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Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

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This blog will pay for itself.

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The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Low Quality Hires (Open Thread)

Low Quality Hires (Open Thread)

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To paraphrase an axiom shared by valued commenter Kay, when an organization lowers hiring standards, the quality of the people who come on board after that will always get worse, not better. News Channel 5 in Nashville (via TPM):

Businessman, economist, cop, international sex crimes expert? The stories of Congressman Andy Ogles

Congressman places block on confirmation of educational credentials, but NewsChannel 5 digs up an old résumé

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — If you believe Middle Tennessee’s newest congressman, he’s not only a businessman, he’s also an economist, a nationally recognized expert in tax policy and health care, a trained police officer, even an expert in international sex crimes.

But an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation discovered that Andy Ogles’ personal life story is filled with exaggerations, a story that’s often too good to be true.

That’s been happening a lot lately. There’s serial liar, puppy thief and GoFundMe rip-off goon George “Anthony Devolder” Santos (R-NY), of course. There’s Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who seems to have lied about her ethnic heritage, the socioeconomic circumstances of her childhood, being a home invasion victim, etc., according to WaPo.

And now there’s this fabulist from Tennessee. Low quality hires all, which was inevitable after the party elevated a pathologically lying conman to the presidency. Reporters nationwide should be poring over Republicans’ stated credentials and attempting to corroborate them, especially the Trump- and post-Trump era crop of lawmakers, at every level. There are almost certainly more low quality hires out there.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    I’m *sure* the GOPer is an expert on international sex crimes.

    Having all that experience doing them.

  3. 3.

    HinTN

    “fabulist” – you are far too kind, Ms Cracker. At least Marcia Marcia Marcia had an actual career prior to ascending to the lofty heights.

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    Herschel Walker also lied about everything — education, business, number of children, etc. — and Dr. Oz is a dishonest snake oil peddler who lied about where he lives, but fortunately, Georgia and PA voters didn’t hire those low quality candidates.

  8. 8.

    HinTN

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: At some point everyone overemphasizes their importance to some undertaking in their work but this level of depraved indifference to the truth is a completely different kettle of fish.

  9. 9.

    Math Guy

    We’ll, if that’s how it’s going to be, checking credentials and not taking people’s word for it, then please disregard that Nobel Prize in Economic Game Theory mentioned on my resume. It was more aspirational than factual.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    I’m beginning to think that most of the mainstream press is made up of low quality hires.  Many apparently think they are entertainers, and the rest are just spouting propaganda.

    Do any of them even understand what the job of the press is supposed to be?

    I would love to see local papers looking into the elected officials in their market areas.  If the big guns won’t do the job, someone has too.

  14. 14.

    jonas

    Well, we do live in the “Lol! Nothing matters!” age of politics, so I seriously doubt there will be significant consequences for any of this stuff. GOP voters simply don’t give a shit about anything but trolling the libs and actually seem to admire slimy grifters. Santos may be a different case — his lies, especially around campaign financing and other stuff, may actually constitute crimes.

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    he’s not only a businessman, he’s also an economist, a nationally recognized expert in tax policy and health care, a trained police officer, even an expert in international sex crimes.

    So, basically he’s like everyone else on Twitter?

  19. 19.

    Kay

    That’s been happening a lot lately

    Always gets worse, never better. Mediocre hires can get better or will stay the same but low quality hires always get worse and they bring the whole down a notch with them. As the Right has fewer and fewer quality hires and more and more low quality hires they will reach what is called “a quality crisis” which basically means everything is ruined and it’s hopeless- have to start over.
    It just has to happen this way. If you’re making lemonaide and you start relacing every third lemon with a moth ball, your lemonaide will suck. The thing is a sum of its parts :)

  21. 21.

    jonas

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    I would love to see local papers looking into the elected officials in their market areas. If the big guns won’t do the job, someone has too.

    This is really part of the problem. Small-town papers in most areas have been so hollowed out that there aren’t any journalists left at the public affairs desk who know who’s who on the local business and political scene and can catch these idiots.

  22. 22.

    Benw

    Not a single one of these conpeople put “valued commenter on a top 10,000 blog”! Losers

    IMO the fabulism really started with the move-life-story of Reagan, was continued during the Bush years (he SWEARS he did that national guard service, really!), and only became super obvious with TFG, since they’d happily accepted all the other BS.

