

    Also appropriated as the surname of Mel Brooks’ character in Blazing Saddles.

  62. 62.

    Anne Laurie

    December 5, 2022 at 4:21 am

    @Captain C: They may be trying to goose turnout. Not sure why you’d ever use those two, but like you say, they must know what they’re doing.

    From what I’ve read, Cruz is using Walker’s campaign to jump-start Cruz’s “secret” 2024 presidential campaign (a cunning plan, like everything from Cruz’s brain).

    Graham is desperate for a strong Republican daddy, any strong Republican daddy.  Stumping for Walker is cheerleading a Trump choice, and Graham loves him some Trump.  And if Walker doesn’t win, well — the campaign is in Graham’s neighborhood, and he’s demonstrated what a loyal little soldier he’ll be for the next GOP ‘leader’.

    I don’t think the Permanent GOP Party (such as it is, these days) chose Cruz & Graham for this job.  (McConnell, for instance, lacks enthusiasm for Walker.)  It seems to have been more a question of ‘which seated figures with national name recognition are willing to show up for this sh*t-show?

  63. 63.

    Cameron

    December 5, 2022 at 4:41 am

    @RaflW: Foghorn Leghorn goes down to university.

  64. 64.

    Reverse tool order

    December 5, 2022 at 4:41 am

    There is talk of secession in California, but it’s pretty much idle talk and won’t happen.

    There is considerable political division in the state, inland vs coastal, urban vs rural. Even here in heavily Democratic Sonoma County (71% for Dem Gov) there was a scattering of precincts, mostly rural, favoring the Republican, and some were tied. See: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/maps-see-how-sonoma-county-voted/ (legend colors are inaccurate, tied is green & tan is unoccupied)

    Any serious effort towards secession of any sort would turn into a fight regionally and locally within the state. Staying in the political realm, on net Dems have overwhelming power. Republicans don’t help themselves much here either.

  65. 65.

    Geminid

    December 5, 2022 at 4:46 am

    @Anne Laurie:

     

    @Captain C: Beggars can’t be choosers. Those two were likely the only ones out of the 50 Republican Senators that Walker’s team could get (although I read that Tim Scott has or will appear with Walker). And in the one picture I saw, Cruz and Graham both looked like they’d rather be somewhere else.

  66. 66.

    Cameron

    December 5, 2022 at 4:52 am

    @frosty: Philadelphia, Alabama?

  67. 67.

    Eolirin

    December 5, 2022 at 5:15 am

    I hope Warnock wins and it’s looking good, but the margin was always going to be small, just like last time. GA isn’t blue and is barely purple. Though some of that is the voter suppression.

    If Atlanta doesn’t doesn’t keep growing and attracting college educated jobs the state’s not going to continue to shift either. So the abortion restrictions worry me.

  68. 68.

    Ruckus

    December 5, 2022 at 5:45 am

    @Nicole:

    Oz is a grifter. Slightly smarter than a bag of cement, but not by an actually measurable amount large enough to be seen by the naked eye. Like almost every grifter, sooner or later they take out their golf spikes, pull down their pants and attack their junk because that becomes the only course of action they have left. Oz is looking for his golf spikes. May the merriment began.

  69. 69.

    JPL

    December 5, 2022 at 5:55 am

    The latest Daily Beast article stated that one of Herschel’s former friends watched clips of him on the campaign trail and felt as though he was spiraling into one of his childlike personalities.   That would explain some of what is going on.   His condition requires monitoring, and we don’t know whether or not he is receiving help.

  70. 70.

    Abnormal Hiker

    December 5, 2022 at 5:58 am

    @NotMax: of course it is important to note that pétard is French for fart.

     

    ETA others have noted the connection

  71. 71.

    geg6

    December 5, 2022 at 6:04 am

    @MisterDancer:

    Not to mention all the rest of us in the East, Midwest and the rest of the West.

    Getting really tired of all the smug Californians.

  72. 72.

    The Thin Black Duke

    December 5, 2022 at 6:18 am

    I’m tired of people spewing “the ballot or the bullet” rhetoric.

  73. 73.

    raven

    December 5, 2022 at 6:21 am

    @The Thin Black Duke: Hmmm

  74. 74.

    David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch

    December 5, 2022 at 6:26 am

    Paul Pelosi makes first public appearance at the Kennedy Center to a “thunderous standing ovation”.

    (photo)

    Kennedy Center chairman David Rubenstein gave the Pelosis a shoutout while speaking Sunday night, spurring a thunderous standing ovation.

    “I would like to single out one member of Congress who has been, for more than several decades, really devoted to the Kennedy Center — and her husband of 60 years who’s here with us as well — Nancy Pelosi,” he said.

