Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

We still have time to mess this up!

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

No one could have predicted…

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

In after Baud. Damn.

Republicans in disarray!

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

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

In my day, never was longer.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / LGBTQ Rights / LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Stay Righteous, and Joyous

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Stay Righteous, and Joyous

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CM Punk wikipedia bio

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Joe Biden delivered an unapologetically economic populist message Saturday during the first rally of his reelection campaign, telling an exuberant crowd of union members that his policies had created jobs and lifted the middle class. Now, he said, is the time for the wealthy to “pay their fair share” in taxes.

Biden spotlighted the sweeping climate, tax and health care package signed into law last year that cut the cost of prescription drugs and lowered insurance premiums — pocketbook issues that advisers say will be the centerpiece of his argument for a second term.

“I’m looking forward to this campaign,” Biden said to cries of “four more years!” before adding, “We’ve got a record to run on.” …

More than 1,000 union workers representing professions from carpenters and airport service workers to entertainers and heavy service equipment engineers — most wearing T-shirts bearing their union’s logos — began chanting “Let’s go, Joe!” and “We want Joe” and blowing whistles hours before the president arrived.

Biden did not mention any of his potential Republican opponents by name, but said many in the GOP “oppose everything I’ve done.” Pointing to high inflation rates, Republicans have criticized “Biden-omics” a term the president tried to turn back his opponents on Saturday.

“I don’t know what the hell that is,” he said, “but it’s working.”…

Several of the nation’s most powerful unions — including the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — officially endorsed Biden’s campaign on Friday. The first-of-its-kind joint endorsement among the unions, and the backdrop of hundreds of workers are part of a meticulously choreographed effort to show the support of labor behind what Biden himself calls the most pro-union president in history.

The union endorsements followed Wednesday’s joint endorsement from major environmental groups, a back-to-back backing by design, according to a campaign official, meant to demonstrate that tackling climate change through green jobs does not threaten workers’ rights.

Biden claimed in his remarks that if Wall Street bankers went on strike, no one would notice. But if unions members walked off the job, “the whole country would come to a grinding halt.” He also criticized those worth more than $1 billion for paying, he said, as little as 8% in federal taxes…

Same old, same old…

And again:

Reader Interactions

147Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    French investigators are searching the headquarters of the Paris Olympic organizers in a probe into suspected corruption

    They should go ahead and make it an official sport.

  2. 2.

    mrmoshpotato

    One does love watching the people who are literally threatening armed unrest piss themselves over the possibility of consequences.— Sean Phillips (Sardonic Existentialism) (@Jacksons_Dad) June 19, 2023

    Totally.

  4. 4.

    Matt McIrvin

    Again, unless the economy collapses this election has already been decided

    I don’t actually buy that on the basis of this poll question–it’s asking about Donald Trump vs. “someone else”, without identifying the someone else as Biden. People don’t answer these things in locally consistent ways; this doesn’t actually mean they’ll vote for Biden over Trump, and it also opens the possibility of a third-party candidate serving as the refuge, in which case the race is still up in the air.

  6. 6.

    SFAW

    @Baud: ​
     

    French investigators are searching the headquarters of the Paris Olympic organizers in a probe into suspected corruption

    FIFA says “Holdez mon Perrier”? [As will surprise no one: No, I don’t speak French.]

  10. 10.

    SFAW

    Chatham Harrison hasn’t normally been a dumbshit, but I guess after reading so many RWMFs, he decided to give it a try.

    ETA: Of course, President Hillary Clinton might disagree with me.

  12. 12.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: What it does say is that the median normies who aren’t all in for Trump are still sick of Trump. He’s a known quantity and they don’t like what they know. There isn’t going to be as much 2016-style crap about how he’s the real moderate in the race or that his typical garbage is just a front for the rubes.

    But I do predict a lot of “ugh, I’m tired of both of these guys, is there a third option?” and it’s a difficult situation to get your base out. The polls rating abortion as several steps down the list of things people care about, below Republican talk lines like inflation and “the border”, worry me too.

  14. 14.

    Chris Johnson

    @Matt McIrvin: The ONLY option they really have is to go ‘OMG, Biden is SUCH garbage, everybody not vote!’

    Honestly, I’ve really warmed to the dude. As Presidents go, I wish he was younger, so we could do an FDR with the guy. Don’t let him leave :D sorry, dude, you were too good at this, keep on threading that needle. Request for a break denied, get back in there soldier :D

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I define the “base” as the people who turn out without any effort on behalf of the party. People like me.

