Last time we checked in on disgraced Florida GOP power throuple Christian and Bridget Ziegler, he was still refusing to resign as chairman of the FL GOP, and she was resisting calls to resign her seat on the Sarasota County School Board. Last weekend, the FL GOP executive board voted to strip Christian of his power and reduce his $120,000 salary to $1. But he remains chairman, and she’s still on the school board and a paid DeSantis crony-member of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board.
There’s a new development. The Sarasota cops who are investigating a rape accusation against Christian Ziegler unearthed a second sex tape. The new video purportedly shows Bridget Ziegler “engaged in sexual relations with a woman,” according to the Trident, the journalism program of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, which was the source of the original story about the rape accusation.
According to an affidavit filed by Sarasota police Det. Angela Cox, Christian Ziegler admitted to police he recorded the incident that led to the rape allegation, a video police also recovered in the investigation. Bridget Ziegler told investigators she and her husband had a joint sexual encounter with the same woman more than a year ago, according to the affidavit.
A second video has been recovered by police showing Bridget Ziegler, a cofounder of the conservative Moms for Liberty, engaging in sexual relations with a woman, sources said. It is not known if the woman in the video is the same woman who has alleged she was sexually assaulted by Christian Ziegler. Neither Christian nor Bridget Ziegler have responded to requests for comment from the Trident.
Remember, Bridget Ziegler bragged onstage to her fellow AstroTurf “mama bears” and Ron DeSantis about her role in writing Florida’s notorious “Don’t Say Gay” law — during approximately the same timeframe she was shagging another woman while her husband filmed it. The latter would be none of our business if not for the former, but here we are. Her victims haven’t forgotten her role in their ongoing persecution:
Numerous citizens spoke at last week’s packed school board meeting against Bridget Ziegler, many of them claiming the revelations of the police investigation exposed hypocrisy in her anti-LGBTQ efforts.
“Bridget and Christian Ziegler have stepped on the backs of marginalized communities across Florida,” said Nicholas Mechuka, of Equality Florida, at the meeting. “They have demonized people, Bridget Ziegler is an architect of Moms for Liberty. It is not a grassroots movement. It is a cynical sick tool hatched by the Zieglers to sell fear and division for political gain.”
“You have emotionally and psychologically damaged countless students, parents, and teachers with your hateful rhetoric,” resident Steve Russell told Bridget Ziegler. “Resign.”
They won’t resign, but the story isn’t going anywhere thanks to outfits like the Trident making public records requests for the videos (denied due the ongoing investigation…for now) and interviewing sources in the police department. Meanwhile, elections — and with them, accountability — are coming in 2024. Will Floridians take out the trash? We’ll see.
Open thread.
Alison Rose
Well, to be fair, it’s “Don’t Say Gay” not “Don’t Say Bi”. She’s in the clear!!!!
Also I hope they pay him that $1 salary in pennies.
MattF
As I’ve said before, the writers of this episode should be admonished for naming the hypocrite ‘Christian’.
Lyrebird
Thank you BC!
I have started calling the astroturf haters “Moms for Bigotry”
As someone who really likes privacy, I am not sure what I think about releasing the other video. As someone who gives a sht about young people, I hope this scandal helps bring down the schemes of those Moms for Bigotry and Tormenting Other People’s Kids.
Suzanne
This type of asshole generally thinks this is okay if the women are heteronormatively attractive, and/or if there’s a dude there watching.
Ken
@Alison Rose: It does seem odd that the GOP executive board has no way to compel him to resign. What would they do if instead of a sex scandal, he’d had a massive stroke? “Oh dear, he can’t talk or sign his name, so there’s no way to replace him…”
JCJ
@Lyrebird: I prefer “Moms for Lebensraum” to try to capture their fascism
Sherparick
Is the Florida Democratic Party starting to reconstitute itself? It seems to have been a floundering mess since the end of the 1990s as all the Bourbon Democrats who use to run it either retired or became Republicans. There has to be a lot of people tired of these Bible-thumping hypocrites & corrupt tax dodgers who have been winning elections pushing racial and red-baiting buttons since Jeb Bush & Connie Mack.
