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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Yup, Mitch Is Glitching, Again

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Yup, Mitch Is Glitching, Again

by Anne Laurie|  August 30, 20238:15 pm| 133 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Proud To Be A Democrat!, Republican Venality, Republicans in Disarray!

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Is anyone else grossed out by the staffer winking to/at the press? https://t.co/WjeyBsIdk3

— Luke Watson (@LukeWatsonCMF) August 30, 2023

And he’s being treated like any other aging, failing autocrat — the bottom feeders and sycophants who remain on his staff are busily working to scrape the gilding off the walls and steal the resalable goods out of his closets while they still can, propping him up for ‘live events’ before friendly audiences…

You gotta understand, if he can’t stay in office those McConnell staffers will have to find new jobs https://t.co/jvxTSx345D

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 30, 2023

From what I see of right-wing twitter, Republicans are currently divided between calling McConnell a RINO who should hurry up and die already, and insisting that ‘Sleepy Joe’ is just as physically incapable of doing his job. Of course, President Biden has more class (political / emotional intelligence) than to respond in kind…

Biden calls McConnell “a good friend.” Says he’s trying to get in touch with him today but doesn’t know enough about incident. When I asked if he believes McConnell is fit to serve and should run for re-election, @POTUS dodges, turns to @SecMayorkas and asks: “Are you running?” pic.twitter.com/ts2W5WJVM2

— Jenny Leonard (@jendeben) August 30, 2023



Opinions differ…

If you're feeling bad for Mitch McConnell right now, remember he only waited 3 hours after RBG died to talk about her replacement.
He has no heart.

He has spent his career manipulating the government to be in this dark place we are today.

He was the director of this mess.

— GingerSpice❄️💙 (@thedesertginger) August 30, 2023

Mitch McConnell's days on this planet are drawing to a close. Rather than spend that time with his family, he's doing everything he can to stay in the senate and block whatever Biden tries to do. So pardon me if I am not overflowing with sympathy for him.

— Jean-Michel Connard 🎃 (@torriangray) August 30, 2023

Mitch McConnell is the reason why we don’t have reproductive rights

Why our Supreme Court is a collection of Federalist Society criminals

Why Koch Industries controls Congress

Why Trump was rehabilitated after J6

The problem isn’t that he’s 81. It’s that he’s a bloody crook

— Lindy Li (@lindyli) August 30, 2023

No doubt, whoever the Kentucky GOP chooses as a replacement will be a worse person than McConnell, but I don’t believe they’ll be anywhere near as effective, so I’m willing to risk it!

Yeah we live in a world where Mitch McConnell has a legacy that is historical in it's awfulness, and nonetheless, his replacement will almost certainly be significantly worse than he is. https://t.co/EZr10ItnO2

— The Biden Accomplishments Guy (on Threads) (@What46HasDone) August 30, 2023

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    133Comments

    1. 1.

      lowtechcyclist

      August 30, 2023 at 8:23 pm

      Frist?

      No, Frist was in TN; this is Kentucky.​

      ETA: What, Frist is still alive? Who knew?

      Reply
    2. 2.

      chrome agnomen

      August 30, 2023 at 8:25 pm

      yeah, he can live for another 20 years as far as I’m concerned.   in exquisite pain, with no recourse.   and let Kentucky keep re-electing him in that state.

      Reply
    3. 3.

      Elizabelle

      August 30, 2023 at 8:25 pm

      Another jackal noticed that Mitch has lost a lot of weight.

      Yes indeedy.

      Reply
    4. 4.

      Hildebrand

      August 30, 2023 at 8:27 pm

      I have compassion for anyone who is suffering.  That said, I can’t muster any sympathy for someone who seemed to absolutely revel in the suffering of others.

      Reply
    5. 5.

      wenchacha

      August 30, 2023 at 8:28 pm

      Multiverse forgive me, I feel something for the human being in poor health. I also recognize that this particular human has never found a point so low that he said “we won’t go there.”

      He is a depraved version of human, at least to my unschooled eye. I don’t know why he is twisted in that way. But he sure is.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      SpaceUnit

      August 30, 2023 at 8:30 pm

      It’s sure nice to once again have a president with some class.

      Reply
    7. 7.

      jerry

      August 30, 2023 at 8:31 pm

      The Trisolarians have been sending him messages

      Reply
    8. 8.

      Steeplejack

      August 30, 2023 at 8:31 pm

      Another “divide by zero vapor lock.” H/t Stonekettle from the first time in late July.

      Reply
    9. 9.

      Betty Cracker

      August 30, 2023 at 8:31 pm

      My Suwannee River aunties and uncles who were in the path of this morning’s storm are all accounted for and tolerably comfortable, so WHEW!

      What a day! It will be weird working tomorrow as if it’s just a regular old Thursday. And yet it will be, at least for those of us who didn’t get squashed this time.

      Also, I made a pot of jambalaya this evening, and it was GOOD!

      Reply
    10. 10.

      Baud

      August 30, 2023 at 8:31 pm

      People get sick and die. Including people in power. It’ll happen to me one day. Life goes on. I’m having a hard time getting caught up in the drama of it all.

