Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

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

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

We still have time to mess this up!

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

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

People are complicated. Love is not.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The revolution will be supervised.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Reality always lies in wait for 
 Democrats.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Not all heroes wear capes.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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Monday Evening Open Thread: Proud to Be A Democrat

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108Comments

  1. 1.

    patrick II

    NYC criminal courts acquitted 41 (not a typo) of ~63k arrests in 2021.

    So, he has a chance then?

  2. 2.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    How is it that they don’t get that if a Democrat commits a crime, we don’t want them in office? The disconnect is so revealing.

  3. 3.

    Kent

    Although I don’t think this is a political partisan prosecution at all.  I do like the split screens we will have over the next weeks and months of Biden visiting factories and touting blue collar jobs, while Trump screams about how fraudulently writing off your porn star hush money payments as tax deductions is not a crime.

  5. 5.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Baud:

    I mean, there is a reason I stopped donating to your Pants-Free for America PAC.

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I wonder if Our Willard is proud of his niece.

    Speaking of which: Has the would-be president who ran a platform of Obama being weak and feckless said anything about the outlaw he (to his credit, unironically) voted twice to impeach and remove and permanently bar from public office being indicted? The only decent statements from Republican I’ve seen were from Murkowski and someone named Asa Hutchinson.

    (just double-checked to see if Asa was the Hutchinson who was one of the managers during Clinton’s impeachment, he was. His brother Tim was in the Senate at the time)

  10. 10.

    hells littlest angel

    I’ve suddenly realized that rather than being the laugh riot I had been expecting it to be, The Persecution And Crucifixion Of Saint Donald Trump is quickly going to degenerate into just another annoying and tedious season of a sitcom that should have been cancelled years ago.

  11. 11.

    Ken

    as we watch Donald Trump’s limo drive on the fdr this is unprecedented.

    Do the words “white Ford Bronco” ring any bells?

    Oh, wait, they were referring to a President being arrested, not to the media circus around a car driving down an expressway.

    Well, yes, the President being arrested is unprecedented, but — and I feel we can’t point this out often enough — it’s never been necessary before.

  12. 12.

    SpaceUnit

    I’ve been applying the Hillary Correlation to this ugly little affair.  What would the Republican reaction sound like if Hillary had funneled money from the Clinton Foundation to hush up a sleazy romp with a male porn actor and illegally deducted it as a legal expense?

    The Repubs in Congress would sound like a couple hundred howler monkeys getting simultaneously shot in the ass with a pellet gun. TFG would be leading the Lock Her Up chant at one of his rallies / moronfests. On Fox they’d be calling it a national disgrace and the biggest scandal in all of American political history, and David Fucking Brooks would take to the pages of the New York Times to explain that because of Hillary’s stature she must be held to the highest ethical and legal stands and that any hesitation to indict would represent the gravest of moral hazards.

    Fuck em all.

  15. 15.

    Roger Moore

     NYC criminal courts acquitted 41 (not a typo) of ~63k arrests in 2021.

    That’s an impressively small number, but it’s the wrong denominator. You can bet a fair percentage of the people arrested were let go without ever being charged. The correct number to look at is the number of acquittals as a fraction of the number of prosecutions.

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    Mirror universe Camelot.

    I know what the people are thinking tonight,
    As home through the shadows they wander.
    Ev’ryone smiling in secret delight,
    They stare at the penthouse and ponder.
    Whenever the wind blows this way,
    You can almost hear ev’ryone say:
    .
    I wonder what the dolt is doing tonight?
    What messaging is the dolt pursuing tonight?
    The gilding on the walls, it never shined as bright.
    I wonder what the dolt is up to tonight?
    How goes the final hour
    As his face is in a glower
    Is he legally or feebily prepared?
    Well, I’ll tell you what the dolt is doing tonight:
    He’s scared! He’s scared!
    .

  18. 18.

    Baud

    The number of people out in the world commenting on the strength of the legal case without having seen the indictment much less the evidence is pretty astounding.

  19. 19.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Ken:

    it’s never been necessary before.

    I seriously doubt that. Reagan’s admin ran a coke operation for fuck’s sake, we’ve just never had the political will to call out the perfidy of that asshole and his cohort of assholes. Hell, George Bush (dipshit version) led us to an illegal invasion and started an unnecessary war that lasted 20 years, and that smug little fuck still enjoys front row seats to Rangers games.

    No criminal proceedings happened, but they are as hell were needed to happen if we had any sort of justice and accountability for rich white folks.

  22. 22.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: would trump and his lawyers have seen the indictment, or do they have to wait, too?

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Republicans love criminals and Democrats never break the law.

