Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The willow is too close to the house.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

“woke” is the new caravan.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

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

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Republicans don’t trust women.

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

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Go Whitehouse! (Open Thread)

Go Whitehouse! (Open Thread)

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Earlier this week as a member of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Whitehouse laid bare the forces behind the corruption of the highest court in the land. Today, as chairman of the Budget Committee, he tore into House Repubs for threatening to default on the national debt, detailing Repubs’ massive hypocrisy:

Whitehouse is good at his job. I wish we had dozens more like him in the Senate.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  1. 1.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    Sen. Whitehouse must have an eye on his namesake. Not this cycle, of course.

    Or maybe he’s just good at his job.

  2. 2.

    Redshift

    Despite the old saw about the Senate being difficult for presidents to work with because they all believe they deserve his job, I think a lot of the most effective senators are ones who aren’t thinking about moving up, and understand they already have a damned important job.

  4. 4.

    FastEdD

    Pick your poison. This is what happens when unserious r’s are given the power to wreck everything. I would think their mega-rich benefactors would lose a gagillion dollars and put pressure on them.

  5. 5.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Ken: The idea that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will at one or more times take action to save an imperiled US Constitution

    I’m not saying never, but… a lot would have to change.

  6. 6.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Redshift: Oh, I’m with you. But he didn’t arbitrarily choose to be named Whitehouse, there must be something to that name.

  7. 7.

    Kelly

    I voted today. All local boards school, water, fire. Mostly unopposed except for one right wing nut case running for school board. First clue she’s a nut case is she listed an endorsement from Oregon Right to Life. For a school board? I discovered Oregon has an organization, Mom’s Union, which appears to be about book banning and public money for private schools. Website is discreetly vague.

  8. 8.

    BR

    Has anyone at ProPublica or elsewhere dug into Kavanaugh’s finances yet? How the debts disappeared and where such crazy debts even came from?

  9. 9.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Kelly: she listed an endorsement from Oregon Right to Life. For a school board?

    I don’t suppose this is an organization dedicated to stopping gun violence?

    As if you need to answer…

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    @Redshift: I’m old enough to remember when it was considered rare for senators to make the jump from the Senate to the White House, as in, it hadn’t happened during my lifetime!

    (Not that it was better back then — we had a lot of shitty governors/VPs who rose to the presidency, including Nixon, Reagan and Bushes I and 2.)

  11. 11.

    StringOnAStick

    @Kelly: I turned in our ballots yesterday.  I’m thankful for the ballot guide left by the D party last week so I didn’t have to figure out which school board candidates are the stealth nutjobs.  I do know that one school board R nutjob has campaign signs all over town with his first name obviously misspelled!   “Christohper”; sure does seem like the ability to properly spell your own name and be able to read it should be a basic qualification for school board.

    In Redmond there’s a guy running for school board who is a loud and proud wingnut who marched in a confederate soldiers uniform in the last July 4 parade and has no kids in school.  I hope he loses but with Redmond you can’t be sure he will.

  12. 12.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @StringOnAStick: sure does seem like the ability to properly spell your own name and be able to read it should be a basic qualification for school board.

    Kindegarteners should have a say in their own education.

  15. 15.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    Guuuuyyyyssss,come on. My name isn’t Christopher, it’s Christohper. Kris-tō’-per

    Emphasis on the toe.

  16. 16.

    Kathleen

    OT, and I have no Twitter Embed Fu, but good news:

    US Justice Dept has won full or partial convictions in 100% of its Jan 6 jury trials.  Every. Single. One. Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews)

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: Yep. I remember when Obama ran, some people said he didn’t have a chance because no senator had been elected since JFK…

  20. 20.

    Another Scott

    @BR:

    Here’s that Whitehouse guy again: Newsweek.com (from March):

    In 2016, Kavanaugh reported in a financial disclosure owing between $60,004 and $200,000 in credit card and loan debt. But, as reported by Mother Jones, when he was nominated to the Supreme Court that debt had gone.

    In 2018, The Washington Post was told by a White House spokesman that Kavanaugh had built up debt by “buying Washington Nationals season tickets and tickets for playoff games for himself and a ‘handful’ of friends” alongside home improvements.

    The spokesman said that the payments for the tickets were made at the end of 2016 and paid off the following year.

    The sources of debt were later confirmed by Kavanaugh during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

    Questioned by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Kavanaugh added that he had “not received financial gifts other than from our family which are excluded from disclosure in judicial financial disclosure reports.”

