Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

The willow is too close to the house.

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

Republicans don’t trust women.

No Justins, No Peace

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Republicans in disarray!

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

We still have time to mess this up!

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Nothing worth doing is easy.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Afternoon Open Thread

Monday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 139 Comments

This post is in: 

Happy Indictment Week to all who celebrate!

I might worry that saying that could jinx something, but when they’re already setting up the barricades, I think it’s safe to assume this is real.

Nice to see NY planning ahead!

Please please please.

Open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  1. 1.

    cain

    From a man who once had a great conversation with an empty chair:

    “Go ahead, make my day”

  4. 4.

    Benw

    Happy Indy Week to you as well, WG!
    Tomorrow, the Tuesday of Indy Week, the ghost of Elliot Ness will leave manilla folders with candy and goodies under the traditional Indy Gavel, set out on Indy eve by the excited children!

  5. 5.

    Dangerman

    Gag order? Only way he shuts up will be the Tunch at the Vets treatment pic from about a week ago.

    ETA: Not saying I’m against TFG getting hogtied, blindfolded, and gagged.

    ETA: Just reviewed the photo. Tunch’s voluminous white butt kinda reminds me of TFG, actually.

  7. 7.

    Old School

    Google tells me the police union endorsed Trump rather than NYPD.

    I can’t find anything about Trump being honored as “Man of the Year.” Did he make that part up?

  8. 8.

    Renie

    I read it will be either tonight or Wednesday.   Someone also said Manhattan DA normally does indictments Monday and Wednesday.  Hope it doesn’t happen tomorrow so trump looks ridiculous since he’s been saying Tuesday.

  9. 9.

    Hungry Joe

    Gotta be prepared, but I expect little, if any, resistance from MAGAsses. They’ve seen their fellow goons busted and sentenced for 1/6, and the promise of a Trump pardon is 1) meaningless for NY state charges, and 2) meaningless because, well … Trump.

  11. 11.

    Ken

    @Dangerman: Not saying I’m against TFG getting hogtied, blindfolded, and gagged.

    And spanked with a rolled-up Forbes magazine, if I’m correctly recalling what Stormy Daniels said.

  12. 12.

    bbleh

    A big part of his appeal to his followers is this I-can-do-anything-I-want-I-dare-you-to-stop-me schtick.  And the best way to puncture that balloon is not to rise to any bait he throws out (and he’s throwing out a LOT) and proceed methodically with your own agenda on your own timetable.  So far pretty much everybody who’s considering prosecuting him seems to be doing more or less that, and that — and especially the federal investigation — has been widely reported to have him increasingly rattled.

    Let him bluster.  And let him surrender quietly and be ROR’d.  All I want is a copy of the mugshot.

  16. 16.

    different-church-lady

    I’m hoping to someday be rich enough to fund my own district attorney.

  21. 21.

    Dangerman

    @Ken: I’m just amazed that the Jerkle’s Boner was to bone her.

    ETA: Sorry, Merkle, to compare you to Trump. You were a NY Giant. Nothing about Trump is giant. OK, maybe his Tunchian Ass.

  27. 27.

    Mike in NC

    Fat Bastard can never resist using that stupid, “ME! Your FAVORITE President” bit. Here’s hoping he gets tazed for resisting arrest tomorrow and publicly shits his pants.

  29. 29.

    oldgold

    I am hoping Jack Smith is learning from this.

    On the documents case, he needs to run silent, deep and at warp speed towards indictment.

    The Republic may depend on it.

  32. 32.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Everyone here is reading that all caps rant the way I am, right?  “You and me is buddies, ain’t we, NYPD?  You wouldn’t let the DA prosecute your buddy Trump, right?”

    If he thinks as ‘mafia boss’ as everyone says, then what he’s actually asking for might be for the NYPD to threaten the DA for him.  Does that sound right?

  35. 35.

    Scout211

    FOR A CRIME THAT DOESN’T EXIST

    What an idiot.

    “The crime that I haven’t yet been charged with doesn’t exist.”

    LOLOLOLOL

    🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿

  36. 36.

    rikyrah

     

    Maurice W (@iamMauriceW) tweeted at 10:22 AM on Mon, Mar 20, 2023:
    Did you know-network refused to have Franklin, the Black Character, in the Peanuts T.V. Show. Charles Schultz’s fought back & won. However with the Thanksgiving Special, network demanded Franklin sit at servant table, Animators instead sat him alone opposite all other characters

     

    Maurice W (@iamMauriceW) tweeted at 10:30 AM on Mon, Mar 20, 2023:
    According to Charles Shultz wife, he didn’t find out what they had done to Franklin until it was completed and ready to air.   It was never his idea to give Franklin a bootleg chair and sit him on one side of a table alone…It was the studio, network and animators. https://t.co/m8XDYVhTg0
    (https://twitter.com/iamMauriceW/status/1637839040274657283?t=gKE41Gvnq-ZFhjefhBVDfg&s=03)

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    Well dang, ladies.  Rupert Murdoch is off the marriage market, again.

