I knew there was something going on, but I did not see this coming.
Whoa – big @mikeallen scoop on the secret campaign by top Trump allies to get Texas AG Ken Paxton acquitted.
“It was made clear to Texas GOP senators that they’d face a very well-funded primary opponent in their next election if they voted to impeach.”https://t.co/OhG6gZe9Lw pic.twitter.com/bR7W04RsCX
— Emma Loop (@LoopEmma) September 17, 2023
Axios (sorry!) article on the secret campaign by Steve Bannon and other Trump allies to get Ken Paxton acquitted.
Following a secret campaign coordinated by top Trump allies, Texas state senators yesterday acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton of all impeachment charges, allowing him to return to his post.
Why it matters: The allegations against Paxton, a close ally of former President Trump, bitterly divided the Texas GOP, Jay R. Jordan of Axios Houston and Nicole Cobler of Axios Austin report.
Behind the scenes: National Republicans organized an under-the-radar campaign of outside conservative pressure on the Texas senators designed to neutralize mainstream media coverage, top strategists tell me.
This outside unofficial team operated independently of the Paxton legal operation — like “a super PAC without the money,” a top GOP strategist said.
The team had a “very well-defined target audience … no different than a confirmation battle,” the strategist said.
After winning, Paxton tweeted his thanks to the conservative news outlet National Pulse, a valued player in the under-the-radar drive.
Catch me up: Senators weighed whether Paxton illegally used his office to benefit an Austin real estate developer, and improperly fired some of his top deputies who reported him to the FBI and other agencies.
Despite an overwhelming majority of House Republicans voting to impeach Paxton in May, only two of 18 Republican senators voted to convict Paxton.
So … how did that happen? (see the full story at the link up top)
I hope the feds nail Paxton to the (proverbial) wall.
Last minute addition, just after posting:
Good news: The five Americans who had been imprisoned in Iran have cleared Iranian airspace as they travel to Doha, according to a US official. Reports @jmhansler
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) September 18, 2023
Open thread.
Leto
Here’s yet another inflection point for the GOP as a whole. They’ll fail it like all the other previous tests
Edit: oh, they already voted to acquit? I missed that. Whelp, statement still stands.
Maxim
It hadn’t occurred to me that this was happening, but I’m not at all surprised now that I know. It’s more of a disgusted “Of course he did.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I thought this angle was interesting too (if true) in both state and national GOP infighting
I’ve been assuming for the last X years that the reason (one of them) that the Bush Bros have been so quiet and gutless on trump is that they want to keep the hope alive that the family can take a third crack and getting it right with one more ride on the Bush Family Oedipal Loop-de-Loop with George P, who had to suck up to the man who pantsed Daddy in order to avenge Daddy’s getting pantsed
Alison Rose
“Nice little reelection campaign you’ve got there. Be a real shame if something happened to it.”
Just normal business among the GOP. Someone remind me why we’re supposed to take them seriously as a legitimate political party.
HinTN
I am heartened that this came out so quickly after that travesty of acquittal. Seems like the mob boss’ millionaire minions ought to be in the Fed’s crosshairs.
Anonymous At Work
Once again, let me say that airlines can kiss my grits, hopefully while I’m blowing them a kiss, so to speak.
Jackie
When Paxton was impeached, both he and TIFG threatened to primary those who voted to remove him. It wasn’t a secret. It’s just frustrating to realize how many chickenshit repugs there are in the state and federal congresses.
Basilisc
Maybe disgust at this out-in-the-open corruption, combined with outrage at the dysfuntional electricity market and crazy excesses of the anti-choicers, is what finally pushes Texas into the D column? We’ve been hearing for years about the youth vote, about the shifts in the suburbs, about “if only Hispanics voted at the same rate as Anglos …”
Naah, but it’s nice to hope.
waspuppet
I was going to begrudgingly congratulate Mike Allen and Axios on the “scoop,” but then it occurred to me: Trump and his minions probably just told him. They want people to know.
MattF
The, ah, ‘shift’ in sentiment between the Texas House and Senate votes was noticeable. I was mildly surprised, but not astonished. They really have to go all the way.
When you’re corrupt, you’re corrupt all the way-
From your first squeeze play to your last dying day.
Scout211
Actual headline on USA Today Giving Biden credit for this deal is a rarity theses days.
Cliosfanboy
Remember the line from Boardwalk Empire. You can’t be half a gangster.
mrmoshpotato
@Anonymous At Work:
What’s the story here?
UncleEbeneezer
One of the only upsides of my Father-In-Law passing is that now we truly never have to step foot in the shithole state of Texas, ever again. I’m sure there are plenty of great people who live there but Goddamn we struggled to find anything even remotely nice about the state, in general (and yes, we visited Austin).
Old School
Has anyone tried to argue that the federal investigations into Paxton must be stopped because he’s been acquitted?
narya
Just got the new covid vax; thank you science!
Kay
The level of corruption is a little frightening to me. It’s true in Ohio too, although not to the extent of Texas yet.
Americans really need to understand that it could happen to them – the country could become wholly corrupt, to the point that it no longer functions for ordinary people anymore. There’s nothing special about us that makes us immune. The rule of law is an idea. If one of the two political parties rejects it we could really lose it.