Tony Jay
“Pictures or it didn’t happen” seems to have morphed into “Pictures and we’ll still claim it didn’t happen”.
Hey, Meedya. I know your owners won’t like you mentioning it, but doesn’t it look like the entire Republiconservative eco-system is overrun with incredibly hypocritical sex-cases? I wonder what Chuck and Buck Van Der Cletus think about that. Should you maybe ask them?
wombat probability cloud
Amazing how well some of the classics hold up.
Chief Oshkosh
The linked article has several photos of B. Ziegler. Holy-moly does she give off Serena Joy vibes. Just evil to the core.
Alison Rose
@wombat probability cloud:
Thanks, that’s my new band name.
Thanks, that’s our debut album title.
Alison Rose
@Chief Oshkosh: The one where she has her arms folded looks like someone who didn’t have arms until just before that photo was taken.
Geminid
@Ken: Maybe the board wants to get Ziegler to agree to a settlement that includes a non-disclosure agreement. Their lawyers and his could be negotiating a payoff.
Ed. There might be something else going on, but that’s the only thing I can think of.
trollhattan
@Tony Jay: “It’s uhhhhh AI, from Soros and his clan. Yeah, that’s the ticket, I done been framed by AI!”
Craig
Don’t they send their kids to private school? Does the school board have anything to do with private schools? Or is she just some asshole that needs to be able to tell other people how to live?
Miss Bianca
Reposted from previous post, because WRONG THREAD:
You know, I still find myself gobsmacked that people like this actually RECORD THEMSELVES having illicit sexytimes – at least, illicit according to their worldview. Don’t they EVER stop to think, “Gee, what if this got out onto the nightly news or social media?”
MattF
@Geminid: The Zieglers are fervent adherents to the ‘never apologize’ rule. But I guess that if you wave enough money at them they will do the necessary, whatever that may be.
p.a.
The Klan won electoral control of Indiana in the 1920s and eventually was driven from office because of documented rape, “lesser” sexual misconduct, insurance fraud, embezzlement; basically just what you’d expect*. It will take longer now in Florida and the other fundy states because I’m afraid we’re on the whole, thanks to Christofascism especially, a stupider population now.
*n.b. the Klan’s targeted violence was not disqualifying for electoral success because: 1920s America, Indiana.
Alison Rose
I need science to invent object teleporters because shipping rates from the UK are fuckin nuts.
twbrandt
I’ve always been amazed that people record themselves when criming. Nixon and the Watergate tapes, Trump and the phone calls to election officials, the Zieglars and their sex tapes. I’m grateful they do, but do really they think no one else will see/hear them???
ETA: Miss Bianca are on the same wavelength.
Geminid
@MattF: The board probably doesn’t want Ziegler’s apology, but they might want to keep him from airing out the Florida party’s dirty laundry. His lawyer may be telling the board, “You give my client a good severance package and he’ll sign a good NDA.”
Suzanne
@Miss Bianca:
Word.
Jeff Bezos was kind of cool about this, and released his own nudes. Can’t be blackmailed if you’re not embarrassed about it.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Miss Bianca: It’s a power thing, I guess. (With an arrogant blindness to consequences mixed in as well, most likely.)
TaMara
@Alison Rose: Luckily my coffee is still brewing or I would have spit it out on the keyboard.
Ken
@Geminid: The NDA theory is plausible (though I admit it fits my biases).
It also opens up many “it would be irresponsible not to speculate” avenues regarding just what the Florida GOP board is trying to hide — especially given what they and their voters are willing to overlook, right, Senator Scott?
I’ll guess more sex tapes from the Ziegler studios, involving the board members.
CaseyL
As I keep saying: Hypocrisy isn’t a deal killer to these wastes of protoplasm. Au contraire, it’s a raw power move that cements their status.
They bask and boast about being able to violate norms, laws, and basic ethics because they can.
Alison Rose
@TaMara: 😆
Sister Golden Bear
@Alison Rose: Plus she never said “Don’t say three-ways.”
Scout211
Simple thought: Extremists hiring extremists to catapult their extremist agenda begets extreme FAFO. It’s just science.
Old Man Shadow
They’re not as famous/powerful as Trump, so there’s a chance they’ll be held accountable.