    Springtime for ….  The sprightly 92-year old is engaged to a 66-year old widow, whose previous husband also accumulated media properties.  Rupert is divorced from Jerry Hall, his bride of 2016.  This will be marriage #5.

    To quote the intending bridegroom:

    “We’re both looking forward to spending the second half of our lives together,” said Murdoch, who turned 92 earlier this month.

    Oh puh-leez let that math be way off.   WaPost link, but not a gift link.  I value you all too much for that.

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    Michelle_BYoung (@michelle_byoung) tweeted at 10:23 AM on Mon, Mar 20, 2023:
    Collins is actually downplaying what a disaster replacing VP would be. It’s not just that Harris personally doesn’t deserve that kind of insult, it’s the Black base of the party doesn’t deserve it & if they think Blk women in particular who do the lions share of party organizing

    Michelle_BYoung (@michelle_byoung) tweeted at 10:25 AM on Mon, Mar 20, 2023:
    2. Would stand idly by & carry on this work while the historic VP is replaced for no reason they got another think coming. It’d be party suicide, a self inflicted mortal wound that’d take generations to recover from.
    ……………………..

    shadowhikari (@shadowhikari2) tweeted at 0:02 PM on Mon, Mar 20, 2023:
    They don’t realize, by entertaining and voicing this talk at all, they’re de facto insulting the base of BW voters. Like if y’all can’t see how racist and sexist it is to be doing this for the first female and non white VP even if it never happened, idk what to tell you.

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    Does anyone know how arresting a suspect works in a normal case like this? From what I’ve read, it sounds like the most likely charge is falsifying business records or something like that. If NY charged a former resident now living in FL who was NOT Trump, what’s the process? Would the NY cops demand that the suspect return to NY to face charges, issuing an extradition order or whatever if he refused to surrender on an agreed-upon date?

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah:   Hey there.  Who is the “Collins” who has the ridiculous idea to replace MVP Harris?  (ETA: Is it Gail Collins of the FTF NY Times?  Susan is the first that always comes to mind, but I don’t see her saying anything that stupid.  In public.)

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: What I have read is that Trump will NOT be arrested – unless he refuses to turn himself in.

    If he turns himself in, he will be photographed and arraigned and charged and fingerprinted and all that, but not actually ARRESTED.

    The question remains – is Trump so stubborn / fearful of being arrested that he will actually be the cause of his own arrest?

    Magic 8-ball says it’s quite possible.

    edit: Apparently Trump’s lawyers want to make arrangements to do it all by zoom so he doesn’t have to go to NY.  If that is allowed, it’s a clear message, and a bad one for the country.

  59. 59.

    Karen S.

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I saw the video of this yesterday. Made me so happy. Just goes to show that these anti-drag weirdos no nothing about drag queens and LGBT folks. We know how to fight because a lot of us have had to all our lives.

  63. 63.

    mvr

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     They would likely offer an opportunity (via his lawyers) to show up in court for arraignment with the alternative being they go through legal process to ensure his appearance, including extradition if needed.

  67. 67.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    Apparently Trump’s lawyers want to make arrangements to do it all by zoom so he doesn’t have to go to NY. If that is allowed, it’s a clear message, and a bad one for the country

    Why is it bad for the country? That it would look like the DA got cold feet by not having Trump appear in person in NY? That Trump would be given special treatment?

    Lawyers of BJ, how likely is it the NYC DA would allow this?

  70. 70.

    Elizabelle

    @Old School:   How disappointing.  Brent Stephens’ prion disease is migrating to her, perhaps.

    That’s Bedbug Stephens.  Jackass.  He also apparently thinks the economy is heading off a cliff, so — not the time to raise taxes (“pick people’s pockets”, in Stephens’ view) And it is just raising taxes on the rich that is under consideration, no??   Again.  Jackass.

  72. 72.

    Math Guy

    I look forward to him being indicted, but I am not certain that he will be convicted in this case. On the other hand, I think Fani Willis is going to nail his fat @$$ to the wall.

  74. 74.