I’m still sometimes shocked at how much damage Trump has done. If we get through this intact as a country – and there’s no guarantee we will – hopefully he will be infamous, like a true villain hisorically.
Mike S
I’ve never heard of National Pulse. Once I looked them up it reminded me of newsmax when they launched in 1998. https://thenationalpulse.com/
Leto
@UncleEbeneezer: I have a friend who’s honestly contemplating moving out of the state. He’s sick of everything there, the Army basically dumped him off there when they medically separated him, so he’s in the planning process of coming back to PA. Has family up here, and I’m trying to get him to move to my area to at least put another blue vote in this purplish place.
Edit: I also leveled with my parents some years ago that one of the biggest reasons we didn’t move back to SC was that it was absolute Republican shithole state. I love my parents, I miss being closer to them, but I’m not going to subject Avalune, my kid, or myself to all of that. I also know that once they both pass, I’ll never visit that area/state again.
Alison Rose
@Scout211: The use of his full name kinda makes me laugh. Gotta make sure people know it was Joe and not Hunter!
MisterDancer
I don’t want to fully tarnish the son for the evils for the father. Yet Mike Allen’s father, Frederick Gary Allen, was a very active John Bircher and wrote multiple books full of shiity conspiracies. He also enlisted at least one son, possibly Mike, in spreading them, as a teen:
Again — I have no direct proof that Mike is an alt-right sympathizer, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. There’s a lot of shit I believed as a kid that I would disown, now.
But this writer is right; these are topics we absolutely should be asking Mike about, and questioning why material like this “scoop” happens to appear on his site. And your question is a key one, there.
RaflW
Donald Trump siding with the nakedly corrupt? Whouda thunk it?!
Seriously, if we can’t string together a coherent narrative (and beat them about the head with it 24/7) about all the ways the GOP is corrupt, from state legislators, to A.G.s to governors & of course and foremost the ticket-topper, then we should all retire to convalescent homes.
UncleEbeneezer
We have a date for our Covid boosters and flu shots this Saturday! Gonna load up on easy to cook stuff from Trader Joes like their Tteokbokki (Korean rice cakes in spicy sauce), which is great, so we can just laze about all weekend feeling crummy.
Alison Rose
@UncleEbeneezer: This was a sentiment I had regarding Florida after my grandma passed and we moved my grandpa up to an assisted living facility near my uncle in Pennsylvania. As much as I missed my grandma, I was definitely glad to not have to set foot in Florida again, and that was before DeSantis came to power! I’m glad my grandparents didn’t have to live under this putz, and that they never saw TIFG get elected. They were both born and raised in NY and they hated the shit out of him.
BigJimSlade
It’s basically jury tampering, but probably legal. P.U.
NotMax
@UncleEbeneezer
When booking the trips to NY I make a point, even though it may cost a few dollars more, of avoiding any flights which include a stopover at DFW.
RaflW
To that Sciutto topic: Guess who gets nagged in the front page headline of the NYT over the released oil money. (You get zero guesses, because everything is bad news for Joe Biden. Even — especially? — good news).
MattF
@UncleEbeneezer: The local pharmacy where I’ve been scheduling my shots is still waiting for inventory. Soon, though.
narya
@Kay: This. We remain on a knife’s edge. Apparently we all need to emulate Sam and Frodo.
UncleEbeneezer
@Leto: Good luck. As a former Philly resident with one side of my family from The ‘Burgh, I approve this! PA, in addition to being more politically sane, also has the Poconos and the beautiful Pittsburgh area. We were just back there not long ago for my M-I-L’s funeral in WV, and I forgot how much I love the landscape of Western PA.
If Texas had something like Yellowstone or Glacier NP’s we would have at least been attracted to that. But the only thing even remotely relevant, Big Bend, never really interested us, plus it’s so damn far from any major city that we never had any interest in visiting. That sort of canyon vibe, isn’t really our thing anyways, and if we wanted something like that, we’d much rather go to Zion, Bryce or Grand Canyon. We did visit the hill country in wildflower season and it was lovely, but honestly you can get the same or better in many other places.
RaflW
@UncleEbeneezer: I still have a few friends in Austin who it would be nice to see. But it has changed so much that it mostly just makes me sad to go back. Austin still has some of the coolness and vibrancy I remember. But it also has epic sprawl, traffic, and that sameness-smoothing that comes with rapid influx growth + bland, national developer flattening of architecture, food and such. So I don’t go back.
And we try our darndest to see my brother and sister in law anywhere but Houston, where they’ve lived over 30 years. We might pop down for 3 or 4 nights between Thanksgiving and Xmas if we can’t sort out another option, but that’s about it any more.
WaterGirl
@waspuppet: Perhaps this is their victory lap!
WaterGirl
@Old School: I would answer “no”, except that by the time I hit publish comment, surely someone will have suggested it.
cain
@Jackie:
Having succumbed – at this point, they’ve lost. But Ken’s still coming at everyone who instigated the whole thing. You can bet that there is no honor among thieves and they are going to all have primary challenges anyways.