    I get that other people define the base as people who share demographic or ideological characteristics with the actual base.

  16. 16.

    different-church-lady

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The polls rating abortion as several steps down the list of things people care about, below Republican talk lines like inflation and “the border”, worry me too.

    The polls were like that eight months ago too. How did that turn out?

  17. 17.

    Princess

    one thing we often forget is that Biden and Harris did the responsible thing in 2020 and basically never campaigned in public. 2024 is going to be different in ways we can’t imagine, and it’s going to be good. The more people see Biden, the more they’re going to like him.

  19. 19.

    montanareddog

    @Baud:

     

    They should go ahead and make it an official sport.

    With Clarence Thomas as the sport’s federation’s honorary life president.

  21. 21.

    zhena gogolia

    @Princess: Yes!

    It happened to me — I didn’t watch debates, I just read about them, then I actually watched the famous “turn off the record player” clip, and I thought, “He’s so cool! I love him!”

  22. 22.

    Betty

    If Texas is concerned about the military presence there, let’s move the bases elsewhere. Would that please Abbott?

  25. 25.

    prostratedragon

    Baud@18: Those two little curlicues are probably all that’s stopping Biden from becoming our longest or second-longest serving President. Especially the Constitutional one.

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    Walking into work after the primary target of your criminal investigations confesses on national TV…

    (insert GIF of dude with sunglasses strutting onto stage)

    -Jack E. Smith on Twitter

     

    Holy cow that “interview” was something, all right…

  36. 36.

    Scout211

    RFK, jr. is an awful person, chapter infinity.  I hate that he’s getting so much media exposure but on the other hand, it’s good that his horrible words are getting enough exposure that his last name is slowly beginning to losing its shine.

    RFK Jr. claims chemicals in the water are turning boys transgender

    In a recently unearthed video interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the noted anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and a Democratic challenger of President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection bid, claimed chemicals in the water supply are turning boys trans.

     

    “A lot of the problems we see in kids, particularly boys, it’s probably underappreciated how much of that is coming from chemical exposures, including a lot of sexual dysphoria that we’re seeing,” the scion of the Kennedy political dynasty said during an interview with Canadian psychologist and ring-wing pundit Jordan Peterson.

     

    “I mean, they’re swimming through a soup of toxic chemicals today, and many of those are endocrine disruptors,” Kennedy said, adding, “there’s Atrazine throughout our water supply, and atrazine, by the way, if you, in a lab, put Atrazine in a tank full of frogs, it will chemically castrate and forcibly feminize every frog in there and 10 percent of the frogs, the male frogs, will turn into fully viable females able to produce viable eggs.”

    . . .

    The video of Kennedy and Peterson was tweeted on Sunday by Mehdi Hasan, host of MSNBC’s “The Mehdi Hasan Show,” who pointed out that Kennedy’s comments echo claims by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who said in 2015, “I don’t like ’em putting chemicals in the water that turn the freakin’ frogs gay!”

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I watched and I see if differently than what I’ve read about it, how it’s comical or should be in Biden campaign ads. Trump is really focused – he recognizes the threat – he’s scared. I think it’s the most “real” I’ve ever seen him.

  39. 39.

    Redshift

    @Baud:

    I define the “base” as the people who turn out without any effort on behalf of the party. People like me.

    I don’t think any campaign defines it that narrowly. The base are people who aren’t going to vote for anyone else, but you still have to work to make sure they come out to vote.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    I think those shitty, ass kissing lawyers Trump had told him for a year he wasn’t going to be indicted and he’s shocked and horrified that he has been indicted. It’s real to him now.

  44. 44.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    The Constitution now forbids it regardless of age.

    Chief Justice Alito sez that part only applies to Demon-craps. The other Fascist Five agree.​
    ETA: “If you squint just right, you can see it in the right there in the text of the 22nd Amendment. And there are five lights.”

  45. 45.

    James E Powell

    @different-church-lady:

    The polls were like that eight months ago too. How did that turn out?

    In places like southern California & NY, where people did not feel their abortion rights were threatened, Dobbs had little to no impact.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: He’s aware of threats to his beautiful self – I don’t think he needs his lawyers to tell him.

    I think he just doesn’t care that the law is after him, because he thinks that the law doesn’t apply to him. He thinks that since Mueller (apparently) couldn’t touch him then that nobody can now. He’s too stupid, and his ego is too fragile, to recognize that circumstances changed at noon January 20, 2021.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Exactly. He’s always been cunning. He’s letting him talk to try to garner clues where he’s going with the questions. He’s rattled. I knew he would be terrified of prison time. I don’t think he cares if he’s convicted-  he has absolutely no respect for law so that wouldn’t be a referendum on his character to him – he worries about incarceration.

