Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

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

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

A norm that restrains only one side really isn’t a norm – it’s a trap.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

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

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

No Justins, No Peace

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Motown is Joe-Town!

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse

Open Thread: An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse

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One of our anonymous Balloon Juice Angels sent me a note last night offering $1,000 to match donations to the GoFundMe for Larime.

Cole’s goal is to raise $15,000 for Larime & Sylv.  $4,200 of that will pay for rent, utilities and meds in March and April until work for Larime can pick up again in the spring.  The remaining $10,800 would pay for 8 months of rent in advance, which means that if things go wonky again, at least they won’t have to worry about having a roof over their head.

Link to GoFundMe

Thanks to the generosity of more than 150 BJ peeps, nearly $10k has been raised.  So March and April are covered, and 4 months of rent after that.

Our angel will match up to $50 from each person who donates, up to a total of $1,000.

Drop me a note by email if you donate so I can be sure to count your donation toward the match.

This will be the last post for the GoFundMe.  We may not make it to a full 8 months of rent in advance, but even 6 months would give them some much-needed stability.

As always, there is no need to ever feel obligated to donate to anything.  Not the blog funding, not political fundraising, not efforts to help the occasional person out.  Not even for pet blegs!

Totally open thread.

Update:  How cow, you guys, we did it!  

We are at $15,757, which turns into a bit over $15,000 after the 3% fees come out.

Thank you to every single person who donated!  Special thanks to our BJ Angel, and two the two other angels who made angel-level donations anonymously through the GoFundMe.

Reader Interactions

84Comments

  3. 3.

    Another Scott

    Thanks for boosting this, and thanks to Matchy McMatchface for the match!, but it seems like posting this again on Monday would be a good idea (as things are often quiet here on the weekends).

    +50 and a bit.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  4. 4.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl:

    I looked at some of the Twitter coverage last night, and speaker after speaker was spouting the craziest shit imaginable. Here’s @Aaron Rupar’s thread on the headliner, Donald J. Trump, very stable genius. (Small doses only!) I like that you can read the content and optionally go to the video for confirmation or if you can’t believe what you just read.

    @Acyn has some good coverage too.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: Love the way he refutes Trump with just a few words before each video.

    I couldn’t bring myself to watch.  My favorite:

    “Horseface … no attraction. No affair.”

    I assume that is related to the woman HE RAPED.

    Compilation of his greatest hits that explains this:

    “When you’re famous, you can do anything.  It can’t possibly be rape because I would never do that because she’s ugly.  I only RAPE women I am attracted to.  By the way, I mistook a picture of her from that era for a photo of my wife.  But no, she was not my type.”

    What a pathetic excuse for a human being he is.

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: I can always tell when you’ve donated because the donation total is an oddball amount.  :-)

    And then eventually someone comes along and makes sure it’s a nice even number again.

    And then someone else turns it into an oddball number, and the cycle continues.

  13. 13.

    Geminid

     

     

    @WaterGirl: I found that the best way to research freshman Rep. Nikki Budzinski right now is to look up “agriculture policy Nikky Budzinski.” Budzinski is on three different Agriculture Commitee subcommittees and on many of her district visits she is leaning in to central Illinois agriculture issues. The visits get attention from local and industry news sites.

    Congress is expected to pass the Farm Bill this year so it is a busy time for the Agriculture Committee. Nikki Budzinski is one of 24 Democratic Agriculture Committee members. Two other Illinois freshmen are also on the committee: Reps. Jonathan Jackson (IL-1) and Eric Sorenson (IL-17).

  16. 16.

    Another Scott

    Google tells me that former MD governor Hogan has said he’s not running for President in 2024.  Wonkette tells me that RFK, jr., is making noises about running.  It looks like the political press is potentially going to have their clown car race that they love so very much.

    When I’m elected Benevolent Despot, public financing will help to end this nonsense that we have to endure every cycle.