  23. 23.

    Kay

    Trump was never going to get better. He was a bad hire and he got worse every month he was in office, culminating in an unlawful attempt to REMAIN in office.

    We don’t have a 90 day trial period for Presidents but if we did the smart thing to do was just pull the plug on him. Harsh, but has to be done. Lying about the inaugeration crowd size should have been enough.

  24. 24.

    Soprano2

    @WaterGirl: That would be nice, but in my locality the newspaper is a Gannett rag that’s been hollowed out. I think they have 12 reporters total to cover this whole area (metro and surrounding area is probably around 300,000 people)! Under those circumstances I can understand why they might not have time to spend really digging into the background of candidates.

  25. 25.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I can say from recent personal experience at work that when you finally remove the worst of the low-quality hires and replace them with better quality hires, everyone improves! Since they got rid of several low-quality people here, the morale of everyone else has soared – it’s almost like a different workplace. People want to do things and cooperate now that they don’t have a boss who was the opposite. It’s amazing how a few deletions can improve the whole.

  29. 29.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: I knew I was forgetting something.

    Plus he doesn’t even claim to be an expert in Afghanistan, spy balloons, or train derailments – what a slacker!

  30. 30.

    Kay

    Maybe Republicans can’t demand Santos step down because if they do Santos will just point to how many others are giant liars with fictional resumes.

    Oh, what a tangled web we weave… :)

  31. 31.

    jonas

    @Kay: ​
     

    Mediocre hires can get better or will stay the same but low quality hires always get worse and they bring the whole down a notch with them.

    One of the reasons this happens is that one characteristic of a low-quality hire is that they’re intimidated by people who may outshine them with their competence, so they in turn always make a point of hiring people who they think are worse than them. Wash, rinse, repeat, until the whole organization is filled with incompetents and collapses. So a local Republican party committee filled with idiots and grifters isn’t about to put up someone with any actual qualifications to run for a seat on the county board of supervisors or whatever, particularly in a safe district, so they tap some even worse nincompoop and after a few years your new state senator is an ex-con, assistant manager of a scrap metal recycling yard passing himself off as an former child actor-turned-millionaire entrepreneur with a Ph.D in Awesomeness Studies from Harvard.

  34. 34.

    narya

    @Soprano2: You are SO right about that. At my last job, there was a Toxic Person–just awful–who saved their worst for me, and no one would do anything about this known issue (they were terrible to many others as well). When they left, it was a fking sea change–one monthly meeting that used to drag on for an hour, with lots of sniping, became a 20-minute cooperative effort.

  36. 36.

    Suzanne

    @Gin & Tonic: I mean, I don’t give a fuck about Rod Dreher except in a car-crash kind of way, and I’m sure most of us feel the same.

    I love how the pope didn’t know who the fuck he was, LMAO.

    He’s caused some trouble, though.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    It is, and your situation was especially bad because she was a manager. IMO, people just know the first week if they fucked up and made a bad hire and everything after that is you avoiding admitting a mistake and/or avoiding firing because of sunk costs – money or time you put into the person and want to recoup, or that’s what it was with me. So much bad stuff in the world is ego.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    @Suzanne:

    That was the idea behind “one bad apple spoils the bunch” before it was coopted as an excuse not to look at systemic problems.

  40. 40.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: I’m beginning to think that most of the mainstream press is made up of low quality hires.

    I can’t immediately find it, but I saw a (fake) blurb for a roundtable discussion on the problem of nepotism. All the panel members were reporters who were, well, beneficiaries, like Chris Wallace and Luke Russert.

    I don’t recall if Meghan McCain was — it may have been limited to people whose parent was also a reporter.

  42. 42.

    zhena gogolia

    @Suzanne:
    I liked this line:

    Dreher may call Hungary’s opposition press “jackals”—but he looks rather like a sweet lapdog himself.

    Hungary’s opposition are BJ readers!

  43. 43.

    sdhays

    @Kay: No less than low quality expert Matt Gaetz has explicitly said that everyone (well, he says everyone, but his expertise is in Republicans) in Congress lies about this kind of thing.

  44. 44.

    schrodingers_cat

    Meanwhile Modi’s government uses the state machinery (Income tax dept) to go after BBC after they air a critical documentary about him (I have watched snippets and if anything I would say that they have pulled their punches). The world snores.
    They will wake up when it is too late.