    It’s amusing- the raccoon eyes just add to the “cornered animal” feel of the thing.

  50. 50.

    Ken

    @Baud: Next, Trump invokes Florida’s “stand your ground” law as justification for refusing to return the documents.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    I don’t think he needs his lawyers to tell him.

    Egomaniac adults and adolescents do need their lawyers to tell them. They go through a kind of realization process. Sometimes they don’t and they don’t “get it” right up to the moment they’re sentenced. Trump lies to himself constantly – he tells himself he won the 2020 election, he tells himself he wins golf games, he tells himself he’s a great manager who hires great people. Lying to himself about the extent of his legal exposure came perfectly naturally to him.

  54. 54.

    Sanjeevs

    Has anyone watched ‘Shiny Happy People’ on Amazon?

    Documentary about the very fundie IBLP (the Duggars of reality TV were members).  Disturbing stuff.

    Hobby Lobby were big donors to IBLP.

  55. 55.

    JML

    RFK, Jr is the classic guy who got a little attention for raising a decent point (the impacts of chemicals in our air and water and how we needed to be paying more attention to what corporations were dumping/putting out there) and went nuts with that attention and ran with it to every crazy possibility within that realm, desperately trying to keep that attention and focus. Of course he jumped on the anti-vaxx train; celebs were getting attention for that, so of course Thirsty needed to get in on the action.

    Who knows how much of it he even believed at the start, but now like most cults he almost certainly buys all he own BS. He’s an idiotic fool now, a waste of time and space that’s an absolute joke of a Democratic candidate. But he needs to be stomped on early and often, and not permitted to get any kind of purchase within the party at all. He’s a like a virus and you don’t want the party to get infected with his kind of crazy.

  56. 56.

    Scout211

    @Kay: The clips that I saw and posted a few last night showed the same thing to me. Trump looked and acted stiff and worried.  He tried to use many different versions of why the crime is not a crime when he does it. Most of what he said in defense of himself was patently ridiculous. But he was not in a court of law, he was talking to his MAGA supporters and creating a scenario for them to defend him and maybe protest when the courts are being “very unfair” to him.

    I think he does know that he is in trouble.  But he likely believes that he will be able to talk himself out of being convicted because of his “genius mind.”

    On the other hand, he tends to look stiff and and worried when he is being interviewed by a reporter and there are no supporters in the audience to entertain.

  57. 57.

    Jeffro

    @Kay:Trump is really focused – he recognizes the threat – he’s scared. I think it’s the most “real” I’ve ever seen him.

    He’s definitely scared, but he still thinks he can lie his way out of it.  Which is comical – putting the Gish gallop on ol’ Bret Bauer is not the same thing as convincing a jury (a jury that’s just be presented with an absolute SHIT TON of evidence, in logical order) of one’s innocence.

    “I had golf shirts in there!  You don’t expect me to just turn those over to NARA, do you?”

    “No Bret there weren’t classified documents in there…there were…like…mountains of paper and stuff”

    trump”: “I never said ‘declassify’ or that I could do that” Baier: “You said it right here.” trump: “well that was when I was president, not now”  Baier: (wtf?)

    And on and on and on…

  58. 58.

    Kay

    Glenn Greenwald
    @ggreenwald
    ·11h
    The extent to which Google is acting to censor RFK Jr. — especially as he rises in the polls against Joe Biden and receives more attention — is very striking and revealing.
    Big Tech now routinely censors elected officials and, of course, did so to the sitting US President

    The bros are already setting up the story for when Kennedy loses- “he was CENSORED!”

    “Big Tech” distinction is important because that excludes their hero and leader, Elon Musk.

    Just so transparently lame and self serving. There is no one more manipulative than Glenn Greenwald. I just object to how dumb and ham-handed his manipulation is. He’s the lawyer on the Simpsons.

  59. 59.

    WereBear

    @Sanjeevs: Yes, though I knew how bad a cult it was all along. But that was information not to be shared with their fans in many kinds of spaces.

    They did find out. I knew that would happen, too.

  60. 60.

