TPM’s Josh Marshall was on “All In” with Chris Hayes last night to talk about the Meadows Texts story, which you can find here.
As Marshall notes, TPM got its mitts on the texts that were shared with the J6 committee, so these were the ones Meadows and/or his attorneys thought were fit for company viewing. Yowza! TPM is reporting that Meadows texted with 34 members of Congress who were trying to overturn the 2020 election (that we know of!). That’s a lot! Stephen Colbert described them thusly:
“These members of Congress communicating with Meadows were — and it’s not my place to editorialize — stupid, evil traitors who were trying to do crimes against democracy, for which they should be punished with decades of jail time.”
Well said, good sir. Sadly, that’s unlikely, and many of those self-same choads will get elevated positions in the next Congress via the GOP’s anemic House majority. Speaking of the coming GOP House majority, I wonder how planning for that is going?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia says a group of Republicans called “the five families” meets every week to discuss strategy and policy in Kevin McCarthy’s office…
“What we’ve been doing, and it’s really interesting, people are arguing, people are clashing, people are also starting to agree,” said Greene. “And there’s a meeting happening every week, and we meet in Kevin McCarthy’s office.”
“And it’s called the five families. And the five families, you know my reference, the five families are parts of our conference, all the different parts,” she continued. “And we are coming together and having discussions on how we are going to govern in the majority.”
Oh.
This has got to be a waking nightmare for none-too-bright Kevin McCarthy, dealing with feral popinjays like Greene and rancid unitards like Jim Jordan, so there’s a small dollop of justice as an appetizer while we wait to see if the main course will be served.
Open thread!
Ken
I totally understand how Greene is surprised and entranced by this idea that politicians can get together and talk and come to agreements, but I would have thought McCarthy had experienced it once or twice in his long career.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Even with that second sentence, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Marge does not, in fact, grok her own reference. I wonder if that drifted up from some staffer.
I will count no chickens before they’re hatched, but I continue to think that this crew might well prove to be a big gift to Democrats. Newt Gingrich was far and away the most ludicrous member of his own gang, and I suspect even he side-eyes these kooks. If there’s a Tom DeLay type lurking behind the scenes who can enforce discipline, and is willing to do it from behind the throne, I don’t see it. I’ve heard a few times in the last couple days that Marge is the third biggest fund-raiser in the caucus, being Kevin (they call him “Cave In”) MacCarthy and Steve “David Duke Without the Baggage” (I think he says he doesn’t remember ever describing himself that way) Scalise
robmassing
That Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight, you know my reference
Anoniminous
I haven’t given up hope the Republicans will fracture during the Speaker election letting the Democrat win.
I’d laugh.
Paul in KY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think she understands and likes the ‘Five Families’ tag. She’s just playing clueless here, IMO.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Her “thoughts” seem as ghost-written as Trump’s don’t call them Tweets. Biggest tell for me aren’t the copious Capitalizations but the vocabulary they assuredly do not possess.
Jerry
All I have to say to these heads of the five families is to beware baptisms. I swear to Allah, none of these idjits think beyond the cool sounding names that they give themselves.
Roger Moore
I bet sometimes they even let Kevin stay and listen to their little chats instead of sending him out for refreshments. That said, anyone who refers to their conferences unironically as the five families deserves to be nowhere near the seat of power. Our elected representatives should not be comparing themselves to Mafia dons.
SFAW
“Five families” is certainly appropriate for the Rethug caucus. Shaking down America, criming the country, every effing day.
ETA: Someone should ask MTG if Sal Tessio is her role model.
C Stars
I would like to nominate “feral popinjays and rancid unitards” for a rotating tag
Alison Rose
You know, I’ve seen a few people say that they don’t think the texts are all that explosive. I disagree with that premise on its own, but also, as Marshall points out in this clip, this is only a portion of all of the communication, and we don’t know how many more texts and emails and such there were…and based on what we do know and what the lawyers decided were necessary to turn over, just imagine what else there is. It’s like those images of an iceberg showing the bit of it we see above water and the massive rest of it beneath the surface.
Also, kudos to him for making sure to shout out the reporters by name.
Old Man Shadow
The main course won’t be served unless these assholes are all convicted of sedition and barred from holding elected office within the United States of America.
PAM Dirac
@Anoniminous:
I think that is unlikely to happen and I doubt it is even desirable. Whatever happens in January is going to be very fragile. Nancy SMASH is still around counting votes and I think there will be opportunities for the Ds to take advantage of the chaos to get some useful things done. I also think it is very likely that the environment for the Ds will get better as the year goes on. Not only will the orange fart cloud’s problems mount, but a lot of the benefits from 2022 bills like infrastructure money and insulin prices will kick in. Maybe by next summer enough semi-rational (or maybe self interested is the best we can hope for) Rs will see the writing on the wall and the Ds will be able to form a fairly stable governing group.