    Somebody has his blinders on. It doesn’t happen as often, but it does happen and the most notable thing is how quickly we turn on them because nothing pisses us off quite like having our trust betrayed. I doubt very much anybody outside of STL and environs knows the name Steve Stenger, but I was screaming about that corrupt piece of shit for years before the FBI finally arrested him.

    How obviously corrupt was he? A month after his arrest he pleaded guilty. I doubt very much a county DEM shed a tear at his long overdue demise.

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    How rude. Right in the neighborhood and couldn’t take the time to visit Weisselberg.
    //

  27. 27.

    Ken

    @Baud: The internet allows anyone to become an instant subject matter expert. We learned this during the pandemic, if not earlier.

  28. 28.

    Ken

    @HumboldtBlue: I should have been clearer that it’s arresting a president that’s not happened before. As you say, there have been plenty who should have been indicted.

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly: Remember Rod Blagojevich? Democrat, crook, literally tried to sell Barack Obama’s old Senate seat.

    Yeah, it wasn’t a Democrat who commuted his sentence, it was Trump.

  35. 35.

    bjacques

    @Ken: I was kinda hoping Trump’s plane would never take off, but instead he would just taxi all the way up I-95, pursued by F-16s also on the ground.

     

    The Crucifixion of Donald Trump Considered as a Downhill Hoverboard Race


  36. 36.

    NotMax

    OT.

    Discovered my phone modem is deader than Franco. No lights on it even after attempted reboot and moving the plug to a different outlet.

    In no great rush to replace it. Will be at the cable company offices to pay the monthly bill anyway on either Saturday or next Monday.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Matt McIrvin: ​ I also remember William (?) Jefferson, D congress critter from Louisiana who was busted with a freezer full of cash. I’m sure there are more I can’t recall from relatively recent history. Somethings never change: Power corrupts. The limiting factor has always been the moral standards of the people involved. I could also bring up some obvious election fraud committed by a long time DEM power family on the near south side of STL but I don’t feel like googling it.

    Besides, time for me to take care of the evening chores.

  42. 42.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I can’t believe I’m only seeing today that trump admitted his motivation for stealing all those documents on live television

    Jack E. Smith @7Veritas410h
    “I have the right to take stuff”
    “They ended up paying Nixon $18 million for what he had
”

    Admission of crimes and intent to commit more crimes. 

    Funniest thing is Hannity sensing danger and trying to stop trump from confessing. The biggest surprise of the Dominion revelations, to me, is that Hannity is in on the con at Fox. I always figured him for a true and sincere meathead in the mold of his viewers.

  43. 43.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: We’re in a “post fact world”. It’s all about “the vibe”, Baud. You need to add a “Baud Vibe” Influencer to your campaign communications platform.

  49. 49.

    Ken

    @Baud: I guess it’s good that some Republican broke the ice.  Maybe more will find the courage to stand up to Trump.

    I love your sense of humor.

  54. 54.

    twbrandt

    @OzarkHillbilly: and there was Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned for fraud and racketeering. Trump inexplicably commuted Kwame’s sentence on his way out the door in 2021.

  56. 56.

    Roger Moore

    @bjacques:

    I was kind of hoping Trump’s plane would accidentally wind up in Russia instead of New York and we’d be rid of him for good.  I guess I didn’t count on his feeling of impunity; he really doesn’t believe he could actually wind up in prison over this stuff.

  57. 57.

    eclare

    @Baud:   That was a topic on Morning Joe this morning.  No one knows either how strong or how weak the case is.

  61. 61.

    trollhattan

    Still winter.

    A cavalcade of winter storms have pushed California to an all-time high. State water officials on Monday announced the deepest snowpack ever recorded across the Sierra Nevada using automated sensors, edging a mark that stood for four decades and tied with a 1952 record that was conducted manually.

    Average statewide snow water equivalent was 61.1 inches as of Monday morning, according to automated measurements by the Department of Water Resources. That is 237% of California’s average for the date and 235% of its average for April 1, the state’s typical yearly peak for snowpack. The latest mark surpasses the winter of 1982-83, when the snow water equivalent reached 227% of the April 1 average. Sean de Guzman, snow survey manager for the Department of Water Resources, said this past winter’s snowpack is the deepest recorded via snow sensors, which California began using in the early 1980s. Manual snow surveys in the state date to 1910, de Guzman said, and only three prior years have been recorded at more than double the April 1 snowpack average: 1952, 1969 and 1983.