  45. 45.

    BlueGuitarist

    @Bill K: you saw that!

    Ogles claimed

    “as a former member of law enforcement, worked in international sex crimes, specifically child trafficking….”
    “I turned gray because of it.”

    The Channel 5 report BC linked

    “In fact, our investigation found Ogles was sworn in as a volunteer reserve deputy with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office in July 2009.
    Records show [authorities revoked] that position  two years later for not meeting minimum standards, making no progress in field training and failure to attend required meetings.”

    Also, Ogles ignored financial disclosure requirements

    https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/what-are-andy-ogles-financial-ties-freshman-gop-congressman-ignores-federal-disclosure-law

    Rs gerrymandered Nashville cracking it into 3 different districts to defeat D congress member and the D voters of Nashville/Davidson county, contributing to the success of this Republican.

    Speaking of gerrymandering:
    don’t forget Wisconsin elections April 4, 2023
    Especially Wisconsin Supreme Court (primary 2/21) and
    WI state senate district 8: D: Jodi Habush Sinykin

  48. 48.

    gvg

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I am positive there will be a few who overstated a little, compared to these republicans.  I mean people always gloss over or make themselves sound as good as possible when trying to get hired anyway, and people running for office have to be kind of self salesmen/women.

    And then there is the fact that there are so many of them. No large group of any humans is perfect. So when it starts to feel like a pile on or republicans try to fight back, they will start checking democrats. Then they will find some.

    What I actually expect though, is that the first few accusations by republicans about democrats will turn out to be lies themselves. Lying was working so well for them the last few decades until they overused it and I think they may have busted it. It isn’t certain yet, but there are some signs.

    We also need to make a big fuss over the whistleblowers who turn out to be telling the truth. We need to be careful not to fall for another set of liars.

  49. 49.

    schrodingers_cat

    Republicans behave with impunity because a majority of white people vote R.   That makes them  the party of the establishment in this country. Be it business or the media.

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    @Suzanne: Hahaha, thanks for that link. The only thing that bums me out about Dreher’s serial humiliations is that when the Hungarians finally kick him out, he’ll probably end up in Florida.

  52. 52.

    zhena gogolia

    @Suzanne: I mean, Hungary. Hungary is not a simple place to navigate. He has no idea what he’s fucking with. Hungarians are badass, and not necessarily in a good way (I can say that, because they were the overlords to my people). My father as a child had to stomp their sauerkraut. (Don’t ask.)

  58. 58.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Pennsylvania Republicans almost didn’t hire Mr. Oz. In their primary Oz barely squeaked by McCormick, who would have been a stronger candidate. Oz could not have won without the endorsement of a certain Stable Genius.

    Trump also played a big part in Walker’s nomination. Walker won his primary more easily than did Oz, but he wouldn’t have even run without Trump’s backing. Absent Walker, the State Agriculture Commissioner, Gary Black, would likely have been the nominee. Brian Kemp’s performance against the formidable Stacey Abrams tends to show that a more normal Georgia Republican like Black might well have beaten Senator Warnock in the first round.

    So why didn’t Georgia Republicans rally behind Gary Black? They certainly rallied behind Kemp, who crushed his Trump-backed opponent, former Senator Davod Perdue, in their primary.

    When Walker’s candicacy became a real prospect, leading Georgia Republicans tried to pour cold water on the idea. So did Mitch McConnell. Within two weeks, the same people including McConnell were saying, maybe this isn’t such a bad idea after all.

    I think a strategic decision was made. The leaders saw how disaffected trumpers stayed home for the Senate runoffs, demotivated by Trump’s two ambivalent runoff rallies and his cries of a “steal.” Kemp was going to have a tough enough time beating Abrams even without Trump sandbagging him. So they threw the Beast of Mar-a-Loco a bone, and chose not to fight his chosen candidate in the primary..

  59. 59.

    Suzanne

    @zhena gogolia: I get the feeling that Dreher is just so terrified of trans people that he’d literally jump into a pit of vipers to get away. I can’t imagine this is a risk-free endeavor for him.

    He should move to Antarctica. Nothing that freaks him out is there. His whole book is about retreating from modern life into little enclaves. Of course, he prescribes it for others, but can’t be bothered to do it himself.

    But, you know, he’d probably see those gay penguins and get freaked out again.

