Jeff Bridges surprising John Goodman by putting on the original THE BIG LEBOWSKI "Dude" sweater to speak at Goodman's Walk-of-Fame ceremony. His expression is priceless. Love that they're genuine friends. pic.twitter.com/ctZQhY5Qmu
— Todd Spence (@Todd_Spence) August 23, 2023
"…cold beer, higher wages, NFL football, chocolate chip cookies…why would you vote for that when we're offering you abortion bans, upper-class tax cuts, and an end to your medical insurance coverage?" https://t.co/7XdfGhWG4n
— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) August 24, 2023
A bunch of Republicans on stage. One united, MAGA ideology. pic.twitter.com/oqVlZewCQk
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 24, 2023
Compelling message from @VP on tonight's #RNCDebate.
"No one on stage 'won' tonight's debate.
Instead, the American
people heard how much they stand to lose from an extremist agenda." pic.twitter.com/sCw0VWvz1w— KAMALA NATION (@KamalaNation) August 24, 2023
Of course, our Very Serious Media, come hell or high water, wants to keep things… balanced:
I like that issue number 2 is that his opponent is a felon. https://t.co/6E48s39ZsP
— Not up for trouble, please stop asking (@agraybee) August 21, 2023
Not buying that!
— cat with confusing auras (@cat_auras) August 21, 2023
Baud
Lol that cat.
ETA: who is jmart, and does he also have blue light specials?
bjacques
The Republicans will give us Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion–well, two of those things, anyway.
Jeffro
Is Ingraham trying to drive Dems’ numbers even higher with Gen Z?
(ok, ok…higher with Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z?) =)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jeffro: I know! I mean, she says that as if it’s a bad thing.
Matt McIrvin
They can’t quit “acid, amnesty and abortion,” I guess.
Jeffro
Meanwhile, here’s ex-president* thug life, noting that the J6ers were full of “love and unity” on “the most beautiful day they ever experienced”
Just run it on a loop, Ds!
trumpov has never, not once, disavowed political violence (and in fact, as we know, encourages it from his supporters). Dems ought to make an issue of it every day.
Matt McIrvin
(As a nattering nabob of negativism I respect the classics)
OverTwistWillie
Vivek was Trump’s pre-debate pick as a potential VP, so that he “won” mindshare is no shock.
There are those running for VP, and those running for the death/conviction slot, so inconsistent, incoherent messaging is what you are gonna get; and then there is Ronnie…. he was probably thinking about baseball during the Ukraine question and reflexively raised his hand.
Ken
Judging from the radio ads I hear when driving in downstate Illinois, 30% of rural America’s economy is pot stores. Possibly that’s not a good metric, since it means the rest is buying and selling gold, and personal injury lawsuits.
I’ll also note that when I used to go on work trips (involving long cross-country drives), the *** PORN MEGASTORES *** were always in rural areas. Are those still a thing, or does everyone use the internet now?
prostratedragon
Wonder what TFG lawyer Drew Finding wouldn’t do …
(He’s getting replaced before the arraignment.)
Ken
@prostratedragon: At a guess, wouldn’t work on credit. Second guess would be, gave his client good legal advice, that is, told him to shut the hell up.
JPL
Hours before he was slated to surrender at the Fulton County jail on Thursday, former President Donald Trump shook up his Atlanta legal team. Defense attorney Steve Sadow will replace Drew Findling as Trump’s top Atlanta lawyer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
Sounds good
BTW local news showed a group of twelve marching in front of the jail entrance with posters and matching shirts supporting trump. I just glanced quickly but then realized that it’s the most diverse group that I’ve seen supporting him. Can we say paid????????
bjacques
@Matt McIrvin: and since the Democrats didn’t deliver on the acid, I feel betrayed, and they’re a bunch of shitlibs so I have no choice but to vote for Trump. /s
Baud
@Ken:
Green Acres is the place to be!
MazeDancer
Switching from the loud and obnoxious crazy of GOP to the staid and solid good policy world of the Dems feels boring to some people.
They like the stimulation of yelling and outrage.
Unfortunately, many of these people are members of the US media.
Vivek will get the spotlight for a while.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I assume it’s Jonathan Martin. Can’t make myself watch.
Percysowner
Alexandra Petri was on fire about the debate I watched the (Trumpless!) GOP primary debate so you don’t have to
Here’s the intro:
MILWAUKEE — If you said, “Would you like to watch Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Doug Burgum, Mike Pence, Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie talk to each other for two hours? FYI, the place where they’ll do so is hotter than Beelzebub’s armpit!,” I would have said, “No, thank you.” But if you said, “The alternative is watching Donald Trump talk to Tucker Carlson on the website formerly known as Twitter,” I would say, “I can’t wait to hear what Ron, Vivek, Nikki, Tim, Doug, Mike, Asa and Chris have to say!”
Sadly, I couldn’t find a gift link, so if you’re out of WaPo articles it’s behind a paywall.
Jeffro
The headline seemed a little Pitchbot-tty, but the piece is pretty sound: J-Rubs on Biden Goes Positive: Izzat Gonna Work?
Frankly
sounds to my ears like a pretty good all-in-one message! “trumpov’s going down, down, down…but just look at the rest of us! Manufacturing booming, unemployment low, inflation going down, and it’s all because we have adults at the wheel.”
(it’s a good hint to everyone except the most hardcore MAGAts: come on in and join the winning team!)
Albatrossity
@Matt McIrvin: And that is a classic! Thanks for the memory jog!
J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian)
That jmart fellow is pretty sharp. History is littered with examples of campaigns being derailed by the criminal actions/legal problems of their opponents. I am surprised that President Biden hasn’t already resigned to save himself from a massive defeat.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Whoever is doing Biden’s social media is really good at it.
prostratedragon
@Ken: Door no. 2 is my guess. We should be able to tell in a day or two.
Geminid
@Albatrossity: I think speechwriter William Safire was credited with that line spoken by Spiro Agnew.