The right angle should have been a tearful “I have sinned” confession followed by a brief moment out of the public eye for “restoration pastoring” and a triumphant return to the grifter circuit as a reborn holy warrior.
These folks thought they were more powerful or necessary to the GOP than they actually were.
scav
Put one of her action shots on a poster:
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: a real power move is to release them yourself and include your Only Fans link. I bet Bridget could make some bank while it’s still a hot news story
Trivia Man
@Miss Bianca: for later private review – part of the thrill is likely “naughty”. And it is much easier to watch it again and again than it is to arrange and schedule a repeat event,
Suzanne
Just saw that the U.N. resolution on Gaza passed, with U.S. abstaining. Good news, though I don’t know why we didn’t just vote in favor. Sigh.
John S.
@Alison Rose: It’s pretty jacked up here in the US, too. Earlier in the week, I went to ship something with 3 day service from WA to FL. They told me $140 (for a small box with a Lego kit weighing 2 lbs).
Ground service (arriving after Xmas) was still $30.
eclare
@Trivia Man:
Entrepreneurship! That would be a power move.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
I’m glad they aren’t going anywhere. I hope they stick it out for the next year. Even Florida Democrats should be able to hang these people around the necks of every Republican running in Florida over the next year.
Geminid
@Ken: There are a lot of things Ziegler knows that may not involve criminal activity but might still be embarassing. For one thing, I’d like to know more about his contract. When I heard his pay was only $120,000 a year I thought, “That sounds fishy. Ziegler must be getting a cut of something. But what?”
Betty
@Suzanne: I read that it’s because it didn’t include a condemnation of Hamas. It still seems like a bad look. Only other country to abstain was Russia.
Kathleen
@Miss Bianca: They think they are immune to negative consequences. Like the people who were surprised that they were being indicted for crimes after taking pictures of themselves destroying property and brutally assaulting law enforcement.
eclare
@Suzanne:
It is as if we want the majority of the world to hate us. The other country that abstained? Russia. Great company.
Eta> and Betty beat me to it.
Marcopolo
Have any reporters been able to ask Puddin fingers about this? And I mean in the context of why he hasn’t stripped BZ of her school & development board positions. First, he appointed her to the development board in the first place so I’d have to think he could revoke that. Second, he invoked the FL gov’s constitutional authority to remove that DA a year or so ago (before the guy even did anything other than say some words he didn’t like). Don’t see why that would also apply to an elected school board position.
Makes you wonder if BZ has some dirt on Ron & Casey?
Stacy
I don’t get these people. I kind of sort of understand the Boomer generation — typically men — who get caught having illicit truck stop sex with other men. The homophobia and shame they felt early on is so ingrained that maybe they didn’t know what else to do with it, and the fear that if anyone ever found out would be the worst thing ever pushes them to be so vocally anti-gay in their politics. I mean, it’s awful but kind of understandable given the generation and probably how far back it goes.
But these people. Not Boomers. Indeed, raised in a time when gay and bi and everyone else covered by the rainbow have more options and acceptance than ever before. Why? Why try to create anti-gay frenzy to such an extreme, all the while having this lifestyle and not in any sort of truck stop shame-based kind of way. I do not get it at all.
Delk
No matter what they do with the rest of their lives the first line of their obituaries has been written.
dmsilev
@Suzanne: Abstaining is a pretty big deal, considering the history. The US has vetoed a _lot_ of Israel-related UN resolutions over the years.
Suzanne
@Betty: @eclare:
From FTFNYT:
Betty Cracker
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): Same. It’s unclear from where I sit if the new and improved FL Dems organization is better than its failed predecessors. They have good ideas but are broke and likely to remain so unless they can demonstrate results to get donors back on board. Which is hard without money. Catch-22!
But the local dailies have covered the crap out of this scandal, and regular folks seem widely aware of it. Whether the blowback will harm the state Repubs remains to be seen. I have too much bitter experience with FL politics to be optimistic, but I don’t assume it will have zero impact either.
We shall see!
dmsilev
@Alison Rose:
Well, I do no-shit-for-real have colleagues working on teleportation. Not for actual physical objects unfortunately, just photons.
