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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

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

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

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You are here: Home / 2023 / Archives for January 2023

Archives for January 2023

Tuesday Night Open Thread: ‘Bill Barr’s Image Rehab Is Kaput’

by Anne Laurie|  January 31, 202310:33 pm| 107 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel

Important: Senate Dems say the Judiciary Committee will "take a hard look" at John Durham's "abuses" as revealed by the NYT. Dems should take this on. It'll counter House GOP BS by showing what a real investigation into "weaponizing government" looks like:https://t.co/NVcFeSbICW

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) January 30, 2023

… The New York Times disclosed extraordinary new revelations this past week about prosecutor John Durham’s years-long quest to delegitimize the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In 2019, this obsession of President Donald Trump was initiated by his attorney general, William P. Barr, but as the Times found, Durham’s effort was itself profoundly tainted.

Now, because Democrats have 51 Senate seats after gaining one in the midterm elections, they have subpoena power on Senate committees that were previously divided. That means the Judiciary Committee is in a position to investigate the Barr-Durham escapades.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the Judiciary Committee chair, is signaling such an intent. In an emailed statement, Durbin said that reports of Durham’s “abuses” are “outrageous,” and “one of many instances” in which Trump and Barr “weaponized the Justice Department.”…

“weakening the country’s institutions and safeguards for political benefit is how Mr. Barr did business in the nearly two years he served as the nation’s top law enforcement official under Mr. Trump.”

https://t.co/nzfP1ziqWq

— Steven Beschloss (@StevenBeschloss) January 30, 2023

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Tuesday Night Open Thread: <em>‘Bill Barr’s Image Rehab Is Kaput’</em>Post + Comments (107)

Postcards for Wisconsin Supreme Court & Music!

by WaterGirl|  January 31, 20238:00 pm| 66 Comments

This post is in: Music, Open Threads, Political Action

Saturday was for talking.  The next 17 days are for action.  And music!

The postcards don’t have to be fancy, or pretty.  Thought they can be!

We just need to get the message out to as many people as possible.

If you want to write postcards, please send email to WaterGirl and let me know how many addresses you would like.

If you are uncertain of my email address, you will find instructions under Contact Us in the white menu bar up top.

Thank you!

Postcards for Wisconsin Supreme Court & Music! 1

Hope we have some folks supplying music tonight, too!

Open thread.

Postcards for Wisconsin Supreme Court & Music!Post + Comments (66)

War for Ukraine Day 341: The Starlink Snowflake Has Chosen Putin. He Has Chosen Poorly!

by Adam L Silverman|  January 31, 20236:27 pm| 64 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Military, Open Threads, Russia, Silverman on Security, War, War in Ukraine

Musk regarding Starlink use by the military in Ukraine: “we are not allowing Starlink to be used for long-range drone strikes.” https://t.co/HHLbYhGaKZ

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) January 31, 2023

It will be a good day when his personal Tesla sets itself on fire and won’t release the door locks while he’s inside it. I’m also looking forward to watching Chevrolet, GM, Honda, and a bunch of other actual car makers eat his lunch as 2023 proceeds. Both Chevrolet and Honda are coming not just for his battery electric vehicle business, but for everything he’s trying to do with solar panels and battery storage/power walls.

The best thing that could happen to him is for the UA Main Directorate of Intelligence to scarf him up and drop him off in occupied Donbas without papers while live streaming what happens to him.

And that’s all I have to say about that asshat.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump:

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War for Ukraine Day 341: The Starlink Snowflake Has Chosen Putin. He Has Chosen Poorly!Post + Comments (64)

Just 17 Days to Help Get a Liberal Judge on the Wisconsin Supreme Court

by WaterGirl|  January 31, 20235:04 pm| 36 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Political Action

There are just 17 days left to help get a liberal judge on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.  And we need your help to do it.

I shared a ton of information about this in Saturday’s post.  In case you missed it:

On Wisconsin!

Saturday was for talking.  The next 17 days are for action.

Voces de la Frontera is supplying addresses to us so we can write postcards to help make sure a liberal judge gets on the ballot for the general election on April 4.  They are:

  • Active voters, not just on the rolls, but with a strong history of turning out to vote
  • Partisanship score of 80-100% voting for Democrats
  • African American

A bit of math in the hopes of inspiring you.

  • If 100 people can write 100 postcards each, that’s 10,000 postcards.
  • If 200 people can write 75 postcards each, 15,000 postcards.
  • If every writer can find one person to join them in writing, we double our reach.
  • If you have a postcard group or an Indivisible group other others, see if they can write.

With only 17 days before we can mail the last postcards, we are going for simple and expedient.