Safire wrote a good Civil War novel titled Freedom. Long, but worth reading if you are interested in that war’s history.
prostratedragon
Percysowner@17: Everything is relative.
lee
I know we say this every election cycle but dog-damn I think the media is going once again lower the bar on just how bad they are going to be.
@Ken:
Yes they are still a thing. They are still scattered about in Texas (some in rural areas some in metro areas)
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: Still a thing.
Uncle Jeffy
Watched an hour+ of the shouting match and finally gave up. Not an iota of rational thoughts or sound policies from the entire mob. Next time I get the urge to watch this kind of craziness, Mrs. UJ has promised to give me a gooo hard slap.
danielx
@Ken:
Noted when driving to the Keys that they still exist, and still have humongous billboards along the interstates. Billboards usually followed by a humongous cross in the next few miles, followed by another toy store billboard. It’s like they can’t decide whether to get holy or get their freak on. Evidently it’s a Southern thing.
lee
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I believe the person running Biden’s twitter was hired away from running New Jersey’s social media. She has been on fire from the day she started. She had that video of M Traitor Green praising Biden up within hours.
EarthWindFire
@Jeffro:
Nothing says love like a gallows, broken windows, and shit smeared on the wall. Hallmark really needs to get on this.
Betty Cracker
The Petri column is a hoot — here’s a gift link. Also an excerpt featuring Pence responding to Ramaswamy:
LOL — she captured the tone.
danielx
@Ken:
Old Russian proverb:
How does a fish get caught? He opens his mouth.
OzarkHillbilly
@EarthWindFire: You forgot bear spray, body armor, and helmets.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: And meth.
Jeffro
Charles Blow: DeSantis is sinking. Guess who’s rising?
Oh Ron, Ron…I can only imagine how you’re feeling today. In fact, I may actually spend quite a bit of today imagining how you’re feeling. LOL
Speaking of the GOP’s previous flirtations with minority candidates a la Cain, Carson, etc.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: True dat.
Jeffro
Meanwhile, Frank Bruni with the issue here: The Republican
PartyDebate Was an Infuriating Display of Moral CowardiceThe (electoral) beatings will just have to continue until (the nation’s) morale improves, I guess.
TS
@Percysowner:
I think this is a gift link (Wapo Alexandra Petri) – I’m not so good at sorting them out
https://wapo.st/3Etpuz
Edit: Should have kept reading – Betty C posted before me
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: Yeah, I watched the debate in anticipation of seeing DeSantis get clubbed by the other nonentities and was disappointed. But Blow’s point that being ignored is worse is a good one.
BR
These mugshots photoshops are awesome:
https://mastodon.social/@IamHappyToast/110943913277773869
Scout211
I really enjoyed the debate live blog on Wonkette last night. It was all snark and over-the-top making fun of the candidates. Live blog
If you have a few moments and need a laugh, check it out.
ETA: posting part of the abortion section:
mrmoshpotato
Who’s ready for some more face-melting heat today? Stay cool my fellow Midwesterners.
And go Cubs!
Ken
@EarthWindFire: @OzarkHillbilly: @Geminid: And murders.
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: And taser canes.
Kay
Not the clouds! Not those again!
The nitwits have decided the fact that Donald Trump is a criminal is somehow Joe Biden’s problem? No, it’s not.
Donald Trump is 100% responsible for his crimes and they are HIS problem.
jonas
In rural areas with no broadband, I guess you still have to get your porn the old-fashioned way — at a windowless store with parking in the rear.
Baud
@Kay:
Hell, Hunter Biden’s legal issues aren’t Joe Biden’s problem. But at least that’s a piece of idiocy that’s within historical norms.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
But then I’d have to read Safire Halfwit. Hard pass.
Brit in Chicago
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Right! She didn’t quite say “Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll”, but that’s my generation’s version (yes, boomer).
Ken
@BR: I’m guessing he’s saving the Joker for Trump.
jonas
@Kay: I don’t know if it’s been polled or anything, but I suspect a majority of Americans also assume that Hunter Biden is part of his dad’s administration or a member of the Cabinet or something. Trump hired his family to be close advisers — didn’t Biden?
Trump’s flamingly corrupt nepotism broke both norms and brains, especially in the MSM.
Ken
@Scout211: So allowing for Wonkette’s slant, about half the entities* on that stage recognize that abortion is a huge loser for the Republican party, while the other half think going full Handmaid’s Tale will convince the Republican base to choose them over Trump.
* I will not say “candidates” because that implies they have a chance at the nomination.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
How is Trump’s legal jeopardy Biden’s problem?! I swear that’s pure Pitchbot territory:
“Donald Trump is facing so many charges in so many jurisdictions that by Election Day, he may be preparing to go to prison for the rest of his life. Here’s why that’s bad news for Joe Biden.”
And my dreams last night were better than watching those bastards at four in the goddamned morning would have been, and my dreams last night were nightmares.
Heidi Mom
The interaction between Jeff Bridges and John Goodman is lovely. The conventional wisdom may be that actors are people who are desperate to heal their own emotional wounds (I’m thinking in particular of a line that I can’t quite recall from James Lee Burke’s In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead), but on closer examination it seems that quite a lot of them are exceptionally talented but otherwise “normal,” likable people. Jeff Bridges certainly seems so (I don’t know enough about John Goodman to say).
cain
@Jeffro: Laura can’t change her spots. She doesn’t know anything else but what she’s been doing – and the new generation needs a different messaging – they’ve been drunk on angry boomer/genx juice.
Kay
@jonas:
Rigidly conventional people who will be unable to cover Donald Trump’s criminal trials because it is outside their incredibly narrow experience.
It’s always a dark and stormy night for Democrats.
Soprano2
@Ken: There’s one near Fort Leonard Wood on I-44. They’ve done everything they can to try to shut it down, but it’s still there.
cain
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Biden and his team are fucking pantsying these clowns and I’m hear to see it.
You can probably hear the teeth gnashing going on with the GOP because they know this is going to be a problem for down ticket elections as well.
