Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Come on, man.

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

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

I really should read my own blog.

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

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Is trump is trying to break black America over his knee? signs point to ‘yes’.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

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

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: So Nice to Watch A President Who *LOVES* His Job

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: So Nice to Watch A President Who *LOVES* His Job

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Corny, and yet, objectively adorable:

Both Presidents seem to be enjoying themselves here…



TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: The Man *Loves* His Job

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

156Comments

  6. 6.

    p.a.

    The fact he seems to enjoy himself so is part of the reason I think the age issue won’t hold water.  If he felt the job was a drudging burden he couldn’t have the energy level he does.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    Speaking of media BS, the Axios guy on MSNBC this morning was comparing Biden “He gets up at 7 and works out” to Trump’s “Executive Time.”

    Gird your loins because the media firehose will be off the charts.

  8. 8.

    eclare

    In the photos of the president singing, the band director also looks like he is having a great time.  He’s the bald guy in the dress uniform with the gold braid.

  11. 11.

    satby

    The reason he’s such a good President is that he’s a good man and clearly loves both his job AND people. It shows in his public appearances but it also shows in the policies and legislation he pushes. It seems fitting that a man who really devoted his life to public service will be capping his working career on such a high note after his next election win.

  15. 15.

    Hildebrand

    @Baud: I was thinking of the idiotic dilettantes that are his daughter and SIL –  but, yes the orange one’s delightful interactions with youth will always be remembered with a rising gorge.

  17. 17.

    Nora

    When you look at that tweet and see the responses from RWNJ’s, it’s just disgusting.  How you could look at Biden and those kids and immediately think “pedophile” is beyond me.  Haven’t these people ever had loving adults in their lives when they were growing up?

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @Nora:

    They’re either pro-programmed bots or pre-programmed humans.  Either way, we need to learn not to treat social media commenters are real people.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    The F.B.I. carried out a search on Thursday morning at the Potomac, Md., home of Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive who was a major campaign contributor to Republican political candidates, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
    Mr. Salame, who ran FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, was part of the close circle of advisers around Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency exchange’s founder, before the firm filed for bankruptcy in November.
    Federal prosecutors have charged Mr. Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a vast fraud and illegal campaign finance scheme at FTX. He has pledged to fight the charges. Three of his former top executives have pleaded guilty in connection with the investigation and agreed to cooperate against their former boss.
    Mr. Salame has been under particular scrutiny over the $24 million in campaign contributions he made during last year’s midterm elections. In court filings, federal authorities have claimed that most of the $90 million contributed to political candidates by a handful of former FTX employees, including Mr. Salame, had been misappropriated from customers of the exchange.

  23. 23.

    delphinium

    Was talking to a friend of mine from TX yesterday and she brought up the “Biden is too old” thing (she had just seen some news stories about it). Brought up a few things to allay her concerns including the horse-race media aspect for elections and how they focus so much on negativity. She felt better after our talk and will still vote for him, but god our media/pundits are just awful.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Always true for people in media. They love to cover themselves and their industry.

    I love the Tucker Carlson defenses from people who were constantly on his show- the Tucker Carlson guest demographic. Not at all self interested.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @delphinium: I give the GOP some credit for creating their own media so they could manipulate their voters and let the mainstream media manipulate Dem voters.

  29. 29.

    Sanjeevs

    A 2018 Senate investigation that found there was “no evidence” to substantiate any of the claims of sexual assault against the US supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh contained serious omissions, according to new information obtained by the Guardian.
    The 28-page report was released by the Republican senator Chuck Grassley, the then chairman of the Senate judiciary committee. It prominently included an unfounded and unverified claim that one of Kavanaugh’s accusers – a fellow Yale graduate named Deborah Ramirez – was “likely” mistaken when she alleged that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a dormitory party because another Yale student was allegedly known for such acts.
    The suggestion that Kavanaugh was the victim of mistaken identity was sent to the judiciary committee by a Colorado-based attorney named Joseph C Smith Jr, according to a non-redacted copy of a 2018 email obtained by the Guardian. Smith was a friend and former colleague of the judiciary committee’s then lead counsel, Mike Davis.
    Smith was also a member of the Federalist Society, which strongly supported Kavanaugh’s supreme court nomination, and appears to have a professional relationship with the Federalist Society’s co-founder, Leonard Leo, whom he thanked in the acknowledgments of his book Under God: George Washington and the Question of Church and State.
    Smith wrote to Davis in the 29 September 2018 email that he was in a class behind Kavanaugh and Ramirez (who graduated in the class of 1987) and believed Ramirez was likely mistaken in identifying Kavanaugh.
    Instead, Smith said it was a fellow classmate named Jack Maxey, who was a member of Kavanaugh’s fraternity, who allegedly had a “reputation” for exposing himself, and had once done so at a party. To back his claim, Smith also attached a photograph of Maxey exposing himself in his fraternity’s 1988 yearbook picture.
    The allegation that Ramirez was likely mistaken was included in the Senate committee’s final report even though Maxey – who was described but not named – was not attending Yale at the time of the alleged incident

    theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/28/brett-kavanaugh-investigation-omissions-senate-sexual-assault-cl…

    I presume the Federalist Society made up this lie because they knew the allegations against Kavanaugh were likely true.

  30. 30.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: +1

    “Johnny, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

    “Teacher, I want to be an internet troll!”

    That doesn’t happen.  Real people don’t do that.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  31. 31.

    brendancalling

    I think the best part of the “Dark Brandon” meme is that it’s another example of the right wingers not thinking that far ahead of how their bullshit could be used against them. They’re so engaged in trying to humiliate other people that they completely fail to see how they too can be hoist on their own petard.

  34. 34.

    Scout211

    Is the tide turning?

    New legislation that would have resulted in a near-total abortion ban, or severely restricted access to the procedure, failed to pass the legislatures of both South Carolina and Nebraska Thursday, handing a major legislative victory for abortion rights activists in the two red states. Link

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I have to say I’m sort of surprised by how big a story Tucker Carlson’s firing is. It’s been all over the news for days now.

    The day after the firing, the Boston Herald (I think) had a front page screeching about the Don Lemon firing, and oh by the way Tucker’s leaving Fox. [Yes, “screeching” is a bit of an exaggeration. Pictures were of equal size, but Lemon’s was first, and the text focused on him, not Cucker.]

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @Scout211:

    With a 22-21 vote in South Carolina’s Senate, the legislation seeking a total ban on abortion was filibustered by the five female members of the chamber—three of whom are Republican.
    The women in the state Senate vociferously criticized their male colleagues for repeatedly pushing abortion restrictions, with State Sen. Sandy Senn (R) calling out the “men in the chamber” for metaphorically “slapping women by raising abortion again and again.”

    Wow.

  39. 39.

    geg6

    @brendancalling:

    I agree.  It’s exactly why I love the Dark Brandon meme so much.  It just burns MAGAs up when they see it.  I have to get a Dark Brandon t-shirt to wear while walking the dogs or grocery shopping.  It will enrage some around here, but also make others very happy.

  42. 42.

    delphinium

    @Scout211: ​
    That is great news! Good to see some Republican women are finally getting a clue and voting against these laws.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: So Nice to Watch A President Who *LOVES* His Job

    Also nice to know he’s loyal to his country and will uphold the oath of office.

  45. 45.

    SFAW

    @Kay: ​
     
    One of the replies noted that DeSantis has Ted Cruz’s charms and (George, presumably) Santos’s social skills.

  46. 46.

    James E Powell

    Hard to understand why that guy says Biden doesn’t matter. Biden has been getting pretty much what he wants, the policies seem to be working. Does he mean that the president isn’t on cable every night with some new outrage?

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    He was trying smiling for a while there (horrible) but he seems to have gone back to his natural personality- resentful and annoyed.

    It’s always interesting how a pol can be a big hit in their own state and just look terrible outside it. Probably made worse in this case because he is an authoritarian who has created a bubble of ass kissers and grifters around himself. It’s his first time out of bubble wrap. He’s so thin skinned!

  50. 50.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Nora:

    When you look at that tweet and see the responses from RWNJ’s, it’s just disgusting. How you could look at Biden and those kids and immediately think “pedophile” is beyond me. 

    Trump trash projects more than an IMAX theater.

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    Have always enjoyed his slightly off kilter approach to tech and tech related videos. The newest helpfully (and more on kilter) showcases a very clever doodad for the sight impaired.

    And contrite Frank in the usual non-topical coda is chef’s kiss.

  52. 52.

    Soprano2

    @James E Powell: Yep, I think that’s what he means. They think if you aren’t tweeting stupid stuff every day you obviously aren’t doing anything important.