MattF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Agree. I don’t see these idiots enforcing any sort of policy, because not enough votes. So, e.g., using the debt limit as a political weapon, which excites some of the mouth-breathers, isn’t going to happen because a few R congresscritters understand that it would be a catastrophe, and there would be zero doubt about who to blame. And similarly for just about anything else, such as impeaching Biden because his son is bad news.
West of the Rockies
MTG: tanned, ready, and stupid.
Alison Rose
Also: Today is the 10-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting. One of those things where it still feels like it just happened, and if it feels that way to those of us who weren’t directly impacted, I can’t begin to imagine how it feels for those who were.
Juice Box
Five families? The Ndrangheta, Camorra, Mafia, and Russians, but whose the fifth?
Chetan Murthy
@Alison Rose: It doesn’t just feel like it just happened: it feels like it’s happening again and again. Every day it seems we read of another massacre.
PeakVT
I like a good Mafia film as much as the next person but, in reality, the Mafia are the bad guys – unless you are pro-crime and anti-rule of law.
I simply do not understand the MAGAt mentality, which apparently consists of memes 24/7. Thank FSM for small favors, I guess.
Ken
Wait, “five families” isn’t a Kindred: the Embraced reference?
(Or Vampire: the Masquerade for purists.)
Alison Rose
@Juice Box: Orcs.
waspuppet
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Today on What If a Democrat Said It …
Amir Khalid
I still don’t get how members of Congress, including some supposedly educated ones, can think that martial as in “martial law” is spelled Marshall as in Marshall Amplification. (Which, by the way, is the name of a famous British company.)
piratedan
@Juice Box: The Southern Baptists…
Chetan Murthy
@Amir Khalid: elitest
MisterForkbeard
@SFAW: Look, Republicans love RUSSIA now because it hates Democrats, women and gay people.
Loving the mafia because they kill (the right people), are hopelessly corrupt, and avoid taxes and laws isn’t exactly a reach.
jonas
@Juice Box:
The Trumps
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Of course there isn’t. One of the key demands of the extreme right wing of the caucus has made in exchange for their cooperation has been the dismantling of all the means leadership has of exerting discipline on the rank-and-file. That’s what their demands to end earmarks were really about, for instance.
California went through something similar in the ’90s and ’00s, but with the state budget. At that time, we needed a 2/3 majority to pass a budget, and the Democrats weren’t quite there. Every year, they had to go to the least crazy Republicans and buy them off with something just in order to get the budget passed. Some of the demands made future budgets even harder to pass, so the struggle grew every year, and the budget was chronically late. We tried various stupid gimmicks to get the state legislature to do their job, like withholding their pay if the budget was overdue, but nothing worked until A) the requirement was reduced to a simple majority and B) the Democrats achieved a 2/3 majority. The Republican caucus in the House isn’t going to get any better until they reform their rules to let the leadership lead and keep the back benchers benched.
MisterForkbeard
@Alison Rose: I’m going with “The Duggars”, personally.
Poe Larity
In other feral fascist news, Young Federalists have grown weary of Scalia’s impotent Originalism:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/09/revolutionary-conservative-legal-philosophy-courts-00069201
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Marge is just admitting that GOP leadership is organized crime.
Alison Rose
@MisterForkbeard: So many possibilities.
piratedan
it kind of feels like there are three circles to the GOP Congresscritter debacle…
Those in groups 2 and 3 should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and those in group 1 should be barred from public service.
dm
@Amir Khalid: I think they’re thinking “marshal” as in “U.S. Marshal” (which I have always thought had two ‘l’s, until I looked it up just now).
Alison Rose
@dm: I thought they meant we’d all be wearing discount last-season clothing.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@dm: No, no, no. We gotta put our good friend, Marshall, in charge. Then all our problems will be solved.
Fake Irishman
“Rancid unitards like Jim Jordan”
Ouch. It’s going to take a couple of heavy duty cycles in the washer to get that to come out. Your snark game continues to inspire, Ms. Cracker.
ian
Imagine the freak-out on Fox if the Democratic congressional members referred to themselves as “the five families”.
Fake Irishman
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
How is Marshall? Last I heard, he was in charge of security at SCOTUS, right?