      Reply
    11. 11.

      Baud

      August 30, 2023 at 8:32 pm

      @Betty Cracker:

      👍

      Reply
    12. 12.

      Ruckus

      August 30, 2023 at 8:33 pm

      His replacement will have zero seniority and they will have to find a new majority leader. That should be fun to watch….

      And I agree they likely will go with most worthless, asinine, doofus they can find.

      I also agree with Jean-Michel Connard – after his run the country isn’t better, it’s the opposite. And his replacement will be as I described above. So at least we won’t be going any lower

       

      Oh and I’m having fun this week – it’s jury duty week. At least I don’t have to go to a courthouse and sit in a room all day waiting for the boredom to either go away or kill me. But LA does this thing now, they email me every night and tell me that tomorrow you don’t have to show up or you do. This is better, but not much.

      Reply
    13. 13.

      Basilisc

      August 30, 2023 at 8:34 pm

      The US political system – where anonymous billionaires buy and sell legislators, laws, judges, and judicial decisions, at every level of government- is McConnell’s legacy.

      Along with the Republican Party’s strategy of staying in power by rigging the rules of the game. 

      Reply
    14. 14.

      Suzanne

      August 30, 2023 at 8:35 pm

      I don’t want to see him get a big fancy funeral. Gross.

      Reply
    15. 15.

      Hungry Joe

      August 30, 2023 at 8:37 pm

      McConnell probably doesn’t retire in order to spend time with his family because his daughters — progressives all, I believe — won’t have anything to do with him.

      Reply
    16. 16.

      Betty Cracker

      August 30, 2023 at 8:37 pm

      @Ruckus: My guess is Thune, that sun-kissed son of the prairie™️, will be the consensus replacement after a very ugly knife-fight between Rick Scott and assorted others. The uglier the better!

      Reply
    17. 17.

      LiminalOwl

      August 30, 2023 at 8:38 pm

      @Betty Cracker: Glad you and your loved ones are safe!

      Reply
    18. 18.

      Steeplejack

      August 30, 2023 at 8:40 pm

      “He was eventually lead led away.”

      Autocorrect and voice-to-text are killing us. Also general sloppiness.

      Reply
    19. 19.

      Ruckus

      August 30, 2023 at 8:41 pm

      @Betty Cracker:

      The uglier the better!

      I see we think alike.

      But come on, how could it not be ugly? Wanna bet they hate each other as much as they seem to hate almost every other breathing human?

      Reply
    20. 20.

      glc

      August 30, 2023 at 8:42 pm

      Possibly of interest to some here –

      Graduate math program at WVU facing dissolution

      Reply
    21. 21.

      MattF

      August 30, 2023 at 8:44 pm

      @Betty Cracker: I can see Scott trying to divide-and-conquer the Republican Senate caucus. It’ll be interesting to see who is truly die-hard MAGA in the Senate— McConnell’s dominance has made that question moot.

      Reply
    22. 22.

      Dman

      August 30, 2023 at 8:44 pm

      Look I despise Mitch as much as everyone else,  but it looks like emotions got the better of him and his past evils starting flowing through his thoughts

      Reply
    23. 23.

      Steve in the ATL

      August 30, 2023 at 8:45 pm

      @glc: “how many stills can you fit in yonder hollow?”

      Uh, no offense to our Mountaineer friends and blog hosts!

      Reply
    24. 24.

      Steeplejack

      August 30, 2023 at 8:45 pm

      @Betty Cracker:

      Roughly how far inland is the Cracker compound? Much concern and discussion in your absence yesterday.

      Reply
    25. 25.

      grumbles

      August 30, 2023 at 8:45 pm

      I doubt this particular combination of dysfunction, pathos and sad weirdness is uniquely American, but sometimes it sure seems like the way we do it is particularly bald and shameless.

      I have no idea, of course, but given the extent to which he’s a political animal with his identity entirely wrapped up in being King of the Senate, it would not surprise me if he intends to keep at it until he drops dead on the Senate dais. It just seems like it would be so much better for literally everyone, him and the country included, to have options here.

      Official Senatorial Old Folks’ Home, complete with fake chambers they can cosplay in? Or just a glue factory around back?

      (I still maintain the proper approach to Don Trump’s presidency would have been to route all his calls and tweets to actors, pipe produced video in to the Situation Room, and generally give him a great Disney-style Presidential Experience(tm) while the rest of us could have gotten on with life. Hell, he could still be in there, King of America. Put a bubble over the White House and write it off, it would have been a small price to pay.)

      Reply
    26. 26.

      MattF

      August 30, 2023 at 8:46 pm

      @glc: WVU is working hard to lose its R1 status.

      Reply
    27. 27.

      eclare

      August 30, 2023 at 8:49 pm

      @Betty Cracker:

      Great news all around!

      Reply
    28. 28.

      Jeffro

      August 30, 2023 at 8:50 pm

      Houle is right.  It’s a dirty little secret of the Senate that half of these clowns are distracted, addled, or senile idiots run by their staffs.