Gregory
From the cited tweet or Xcrete or whatever they are called now:
<i>I like that issue number 2 is that his opponent is a felon.</i>
It’s a flat-out lie that Biden “hasn’t figured out what to say” about Trump’s many criminal charges. It’s obvious that he <i>doesn’t intend to comment on it</i>, to <i>not help Republicans portray the charges as politically motivated</i>. It’s also obvious that this jackass wants Biden to say something ill-advised.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Air space over Fulton County Jail has been restricted from 6:45 to 9 eastern time, in case you’re wondering when Trump is surrendering.
cain
@Geminid: I used to read that guy’s articles in the paper (it’s always funny to recall this since younger generations probably have no recollection of reading the newspaper or watching the evening news) – I don’t read the newspaper anymore – I think part of it is that the internet age is just go go go – and everything seems to be moving so fast that you don’t have time to sit down – you just want to multi-task.
OzarkHillbilly
Grifters works.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
stinger
@Ken:
Why you asking us? How would we know?
suzanne
@Ken:
I am always stunned by the number of fireworks stores I see when I drive out on the interstates. And the amount of money people spend on this shit.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: Soldiers will be soldiers.
RaflW
@Ken: “Shockwave” (tagline “you know you want to”) has billboards announcing their adult superstoreness all thru the dairy belt of central Wisconsin along the interstate.
And, no, on my cross-state drives I never want to. On the extremely rare occasion that I would, I’d go to Smitten Kitten in Uptown, Minneapolis. “The Smitten Kitten is a sex-positive, education-based, body-safe sex toy store.” It’s owned & run by women, and you can tell. I mean, if shame is your kink, they’ll respect that! But the shop really is education & exploration based.
Another Scott
Rudy’s true mugshot.
From HappyToast.
Cheers,
Scott.
RaflW
@Percysowner: The photo they chose to illustrate (column now titled “These moments totally happened at the GOP primary debate”) is hilarious. It shows three men obviously all talking at the same time, and the moderator with his palm up to the all, apparently trying to shush them. Hah!
And ZOMG, this line! “Baier: Governor Haley, when polled about you, people say, ‘Who?’ and ‘Huh?’ and ‘The comet?'”
Coffee almost spouted.
Shalimar
@Gregory: I call it Xitter now, pronounced Shitter. Which makes them xeets.
Leto
Do I wish that Biden was younger? Sure I do. I wish that he was younger so that when he finishes his second term, he and Obama can get back to their crime fighting/detective side gig and continue those amazing adventures. O’Man is waiting in the Firebird with some aviators, just roarin’ to go!
Biden delivered on student loan relief/forgiveness, as well as so much more. They can all fuck right off with that nonsense.
Kristine
@Heidi Mom:
I always considered him a comic actor until I saw him in “10 Cloverfield Lane” in which he was fucking terrifying.
cain
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That airplane being attacked in Russian airspace must have really spooked them.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I read it and didn’t get any conservative cooties (at least, I don’t think I did).
Safire did some good research, and has a lot of the interplay between various figures of the day. One I knew little about was Marylander Anna Carroll, a political pamphleteer and pre-war player in American “Know Nothing” Party politics.
Freedom being a novel, Safire gets to imagine some conversations between Carroll and another Marylander, “Old Man” Blair, who was a Jacksonian Democrat and the father of Postmaster General Montgomery Blair and Army General Frank Blair.
They talk about Seccession (both are firmly opposed) at the beginning of the book, which starts when Ft. Sumter is bombarded. Then Carroll and Blair talk a lot about Emancipation. The novel ends January 1, 1863 when another character, Abraham Lincoln, signs the Emancipation Proclamation.
Ken
@RaflW: Oh, right. I knew the billboards didn’t say “porn megastore”, but I couldn’t remember the preferred euphemism was “adult superstore”.
cain
@Leto: He delivered when the GOP tried to close that door via SCOTUS. That’s the a big Biden Fuck you right there.
cain
@Ken: The south is the only place I’ve seen where you regularly see adult super stores while traveling down the high way. The bible belt has more sex stores.
Portland has the most strip clubs per square mile so we do have some of them beat. :-)
RaflW
@Jeffro: So Pence raised his hand? He still says he’d vote for the guy who sent his goon squad to terminate him? Lordy, what a freak.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain:
Why would that have anything to do with it?
rikyrah
I don’t know how many times this needs to be said.
The GOP being willing to bomb Mexico has absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH DRUG CARTELS and whatever ‘ threat’ they are to America.
It has to do with the
SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF LITHIUM
Recently discovered in Mexico
AND
Has been NATIONALIZED BY THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT.
Stop Letting the MSM allow these clowns to set the narrative that it’s the Drug Cartels that they are getting all big and bad with. They don’t give two shyts about the cartels.
cain
@Omnes Omnibus: It was snark!
wjca
@Matt McIrvin:
Like the Dixiecratsm the GOP seems to have embraced that and made it their own.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The local news have showed the Blacks for trump group in matching shirts and matching signs. I’m not sure how much it cost to hire them, but it’s obvously chorigraphed.
Geminid
@RaflW: I took that as a notional expression of allegiance to the Party and it’s nominee. It was also a condition for inclusion in the debate, and will be for the next ones.
And that makes me wonder: who the hell is going to watch the next ones?
JPL
@JPL: whoops choreographed
trump has to control everything. I just hope someone asks what it is costing the campaign to stage this.
Omnes Omnibus
@cain:
Hard to tell these days.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Not me! Learned my lesson last night. It was torturous. Good thing I had my new Ina Garten series as a chaser to wash away all that stupidity, mendacity and insanity.
JWR
Hmm. Steve Sadow, TFG’s latest attorney, is pro-choice, as is the now fired Drew Findling. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 26, 2022
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Fox is gonna have to move these debates to Saturday nights so as not to sacrifice prime time ad revenue. Towards the end they’ll probably be on Saturday mornings.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Is Fox News running all the GOP debates this election season? I vaguely remember Romney’s dumbest niece announcing that the party had pulled out of the presidential debates organization. I wonder what that portends for the general election version…
wjca
@mrmoshpotato:
There’s a campaign slogan that all right-thinking Americans can get behind!