Betty Cracker
@Stacy: As the person who spoke up at the school board meeting said, they did it to divide people for political gain. Also grift: all FL Repubs are in favor of abolishing public education in favor of scammy private schools, whether they say so aloud or not. So in a way, these people are worse than their homophobic predecessors.
Burnspbesq
@Miss Bianca:
Apparently not. Ability to think things through is not one of their super powers.
Suzanne
@dmsilev: Sigh. The realist in me knows that you’re right. It’s all just so…. dispiriting.
Spanky
Hoping for a Spartacus moment here,
OzarkHillbilly
@Marcopolo: I’ll just bet there are pictures of BZ and Casey too.
Stacy
@Betty Cracker: So it’s just making the rich richer and the poor poorer with a heaping helping of “we can do what we want” on top. Ugh.
cain
@Tony Jay: There was another priest that was arrested for going after 13 year old kids.
The whole ecosystem is filled with people projecting. I wish they’d understand that LBGTQ+ rights is everyone’s rights and that living in a society that respects means that people can be accepted for who they are and repressing who your true self is going to horrible thing and leads you down a dark path. The GOP path.
Jeffro
@Alison Rose: dang it! I knew I was too slow getting the copyright in!!
cain
@p.a.:
My home town is just about 25-30 minutes drive from the “world headquarters of the KKK”, in Indiana.
I don’t know how anybody who calls themselves Christian could end the life of others so violently. Do they think they’ll be rewarded in the after life. It’s like they read these things but they don’t think about it because it’s just part of what you do on Sunday.
I’ve seen the same thing with some family members who go on and on about how awesome Hinduism is and we have this “sunday school” where we go through the vedic scriptures. Yet, again you admire the words but do not mimic the actions.
Alison Rose
@Sister Golden Bear: As the Gospel of SNL says, It’s not gay when it’s in a 3-way.
Bupalos
There’s actually a lane here for the Zieglers, that I hope they don’t hop on. It’s well travelled in Russia and is an undercurrent in conservative Catholic circles. It’s basically the position that engaging in the condemned behavior is nearly irrelevant, the critical points are for that behavior to be officially suppressed and that no one be allowed to realize it as part of their open identity. It doesn’t matter if people engage in homosexuality, there just must be no homosexuals.
Betsy
@Craig: exactly
cain
@Suzanne:
Probably because it would be harder to spin by the GOP. These people are spinning anything that is anti-Israel as antisemitic. Proof: My wife was put on leave because she looked at her phone and made a noise during a zionist lecture.
Miss Bianca
@Trivia Man: I guess. But ugh – sorry, I’m just not that into watching people shag – *particularly* not me!
I mean, my inner critic is bad/critical enough watching video of my own stage performances or listening to myself on audio – I can’t imagine how awful it would get watching myself getting it on!
Tony Jay
@cain:
No, no, no. You don’t understand. As with mass-shootings and electoral fraud, when it’s an avowed Conservative pounding their pudding where the pudding shouldn’t be pounded they’re just ‘lone-wolves’ and not in any way indicative of the Conservative movement as a whole.
Narrator – Even though they are, and everyone knows it.
Uncle Cosmo
I suggest you hold out for ready digitization of objects (one-time use) combined with ultrafast data transport rates and cheap energy efficient 3D printers. So long as you’re OK with a reproduction of the given item. My somewhat-informed guess is that’ll be here a lot sooner.
Alison Rose
@dmsilev: But my Shakespeare magnets aren’t made of photons!!!
Yutsano
@Burnspbesq: Way OT: Seattle is lousy with ID4s. I count at least five every day when I’m driving on my way into the office.
NotMax
Was the phrase “You’ve made your made and have to lie in it” ever more on the money?
OzarkHillbilly
They are doing God’s work. Just look at what he did to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Tony Jay
@Alison Rose:
I heard it wasn’t gay if you offer to pay.
Which explains a lot about the priorities of the Wingnut Wankaround in general.
cain
@OzarkHillbilly: Casey Kasim?
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: Susannah Gibson, who lost her race for Virginia Delegate last month by some 1,000 votes, gave an interview a couple weeks ago. Gibson said she was taken by surprise when live sex videos she and her husband put out were made public by Virginia Republicans. She said she had no idea they were still on the internet.