Hoodie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Another example why the GOP will never be “reformed,” notwithstanding the wishes of Never Trumpers. The party is steadily becoming even more corrupt in these states where they have supermajorities, as they don’t want to exercise any discipline against their own because that might threaten their supermajorities. Right now we’re seeing a somewhat similar battle within the GOP about the state budget and expanding casino gaming in NC. It looks like the leader of the state Senate wants casino gambling to line his son’s pockets, and he’s holding up the entire state budget (including Medicaid expansion, teacher raises, etc.) for it. There was a story in the local media this weekend about commissioners in his home county surreptitiously changing zoning on a parcel near a major highway, apparently in anticipation of the legislature changing the gaming laws such that a casino could be built there. Now they’re trying to tie Medicaid expansion to casino gambling to force Dems to vote for it and allow certain Republicans to vote against it while still allowing it to pass.
cain
@Scout211:
Also please deny any travel to Iran if you are a U.S. citizen. JFC.. you should know better than to head over there.
Anonymous At Work
@mrmoshpotato: Delayed initial flight, delayed connection, not a common flight from this hub, would have been better taking a bit pricier flight to another hub. The usual. South Park covered “it” already: https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/The_Entity
Searcher
The thing that blows my mind is that the national party is pushing fucking Texas GOP legislators further to the right.
Jesus fucking Christ.
UncleEbeneezer
@Alison Rose: Oh, you KNOW I feel this about FL too. In a perfect world I would love to go back someday and explore the Everglades, Keys, beaches etc., as an adult (because I really did love those, when I visited as a kid). But with the state promoting such an open war on Women, Black People and anyone under the LGBTQ umbrella, it’s not gonna happen anytime soon. If we want flamingos, beaches and reptiles etc., we’d rather go back to the Yucatan, Mexico.
cain
@Hoodie: Start throwing in stuff like forcing all casinos to have unions. You dont’ get something for nothing.
RaflW
@MisterDancer: Also extremely convenient that this credit-taking (because that’s what it is!) gets published after the corrupt TX senate vote.
Had this been reported before the vote, it might (though probably wouldn’t) have made a difference. The convenience of it may well suggest that Trump or his flying monkeys themselves waited till after succeeding to crow.
But this woulda been buried had the TX lege done the right thing (I know, naive to imagine that happening).
NotMax
@UncleEbeneezer
Cedar fever central.
UncleEbeneezer
@RaflW: We tried to visit Austin on the way from Johnsonville back to Dallas, and ended up having very little time because we were stuck in horrendous traffic. I’m sure there’s lots of cool stuff there (as I’ve heard there is in Houston and San Antonio) but not enough to entice to go back.
wjca
Took me a moment to realize this was about a particular grift. Rather that a bit of groping.
wjca
Expect major pushback. The (unstated) reason being that a less hostile Iran might stop supplying Putin with missiles to use against Ukraine.
Leto
@UncleEbeneezer: I could list out so many reasons why it’s so nice here, but I’m sure you already know most of them. Avalune and I are headed to Cherry Springs State Park in just a few weeks for some amazing star gazing. I mean PA still has its fair share of shitheels, but we’re making progress and continuing to fight.
Jackie
Interesting. Jeff Clark has decided not to show up in person at his hearing today to move his trial from state to federal court.
Per Harry Litman:
eversor
@cain:
I’m not sure that’s a solution.
Plenty of Americans are of Persian desent. Plenty of Americans are married to people of Persian desent. The large cities of Iran aren’t insane. It’s the rural religious types that are bonkers and backing the government. Iran didn’t pull 9/11 the Saudis did that one. Iran helped us in Afghanistan until GWB called them an axis of evil. Iran is more secular than Saudi fucking Arabia when it comes to it’s middle class and up. You can get attacked, kidnapped or killed all over the ME. Hell people get kidnapped and held in Dubai for having debt! Including Americans and Europeans.
Iran has it’s issues but it’s not North Korea. This stupid squabble has gone on for too long for political reasons on both sides. It needs to fucking end. Russia and China are much worse than Iran and we still deal with China and when Russia loses it’s war we’ll start dealing with them again. The entire mutal hate fest with Iran is fucking stupid.
trollhattan
@cain: Hell, we even have citizens who travel to North Korea simply by going through a third country with connections. IDK how to prevent folks from going into obvious peril, but go they do.
wjca
Comes of having been civilized for millennia. Rather than being merely a couple generations from nomadic camel herders.
Failing to work with them over Afghanistan, even if it irritated the Saudis, is yet one more failure of Bush II.
frosty
@UncleEbeneezer: Palo Duro Canyon State Park. I don’t have much else to recommend in Texas. Oh, Big Bend NP too.
HinTN
@NotMax: By that logic, and @Leto:’s, I should take the VERY MUCH LONGER route through North Carolina to get to my favorite (NC) beach. We do avoid staying overnight in SC, if that’s worth anything.
Of course I live in a shithole state and, like the esteemed Ms Cracker, I don’t plan to leave
Jeffro
@Alison Rose:
We’re not, but unfortunately most American voters – and our blessed media – do.
It’s our job to keep pointing out that the burnt-out, reeking shell of the GOP has been appropriated by criminals and RWNJ billionaires (redundant, I know). It’s cover for all the criming they wanna do/cruelty they wanna inflict on others.