  53. 53.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @geg6: I also love that it makes the Very Online people on our side cringe.  It’s also just a cool image.  Like even without knowing the context I would think “oh, I like that!”

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    It’s always interesting how a pol can be a big hit in their own state and just look terrible outside it.

    Paging Tim Pawlenty….
    ;)

  56. 56.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Saw a window sign that said “Our lives, our futures, our abortions!”  Pretty freakin’ impressive for West Virginia (though admittedly a liberal island of Morgantown)

  57. 57.

    zhena gogolia

    @geg6: I can’t wear my “DUDE GOTTA GO” T-shirt any more, although I love it (V-neck, a must for me), because I’m afraid people will interpret it as referring to Joe, so I have to get a Dark Brandon. I wish they had V-neck, though.

  60. 60.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    It’s always interesting how a pol can be a big hit in their own state and just look terrible outside it.

    You’re on to something. Rick Perry & Scott Walker. Others who may not have looked terrible but certainly failed to gain any following include Jeb Bush, Kasich, Inslee, and I’m probably forgetting some others.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    Bloomberg. John Kasich. It happens a lot. I like debates so I always watch them and I remember I was surprised that Bloomberg can’t speak extemporaneously at all. Three terms as mayor! He can’t talk.

  67. 67.

    Spanky

    In money news, Larry Summers made words:

    In an appearance before a packed theater at the 2023 Morningstar Investment Conference in Chicago, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said he isn’t “optimistic” that the Federal Reserve will be able to reach its 2% inflation target without a serious economic downturn.
    “We turned ourselves from a 2% inflation country to a 5% inflation country,” Summers said, pointing to the government’s response to keep the economy afloat during the coronavirus pandemic by maintaining low interest rates and providing an enormous amount of fiscal stimulus.
    Summers noted that it will be difficult to move to 2% amid a tight labor market, wage growth at 5%, and slowing productivity growth. “I would be surprised if we get through this and inflation is within shouting distance of 2% without there having been a recession,” he said.
    …
    In the recession he is expecting, we are likely to see unemployment reaching 6.0%, up from a current level of 3.5%, but not as bad as the 10.0% seen in some of the worst recessions, he said.
    “I would urge all of you to be careful in the equity markets,” Summers told the crowd, noting that earnings estimates and multiples on the S&P 500 aren’t “building in a recession.” The bond market, on the other hand, is “looking for six or seven rate cuts.”

    I’m treating Larry Summers’ predictions with the respect they deserve. Happy days are here again.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: “misappropriated” doing a LOT of work there

    It never occurred to me that businesses would outright steal from their clients so that they could funnel money to GOP nut job candidates but that’s just a failure of imagination on my part.

  70. 70.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Nora:

    How you could look at Biden and those kids and immediately think “pedophile” is beyond me.

    I clicked on the Zeddy tweet where he retweeted an Axios screed about how Biden was only available from 10 to 4 on weekdays, which in turn garnered a flood of Biden dementia comments. Twitter really seems to have been taken over by Trump bots on most people I casually follow. And they obviously consider rage posting at 6 am a sign of hard work.

  73. 73.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: DeSantis has rarely appeared outside the con-media bubble for the entire time he’s been governor. The few times he has, he freaks out at typical reporter questions just like he did in that clip, and his entourage claps like trained seals, as if his irate, paranoid bluster is a righteous burn instead of a petty, thin-skinned melt-down that should embarrass any adult.

  74. 74.

    Layer8Problem

    @Jeffro:  This particular business actually went out of its way to flout generally accepted business and accounting practices.  “People shovel money at us, because crypto!  We keep our books in QuickBooks, and SBF is still in “Forbes 30 Under 30!  We can do anything we want, buy anything or anyone we want!  Lawyers and accountants are meaningless!  This merry-go-round will never stop!!!”

    Then it did.

  75. 75.

    Jeffro

    Btw folks Jamelle Bouie has a really good piece up in That Paper, about Roberts placing himself and SCOTUS entirely separate from our system of checks and balances:

    Although the three branches of the American government were designed to be coequal, the structure of the Constitution tells us something about the relative power of each branch, as envisioned by the framers.