Kay
Also, Vivek Ramaswamy is 5’7″, which is shorter than DeSantis. It’s not his fault but it is a problem in a US Presidential contest, I think.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker:
To be fair, she’s dumbest Romney niece of whom we are aware. I know the idea that dumber might exist boggles the mind, but we shouldn’t rule it out.
Anyway
@Geminid:
The guests on Cable gabfests? Because they have to —
Omnes Omnibus
@wjca: No.
Mel
@danielx: Get their freak on. Repent! Get their freak on again. Repent! (Again!)
Rinse, repeat, over and over.
The whole “Just repent! and you’re forgiven!” schtick is just a re-loadable Get Out of Jail Free card in their weird live-action moral Monopoly.
cain
@Betty Cracker: they are accelerating their descent. If their only platform is fox news – good luck with getting their messaging out to the newer generations.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Actually, I don’t know that Fox is showing the other debates. I’m not sure any more are scheduled yet. I guess other networks will be willing despite the smaller audiences.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Kay:
I can’t look or listen to Ramaswamy without getting a Tom Haverford vibe from Parks and Rec, except that Haverford wasn’t a hateful piece of shit.
Kent
@rikyrah: They don’t give two shits about lithium either. It’s all about racism and posturing to the lowest common MAGA denominator of brown people bad so let’s get rough on them.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Mel: Which was why I found it so funny when all the usual right-wingers piled onto Nancy Mace for joking about having unmarried sex with her fiance, throwing around words like “sinner” and “fornicator”.
I thought she was forgiven and sins don’t count any more? Could it be… sit down for this one… they don’t apply that rule to women?
Kay
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
My husband thought he was unbearably smug and does not believe most people will like him, but apparently Republicans really like “unbearably smug”.
wjca
@Geminid:
As long as the writers’ strike is on, they might as well. Reruns can get soooo tedious and just don’t bring in the eyeballs. So basically a wash.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kent:
There are always two levels to this shit. The GOP base is ready to attack the enemy of the day, but that enemy is chosen for other reasons. The question is why Mexico now, and lithium helps to answer it.
Kay
68%! Karl Rove used to talk about “70% issues” as untouchable.
Democrats should run loud and proud on education. The anti woke bullshit is really unpopular. Navigator Reseach did a focus group last night and every time the Republicans would spout a conservative line on education the independents in the group would reject it.
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
This is the line that describes him best in my opinion.
He is not only emotionally aloof, but completely detached. He abides in aggression because the rest of the emotional range has either atrophied or failed to develop in the first place.
And I think it’s failed to develop. He’s pissed that he’s a governor and should be revered just for being him, but that everyone can see exactly what he is. And has the minimum of common sense not to want any part of it.
frosty
@wjca: You know what happened after the Cubbies won the World Series in 2016, don’t you? So “Go Cubbies … almost!”
Geminid
@Kay: I think Virginia Democrats are making better public education the third of their major issues in the upcoming legislative elections, along with abortion rights and gun safety.
Delk
Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max service is making a bigger push into news with a new 24/7 CNN stream that’s scheduled to debut on September 27th. It’s called CNN Max, and in a press release this morning, the company said the new service will “be part of an open beta for news that will enable experimentation with product features, content offerings, and original storytelling, all with the input and feedback from the Max community.”
Link
Baud
@Kay:
Apt Mastodon post.
https://mstdn.social/@MistyAtBoulder/110942500105543070
Baud
@Delk:
I wonder if they’ll test reporting on the news.
smith
@frosty:
Yep, people on the South Side knew better.
sab
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I get more of an Alex P Keaton vibe. Tom Haverford didn’t come across as knowing himself to be brilliant.
japa21
@wjca:
Cubs season is practically over. The just played 8 games against the 3 worst teams in the American league and were lucky to have won 5 of them. In the process they fell further behind the Brewers who swept 2 of the American league division leaders. At best Cubs may make a wild card spot.
Ruckus
@jonas:
Trump’s flamingly corrupt nepotism broke both norms and brains, especially in the MSM.
He doesn’t trust just anyone to cheat for him. He trusts his family somewhat because it’s all he’s really got, the hangers on who seem to think, this is their only chance to be something. (It looks like they think it’s better to be considered shit over absolutely nothing. How’s that seem to be working out?)
smith
That’s the group that two of the defendants, the ones who tried to coerce Ruby Freeman into a false confession, are affiliated with.
One aspect of that sinister episode that I wasn’t aware of until recently: Remember how Kutti told Freeman that if she didn’t confess, something bad might happen to her and her family 48 hours later? Well, in the afternoon the next day Freeman got a call from an FBI agent telling her she needed to leave her home urgently. She did, and then, right on schedule, 48 hours after Kitti’s threat, a mob showed up at her house. It’s pretty clear to me that they were threatening to lynch Freeman, and had assembled the means to do it.
JPL
@Baud: That is good.
Brachiator
Coming late to the thread. But hey, it’s Southern California.
A very sweet moment. But it’s from March, 2017, I think.
Anyway, two great actors.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: The Repubs onstage with him seemed to genuinely dislike Ramaswamy, like on a personal level, not just because he’s polling higher than they are. That was one of the only amusing aspects of the debate for me.
Also, I thought it was weird that Ramaswamy not only said once but repeated the following: “The nuclear family is the best form of governance known to mankind.”
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Kathleen
@Percysowner: Here’s a gift link:
https://wapo.st/3EtpuzH
I left comment in WaPoop article about the debate and said that whenever they consider writing usual horse racy/substance free articles about Republican politics they should save money and just republish the Petri piece. It’s cheaper for WaPo and more illuminating for readers.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
If he didn’t think climate change was a hoax, I’d say it was his anti-carbon plan.
OzarkHillbilly
Au contraire, they own stock in the arms industry and Mexico is a major market for them.
smith
@Betty Cracker: Pretty sure it’s code for patriarchy.
Jeffro
I loved those books! Biden was hysterical. =)
Jeffro
@RaflW: Pence did indeed.