    As reported by Mother Jones, while Kavanaugh did not spell out exactly how all the debt was paid off, his considerable family wealth was a relevant factor that may explain how at least some of the debts were addressed.

    Most of the speculation about how this debt was settled hinges on the fact that Kavanaugh hasn’t clarified all of the specifics, apart from the friends who paid him back for baseball tickets.

    Claiming that the debt “disappeared”, however, feeds the unsubstantiated and unevidenced theory of something nefarious going on.

    More at the link.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    Dan B

    @FastEdD: Au contraire, there are billionaires who love buying up things at bargain basement prices in a recession.  They do not notice that they won’t be winners if the dollar is abandoned as the default currency.  They are successful but not wise people.

  24. 24.

    laura

    NO POWER WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY!

    If the majority of the highest court in the land do not intend to operate within the law and a basic standard of ethical behavior, why should anyone else?

  25. 25.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kathleen:

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation:

    As great as getting these people are, most of them are fairly small fish, even people like Tarrio, right? As our Adam Silverman said a few nights ago in a Ukraine thread, if the organizers are allowed to go unpunished, 1/6 will instead be treated as practice and they won’t make the same mistakes a second time. He also didn’t seem very optimistic they would be held accountable

  26. 26.

    JML

    @trollhattan: no, Ford was in the House (which normally would be a much bigger leap, but he only became President after being name VP) never in the Senate.

    for a long time it was considered easier to go from the state house as a governor to the White House because of the challenges of standing out as 1 of 100 as a senator…plus the issue of potentially having to take unpopular votes. Governors come with the same base of support but don’t have voting records and get to stand in front during a crisis like a flood or earthquake. the rules seem to have changed.

  27. 27.

    Kelly

    @StringOnAStick: Here in rural, red, Marion County my choice is often a between an old school Republican and a nut case. I always vote even on the unopposed races. About 15 years ago wing nuts took over over water district board with a stealthy write in campaign organized by a local nut case pastor. District serves just over 1,000 households. The infrastructure dates from the 1950’s and 1960’s. One of the reservoirs is 20,000 gallon wooden tank built in the 1950’s. That and a lot of other stuff is due for replacement which will require bonds. Bonds are opposed by the wingnuts who seem to believe the water system is a geologic feature created by God. Anyway they managed to make a surprising mess administering a simple system. Old school Republicans kicked them out in a couple years. We finally passed a bond issue after the system RAN OUT OF WATER during the 2020 Beachie Fire.

  29. 29.

    Jeffro

    @FastEdD:I would think their mega-rich benefactors would lose a gagillion dollars and put pressure on them.

    It seems like the problem is, the House GOP (at least, the folks who really crack the whip) are beholden to a) a handful of extremely rich RWNJs who are fine with taking a hit if it damages Biden and b) Mammon.

    The non- or not-completely-RWNJ business crowd, I don’t know why they’re not speaking up.

  31. 31.

    Another Scott

    @BR: What gets me about it is:

    There’s probably nothing nefarious about it.  $100k in home improvements and $5k for game tickets would do it.

    But, they seem to feel that they’re entitled to refuse to answer sensible questions like whether they’re accepting anything of value from anyone outside their family.  And that anyone asking them questions is part of Hillary’s and Soros’s Cabal.  That’s the problem.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  32. 32.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Dan B:

    They do not notice that they won’t be winners if the dollar is abandoned as the default currency. They are successful but not wise people

    Then it sounds like the solution to this mess, if it comes down to it, is for Biden to ignore the debt ceiling to save these people from themselves (and us) and continue issuing debt (the 14th amendment argument)

  33. 33.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):  Yep, this is a good time to be negative.  Well played.  How does one roll up a large scale criminal conspiracy?  By starting low and working up.  That’s what’s happening.  But do look for a reason to be disappointed.  If you look hard enough, you will always find it.

  34. 34.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jeffro:

    The non- or not-completely-RWNJ business crowd, I don’t know why they’re not speaking up.

    I’m guessing they believe that cooler heads will ultimately prevail like in 2011 and that this is all just political posturing. Then again, I saw a chart where default swaps were far higher than they had been in 2011, which shows at the very least the market thinks this will come down to the wire

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    @trollhattan: Yep! I don’t count LBJ either because although he was famously The Master of the Senate,* he was VP before becoming prez.

    * BTW, has anyone seen the documentary about Robert Caro, his editor Robert Gottlieb and their famously antagonistic relationship? I’m curious about it but afraid it might be triggering! ;-)

  37. 37.

