Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

People are weird.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Friday Night Open Thread: HRC Has No F*cks Left to Give

Friday Night Open Thread: HRC Has No F*cks Left to Give

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(Not-twitter version: I can’t find it on YouTube, but here’s a link to CNN’s video.)

Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s decided she might as well accept the role of point woman for the Democrats — the rightwing nutbars, and more importantly the ‘moderate’ Repubs and major media figures serving as their enablers, are going to blame her for everything up to and including the failure of their home team to make the playoffs regardless. It’s gotta be a relief to finally call the cultists out… and, of course, SHE’S RIGHT CORRECT.

Extended quote, per MeidasTouch:

… Clinton was discussing the current nature of the House of Representatives and how there was an ability to find common ground on the issues despite having ‘very strong partisans’ in the past but added, ‘there wasn’t this little tail of extremism wagging the dog of the Republican Party as it is today, and sadly, so many of those MAGA extremists take their marching orders from Donald Trump, who has no credibility left by any measure. He is only in it for himself and he’s now defending himself in civil actions and criminal actions. And when do they break with him? Because at some point, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members. But something needs to happen.’ When asked how that would be accomplished, Clinton said, ‘We have to defeat those who are the election deniers as we did in 2020 and 2022.’…

More goodies:


Fox News hedges its bets, because those legal settlements left a mark:

Reader Interactions

77Comments

  1. 1.

    brantl

    They’re never going to stop looking at Hilary Clinton and seeing this chimera monster that is everything they fear. Never mind that they’ve taken on the mindset of superstitious 5-year-olds, they’re never going to stop.

  5. 5.

    bbleh

    Yes! The FEMA Re-Education Camps! At LAST they’re out in the open, and we don’t have to keep shooting the people who are about to stumble on them.

    Of course, what most of them don’t realize is, they’ll voluntarily drive themselves to the camps when the Marburg virus activates the 5G chips from their flu vaccines!!

    Hahahahaaa, didn’t see that one coming, did you?  Thought you were getting around it by realizing COVID was a hoax and not getting the COVID vaccine because IT had the chips in it, but you never suspected that we would expect you to do that and we put them in the FLU vaccine instead!  MWAHahahahaaaa!!  And also the chemtrails of course.  There is no escape.  There never was.

  9. 9.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Is it Monday yet?  This heat in La is crazy.  Ninety-three degrees today and it’s gonna be 94 tomorrow.  Absurd!  Can’t wait to get to the mountains Monday where the high will be 62!

  10. 10.

    Freemark

    This made me laugh:

    GOP learns the hard way: Turning the base up too high blows out your Speaker

  13. 13.

    Alison Rose

    @UncleEbeneezer: Same up here in Santa Rosa. We had a relatively mild summer and even September, the hottest month, wasn’t too bad. Last week it was chilly enough to put my heater on and add the extra blanket to my bed. Today it’s 93 and what even the fuck.

  14. 14.

    mrmoshpotato

    @brantl:

    They’re never going to stop looking at Hilary Clinton and seeing this chimera monster that is everything they fear. Never mind that they’ve taken on the mindset of superstitious 5-year-olds, they’re never going to stop. 

    What a horrible thing to say about superstitious 5-year-olds! 😁

  15. 15.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Via Reddit: Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld says that elections don’t matter and that civil war is the only way left to save the country

    Clip of the segment and transcript provided in the Twitter thread

    twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1710051631818056179?t=UxwIyQiVusPOq1x-AoDyBg&s=19

    He starts by talking about Democratic enabling of crime and calls it evil, compares it to slavery and how the first civil war was the only solution left. That Democrats cannot change and have to be forced to surrender.

    “We had a war over slavery. We knew slavery was inhumane and immoral, but somehow we couldn’t solve slavery peacefully. It was an evil, but one side refused to acknowledge it was evil because it was too big of an admission for them to make. Doesn’t that feel that way now? That this defiant refusal to reverse this decline argues against the survival of a country.”