    Alison Rose

    @Old School: Some of this is also stemming from an interview where Elizabeth Warren said something kind of lame about Harris.

    In a local Boston radio interview in late January, Warren was enthusiastic about President Joe Biden running for reelection but, asked if Biden should keep Harris as his running mate, she said, “I really want to defer to what makes Biden comfortable on his team.”

    Apparently she’s tried to call Harris to apologize, but like…E-Dub, I love you, but that was a shit thing to say.

  75. 75.

    rikyrah

    TRUTH

     

    Olayemi Olurin (@msolurin) tweeted at 10:31 AM on Sun, Mar 19, 2023:
    Please stop letting people with college degrees and the jobs and opportunities they got as a result of those college degrees, tell you that college is not worth it.

     

     

    Shannon (@kcshannonlee1) tweeted at 3:43 PM on Sun, Mar 19, 2023:
    Are men or women saying that?  Men can do manual labor or drive a truck and make a living straight out of high school.  Women without an education beyond high school usually only have an opportunity to work for poverty level wages.
    (https://twitter.com/kcshannonlee1/status/1637555516187758592?s=02)

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    @Josie:

    Who are the delusional numnuts that are pushing to replace Harris?

    The usual suspects.  There has been a concerted push by “concerned” people that Harris will hold back Joe’s reelection chances.

  78. 78.

    Scout211

    When you have money, you and your lawyers think you are above the law.  In fact, if you have the money, you can file motion after motion and then file more motions in order to discredit the judicial system. They are getting desperate and that means aggressive, apparently.

     

    Lawyers for Donald Trump launched a broad attack on a Fulton County criminal probe into election interference in Georgia, arguing in a court filing on Monday that the conduct of the prosecutor, the judge and a special purpose grand jury tainted the investigation.

    The former president’s legal team asked a judge to quash the final report of the special grand jury, which has recommended indictments connected to meddling in the 2020 election by Trump and his allies.

    They are also demanding the DA’s office be recused from pursuing the case.

    . . .

    The motion — filed by Trump’s Atlanta-based attorneys, Jennifer Little, Drew Findling and Marissa Goldberg — requests that any evidence derived from the special grand jury’s final report be “suppressed as unconstitutionally derived and any prosecuting body be prevented from its use.”

    The aggressive legal offensive from Trump’s team showed they were not planning to wait and see whether the former president would be indicted in Georgia. They are seeking to severely damage — and perhaps shut down — an investigation that heard testimony from about 75 witnesses, including some of Trump’s closest aides and confidantes.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @Alison Rose: She actually seems to have a bit of a habit of putting her foot in her mouth.  Doesn’t happen often, but it does happen periodically.

  83. 83.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Josie:

    Who are the delusional numnuts that are pushing to replace Harris?

    Pundits, and all their pundit friends say Just Not This Black Woman, so obviously it’s a major sentiment in the Democratic Party.  After all, their pundit friends are all political experts, right?

    @rikyrah:

    the idea of a Black guy running a Swiss bank was so abhorrent they pushed him out.

    The Obama-Trump phenomenon.  They thought they would be fine working for a black man, until he was good at it.

  86. 86.

    Geminid

    From a Politico article about the House Republican retreat in Orlando:

        House Republicans are back in a familiar position: as Donald Trump’s political defensive line….

    The chamber’s new Majority had hoped to use its three-day confab to talk up its agenda for the next two years. Instead they’ve been inundated with questions about the former president’s weekend announcement that he is expecting to be arrested on Tuesday.

  88. 88.

    Alison Rose

    @Baud: To be fair, if I were a politician (LOLOLOLOLOL) I’d put my foot in my mouth every day mostly because I wouldn’t be able to keep myself from swearing. But yeah, I wonder if some of it is left over from her pre-politics days. Sometimes when she goes off, it’s beautiful. Other times…no.

  93. 93.

    Betty Cracker

    @WaterGirl: & @mvr: Thanks! Maybe it would be best for the country if Trump holes up at Disgraceland hoping that a “MAGA moat” of supporters who surround the place (as has been proposed by online nutters) prevent his arrest and extradition. That would maximize the Trump buffoonery and put DeSantis in an untenable situation, so win-win maybe?

    @Alison Rose: It was a boneheaded comment, but I read somewhere that Warren released a statement clarifying that she’s 100% behind Biden-Harris and didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I also read something (at The Hill maybe?) saying the two had dinner recently (not just Warren and Harris but a bipartisan group of women senators who meet with Harris occasionally at the VP’s residence) and put it behind them.