    Ken

    @Kelly: Bonds are opposed by the wingnuts who seem to believe the water system is a geologic feature created by God.

    I see some similarity to antivaxxers. Our ancestors got to live (or not) with measles and polio epidemics, so rapidly accepted vaccines. Now we’ve had several decades without large-scale epidemics, so people have no personal experience

    Likewise, if water’s always come out of the faucet when you turn it, you don’t appreciate how awful it was when it didn’t.

  40. 40.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The small fish were supposed to line up behind trump when he was to waltz into Congress and announce that National Guardsmen were at this very moment rounding up the ballots in swing states and a recount would follow. “Until the recount is finished, my friends, these proceedings are adjourned.” Because of disagreements among Sydney Powell, Juliannie, and Byrne, among others, and because trump failed to show up at the Capitol, it didn’t  go as planned. See “Dress Rehearsal” by Fintan O’Toole, NY Review of Books, January 19, 2023, pp. 16 – 18.

  41. 41.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Freemark: There is also the fact a bad economy gives them POWER over the uppity serfs.

    Always has been and always will be more important than raw numbers on a ledger.

  42. 42.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Is that what he said?

    Think of your own namesake. Does Goku get lost to despair? Does Goku say we can’t do it?

    I’ve dealt with my iwn depression long enough to know it isn’t enough to say “buck up.” But you may want to develop habits to keep your thought process more…constructive.

    For me that was meditation.

  43. 43.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    I remember when Obama ran, some people said he didn’t have a chance because no senator had been elected since JFK…

    Yeah, the problem with generalities like that wrt the Presidency is that the sample space is so small.

    There were only eight Presidents between Kennedy and Obama, and two of them had inherited the office when the previous occupant’s term ended more abruptly than normal.  And even one of the remaining six (Nixon) had been a Senator, it just wasn’t the most recent office he’d held before being elected President.

    Here’s one that’s held up well, though: who was the last President who’d been the veep candidate on a losing ticket?  It’s been quite a while.

  44. 44.

    Quiltingfool

    Betty Cracker, thank you for posting the video.  I could listen to Senator Whitehouse every day and twice on Sunday!

    That man does not mince words.  Wicked smart (say this with a Boston accent) he is!

  46. 46.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    if the organizers are allowed to go unpunished, 1/6 will instead be treated as practice and they won’t make the same mistakes a second time.

    The ‘this is just a trial run’ prediction has rarely turned out to be true.  For example, we did not have ICE-based government troops trained in Portland stationed at nationwide voting locations to make it impossible for minorities to vote.  As godawful as the Citizens United decision has been for Democracy, it sure did not turn into a well-oiled funding machine pointed in a single direction.

  48. 48.

    Roger Moore

    @Betty Cracker:

    I remember when Obama ran, some people said he didn’t have a chance because no senator had been elected since JFK…

    Considering he was running against another Senator, something had to give. There aren’t enough elections to find a lot of valid patterns, especially because the way elections happen is constantly changing.  Just as an example, 2008 was the first election under the modern primary system that didn’t include either the sitting president or vice president.  There were literally only 3 elections in the 20th Century that didn’t involve the sitting president or VP, and the last one was 1952.  Conditions back then were so different from 2008, it’s kind of silly to try to base predictions for 2008 on 1920, 1928, and 1952.

  49. 49.

    Cacti

    Having been abroad for about 6 months now, it reminded me of how little I miss US domestic politics. Not that my current home is without its problems but I view them through the lens of an outsider, so it hits differently. Time away from the US has been like a reprieve from a dysfunctional home and family.

    Being away brings into focus how toxic a lot of it was.

  51. 51.

    Dan B

    OT: Florida is on the verge of implementing legislation that would allow the state to seize any children who are getting, or might get, gender affirming care.  It’s likely to be tied up in court because of the unconstitutional nature of denying care and patient confidentiality but it’s going terrify trans kids.  It’s already terrifying LGB parents and kids because guess who’s next?

  57. 57.

    trollhattan

    @Dan B:

    They’ve gone from “seize the day” to “seize the children”? Worst sequel ever.

    New Florida Department of Child Seizure must necessarily be helmed by somebody named Putin.

  58. 58.

    Gin & Tonic

    Proving what a good judge of political character I am, I met Whitehouse in a very intimate setting when he was first running for Senate (like a dozen people in someone’s home.) I asked him a couple of questions and thought he came off as a lightweight.