    Article I establishes the Legislature. Article II establishes the executive branch. And Article III establishes the federal judiciary. It is true that the branches share powers and responsibilities. But it’s also true that the framers trusted Congress — the representative branch — with far more authority than it did the president or the Supreme Court.

    Congress makes laws. Congress spends money. Congress approves the president’s cabinet and says whether he can appoint a judge or not. Congress structures the judiciary and Congress sets the size of the Supreme Court and the scope of its business.

    The upshot of all of this is that when Congress calls, the other branches are supposed to answer — not as a courtesy, but as an affirmation of the rules of the American constitutional order. The modern Congress might be weak and the presidency might be, against the expectations of the framers, the center of American political life, but it’s still newsworthy when a member of the executive branch says he or she won’t meet with the Legislature.

    As one of the architects of this development in American politics, Roberts is essentially using this letter to make plain to Congress the reality of the situation: I will not speak, and you cannot make me. And he’s right, not because Congress doesn’t have the power, but because it doesn’t have the votes. In the absence of a majority of votes, the Senate Judiciary Committee cannot subpoena a justice. In the absence of 218 votes, the House cannot impeach a justice. And in the absence of 67 votes, the Senate cannot remove a justice.

    There are steps Congress could take to discipline the court — shrinking its budget, reducing the scope of its docket, imposing ethics rules itself, even making it “ride circuit” à la the 19th century — but those require a majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate because of the filibuster, as well as a consensus among lawmakers (and specifically, Democrats) to follow through if they ever have the chance to do so.

    It is not especially dramatic, but this exchange with Chief Justice Roberts over the court, its ethics and its responsibility to the public and its representatives has done more than almost anything else in recent memory to illustrate a key reality of American politics in this moment: that our Supreme Court does not exist in the constitutional order as much as it looms over it, a robed tribunal of self-styled philosopher-kings, accountable to no one but themselves.

    I feel like Ds would be wise to make a big deal out of this and push for some real accountability here.  This kind of obvious corruption makes people mad, is impossible to defend, and it’s one more thing (as if we needed one more thing) working against our democracy.

    Or to put it another way: if this was a Dem-appointed Chief Justice and a Democratic majority on SCOTUS, and they told a GOP-led Congress to eff off, you can be sure the right would be absolutely beside itself.

  76. 76.

    Suzanne

    lol these dopey pundits are so horse race pilled the idea “what if normal people don’t want to think about this shit all the time” just cannot occur in their brains

    This is so true.
    More than even a left/right bias, I think the worst bias in the media is for dramatics and narrative arcs. Stuff happens, but it isn’t always connected, and it doesn’t want to tie up nicely. But they want everyone to tune in to the next episode of Game of the Resolute Desk.

    I still remember snarking on CNN and the missing plane. Good God.

    They just cannot fathom that most people DGAF.

  77. 77.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Kay: DeSantis’ petulant whining is like a mosquito in your ear. It goes on even as you try to swat it away.

  78. 78.

    Ocotillo

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:   I am surprised to see that and how popular he was with his viewers.  For the life of me, I cannot see the appeal of him as he comes off as an arrogant entitled rich kid with 0 personality.  I know his views are repugnant and the audience loves that but don’t they have some right wing schlep with moxie to foist that on the base.

  79. 79.

    Scout211

    Oh oh. You don’t make Nora Roberts angry. Everyone knows this.

    FAFO Florida county officials.

    Unreal: A Florida county just banned eight books by NORA ROBERTS from school libraries, due to objections from one right wing activist. Under the guise of targeting "pornography," the book bans are getting uglier."All of it is shocking," Roberts told us:t.co/zaMHoQrzaS— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 28, 2023

    This Florida county has removed eight Nora Roberts books from the shelves. As @ThePlumLineGS and I found when we investigated, 7 of the 8 books end with a marriage proposal. Seems like…traditional values!And yes, it's the local Moms for Liberty rep driving the ban effort. t.co/pjR7W3kT1x— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) April 28, 2023

  80. 80.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Jeffro:

    It never occurred to me that businesses would outright steal from their clients so that they could funnel money to GOP nut job candidates but that’s just a failure of imagination on my part.

    The SCOTUS has just ruled in the hallmark case, Garland vs. FTX, that stealing money to donate to GOP causes does not infer an inkling of impropriety and is exactly as our founding fathers intended.

  81. 81.