Gibson caught a lot of flak for running with the videos out there, so she could have been shading the truth here.
Republicans were hoping the news stories would take Gibson out of the running, but apparently late polling showed the race was still close. So Republicans sent out a few hundred mailers a week before Election Day that detailed the scandal. The covers had a warning: “CAUTION….IF UNDER 18, DO NOT OPEN.”
cain
@Tony Jay: CPAC – best place for illicit hookups of all types. A festival of homoerotic activities and imagery with idolatry, pagan worship, and malarkey!
OzarkHillbilly
@cain: Nah, the other one. You know, the one with the Jackie O fixation?
Subsole
@Ken:
This crowd would most likely see that as an opportunity.
“Look at me. Look. At. Me.
I am the
PopeBat Boy, now.”OzarkHillbilly
@cain: Just as Schlapp wanted it!
Alison Rose
@cain:
Hey, leave Balloon Juice out of this.
Dan B
@Chief Oshkosh: It would be wise to pay attention to the Serena Joy of the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, a member of the People of Praise, the group Margaret Atwoid based The Handmaid’s Tale on.
OzarkHillbilly
My wife just helped Santa and Mrs Claus get their internet back on. They are sending her a Xmas present of peace and good will.
Ho ho ho.
cain
@Geminid:
Is it such a big deal these days? If someone made a tape of themselves having sex – so what? What do I care? I just don’t know why it is such a scandal – people doing normal things while married but decided to record it. I’m almost sure a lot of people do it.
I guess I would sarcastic would add “we do that even when the camera is not running *GASP*”
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Much more satisfying to nurse a “Jackal? Oh!” obsession.
:)
cain
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ohh.. I think if it was Casey Kasim it would be a bigger scandal! :D (for Casey)
NotMax
@cain
Kasem
Bennet
Strzok
;)
Alison Rose
Considering Adam mentioned recently that patrushev would be putin’s likely replacement, this feels…well, completely expected, I guess.
I can very much imagine putin saying “I do not object” in the most “chill psychopath” voice possible.
Geminid
@cain: Evidently it’s not that big a deal, because Gibson lost by only around 1200 votes in a district that was considered a tossup. But I think she probably would have won had the story not come out.
cain
@Geminid: She should run again. Plus go on the attack asking why is the GOP sending illicit pictures of sex to voters?
Tony G
@Lyrebird: Moms for Bigotry will be back, although possibly under a different name. We’re talking about a movement that worships Donald Trump, for Christ sakes — a guy who has never done anything in his worthless life that isn’t greedy, dishonest and sleazy.
TaMara
@John S.: That’s shocking. I mailed three packages, all over 2 lbs, via USPS for under $7 each – regular ground, Priority would have been a bit more, but nothing was urgent. Everything got there this week, about 5 days after I mailed them (one from CO to BOS, one from CO to CA and one CO to NE).
Burnspbesq
The defendant hearing footsteps in New Hampshire?
https://www.meidastouch.com/news/haleys-new-poll-numbers-send-trump-into-panic-mode
trollhattan
@Alison Rose:
“Is now accidental plane crashing and yes such coincidence who on plane was in accidental plane crashing at time of crashing.”
Related: Niger has kicked French soldiers out of Niger and their nation’s lonely eyes turn to…wait for it…Wagner.
Geminid
@cain: The 57th(?) District will be a prime target for Democrats in 2025. But Gibson will have to win a competitive primary, and I doubt if she’ll get many sympathy votes.
The district is west of Richmond and includes portions of western Henrico and eastern Goochland counties. Gibson ran ahead in suburban Henrico, but the more rural Goochland vote did her in.
rikyrah
I just can’t.
I’ve never understood why people make sex tapes.
Never have.
Never will.
Burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
Could be worse. Those could all be Models Y with Full Self-Running-Off-The-Road.
I was perfectly happy with my ID.4–until I drove a Taycan.
rikyrah
@Geminid:
And, for this level of ignorance, she doesn’t deserve to be elected to anything.
cain
@rikyrah: I think it is just a kink like BDSM. I don’t find pain to be very alluring but people do it.