  59. 59.

    Roger Moore

    @JML:

    Governors come with the same base of support but don’t have voting records and get to stand in front during a crisis like a flood or earthquake. the rules seem to have changed.

    There are so few Presidential elections, it’s hard to figure out a reasonable set of rules.  To add to that, the presidency is such a high-stakes election you’re more likely to encounter weird, one-off things that affect the outcome and make predictions based on past elections suspect.

    As an example, consider Perot’s effect on the 1992 election.  You have to consider how a strong third party candidate could affect the election dynamics, but there are only a handful of other elections with strong third-party candidates to consider.  Ultimately, there’s no such thing as a typical presidential election.

  61. 61.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Dan B: Florida is on the verge of implementing legislation that would allow the state to seize any children who are getting, or might get, gender affirming care.

    Needs clarification. Does the parent have to be complying in seeking gender affirming care? Does the child simply need to make an offhand remark about their feelings? Do they have some method of policing thought?

    Sounds like just another vaguely worded authoritarian law to be administered subjectively against the wrong sorts.

  62. 62.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Cacti:

    A lot of vibrant cultures down there and beautiful scenery. The closest I’ve ever come to South America was eating Hispanic food and high school Spanish classes lol.

    I took 4 years of HS Spanish and I can’t remember half of what I learned lol

  63. 63.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, Swiatek (Poland) is crushing Kudermetova (unflagged/russia) in the Madrid Open tennis tournament at the moment.

    6:1

    6:1

    I wonder if there’s a tiny bit of national pride involved here…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  66. 66.

    Suzanne

    I know the coronation isn’t until the weekend, but can we get a thread to snark on the Most Upper-Class Twit of the Century and his garbage heap of a wife?

  67. 67.

    BlueGuitarist

    @lowtechcyclist:

    who was the last President who’d been the veep candidate on a losing ticket?  It’s been quite a while.

    is FDR the only losing VP candidate to be elected president?

  68. 68.

    Spanky

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I asked him a couple of questions and thought he came off as a lightweight.

    He was. He had no experience as a Senator. I doubt there are too many people that are effective Senators they day they arrive. There are too many who are never effective, as it is.

  69. 69.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Suzanne: I don’t know anything about the queen consort, but thems fightin’ words. You ready to throw.down with royalty?

  70. 70.

    Dan B

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation:  Joe My God has a post with most details.  It sounds as though getting puberty blockers is enough but it’s worded broadly enough that anyone could accuse parents of helping a child get treatment and the burden of proof would fall to the child’s parents.  It sounds like a means for Christianists to harass liberal families.

  71. 71.

    Spanky

    @Cacti:

    I’m thinking once I call it a career, I’ll probably retire somewhere down here.

    I knew a guy who retired from here in the DC area a few years ago and moved to a place in Ecuador with a view of the Pacific. He had a survivable heart attack a few months later, but died because they couldn’t get to a hospital.

    Choose wisely.

  72. 72.

    Spanky

    @Suzanne:

    can we get a thread to snark on the Most Upper-Class Twit of the Century and his garbage heap of a wife?

    You’ll have to be more specific than that, because that includes BoJo and just about every Tory PM past and in waiting.;

  73. 73.

    MomSense

    @Cacti:

    Sometimes I just want to scream.  So much drama and vitriol over the basics of a modern society.  And then there are the religious freaks who think they should be able to control the rest of us.  I’m sooo fucking sick of it.

  74. 74.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Suzanne:

    Most Upper-Class Twit of the Century and his garbage heap of a wife?

    LMAO!

    Ahem, that’s going to be Queen Garbage Heap to you commoner!

  75. 75.

    Roger Moore

    @Kelly:

    Bonds are opposed by the wingnuts who seem to believe the water system is a geologic feature created by God.

    This is Libertarianism in a nutshell.  They act as if all the nice stuff we have just sort of happened and will continue to function even if we don’t spend any money on upkeep.  It appears to work for a while, often for long enough for the people who believe that stuff to move on to the next higher office before the inevitable repair bill for their neglect comes due.

  76. 76.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Dan B: It sounds like a means for Christianists to harass liberal families.

    I’d note that if I were still a Christian I might worry fecklessly that they were going to hell.

    As it stands, I’m a believer in rebirth and heaven or hell is what we leave ourselves for the next life. So we gotta find a way to beat these savages.

  77. 77.