    “What does that leave you with? It leaves you with you need to make war to bring peace because you have a side that cannot change. Because then that means the admission that their beliefs have been corrupt all the time. So, in a way, you have to force them to surrender!”

    Co-host Harold Ford Jr., a Democrat, tries to push back by saying elections matter. Greg disagrees vehemently and says that they don’t work.

    “No, elections don’t work. We know that. We know they don’t work!”

    Ford gives him one more out by repeating that elections do work and instead he ends his spiel with:

    “We have no border. We have crime everywhere. Every facet of society is in peril and in chaos because our elections dont matter.”

    And there’s another clip I’ve found where Gutfeld says:

    “We fought a war to end slavery and why? Because apparently we couldn’t decide to end it peacefully, right? Because we knew it was an immoral evil and we allowed ourselves to engage in a war to end it because the Democrats clung to it. Doesn’t that sound familiar?”

    twitter.com/cynicalzoomer/status/1709681502110249273?t=-HuN-ZSV3exbSXKDG2ajMQ&s=19

    So Mr. Conservative Funny Man, Gutfeld, is a raving lunatic who doesn’t believe in democracy and believes only violence can “save” America. Elections “don’t work” because they lose sometimes. He should be fired for this shit.

    ETA: Also, I call BS on the “Demcratic-enabling of crime”, though I suppose that’s just how Gutfeld and company see it

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    Call me crazy but no one on the left or right is going to be any more energized next November b/c of Hillz’ “deprogramming” remarks.

    And while I didn’t watch the full clip, I don’t know why Gutfeld’s co-host didn’t simply tell him, “Well, the reason elections don’t matter to you is because you keep losing.  That’s why you do the voter suppression thing, the gerrymandering thing, all of it”

  21. 21.

    HumboldtBlue

    @bbleh: ​ 

    Yes! The FEMA Re-Education Camps! At LAST they’re out in the open, and we don’t have to keep shooting the people who are about to stumble on them.

    Hahahahaa

  23. 23.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro:

    I don’t know why Gutfeld’s co-host didn’t simply tell him, “Well, the reason elections don’t matter to you is because you keep losing. That’s why you do the voter suppression thing, the gerrymandering thing, all of it”

    Yes, you do. You know why they didn’t say that. It’s Fox and they’re not allowed to. Unless the co-hosts are willing to blow up their cushy pundit careers they’ll never say that sort of thing on Fox.

  24. 24.

    bbleh

    @Yarrow: Unless the co-hosts are willing to blow up their cushy pundit careers …

    Yeah they’re too busy blowing smoke up other people’s careers.

  25. 25.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Deplorables redux.

    Fox is just one of many who are pretending Hillary was talking about all 74 million Trump voters.

  26. 26.

    Lyrebird

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I suppose that’s just how Gutfeld and company see it

    I confess I think that is on the permanent talking points list for RWNJs, but they are amping it up to distract from their favorite defendant’s crimes.  Plus the Willie Horton effect.  And although he was real, imnsho the line they’re pushing is a lie.

  27. 27.

    Ken

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): @Turgidson: I don’t see this as any more likely to provoke violence as any of the other crap on Fox.

    However, I do see his “elections don’t matter” spiel as possibly persuading a small percentage of Fox viewers not to bother voting, and I definitely approve of that message.

    Weren’t there some 2020 polls of Georgia voters that found a noticeable percentage of Republicans hadn’t bothered to vote in the Senatorial runoff because they took Trump’s message about rigged elections to heart?

  28. 28.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Turgidson:

    Probably, unfortunately.

    @hueyplong:

    Gutfeld’s mask off white nationalist arc is nearly complete, he just needs those magic words

    @Jeffro:

    And while I didn’t watch the full clip, I don’t know why Gutfeld’s co-host didn’t simply tell him, “Well, the reason elections don’t matter to you is because you keep losing. That’s why you do the voter suppression thing, the gerrymandering thing, all of it”

    He’s a Fox News liberal/Democrat, they’re only there for “balance”, not to be an effective counter to conservatives. Or what Yarrow said

  29. 29.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Ken:

    True, I’d prefer it if more Republicans stopped voting and paid less attention to politics. If this makes some of them disillusioned without violence then I’m all for it

  31. 31.