      Reply
    29. 29.

      Adam L Silverman

      August 30, 2023 at 8:51 pm

      Petit mal seizure.

      Reply
    30. 30.

      Baud

      August 30, 2023 at 8:53 pm

      OT politico

      The Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services is recommending that the Drug Enforcement Agency significantly loosen federal restrictions on marijuana but stopped short of advising that it should be entirely removed from the Controlled Substances Act.

       

      The health agency wants the drug moved from Schedule I to Schedule III under the CSA, potentially the biggest change in federal drug policy in decades.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      dmsilev

      August 30, 2023 at 8:56 pm

      @glc: Yet, somehow, the athletic program and the budget for the central administration remain intact. A real clear statement of priorities.

      Reply
    32. 32.

      Alison Rose

      August 30, 2023 at 8:57 pm

      Re: the first tweet, I don’t think she was winking at them. It just looks like a little bit of a twitch, probably caused by the stress she’s feeling having to help navigate out of this mortifying situation.

      Re: McConnell in general…sigh. I know this will be an unpopular opinion here, and I’m okay with that. It’s not that I’ll be weeping and rending my garments when he passes, because yes, he is in general a bad person who has brought a lot of harm to this country. But I am personally uncomfortable with wishing for someone’s demise. True, putin might be an exception, (and I would hope folks here would see putin as worse than McConnell), but even then it’s tempered. Because if there exists someone so awful that their death is good news, that is what gives me tsuris. Finding relief or even joy in someone’s death means that their existence was a net negative for the world, and I wish it weren’t thus. I wish there weren’t people who use the free will God gave them to do ill. I wish we weren’t put into a position of wanting someone gone, because I would prefer a world without people cruel enough to engender such a wish in others.

      In cases like these, I think about what we know of the difference between how POWs captured by the russians are treated versus those captured by Ukraine. The latter, while being genocidal invading psychopathic orcs, are treated humanely. They’re given the choice to surrender peacefully, they’re given food, they’re not tortured, etc. I wouldn’t blame any Ukrainian soldier for wanting to inflict harm, but they don’t. Not necessarily because the orcs deserve it, but because your own humanity inside yourself deserves it. Because you don’t want to become what you revile in others.

      I’m not saying this to shame anyone for feeling otherwise, and I don’t think badly of you if you do. Just my four* cents.

      (*inflation hits everything)

      Reply
    33. 33.

      Hoppie

      August 30, 2023 at 9:01 pm

      Ruckus:
      “His replacement will have zero seniority and they will have to find a new majority leader. That should be fun to watch….”

      No they won’t…

      Reply
    34. 34.

      Mike in NC

      August 30, 2023 at 9:03 pm

      Moscow Mitch will only leave the Senate on a gurney and covered with a sheet.

      Reply
    35. 35.

      Betty Cracker

      August 30, 2023 at 9:06 pm

      @Steeplejack: Aww, that’s sweet. :) We’re about 25 to 30 miles from the coast, so we avoided the Gulf water inundation towns like Crystal River got, and we’re far enough upriver that the current wasn’t reversed by the tidal push this far inland, so we avoided that source of flooding too. We lucked out!

      Reply
    36. 36.

      kindness

      August 30, 2023 at 9:07 pm

      Will the Senate Republicans engage in a round of back stabbing (like the House did) in choosing a new Minority Leader?  Yes, of course they will.  Tell me if any one of them (outside possibly Romney) has any class at all.  Every single one of those dolts see’s themselves in the Oval Office and can’t quite understand why voters don’t see it too.

      Reply
    37. 37.

      TS

      August 30, 2023 at 9:07 pm

      @Baud:

       I’m having a hard time getting caught up in the drama of it all.

      I’m waiting for the media to turn it into the drama of “He’s so old” Seems only democrats have to resign from politics because of age – trump & mitch are just fine. They can govern from the cemetery, from the jail or simply sleep on the job. All good.

      Reply
    38. 38.

      Feathers

      August 30, 2023 at 9:13 pm

      Must admit that the thoughts that pop into my head are immediately followed by “may God forgive my sins against charity.”

      Reply
    39. 39.

      mvr

      August 30, 2023 at 9:26 pm

      @dmsilev: My university cancelled classes and ordered alternative instructional methods today so that they could have a record crowd for a volleyball game on campus.

      Reply
    40. 40.

      bk

      August 30, 2023 at 9:28 pm

      Sorry, but “First/Frist” was dumb even in the Firedoglake days.

      Reply
    41. 41.

      mvr

      August 30, 2023 at 9:29 pm

      @Alison Rose: well said.

      Reply
    42. 42.

      dmsilev

      August 30, 2023 at 9:34 pm

      @mvr: I’m very glad to work at a school which institutionally doesn’t care much about athletics.

      Reply
    43. 43.

      cain

      August 30, 2023 at 9:34 pm

      @Alison Rose: Well taken.

      I think the greatest thing I can do in regards to McConnell is completely ignore him and whatever that is going on with him.