    You want public financing?  Great!  Collect X verified signatures of support from the relevant voting population.  We’ll Z-times match up to $Y of individual donations.  You don’t want public financing?  That’s Ok too.  Publish the names, city/state of the individual donors when they are received; no PAC money; strict limits on donations per cycle; no backroom coordination with outside PACs (felony charges to back them up); no billionaires and thinktanks and 501(c)(*)’s buying candidates who have no demonstrated public support any more; etc., etc.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  18. 18.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Yes, as a Democrat. Kennedy says his wife has “green lighted” the idea, but he is still making up his mind

    This would be a foolish move, I think, but Kennedy may want the larger platform. Maybe he’ll get to debate Marianne Williamson. I really hope he passes on the race.

  19. 19.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Geminid: I am constantly amazed at the people who think they could be president, starting with Ted Cruz. But maybe I’m looking at it the wrong way. Maybe they know they’ll never be president, but they’re looking for exposure, money, other gigs, etc.

  20. 20.

    Another Scott

    [email protected]:

    Trump will win the GOP primary for the same reason he did in 2016. His opponents won’t touch the issue that disqualifies him because they’re afraid it it will end their career not his.

    In 2016, they couldn’t call him out for being a birther. In 2024, they won’t call him a loser.

    It certainly looks like it’s TFG’s nomination to lose for those reasons. The GQP big-wigs are cowards and TFG represents all the things they claim are great about America – Old white guys having money, not paying taxes, being “unafraid” to say shocking things, punching down, appealing to fear and resentment, etc., etc. How can they run against him? They can’t. None of them are really willing to take any risks to take him down, no matter how much they see that he is poison, so they’ll follow him over the cliff again…

    Nikki Haley has been trying to be an in-the-tent anti-TFG, but there’s no way she can thread the needle. A party of old white men is not going to give a non-white woman the big chair.

    We have to fight them every single day, but I like our chances in 2024 – a lot.

    “Vote Democrat in 2024 – We’re not a bunch of insane liars.”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    Layer8Problem

    @Geminid:  If RFK Jr switched his party affiliation to Republican he’d have the QAnon vote locked up.  Half of them would vote for him because he’s JFK Jr’s cousin and half of them would vote for him because he IS JFK Jr, because reasons and geometric logic.

  22. 22.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: It sounds like New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu will run. That may be part of why Hogan is passing on the race. I think Pompeo will take a shot also. My hope is that the nominating process is rancorous, protracted and expensive.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @Geminid: I had the unfortunate experience of visiting an commercial establishment that had Meet the Press on, and Sununu was on.  I believe he said he would vote for Trump if Trump won the nomination, but he was confident that there were better choices (so the Mike Pence line).  But he did sound like he was running

    ETA: NH apparently still has a 24-week abortion right even though Republicans are in control of the state, I believe, so he’s toast.

  24. 24.

    Geminid

    @Layer8Problem: I think RFK Jr. is looking for media coverage rather than votes. He’ll get more attention running as a Democrat. I worry he’ll get the wrong kind of attention, though, from homicidal nuts.

  26. 26.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: Is this the good guy Kennedy who foolishly went up against a beloved senator and lost?  Or is this the crazy anti-vac one?  I apparently cannot keep the Kennedy spawn straight.

  27. 27.

    Layer8Problem

    @Geminid:  Yup.  I sense a powerful Andrew Yang vibe off of him, desperate to have many cameras and microphones in his face and seemingly convinced that his message will bring the masses in behind him.

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: This is not the Rep. Kennedy who challenged Senator Markey and lost. Robert Kennedy Jr. had a presence as an environmentalist earlier, but for the last few years he has been known more for his anti-vaccine advocacy.

  29. 29.

    Layer8Problem

    @WaterGirl:   Crazy anti-vacc one.  He and Marianne Williamson will have their own debate, with candles and chakra adjustment and sponsored by Goop.

  30. 30.

    CaseyL

    Isn’t RFK, Jr., the anti-vax idiot?  Is he going to run on an anti-vax platform?  Jeez. Inherited his Dad’s looks and not much else.

    In Totally OT news: Some of you may remember me mentioning that I had set up my old laptop as Kitty TV for Oscar, in preparation for when I’m off on an extended trip this summer.  (There are, just in case you wondered, lots and lots of videos created and posted just for cats. Entire channels of them.) Well, he liked it well enough… until I found videos of mice doing mouse things.

    Then he became obsessed; and I mean: obsessed.