Captain C
These are great band names. The former sounds like more of a punky new wave band, perhaps with synthpop elements. The latter is definitely a gutter punk band all the way through. They also work as band names with the people they describe as part:
MTG and the Feral Popinjays
Gym Jordan and the Rancid Unitards
I claim bari sax and bawdy songwriting duties (and vocals if we want to commit crimes against humanity against our fans) of the names without the horrid politicians attached.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Fake Irishman: Unfortunately, Marshall has been letting his new power go to his head.
Cameron
MTG will say no more….she and her fellows strictly observe the ancient code of Gohmerta….
emmyelle
I must confess I had to look up five families, but I was pretty effin sure that it was either about organized crime (ding ding ding ding), some mid-century fascist regime, or some prophetic Biblical shit.
Captain C
@SFAW:
More like a combination of Phil Tattaglia and one of the loud incompetents from the GoodFellas version of the Lufthansa Heist.
Leslie
Since this is an open thread: I’m pondering gifts for someone who’s hard to buy for but likes podcasts, and came across Luminary podcasts.
Has anyone tried them? Are there some good offerings?
Thanks for any comments / recommendations.
Captain C
@Juice Box: Generally it refers to the Five Families of NYC: Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Bonnano, and Columbo.
FastEdD
@Roger Moore: You are correct, sir! I was working for CFT at the time and we helped write Prop 25, which got rid of the 2/3rds requirement. We lobbied and worked our butts off and it passed. Why would a teachers’ union be so interested in that? We could never budget for the next school year and it was a mess. After it passed, every budget has been on time with no drama. One of the bad deals made with the R’s resulted in the top two “Jungle Primary” system. It is funny how the wing nuts deride CA budgets as deficit spending. Nope, it is a surplus. The only things I fear from the next House majority are endless Hunter Biden nonsense amplified on all the media and blowing up the debt ceiling on purpose.
emmyelle
Also, regarding “Marshall Law”, perhaps they were just foreshadowing the upcoming 50th anniversary tour of the Marshall Tucker Band.
Anonymous at Work
@Poe Larity: it has its appeal but lacks any ability to decide anything not predetermined. Originalism includes Strict Constructionist principles that could surprise. It’ll fall apart once used by liberal justices.
Captain C
@mrmoshpotato:
“Organized” is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting here.
UncleEbeneezer
Love Colbert but I’m gonna wait until someone with Fed Prosecutor experience tells me whether these texts violate existing statutes enough to justify criminal charges.
persistentillusion
@Juice Box: The fifth family is Klingons.
PAM Dirac
@Fake Irishman:
John Marshall, Thurgood Marshall’s son, was head of the US Marshals Service for a while.
Betty Cracker
@UncleEbeneezer: LOL!
Paul in KY
@Poe Larity: That’s wnhat happens when you are saddled with the name of ‘Adrian’.
Delk
I wonder if Moe Greene had a middle name starting withT.
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: as a lifelong musician and current Marshall owner (I’m mostly a bassist, but having a good guitar amp around comes in handy every now and then) this particular misspelling has always ground my hide but good.
@UncleEbeneezer: Gonna have to tie those texts to specific illegal actions. That’s going to be some hard work.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@C Stars: Seconded LOL
Sister Golden Bear
Compiling a list of members of a persecuted minority group. We’ve seen this movie before. It does not end well.
Miss Bianca
@emmyelle: Yeah, not being a big mafia follower in art *or* life, I was leaning towards its being some obscure Biblical reference, myself.
gvg
@dm: That and the last name of Marshall is not that uncommon in America including Thurgood Marshall and I suspect some of the nutty sovereign citizen views that place great significance on law enforcement by marshals has infected their minds.
The actual word martial in connection with war is not used much here anymore among the general population.
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: whut?!
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I’m sorry, but as far as I’m concerned, Greene has exceeded the limits of Hanlon’s razor: stupidity is no longer adequate to explain her behavior.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Sister Golden Bear: What the absolute fuck?
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Stupidity AND EVIL, however…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and then persuade a jury in the presence of a judge and defense lawyers of “meeting of the minds” and “criminal intent” and whatnot
A lot of people seem stubbornly resistant to that part
Cheryl from Maryland
@Leslie: I like podcasts from “ The Big Finish”. Mostly British actors like Paul McGan.
gvg
@Miss Bianca: I had to look it up. I knew it wasn’t good. On the bright side, the originals assassinated each other a lot and I don’t expect these idiots to be any more loyal.
Gravenstone
I dunno. A Democratic Speaker can cockblock every Republican witch hunt into perpetuity if they desire. “Sorry Gym, no time this week to bring your articles of impeachment for *checks notes* Hunter Biden to the floor. Maybe try back in June?”