    Geminid

    @Sure Lurkalot: Republicans thought DeSantis looked good on the showroom floor. Then he went out for his test drive, and the wheels are wobbly and the radiator’s boiling over.

    This foreign tour is ostensibly to promote Florida trade, but it’s kind of like DeSantis is checking off a bucket list. He stepped in one bucket in Japan, now he’s stepped in another one in Israel. I wonder which bucket he’ll step in when he gets to the UK. “Fishy” Rishi, the PM, has already passed on meeting DeSantis. The PM has enough problems already.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    No self control.

    This is better than I had hoped, BC. I thought “no way they have oversold this creep that much”. Yup.

    My husband, who is basically a normie, told me months ago- “have you heard him speak?” I had not.

  85. 85.

    Ken

    I’m trying to guess which right-wing idiot* will be first with “Democrats don’t want kids to work, but look at these pictures of Biden with the Secret Service kids.”

    * “All of them, Katie.”

  86. 86.

    Warblewarble

    Major media went all in with fluffing desantis, his wretchedness needs to be hung about their necks.

  87. 87.

    ARoomWithAMoose

    @Betty Cracker: This, lil’Ron was an unknown before the 2018 governors race, he’d earlier been elected to the house in 2012 for a mostly rural district that encompasses the Ocala National Forest and Palm Coast.  Once governor, he’s “benefited” from the Florida capital being fairly remote from any of the other urban areas.  I think our crappy lege gets away with a lot for the same reason, operating mostly out of sight, despite the sunshine laws.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    I know I’m supposed to say “fools and their money!” or “sucker born every minute” but I knew all of this was a scam and it bothers me when people lose or waste money, even if they are horrible “bros” or whatever. Such a waste. A lot of them are smaller investors so they had to earn it and FTX just piled it up burned it on the sidewalk.

    I hope the powers that be take this one to trial and don’t let them off with a fine or a plea deal. Let’s see some perp walks. It’ll help restore faith in the justice system.

  89. 89.

    Jeffro

    @Sure Lurkalot:stealing money to donate to GOP causes does not infer an inkling of impropriety and is exactly as our founding fathers intended.

    (raises hand)

    “Excuse me, Chief Justice Roberts, but I have ‘Major Questions’ here…”

  91. 91.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Baud:

    Biden “He gets up at 7”

    Ugh I want a president who’s relatable

    ”and works out”

    OMG who voted for this monster?!

  92. 92.

    Cameron

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah, I remember when he flipped out on those high school students because they were wearing masks.  It made him look bad!  What an asshole.

  96. 96.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: with DeSantis turning out to be a bust, I wonder which of the other GOPers could even step in at this point, and then I realized it doesn’t matter: trump will skewer them, and if he loses the nom it’ll be because it was “rigged”, and he’ll tell his people to stay home and and and and and.

    They’re just completely screwed until trump keels over.  I hope he lives to 100.

  97. 97.

    gene108

    @Kay:

    What the executives at FTX did was criminal. Any business run like FTX would be staring down criminal charges.

    The only plea I can think of is the people under indictment pleading guilty to get a reduced sentence.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    Maybe they don’t care. They can wait four years and run w/out an incumbent and Trump will have lost and will be contesting his 2024 loss. 2028 is better for them. If DeSantis was smart he would have waited and maybe worked on developing a personality and learning facial expressions.

  99. 99.

    Steve in the ATL

    @JAFD: there’s a subdivision in Atlanta named “Arbor Woods”.  Perhaps you could educate real estate developers as to what “arbor” means?

  102. 102.

    gvg

    @Kay: There is also a male GOP senator who says he promised his daughters. and another male GOP senator they didn’t explain. This is a conception ban though, they passed a 6 week one that their House won’t take up so I guess it’s an incremental too far.

  103. 103.

    indycat32

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I haven’t read her for years but aren’t her books sickly sweet romance novels?  They scream the same thing about every book they want banned, and I guarantee they couldn’t point to anything close to pornography in any of them, if they’ve read them, which they most likely haven’t.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @gene108:

    I read an interview with Sam Bankman-Fried after the crash. He doesn’t seem to understand the concept of “theft”. He said he was “long on” Altameda, like that was the problem or the issue. He stole their money. It doesn’t really matter where he put it. I wonder if he gets it yet or if his brain is such a blizzard of his own bullshit that he can no longer understand simple concepts like “stealing is bad”.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @gvg:

    Oh, I agree. They’re just trying to come up with something a court in their state will allow. It will be a draconian abortion ban- just not a 6 week ban.