    Alison Rose

    @mrmoshpotato: Haha, just a few days ago, I came across this reel on Instagram, when Martha Wash was on Arsenio. She’s the one who sang that “Everybody dance now!” intro to that song. The clip is just her singing that line, and everyone is like YOU CAN HEAR THE MUSIC. Iconic AF.

  32. 32.

    owlbrick

    @AlaskaReader: vast right wing conspiracy… deplorables… she’s been relentlessly calling them out for 30 years.  I may not have always agreed with her positions on everything, but gotdamn has she been consistently on point about the enemy. That’s why they hate her… she’s a woman with the audacity to call them out every time.

  33. 33.

    scav

    So, wait, a conservative is coming right out and saying slavery was an immoral evil and wrong!?  That it was worth tearing the country apart over. How woke is that?!

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    A former U.S. army sergeant tried to pass off classified national security information to Chinese authorities, prosecutors alleged Friday.

    Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 29, was charged with attempt to deliver national defense information and retention of national defense information.

    After leaving the military, Schmidt allegedly reached out to the Chinese consulate in Turkey and Chinese security officials offering to share national defense information.

    He allegedly had a 23-page Microsoft Word document titled “High Level Secrets” in Chinese characters.

    Another document was titled “Important Information to Share with Chinese Government,” according to a court filing. Source

  35. 35.

    piratedan

    @Alison Rose: agreed, Jessica needs to be in heavy rotation every hour on the hour on Faux and Newsmax.  It would also help if Faux would out themselves on their own deceptive editing and show Clinton’s remarks in context.

    Granted, Faux has been pulling this shit for decades and it’s responsible for the fear that so many civil servants and politicians find themselves (and their families) in today.

  36. 36.

    japa21

    @scav: ​
      Same thing I reacted to. Doesn’t he realize that a good share of audience would welcome the reestablishment of slavery?

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    @owlbrick:

    vast right wing conspiracy… deplorables… she’s been relentlessly calling them out for 30 years. I may not have always agreed with her positions on everything, but gotdamn has she been consistently on point about the enemy. That’s why they hate her… she’s a woman with the audacity to call them out every time. 

    Amen to this!

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    Putin claims Russia successfully tested a nuclear-powered missile and could revoke a global test ban
    [snip]
    “This is a stupid weapon system, designed by stupid people for operational reasons that are not tremendously useful,” William Alberque, the director of strategy, technology and arms control at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told NBC News.
    [snip]
    A suspected failed test of Burevestnik in 2019 killed five scientists and caused a radiation spike in a nearby city.

    Technologically, the weapon is not that much of a challenge, said Alberque, but safely deploying it is much more difficult. “There is a reason the U.S. abandoned this technology in the Cold War. It’s just a bad idea,” he added.

    The failed test in 2019 illustrates the dangers of this technology, he added. Source

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    @piratedan:

    It would also help if Faux would out themselves on their own deceptive editing and show Clinton’s remarks in context.

    Faux News couid also throw itself into the Sun.  I would prefer that.

    Sadly, this shit will still be around* after Rupert Murdoch is dragged to Hell.

    *All of his scumbag networks and “newspapers.”

  42. 42.

    piratedan

    @mrmoshpotato: I feel very much the same, it’s just absolutely psychotic to allow Jessica (I don’t have her last name, apologies) to be on there and speak to the truth, provide context and then… Allow all of their high profile hosts to also go out there and chop up her response, sans context and perform the very same Faux outrage that Jessica spoke to.

    just more bad faith that continues to fan the flames that some of these people want to erupt into a full-fledged firestorm.  If this ends up erupting as they desire, if the forces of fascism don’t win, I get the sense that those left standing will be less than forgiving.

  43. 43.