Since Hutchinson was the only one who didn’t raise his hand (Christie tried to fudge it), I think that’s just about game, GOP.
Unless Asa goes on a real tear, of course…
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Also, an especially weird thing to say because Indians (and Latinos) are more likely to have extended families.
Miss Bianca
@Jeffro: I loved those books too! They were a consolation to me during the Trump
EonsYears.Alison Rose
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he believes in corporal punishment.
Jeffro
They should indeed.
Anyone complaining about “woke” this, that, and the other is just self-outing themselves as a racist, and everyone knows it.
Soprano2
@Kay: Republicans like minorities who tell them they are right about other minorities. I think that’s his big appeal, as well as Haley and Scott.
Soprano2
@Kent: I agree, it’s possible some people here care about the lithium but wanting to bomb the border is all about keeping out the scary brown people. It says something about today’s GOP that proposals to bomb an ally are met by the press with a “ho hum, what are they saying now?” instead of “Holy shit, I can’t believe they think dropping bombs on our neighbor who’s our friend is a good idea, what’s wrong with them?”.
Jeffro
“We want to make our public schools better; they want to destroy them” is a pretty good argument.
I used to say ‘they’re good and getting better every day, but we need you (dear parents) to be a part of the process’. Works on multiple levels.
raven
A dose of “there are still good people in this world” and “government can work for us”. I was surf fishing yesterday afternoon non the Outer Banks and it was really windy and rough. I moved my stuff when a family came down and managed to leave my backpack with my wallet and $50 or so in it. I got a call late last night from a National Park Service Ranger and someone turned it in completely untouched. The guy was really efficient, told be exactly how much money was in it and where to top to retrieve it. I’m feeling really lucky even though surf fishing here is really difficult for someone who has lost strength and balance more than I knew. We’re going offshore on a big ass boat tomorrow so I’m hoping I can hack that!
Patricia Kayden
@Jeffro: So Chris “close down bridges to hurt my political enemies” Christie is still insulting President Obama? Good to know. He’s a douche.
RaflW
@Shalimar: I say it as ‘zitter’, like the small skin eruptions that plague teens and, while causing angst, become unimportant as one matures.
rikyrah
@Kent:
The corporate overlords that want their mitts on that $700 Billion Dollars worth of Lithium care. …and, that’s why they are all for invading Mexico.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Maybe he’s trying to hit the “family values” trope hard.
Didn’t watch the debate and don’t know much about this guy, but I think it kinda interesting that he is a Hindu running for the GOP nomination.
Typically a Republican candidate tries to show that they are the “right kind of American” by converting to some form of Christianity. Judaism is also acceptable.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Tight lines.
wjca
@frosty:
Correlation is not causation. (Unless, I suppose, one is a MAGAt. Which I’m pretty sure you are nothing like.)
Betty Cracker
@raven: Glad you got your stuff back! It’s especially awful to lose stuff on vacation.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay:
In Ukraine, “don’t give up territory for peace” polls a hair over 90%. I don’t think apple pie with ice cream would get 90% in America.
wjca
@japa21:
When one lives where the A’s are the local team, the bar is pretty low. For a major league, vs AAA, team — which is where the A’s are now.**
** Wjy Las Vegas wanted a second AAA team is something of a mystery
Bupalos
@rikyrah: Feels a little Greenwaldian to me. Lithium is all over the place, and there are alternative chemistries and technologies that will be coming available if it really is a bottleneck. I think the Republicans want to talk about bombing brown folk in their primary for the obvious reason. They want to harvest racial resentment, not lithium; Just their tried and true evil scheme, not a new one.
Geminid
@Jeffro: In the last General Assembly session, Democratic House members introduced a package of bills intended, as they put it, to help ensure that every Virginia student could get a “world class” education. They knew the bills would not pass, but they were setting up messaging for the fall.
Education is a good issue for Virginia Democrats. They are defending existing laws on abortion rights and gun safety that have majority support. Improving education is a positive policy that will resonate well with most voters.
frosty
Well, sure. However, show me the ballplayer who isn’t superstitious. Like wearing the same socks the next game after he hit a grand slam. Same deal, let’s avoid the jinx! Plus, Go O’s!!!!
mrmoshpotato
I see jmart is a jackass. Good to know.
rikyrah
@Geminid:
I agree.
One the one side, people talking about banning books and Whitewashing American History.
Yes, the Democrats absolutely should run on education.
The Thin Black Duke
Rikyrah is right. Follow the money. Killing brown people is a bonus.
Bupalos
@Gin & Tonic: Lots of folks don’t understand how looney this “territory for peace” sounds. When attacked by a ravenous shark, show you are reasonable- Cut off your leg and offer it in exchange for a promise to leave you alone.
trollhattan
Suppose I’m glad we have people paid to watch such “debates” because I’d rather fill out a time sheet by the minute without repeating a single WBS#.
The Dude sweater surprise is an absolute hoot. When Bridges was working with the “Lebowski” costumer designer before filming, she is said to have come to his house and check out his closets for inspiration. The story continues.
The Dude abides.
Josie
@Bupalos:
Porque no los dos?
Raven
@frosty: I have my lucky fishing shirt all ready. I caught my 130 lb Yellowfin in it 11 years ago and have caught numerous others in it in the 20 years I’ve had it’
Bupalos
@The Thin Black Duke: You’d need to explain to me exactly what the middle step is between bombing Mexico and collecting all that sweet lithium. Which I now see is mostly bound up in clay soil and currently not profitably extractable at all.
JWR
Speaking of Hutchinson, did y’all see this story? (From Politico)
Kent
@rikyrah: Yeah, I don’t buy it. Oregon and Nevada have enormous lithium deposits. It isn’t a rare mineral. And the fact of the matter is that most of the biggest mining companies around the world aren’t even American. If Mexican lithium resources were privatized it wouldn’t even be American companies taking advantage. It would be Chinese and Canadian companies.