    I turn the computer off at night.  In the mornings, when we come downstairs, Oscar goes right to where the laptop is and demands it be turned on.  He spends hours trying to catch the mice, looking behind the computer to see where they went, and occasionally chattering at the screen.

    He also keeps standing on the keyboard, causing the video to stop, shrink, vanish, and/or various other glitches.  So I have to reset it.  I’ve tried putting a small flattish pillow over the keyboard which helps, but not enough.

    So one thing I’ll do today is head out to all the thrift stores I can to search for something like a miniature TV table:  a solid and supported surface to put over the keyboard that Oscar can sit or stand on, but prevents him from putting weight on the keys.

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: I also checked out Gabe Vasquez (NM-2) to see what he’s been up to. Like Rep. Budzinski, Vasquez mainly shows up on local news sites. One story that got attention was a recent visit to the Santa Teresa border crossing south of Las Cruces, New Mexico. He and Ken Salazar, the US Ambassador to Mexico, discussed the importance of trade. Mr. Salazar was formerly a Senator from Colorado.

  32. 32.

    Joy in FL

    @WaterGirl: I think that’s probably true. I remember Sylv & Larime from earlier, but not everybody will.

    I donated $25 for the match.

    My feeling is that if John or someone else credible asks, I am going to donate. I’m glad there was this offer you couldn’t resist.  Thanks, BJ Angel.

  33. 33.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @WaterGirl: Actually I think “horse face” refers to Stormy Daniels and sorry to say, it appears that coupling was consensual if also at the price of $130K.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    @Layer8Problem:

    I anticipate a lot of breathless hot takes about (1) why couldn’t the Dems stop this shitshow and (2) how dare the DNC not support a real primary and make Biden debate them.

    Some of those might not even be Russian.

  36. 36.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, TheNevadaIndependent.com:

    Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Monroe (D-Las Vegas) was elected chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party Saturday, ousting incumbent chair Judith Whitmer in a vote of 314-99 — a rebuke of Whitmer’s leadership ahead of key Senate and presidential races in 2024.

    Monroe-Moreno led a self-styled “unity” slate of candidates, touting a bid to re-form the party’s inner workings following a split between the Whitmer-controlled state party and a separate group, Nevada Democratic Victory (NDV) in 2021. All of the candidates for party office on Monroe-Moreno’s “unity” slate won on Saturday, over a competing slate of candidates led by Whitmer.

    Speaking to reporters after her victory, Monroe-Moreno said that “2024 is far too important, and the division within our party had to come to an end.”

    […]

    Good, good.

    More at the link.

    (via BlueVirginia.US)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  37. 37.

    Layer8Problem

    @CaseyL:  We’re showing our pussycat friends that those pointless human-attention-stealing devices are actually useful in their own right for important feline interests and concerns.

  40. 40.

    Layer8Problem

    @Another Scott:  ” . . . ousting incumbent chair Judith Whitmer in a vote of 314-99 — a rebuke of Whitmer’s leadership . . .”

    Rebuke? Sounds like a trouncing.

  44. 44.

    RaflW

    Yesterday was rough. Even as a comfortable gay man living in blue parts of the country, seeing open eliminationist talk at CPAC really put me in a bad place.

    But seeing (and very minorly contributing to) the quick and caring generosity of the BJ community was and is an important bright spot. Peace, y’all.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @Steeplejack:

    Actually

    Though Whitmer did earn the support of the Stonewall Democrats and several county-party leaders in rural Nevada, she also lost the support of the Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which announced it would not endorse any candidate and called the party a “dead end.”

     

    I don’t know who the Stonewall Democrats are.

  47. 47.

    RaflW

    @Another Scott: I assume Marianne Williamson is being bankrolled by ratf**kers (as well as some grassroots loons).

    To the question of petitions + signatures, does she have to get clipboards out in numbers in the primary states? I realize I don’t know how being on the ballot in early states Dem contests actually works.

    I guess in ’20, she failed to get on the debate stage after an early round because her polling sucked month-old eggs.

  57. 57.

    JWR

    @WaterGirl:

    … or hear his voice, which makes my skin crawl.