  64. 64.

    gvg

    @Kay: He was speculating about more than 2 terms in office while running the first time. That should have ruled him out with anyone who cared about the Constitution right then and there. It hardly got mentioned.

    He clearly thought President was like king and owner during the 2016 campaign. He did not know the first thing about our own Government. And that means a lot of our voters don’t either. Yikes! Well I knew about 1985

  65. 65.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Yeah, this guy (it was a man, think kind of like TFG only not quite as bad) was the only person with the qualifications for the job who applied, so that’s why he was hired (we had a guy who I BEGGED to apply but he didn’t want to deal with the cleaning side of things). My old boss knew how to keep him under control so it wasn’t that bad, but once he left this guy never had anyone who could or would manage him, and he just ran wild. Insulting his employees in front of other employees! Saying things that should have gotten him fired! Just being a general all-around jackass. I thought he must have had something on his last boss, because no matter how much people complained and brought actual evidence of what he was doing nothing ever happened until that boss retired. You cannot imagine how much better things are with that one person gone. They got rid a few other people in that group, too.

  66. 66.

    Suzanne

    @zhena gogolia: I don’t know enough about the place to understand why it’s unique and complex. But, from the little I do know, I have no problem believing that Dreher has gotten himself in over his head, and is messing around with dangerous forces/people. He is obviously hired to be a propagandist in American media about the Fidesz/Orban government, and I can’t imagine why anyone would sign up for that job.

  67. 67.

    gvg

    @Kay: How would he know? He isn’t connected yet.  He can say sos and so does this but they should just face him down with “known liar claims bullshit yet again to try to manipulate and intimidate”. Santos is such a joke that I don’t think he can threaten anyone even if he knew something.

  68. 68.

    WV Blondie

    It’s people like Ogles, Luna and Santos that give honest grifters like my rep, Alexander Xavier Mooney (R-WV) a bad name. He started his “career” at Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute (Blackwell was one of the pioneers of grooming of “conservative” candidates for lower offices), then campaigning for his uncle, Xavier Suarez, who was removed as mayor of Miami-Dade in 1998 because of a … voting fraud scandal! (Ah, history repeats itself.)

    He won his first Maryland state senate race by raising a ton of money from his Leadership Institute alumni network – donations from all over the country – and upsetting a well-thought-of incumbent in the Republican primary. (The Dems liked the incumbent enough they hadn’t nominated a serious candidate for the general election.)

    If Mooney hadn’t stabbed his mentor, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, in the back while serving as the state GOP chairman – which led to them drumming him out of the organization – he’d be Maryland’s headache.

    Instead, he crossed the Potomac River into West Virginia and got entrenched as our representative.

    Fortunately (?), he announced he’d run for Manchin’s Senate seat. All the polls show that if he gets the nom, Manchin will beat him. And if Gov. Jim Justice throws his hat in the ring, polls say he’ll beat Mooney in the primary. Although we all know how accurate polls have been in recent years …

    Sorry. Didn’t mean to go on, but I truly despise Mooney. I wish I thought these newly uncovered liars in Congress could provide some basis for ending his career, too.

  69. 69.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Soprano2: To lower the tone of the discussion of low quality hires, you see the same effect in Hell’s Kitchen. As you’d expect, things improve when the weaker chefs leave, but they also improve when the disruptive people leave.

    Did I just admit to watching Hell’s Kitchen? Yes. Yes, I did

  70. 70.

    Princess

    The one thing I’ll add is that it is one thing to fabulize on your resume, like Ogles and Luna have done (and I doubt they’re alone AND it wouldn’t shock me to find Dems doing it too).

    It’s quite another thing to defraud your donors, have fake donors, cheat people with fake dog charities, and be involved with Russian oligarchs. Putting Santos in with these guys as if they’re all equivalent disregards the more serious things Santos seems to have done.

  71. 71.

    Skepticat

    @NotMax: That’s not an article I’ll read, but as most obits say “died surrounded by her/his loving family,” I’ve always predicted mine will say “Died alone and was eaten by her cats.” A friend in New Orleans swears this actually happened to one of her aunts.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @gvg: Santos may have specific knowledge of serious campaign finance violations by other New York representatives. I happened to see his Twitter acount heading a few weeks ago and was struck by the heading picture. It had a picture of Santos, but also one of Elise Stefanik. A possible blackmail move, I thought. Someone else here remarked on this also.