The answer as usual is simpler and stupider. None of these candidates are actually planning real invasions of Mexico. That notion is just plain stupid. They are just tossing it out to rile up the rubes. It is the 2024 version of ‘build the wall and Mexico will pay for it’
mrmoshpotato
@wjca: Hopefully they beat the White Sox today (if they play in this heat). Go A’s!
Miss Bianca
@JWR: Bergman or Burghdoff or whatever his name is – North Dakota Governator dude – did that “20 for 1” gift card deal to qualify for the debate – send me $1, I send you a $20 gift card! A friend of mine actually donated to his campaign and got one of those cards. We used it all up yesterday buying snacks and drinks at our post-staff meeting happy hour. :)
mrmoshpotato
@japa21: Damn. Someone’s a party pooper!
Mike in NC
What to watch on TV tonight:
(1) “What We Do In The Shadows” (10 PM Eastern on FX)
(2) “Fat Bastard Gets Arrested Again” (TBD!)
Betty Cracker
A couple of the Repubs who were debating last night limply defended teachers against their party’s years-long onslaught, without explicitly calling out the person onstage who embodies that assault, DeSantis, who didn’t say “woke” even once, IIRC.
Burgum and Haley maybe? Hutchinson? (I admit I was fiddling with my phone and playing with the dogs instead of strictly paying attention the whole time; it was too painful!)
I remember thinking at the time, uh-oh, they’ve finally realized demonizing teachers doesn’t play well outside loony red districts. So they pivoted to demonizing teachers unions instead.
Good move — a union is faceless compared to little Snotleigh’s 2nd grade teacher, whom even Repub parents probably know and like…
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: It’s Christianist patriarchy signaling. The president (always a man) is the daddy, and the family prayerfully obeys house daddy, just like daddy (pretends to) prayerfully obey sky Daddy’s rules.
Bupalos
@Josie: Because obtaining lithium by bombing Mexico is neither economically practical or likely even possible?
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: I don’t think that’s new. They’ve demonized teachers unions for decades. They’re also doing the “teaching is a calling” crap now so they can justify not paying teachers anything.
Roger Moore
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
The underlying assumption is that he must talk about whatever the media cares about. They want to talk about Hunter, Trump’s indictments, and his age, so it’s suspicious that he wants to talk about abortion and the state of the economy instead.
Sure Lurkalot
@Kay:
Horace Mann, a Whig:
His six main principles were: (from Wikipedia)
In the year 2023, the Republican Party does not believe or support any of these principles.
Josie
@Bupalos:
When has that ever stopped those idiots before?
JWR
@mrmoshpotato:
Those “three massive issues” are certainly clouding Jonathon Martin’s alleged brain. I say that if we can’t have term limits for political pundits, can we at least have a few AP journalism students to sex up the joint?
Yarrow
This is so true.
RaflW
@Roger Moore: “They want to talk about Hunter, Trump’s indictments, and his age, so it’s suspicious that he wants to talk about … the economy instead.”
Meanwhile, NPR will do their 17th host-reporter open mic gab about “Why isn’t Biden’s economic record getting traction?”
Geminid
@Yarrow: Trump might leave Ramaswamy alone. Trump might see him as an ally, which I think Ramaswamy is.
Jeffro
That’s like when Rod Paige (remember him?) tried to tell America that teachers’ unions are “terrorist organizations”. (Ah for those heady post-9/11 days) He tried to walk it back by saying hey, individual teachers? Love ’em! NOPE – we’re not having it, Rod.
There’s a story in the Post today that notes how when there are outright vacancies, school divisions are taking almost anyone they can get their hands on. One superintendent (principal, maybe?) has a waitress he befriended working as a long-term substitute teacher now – no training, no degree. Think about that, suburban parents. (And Dems, PLEASE help suburban parents connect those dots!)
Jeffro
He’s trump’s hype man.
He’s Flavor Flav to trump’s Chuck D. (a comparison that unfortunately Vivek would probably dig)
He’s just a distraction and a way to keep trumpism rolling while trump himself swirls down the bowl.
Citizen Alan
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Well to be fair, she joked about having unmarried sex that morning before coming to the National Prayer Breakfast (or whatever Talibangelical event it was). Morality aside, it was an incredible misreading of the room. Maybe if she’d gone on to say that “Of course, I prayed for forgiveness immediately afterwards and plan to remain chaste until I am married. My pastor now holds the key to my chastity belt.” she’d have been okay.
JPL
Meadows is granted 100,000 bond. I was hoping he’d go into hiding. That would have added a little excitement
Roger Moore
@cain:
I think there are one or two on US-101 between LA and San Francisco. I think it’s really more about the need to advertise. If I want to go to an adult superstore her in LA, I know I can just go to Hollywood Blvd and have plenty of options. They don’t need to put up billboards.
wjca
@mrmoshpotato:
Definitely with you there.
(Is a puzzlement: Why does nobody trying to trash Obama point out that he is a White Sox fan??? Are they allergic to the truth?)
Yarrow
@Geminid: He’ll only leave him alone if Ramaswamy is losing. Otherwise he’ll squash him like a bug.
narya
@Yarrow: Lordy; I found that crap >100 years ago in the original “teachers shouldn’t unionize” blather.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
No lie told
Yarrow
@Citizen Alan: I thought she also told her fiance no, when he wanted sex, which may be the bigger problem for the evangelicals. In their world, if the man wants sex he gets it. That’s the woman’s job.
JPL
@Yarrow: trump might be considering him for VP. In his mind, he could think that he could win over younger voters.
rikyrah
@JPL:
Any word on Clark?
Omnes Omnibus
@Bupalos: Not now. There are deposits of oil that aren’t currently economically viable and yet the oil companies want them. The mob didn’t just decide that invading Mexico was a great idea. Someone put that idea there.
JPL
@smith: This looked more like a paid group, since they had prepared signs and one size fits all shirts.
Kutti was granted a 75,000 bail. I’m sure Kanye will cover that.
rikyrah
Do we know how many of The Wagner Group’s hierarchy was taken out in that plane crash yesterday?