Our society makes weaponizing sex videos as shaming but given our puritican past not surprising. I could care less what two adults do. But it tells a lot about a person willing to release such a tape to the public.
cain
@Yutsano: Portland is overrun with white Teslas of all types. Which is annoying because it is always a white Tesla.
I’m really interested in what Toyota is coming up with and Hyundai’s electric cars look really nice.
Citizen Alan
@JCJ: You cannot insult someone effectively with words they are too ignorant to understand. I just call them moms for hitler.
Ella in New Mexico
My two cents about these kinds of people based on past work in mental health and partner violence:
1. They’re already primed for this behavior by being members of a nutcracking religious and political party which dictates such extreme misogeny and bigotry that they must do incredible amounts of cognitive gymnastics and rationalization just to suppress normal human emotions and drives.
But, as almost everyone besides the Christian Conservative movement seems to know, when you suppress rather than deal straight on with yourself and your psyche, bad things just seem to just start squeezing of your pores anyway.
2. He strikes me as a dominator, feels entitiled to his wife serving him and obeying him, per his religious beliefs. Part of how she must please him in their Biblical relationship is to do what he wants her do do sexually. Bringing another woman into the relationship satisfies his need for sex outside their marriage, but he felt, at least at the beginning that it’s not technically adultery because she’s participating by performing for his sexual pleasure.
3. He must have decided that three ways were not enough to satisfy him, and an affair was due him which is why he felt entitled to sex with the victim, seeing it as “not rape” because he’d already being having sex with her prior. He also sees his “affair” as a minor violation of the marriage vows, and all he has to do is repent to get his absolution so WTF go for it.
4. His wife rationalizes the three ways as not “gay” because, again, she’s just performing an act of marital obedience that pleases her husband sexually, which is her duty as a wife in their religion.
I think the filming part is due to his need to have access to pornography in between meet ups to get off on. Again, rationalized as not a sin due to parts 1-4 above.
Isn’t Conservative Christianity a total mindfuck, folks?
Andrew Abshier
I wish I could say the Florida voters will do the right thing in 2024, but I’ll believe that when I see it. The recent transplants killed us in the 2022 midterms. Maxwell Frost was one of the very few bright spots from that cycle. But I guess we keep plugging, and maybe we’ll get some wins.
rikyrah
Arlette Saenz (@ArletteSaenz) posted at 10:17 AM on Fri, Dec 22, 2023:
Biden & Obama this month met with the winner of the “Meet the Presidents” contest, which brought in $2.6 million & was the best performing campaign contest to date. Overall, Obama’s grassroots appeals have helped the campaign bring in nearly $4 million https://t.co/HHlalX9ZXx
(https://x.com/ArletteSaenz/status/1738232197990035848?s=03)
Geminid
@rikyrah: The Gibson interview is in a Politico Magazine article from December 9 titled, “Her Online Sex Life Was Exposed. She Lost Her Election. Now She’s Speaking Out.”
Like I said, Gibson might not have been candid in that interview. She certainly could have known the videos were out there. She’s a nurse practitioner, but her husband’s an attorney. They might have talked about the videos when she decided to run, and engaged in some wishful thinking about the possibility that someone would bring them up.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Thanks!
trollhattan
Am tempted to send this back to the writers’ room but hey, Electra Schrock everybody!
Ohm Volt’s current location unknown, so unavailable for reactions.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
chris evans (@notcapnamerica) posted at 11:10 AM on Fri, Dec 22, 2023:
“I’M WHITE! I have the privilege!” https://t.co/E6J4U39F3R
(https://x.com/notcapnamerica/status/1738245620505190540?t=RYWKigXxOTBdbf14ZXQ0LQ&s=03)
twbrandt
OT, but good news: Bluesky has opened up and you can now view posts without a login.
Martin
@Suzanne: I still contend that the US is the nuclear counterparty to Israel. Not as an opponent but as a conventional ally to keep the nukes put away. Israel is IMO the most eager nuclear force on the planet because it’s their defense from existential threat, which they have a tendency to see a little too easily. The USs job is to be the reliable partner who can float a few carriers into the region and announce a cruise missile sub is nearby and ready to go as a strong deterrent, because Israel doesn’t have conventional deterrents, they have nuclear ones. Adam would be the better person to evaluate whether he thinks this theory is valid or not (I studied the dynamics of nuclear deterrence, but not the international politics of it and US foreign policy – that’s his bag).