Sister Golden Bear
@Miss Bianca: @BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️: I’ll point that Paxton compiling a list of adult trans Texans came not long after he illegally tried to get child protective services to take trans kids away from their parents.
Draw your own conclusions.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Sister Golden Bear: If that doesn’t make your blood run cold, you’re not paying attention. (“You” meaning people in general. Not you. Obviously.)
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato: Even Disorganized Crime is still, well, crime.
The gang who couldn’t lie straight.
Betty Cracker
Okay, some of y’all are seriously “well-actuallying” a comedian’s monologue? In that case, I retract my lulz at #53, which were bestowed in the belief that the comment was ironic.
Chief Oshkosh
Here’s some fun Marshall.
https://youtu.be/eH44d9UTDUs
Chetan Murthy
@Dorothy A. Winsor: They’ve decided who their stand-ins are for Jewish people, this time around: LGBTQ folks, trans folks specifically, and uppity females. Fucking Nazis.
catclub
@Juice Box:
Either Colombian or Mexican cartels.
Betty Cracker
@Sister Golden Bear: Utterly chilling.
Chetan Murthy
@catclub: The Fucking NRA, naturally.
RevRick
What are the chances that the contest for Speaker of the House will exceed the 133 ballots over a two-month span that it took to select Nathaniel Banks in 1855? Given the narrowness of the GOP majority, a good chunk of which is frothing at the mouth, there’s a real possibility that nobody will be able to cobble together a majority through GOP votes alone. Then what?
Could the Democratic caucus work with at least five swing district Republicans to choose someone besides McCarthy?
RaflW
@Roger Moore: It’s like the cosa nostra, but the nostri sciocchi.
(roughly, our fools rather than the Sicilian our thing)
UncleEbeneezer
@The Moar You Know: Exactly. Look I’d LOVE to see all these fuckers behind bars, but we also need to be realistic about how high the bar is for DOJ to bring charges. A couple of the Oathkeepers who were in on group texts and at the Capitol etc., didn’t even get convicted for Conspiracy to Obstruct. I think Meadows/Perry/Eastman/Clark are in a world of potential legal danger, but I could easily see how most of these Congress-critters would not be. And I see a lot of people getting way ahead of themselves with “Lock Them Up” and “They should’ve been arrested months ago” talk that really isn’t helpful.
CliosFanBoy
@Alison Rose:
It’d be AWFUL for the families, but it might be helpful to actually publish the photos of what school shootings like this look like. I read an article recently that compared it to Emmit Till, where his Mom allowed photos of his mangled body to be published. Show people what an AR-15 does to bodies!!! Make the NRA own it!
UncleEbeneezer
@Sister Golden Bear: I’m sure all the Don’t Tread On Me people who violently oppose any sort of State/Federal gun-owner database will be very much against this. Wait, let me come in again…
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: But what possible justification can this crook give for wanting or needing that information? They’re adults, so even if you want to wail “it’s all about saving the children!” – they’re not children! It’s none of his goddamn business!
Mike in NC
Front page of USA Today: “Trump’s GOP Support Crumbles”
Voters prefer DeSantis as 2024 nominee, poll shows.
Don’t show that article to the Orange Ogre down at Mar-A-Lago, who might possibly suffer a stroke!
Danielx
Governing, you say?
MTG and he coconspirators have as much interest in “governing” as I do in attending a Liberace show, and he’s dead.
Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ed Buckham, MTG’s Chief of Staff was Tom DeLay’s COS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Buckham
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mike in NC: Oh nonono. Trump can’t go until he takes DeSantis out too
Matt McIrvin
@Miss Bianca: The old laws against “transvestism” and such were usually framed as measures against fraud, which (by my understanding) made it hard to actually get a conviction, since you’d have to be using disguise with intent to deceive–but the police still used them as pretexts to harass and arrest trans people, sex workers and drag performers. The idea that you might be hiding your identity to perform some criminal act was the way they legitimized it, though.
UncleEbeneezer
@Miss Bianca: His excuse will be effectively that this is no different than maintaining a list of sex-offenders and is needed for public safety. Disgusting, but I’d bet that’s gonna be the framing of the defenses. Just more “Groomer” bullshit.