    Jeffro

    @Another Scott:He’s too stupid, and his ego is too fragile, to recognize that circumstances changed at noon January 20, 2021.

    oh I think he gets it now…  =)

    it’ll be exciting to see him, and the rest of the GQP field, openly campaigning for him to be pardoned of all these crimes (well, the federal ones, anyway – I guess with the state charges, they’ll say they need those states’ Gov and Leg in order to change the laws/defund the prosecutors)

    Biden: “I built stuff, defended Ukraine, and stand for protecting abortion rights!”

    trump & Co: “elect us so we can wreak vengeance upon our enemies, pardon trump, and destroy several state governments!”

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Scout211:

    He loves being on tv and always enjoys himself – he loves the sound of his own voice and they just let him rattle on and bullshit – it’s a game. This is different. He’s dead serious. I have never seen it before.

  62. 62.

    Ken

    @Kay: Glenn says “rises in the polls”, I say “expected random jitter when someone’s support is less than the poll’s margin of error”.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    The Greenwald Tweet is the exact opposite of the truth. As Kennedy receives more exposure he will be less popular. But the bros can’t have that because they’ve already endorsed him, so they’ll blame Big Tech Censorship for the failure of their candidate.

    Kennedy never shuts up and apparently everything he says is recorded (as befits such a Man of Destiny – his wise words must be set down) so we haven’t even scratched the surface of Stupid Shit Kennedy Says.

  64. 64.

    WereBear

    And, having seen and enjoyed recent Watergate streaming takes along with our recent news, it’s another Republican scandal where they taped each other.

  65. 65.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: That’s one big reason many of the critiques of campaign and ad strategies that people post here don’t matter.  They aren’t aimed at us.

  66. 66.

    Jeffro

    Slightly OT (but I’m happy to talk about that disaster of an interview all day!): Jennifer Rubin points out that no matter who the nominee is, the GOP has an abortion problem.

    It’s plain as day – Dems need to make this one of their top three issues heading into 2024

    There is every reason to believe that in 2024, the issue will be just as potent and the impact on Republicans up and down the ticket just as disastrous. “A record-high 69% say abortion should generally be legal in the first three months of pregnancy. The prior high of 67% was recorded last May after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization draft was leaked,” Gallup reports. “Gallup’s oldest trend on the legality of abortion finds 34% of Americans believe abortion should be legal under any circumstances, nearly matching last year’s record-high 35% and above the 27% average since 1975.” Moreover, “another 51% currently say abortion should be legal under certain circumstances, while 13% (similar to the all-time low of 12%) want it illegal in all circumstances.”

     

    it’s not so easy for Republicans to drop a stance that 80 percent of the general electorate opposes. Forced-birth advocates* have made clear they will not support candidates who shrink from the post radical antiabortion stance. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America blasted former president Donald Trump when he appeared to deviate from the most extreme position. The group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, issued a statement declaring: “Holding to the position that it is exclusively up to the states is an abdication of responsibility by anyone elected to federal office.”

    Ironically, Trump’s failed attempt to nudge the party toward a less damaging position serves as a warning to other candidates, who are now racing to outdo one another in fidelity to the forced-birth crowd*. Former vice president Mike Pence, for example, has chastised Trump for wobbling on the issue. (“I believe that the cause of life has been the animating core of our movement for 50 years, and that the American people and Republicans long to see leadership that remains dedicated to the principle of restoring the sanctity of life to the center of American law.”)

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an interview with the Messenger, knocked Trump for criticizing the six-week ban DeSantis signed into law. “He said it was ‘harsh’ to protect an unborn child when there’s a detectable heartbeat. I think that’s humane to do.” De Santis pronounced himself “surprised” that Trump would deviate from antiabortion orthodoxy.

    *more of this in our national discourse please, snooze media!

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    It’s part of his obvious shitty lawyer manipulation. He regularly states things he wants to be true to be true, always buried inside something else. So it isn’t the lie “Kennedy is rising in the polls!” It’s the lie “blah blah, Big Tech, Kennedy is rising in the polls”

    If you’ve ever dealt with a sleazy dishonest lawyer everything Glenn Greenwald does is immediately recognizable to you. They’re alwys bad lawyers too – too lazy to learn the actual work so they rely on these bullshit rhetorical tricks which work on Rumble but wouldn’t work in an actual court.

    I used to read Greenwald and just smile when I would reach the weasel words- things like “clearly” or “obviously” tacked onto the beginning of a statement that was neither “clear” nor “obvious”. He wants you to stop thinking when you read those words and accept whatever follows.

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: Every story about Jr should have this picture with it.

    The press should do their homework before they use the Democratic label for this guy.

    No legitimate Democrat is hanging around with Mike Flynn and Roger Stone.