Build something new if you’re a ‘principled conservative’. There’s nothing left for you there but corruption and fascism.
RaflW
@Jackie: Ed Meese at age 91 is apparently not too old to still be mucking about in favor of insurrection and right-wing tyranny. I had no idea he was still alive. And that had been just fine with me
eta: To jeffro’s comment directly above, yeah, Meese is a good example of how the GOP isn’t really that different now than in Reagan’s years. He was an enabler of much RW bullshit and shenanigans 40 years ago, too.
eversor
@wjca:
I’ve got a few Persian friends and their view of Saudis is pretty much backwards ass camel fuckers with Rolex and Land Rovers because oil who are going back to the stone age when oil stops being a thing. Though they were much more vulgar than that.
And yep. Had we worked with Iran in Afghanistan (they were just eager to get rid of that issue as we were), not invaded Iraq, and then tried to slightly normalize relations things would have turned out a lot different.
Plus, their food is great!
MattF
@eversor: Opposition to American influence is a major unifying theme for the clerical regime— they’re not going to give that up any time soon. Keeping a lid on domestic unrest overrides everything else. Also, Iranian memory of American influence is… not positive. I agree that culturally Iran should be more of an ally than KSA, but there’s a lot of history in the way.
eclare
@narya:
Getting my new vax on Thursday!
HinTN
@eversor: Reading Lolita in Tehran opened my eyes many years ago to the notion that Iran should (big air quotes, there) be our best friend in that part of the world.
RaflW
@frosty: Enchanted Rock is pretty cool. But not like drive-more-than-five-hours cool.
eclare
@UncleEbeneezer:
Big Bend is really beautiful, though not “canyonish.” It’s gorgeous mountains. I’ve been to Bryce and the Grand Canyon, and Big Bend was completely different, had some great hikes. And the night sky is insane.
Just had to stick up for one of my fave parks.
RaflW
@wjca: Bush II admin still contained far too many people feeling butthurt over the fall of our client, the Shah of Iran. I think even today, that resentment lingers in the dna of the Republican party. “We installed and supported a friendly monarch. How dare the people revolt (like we did here in the 1770s, but nevermind that)”.
cain
@eversor:
If you put a GOP in charge of foreign policy they have all the subtlety of a bulldozer. They don’t know how to do anything but project strength. The kind of thing they were doing they just don’t have the patience or vision.
You can trace back every foreign policy disaster to a GOP president with Nixon being #1.
eclare
@HinTN:
I remember when Jason Jones from The Daily Show did a series reporting from Iran. Interviewing people on the street, etc. Yes, the women covered their hair, barely, but they all seemed just like normal people, which they are. One youngish guy that he interviewed even did his W impersonation!
RaflW
@cain: Republican president Eisenhower was in office when the Shah of Iran was re-installed with covert US and UK assistance. Yeah, we got monarchist stability in Iran for 26 years in exchange, but between that and our meddling in (and later invading) Iraq, we sure f**ked up that whole region.
azlib
@RaflW: I lived in Austin from 1963 – 2000. I went to UT and even had a stint on the City Council in the 80s. Austin has grown too quickly and it certainly is not the same place I lived in for many years. I understand the pining for the Austin of the 70s or of even an earlier era, but the growth of the area was driven by forces beyond the control of the City government. The best we could do was to try and manage that growth in the best way possible. That task was made more difficult by the intervention of an often hostile State Legislature.
Austin would be a far different place today except for some of the environmental and growth management ordinances which were put in place in the 1980s. Their legacy still stands up nearly 40 years later.
cain
I’m aware – and I do have persian friends including one that ended up in imprisoned – he barely was able to get the hell out of there. I just saw him a few weeks ago.
http://behdad.org/
Here is his story at the NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/world/middleeast/Iran-technology-arrest-spy.html
The Iranian govt looks at everyone’s social media – you say anything against that regime and you’re gonna get arrested as soon as you set foot on their land. It’s not a safe place for anyone with a U.S. passport and I would argue especially if you are of Iranian heritage.
WaterGirl
Remind me never to get in a fight with John Fetterman.
cope
I would only be surprised if something like this did NOT happen. As you were…
sdhays
So, why was there millions and millions of dollars opened up to protect the blatantly corrupt Ken Paxton? It’s not for ideological reasons – whoever replaced Ken would be just as bad by almost any ideological measure. So some deep pocketed people are benefitting directly from the corruption, or just like corruption so much that they want to normalize it and make it acceptable out in the open.
I’m betting on both.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: We should perhaps check for news reports of an occurrence of spontaneous combustion in whatever location Marge was in whence talked about “respect for institutions”.
Alternate thing to watch for: the earth opening up and swallowing her whole.
Ken
JUDGE: I see Ed Meese is in favor of your client’s petition.
ATTORNEY: Yes, your honor.
JUDGE: I don’t need to see anything more. Petition denied.
WaterGirl
@sdhays: Your two thoughts are good.
Or he may have some really good dirt on some important people.
Or some powerful Rs want to discourage the folks who dared, for even a moment, to address Paxton’s corruption?