  96. 96.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Dangerman:

    ETA: Not saying I’m against TFG getting hogtied, blindfolded, and gagged.

    I’d pay good money to see the Anger Yam with a Hannibal Lecter mask over his yap, being wheeled around trussed up to a furniture dolly. A gold-plated furniture dolly, cuz he’s special, doncha know.

  99. 99.

    Dangerman

    @Math Guy: I’m concerned a jury in Georgia will hang. Doesn’t matter if he’s guilty. Can you imagine the payday if some MAGA fuck hangs the jury 11-1?

    Not as likely in NYC.

  101. 101.

    Roger Moore

    @Betty Cracker:

    It was a boneheaded comment

    It could have been a badly worded support for Biden.  What she probably meant was to support whomever Biden wants as his running mate, rather than to show lukewarm support for Harris. To be completely fair, it was an obnoxious move on the part of the interviewer; they’re the one trying to drive a wedge between Biden and Harris by not treating them as a unit.  An experienced politician like Warren should be able to respond better, but make no mistake about what’s really going on here.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    The chamber’s new Majority had hoped to use its three-day confab to talk up its agenda for the next two years. Instead they’ve been inundated with questions about the former president’s weekend announcement that he is expecting to be arrested on Tuesday.

    Sounds like they were saved from people learning about their agenda.

  104. 104.

    Baud

    @Roger Moore: I agree.  I don’t know of any reason she would have a problem with Harris.  And it is not a responsible topic for serious reporters.

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:

    It’s not just the Black base that would be pissed off.

    This old white fart would be plenty pissed off.

    She is a good VP and I think she would make a great president. I thought enough of her that I voted for her in the CA primary for president and I’m very glad that Joe Biden chose her as his running mate.

  111. 111.

    trollhattan

    Man of Courage, speaks.

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, when asked about rumours of former President Donald Trump’s impending indictment, denounced the man in charge of the investigation, New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

    What the man who might be Mr Trump’s most formidable presidential rival said next, however, was telling.

    “I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” he said. “I just I can’t speak to that.”

    He went on to mention “porn star hush money payments” a second time, before pivoting back to criticism of what he called a “high-profile politicised prosecution” by someone he said was backed by deep-pocketed liberal donor George Soros.

    The Florida governor seemed to go out of way to emphasise the tawdry origins of the potential crimes being investigated, even while denouncing the investigation itself.

    That could be a sign of how Mr Trump’s presidential rivals handle a possible arrest and criminal trial for falsifying business records and state campaign finance law violations.

  113. 113.

    Ruckus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    First it would set a very bad precedent.

    Second why the hell should he get special privileges? He is a citizen like unlike most other citizens, he is accused of violating a rather serious law and there is a procedure, and he has zero excuse not to show up. Hell he owns his own plane. Or he can be flown up to NYC by the PD, in handcuffs. Go easy, go not so easy, his choice. But the not so easy way is the completely stupid way, so it’s at least even money that he’ll refuse and have to be extradited.

  114. 114.

    Matt McIrvin

    @rikyrah: It’s so foolish. I think a lot of these people just look at poll numbers, compare X and Y and imagine candidates can be swapped in and out with zero transaction cost. But it doesn’t work that way. You don’t just shaft a huge chunk of your base with zero cost.

  119. 119.

    Betty Cracker

    @Roger Moore: I agree Warren meant no harm — she responded clumsily to a dumb gotcha question. From what I’ve seen, very few Democrats took the conflict bait, which is heartening.

  121. 121.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: Many of these anti-Harris agitators are just trying to make trouble for the Democratic Party. Joe Biden is a tough target right now, so they try to undermine VP Harris, or Secretary Buttigieg.

    Some are just amoral pundits, trying for clicks. Others self-describe as “progressives; they resent elements of the current Democratic coalition and would like to reshape it in their image. Kamala Harris is in their way, both now and more importantly, in the future. So they’ll try to undermine her at every opportunity.

    I used to call these ostensible allies “conditional Democrats.” Now I just call them Copperheads.

  122. 122.

    Elizabelle

    @Geminid:  Copperheads.

    Shitheads works too.

    Why would they think we would take advice from Copperheads/Shitheads (take your pick) who would not vote for the Democratic ticket if you paid them?

    I think a lot of these pundits and political reporters just interview each other.  And Republicans.  (In many cases, I repeat myself there.)

    It’s just clickbait, with the intent of undermining the Democratic party and its voters.