    RFK, Jr. – Another MAGA trojan horse candidate – and NOT a Democrat. #StopGOPLies pic.twitter.com/HdhsyjUN2Z

    — still_resisting 🇺🇦 #TeamPelosi #DemCast (@persistentpengn) April 18, 2023

    I think that the woman is some bigwig in the Q / RWNJ circles, but I can’t quickly find her name. Probably is tied to RT or the NKVD in some way.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  69. 69.

    Shalimar

    @Baud: Maybe corruption could be the Quintuplethon?  France would win the “paying for mistresses” portion every Olympics.

  71. 71.

    HeleninEire

    @Kay: That’s what Andrew Weissmann said on Lawrence O’Donnell last night. He said that for the first time, Donald looks scared.

  72. 72.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: DougJ has him pegged perfectly.

    “RFK, Jr., who I do not support…”

    [ snicker ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    Jennifer Rubin is my favorite Never Trumper but maybe she could talk to her colleagues in media and ask them to start covering abortion and womens health. Political campaigns should not be providing the only coverage of this issue. The excuse was no one cared about it (which means people in media didn’t care about it) but now they have a cycle where voters showed they cared about and we still haven’t gotten any coverage.

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro:

    Pence: “Republicans long to see leadership that remains dedicated to the principle of restoring the sanctity of life to the center of American law.”

    Yeah, a million Americans and 20 million worldwide died of Covid, and the ‘pro-lifers’ didn’t give a damn.  That’s how important the ‘sanctity of life’ is to them.

    Fuck everyone peddling this ‘pro-life’ bullshit that wasn’t every bit as concerned about the lives of people getting Covid as they were about the precious ‘unborn baybeez.’  Especially after they went to the mats over Terri Schiavo.  This was Schiavo multiplied by 20,000,000, and <crickets> from them.

  76. 76.

    Jeffro

    OT again but the Post has a good interactive piece up about scientists finding proof that we’re in the Anthropocene (or as Elizabeth Kolbert calls it, “The Sixth Extinction“)

    Yet as much as the Anthropocene is a recognition of humanity’s culpability, it is also a declaration of human agency, McCarthy believes. Alongside geologic evidence of environmental destruction, Crawford Lake holds proof of people’s capacity for repair.

    In 1963, when nations agreed to ban nuclear weapons testing that could contaminate the water and atmosphere, plutonium concentrations in Crawford Lake started to diminish. Fly ash counts fell after the United States and Canada required new pollution controls at power plants and other industrial facilities. The revitalization of the lake’s distinctive calcite bands during the 1980s is a sign of successful efforts to combat acid rain.

    But not all changes captured in the Crawford cores can be so quickly undone. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations will remain elevated for tens of thousands of years. It will take at least as long, and a dramatic drop in temperature, for the polar ice sheets to return to their preindustrial majesty.

    But “it’s not just a doomsday story,” McCarthy said. “It is a ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ story. It shows we can make meaningful change.”

    She estimates that Crawford Lake will continue to accumulate new sediments for at least 10,000 years. That means a geologist in the distant future will be able to dig into those layers just as McCarthy has.

    They will see whether the world managed to zero out carbon emissions and stabilize global warming.
    They will learn whether people preserved threatened species and set aside nuclear weapons.
    And they will discover what lessons humanity drew from this record of the Earth.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @HeleninEire:

    I think if you’ve seen the “dawning realization of legal consequences” in real life you recognize it. He’s completely focused and working on staying out of prison.

  78. 78.

    Kristine

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I’m watching the clips of Brett Baier’s interview with Trump. Can his lawyers claim diminished capacity? It’s hard to argue against that one.

    I wondered about that last week, and someone replied that Trump would need to give his permission to go that route. Which seems to me like threading a needle. Too incompetent to be held responsible but competent enough to make the decision that he’s too incompetent to be held responsible.

  79. 79.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: It will be exciting to see what happens when we get to the “bargaining” phase.  And by exciting, I mean that trump still won’t be able to quit telling his lies about 2020 or about his blessed “right” to keep whatever he wanted (much less quit insulting Jack Smith and dragging Smith’s wife into this).

    Like, right up to the moment he’s convicted, and then even afterwards.  “LOOKS LIKE I HAVE TO TAKE MY FAKE CONVICTION TO THE SUPREME COURT WHERE I WILL WIN!  NO CRIME!!  ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”  blah blah blah

    I hope he loses it completely and threatens Smith outright.  Not because I want anything to happen to Smith, but because that’s the quickest route for putting trump behind bars.