Alce_e _ ardillo
The Texas Legislature now has the worst both worlds: Not only are they being crucified for being spineless jellyfish, but now they have Ken Paxton back in his office looking for retribution against everyone who voted against him. Truly could not happen to a nicer bunch of folks.
cain
@Alce_e _ ardillo:
And the tax payers will be paying for all of it! Tax payers will also be paying lawsuits and a bunch of other stuff – low taxes? hah – sure, but govt is gonna do shit in anything because it’s going to be mired in GOP in-fighting.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Ken: Ed Meese. Sheesh.
I will never forget the hearing where Howard Metzenbaum questioned him about accepting a loan from a subordinate. To paraphrase, didn’t he think that was a bad idea? Meese replied, “the thought never occurred to me, senator.”
tobie
I heard on NPR that Biden is going to be meeting with 5 leaders from Central Asian republics at the next UN meeting. This is such a clever move. Strengthen ties with Russia’s neighbors.
https://astanatimes.com/2023/09/upcoming-c51-meeting-in-new-york-is-long-overdue-says-american-expert/
Leto
@HinTN: I mean, if you can avoid staying the night in SC then I’d say drive through the state. I’m not going to begrudge anyone’s choices for things like this. It’s really hard. The tv show, The Good Place, had several really good episodes about this very question. As you said, you live in a shithole state yourself so you know those contemplation’s.
Chief Oshkosh
@HinTN:
I’d bet dinner that Mike Allen knew all about this well prior to the acquittal but kept it secret so as to have a scoop but not actually harm the new Republican machine.
hueyplong
I wonder how many people told them No before they got down to Ed Meese’s contact information.
Leto
@tobie: It’s what our foreign policy used to be: building strength via coalitions.
@WaterGirl: Yet reason infinity why Republicans are so bad at everything. I want to say social media, but it’s just everything. Also that jackass even mentioning “etiquette and respect”. GTFOuttahere!
eversor
@MattF:
There’s a massive yes but about all this though.
Iran was rather secular, modern, and if you look at pictures from the before times you can’t tell the difference between Iran, American, or any Western European nation. For all intents they were us.
The poison pill was the Shah was so bad that everyone rallied around a religious leader and most of them have had massive buyers regret after. But with the religious types there the regieme holds power. Treating them like an enemy only enforces this nonsense.
@HinTN:
A lot of people agree with this. Annecdotal but there are a lot of Persians in this area. They are basically Americans with fancier clothes and lots of hair product. Which is something you can lob at various communities here. The are probably one of the most Americanized migrants groups we have. But then again, they didn’t have to change much. Also some of the friendliest people you will ever meet and unlike others never set up a Little Iran area here but just integrated everywhere.
@cain:
The GOP sucks at foreign policy and they suck at actually winning wars. Conservatives in general suck at it. That’s why they got spanked in the Civil War (Sherman even called them on this before burned everything in his path). They just think a bunch of rah-rah machoism and vague codes of honor and values win wars. They don’t. It’s all about logistics, planning, technical details, and the boring shit.
I served under Clinton and Bush II so I had a first hand seat to the cluster fuck. These assholes should never be put in charge of shit again. It always goes south.
As a side note while doing contract work from home I realized my cat has friends. I went out to see what the deal was and got fanged by one, it’s not infected, and realized something was up. These are people cats. They aren’t scared of people at all, but they are scared of people in the sense that they’ll come right up to you but reach for them to check them out and it’s a bite coming fast. So I set out some food and bought a fancy ass motion camera. Turns out there’s a facebook (ugh) page of pets that got lost in the two huge storms we got hit with. Mostly cats. The SO has facebook so she is posting the pictures up there and now I have a pack of lost cats showing up to my sort of tiny patio each night meowing. I figure as people claim them I’ll give them my phone number and go out there and catch sucker and put it in a cat carrier. If it doesn’t work out, well I have a platoon of cats!
twbrandt
Ed Meese is still alive??
Geminid
@wjca: The US and some EU countries are still pressing Iran hard on weapons supplies to Russia. There were reports last fall that Iran had agreed to ship short range ballistic missiles to Russia. Russia really wants them but so far, no missiles. The Iranians haven’t shipped Russia any of the fancy new drones they’ve been showing off, either. They apparently are being deterred somehow.
Scott
This outcome is not a surprise to any Texan. The far right Christian Nationalists are in a full court press in Texas. Tim Dunn and the Wilks brothers are spending their billions in their quest to fully take over Texas. They also are funding the Texas Public Policy Foundation which writes policy and legislation. The TPPF has provided the Heritage Foundation its CEO, Kevin Roberts, who as we speak, is laying plans for a Trump Administration redux along with the destruction of the “Administrative State”. Be afraid.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Greene cosplaying Miss Manners is the most Gumby-like stretch I can formulate. Her bar is in some abandoned coal mine.
lowtechcyclist
@Jackie:
I’m sorry to hear that Ed Meese is still alive.
cain
@trollhattan: They don’t have any bedrock of values so everything changes.
Notice even MTG isn’t screaming about vaping groper from Colorado.
trollhattan
@cain: They murdered a girl for improperly covering her head. Then jailed tens of thousands who dared protest against murdering a girl for improperly covering her head.
