Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

In after Baud. Damn.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

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

An almost top 10,000 blog!

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Giving up is unforgivable.

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

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

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Pre-Dawn Darkness Open Thread

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Rolling Stone has a couple of uplifting stories about Repubs in disarray. First, a report from Michigan, where Repubs are stumbling around in a rage-fog after losing the statehouse for the first time in several decades:

James Chapman, a Republican from Wayne County, told the paper he traveled to the city of Clare to join the party meeting at the Doherty Hotel. But the meeting was reserved for members of the state committee. So Chapman said that he and others gathered outside the meeting location and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. He also said that he attempted to open a door to the meeting room by jiggling the doorknob.

Mark DeYoung, who chairs the Clare County Republican Party, said he heard Chapman’s attempt to enter the room and opened the door after seeing someone flip him the bird through a window. “He kicked me in my balls as soon as I opened the door,” DeYoung said of Chapman, speaking to The Detroit News by phone from the emergency room.

The recipient of the swift kick to the stones is pressing charges. Rolling Stone noted that this isn’t even the first time Michigan Repubs got physical with each other this year.

Kalamazoo Republican Party Chair Kelly Sackett and Macomb County GOP Secretary Melissa Pehlis engaged in what appears to be a drunken slap-fight at a party event a few months ago.

Thanks to valued commenter twbrandt for flagging the latest MI GOP beclowning in an earlier thread.

Next up in Rolling Stone, even Maria Bartiromo of Fox News wants answers about the flailing DeSantis campaign. A tireless Repub fluffer and reliable pitcher of the softest of softballs, Bartiromo confronted the candidate directly on her program yesterday:

“You’ve done a great job pushing back against woke. We know that,” Fox News host Maria Bartiromo said to DeSantis during Sunday Morning Futures. “But I’m wondering what’s going on with your campaign. There was a lot of optimism about you running for president earlier in the year, but here’s this weekend’s headline from Politico Playbook: ‘Failure to launch. Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign to topple Donald Trump has stalled. “We are way behind,” says a top DeSantis PAC official, sounding the alarm.’ What happened?”

DeSantis promptly bit the hand that fed him, blaming the “corporate media” that built him up for the precipitous polling decline that not-coincidentally commenced when the candidate started interacting directly with voters. Then, in a head-scratching non sequitur, DeSantis criticized Donald Trump for standing by as president while his own government agencies were “colluding with big tech.”

Wait, what? Oh well. At least no Repub got kicked in the junk on Fox News. (Yet.)

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

42Comments

  2. 2.

    Martin

    DeSantis has two problems:

    1. Republicans are fully authoritarian followers now and they want strength, and one of these candidates attempted a coup against the federal government and the other banned ‘Gender Queer’ from high schools, and there’s nothing the latter guy can do to one-up the former.
    2. A lot of people can’t differentiate being tough from being an asshole. DeSantis is one of those people.
  3. 3.

    Dangerman

    Desantis’ only hope is Trump is doing time. Then he can promise to pardon the fucker to get the Trumpers on board.

  4. 4.

    Ruckus

    @Martin:

    A lot of people can’t differentiate being tough from being an asshole. DeSantis is one of those people.

    He’s such a nice asshole…….

    Or is that such a big asshole……

    Some days it’s so hard to tell a big asshole from a nice asshole…. Maybe it’s both?

  5. 5.

    p.a.

    It’s just tick-tocking until these “2nd Amendment Solution” conservaturd Republican chuds use that “solution” against each other.  Praying there’s no innocents hurt.

  6. 6.

    Ruckus

    @Dangerman:

    I might be way the hell off here but I don’t feel that the trumpers are ever going to be on board with deathsanta. He strikes me as being very unauthentic, as in he really doesn’t know what he’s doing and they have seen SFB be the asshole they like. Are they really going to vote for the 2nd class asshole? I mean maybe because he might be all that’s left if SFB is in jail. SFB is authentic crap, junior is blindly trying to get to be that authentic and he fails all the time.

  7. 7.

    Shalimar

    @Martin: I don’t know.   If Trump does show up for one of these debates and DeSantis successfully kicks him in the junk, it could turn this whole thing around.

  8. 8.

    Shalimar

    @Ruckus:  A nice asshole in Republican circles is one that isn’t brown.  Ron swears that is pudding, but I’m not buying it.

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    “Please proceed, Governor.”
    ;)

    The recipient of the swift kick to the stones is pressing charges.