  80. 80.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kristine:

    Too incompetent to be held responsible but competent enough to make the decision that he’s too incompetent to be held responsible.

    Has a nice Catch-22 feel to it. :-)

  81. 81.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lowtechcyclist: What it really exposes is the fakeness of right-wing concern for New Yorkers after 9/11, though really AIDS should have done that already.

  83. 83.

    Mowgli

    @Sanjeevs: Yes, although it was all horrifying and sad, it wasn’t really unexpected. Misogynistic authoritarian cults are, unfortunately, amazingly predictable in their tactics and outcomes. Those poor children are all going to need lots of therapy.

  86. 86.

    sdhays

    @Jeffro: But “it’s not just a doomsday story,” McCarthy said. “It is a ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ story. It shows we can make meaningful change.”

    Sounds woke. I guess Florida will have to ban coffee now.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    I found out yesterday Kennedy had advanced treatment for his vocal cords issue- he has an implanted medical device. It’s the only reason he can produce sound at all. Like all the woo woo grifters he’s full of shit on a personal level. Modern medicine for me but not for you! You must rely on reciting affirmations about “wellness”, I get cutting edge and professional treatment.

    In other woo woo grifter news, Marianne Williamson, who is running on “love”, treats everyone she encounters in real life like shit. Up to and including assaulting them when she doesn’t get her way. 

  88. 88.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    I get that other people define the base as people who share demographic or ideological characteristics with the actual base.

    All your base…

  89. 89.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Jeffro: Holy cow. Bradley Moss adds this though:

    Ignore Judge Cannon’s trial date for Trump. That date isn’t going to hold. The date that matters is the deadline for pre-trial motions and motions in limine (to exclude arguments/evidence at trial). Those are due in four weeks.

  90. 90.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Chris Johnson:

    As Presidents go, I wish he was younger, so we could do an FDR with the guy. 

    Sadly, the Rethuglican dipshits hated FDR so much that they amended the Constitution to make that impossible.

    Dipshits.

  91. 91.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin:

    What it really exposes is the fakeness of right-wing concern for New Yorkers after 9/11

    I honestly don’t remember any expressions of concern for New Yorkers on their part, just that they stopped openly hating and deriding New Yorkers for a year or so because it would look bad.

  94. 94.

    sdhays

    @Jeffro: Whoa is right. It seems conceivable that the trial could be over before the end of the year. He could be a convicted felon before anyone starts voting in the primaries.

    I wonder if it will be enough time for his challengers to gain any traction in the “maybe someone with so much legal liability shouldn’t be the nominee” argument. I still don’t think DeSantis is going anywhere, but if there’s a big crisis of faith around Trump before voting starts, who knows what can happen.

  95. 95.

    Ken

    @Kay: He’s completely focused and working on staying out of prison.

    Though not to the point that he refuses interviews, or otherwise keeps his mouth shut.

  96. 96.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JML: The emotion that concern about environmental contaminants runs on is a fear about purity and contamination–which is not an inherently liberal sort of a thing to worry about; in fact, it resonates stronger with the right. The trouble is, it’s rational in some situations. But if you let the emotion run away with you and don’t pay attention to when and whether it is rational, it goes to some bad places.

  100. 100.

    Matt McIrvin

    @snoey: Whoa, I haven’t read Orac’s stuff in a while. He was energetically rebutting antivaxxers long before COVID was a thing.

  101. 101.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Baud:

    ““The gold medal goes to Karl-Heinrich Strausser-Kahn for obtaining a villa on Lake Como, a G-700 and Rolex Oysters for every member of his extended family. Silver goes to Pierre Barydeauz for a brazenly naked cash payment of 18M euros that was brought in satchels to his tableside at the Cafe de la Paix on a Tuesday morning at breakfast, then then publicly counted and gloated over….”

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    He thinks he is his own best defender. They all do. Elizabeth Holmes was confident she would be aquitted if she testified. She did testify. I think she truly believed the (completely ordinary) delay she got when she filed a motion meant she wasn’t going to prison. But she was. Everyone gets a short delay whle the motion is considered, but it’s nearly always rejected. It just doesn’t matter if she’s pregnant or has a child. Prisons are full of women with children.

  103. 103.

    Another Scott

    @Ken: +1

    He has no respect at all for the laws or the rules or norms and all the rest.  He thinks he can bend the world to whatever his beautiful mind wants.  He has no respect for anyone – he thinks we’re all suckers and rubes.

    I still kinda expect him to break down in tears when he’s convicted and sentenced.