Mike in Pasadena
@Sister Golden Bear: yeah, I remember reading about a guy with a funny mustache who did not like a religious monority
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that’s interesting… I wonder if The Hammer is advising the Dumb As A Box Of Hammers. Even if he’s not… Kevin McCarthy is so fucked
Chetan Murthy
[eta: Matt McIrvin got there first]
@Miss Bianca: Having grown up with his sort of mindset (sadly; I’m still atoning for it), I can put that tin-foil hat on: “they’re groomers; of course we need to know who they are, so we can eventually construct a registry, so that good [KKK]Christian folk can know that their children are safe from their evil ways.”
You know, like the Nuremberg Laws: isolate them from the rest of the citizenry, and then incrementally strip them of their rights.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Sister Golden Bear: GEEZ!
trollhattan
Republicans thrilled to learn of a path out of any consequences from Jan 6 insurrection, begin working on their declaration.
Sanjeevs
@UncleEbeneezer: I guess the question is whether the revealed texts sparked the DoJ to investigate those Congress critters – seize all their devices etc
Doesn’t seem like it.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He’s fucked either way (couldn’t happen to a more deserving obsequious worm), but I begin to wonder if the liberty loons will tank McCarthy’s bid just because.
Sister Golden Bear
@Miss Bianca: That’s why they’re also spreading the blood libel (and yes, I’m using that phrase deliberately*) that we’re “groomers” i.e. pedophiles.
The next steps will be because we’re all supposed pedophiles that we need to be kept away from any possible contact children — with laws that make it a crime to a be a trans person out in public (there’s already pending bills in several states to do just that).
Then it’ll be we need to be separated from society, concentrated in camps might. Then it’ll be there needs to a solution, a final one, to trans people existing period.
I wish I was exaggerating, but we’ve already heard them start saying the quiet parts out loud.
*I’m Jewish by lineage, even though I wasn’t raised in the faith, and there’s an entire side of my family that no longer exists. Though again, I don’t have personal experience with relatives who survived, because… well you know, they’re all dead.
Chetan Murthy
@Sister Golden Bear: You’re not exaggerating, and your sequence is definitely where they want to take this. Fascism needs internal enemies, and trans and LGBTQ people are the ones they’ve chosen for this iteration. As they are wont to say, “pollution of the body politic”.
Citizen Alan
@Roger Moore: I have this recurring horrific vision of Qevin McCarthy locked up in a trunk in MTG’s office closet and wearing a gimp suit.
Chetan Murthy
@Citizen Alan: wait, why is that horrific? I’d be happy to pay money to not watch it, but still have it filmed and distributed widely. Surely there’d be a big audience for Qevin McCarthy humiliation clips.
ETA: the video of his travails over the weekend, when nobody’s around to let him out to pee and poo, would be especially interesting for viewers, I’d think. His self-pitying whining as he sits there in the dark, knowing that he’ll get no help until Monday, would probably give a lotta these MAGAts a stiffie.
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: well, color me naive, because that aspect hadn’t even occurred to me.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Chetan Murthy: McCarthy as gimp works for me but it’s vital I be attracted to the Dom, demeanor included, and MTG just…no.
artem1s
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She might know it’s a reference to The Godfather, but it’s pretty clear she doesn’t remember or know what happened to the leaders of the four families or she wouldn’t be so pleased with it.
Jojo
@Miss Bianca
He’ll make some shit up. It won’t make sense, of course, but that won’t matter to fascists.
Chetan Murthy
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Yeah, I get you. I wouldn’t want to watch it; I would simply want to know that it existed, that he’d suffered, and that the record of his suffering was out in the world, available to every person he meets, including all the waitstaff who bring him his cobb salad [obligatory shout-out to Action!]
UncleEbeneezer
@Sanjeevs: Unless the Congresscritters are targets of an investigation it is more likely that DOJ will ask nicely then subpoena them for their messages. DOJ/FBI actually needs substantial and fresh intel that evidence of a crime is on somebody’s phone, in their desk etc., before it can justify a legal search/seizure (this is why it took so long before the MAL search). That’s why it was a really big deal that they’ve already seized phones from Perry, Eastman, Clark, Rudy, Fuentes, etc.
Qrop Non Sequitur
Cobbling together 218 votes from this particular group of Republicans is its own form of torture. It would be unconstitutional if it weren’t voluntary.
Chetan Murthy
@Miss Bianca: Early-on in TFG’s Reign of Error, I started reading about the rise of the Nazis (all pre-WWII) and specifically about how they went about imposing their reign of terror on their targeted minorities. Gellately’s _Backing Hitler_ has a lot of details, so does E.A. Johnson’s _What We Knew_. It’s having read those books (and a few others) that when I see stuff like this, I immediately jump the same place that @Sister Golden Bear: and @Matt McIrvin: jumped to.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
Fixed:
“These members of Congress communicating with Meadows were — and it’s not my place to editorialize — stupid, evil traitors who were trying to do crimes against democracy, for which they should be punished with 230gr of copper jacketed lead right between the eyes.”
rikyrah
@Anoniminous:
I don’t think it will happen, but, I don’t think McCarthy will be Speaker either.