      Of course, I do find him humiliating himself as the final touches of his legacy to be a lovely thing. Those videos of him freezing will be bouncing around the Internet for a long while.

      Reply
    44. 44.

      cain

      August 30, 2023 at 9:35 pm

      @Mike in NC:

      There is no evidence he is KKK. But I suppose it would be an odd act to dress up like one and get carried out in a gurney as part of his farewell.

      Reply
    45. 45.

      zhena gogolia

      August 30, 2023 at 9:35 pm

      @Steeplejack: The staffer winking really was repulsive. I didn’t notice that the first time.

      Reply
    46. 46.

      zhena gogolia

      August 30, 2023 at 9:35 pm

      @glc: Along with all the languages.

      Reply
    47. 47.

      mrmoshpotato

      August 30, 2023 at 9:35 pm

      @Betty Cracker: Good to hear – and the jambalaya to boot!

      Reply
    48. 48.

      cain

      August 30, 2023 at 9:36 pm

      @TS: A good test is to see how many articles will be written about McConnell and he should retire.

      My bet? There will talk about McConnell and then pivot to Joe and think he’s too old and he could also humiliate himself and he should not run.

      Reply
    49. 49.

      Steeplejack

      August 30, 2023 at 9:37 pm

      @Betty Cracker:

      Jeez, my estimate was bang on! Plus I learned way more than I needed to about the Withlacoochee River and environs.

      Reply
    50. 50.

      BellyCat

      August 30, 2023 at 9:37 pm

      Mitch has done as much irreparable harm to the US as Putin has done to Russia. Likely more. efgoldman him.

      Reply
    51. 51.

      zhena gogolia

      August 30, 2023 at 9:38 pm

      @Alison Rose: He’s as bad as Putin in that he has worked to Putin’s benefit, and nobody forced him to do it at the point of a gun or threat of prison.

      Reply
    52. 52.

      mrmoshpotato

      August 30, 2023 at 9:38 pm

      @Ruckus: Oh fun.  I got standby jury duty on the 8th.  Hoping to find out I don’t need to go downtown.

      Reply
    53. 53.

      Citizen Dave

      August 30, 2023 at 9:38 pm

      I’d really appreciate it if Mcconnell can be buried next to Rush in St Louis so we can get a 2 for 1 pee break.

      Reply
    54. 54.

      zhena gogolia

      August 30, 2023 at 9:39 pm

      @cain: This is what I’m afraid of. They’re going to use this to talk about Joe’s age.

      Reply
    55. 55.

      David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

      August 30, 2023 at 9:39 pm

      @zhena gogolia: ​
        that’s on Mitch. He has always hired smug, glib staffers.

      Reply
    56. 56.

      David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

      August 30, 2023 at 9:40 pm

      @cain: ​
       both sides!

      Reply
    57. 57.

      Math Guy

      August 30, 2023 at 9:42 pm

      @glc: This is a symptom of larger issues facing higher education in this country. I was very lucky to have a 30-yr academic career at a decent university; those jobs are getting harder to find now.

      Reply
    58. 58.

      Splitting Image

      August 30, 2023 at 9:42 pm

      @cain:

      My bet? There will talk about McConnell and then pivot to Joe and think he’s too old and he could also humiliate himself and he should not run.

      My bet is that the New York Times will get the ball rolling with an opinion stating that McConnell’s health issues are a conclusive reason for Biden to step aside.

      Guest-written by Chuck Grassley.

      Reply
    59. 59.

      Steve in the ATL

      August 30, 2023 at 9:44 pm

      @bk: thank you. Please join our campaign to shame everyone who does it!

      Reply
    60. 60.

      frosty

      August 30, 2023 at 9:47 pm

      @Steve in the ATL: Oh, that’s nasty – WVa math. What can I say, I laughed out loud.

      Reply
    61. 61.

      Buskertype

      August 30, 2023 at 9:48 pm

      Show some respect. the man’s name is Moscow Mitch

      Reply
    62. 62.

      Lymie

      August 30, 2023 at 9:50 pm

      @Hungry Joe: How do you know this? I would be delighted to know that it’s true!

      Reply
    63. 63.

      Steve in the ATL

      August 30, 2023 at 9:51 pm

      @frosty: again, blame the Delta wine!

      Reply
    64. 64.

      Dangerman

      August 30, 2023 at 9:56 pm

      Weekend at Mitch’s?

      Reply
    65. 65.

      eclare

      August 30, 2023 at 9:57 pm

      @Steve in the ATL:

      I am afraid to ask, what is Delta wine?

      Reply
    66. 66.

      frosty

      August 30, 2023 at 9:57 pm

      @Steve in the ATL: Mississippi Delta? They make wine there? In a bathtub? Or some other delta?

      Reply
    67. 67.

      Kent

      August 30, 2023 at 9:57 pm

      Well I guess Mitch balances out Diane Feinstein so now we have two senile oldsters glitching away who should have both retired long ago.

      As long as Feinstein is AWOL for being senile, might as well have her missing vote canceled out by Mitch being AWOL too.

      ‘

      Sigh…

      Reply
    68. 68.