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  104. 104.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @prostratedragon:

    I mean, investigating them for corruption is a little unfair, and akin to hunting in a baited field.

  106. 106.

    Chris T.

    @SFAW:

    ETA: “If you squint just right, you can see it in the right there in the text of the 22nd Amendment. And there are five lights.”

    It’s the kerning! It’s always the kerning.

  107. 107.

    CliosFanBoy

    @Baud: I learned that lesson in 2016 when I assured a friend from Japan that there was absolutely no way trump could win.

  109. 109.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Polling has been garbage for several years, though. There’s nothing reliable – they oversample landlines (which skew old) and they oversample people who answer all calls, even on cell  (also skewing old).

  110. 110.

    Ken

    @Bostondreams: That CM Punk clip is just fantastic.

    But do we liberals want to take pro wrestling in the national divorce? Oh well, maybe it can share a room with Bud Light, and they can both complain that baseball is our favorite.

  111. 111.

    Scout211

    Today is the first day of the California State Bar disciplinary hearing of John Eastman.

    Eastman is expected to spend the day testifying before the State Bar of California in a proceeding that could result in him losing his license to practice law in the state. He faces 11 disciplinary charges stemming from his development of a dubious legal strategy that was aimed at helping Trump remain in power by disrupting the counting of state electoral votes.

    The State Bar’s counsel will seek Eastman’s disbarmentduring a hearing before the State Bar Court that’s expected to last at least eight days. If the court finds Eastman culpable of the alleged violations it can recommend a punishment such as suspending or revoking his law license. The California Supreme Court makes the final decision.

  114. 114.

    Tony Jay

    @Bostondreams:

    It is, isn’t it?

    Always good to see Spandex-Americans speaking out loud and proud and ready to drop you from ten feet onto a collapsible table if you chat any shit at them. More of this.

  116. 116.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A hard read: Days of desperation: the diary of a woman forced to flee Texas for an abortion

    June 2023: postscript

    The rest of my pregnancy was marked by stress and fear. I worried for my remaining twin and about Texas’s vigilante system, which allows members of the public to hunt out those they suspect of aiding abortion, and sue them in civil court.

    Three weeks after filing the lawsuit against Texas, we welcomed Baby A, named Henry, into the world. He has been a delight and our toddler loves to pet the little tuft of hair on the top of his head while chanting “Baby”.

    Thomas’s ashes sit in a glass cabinet in my office, a daily reminder of the other son we wanted and for whom we suffered more than necessary at the hands of the state of Texas. A state where my family has lived for generations. A state that held agency over my body and over my medical advice once I became pregnant.

    I continue to document this journey with the hopes that someday, I will be able to look back at these restrictive healthcare laws and they will be a distant memory. Until then, I am proud to be standing among the other women in this case as we try to save other pregnant people from the trauma and harm that we have faced.

    The whole should be read, it’s not long.

  117. 117.

    Chris T.

    @Kay:

    I used to read Greenwald and just smile when I would reach the weasel words- things like “clearly” or “obviously” tacked onto the beginning of a statement that was neither “clear” nor “obvious”. He wants you to stop thinking when you read those words and accept whatever follows.

    “This is clearly unclear. It’s not obvious that it’s obvious, but it’s clearly so.”

  118. 118.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Ken:

    it’s weird. I tell all of my clients to shut the fuck up about everything while they’re in litigation over anything – including private message chats with parents, siblings and closest confidants. I must be doing it wrong…..  😂

  120. 120.

    Scout211

    In Texas news, as expected, the other half of the Paxton family corruption ring will not recuse herself from her husband’s impeachment trial. Link

    “As a member of the Senate, I hold these obligations sacred and I will carry out my duties, not because it is easy, but because the Constitution demands it and because my constituents deserve it,” Paxton said in a statement, indicating that she will not recuse herself from her role representing a Dallas-area district as the legislative body convenes her husband’s trial.

  121. 121.

    Ken

    @Kay: weasel words- things like “clearly” or “obviously”

    IIRC, Terry Pratchett called them “wallpaper words” — you use them to paper over the big cracks in your arguments.

  122. 122.

    Eduardo

    @Baud: Joe Biden or even the Democratic Party in general hasn’t won the 2024 presidential election, but I am pretty damn sure Donald Trump is not going to win.

    Most likely, he will go to jail/house arrest.

  123. 123.

    Kay

    @Chris T.:

    He writes things like “Congress” passed an anti war resolution when it’s one chamber – that was to “prove” Obama was a lawless authoritarian. Just “I think my readers are dopes” shit like that.