Roger Moore
@UncleEbeneezer:
Except, of course, that the sex offender registry is only for people who have been convicted of a crime. If he wants to put all trans people on a registry, he needs to first make it illegal to be trans and then secure convictions.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): My vote is the jail time. A worse experience and less murdery.
Chetan Murthy
@Roger Moore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws
There are no laws that Fascists are bound to respect.
rikyrah
@FastEdD:
This is why the Senate needs to take up the 1/6 investigation. Have a contrast to the lunacy of the House.
There are 15 Republicans from Districts that Biden won. We need to keep our feet on their necks. Make them responsible for every vote they take for a GOP Speaker. There should already be a War Room at the DNC dedicated only to them.
Bill Arnold
@Sister Golden Bear:
The WaPo article says that Paxton’s office denies that it has records of any such request. Which apparently was verbal. And taken seriously enough to make a few employees spin wheels for a month or two.
Mr. Paxton is one of those very rare people who would fail a “scorpion mom with babies on her back” vs “human person” anonymous-lever trolley problem. Life for the scorpion mom and her children!
RaflW
@RevRick: Don Bacon was making some noises about this. But those five Reps would get quite the hammer-drop, wouldn’t they? And I don’t think there’s a single Republican that a) would want the job, even temporarily and even as a ‘bridge’ who could b) get support from the whole Dem caucus.
So, yeah, either the GOP figures out which lunatic will run the House asylum, or they’ll deadlock. At which point, does literally nothing move through Congress? Messy!
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
Just so long as the sentences are served in a “regular” Federal prison and not on an Air Force Base “Club Fed” in Florida, that’s OK with me.
Though at the first instance of someone suggesting that they need to tend golf courses down in Florida, the Colt option is acceptable.
Leslie
@Cheryl from Maryland: Thanks!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I think no one else wants the job… yet (meaning Scalise). And the big money (including their agents McConnell and again, Scalise will be looking to minimize drama (good luck to them on that)
The Moar You Know
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): now, let’s not be putting stupid traceable shit in writing that can get people arrested or websites seized.
Chetan Murthy
@RaflW: Two thoughts:
Leslie
@Sister Golden Bear: Paxton is an evil waste of human protoplasm, and you and the others are not wrong about where the fascists want this to go.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@The Moar You Know: Im sure Darrin meant “after due process of law…”
Chetan Murthy
@Qrop Non Sequitur: [insert clip of Colin Firth from movie _Conspiracy_ where he waxes wrothful about how they need to deal with the Final Solution within the law]
Qrop Non Sequitur
24?
Sister Golden Bear
@Chetan Murthy: Who’s to say he wouldn’t enjoy it.
RaflW
@Chetan Murthy: There needs to be intensive solidarity on this. It is more uneven in the gay & lesbian community that I’d want, but at least the LGBTQ orgs that I support seem to really get that we have to hold together. A number of my cis/straight Jewish friends & acquaintances also are understanding the linked risks & destiny in these dark times.
My UU people are very much in the fight as co-religionists with decades of activism in queer spaces, too. (Ashley, on the home page at that link, is a personal friend and neighbor, too. I’m pretty sure I posted her Queer Prayer after Colorado Springs here right after she wrote it, and it’s still at the home page too).
Chetan Murthy
@Qrop Non Sequitur: *42* surely
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Chetan Murthy: My mistake, philistine that I am.
RaflW
@Chetan Murthy: Steven Dennis, a D.C. reporter who seems to be willing to have some viewpoints on Twitter (ie not a Beltway conventional wisdom slinger) said yesterday: Don’t plan any vacations or trips that involve National Parks or other Federal lands, services, etc for after Oct. 1st. He’s expecting gridlock and an extended, nasty GOP shutdown. 9.5 months from now. [forehead slap dot gif]
Sister Golden Bear
@Chetan Murthy:
Just a reminder to everyone that the most famous photo of Nazi book burning was them destroying the library of the Institute of Sexology in Berlin, a research center run by a gay man, and an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, and the first gender clinic.
Much invaluable research, some irreplaceable, went up in flames. For good measure the Nazis also killed a trans woman who worked there.
Chetan Murthy
@Sister Golden Bear: Thank you for this reminder! History is echoing in more than one way right now.