    The Pelosis grabbed each other’s hands and raised them in a triumphant gesture during the applause.

    Paul Pelosi appeared in good spirits after the ceremony, chatting and laughing as he ate dinner at a reception at the Kennedy Center.

  75. 75.

    Cliosfanboy

    December 5, 2022 at 7:16 am

    From Merriam-Webster. :)

     

    Aside from historical references to siege warfare, and occasional contemporary references to fireworks, petard is almost always encountered in variations of the phrase “hoist with one’s own petard,” meaning “victimized or hurt by one’s own scheme.” The phrase comes from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “For ’tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his own petar.” Hoist in this case is the past participle of the verb hoise, meaning “to lift or raise,” and petar(d) refers to an explosive device used in siege warfare. Hamlet uses the example of the engineer (the person who sets the explosive device) being blown into the air by his own device as a metaphor for those who schemed against him being undone by their own schemes. The phrase has endured, even if its literal meaning has largely been forgotten.

  76. 76.

    Subsole

    December 5, 2022 at 7:42 am

     

     

    @Alison Rose:

    @craigie:

    Y’know, I almost wish y’all would at this point, just so I could watch reality take a 2×4 to some exceedingly swollen egos…

    Seriously. You sound just like the secessionists we have here in Texas. Now, I am not one of the blessed elect privileged to live in Greater Calitopia, so perhaps there’s a cultural nuance here that eludes me… but personally, if I found myself agreeing with those assholes, I’d pause and reflect.

     

    @Chetan Murthy: Respectfully, that boat anchor is gonna follow you wherever you run.

    I keep saying this: when the blacks got run out of those midwestern Sundown towns, the whites didn’t leave them alone. The Klan didn’t say “golly gee Goshen, I am glad that’s done with and we can all move on with our lives in separate, equal and prosperous peace!”

    Naw, man. They burned the black town down. Or just went n****r knocking on the weekend, for fun.

    As one of the folks y’all are advocating for brutally and systematically fucking over in a fit of exhausted pique, it’s kinda tiresome to hear this shit over and again. I understand it’s exhausting dealing with these folks. I live here with them. I’m probably a lot more tired of it than most folks out in Cali.

    But listen:

    Y’all think you can just…stop dealing with this? Just curl up in a bubble and wall yourselves off and be safe? You can’t. Look at the club shooting in Colo Springs. They force you into a separate space, then kill you in it.

    They. Will. Not. Leave. You. Alone.

    Ever.

    You’re gonna have to fight ’em.

    Sorry, but the sad fact is this: we are going to make it together, or we ain’t gonna make it. Running off and leaving the rest of us to twist will just get you shot in the back

    Edit for clarity: I am a white cishet male. I would probably be the least fucked person in the state if y’all abandoned us. And I’d still be pretty fucked, because I’d be a disloyal citizen of a 3rd world dictatorship.

    You don’t wanna know how fucked everyone else would be.

  77. 77.

    The Thin Black Duke

    December 5, 2022 at 7:51 am

    @Subsole: Thank you.

  78. 78.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 5, 2022 at 8:01 am

    I am probably in the safest part of the US from fascists outside of California. But a US government bent on eliminating us could take us out with basically one nuclear warhead. Don’t think I don’t remember that every day.

  79. 79.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 5, 2022 at 8:19 am

    @Alison Rose: If you secede, the United States goes from a political threat to a military threat.

    If the US 100% becomes a dictatorship with no political way to dislodge it, I can see this as the only remaining recourse. Ukraine was justified in leaving the USSR (and that pretty much was the last straw that led to its complete dissolution) even though it means Putin is invading and bombing them now. But Californians need to recognize that this is what they’d be buying.

  80. 80.

    RL

    December 5, 2022 at 8:24 am

    As far as blue states vs red: never forget Georgia sent Carter, California sent Reagan.

  81. 81.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 5, 2022 at 9:11 am

    @RL: Things certainly do change. Going by presidential elections, California was a red state through most of the second half of the 20th century, and many elements of the modern conservative movement emanate from there.

    Georgia is now a purple swing state with an antidemocratic Republican junta trying to minimize Democratic power in any way whatsoever. North Carolina and Wisconsin are in similar positions except that they currently have Democratic governors.

  82. 82.

    Anyway

    December 5, 2022 at 9:13 am

    @geg6:

    Getting really tired of all the smug Californians.

    Let’s leave the California (and big city)- bashing to the Rethugs.

    I am an East coaster but have sympathy for CA — its politics are taken entirely for granted in our constant paeans to purple/moderate/suburban voters.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    December 5, 2022 at 9:21 am

    @RL:

    New York City elected Giuliani.

  84. 84.

    Kay

    December 5, 2022 at 9:22 am

    no one is going to secede not because they’re kind or they care about red state citizens but because seceding woud be Brexit-level idiocy.