  123. 123.

    stinger

    @rikyrah: This kind of speculation is malarkey. Have they met Joe Biden? He would NEVER replace Harris while she’s healthy and wants the job. He picked her in the first place for reasons that have not since changed. And he’s kept her deeply involved in domestic administration and foreign policy. She’s his running mate.

  124. 124.

    trollhattan

    @Geminid: ​Think this is correct. Find/create then exploit division wherever you can. They do not care who or what, just that it has an effect.

  125. 125.

    stinger

    @Elizabelle:

    I think a lot of these pundits and political reporters just interview each other. And Republicans. (In many cases, I repeat myself there.)

    This made me laugh. Twice!

  126. 126.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: I can understand why folks might question whether Harris has the political chops to win a presidential race and/or why people think this country is still too racist and sexist to elect Harris president. I don’t necessarily share those anxieties, but those are opinions I can understand. What I don’t get is why anyone thinks Harris is an enemy of progressive policies. I consider myself a liberal progressive, and I’d describe Harris that way too.

  127. 127.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @trollhattan: Yup, it’s the usual suspects who do nothing but shit on the Dem Party and look for reasons to abandon our coalition (if they are ever even a part of it).

  129. 129.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Josie: Paul Campos on LGM is the one I’ve directly seen floating the idea of replacing Harris. I recall he opened by talking about how old and decrepit Biden is, which is a recurring theme with him, but it was kind of disturbing how that led immediately to replacing Harris who is by no means old or decrepit. I think the reasoning was along the lines of “if he dies we’ll have to deal with her lower poll numbers.”

  131. 131.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: That’s how I would describe Harris too. But I’ve observed a lot of resentment on the part of some people on the “Left” towards Black Democrats in general. Some of this comes out of Twitter wars with the assertive K-Hive and their allies. But a lot of it comes from the 2020 primaries, when Black Democrats voted in large numbers for the more moderate candidate.

    Personally, I think the reason Black people voted that way wasn’t because they were relatively conservative, but because they were very pragmatic and realistic. They had to be. Black people had a whole lot riding on the outcome in November, and they knew it.

    I think that most White liberals who started out rooting for a “more progressive” candidate came around to the position taken by the majority of Black Democrats. But there was a hard core of very sore losers, and they still take their bitterness out on the Vice President.

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid: The Bernie primary crowd seemed to hate Harris almost as much as they did Warren.

    And there was the “she’s a cop” line of attack, portraying her as a law-enforcement authoritarian. There were specific beefs concerning her prosecution of sex workers and something about denying gender-affirming care to prison inmates.

  134. 134.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Ruckus: Right there with you. Unless Harris comes out and says “you know, I’d rather go do something else” she has 110% of my support as Veep in 2024.

  135. 135.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Ruckus: I might consider it if they stated that Trump was so infirm and weak that he couldn’t manage the trip to NYC to testify for a few hours and/or would require so much medication that his testimony would be in doubt. Maybe then.

    But otherwise – nah, he’s gotta do the ‘everyone is equal under the law’ thing.

    @Matt McIrvin: The “gender affirming care” thing was particularly stupid. Basically, Harris set up a process whereby inmates could get care at state expense. But it was hard to get into and had to be justified, so it only had a few people in the program every year. As opposed to before, when they got nothing. Some on the left wanted to pretend this meant Kamala was anti-trans.

    I hope those fuckers feel bad about lying about her. Especially she caught so much crap for being a black woman who enthusiastically agreed to use people’s preferred pronouns.

  136. 136.

    sab

    I am a tax preparer trying to work remote and it sucks. I will be 70 next years. Lots of experience, but time to give it up.

    Remotely, fifteen minute tax returns are taking me more than an hour. Eats up my employers’ profits completely. I have to sign on to my laptop. Then I have to sign on to the VPN. Then I have to sign on to my particular computer in the office. All of these sign ons take an inordinate amount of time. Then I have to sign on to our tax software, which takes forever. So eventually, if I am lucky this all works out. But mostly it doesn’t. So I timed out on something along the line.

    Eventually I have to get someone in the office to reboot my computer so I can start again. But nobody is there late at night or on weekends. And daytime hours I believe there are too many people on line so it is pointless.

    Handing my office keys in after this season. Too old with too high blood pressure to do this any more. Sad because otherwise I like tax prep. Puzzle solving. Plug the data into the right hole.

  138. 138.

    artem1s

    @Roger Moore: ​
      It’s also a round about way of questioning Biden’s age and fitness to serve too. “Whatever will we do if he dies and SHE becomes the nominee for POTUS?”

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