    Spanky

    I’m here to warn you away from a WaPo piece on one of Washington’s failsons:

    Luke Russert’s Washington fairy tale is still missing an ending

  78. 78.

    Ken

    @Suzanne: I suspect Tony Jay will have something to say in comments. Perhaps one of the front-pagers will promote it to a blog post.

    Oh, and, “the Most Upper-Class Twit of the Century”? From what I’ve heard, not so long as Jacob Rees-Mogg is still above ground.

  79. 79.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I asked him a couple of questions and thought he came off as a lightweight.

    Why did he seem like a lightweight?

  81. 81.

    Tony G

    @Betty Cracker: If I recall correctly, I think that JFK was the most recent (63 years ago) senator to be elected president.   When JFK Junior comes back from the dead (as revealed by QAnon) then he can become president.

  82. 82.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Spanky: Hmmm, I have a sneaking suspicion that in-kind savagery isn’t going to be a successful response to savagery.

    I was thinking voting or sumthn.

    Eta: Working in something more proactive but I’m in a safe state for queer folk surrounded by safe states.

  83. 83.

    Aussie Sheila

    Whitehouse has been excellent. I like his clear, no BS style, and his obvious sense of purpose and mission. I also like Amy Klobuchar. I understand she didn’t do well in the primaries in 2020, but I think she also comes across as clear and no nonsense whenever I have caught her interviews.

    I am very partisan, but I will always take competence and a sense of mission over merely ideological commitments in electeds every time.

  84. 84.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): One was relative to an issue that was very much in the news at the time, and that I thought that someone who’d been US Attorney in this district and state Attorney General, should be intimately familiar with, and he gave me word salad

    ETA: If you’re going to substantially edit a comment after you post it, you should note that you edited it.

  85. 85.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Tony G:

    When JFK Junior comes back from the dead (as revealed by QAnon) then he can become president.

    I’ll never understand what made JFK Jr so special to QAnon. Was it because he was JFK’s son? It seems like such a baby boomer thing to obsess over old Camelot myths, but quite a few Q’s are 50 and under. And what makes them think he’d be a MAGA? He was a Dem!

  86. 86.

    Dan B

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation:  Also at JMG is Peter Thiel thinks that Ron DeSantis would make a great president.  Maybe because of Thiel’s wealth and racism/classism his children would not be removed from he and his husband.

  87. 87.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Aussie Sheila: ​
      The fact that someone was not a good presidential candidate has nothing whatsoever to do with whether they are a good senator. Two completely different jobs.

  88. 88.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Sorry, will do in the future. You pretty much answered my question anyway.

    ETA: Maybe he was having a bad day or was tired

  89. 89.

    sab

    @Dan B: Jeez. My oldest step-child got dumped into very scary foster care when she was four and her mother went into a nursing home with severe multiple sclerosis. Her mom died when she was 12, shortly after the adoption with my husband and his soon to be ex was finalized. My husband got her at 10. I didn’t meet her until she was 18. Now we consider each other mother and child (which I kind of hate only because her birth mother loved her and was a good mother) but it takes years to build that trust when either party has been banged around emotionally.

    Separating children from parents really makes me froth at the mouth with anger. Fucking the kid up for (at best)  decades but possibly forever. Destroys the child’s trust in the human race. Just to prove a point? Just to be a bigot?

  90. 90.

    Tom Q

    @Roger Moore: ​
     There was also for many years a bugaboo that you couldn’t win the presidency without first winning the NH primary — something that had been true since Ike in ’52. This led some to predict GHWBush would hold on against Clinton. Not only did that not happen, since then, incumbent presidents are close to the only ones who’ve won NH and then won the presidency, as Bush 2000, Obama 2008 and Biden 2020 have all failed at it.

    Same with “after a two-term presidency, voters are always looking to switch parties” — which hasn’t been true, definitely in popular vote terms, for many cycles now. As you say, the number of presidential elections is so finite that any trend is a walking definition of small sample size.

  94. 94.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The real answer is, of course, that he is a crypto-Republican. Duh.

    Sounds like this could’ve been Sarah Kendzior’s latest tweet lol

  95. 95.

    sab

    @Omnes Omnibus: Executive v legislative. We had a good guy who sucked as a mayor but went on to be a good legislator in Congress for decades. He listened well. He kind of waffled when decisions were needed. Could stand up in a crisis or a showdown but mostly he tried to get along. Good in the legislature, but executive branch needs decisions. Changing your mind with reasons is okay, but do not have no opinion.