  73. 73.

    Jeffg166

    In the early nineteenth century Jefferson and Addams lamented to low quality  of people in congress in the letters they exchanged. They thought the best and brightest would serve. That was the plan.

    It is amazing this country got anywhere. It will be amazing if it manages to stay on top of the rest of the world.

  74. 74.

    Kathleen

    @Soprano2: My local paper (Cincinnati Enquirer) did not renew lease and they haven’t moved to the new quarters so everyone who’s left is working from home. The Enquirer is also owned by Gannett. I subscribe to Cincinnati Business Courier which does excellent reporting on a range of topics. One if the reporters reported on then OH#1 rep Steve Chanot’s vote to overturn election and businesses who continued to contribute to reps snd senators who voted to overturn election as well. It’s pricey but worth every penny. They also provide extensive coverage (IMHO) on Black owned businesses.

  75. 75.

    Betty Cracker

    @Princess: They’re equivalent in that they’re all bald-faced liars, as was the former president they all worship. That’s the point of this post. Santos’ criminality would (and probably has) make a fine topic for a different post.

  76. 76.

    narya

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah . . . I DVR it, though, so I can FF past some of the repeated stuff.  (I’d tagged this season’s winner as one of the possibles early on.) One of the interesting things about how Top Chef has evolved (it is my absolute fave of the cooking shows) is that they stopped with the dumb challenges, mostly, and set things up so folks could just cook their best stuff. And, increasingly, there are fewer disruptive people so there is much less interpersonal drama and shit-stirring, which means much more amazing food. I find that all more interesting than whether someone gets chosen to work for Ramsey, but yeah, I watch it. Do you watch Tournament of Champions? The randomizer and the blind tastings make that one interesting.

  77. 77.

    artem1s

    Low quality hires all, which was inevitable after the party elevated a pathologically lying conman to the presidency.

    So since Raygun? that’s where the slippery slope started. The Bush Crime family perfected the art of creating a public persona that matched the demographic of the voter they wanted to appeal to. They weren’t shy about covering up and lying about both Poppy’s past and Barb’s evil spawn’s accomplishments in order to gain both economic and political power. And they had no problem hiring serial liars and sociopaths to help them accomplish their goals (Darth Cheney, Alito, Scalia, Alberto Gonzalez, CIA/NSA operatives addicted to torture porn, etc) . If not for Trump, we’d probably be sitting in the middle of JEB!s second term right now. The Russian interference in 2016 was supposed to help him win the WH, not TFG. And I have my doubts that he would have stopped the flow of low quality candidates running for GOP seats. After all the Bushies did help invent the Tea Party as a means to get rid of ‘regular/sane’ GOPers not already under their thumb. JEB would have been just as awful at hiring and probably worse than the current crop of useful idiot Know Nothings. He’d be all over ruining the country so he could outdo Barb’s favorite son.

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @WV Blondie: I’ve noticed that Manchin spoke highly of Governor Justice recently, but disparaged Rep. Mooney as “in it for himself” and not for West Virginians. I get the impression that Manchin would not mind being succeeded by Justice. An interesting dynamic for Mountain State state politics.

  80. 80.

    oldgold

    Generally, has the quality of our elected officials across the political spectrum changed over the past 25 to years?  Or, has the way the media covers them changed our perception of them?  Or, is it the same old shit?

  81. 81.

    Scout211

    I posted this overnight, but I am re-posting because this is amazing for Spain. And maybe, just maybe we can find some hope for the future, when we can set the legislative agenda in states and in DC. It could happen. I hope

    Should we all just move to Spain?

    MADRID — The Spanish parliament on Thursday approved legislation expanding abortion and transgender rights for teenagers, while making Spain the first country in Europe that will entitle workers to paid menstrual leave.

    The driving force behind the two laws was Equality Minister Irene Montero, who belongs to the junior member in Spain’s left-wing coalition government, the “United We Can” Party.

    The changes to sexual and reproductive rights mean that 16- and 17-year-olds in Spain can now undergo an abortion without parental consent. Period products will now be offered free in schools and prisons, while state-run health centers will do the same with hormonal contraceptives and the morning after pill. The menstrual leave measure allows workers suffering debilitating period pain to take paid time off.