    Alison Rose

    So Jessica is Jessica Tarlov, and she’s “Senior Director of Research and Consumer Insight at Bustle, the largest independent news and lifestyle site for women”. She is described in one article as an “outspoken liberal Democrat”.

    But perhaps the reason they let her get away with it is because, according to a stat that is for some reason listed on her Google Books profile, she’s 5’11”. A woman that height in heels is gonna be a mite intimidating.

  44. 44.

    RaflW

    I think in broad strategic terms, the answer to Republicans and their beltway enablers trying to blame Democrats for the GOP’s mid-week implosion is to keep on pushing like this. Stay on the offensive. Be plucky and throw some elbows.

    The right is freaking out 1) because it’s all they know, and they’d manufacture a reason to do it if we didn’t get pushy and 2) because we dared to show cohesive, organized backbone and I think the Democratic base loved it.

  45. 45.

    piratedan

    @Alison Rose: Alison TY!  Gotta believe having her on must have been a huge shock to their viewing audience.

    Happy that she was given the forum to do so.

  47. 47.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Alison Rose: Reminds me of a similar thing: anybody remember the album “Black Box” ?  With the impossibly beautiful model on the cover,  but the iconic lyrics to one of the biggest hits, “Ride on Time” were sung by Loleatta Holloway?  I remember reading a while back that she didn’t realize they were going to do that to her work.  And she wasn’t just “sampled” — she sang the damn song.

  48. 48.

    Chetan Murthy

    @owlbrick:

    she’s a woman with the audacity to call them out every time.

    During WJC’s first campaign, she said “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession.”

    They never fucking forgave her.   I’ll never fucking forgive *them*.

  49. 49.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Alison Rose: A woman that height in heels is gonna be a mite intimidating.

    She’s two inches taller than me.  She can intimidate me anytime!

  50. 50.

    Racer X

    Love it when she calls them out.  No wonder they fear and hate her.  She sees them for what they are and makes them confront their own ugliness…and they can’t handle it.

  51. 51.

    JWR

    @Freemark:

    Commenter Origuy posted a version of that the other day, with the dramatic ending. ;)

    GOP learns the hard way: Turning the base up too high blows out your Speaker
    — Lee Drutman ⚙️🏛 (@leedrutman) October 3, 2023

    Then you’re left with nothing but your tweeters
    — Rich Parr (@richparr79) October 3, 2023

  53. 53.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Rokka: Oh, I didn’t realize that they stole Martha Wash’s work too.  Sigh.

    ETA: or maybe I did at one time, but forgot it.  It’s only in the last few years that I heard “Love Sensation” (the original) and realized “oh, they stole that, didn’t they?”

  55. 55.

    mvr

    @Yarrow: Also too, it is Harold Ford, Jr.  I don’t actually remember what stupid thing he did back in the day but I remember not being happy with him around the time I first paid attention to Balloon Juice nearly 1/3 of my lifetime ago. (Google tells me it was voting for the invasion of Iraq, though I expect that wasn’t the end of my discontent.)

  56. 56.

    AlaskaReader

    Former Rep. Harold Ford Jr was sacked from Morgan Stanley in 2017

     

    In Ford’s version, he met the woman in a professional capacity…

  59. 59.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mvr: as I recall, Harold Ford was pretty much the Joe Lieberman of the House. always rather pompously trolling his fellow Democrats. From Wiki:

    In Congress, Ford opposed benefits for same-sex couples and supported the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have defined marriage as one man and one woman. He told Democrats they should be more supportive of the Iraq War, and criticized Senate Democrats who attempted to filibuster the nomination of Samuel Alito. He was one of the few Democrats who voted for the bankruptcy bill, and he defined himself as an anti-abortion candidate, supporting some restrictions on abortion, including a ban on intact dilation and extraction, called “partial-birth abortion” by opponents. However, the National Right to Life Committee says that while in Congress he voted against the anti-abortion position 87% of the time.[25] He supported the Republican effort to intercede in the Terri Schiavo case.[26]

  62. 62.