      Jay

      August 30, 2023 at 9:59 pm

      https://twitter.com/paulsla1539372/status/1692949357719413172?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

      Terrier’s, am I right?

      Reply
    69. 69.

      Jay

      August 30, 2023 at 10:00 pm

      @eclare:

      Delta Airlines Special Box Wine,……

      Only available in Frist Class to ,……… well,….

      Reply
    70. 70.

      Steve in the ATL

      August 30, 2023 at 10:02 pm

      @eclare: @frosty: I no longer spend time in the Mississippi Delta, though my family still has land there, but I do spend a lot of time on Delta Airlines flights and in Delta SkyClubs, where I am served wine that, while it won’t be mistaken for a 2000 or 2005 Bordeaux, is far more drinkable than the local fare in Ohio, Indiana, or Kentucky.

      Reply
    71. 71.

      Steve in the ATL

      August 30, 2023 at 10:04 pm

      @Jay:
       

      Frist Class

      Nice callback!

      Reply
    72. 72.

      karen marie

      August 30, 2023 at 10:06 pm

      @MattF:   After Scott squandered their money?  I don’t know …

      The current NRSC chair is Steve Daines, a former employee of Greg Gianforte.

      Reply
    73. 73.

      Villago Delenda Est

      August 30, 2023 at 10:08 pm

      The Turtle, like DiFi, needs to resign and get medical treatment.  This has gone on far too long.

      Reply
    74. 74.

      eclare

      August 30, 2023 at 10:09 pm

      @Steve in the ATL:

      Ah, I was thinking a special blend from Clarksdale.

      Reply
    75. 75.

      Villago Delenda Est

      August 30, 2023 at 10:09 pm

      @Jay: Fantastic!

      Reply
    76. 76.

      Omnes Omnibus

      August 30, 2023 at 10:09 pm

      @karen marie: Your Steve Daines link is bad or it is a sort of meta-commentary.

      Reply
    77. 77.

      karen marie

      August 30, 2023 at 10:10 pm

      @Hoppie:   It’s easy to forget Democrats have the majority in the Senate.  Media coverage leaves the impression that Republicans run the joint.

      Reply
    78. 78.

      Villago Delenda Est

      August 30, 2023 at 10:11 pm

      @Splitting Image: Nuking the Vichy Times politics desk from orbit is the only viable solution.

      Reply
    79. 79.

      eclare

      August 30, 2023 at 10:12 pm

      @Jay:

      Yes!  Only dog breed I have had.

      Reply
    80. 80.

      Jeffro

      August 30, 2023 at 10:13 pm

      @mvr: My university cancelled classes and ordered alternative instructional methods today so that they could have a record crowd for a volleyball game on campus.

      Mrs. Fro is a big fan (no real connection; just likes the team) of that team and so we had the game on here tonight.  Quite the thing, in the football stadium!

      Reply
    81. 81.

      Jackie

      August 30, 2023 at 10:13 pm

      @Betty Cracker: Thank goodness your family/kinfolk are all accounted for!

      And double yay for delicious jambalaya!

      Reply
    82. 82.

      Geminid

      August 30, 2023 at 10:13 pm

      I’ll give McConnell credit for helping get $44 billion in military aid for Ukraine into the Omnibus spending bill that was passed right before Christmas last year.

      Reply
    83. 83.

      piratedan

      August 30, 2023 at 10:17 pm

      McConnell’s legacy is in making the Senate and the country a meaner place.  Taking good will and traditions and turning them upside down for partisan gain and then hypocritically calling out any pushback as partisan politics.

      The battle for GOP leadership in the Senate will be fun as Scott will not go quietly, and I’m not sure if Thune or Cornym have sorted out who’s next in line (in their minds eye) and there’s plenty of abject fuckery to be had with the likes of Blackburn, Hawley, Cotton, Cruz and Tuberville in that caucus.

      I’m sure that the media will have a fine time looking up Mitch’s greatest legislative achievements, namely packing the Supreme Court and allowing Trump to exit “gracefully” to be a continual stain on our body politic.

      He’s on that same short list of political headstones I would be happy to piss on.

      Reply
    84. 84.

      Dan B

      August 30, 2023 at 10:22 pm

      @Steve in the ATL: Ohood and Kentucky are states I’ve spent much too much time in and Indiana was mostly pass through.  Wine there, ha ha ha ha ha etc.  Seattle was like that in 1972 when I arrived but not any more.  1000 wineries!?!?  Plus Oregon.

      Reply
    85. 85.

      Jackie

      August 30, 2023 at 10:24 pm

      @kindness: Ummm what class is Romney in? He may look palatable compared to MAGA, but he’s still GQP.

      Reply
    86. 86.

      Jackie

      August 30, 2023 at 10:25 pm

      @bk: 1000% agree!

      Reply
    87. 87.

      wjca

      August 30, 2023 at 10:26 pm

      Time was, when there was a disaster or severe weather, part of the response was often “The schools are closed.”  But apparently no more.  Watching the news this evening, and the reporter says casually,  “The schools have gone virtual.”