    This year’s snow water equivalent, based on preliminary manual surveys, was 237% of the April 1 average. Additional manual surveys will continue for a few more days, which will allow for more direct comparisons to the 1952 high point, de Guzman said, which was also 237%. “As of right now, it’s looking like this year’s statewide snowpack will probably, most likely be either the first or second-biggest snowpack on record, dating back to 1950,” de Guzman said as he revealed results Monday at Phillips Station near Echo Summit following the survey.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/water-and-drought/article273902625.html#storylink=cpy

    Feel free to water the pansies.

  62. 62.

    Ruckus

    @Ken:

    it’s never been necessary before.

    Are you sure? I mean yes, it’s never been obviously this necessary before this but NEVER necessary? I’d like to believe that but we have had republican presidents before in my lifetime who seemed to maybe have been less than reasonably honest and possibly guilty.

  65. 65.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    promoting job employment is divisive

  66. 66.

    karen marie

    Is Eli Lake unaware of the 1990s and the Clinton administration?

     

    Christ, what an asshole.

  67. 67.

    Matt McIrvin

    @eclare: Trump thought his conviction was “unfair”. That kind of behavior is just being smart in Trumpworld.

  68. 68.

    Ruckus

    @trollhattan:

    1969 was a standout year. I have a picture of a buddies car in Mammoth one morning that the snow was about 2 ft on the top of his car and about that blocking the entire side, with the drivers door opened after we dug it out. We had a friend whose dad lived there so we got to go fairly regular.

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    I’ve never been a Lanny Davis fan, but I’m glad he’s all over TV pointing out that Michael Cohen did time for the same fucking crime that Trump did. It makes the basic fairness of these charges simple to understand.

  71. 71.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: were all of Cohen’s charges trump related? the tax evasion, for instance? if so, maybe trump will be charged with that too.

    Also, as I recall and understand (NAL), prosecutors wouldn’t give the judge a favorable sentencing recommendation for Cohen because they thought he was holding out on his own taxi medallion scam, which had nothing to do with trump.

  72. 72.

    Jeffro

    @narya: I know this may sound odd, but I’m glad Hutchinson is running for the GOP nom.

    1) that party DESPERATELY needs the contrast between ‘trump’ and ‘remotely normal’

    2) Hutchinson running will give f&$%ing No Labels pause in trying to run their own 1%-loving figurehead candidate.

    3) If all else fails, I am not terrified of the prospect of a President Hutchinson the way I would be from all the other mini-trumps.

    3)

  73. 73.

    Citizen Alan

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    Seriously! Anthony weiner was bounced out of office within, IIRC, 72 hours of him being credibly accused of sending an unwanted dick pic! Franken famously got bounced for putting his hand either on a woman’s hip or the small of her back while they were having their pictures taken together

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    @twbrandt: just like with the Blago pardon, trumpov thought he might be able to confuse/divide the Dems as well as set a precedent for pardoning corrupt politicians.  Hmm I wonder why the latter was important to him?

    He’s dumb, but he’s canny in his own corrupt way.

  75. 75.

    Ohio Mom

    @twbrandt: I have trouble believing Trump thought of pardoning Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick himself. Whose idea was that?

    Kwame Kilpatrick is someone I forgot all about until your comment. Then it all came back. Such a wierd sensation, when you remember something you didn’t even know you forgot. Everything really is in your memory, somewhere, even if you can’t retrieve it.

  77. 77.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Two interesting points I just heard on the latest Jack Podcast episode:

    1.) Allison Gill pointed out that one of the investigatory seeds that sprouted into this Stormy Daniels hush payment indictment comes to us (at least in part) thanks to the work of the Mueller Investigation.

    2.) Andy McCabe noted that while Fani Willis and Jack Smith would never coordinate their actions with Manhattan DA (which would border on corrupt), seeing Bragg pull the trigger can make their jobs easier as they get the benefit of seeing things like how the public and Trump reacts to indictment, which will likely give them even greater confidence in moving ahead with the Fulton County and Federal charges.

  79. 79.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Patrick II:

    NYC criminal courts acquitted 41 (not a typo) of ~63k arrests in 2021.

    So, he has a chance then?

    About 1 in 1,540, maybe 1 in 1,535 – depending on whether that ~63K is rounded up or down.

  80. 80.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Republicans once again are addressing the really important stuff:

    Three senators in North Carolina have introduced a bill into the local legislature that would ban participation trophies for children.

    “Youth sports or other youth recreation activities operated under the authority of a local government shall not include awards for participants based solely on their participation in the

    sport or other activity,” the proposed bill said. “Awards provided in connection with the activity, if any, shall be based on identified performance achievements.”