  85. 85.

    Ken

    December 5, 2022 at 9:25 am

    @geg6: Getting really tired of all the smug Californians.

    “There are more Trump voters in California than Texas” — Randall Munroe, in the title text of this XKCD.

  86. 86.

    randy khan

    December 5, 2022 at 9:49 am

    I keep seeing a lot of things along the line of the Waldman tweets, and I’m not sure that theory is right.  Republican elites have concluded that Trump is toxic and causes them to lose elections, but they’re not the base.  The base will decide what candidates win the primaries, not the elites, and it’s not at all obvious that they think the same way as the elites.  In fact, they might think that the problem is the elites and double down.

  87. 87.

    ...now I try to be amused

    December 5, 2022 at 9:52 am

    @frosty:

    Yeah, I don’t get it. Oz had a good gig. Hell, Trump had a good gig and both fucked it all up by taking one step too far and getting the grift, scams, and (for Trump) illegalities out in the open. Big fucking OOPS there.

    Trump wasn’t supposed to win in 2016. He was supposed to be a Flavor of the Month like Gingrich on his book tour/campaign, something to launch a grift as “former presidential candidate Donald Trump”.

    In a way, if Trump is convicted or financially ruined, Hillary Clinton will be the reason.

  88. 88.

    Alison Rose

    December 5, 2022 at 10:18 am

    I had a feeling there would be some new “YOU SUCK FOR BEING FRUSTRATED AND MUSING OUT LOUD ABOUT A COMPLETE IMPOSSIBILITY!!!” comments, and I was not disappointed. Whatever supply and demand issues this country might have, at least we know pedantry and over-literalism will always be in stock here in the good old land of Balloon Juice.

    Jiminy crickets, y’all.

  89. 89.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 5, 2022 at 10:21 am

    @frosty: Secession would make the 1947 India Partition look like child’s play.

    What exactly do you know about the Partition of India to make such a glib statement?

  90. 90.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 5, 2022 at 10:21 am

    @Kay: Agreed.

  91. 91.

    The Moar You Know

    December 5, 2022 at 10:22 am

    Where would you be now if Californians had seceded in 1965?

    @billcinsd: had California seceded in 1965, it would be a blood-red, white nationalist apartheid state involved in a decades-long hot war with Mexico over the Southern border, under the benevolent rule of General Ronald Reagan and his descendants.

    People forget what California actually was in the 1960s.

  92. 92.

    Paul in KY

    December 5, 2022 at 10:24 am

    @Joey Maloney: Know I know why the governor in Blazing Saddles was named that!

  93. 93.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 5, 2022 at 10:24 am

    @Alison Rose: There are sincere California secession movements, and I do think there’s a fair chance that it will happen at some point and will be the beginning of the Second American Civil War, far bloodier than the first one.

    I worry about this a lot. Sorry about venting.

  94. 94.

    The Moar You Know

    December 5, 2022 at 10:32 am

    There are sincere California secession movements,

    @Matt McIrvin: Haven’t seen one yet that wasn’t funded by a foreign country.

    and I do think there’s a fair chance that it will happen at some point and will be the beginning of the Second American Civil War, far bloodier than the first one.

    Could.  Would be over in one day, because the United States of America will retain control over its nuclear assets and California won’t have any.  It would be like Russia and Ukraine, except that in this instance Ukraine wouldn’t even have any rifles to speak of, much less anything else.

    One day.

  95. 95.

    Josie

    December 5, 2022 at 10:40 am

    @Subsole: ​
     Thanks for this. You said it better than I ever could.

  96. 96.

    Miss Bianca

    December 5, 2022 at 11:13 am

    @Joey Maloney: Ah, so that’s where Mel Brooks got “Governor Le Petomane” from!

    (a rare frivolous note in that otherwise dead-serious documentary on American race relations, Blazing Saddles.)

  97. 97.

    BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️

    December 5, 2022 at 1:47 pm

    @Subsole: Very late to this, but if you see my reply, can I post this somewhere w/attribution?

  98. 98.

    fancycwabs

    December 5, 2022 at 1:56 pm

    “…Republicans wouldn’t trot out some famous white sports figure that was in the same mental state to embarass them and destroy their legacy like this…”

    Tommy Tuberville would like a word.

  99. 99.

    trnc

    December 5, 2022 at 3:10 pm

    @Alison Rose: I really wish California would just fucking secede so we can take our economy and our non-psycho politicians and say fuck all y’all.

    Sorry, but you can’t cherry pick. You have to take Nunes and McCarthy, etc with you.

  100. 100.

    Subsole

    December 5, 2022 at 4:22 pm

    @BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️:

    Very late to your comment, but yes. Feel free.

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