      The times they are a-changing.

      Reply
    88. 88.

      sdhays

      August 30, 2023 at 10:28 pm

      All I can say is that I hope Mitch hangs on until after the November elections so that Beshear has a freer hand to fight the law requiring him to appoint some rancid piece of pork fat the Kentucky Republican Party forces upon him.

      Reply
    89. 89.

      Sister Golden Bear

      August 30, 2023 at 10:33 pm

      @grumbles:

      his identity entirely wrapped up in being King of the Senate, it would not surprise me if he intends to keep at it until he drops dead on the Senate dais.

      Sitting senators get far more elaborate and higher profile funerals than retired senators  So that’s probably a factor.

      Reply
    90. 90.

      mvr

      August 30, 2023 at 10:33 pm

      @Jeffro: Given that it is women’s volleyball I don’t resent them. But they should just have done it on a weekend. It just says that the University values sports and PR over actual education. Which is true, but still not what a University should be broadcasting.

      Reply
    91. 91.

      Dan B

      August 30, 2023 at 10:35 pm

      @Dan B: Ohood = Ohio, plus autocorrect.

      Reply
    92. 92.

      Jackie

      August 30, 2023 at 10:36 pm

      @zhena gogolia: Physically and mentally McTurtle is at least a decade older than Biden.

      Who exercises daily and and watches what he eats? Not McTurtle. Diet and exercise isn’t an absolute guarantee to prolonged life, but I’m putting my money on Biden.

      Reply
    93. 93.

      Steve in the ATL

      August 30, 2023 at 10:37 pm

      @Dan B: assumed it was a ghetto part of Ohio—“yo, welcome to the O-hood!”

      Reply
    94. 94.

      Jackie

      August 30, 2023 at 10:38 pm

      @Kent: Don’t leave out Grassley!

      Reply
    95. 95.

      Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

      August 30, 2023 at 10:42 pm

      Meanwhile at Twitter HQ….

      Reply
    96. 96.

      BeautifulPlumage

      August 30, 2023 at 10:43 pm

      @Dan B:  more like auto-miscorrect 😸

      Reply
    97. 97.

      Sister Golden Bear

      August 30, 2023 at 10:49 pm

      @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Don’t give Muskrat ideas…

      Reply
    98. 98.

      mrmoshpotato

      August 30, 2023 at 10:50 pm

      @BeautifulPlumage: Silly autoincorrect!  Trix are for kids!

      Reply
    99. 99.

      Hoppie

      August 30, 2023 at 10:56 pm

      @Dan B: Grew up in southwest Ohio and lived 30 years around Lexington. I met Ms Hoppie through Kentucky wine, but it is a very long story….  Thankfully blessed to be able to afford San Diego now….

      Reply
    100. 100.

      wjca

      August 30, 2023 at 10:58 pm

      In the original post, there is a Tweet from SpiceGirl(?) which reads in part:

      “He [McConnell] was the director of this mess.”

      Which overlooks the critical detail that he was also the Executive Director**

      ** For those not in the business, the Executive Director is the guy who gets the funding to allow the movie to be made.  McConnell’s fundraising and funding of the creeps in his caucus were critical to making the mess.

      Reply
    101. 101.

      glc

      August 30, 2023 at 10:59 pm

      @Splitting Image: While I can’t actually see anything on ex-Twitter,

      Google informs me that the Pitchbot is on the case.

      Opinion | Mitch McConnell’s behavior at a recent press conference raises questions about Biden’s competence for high office.

      Reply
    102. 102.

      Jeffro

      August 30, 2023 at 11:01 pm

      @mvr: totally agree

      they almost certainly could have had the same (or close to it) crowd just by telling the students/faculty/staff what they were trying to do and offering free pizza.   =)

      (on a weekend)

      Reply
    103. 103.

      Odie Hugh Manatee

      August 30, 2023 at 11:03 pm

      @Steeplejack:

      More like a irql_not_less_or_equal lockup in Windows, which is usually caused by memory issues.

      I like that he is being silenced. I find that a fitting end for him.

      Reply
    104. 104.

      RevRick

      August 30, 2023 at 11:12 pm

      While Joe Biden has always been at the dead center of the Democratic Party throughout his career, Mitch McConnell perfectly exemplifies the moral decay of the Republican Party. It’s hard to believe he entered the Senate as a moderate Republican. But then it’s hard to believe that there were ever Republicans like Jacob Javits or Clifford Case or Mark Hatfield. And it’s jarring to recall that the irascible Senate Minority Leader, Everett Dirksen, rounded up Republican votes to overcome Southern Democrats’ filibuster in order to pass the Civil Rights Act.
      That act of legislation determined the ultimate arc of the two parties. For Democrats it meant jettisoning their Southern white racists for the votes of newly enfranchised black citizens and becoming a party of inclusion. For Republicans it meant that they gained all those Southern white voters, a solid electoral base and, over time, a slew of new members of Congress. In the short run, for Republicans, it made Northern conservatives the masters of the party, but now the party has become thoroughly Dixiefied. (And it’s important to note that Jim Crow was the original modern fascism). Trump as where they have landed sixty years later.