Sister Golden Bear
@Roger Moore:
That was actually the intent of the anti-trans “bathroom bills.”
Sister Golden Bear
@Bill Arnold: The CPS investigators to were order to investigate families with trans kids were also ordered to keep no written records of their investigations. Draw your own conclusions.
UncleEbeneezer
Sit down everyone, you’ll never believe this…:
“Minneapolis police identified a suspect who they believe helped initiate the riots and destruction in the city following the killing of George Floyd. He is associated with the “Aryan Cowboys,” a White supremacist prison and street gang.”
But I’ve been assured it was BLM/Antifa!
Nora
@rikyrah: You’d better believe I’ll be keeping an eye on MY new Republican representative. I’m going to be his worst nightmare. He’s going to hear from me CONSTANTLY.
TEL
@rikyrah: Totally agree with this.
Roger Moore
@UncleEbeneezer:
It shows the importance of getting your lies out in the public view as quickly as possible. They’ve had 2 years to sell people on the idea the riots were all about Black people overreacting. It will be incredibly difficult to get people to get over what they’ve believed for 2 years and accept something different.
Jackie
@Sister Golden Bear: If looking for “potential groomers” is the rationale – and I’m not doubting you AT ALL! – why only the past two years?
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Jackie: Took time to exhume the talking point.
UncleEbeneezer
@Roger Moore: You’re assuming they actually care about what is legal and what isn’t.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@UncleEbeneezer: They do as long as you mean God’s law…as interpreted by Ken Paxton.
Sister Golden Bear
@Jackie: They’ve being making those attacks for years but 1) the MSM generally didn’t cover them, 2) Christopher Rufo, damn his non-existent soul, came up with “groomers” as a catchy euphemism that could traction in the MSM, and 3) TFG lost two years ago and that really caused them to tip over into overt violence against LGBTQ+. Eric Hoffer astutely observed, cults may not need gods, but they always need satans.
Trust me, I only post a small fraction of what they’re doing, because I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to do so.
Plus in prior years it would be like those focus groups where people simply didn’t believe that Republican policies could be so evil. So it didn’t get talked about much in normie circles, except to criticize us for being hysterical.
Chetan Murthy
@Qrop Non Sequitur: This is exactly right: You can’t have a one-minute hate where each person directs their hate at whomever they choose: you have to have somebody organize it and select the target. Before the 2020 election, it was those dirty brown and black people. Now it’s groomers, other [ok, I can’t, you can insert your own epithets here for LGBTQ folks], and uppity baby-murderers.
SiubhanDuinne
First time in a while I’ve had to pie someone.
Qrop Non Sequitur
I prefer to keep those to the privacy of my bedroom with a guy inclined to do the same who performs bro-ey masculinity well.
A gentleman in the streets, toxic in the sheets.
Betty Cracker
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): Yikes — kindly dial it back several thousand notches, please and thank you.
Bill Arnold
@artem1s:
Or, in RL, what Rudolph Giuliani did to those crime families, as a favor for the incoming Russian Mafia(s).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_Commission_Trial
Bill Arnold
@Sister Golden Bear:
When dealing with people like that, one should have a voice recorder (smartphone apps work) running at all times. Legally, or not. (Texas appears to be a one-party consent state.)
trollhattan
@UncleEbeneezer: Here’s the kicker: in their spare time, they herd Arian cows!
rikyrah
@Sister Golden Bear:
This is true, and it’s nothing but projection, because THEY are the ones, every week, getting arrested.
rikyrah
@Sister Golden Bear:
What, the phuck, does he need with a list of Trans ADULTS.
What?
Why?
Nothing good.
Nettoyeur
Back in the day, it was said that Newt Gingrich was a stupid person’s idea of a smart person. In a similar vein, it seems to me that Marjorie Taylor Greene is a smart person’s idea of a moron.
Roger Moore
@Sister Golden Bear:
Yeah, that’s a gigantic flashing alarm light.
prostratedragon
@Sister Golden Bear: Mine are much like yours. And I recall reading about how persecution of gay etc. people got those evil fucks started years ago. (Don’t even like to say their stupid faux-clever name.)
Ksmiami
@Captain C: With the mafia in NY, at least the trash got picked up and the teamsters delivered. With the MAGATs, the US gets nothing.
Jackie
@Sister Golden Bear: Thanks, that makes sense – if sense even applies.
There go two miscreants
@Cameron:
Speaking complete gibberish?
Citizen Alan
@Roger Moore: Not just that BLM was responsible. There are swaths of Red America that accepts as an article of faith that entire cities were burned down during those riots.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Citizen Alan: Portland cleans up nice.