The old men in charge aren’t going anywhere, and there’s a big ol’ line of tyrants in training to take their places. It’s a damn shame.
trollhattan
@cain:
If she’s mad at Boebert it’s for grabbing the camera time. This will not stand!
wenchacha
@Jackie: It’s ghoulish of me to mention, but how is Ed Meese still alive? I would’ve thought he rivaled Cheney for heart attacks.
twbrandt
Jen Rubin pens a vigorous defense of Kamala Harris (gift link). Rubin has really done a 180 in her thinking.
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: LOLOLOL!!
Anyway
@eversor:
yep, Iranian food is delicious. Obama received so much pushback from the blob and the DC ThinkTank+DOD+MIC mafia for trying to ever so gently push the Saudi-Iran balance of power. But it was too much for the evil Saudis and they have so much money and are in bed with all our Silly valley VC, MOU disruptors.
So many forces allayed against Ds and progressives … every small advance is a fucking miracle
eversor
@trollhattan:
There’s a massive self own in all this as well. The reason large theaters have cameras in them is because of all the mass shootings. Especially the one in Aurora CO which is right by where Boobert was.
Had it not been for the lax gun laws and carrying guns everywhere she loves there would never have been cameras there and she wouldn’t be on video giving a hand job.
Geminid
@frosty: Georgia O’Keefe loved to visit Palo Duro Canyon when she was a schoolteacher in Amarillo. O’Keefe lost the teaching job in 1917 when she refused to sign some bloodthirsty oath pledging to destroy Germany. She had to go back East and landed in Greenwich Village, but O’Keefe loved the West and eventually settled a few hundred miles west of Amarillo, in New Mexico.
Kelly
I’m heading back to the hospital soon. Mom was diagnosed with C Diff Sept 3. Prescribed antibiotics and sent her home. Had the diarrhea under control by Sept 6. Never got her strength back. Cognitively not right especially at night. I’ve been sleeping on her couch. Diarrhea came back Thursday. Admitting was thru a swamped emergency department. Four hours in the waiting room. After about three hours in a wheelchair I requested blankets and fixed up a place for her to lay down with a bench and a chair. That’s about when the already swamped ED started getting victims of a wreck between a car and a van full of agriculture workers. 11 victims our ED got 5. Mrs Kelly got on the phone with hospital administration, finally bypassed the ED and they found a bed. I don’t know if it was Mrs Kelly’s call or having an 87 year old with highly infectious diarrhea sleeping on bench.
Mom’s getting better.
I’ve been sleeping 10~12 hours while they’ve got her.
cain
@trollhattan:
The outrage is that they are too busy policing stupid shit like this but not doing anything else where it matters. Economy, trade, and policy are all in the backbench – instead, too busy policing women.
At least in this country, we are not policing women.. er.. oh wait.
This planet’s old men need to stop obsessing about women.
Alison Rose
@twbrandt: Great piece. Thank you for sharing it!
cain
@Kelly:
That’s great to hear. You’re a great daughter.
We should have a national daughter’s day. Son’s are not nearly as good as daughters are (from personal reflection)
UncleEbeneezer
@Leto: I haven’t stepped foot in SC (where my Dad lives) since my Mom’s funeral in 2012. In part, because we usually meet up at my Sister’s place in Denver. I’d love to visit the Smokies someday, and some of the coastal places in SC look neat, but I’m hesitant to visit unless I absolutely have to.
HumboldtBlue
If anyone has seen the F-35 stealth fighter the military lost in the skies above South Carolina, please contact your local authorities.
narya
@Kelly: It might be time to try a fecal transplant; my understanding is that that’s a very effective treatment, even when everything else has failed.
rikyrah
@Scott:
Project 2025
Geminid
@MattF: The main thing standing in the way of better relations between the US and Iran is Iran’s unpopular, murderous ruling class. Same with Israel.
Betty
A quote from a Timothy Snyder piece I read at Digby’s that I want to repeat: “There are things so stupid that you must be a multibillionaire to believe them.” This is in reference to Musk and Putin and the infamous Starlink story.
rikyrah
@Kelly:
Sending Mom Prayers.
eclare
@Kelly:
That sounds awful. Glad she’s getting better, strength to you and your mom.
Old School
@cain:
We do. It’s a week from today: September 25th.
kindness
While the whole of the Republican party is a danger to the continuation of the Republic, it’s their evil oligarchs that fund everything that really scare me. I don’t know how we fight them properly. So many of them seem to want a new civil war and I just don’t want to help them get one.
eversor
@Anyway:
A funny thing about the DC area is we have lots of restaurants from Islamic countries. Many of the actual sit down dining (read not fast food or fast foodish) ones do not serve alcohol at all. For obvious reasons. All the sit down Persian places are going to have an extensive menu though. Never met a Persian here who didn’t love to drink. If you’re in DC you want Rumi’s or KooKoo.
Also contra popular belief alcohol exists in Iran. The religious and ethnic minorities are allowed to produce and consume it themselves they just can’t give it or sell it to muslisms.
At the end of the second term Dark Brandon should just quasi normalize relations, release more money, get a new nuclear deal and tell the haters to fuck themselves.