      From a detached historical perspective, it’s fascinating to see how the two parties have evolved since 1854, what principles they have kept, and what they have swapped. At its origin the Republican Party was the progressive party of its day, an amalgam of the Conscience Whigs, Free Soilers, and Northern Democrats who were appalled at the party’s direction of the  1850s. It was the party of Greater New England. Its ideology was free labor and improvement, the latter encompassing everything from moral self-improvement, to mass education, to support for voluntary organizations to promoting economic growth. In the seventy two years stretch from 1860 to 1932, except for Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson, the Republicans held the Presidency. It’s hard for us to believe that the Republicans were the ones who gave us the Civil Rights Amendments and the vote for women.

      Reply
    105. 105.

      Old Dan and Little Ann

      August 30, 2023 at 11:14 pm

      Regarding the turtle.

      “My hate will die with you.”

      edited- Braveheart

      Reply
    106. 106.

      Timill

      August 30, 2023 at 11:15 pm

      @Hoppie: I’m going to guess that Sue Francis was involved…. [Her mint juleps had a lot to do with Marcia and me getting together]

      Reply
    107. 107.

      prostratedragon

      August 30, 2023 at 11:18 pm

      @Adam L Silverman:  So says a friend who has epilepsy. Apparently it does appear after a stroke or head injury sometimes.

      Reply
    108. 108.

      Old School

      August 30, 2023 at 11:18 pm

      @glc: While DougJ is on the case, that particular PitchBot tweet is from Mitch’s first public glitch a month ago.

      Reply
    109. 109.

      Dan B

      August 30, 2023 at 11:19 pm

      @Hoppie:  Mine was ten miles west of Akron until 17 then 2 years in Cincy, a few months in San Francisco and Tacoma, seven months in Louisville.  Got lucky to be in Seattle.  Bought and sold at the right time.

      Reply
    110. 110.

      RevRick

      August 30, 2023 at 11:20 pm

      @Alison Rose: Thank you for these words. You know the ancient rabbis decided that the one impermissible prayer was to wish harm on another, and would go so far as to say that if you saw an ambulance heading down your street, it would be wrong to pray, “I hope it’s no one at my house,” because means pushing Ill-fortune on another.

      Reply
    111. 111.

      BR

      August 30, 2023 at 11:26 pm

      About the oak that landed on the DeSantis house:

      #Entifa was right there

      https://mastodon.social/@KristinMuH/110981967448150516

      Reply
    112. 112.

      Geminid

      August 30, 2023 at 11:27 pm

      @RevRick: You left out an important part of the early Republican coalition: the Nativist members of the American “Know Nothing” Party, which was a significant force in 1850s politics. The American Party dissolved itself in 1860 and its Northern members backed the Republican Party’s first presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln. Afterwards, they remained an important strain of the party.

      Their political descendents were the Taft Republicans of the 1950s. The Southern Party realignment of the 1970s brought these reactionaries powerful allies, and now this alliance dominates the Republican Party.

      Reply
    113. 113.

      RaflW

      August 30, 2023 at 11:29 pm

      @Hungry Joe: Of course Mitch and Elaine can have whatever arrangement they want for their private life, I do not care (as long as there’s consent).

      But do they ever go out and do things as a couple? I don’t seek out much info aobut Mitch other than his terrible deeds as GOP Leader. But unlike, say, Ron Reagan or (believe me, these are rather different examples!) Pete Buttigieg, one only seems to know they’re married because it’s mentioned in the press (and I harped on the potential for untraceable comms to be passing via those two when she was a Cabinet member).

      If he’s glitching out and on his way to eternal stasis, wouldn’t he and his beloved want to savor that couple time? Retire, Mitch!

      Reply
    114. 114.

      Jackie

      August 30, 2023 at 11:34 pm

      @BR: A woke oak. 😂

      Reply
    115. 115.

      Hoppie

      August 30, 2023 at 11:35 pm

      @Timill: Alas, Ms Hoppie is not a bourbon fan – I know, sacrilege. It had to do with bourbon interests squashing developing KY wineries in the seventies so the job position she took there was opened up.  A very mundane story, ahem.

      Reply
    116. 116.

      John S.

      August 30, 2023 at 11:38 pm

      @Dan B:

      I feel the same way. Bought here in WA, sold in FL at exactly the right time. I couldn’t even afford my house today with interest rates where they are.

      Reply
    117. 117.

      Mai Naem mobileI

      August 30, 2023 at 11:40 pm

      @BR: i think DeSatan should take that as a message from god.

      Reply
    118. 118.

      Sure Lurkalot

      August 30, 2023 at 11:47 pm

      @zhena gogolia: I learned both Ancient Greek and Latin in college. Got a couple of degrees in Classics. Ended up with a 35 year career in finance. Skills do translate.

      Even in 1973 I was an outlier as not pre anything. I had no plan or predestination. Just knew I was stupid like a common Socrates.

      Reply
    119. 119.