    In addition, the changes enshrine in law the right to have an abortion in a state hospital.

  83. 83.

    WV Blondie

    @Geminid: There’s at least some speculation that Manchin would like to return to the governor’s mansion, so that doesn’t surprise me in the least.

  84. 84.

    Scott

    Also said he was an Eagle Scout.  If that is even true, he broke the first Scout Law:  Trustworthy: Tell the truth and keep promises. People can depend on you.

  88. 88.

    Geminid

    @WV Blondie: I’m curious as to your take on Joe Manchin’s popularity in West Virginia. Would he win a race for Governor running as a Democrat or as an Independent?

  89. 89.

    Subsole

    @Jeffg166:

    Eh. On a long enough timeline, gravity catches up to everyone in the end. America will eventually recede in power. The only question is what form that takes. Hopefully we avoid a Brexit/Putinist future.

    The process can take a long, looong time. The Roman Empire lasted, in some form, until about the time Columbus invaded America.

  90. 90.

    Princess

    @Betty Cracker: I’m not criticizing your post (though I can see why it may have seemed that way). My concerns are about the sort of ha-ha way Santos has been presented by the press. I’m worried that normies are going to take away from all this a sort of “Oh well, they all lie,” attitude. I’m not worried about BJers doing that.

  92. 92.

    Ken

    @Omnes Omnibus: You hear about the towering figures from the past but not the mediocrities.

    We also hear about the towering failures from the past, so mediocrity isn’t all that bad.

    There’s a bit about that in Terry Pratchett’s Pyramids; the pharaoh has died, and Pratchett notes that he never won any wars or trampled his enemies under his feet, but on the other hand he never lost any wars or was trampled under his enemies’ feet, so basically his life was a no-score win.

  94. 94.

    japa21

    @sdhays: ​
     

    No less than low quality expert Matt Gaetz has explicitly said that everyone (well, he says everyone, but his expertise is in Republicans) in Congress lies about this kind of thing.

    And has anyone asked Gaetz what he has lied about?

  95. 95.

    WV Blondie

    @Geminid: I think he could win as a Democrat. He owns the state party (one reason it’s such a poor excuse for a party is that he’s not here to micromanage it), and plenty of Rs are former Ds who grew up voting for him.

    And he’s West Virginia through and through – I’ll give him that.

  96. 96.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Subsole: But split into two varieties-one centred in Rome and one in Constantinople. The one in Rome really didn’t last much past the late 400s. The British Empire on one reading of it, lasted a mere 150 years. The US will last longer than the British Empire, but it is already ceding a lot of ‘soft power’. Trump sped that up, but it has been obvious since the disastrous decision to invade Iraq.

    Obama restored a lot of respect, but Trump finally showed where the US could lead. Now everybody knows it could happen again, and no one believes it won’t.

  97. 97.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ken: Yes, Biden and Trump will both be in the history books, but people like Santos and Boebert are unlikely to even warrant footnotes.  I am just saying that Sturgeon’s Law applies to politicians and has throughout history.  We just notice the current crap because we are living with it.  The crap from the past is mostly forgotten (unless it is oddly footnote-worthy).  If you read cranky people from the past, we have always been in this hand basket and headed for hell.

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @WV Blondie: I get to hear highlights from Jim Justice’s press conferences when I listen to WSVA out of Harrisonburg. They have a lot of listeners in West Virginia so they cover the state on state and local news. Justice seems to have a pragmatic streak that might make him a good Senator, at least for West Virginians.

    I can see how Manchin might want to finish his career as Governor. He could be a good one too, and certainly better than what the Republicans will offer.

  100. 100.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @NotMax: About a decade back, Dad’s baby brother was in town from NJ, and my two local cousins organized a road trip out to SW PA so he could show us around the area where the family lived right after coming to the USA (and long before they relocated en masse to Nort Joyzee).

    While their house was no longer standing, the one next door was – and as we walked through the area, Uncle Vic said that when the woman living there way back when died, whoever came to collect the body found over 100 cats in residence.

  101. 101.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

     

    Maybe Republicans can’t demand Santos step down because if they do Santos will just point to how many others are giant liars with fictional resumes.

    Oh, what a tangled web we weave… :)

     

    This isn’t a BOTH SIDES issue.

     

    Funny, how this isn’t prevalent on the other side.

  102. 102.