Kelly
@cain: Ummm, I’m a son ;-)
Soprano2
@Scout211: It’s because there will be a huge Republican freakout over us releasing Iran’s money to them. They’ll frame it as we gave Iran that money to get the people back. They’ll imply that it was taxpayer money. That’s why they’re willing to give Biden credit for it.
Kelly
Mom’s health was great until January. No ongoing prescriptions. Gardening and driving to the grocery store. This is the 3rd serious illness since then. She’s wearing down.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
So speaking about Boebert, I have a couple of observations based on years of experience at breakups:
As to Noem/Lewandowsky, they’re both conventionally attractive, he undoubtedly knows how to use the correct salad fork, and Bryon is undoubtedly a bit of a sterile dullard as an insurance broker. kristi would definitely be looking at having a little more excitement in life, and ol’ Corey has some bad boy in him. Again, though, when you build your brand on god-bothering, you’re kind of stuck with perpetuating it, and if you go against it there are some consequences. Had she been a garden variety businesswoman without this set of political views, nobody would give a second thought to the fling, and chances would be high that her marriage and reputation would escape relatively unscathed.
cope
National Sons Day is March 4th in case Kelly is a son rather than a daughter as the reference in the original post to “Mrs Kelly” seems to indicate. Anyway, all the best to Kelly’s mom, C Diff sucks but it sounds like she is on the right treatment path.
ETA: Kelly beat me to it at #111.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@HumboldtBlue: Its undoubtedly buried deep in a coastal marsh. If it went in at low tide, they’ll find it quickly – if it went in at high tide, it’ll be a while.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: I thought “the lower chamber” was a thing of beauty.
BethanyAnne
@Kelly: I hope things work out soon for your Mom
WaterGirl
@Kelly: what a nightmare! I’m so sorry.
WaterGirl
@cain: I could be wrong, but I think this Kelly is a male Kelly. So he is an honorary daughter. :-)
Soprano2
@eversor: It probably won’t end until the people who can remember the embassy takeover are all dead. That’s the reason for the peculiar grudge. I was dating a student from Iran when that happened. His father came to the U.S. two weeks before it happened and told his son that something bad was going to happen soon, he just didn’t know what. My BF was here because his family wanted to keep him out of the Shah’s army. The Shah wasn’t better than what followed, he was just our buddy. Mark Bowden wrote a great book about the whole embassy takeover called “Guests of the Ayatollah”. That rescue mission Carter greenlit was insane; it had a less than 5% chance of success, but because it failed Carter didn’t get any credit for trying it.
Bill Arnold
@BigJimSlade:
Appears to be.
Texas Republicans should be forced to explain how such tampering aligns with the oath (or affirmation) that Texas state senators take when trying impeachments:
eclare
@Kelly:
I’m so sorry.
mrmoshpotato
@Anonymous At Work: I see.
Scout211
@Soprano2: Good point.
Trump has already started wailing about it on his truth social (or more likely, his minions are typing it out for him). He tells us that he freed “58 hostages” and had to pay zero dollars in his heroic years as president! Ugh.
The GOP will always find a way to criticize it and the media will breathlessly quote what any of his critics are saying. I just thought it was a nice surprise to see the headline crediting Biden. Or at least it was written that way a few hours ago. LOL
Jackie
@Soprano2: TIFG is already on it.
MattF
@twbrandt:
Rubin also has a column about her on-and-off admiration for Mitt Romney.
Lapassionara
@Kelly: if you drove her to the hospital yourself, for future reference, call 911 and have an ambulance take her to the ER. Most ER’s give ambulance patients priority, and Medicare usually covers the cost. I learned this the hard way, after sitting with my mother for hours in a crowded ER, waiting for treatment.
WaterGirl
@MattF: I just read that article. She still sees a lot to admire. I see another fucking coward who waited for his book to come out.
Mitt Romney is no statesman.
The Lodger
@HumboldtBlue: If you can’t see the stealth fighter, it must be working as advertised,
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Soprano2:
Had it succeeded, he’s have been re-elected.
The plan was stupid, and in many ways, a rehash of Operation Ivory Coast from 8 years before, when a bunch of prisoners from Song Tay (west of Hanoi) were supposed to get liberated. That one went off without a hitch, but with one problem – there were no prisoners there, which was why it went off without a hitch.
The distance lines in Iran were even longer, the prisoners scattered to hell and back.
Geminid
@Soprano2: If you judge by the number of executions, the Shah was way better than the regime that came after.
The executions went on for years after the Revolution. Ibrahim Raisi, their current President, was nicknamed “The Hangman” for his activities in the 1980s. He earned it..
twbrandt
@MattF: Ok, she’s done a 160 :)
Soprano2
@Geminid: True, but the Shah was every bit as repressive as the current government, only in a different way. Plus, we helped put him in power by overthrowing an elected government.
Mr. Bemused Senior
NEDDY: how will we know when the silent TNT has exploded?
BLUEBOTTLE: I suppose that, when you hear nothing, that’s it.
Paul in KY
@HumboldtBlue: Did it go in the ocean? That thing is as big as a house. If it crashed into ground, big fireball & seismic detectors would ping.