  • We’ll have 3 sample postcards you can copy from.
  • Maze Dancer will hand out the addresses, which are arriving today.
  • If you have the time ,but not the money for postcards and stamps, let me know by email.
  • If you are up for helping someone else out by providing stamps or postcards, let me know by email.

Four Candidates Enter, Only Two Candidates Make it On the Ballot

  • 2 liberal justices
  • 2 conservative justices
  • Each voter gets to vote for one justice.
  • We have to make sure that one liberal justice makes it on the ballot in April.
  • Then we have to make sure that that liberal justice wins on April 4.
  • If a liberal justice wins on April 4, the court will be split 4-3, with 4 liberals.

What’s on the line?

  • The right to self-determination for women in Wisconsin
  • The right to have your vote count
  • Anything issue that makes it to the state Supreme Court

What can you do to help?

Let us know in the comments.

Questions?  Ask them here.

We will have a postcard party & music thread tonight at 8 pm Eastern.

But of course postcards, can be written anytime!

 

Just 17 Days to Help Get a Liberal Judge on the Wisconsin Supreme CourtPost + Comments (36)

Is Our Democrats Learning?

by John Cole|  January 31, 202311:14 am| 206 Comments

This post is in: Republican Politics, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality

Signs point to yes:

this is called setting the terms of the public debate and not just naively going into things assuming republicans are operating in good faith https://t.co/ykoDolsSyr

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) January 31, 2023

From the looks of it, President Biden has learned from the past and is, in the American tradition, refusing to negotiate with terrorists (which in a way is bullshit- we negotiate with terrorists all the time and you should talk to the fuckers if you can achieve a good outcome, but there is no reason to engage with the domestic terrorists known as the GOP). There was a good piece in NBC News the other day about this:

In 2011, after faltering debt limit negotiations with House Republicans brought the U.S. to the brink of economic calamity, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sat by the fireplace in the Oval Office, with their top aides on the couch. While relieved at having narrowly averted disaster, they were stunned by what had transpired.

Obama and Biden made a vow: Never again.

They agreed that going forward, “Nobody can use the threat of default or not increasing the debt limit as a negotiating tool,” said a former Obama official involved in the fiscal discussions, who recounted the Oval Office meeting and the “lesson of 2011” they all discussed. “It made you hold your stomach. You couldn’t believe you were at this situation,” the official said.

The U.S. had just suffered its first credit downgrade. Markets were rattled. Consumer and business confidence was shaken. Stocks took a hit. And the recovery from the Great Recession was in question. Democrats averted the cliff — by acceding to $2 trillion in spending cuts the GOP had demanded after negotiations on a “grand bargain” broke down — but Obama and Biden agreed that the mere threat of default had taken a serious toll.

“They said: This is the sad lesson we’ve learned,” the Obama official said, describing the mood in the room. “It was an unimaginable self-inflicted wound in 2011.”

One of the bigger problems for the current Republican party, beyond their craziness and nihilism and love of violence and their demographic issues, is we have now reached the stage where their bullshit from 2008 to now is not new anymore. The older Democrats and believers in institutions and days gone by, who thought you could negotiate in good faith with these guys, are aging out and retiring. The Hoyer’s and Bayh’s and other folks are no longer in charge, and they have been replace by a new guard. And one of the things about this new guard is that for many of them, much of their political careers and for some, all of it, has been dealing with Republicans who are just utter pieces of shit. Maxwell Frost, the new House Member from Florida, is 25. He was 12 years old during the tea party uprising. He has never known a reasonable Republican party- it’s been nutters his entire career. All he has EVER witnessed is bullshit and bad faith.

And that’s good.

Is Our Democrats Learning?Post + Comments (206)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Here, There & Everywhere

by Anne Laurie|  January 31, 20239:20 am| 154 Comments

This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Healthcare, Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat

On my watch, the great American road trip is going to be fully electrified.

And now, through a tax credit, you can get up to $7,500 on a new electric vehicle. pic.twitter.com/n3iZ9etL4A

— President Biden (@POTUS) January 30, 2023

.@SecBecerra, the first sitting HHS Secretary to visit a @PPFA clinic, is speaking to the group’s DC summit today about what more the Biden admin can do to protect and expand abortion access. pic.twitter.com/3l6kXlnmmZ

— Alice Miranda Ollstein (@AliceOllstein) January 30, 2023

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Here, There & EverywherePost + Comments (154)

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Jan. 30-31

by Anne Laurie|  January 31, 20237:55 am| 78 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19, Foreign Affairs

President Biden will end the U.S. #Covid emergencies May 11. He told Congress the two nat'l Covid responses—the nat'l emergency & the public health emergency—will end in May. The move restructures the U.S. response to accepting Covid as an endemic threat https://t.co/mUZLGg5nWP

— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) January 31, 2023

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Jan. 30-31

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Jan. 30-31Post + Comments (78)

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