    “And after I spent weeks getting them evenly tanned, Your Honor.”

  10. 10.

    Dangerman

    @Ruckus: In which case, Desantis goes down like Dukakis, Casey is humiliated and divorces him, starts chasing that Hawley Dude, who could be Mr. 2028.

  11. 11.

    Ruckus

    @Dangerman:

    I could be wrong here but I think you put way too much thought into any rethuglican. But you do have a way making this just a bit on the funny side. I mean it’s not really funny but that level of humiliation for the participants does sort of get it closer.

  12. 12.

    eclare

    @Shalimar:

    I really doubt DeSantis has enough courage, cojones, whatever, to go after TFG.  The closest he has gotten so far is to admit that he didn’t know what it was like to pay off porn stars.  Gee, what bravery, Meatball!

    The only R that will go after TFG personally is Christie, because he is a NJ asshole with nothing to lose.  And likely pissed as hell that he got covid and almost died thanks to TFG.

  15. 15.

    gene108

    @Ruckus:

    I mean maybe because he might be all that’s left if SFB is in jail.

    No law that states TFG can’t serve as President from a NYC jail cell.

    I figure if Fani Willis got a conviction, Gov . Kemp would likely pardon TFG. If the TFG wins, in 2024, he’ll pardon himself from any federal charges Jack Smith got convictions on.

    I think it’s not beyond the realm of possibilities for this to happen. TFG’s going to get around 45% of the vote no matter what he does or what happens to him. He has a really dedicated base of support.

    *************

    The problem all Republican primary candidates have in opposing Trump, is they have to agree with everything Trump has done throughout his entire life, and will do for the rest of eternity, if they don’t want to alienate Republican primary voters.

    DeSantis tried the only viable option to create some daylight between himself and Trump, and that is trying to be more conservative than Trump. Besides DeSantis’ weak retail political skills, the problem with this approach is Trump doesn’t have much in the way of a solid political core of beliefs. If DeSantis wants to criminalize gender affirming cars, Trump has no qualms about instituting harsher penalties, if Trunp sees it as a winning issue.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    DeSantis is failing because he fundamentally sucks at candidating, in ways that have been thoroughly documented and mocked in these here threads. His failure is inevitable. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men can’t fix that, and neither the Money Crazy-Auntie Maria Bartiromo.

  17. 17.

    RandomMonster

    @Shalimar: If Trump does show up for one of these debates and DeSantis successfully kicks him in the junk, it could turn this whole thing around.

    With his fine white boots!

  18. 18.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @gene108:

    Kemp has no pardon power, as I understand it. That’s with an independent board, and doesn’t kick in until 2/3 of the sentence is complete.

  19. 19.

    WereBear

    Why should MAGA settle for a lesser asshole? Trump is the uncut stuff, directly to the feels.

    They will never kick him voluntarily. As long as he maintains the lie, they will donate to keep the show rolling.

    For themselves. It’s always about themselves.

    One silver lining is that Trump isn’t what he used to be. If he loses it as a decompensating narcissist, that might change their view. If they see it happening.

    The narcissist then “falls apart” in a process of disintegration known as decompensation. The dynamic forces which render him paralysed and fake – his vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and fears – are starkly exposed as his defences crumble and become dysfunctional.

     

  20. 20.

    Rusty

    I wonder if part of why Republicans like Trump over DeSantis is Trump is rich.  Republicans like hierarchy,  some people are better, others are worse (of course they are always better) and it’s about having reasons to be better than, and even hate those you think your inferior.  Trump is rich (we can debate how rich but by any of our standards he is rich) whereas DeSantis is close to a working stiff.  In my limited conversations with Republicans about Trump, they really see him as self made, the Apprentice image still holds (and it show cased him as The Boss, again the hierarchy)

    Trump does know how to be charming, mostly he used it to butter up people to take their money or to wheedle favors from them.  DeSantis clearly lacks any charm at all.  So with the general asshole qualities of both, DeSantis lacks anything to soften at least the edges.

    But really, fuck them both.

  22. 22.

    Jackie

    @gene108: Georgia governors don’t have the magic pardon power. Thank goodness!

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg explained faster and better!

  24. 24.

    Anne Laurie

    @Shalimar: If Trump does show up for one of these debates and DeSantis successfully kicks him in the junk, it could turn this whole thing around.