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    @geg6:

    I agree.  It’s exactly why I love the Dark Brandon meme so much.  It just burns MAGAs up when they see it.  I have to get a Dark Brandon t-shirt to wear while walking the dogs or grocery shopping.  It will enrage some around here, but also make others very happy.

     

    Us turning Dark Brandon on its head and making it a positive thing for 46 will always make me happy.

  109. 109.

    JWR

    Just heard T***p say that it was time to retire the Crooked Hillary line and instead use it to refer to Crooked Biden, (or Crooked Joe?) Whatever it was, his imagination for nasty nicks is truly boundless bonkers!

  110. 110.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Two things

    Just asking…what’s your take on the conservatives trying to come for No-Fault Divorce?

     

    and, are they going to pass that thing in Ohio, trying to raise the percentage that voters have to approve of something from 50% +1 to 60%?

  111. 111.

    gvg

    @Kay: Florida has off year Governors elections. He is term limited. That means he will have been out of office for 2 years, out of the news…not sure that would be good for him. Of course these days a Presidential campaign does start 2 years in advance, but still..he was expected to try for one of the Florida Senate seats or something, which there isn’t known to be an open one. And Scott hates him it is said.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I don’t know if they’ll pass it in Ohio or not. There’s a lot of steps. They just outlawed August special elections so first they have allow them again (not kidding- they JUST outlawed them in January).

  115. 115.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    I saw in the paper (headline) that an Ohio House clerk believes Republicans only need 59 votes instead of 60 to set an August election. Didn’t read any further. Also, the Secretary of State, LaRose, basically threatened any Republican pol voting to oppose this in the guise of “there’s a lot of people in this state that want this done and voters would punish pols standing in the way of it.”

    It infuriated me, that the Secretary of State, someone who is supposed to safeguard voting rights, would be so for restricting them as he is

  122. 122.

    Kay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    You know how down I am on Ohio but even I am starting to get the sense that Business Republicans think the lurch far Right has gone too far. Rampant corruption isn’t actually good for business. They need a state that functions and one where they don’t have to pay bribes to sleazy GOP pols to operate.

    They’re almost apologetic to me at the Republican Lawyers Club events I go to (what I call our local bar group). I personally am moving to Michigan but my middle son will still be in Toledo so I still have skin on the game :)

  124. 124.

    Jackie

    @Kay: OMG! Does he think nobody in the US will see this? I’m shocked he was able to control himself and NOT throw himself down into a full-blown temper tantrum.🤦🏼‍♀️

  127. 127.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

     

     I personally am moving to Michigan but my middle son will still be in Toledo so I still have skin on the game :)

     

    You and the hubby are retiring, Kay?

  129. 129.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for US?

    @delphinium: It is ridiculously over the top. My only explanation is much like the Academy of Motion Pictures and movie critics love films about the movie industry, news orgs love covering news about the news/journalists. Even though Fucker wasn’t actually a journalist they just can’t stop talking about him.

  130. 130.

    Scout211

    @JWR: From the NPR article you quoted. Seems to check out.

     

    Grossberg began working at the show in September 2022, moving over from Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. In her suit, Grossberg describes an environment at Fox News that “subjugates women based on vile sexist stereotypes, typecasts religious minorities and belittles their traditions, and demonstrates little to no regard for those suffering from mental illness.”

  131. 131.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Good article from the inestimable Ms. Petri on the Supreme Court’s “ethics.” (Gift link)

    Sample (in the voice of the putative Supreme Court):

    So to please you people, we’ve been looking into having a code of conduct. We looked so hard but ultimately found that … we did not want to. Maybe the real ethics code is in our hearts. Maybe an ethics code is more of a journey than a destination. Not the kind of journey we would need to disclose, the other kind.

  132. 132.

    Ken

    @Scout211: Fox News […] demonstrates little to no regard for those suffering from mental illness.

    The on-air talent and guests being the obvious exceptions.

  133. 133.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Biden is old is this cycle’s Hillary’s emails, Al Gore wears earth tones, Kerry has a weird foreign born wife.

    Somehow Rs are given a pass on everything up to straight up treason by these dudebros of the media.

  134. 134.