    Has his voice changed a lot in the last few years? It seems to have far less “body”, and far more scratchiness than it used to. He, and it, sound tired. (And here’s hoping it’s because of the plethora of investigations swirling around his sorry a$$!)

  58. 58.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    I think that’s a “sour grapes” statement. I thought the DSA was a big part of Whitmer’s party coup. But maybe it was DSA-adjacent red rose types.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @Steeplejack:

    Nevada seems to always have issues.  Hopefully, the new team can right the ship.

    I’m still perplexed that a Bernie person lost the support of the most important union in the state.

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    @Steeplejack: The Las Vegas DSA chapter was disappointed in Whitmer, thought she was not bold or disruptive enough. And local Congresswoman Dana Titus crushed a primary challenger who had DSA backing. So the local chapter indeed has a sour grapes attitude.

    The strategy of running candidates as Democrats is controversial within the DSA. They’ve had the most success electing members on the Democratic line in New York, where they count two Representatives and three state Senators as members. But these politicians sometimes disappoint DSA members, as when Rep. Bowman voted for funding Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system. That sparked a small crisis in the DSA, with its Palestine Commitee being dis-affilited and then reinstated by the National Committee.

    The war in Ukraine has been a stressor for the DSA as well. Tey will have lots to talk about and argue over at their biennial convention in Chicago this summer. I believe it will be held August 4-6.

  61. 61.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Union leaders are practical people, and Whitmer was a poor party leader. Governor Sisolak barely lost his reelection race last year, and he was one many Democrats who blamed Whitmer’s ineptitude for that. Some accused her of bad faith.

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    Update:  How cow, you guys, we did it!  

    We are at $15,757, which turns into a bit over $15,000 after the 3% fees come out.

  66. 66.

    WaterGirl

    Thank you to everyone who donated!  Special thanks to our BJ Angel, and to the two other angels who made angel-level donations anonymously through the GoFundMe.

  67. 67.

    BruceFromOhio

    @RaflW: I do not walk your path but I appreciate your journey. Hearing about that event got my blood boiling (which is apparently a foundational objective) and only furthers my resolve to fight these fascist bastards tooth, nail and ballot box at every turn.

  71. 71.

    CaseyL

    Topping $15K is a BFD:  Way to go, BJers!

    Kicking out the DSA in Nevada is also a great thing:  Way to go, Nevada Dems!

    This is a good Sunday.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @CaseyL: From Daniele Munroe-Moreno, Nevada State Assemblywoman and new Chair of the Nevada Democratic Party:

    Thank you, Nevada Democrats!

    This victory belongs to all of us fighting to united our Democratic family because we know how much we are capable of when we work together as one team.

    Let’s get to work!

    @Danielle4NV

  73. 73.

    gwangung

    Losing the governorship is a kinda big deal.

    I have no problem going in a more progressive direction…but you have to win elections and bring the rest of the party along with you.

    I think the DSA are forgetting the first rule of politics 101 is to win elections. Seems to me that they just fucked around and are finding out…

  75. 75.

    gwangung

    @WaterGirl: I always got the feeling that those kind of progressives have the same mindset as Republicans. They aren’t interested in governing; they’re interested in ruling. It was their way or no way, no matter how slender their margin was or is.

  77. 77.

    karen marie

    @Steeplejack: If you think CPAC is crazy, you’re going to love what the Republican AZ legislature has going on.

    It’s nonstop insanity.  Meanwhile, nothing that’s actually important – like investigating large landlords for price gouging – is happening.

  79. 79.

    karen marie

    @WaterGirl:  That we now have a Democratic governor and SoS is the only thing that keeps me sane.  All this dog shit is in committee, so we’ll have to wait and see how far any individual turd goes, but when all they’re doing is generating turds, sooner than later something ugly will get on the shoes of people who live here.

  82. 82.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    The jackals of Balloon Juice know how to deliver when someone is in need. You attract good people, John.

    Must be something about you that good people like, you ol’ curmudgeon.

  84. 84.

    mwing

    @CaseyL:  So you got your CAT addicted to the internet?
    OK that is funny.
    But as someone who is addicted to videos of people in Manila and Singapore and so one preparing humungous lobsters and etc….OK what I’m doing is basically the same as your cat? ;-)

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