    The senate bill—catchily named “An Act to Prohibit Awards In Youth Recreation  Activities of Local Governments Based Solely on Participation”—would amend North Carolina’s General Statutes to include the ban. It’s sponsored by Republicans Tim Moffitt, Bobby Hanig, and Eddie Settle.

    Hatred towards participation trophies is an ancient conservative meme. It’s typical for kids in the U.S. to get a bit of plastic or scrap of ribbon at the end of an event or game. The idea that kids should get trophies or ribbons simply for participating, and not winning, has been a popular source of anxiety and concern for 100 years. Literally.

    An op-ed in an Ohio newspaper from 1922 decried the practice of handing out trophies to anyone who showed up to play in a high school basketball tournament. Since then, comedians have mocked the practice, pundits have bemoaned how it is weakening the youth, and now a group of politicians in North Carolina are trying to ban the practice.

  81. 81.

    twbrandt

    @Ohio Mom: Those of us who have lived all of our lives in SE Michigan can’t forgot about Kwame, try as we might :)

    Now that he’s out of jail, he’s a pastor (well, “pastor”), which I’m sure will be a lucrative grift for him.

  83. 83.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: No idea. Cohen was sleazy as fuck, so it’s entirely believable that he was doing side crimes too, but he was definitely convicted and punished for crimes on behalf of Individual-1.

  84. 84.

    Gvg

    @OzarkHillbilly: there are exceptional circumstances. Remember “vote for the crook, it’s important” and he won. He was arrested a few years later but Davis Duke was NOT elected. Sometimes you have to be clear eyed about your choices. Doesn’t mean you like them or are fooled.

  86. 86.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    RE: I can’t believe I’m only seeing today that trump admitted his motivation for stealing all those documents on live television

    “I have the right to take stuff”
    “They ended up paying Nixon $18 million for what he had
”

    Yeah. It is amazing. I always thought that Trump believed that he could just keep presidential papers. But I thought that he would mainly show stuff off at his various properties, to show how important he used to be.

    But it makes sense that he is always looking to make a buck out of his time as president.

    What a slimeball.

  87. 87.

    Elizabelle

    With the photos of the Biden visits:  the bright blue and yellow, as in the Ukrainian flag, leaps out of the photos.  I guess we might just be primed to see it now.

    Biden.  Fighting for democracy and justice in our country.

  89. 89.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Ken:

    Do the words “white Ford Bronco” ring any bells?

    Good thing you phrased it that way.  If you’d said “slow white Bronco” I might’ve thought you were talking about John Elway.

  90. 90.

    lowtechcyclist

    @SpaceUnit:

    I’ve been applying the Hillary Correlation to this ugly little affair.  What would the Republican reaction sound like if Hillary had funneled money from the Clinton Foundation to hush up a sleazy romp with a male porn actor and illegally deducted it as a legal expense?

    The Repubs in Congress would sound like a couple hundred howler monkeys getting simultaneously shot in the ass with a pellet gun. TFG would be leading the Lock Her Up chant at one of his rallies / moronfests. On Fox they’d be calling it a national disgrace and the biggest scandal in all of American political history, and David Fucking Brooks would take to the pages of the New York Times to explain that because of Hillary’s stature she must be held to the highest ethical and legal stands and that any hesitation to indict would represent the gravest of moral hazards.

    Truth. Every word.

    Fuck em all.

    Seconded.

  91. 91.

    Geminid

    Those North Carolina legislators are fighting a battle that was lost years ago. I remember when right wing radio commentators were going on and on about “participation trophies.” It was a big fad.

    And then they stopped. I think the word went out that parents thought this was stupid, that their kids liked the trophies and were none the worse for receiving them. I suspect this legislation won’t make it out of committee.

  92. 92.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Geminid: The parents are usually the ones who want every one to get some sort of prize or symbol of recognition.  We don’t do trophies for my tennis camps, but if every kid didn’t get a prize at some point during the week of miserable, 90+ degree heat days, I guarantee parents would be pissed.

  105. 105.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ramalama: “Why should you go to jail for a crime that someone else noticed! Call Bob Loblaw!”

    only good thing Chachi ever did.

  106. 106.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Yeah. I know that Trump’s claims that he could take stuff was bullshit. But that’s who he is. An angry, entitled slimeball.

    I also don’t think that he was smart enough to find the Nixon case. Some defective staffer or attorney did a crappy research job and Trump ran with it even though it absolutely did not apply.

  107. 107.

    Origuy

    @trollhattan: There are still parts of California that have water limitations. Monterey Peninsula is not connected to the State Water Project. They are limited to ground water and the Carmel River, mostly.

    San Luis Obispo, likewise, only gets water from three reservoirs.

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