Citizen Alan
My interview for a career clerkship was this morning went great. And I am heartsick and anxious that my dream job is in fucking Tallahassee.
CarolPW
@Citizen Alan:
Has democratic state and federal representatives, which is more than I can say where I live in Washington state.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Citizen Alan: Tallahassee needs good people too. Bulk the FL D vote.
Sister Golden Bear
@rikyrah: If you follow the Joe.My.God blog, he reposts at least on news article per day about conservatives, evangelical ministers, priests, youth ministers, etc. getting arrested or sentenced for child sexual abuse. So yeah, definitely every accusation is a confession.
Betty Cracker
@Citizen Alan: Oh my God! Do you know Tallytown well?
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: Paxton is on a roll. He is suing the Feds to allow religious institutions to refuse to let LGBTQ people adopt.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Dan B: Every thing old is new again.
Dadadadadadada
@PAM Dirac: Nominative determinism strikes again.
Did his second-in-command hold the rank of Major, by any chance?
The Lodger
@There go two miscreants: I’m making you an offer I can’t understand.
Bill Arnold
@Dan B:
That man led a lawsuit to void the 2020 elections in other States. (Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.)
He is anti-American scum. (As are the State AGs who joined him.)
Roger Moore
@Citizen Alan:
I wonder how much of this is that people from small towns just can’t comprehend how big cities are. It’s the same thing as people assuming that because there are a few areas with a lot of homeless people living on the street that a typical city dweller spends a lot of time dealing with homeless people. In practice, we can and do avoid those neighborhoods.
Sister Golden Bear
@Chetan Murthy: Most succinct explanation I’ve seen:
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Sister Golden Bear: I mean they could…
Sister Golden Bear
@Roger Moore:
Maybe that, but also definitely they believe what they want to believe. A former poster who lived in Cincinnati once shared how the locals just flat out refused to believe that Cincinnati actually had a higher crime rate than LA (or maybe it was SF).
Sister Golden Bear
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Not in the ways that used to be the norm, even in “polite” society. Go back and watch TV/movies from the 80s/90s and it’s awash in homophobia.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Sister Golden Bear: I know. I grew up with that.
The same people “falling” for the groomer/pedo line wouldn’t be bothered by the alternate terminology.
They insist on plausible deniability, however.
Dan B
@Bill Arnold: And Paxton committed fraud but has yet to be charged or tried six+ years later.
Hello Texas. Anyone awake?
trnc
@PAM Dirac:
They sure will, and the repubs will take credit for the money and get very little pushback from the media. Hopefully, dems will still be able to make some public pronouncements if Chuck Todd ever invite any on again.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@trnc:
…Why? A Democrat is still president and Dems control the Senate
Another Scott
Dying OpenThread:
VOAnews.com:
I’m sure it’s critical to address this right now because it’s only right.
Not because a Democrat has won each of those runoff elections he’s so worried about… Not because a spoiler hasn’t been able to mess up a 2-person race.
Grr…
Runoffs do indeed have problems, and were instituted to prevent upstarts (of any kind) from upsetting the local power structures, but simply doing away with them without other reforms just invites spoilers to throw races to the RWNJs. Ranked-choice or instant-runoff or something similar can prevent that (or can let people like Adams win in NYC), but a thoughtful, fair solution is needed.
No human system is game-proof (look at what happened in the Tom Cotton senate race (where the Democrat dropped out too late to get a replacement on the ballot…)), but we should try to minimize weaknesses.
Cheers,
Scott.
Subsole
@Juice Box:
Gangrel.
Or maybe Malkavian.
Dadadadadadada
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Hanlon’s Razor requires a corollary for Republicans: never ascribe to stupidity that which is adequately explained by bigotry.
Dadadadadadada
@Another Scott: At least this last time, the 3rd-party spoiler was a RWNJ who only took votes from the GOP, and Warnock was ahead after the first round. So doing away with runoffs wouldn’t have helped the GOP.
WaterGirl
@Sister Golden Bear: That’s chilling.
WaterGirl
@RaflW: One of the political podcasts I listened to last night said that Don Bacon is firmly in the McCarthy camp and his “if we can’t agree some of us might have to thrown in with some dems and bring in someone else” was intended as a warning that Rs need to vote for McCarthy.
sab
@Sister Golden Bear: Diring Covid my husband and I have been watching ancient reruns. We aren’t especially alert. Just a normal midwestern oldish couple. And we are frankly shocked on a daily basis. Yikes. Westerns were okay, but detective and police procedurals were appalling.