  125. 125.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    The NYT will run a 10 part series interviewing dementia patients in nursing homes.  Just wait and see.

    A steady stream of interviews with millennials who declare that they are not going to vote or they are leaning RFK Jr.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Chris T.:

    I bet he likes Rumble better than blogging because one has to search for a transcript on Rumble. He was easier to nail lying when he wrote 5000 word screeds. I think that’s why the grifterverse rely so much on podcasts and video platforms. All of the damning Kennedy statements are video or audio of him speaking. Someone has to find the clip and trim it.

  129. 129.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Ha! I love her. I subscribe to her newsletter. I was complaining that none of the male liberals with big platforms promote her, although she’s one of only THREE people doing this work and then Chris Hayes had her on his show. Maybe he reads Balloon Juice!

    I read her every day.

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

     

    They can’t BOTH SIDES it, Kay.

     

    I wrote about Jessica Valenti. One of my favorite things that she says is..

    “Please understand that all these states talking about ‘exceptions’  – they are lying to you.  There are no exceptions’

     

    We get story upon story from Red States from people who should have qualified as ‘ exceptions’, except they never do.

    I would have Ms. Valenti on tv 3 times  a week to tell us the latest nightmare case that she’s found in Red States. She’d never run out of material.

    Making the Blue States completely aware of the nightmare of the Red States…

     

    they then will not be able to ‘ both sides’ the issue.

  132. 132.

    Ken

    @Scout211: I wonder what a poll of Sen. Paxton’s constituents, asking “should she recuse for her husband’s impeachment”, would show?

    Though maybe the words would confuse people; “her husband is on trial, should she be on the jury” would be better, if perhaps too loaded.

  133. 133.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    So true, I hadn’t considered that “the exceptions” were lies – no one ever qualifies- until she raised it. It’s true- read the horror stories out of Texas. Those women should have been “exceptions” but the exceptions are a lie and no one ever qualifies, hence the horror stories. I was annoyed I missed that- it’s obvious.

  135. 135.

    UncleEbeneezer

    One of the co-hosts of the Marsha’s Plate Podcast (a black, trans podcast) was talking about pro wrestling the other day and saying how much he loves it nowadays.  I was surprised to hear that there is apparently a big Queer fan-base that love it and that in general, pro wrestling is pretty LGBTQ-friendly and doesn’t have as much of the air of not-so-subtle misogyny and LGBTQ-phobia that was always present back when I used to watch it in the WWF (mid-to-late-80’s) years. It sounds like it really has become much more welcoming to women and LGBTQ people which is rather amazing and cool.

  137. 137.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Kay: Yeah, but they really should have done the full booking routine with him, with handcuffs, fingerprinting (which I heard happened for the first arrest buy not the second?), mugshot (made available to every small town newspaper – apparently – so they have something to place above the text describing the charges), etc.

    Make it real to every one of those loser-supporting losers.

  138. 138.

    Kay

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    I think so too. I laughed out loud when I read they let him provide a booking photo. It’s so clearly special treatment. I was wondering what my clients chosen photos woud look like- people on boats or in restaurants or around Christmas trees, those dumb social media photos :)

    But I don’t care that much. I don’t even go to the outcome. I just want a trial.

  139. 139.

    Kay

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    They can’t dye their hair when they’re in prison so everyone who goes in dyed blonde comes out natural. Elizabeth Holmes will be a brunette in a coupla weeks.

    Just think about that with Donald Trump :)

  140. 140.

    Miss Bianca

    @mrmoshpotato: Yeah, and the joke was on them, because along came Eisenhower and then Reagan, and they could have re-elected those two till they, too, died in office.

  141. 141.

    Miss Bianca

    @Scout211: And yet, this is the guy that the Colorado Republicans are counting on to sue the state to overturn its open-primary law.

    Go figure. As Adam S likes to put it, “these people could fuck up a two-car funeral procession if you spotted them the hearse.”

  145. 145.

    StringOnAStick

    tRump is doing classic extreme narcissist behaviour in that interview; he’s making the world what he wants it be.  It won’t work, but it is classic emotional pathology on display.

    I’m torn between wanting a speedy trial to wanting it to drag out long enough that no other R candidate gets any traction until way too late.

  147. 147.

    misterpuff

     

    Too incompetent to be held responsible but competent enough to make the decision that he’s too incompetent to be held responsible.

    Has a nice Catch-22 feel to it. :-)

    That’s some catch, that Catch-45.

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