      RevRick

      August 30, 2023 at 11:48 pm

      @Geminid: The Whigs always had a nativist strain, whereas the Democrats always supported mass immigration from the Jackson administration days. And when it comes to matters of sex and gender issues, that was the quirky outcome of the Peggy Eaton affair, or as one wag put it, “when the soft hand of Martin Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton’s knocker.”

      Reply
    120. 120.

      Geminid

      August 31, 2023 at 12:02 am

      @RevRick: That’s why when the Whigs broke up at the end of the 1840s a lot of their members went over to the Know Nothings

      Ulysses Grant said he was a Know Nothing for a brief period. That might have been a reaction to losing an election for county engineer to a German immigrant. Grant would have been in charge of roads in a St. Louis area county. Grant reverted to a Democrat, and said he would have voted for Douglas in 1860 but had just moved to Galena and he evidently was not yet qualified to vote there.

      Reply
    121. 121.

      Pennsylvanian

      August 31, 2023 at 12:11 am

      @bk: Were you making a motion? If so, I second!

      Reply
    122. 122.

      Other MJS

      August 31, 2023 at 12:13 am

      @Alison Rose:

      Because if there exists someone so awful that their death is good news, that is what gives me tsuris. Finding relief or even joy in someone’s death means that their existence was a net negative for the world, and I wish it weren’t thus.

      Eloquent. I pity McConnell because it’s horrifying to imagine being him.

      Reply
    123. 123.

      Onan Soumy

      August 31, 2023 at 12:55 am

      I know we’re supposed to set aside our petty differences and pity the man, but I’ve been actively wishing for McConnell’s demise for over a dozen years, so why stop now?

      Reply
    124. 124.

      karen marie

      August 31, 2023 at 1:49 am

      @Omnes Omnibus: I dunno what happened to the link, but I think it provides the gist – he’s a Trumper.

      Reply
    125. 125.

      sab

      August 31, 2023 at 2:11 am

      Mitch McConnell has been who he is for his whole public life. Dancing gleefully when those he disagreed with died.

      He isn’t dead. But I won’t be sad or pretend to be sad when it happens. Nor will I be respectful.

      But meanwhile he ain’t dead yet.

      Reply
    126. 126.

      Ruckus

      August 31, 2023 at 2:22 am

      @Alison Rose:

      I get what you are saying and really I’d like to agree, it is after the humanitarian position.

      However.

      I’ve met some in my decades whose demise would really, really, really, and I do mean REALLY beautify the planet, hell maybe the entire solar system. Not all that many of course but some. Now of course I have to consider that there might be someone who thinks the same as me, but my choices would be those who think their shit doesn’t stink, while we can smell it a thousand miles away. I give you one d. trump. Tell me the world won’t be a better place when he stops breathing from natural causes. There have been examples for longer than people have known how to write. I could likely make a list that many could agree with, vlad comes to mind for example. Hitler could have coughed up a lung or two 10-15 yrs earlier and the world would have been a tad bit brighter.

      I’m not sure it’s that we wish them cold and useless but that we wish they would have maybe just a bit of that thing called humanity, the ability not believe they were placed here to rule over, kill, rob and steal life and things from the rest of us. And if they can’t conceive of the concept of humanity maybe they could, instead of doing so much damage to the rest of us they could at least do themselves in.

      Reply
    127. 127.

      Ruckus

      August 31, 2023 at 2:24 am

      @piratedan:

      I wouldn’t waste the piss.

      That’s how much I think of him…..

      Reply
    128. 128.

      Ruckus

      August 31, 2023 at 2:30 am

      @Jackie:

      We all age differently. There is a woman in the old farts complex that I live in who is 97 yrs old. Still rides around on her electric, still remembers growing up and living in this area from before I was born and she was able to vote before I was born. There are a number of folks in their 90s. And I knew people who never got to retire.

      Reply
    129. 129.

      Frankensteinbeck

      August 31, 2023 at 6:42 am

      @Alison Rose:

      I wish no one suffering or death, but I can think of no one who has done more damage to America and needs to be removed from causing harm to others more than Mitch McConnell.  Even Trump is a creation of McConnell’s evil.

      Reply
    130. 130.

      Realworldrj

      August 31, 2023 at 6:59 am

      Mitch being propped up by aides and Leo Leonard’s hand reminds me of how Bruce Willis was used by co-workers as a cash cow https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-03-30/bruce-willis-aphasia-memory-loss-cognitive-disorder

      Reply
    131. 131.

      BretH

      August 31, 2023 at 9:35 am

      @grumbles: Disney Trump Presidency, LOVE THIS!

      Reply
    132. 132.

      way2blue

      August 31, 2023 at 12:19 pm

      Any medical types here that might shed light on what’s going on with Mitch McConnell?  Is he having mini strokes?  Senior moments?  Some form of aphasia?  Curious…

      Reply
    133. 133.

      glc

      August 31, 2023 at 2:52 pm

      @Old School: Makes sense. I probably could have worked that out from Google as well, with a slightly closer look.

      I don’t think these things show up on Mastodon currently.

      Reply

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