Yarrow
@narya: Jobs that are labeled a “calling” are usually done by women and are lower paid. Funny how that works.
RaflW
@Geminid: I get “Bill Barr writing a transparently obsequious ‘legal’ memo/crush note to Trump” vibe from Ramalamadingdong. (As perhaps does @JPL)
Though if he gets the VP nod for the ’24 ticket, I think his arc of fame could be rather Palin-esque.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
I don’t think the “lets bomb Mexico” is mostly about lithium; it’s about needing to get their bigoted freak on. It’s the 2024 version of building the wall and making Mexico pay for it.
rikyrah
@smith:
Which is why I want her UNDER the Jail.
JPL
@rikyrah: Not yet.
Local news said about 100 protesters, but I think that includes pro-trump, paid trump supporters and anti trump supporters of which there are many.
Bupalos
@Josie: When we didn’t bomb Canada to get their poutine? I’m all for casting dyspeptic side eye at the uglier machinations of our empire, but this is just…like… no. Matt Taibbi wouldn’t ?#@! this one with Glen Greenwald’s #$@.
Maxim
ABC News: “Philosopher and presidential Green Party candidate Cornel West currently owes more than half a million dollars between unpaid taxes and unpaid child support, according to tax records.
Records show West owes nearly $466,000 in federal income taxes from 2013 until 2017. This came after he accrued (and later repaid) a debt of nearly $725,000 from 1998-2005, and more than $34,000 in 2008, according to tax records in Mercer County, New Jersey – where he owns a home.
Additionally, West has an outstanding $49,500 child support judgement from 2003, records show.”
Baud
I think we can all agree that Lithium was a good song.
RaflW
@smith: Sounds like the FBI is monitoring some of the worst corners of the Internet, and taking that seriously when warranted. Good.
Alison Rose
Baud
@Maxim:
Congrats to ABC for doing journalism.
rikyrah
Fani Willis ain’t new to this.
She true to this.
She just submitted the request that the trial FOR ALL 19 DEFENDANTS BEGIN
OCTOBER 23, 2023
BWA HA HA HA HA HA AH AH AH AH AH HAH A AH
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Drain You is better.
Alison Rose
@Baud: First song I ever moshed to. If ten kids at a middle school dance can be called a mosh pit.
Alison Rose
@rikyrah: LOVE IT. Queen shit.
Jackie
TIFG has hired a high profile made for TV lawyer:
“Steven H. Sadow is a nationally known, high profile defense attorney who has been practicing law for over 43 years. He is a sole practitioner at his firm.”
snip
“Mr. Sadow’s trial and appellate practice focuses on the following: high-profile & celebrity criminal defense , white collar defense, including healthcare fraud, and general criminal defense, including murder and RICO cases.”
snip
“Several of Mr. Sadow’s cases have drawn national media coverage. Television networks such as Court TV, NBC and A&E have featured his cases. Mr. Sadow obtained an acquittal for his client Joe Sweeting, who was tried along with former NFL football star Ray Lewis for two murders that occurred during a post-2000 Super Bowl brawl in Atlanta.”
snip
“In one of the most high profile federal cases in Georgia history, Mr. Sadow successfully defended Steve Kaplan, the former owner of the notorious Gold Club strip establishment, against RICO charges.”
Many more well known celebrity cases in the link:
https://www.bestlawyers.com/lawyers/steven-h-sadow/2338
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Ken: Yeah the average MAGA is pro pot legalization and is into porn. At least amongst the small sample I’m acquainted with. I mean, I don’t really discuss their attitudes towards porn but it’s a pretty safe bet. As for pot some of them think the Democrats are the scolds on that issue. It’s delusional but so is at least half of everything they believe.
So the Republicans have lost the plot on those issues with their own voters. Or, they may still be on the trail of the plot on those issues when it comes to at least a portion of the evangelical block but the but the working class/redneck nihilistic hedonist wing lives pot and booze and I’m pretty sure porn too. And they probably don’t care much about abortion.
smith
@RaflW: That was my impression, too. It also strongly suggests that the mob at her house was an organized action, coordinated with people like Kutti and her co-conspirators, and the FBI has an idea of who organized it.
Speaking of her co-conspirators, it turns out Harrison Floyd has an outstanding charge for assaulting two FBI agents serving him a subpoena for a DC grand jury back in Feb, and nothing has been done to bring him to trial since. Maybe someday we’ll learn more about why that is.
Ken
@Jackie: “White collar defense, including healthcare fraud”? Who recommended this guy to Trump, Rick Scott?
Maxim
@rikyrah: Excellent. *insert evil grin here
The Thin Black Duke
@Maxim: So West’s presidential campaign is just another grifting operation. Got it.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Jackie: Trump has hired the PERFECT lawyer.
Maxim
@The Thin Black Duke: Yup. Why should he let RFK have all the fun?
Geminid
@JPL: I read about an April, 2022 prayer breakfast where Meadows told the gathering that he had been “greatly humbled.”
I think Meadows may have been telling the truth. He had a safe Congressional seat when he went to work for Trump. By now Meadows likely would have been North Carolina’s new Senator instead of Dan Bishop.
Instead, he stepped in a deep pit of shit. Besides the Georgia charges, there is still a real chance Meadows will face federal felony charges. I think he is looking at prison time, and the only question is how much.
At least that will give Meadows time to write his memoir. Maybe he’ll title it Humbled, and take it on the prayer breakfast circuit when he gets out.
rikyrah
@The Thin Black Duke:
Haven’t we known that all along?
Brachiator
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
The average American is pro pot legalization and is into porn.
Cannabis has been legal in California for a while now. It’s odd to see this still associated with MAGA folks.
Alison Rose
@Jackie: LOL I have a cousin named Steven Kaplan. Not the same one, but if this fucked up his Google results, I’m okay with it, because he’s a libertarian douchebag.