    WV Blondie

    @Geminid: Yes, Justice is pragmatic – he ran in 2016 as a Democrat (when everyone thought HRC would win the White House), but changed parties seven months after TFG was inaugurated.

    I fully expect he’d switch back if he thought it would serve his needs.

  103. 103.

    Paul in KY

    @NotMax: In my town a couple of years ago, a nutwad ‘cat lover’ managed to round up 300 strays & took them to a local shelter and had them fixed and then was able to bring them all out to the farm where he was squatting. Did nothing to feed them. Just assumed they could live off the land, as God intended.

    Alot of them became coyote food

    Didn’t take 300 all at once, but ended up with 300 after several months of doing this.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    Yikes. Ron DeSantis cannot seem to keep his nose out of peoples medical records:

    Students across Florida are planning a statewide walkout after Gov. Ron DeSantis requested all public universities comply in delivering data from student health services on transgender students who sought gender-affirming care at the institutions.
    DeSantis asked to see anonymized information of any student who has experienced gender dysphoria in the past five years. In addition, he wants their ages and the dates they received gender-affirming care. The deadline to submit those records was February 10.
    Insider has confirmed that University of Florida, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, Florida A&M University, Florida International University, and the University of North Florida have complied with the request, but has yet to hear back from the rest.

    Where oh where are my antiwoke freedom fighters? Oh, that’s right- they’re all interviewing JK Rowling.

    Ninnies.

  106. 106.

    Shalimar

    @Soprano2: I  grew up in a 335k population city and my parents were editors of the local Newhouse paper.  Dad was the Executive Editor before he retired.  It is shifting to online-only after 2 more Sunday editions.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @Paul in KY:

    It drives me crazy when in my view people pretend that “the thing” is somehow not affected by the people who make it up.

    If Alito wants to know why the SCOTUS has lost credibility and prestige, it’s not that complicated. They hired a bunch of hacks who have no ethical standards and that lowered the quality of the institution. It doesn’t “remain credible” no matter what its composed of or how people working there behave. It’s them. They make it up. If they’re moth balls we’re never getting lemonaide.

  108. 108.

    geg6

    @narya: ​
     

    I adore Top Chef! Such a great show. I admit my guilty pleasure is Master Chef. I hate the Gordon Ramsey of Hell’s Kitchen. I really like the Gordon Ramsey of Master Chef.

  109. 109.

    WV Blondie

    @geg6: The Gordon Ramsey of Next Level Chef is not bad, either. (My husband and I love the cooking competitions. I’m still a fan of Chopped!)

  110. 110.

    Paul in KY

    @Kay: Many of these people feel it is in their best interest to lie or act dumb about what you said. Very infuriating!

  111. 111.

    karen marie

    @NotMax: Police said it is early in their investigation but they don’t believe any foul play was involved in the couple’s deaths.

    There may not have been playing but it was certainly foul.

  112. 112.

    brantl

    @WV Blondie:   He owns the state party (one reason it’s such a poor excuse for a party is that he’s not here to micromanage it)

    I would have thought that was why it doesn’t suck more than it does.

  113. 113.

    sab

    Earlier today I went off to BMV to renew both my driver’s license and my car registration.

    On the way I was listening to our local NPR. National NPR mostly sucks but the locals are still okay.

    Discussion of train wreck in East Palestine.  Stiil red Ohio, so after defending DeWine pretending that he didn’t know the reporter was arrested and held for a while (so he couldn’t cover the press conference) they mentionned that Dave Yost our AG thinks Pete Buttigieg should have resigned if he couldn’t respond immediately.

    Same Dave Yost who did respond instantly to deny that a ten year old had been raped and needed an abortion. Same guy. Mayor Pete needs time to figure out what the phuck railroad execs are saying, but Yost knew instantly what was up with that child. Or better to talk and smear before you know anything.

    Either way, Yost v Buttieg is a Mayor Pete  win for me. This is not a competition. Just a search for someone whose word is trustworthy.

  114. 114.

    sab

    @sab: O hio AG David Yost denied that a ten year old had been raped and needed an abortion.

    ” I didn’t see it in the paper. As far as I inow it did not happen.”

    Well, maybe wait and ask your investigators?

  115. 115.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Gin & Tonic: Dreher has been relevant. He’s inspired a lot of Carlson’s screeds. The issue is that he hasn’t been a force for good.

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