NotMax
@Leto
Plus Pennsylvania boasts one of the coolest named state parks.
Doc Sardonic
Isn’t it ironic, on the conservative side, to see the misogyny in full display. The hue and cry is that Boebert and Noem have crossed the line with their behavior, and yet Paxton just skated on similar and worse legal behavior. Not to mention Mango Mussolini’s, numerous affairs etc, not even being a blip on the screen. I could go on but the list is too long.
Geminid
@Soprano2: The Shah was much less repressive than Iran’s current rulers if you are counting the dead bodies. And while it is true that we put him in power, that was 70 years ago. This does not extenuate the murderous and repressive actions of the regime that replaced him 25 years later.
1979 was 44 years ago. Why would I try to justify Iran’s bloody regime when they have held unrivaled power for so long?
Elizabelle
@Kelly: All the best to you, your mom, and your family. Rough times.
Geminid
@Paul in KY: I read that authorities are searching for the F-35 in two lakes near Charleston.
Elizabelle
WRT the topic, someone has probably previously commented that “everything Trump touches dies.”
I just don’t see this level of corruption playing well, although Texans may be a way cynical bunch. I think Beto and Colin Alford and all the Dem candidates/politicians can hammer the GOP with this. This and Dobbs. May have a greatly changed playing field.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Haha. Seeing if they have camping.
There’s also Poe Paddy State Park and Blue Knob 😳 State Park.
mrmoshpotato
@Kelly: Glad to hear your mom’s getting better. Hopefully the road to recovery is smooth.
Geminid
@Geminid: The way I see it, Americans might owe the Iranian people for what we’ve done to them in the past, but we owe the men- and they’re all men- who rule them nothing.
If the people chose the regime, that would be one thing. But Iranians would never put these men in power through a free and fair election. From a pragmatic point of view, It is right that we negotiate with this government as the representantives of Iran, but in other ways they are a bunch of illegitimate thugs as far as I’m concerned.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
the earth opening up and swallowing her whole.
Don’t tease….
Captain C
@eversor:
Twice, in 2001 and again in 2003, Iran under Khatami offered us pretty much everything we wanted except for regime change and we turned them down. Presumably because Bush’s puppet masters wanted to invade and install their own puppet government (which, especially given how they handled Iraq, would have been an utter disaster). Other than the invasion of Iraq itself, this was probably the stupidest Middle Eastern-related decision US has made since the end of the Cold War.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Captain C:
Netanyahu was never going to allow that – he’s in an unholy alliance with American fundamentalists, and has always needed to maintain that psychotic codependence to maintain his own nutty collection.
glc
@WaterGirl: That sounds right. If you can imagine it, they’ve done it. Or will shortly.
The Onion manages to remain satirical (for the most part – their American Voices on Boebert managed to fall behind the actual story). I wonder to what extent any of their jokes have been realized after the fact. It’s happened to me, but over a longish time frame.
On a completely unrelated note (I think) I found myself looking at philosophical clickbait just now on substack. The outstanding title was: “Five Philosophies about Love.” Which very much calls for: “The Fourth one will Shock You!” (This resonates with something I saw yesterday about polygamist hippies counting “One Mrs. Hippie, Two Mrs. Hippie, …”)
As I mentioned the other day I’d been wondering about this business in Texas. Very clarifying. Had not been expecting a civil war over it; kind of assumed the main players had talked to each other.
Captain C
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I think that was during Netanyahu’s interregnum, and I suspect a notional President Gore would have not only taken the deal but told anyone interfering with it to kindly fuck off (possibly in more diplomatic terms).
Unfortunately, we were stuck at that point with the Shrubya Administration, which was exactly the type of leadership that Netanyahu wants for the US.
wjca
That’s a hurdle, certainly. But hardly an insuperable one. Only look at our relations with Vietnam these days.
The biggest impediment, AFAICT, is our continuing embrace of Saudi Arabia. Tell Iran we’re shifting to their side and they’d probably be all in. Past grievances or not.
Bill Arnold
@Betty:
Thanks for repeating that quote. That piece by Timothy Snyder is well-argued. Since it’s in The Guardian, here’s a link. (It has many links within it as well.
Elon Musk likes to think he saved us from Armageddon. He’s just brought it closer – Whatever his new biography says, by giving into Russia’s nuclear blackmail the X boss can only encourage more threats from Putin (Timothy Snyder, Sun 17 Sep 2023, The Guardian)
Geminid
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Ariel Sharon was Israel’s Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006, which is the time in question. Netanyahu was in the Knesset opposition, and had no sway over Sharon.
Geminid
@wjca: This is not a matter of geopolitics. Past history may play a part, but the current rulers of Iran oppose the US primarily for ideological reasons.
VeniceRiley
I’ve been to iran few times back in the pre 79 time. My dad worked for Hughes and got out right before the end. We had such a lovely house in Isfahan.
He died in the VA hospital at 89yo after a cDiff infection. Oh yeah, he rescued abandoned pets and lived in a red area of California! I think I just Kevin Baconed this whole comments section.
Matt
The GOP has fully transitioned from a political party to a criminal conspiracy.
We are either going to have a democracy or a GOP in this country in ten years.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: Thanks for that info.