    Brachiator

    “There needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members” in the GOP, she adds in our EXCLUSIVE conversation.

    This was a dumb thing to say, even if somewhat accurate. The only thing that Americans defend more vigorously than gun rights is the right to be stupid.

    The only thing worse than Clinton’s take is the idiotic reaction of pundits.

    And while it is true that some MAGA fools appear to have been sucked in by Fox News disinformation, most of these folks jumped in willingly with eyes open because stupidity gives their lives meaning. And you can’t fix that.

  66. 66.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Brachiator:

    most of these folks jumped in willingly with eyes open because stupidity hate gives their lives meaning. And you can’t fix that.

    FTFY

  67. 67.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @UncleEbeneezer: 101 degrees in SF today — and almost none of the older buildings have AC because it’s so rarely needed. Lots of my friends are suffering.

    It’s actually cooler and more comfortable here in Hawaii, even if Kihei gets fairly toasty.

  69. 69.

    AlaskaReader

    @Brachiator:

    …if somewhat accurate.

    It’s empirically accurate, and I’m of the opinion that it is a good thing to have it in the conversation in just those terms.

    It’s not time to tiptoe around basic reality, that kind of thing doesn’t pay dividends.

    The MAGAhats, the thumb sucking red hatted army will say someone was mean to them and that’s why they’re malicious racists and bigots.

    But we all know that isn’t because someone told it like it is, it’s because that’s exactly how it is.

    Sometimes the only thing that works to break the spell of cult behavior is formal deprogramming.

    And there’s no doubt millions could benefit from it.

  70. 70.

    MazeDancer

    Apparently, Hamas is attacking Israel. Who, not surprisingly, is fighting back.

    Not at all clear what is happening.

    But it cannot be good.

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    @Sister Golden Bear

    Unseasonably warm in Maui this week, brushing both sides of 90 degrees at sea level, with weak breezes. One hopes will be a mite cooler for the evening meet-up this weekend.

    Just now checked the forecast for your planned trip to the crater on Sunday. Mid-60s in the afternoon, dropping into the 50s for evening. 20% chance of intermittent showers. Suggest bringing along a jacket and umbrella.

  72. 72.

    piratedan

    @Brachiator: to be fair, I really don’t have an issue with her statement.  When taken in full context, it’s deadly accurate.  All of this dancing around “diplomatically” regarding what has been done and what is needed and the real issue about who’s been brainwashing millions of people in some grand ideal of bringing about some kind of authoritarian regime.  Instead we’re all dealing with tone and niceties and hoping that we don’t appear too strident and in the meantime, these are the same asshats that relentlessly went after her for decades.  If she wanted to state that they should all go die in a fire, I’d have no issue with it.

  73. 73.

    Brachiator

    @wjca:

    One is reminded of her “deplorables” comment.  Impolitic.

    I loved her “deplorables” remark.

    Also loved Obama’s remark about some Americans clinging to guns and religion.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    @MazeDancer:

    Apparently, Hamas is attacking Israel. Who, not surprisingly, is fighting back.

    I’m looking at some of the breaking news headlines on this. Looks very bad.

  75. 75.

    MazeDancer

    @Brachiator: It’s nuts. WTF was Hamas thinking?  5000 rockets? Murder and mayhem in the streets.

    Israel going to obliterate them.

    Irresponsible speculation online that Putin instigated Hamas going crazy.

    But it’s looking crazy.

  76. 76.

    Ksmiami

    @piratedan: drones will make short work of these fascist nimrods. And no, this time if these guys start a firestorm, there will be no Lincoln offering smooth words of forgiveness. We’ll go with Sherman’s way.

  77. 77.

    wjca

    @Brachiator: I loved her “deplorables” remark.

    Also loved Obama’s remark about some Americans clinging to guns and religion.

    In both cases, spot on.  No argument there.

    The question is whether it is a good idea for a candidate to say it, if the goal is to get elected.  Obama was a gifted enough politician to win anyway.  Clinton was not.  (Yes, I know she won the popular vote.  But the point is to get elected.)

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