    CaseyL

    @Scout211:

    Grossberg describes an environment at Fox News that “subjugates women based on vile sexist stereotypes, typecasts religious minorities and belittles their traditions, and demonstrates little to no regard for those suffering from mental illness.”

    Took a long time for it to bother her – oh, wait, that’s right:  It didn’t bother her until it personally affected her. SSDD.

  135. 135.

    HumboldtBlue

    That redhead has gotta be a Psaki.

    @Baud:

    That was Jim Vandehei, he is not liking the ratio to his tweet linking to his drivel.

  136. 136.

    JWR

    @CaseyL:

    Took a long time for it to bother her

    Well, not really that long:

    Grossberg began working at the show in September 2022, moving over from Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.

  139. 139.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Baud: check the loading dock at the Glendale store.  Or maybe he’s lost in Joshua Tree park with a dead flash and no more memory cards….

  140. 140.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kelly:

    My books are overwhelmingly about teenage girls defying authority and having fun doing it, and the main character of two of the most recent books has a boyfriend and a girlfriend.  Not to mention the holocaust analogy book where religion is used to justify slavery and genocide.  If these people find out I exist they’re going to die of apoplexy.

  142. 142.

    sdhays

    @Suzanne: I agree. I’ll concede that dramatics are at least understandable – they’re exciting! But the pathological need to stuff any event into the pre-defined narrative (or forget about the event if can’t be stuffed) is both lazy and toxic.

  148. 148.

    cain

    @gvg: term limited? Given that the Florida legislature will do whatever for DeSantis – I can imagine them passing something that would help him extend him for another term.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @satby:

    This. Joe is doing the job that he likes because he likes actual humans. He’s shown this many, many times over the decades. That he doesn’t like ugly statuettes like little ronnie or SFB, is a major plus on his side of the ledger. He’s good at his job. He’s not FDR or JFK but then he’s not trying to be them. He’s being himself. And that is more than good enough.

  151. 151.

    JBWoodford

    lol these dopey pundits are so horse race pilled the idea “what if normal people don’t want to think about this shit all the time” just cannot occur in their brains

    On the one hand, yeah. Lots of people don’t want to think about this shit all the time. On the other hand, the US is in this current mess because of bunches of (usually white) people not thinking about this shit at least some of the time.

  152. 152.

    Ruckus

    @Nora:

    Haven’t these people ever had loving adults in their lives when they were growing up?

    Likely not. I can’t say that loving adults is an oxymoron but I’ve known quite a few people that would never use that term about their parents. Maybe not hateful but loving? Demanding, deciding, but loving? Also remember that quite a few decades ago, living was harder, work was most often physically harder, and most everyone worked many more hours doing everything. Take something simple, like laundry. Not everyone had access to a washing machine, at least not one like a current machine, and a dryer? When I was a kid a washing machine was a tub, with a manual wringer to get out most of the water and a clothesline to hang them on to dry in the sun. Winter time washing was just a bit harder in many parts of the country. And the list can go on. And on and on. And that’s just running the home, work was often a lot harder. How many people do you see digging ditches these days? When I was a kid most everything was manual labor. Now little is. Sure there still is manual labor, but a lot of decades ago, almost all of it was.

  153. 153.

    Joey Maloney

    @Nora: How you could look at Biden and those kids and immediately think “pedophile”

    If you are one. Every accusation, a confession.

  154. 154.

    Ruckus

    @James E Powell:

    He says that because he doesn’t want Joe Biden to matter. He says it because Joe Biden is getting shit done. He says it because normal humans like Joe Biden because he’s getting shit done for them, not the rich and getting richer. He says it because Joe Biden is a good and decent man, and he isn’t.

  155. 155.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    his brain is such a blizzard of his own bullshit that he can no longer understand simple concepts like “stealing is bad”.

    He makes a point of not understanding. Because if he does “understand” that could be called knowledge that he’s conning everyone. Either that or he really is an idiot. Possibly it’s both…

  156. 156.

    steve g

    NYT: “He will instead leverage the White House to burnish his record.”

    Yes, the true motivation for Biden to get up and go to work each day is to burnish his record. What else could possibly matter? And he will indeed leverage the White House to do so, taking unfair advantage of his position to get more burnishing done. He is headed toward a very burnished record indeed.

    The NYT is just not happy at all that Biden is not on the campaign trail already. How can they have a horse race if he is just going to hang out at the White House burnishing his record all the time?

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