Shalimar
@Jackie: It’s Trump. The guy Sadow is replacing is well-known for representing hip-hop artists. Trump likes lawyers he sees on TV.
edit: and female lawyers in their 30s
Geminid
@Yarrow: Ramaswamy has a ceiling, I think, with this primary electorate, and that makes him useful to Trump. He’s not a threat, but he helps keep the non-Trump vote divided. Ramaswamy has not been anti-Trump so far, and echoes Trump’s basic (and base) themes. He probably will campaign for Trump after the convention if Trump is the nominee.
trollhattan
@Geminid: He’s the Nikki Haley of Bobby Jindals.
Mike in NC
This is a Nikki Haley specialty. As governor of SC, she repeatedly denounced labor unions and the members of unions as “cockroaches” but don’t ever expect anybody in the media to bring that up.
Soprano2
@RaflW: I always want to yell at them “Because you aren’t talking about it, you idiots! Why do you constantly act as if you have no agency about these things?”
Soprano2
@Jeffro: Our school system said they had 140 vacancies at the beginning of the school year. I don’t know how many of those are teachers, but it seems like a lot.
Soprano2
@JPL: I love that Fanni told Meadows he wasn’t special and wasn’t getting any special treatment.
Roger Moore
@Yarrow:
I think the stuff about no sex before marriage is a talking point, not a guide to real-world behavior. It’s a point where religious conservatives have decisively lost, as Mace’s case points out. She might get some fingers wagged in her direction for talking about it, but nobody is going to do much more than that. They sure aren’t going to kick out everyone who lives (or lived) with their fiancee before getting married, or they won’t have many people left in the movement.
Geminid
@RaflW: Ramaswamy is more like Cabinet material. For VP, I think Trump will pick someone of higher political status like Governor Noehm (I’m not ruling out RFK Jr. though).
Soprano2
@rikyrah: That’s never going to happen, but I agree it’s funny as hell.
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
There are also the two levels of why the GOP billionaires and other movers and shakers are choosing that enemy, and why the base is eager for that fight. Racism is unquestionably at the core of the latter.
And about the former: sure, there’s the lithium. But barring TFG or another GQP nutjob winning next November, we aren’t going to acquire that lithium by force of arms. So it’s hard for me to see a connection between ‘GQP billionaires want Mexico’s lithium’ and ‘GQP influencers are getting all het up to bomb Mexico.’
piratedan
@Roger Moore: it’s the American response ideal of a three day war, just see Mexico as a proxy for Ukraine.
the reasons don’t matter, it would be just because ‘we could”.
frosty
@Baud: Lithium by Evanescence? Great song.
wjca
@Geminid:
The question is, if (God forbid!) Trump wins, which cabinet post would he get. Which, I suppose, is the same as which post is he least qualified for?
Roger Moore
@Geminid:
I thought the traditional title was “My Struggle”.
Jeffro
@Soprano2: that’s just nuts
I hope parents remember: for every flat-out teacher vacancy:
Oh and 3) because of #1 or #2, some other teacher in that building is that much more stressed and likely to leave now.
Geminid
@rikyrah: October 23! That sure would make it a Happy Halloween.
J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian)
@Omnes Omnibus: Also, as we know from the Trump spawn, all of them can be the dumbest.
lowtechcyclist
@Yarrow:
It was the worst of all worlds. First, she’s clearly having regular sex with a man she’s not married to. (So there’s obviously not much repentance going on, if that matters. She believes that it’s A-OK to have sex with someone you’re not married to, and she’s acting on that belief.)
Second, having settled into this harlotry ;-), she refused to satisfy her man’s needs that morning, and as you point out, the man is the boss, and the woman’s supposed to satisfy him.
And third, she was flagrant about the whole business at a prayer breakfast.
She’s not going to get the sort of bye that Trump got from the fundagelicals back in 2016, and ever since. She’s toast.
Mike in NC
@Geminid: Our new GQP senator is Ted Budd, also a former representative and a MAGA election denier.
I think at least one of Nixon’s henchmen went to prison, found God (or pretended to), and made a pretty good living after that as some sort of motivational speaker.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@wjca: As a Cardinal fan of longstanding, I must, regretfully, disagree.
But you do you, Boo, go right ahead.
Mike in NC
@Jeffro: Just imagine how many teachers got fed up with dealing with idiots like the “Moms for Liberty” crowd.
misterpuff
They know what they did!
(They didn’t pay for The Wall)
Geminid
@Mike in NC: Thank you for the correction! Dan Bishop is the Republican Representative from a district south and east of Charlotte. Ted Budd is so mediocre I forgot his name.
Mike in NC
@Geminid: In the South, just being a mediocre white man gets you close to 50% of the vote. I can say that after 20 years in Virginia and 15 in North Carolina.
Calouste
Regarding the lithium in Mexico: $700 billion is a little less than half of Mexico’s GDP, and about 2.7% (or 10 days) of the US GDP. Not really significant in the grand scheme of things.
Yarrow
@lowtechcyclist: Yep. For the fundies it’s a bad combination. I couldn’t believe she said that at a prayer breakfast. I don’t care what she does but those people do. How did she not know that? Making a joke at a prayer breakfast about refusing to have sex with a man she’s living with but not married to is mind bogglingly tone deaf.
WereBear
@Kristine: Comic actors are routinely underrated as dramatic actors. Robin Williams, for instance.
pluky
@Mike in NC: Charles Colson
Manyakitty
@Kristine: possibly dead thread, but he was MENACING in O Brother, Where art Thou?
Manyakitty
@Bupalos: just ask Israel. And now look and them. 😕
Tony G
@Jeffro: Ingraham is obsessing about legal pot??? Apparently this dimwit thinks that the year is 1968 and that she was born in 1938. (Actually, most of the people who watch her little show were born in the 1930’s.)
unctuous
@jonas:
Because deep down inside they love that shit. It’s what they dreamed of doing when they were geeks in middle and high school.
They fantasized about being adored and above the rules and boss moves like grabbing ‘em by the pussy and cheating at everything with no consequences.
In the soul of every media pundit lurks a fantasy of being like Donald Trump. And the closest they can get to it is by being a media pundit.
That’s why they are wired for him. He is their spirit animal.
Paul in KY
@Baud: IMO, their best song.