    Crude, tasteless joke that I, as a short person, could not resist:

    Given the disparity in their heights, Little Ronnie is ideally placed to *bite* TFG in the balls.

    Imagine the earned media bounty, Mr. DeSantis!!!

  25. 25.

    WereBear

    Having lived with them, and tried to get away from them, my whole life, Trumpers tend to not come to their senses, having a slippery grip on them at the best of times.

    They were mostly beaten and terrified as children. These are the ones who identified with their abuser, and seeks their “protection.”

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    Damn about time.

    A cultural revolution has been sweeping through the U.S. Army—and the remarkable thing is it’s barely been noticed, as a deeper revolution had already taken hold very quietly.

    Starting this past March and continuing into the fall, all nine Army bases that are named after Confederate generals have been, or will be given, new names more in keeping with American values and the look of the U.S. military today. Source

    Nearly an afterthought at the bottom:

    …no elected politician—other than Pence and DeSantis—has criticized the name changes since they were announced.…

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    First, a report from Michigan, where Repubs are stumbling around in a rage-fog after losing the statehouse for the first time in several decades

    Cry! HARDER!  No!  HARDER THAN THAT! 🖕🖕🖕🤣🤣🤣

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    More Rethuglican on Rethuglican crotch shots and slapfights please!

    Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack (and sneak in the popcorn)!

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    @Rusty: I think many of the richer Republicans want someone other than Trump because they think Trump is a certain loser who could cost Republicans winnable House and Senate races. It does not look like DeSantis is the guy to beat Trump, though.

    And Republican elites also fear that if Trump is beaten, his supporters will stay home and they’ll lose those downballot races anyway.

    If I could draw, I’d create a cartoon set at the La Brea Pits, in prehistoric Los Angeles. It would show a Wooly Mammoth chased into the a lake of tar by a pack of Dire Wolves, with them all sinking together.

  32. 32.

    Brachiator

    @WereBear:

    I want DeSantis to fail, utterly and completely. But I would also love to see him cause Trump a more substantial headache. But it is not going to happen.

    Why should MAGA settle for a lesser asshole? Trump is the uncut stuff, directly to the feels.

    Yep. The base still loves Trump. Unless something happens to prevent him from running, he is and always will be the GOP nominee.

    But note that DeSantis is in second place. If Trump cannot run for some reason, DeSantis would likely become the nominee no matter how lame he looks.

    The narcissist then “falls apart” in a process of disintegration known as decompensation. The dynamic forces which render him paralysed and fake – his vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and fears – are starkly exposed as his defences crumble and become dysfunctional.

    Trump is not a conventional narcissist. I don’t think these labels apply. But it would be interesting to see how he reacts if he is convicted of the current charges against him.

  33. 33.

    There go two miscreants

    @NotMax: Too bad there’s no way to retroactively hang the Confederate generals for treason. That would be the cherry on top.

  34. 34.

    Geminid

    @There go two miscreants: You can blame that squish Abraham Lincoln for the Union’s leniency. He met with Grant a few days before Appomattox, and the surrender terms signed by Grant and Lee reflected Lincoln’s guidance.

  35. 35.

    Citizen_X

    @Dangerman: that Hawley Dude, who could be Mr. 2028.

    Lol. Fortunately, “Hawley running” is a two-word joke that will never get old.

  37. 37.

    Ken

    “You’ve done a great job pushing back against woke. But I’m wondering…”

    In a sane world, on a sane network, Bartiromo would have finished with “what the hell is woke?”

  39. 39.

    VOR

    @gene108: TFG’s goal is to push all his convictions out past January 2025. Then he pardons himself.

    More and more I think TFG’s election in 2024 is also Putin’s plan to win in Ukraine. TFG gets elected, cuts support for Ukraine, and moves to damage NATO, perhaps by pulling the US out of NATO. Potential Russian interference in the 2024 election could outpace 2016.

  40. 40.

    Paul in KY

    @NotMax: I don’t really like ‘Fort Liberty’. I would much prefer something along the lines of ‘Fort Death to Traitor Scum’.

  41. 41.

    RaflW

    Saw that the musk-cat made out of two turds (I mean, isn’t that what his handle suggests?) ran a poll of who will come in second, Rhonda Struggling or Vivek the promoter of meme-based ‘governing’, and Ramaswamy ran away with it.

    I believe the TurdCat is in theory a Rhonda fan. Hah!

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