  96. 96.

    Dan B

    @sab:  The rhetoric they’re using is straight up Brave New World, “Parental rights are the most important but we have to protect the children.”  The number of trans children in Florida is likely small and trying to keep a low profile.  I believe this us a trial balloon to take kids from LGBT parents and then criminalize all trans and LGB people.

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    @FastEdD:

    A lot of their mega-rich benefactors make money the old fashioned way, which I will leave to your imagination.

    BTW it’s called screwing the customer.

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @Dan B: Thiel says he thinks DeSantis would make a great president, and he may actually believe that. I think, though that a lot of Republican elites are building DeSantis up because they fear Trump will lose a potentially winnable race, and drag other Republicans down as well. They’re desperate, and it looks like DeSantis is the best alternative they’ve got, so they’ll make the most of him and hope voters go along.

    They’re probably right on both counts.

  101. 101.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Tom Q: See also “bellwether states” that always voted for the winner in a Presidential general election, so that it was supposed to be impossible to become President without winning them. Missouri and Ohio were both considered infallible bellwethers once upon a time. No more.

  102. 102.

    scav

    @Dan B: Just wait until FL goes all-out in its war on Disney and takes away any and all children visiting the Magic Kingdom — evidence enough of the endangered wee ones being recklessly exposed to wokeness.

  103. 103.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Omnes Omnibus: Bonus points for considering leaders of two of the biggest domestic terrorist orgs in the US, “small fish”, lol.  Especially considering it was on charges that are almost never pursued or able to obtain conviction.  More proof that DOJ isn’t trying!!

  105. 105.

    Kathleen

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: I can relate. I’m 73 years old and I’ve finally found methods to focus my mind in more helpful ways. I feel especially in these times I don’t have the luxury of cynicism or despair. I don’t want these monsters to defeat me.

  107. 107.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I did at #88. For the one you replied to, I didn’t feel it was necessary as the substance was still essentially the same. I thought the original and a later version or so came off stupid, so I changed it. Sorry.

    ETA: From what I remember, the original was “Sarah Kendzior, is that you? //” and then later a differently worded version of what’s at #94

  108. 108.

    sab

    @Dan B: What children are they “protecting?” This is all about terrorizing children in order to terrorize their parents.

    I have a Republican in-law trying to be what they wanted, but this trans thing was too much for him. He is low tax but with us on tolerance issues. Every time he does the right thing he loses the next election. He knows that and expects that but just keeps plugging away.

  109. 109.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @laura: Conversely, if they are setting themselves outside of the law, then they are setting themselves outside of our society and institutions. Under those circumstances, would they still be afforded the protections of that society and its institutions?

  110. 110.

    sab

    @Dan B: Mashe Gessen fled Russia to get away and protect her/his/ their children. What a big jump and transition. How scary. Also too Russian kids now American. Has to be wrenching if you hadn’t want to leave

    ETA Especially leave a culture that you love. When you leaveyour country your own kids grow up to be foriegners to you. I have seen that a lot in my family.

  111. 111.

    Roger Moore

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    I think this is a perfect example of Wilhoit’s Law:

    Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

    They believe they can break the rules while still being protected by the rules.

  113. 113.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Kathleen: Being able to quiet a noisy mind is such a blessing.

    @Kathleen: I just finally joined Twitter. Only three things I need on there.

    Folks here do a better job than I ever will finding interesting political bits, so that’s one.

    This morning I blocked Elon and followed a couple porn stars. My business with Twitter is concluded.

  114. 114.

    Dan B

    @sab:  Yes, fleeing is tough.  The million or so LGBTQ people in Florida uprooting themselves would crash the real estate and rental market.  The last to decide to leave would be unable to sell.  And there are plenty who could not afford to relocate.  Just the mechanics of moving would he wrenching and then friends, family, and cultural upheavals on top.

  115. 115.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation:

    This morning I blocked Elon and followed a couple porn stars. My business with Twitter is concluded.

    Now you’ve done it. Now Elmo is going to send you an email with no body with the subject line: “You suck”

  116. 116.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I open up my timeline to some dumb meme Elon posted and my notifications pushed.

    A blue animated character on top facing left “When I do it, it’s moderation.” The window was split with the same character in red facing right, “when you do it, it’s censorship.”

    Dumb shit. Just no self-awareness.

  119. 119.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Tony G: Yes, it was JFK and then Obama. LBJ and Nixon had both been Senators, but they had been Vice-President after that (like Joe Biden).

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