So I think the US will always maintain this position with Israel because it’s better than Israel responding to a Houthi missile attack with a nuke in Iran or the other regional nations like Saudi Arabia pursuing a nuclear program (as they have considered in the past). The US is the better nuclear counterparty for everyone involved.
That said, I don’t know why the US can’t crack down on the settlements harder than we do. That shouldn’t threaten that role, and given that a lot of the settlers are American citizens (I’ve seen numbers as high as 30,000) the US can yank on that leash whenever we want.
Burnspbesq
@cain:
The Toyota Bz4X/Subaru Solterra is an unmitigated disaster. Worst charging performance of any mass-market EV (including Chevy Bolt and Nissan Leaf).
Hyundai Ioniq 5/Kia EV6 are really good, and the forthcoming performance-oriented Ioniq 5N has automotive journalists salivating.
trollhattan
@cain:
Our metroplex Tesla fleet is predominantly appliance white (major hint re. interior design) and the Bay Area is similar, although sheer numbers there dictate other colors being present. So. Many. Teslas. No wonder Elmo hates California so much.
Citizen Alan
@cain: Jesus was actually quite clear about the fact that a lot of people who would loudly claim to be his followers would nevertheless go to hell because “I never knew you.”
zhena gogolia
@Burnspbesq: I hope she doesn’t get the nomination, though.
Quantum man
Supreme court punts on Trump immunity case.
Eduardo
@Betty Cracker: I think all the politically stupid laws the Reps passed in the last year (abortion, immigration, etc); the feud with Disney; the absolute disaster that it is home insurance in the state and the gigantic spikes in HOA; the worse inflation in the nation; and the sudden recognition that DeSantis is a vile “person” must weight more than the sex scandal, even conceding the electorate is not the brightest in the world.
As far as resurrecting the Dem electorate if not the party itself, a good amendment on abortion would help much, I think. Not clear if one is almost sure to be in the ballot in 2024.
(This is valid for the governor seat, I am pretty sure Trump is going to win FL.)
NotMax
OT. Has Amazon come to terms with reality?
Running very low on several grocery/kitchen staples I use frequently and which either cannot obtain here in bulk or get at a similar price so placed an order on Thursday. Four items total.
Earliest “your order will arrive” date is two weeks in the future. Not complaining, mind you; previous arrival windows have been unrealistic forever. it’s always a surprise when a shipment takes less than ten days to wend its way to the house.
Mai Naem mobile
Just heard that SCOTUS refused to fast track the Jack Smith case to SCOTUS. I know it’s not the end of the world but you damn well know these six fuckers are trying to aid in slow walking the case to help TFG get off scot free if he wins in 2024.
rikyrah
These people.
Lesbianism for me…but, not thee..
The complete and utter hypocrisy.
trollhattan
@NotMax: “How you likin’ paradise now, pal?”
–Amazon, probably.
Burnspbesq
@trollhattan:
Lots of different colored Teslas in Austin, but white is probably most popular.
SFBayAreaGal
@Alison Rose: 🤣🤣🤣
Dan B
@Bupalos: You’ve got it. Peter Thiel was angry when he was outed, even though he had a husband and they were raising kids. It threatened his power, the thing he most loves. The right wingers he bankrolled knew he was gay but the word ‘homosexual’ probably didn’t pop into their brains. Your sugar daddy could never be deviant.
Mai Naem mobile
@cain: Nissan’s Ariya isn’t bad looking but I’ve only see a few around Phoenix. I’ve started seeing Rivian SUVs. Most regular looking electric large SUV I’ve seen but it’s around $100K so not mass market.
NotMax
@Mai Naem mobile
Exactly as predicted would occur multiple times here. Commenter Burnspbesq concurred with that prognostication as well.
Do we get to split a cookie?
:)
Shana
@Sherparick: If only there was someone in DNC leadership who could put together a 50 state strategy where we had a presence everywhere to help out states like Florida.
Geminid
@Eduardo: There was a good short interview of Senate candidate Deborah Mucarsel-Powell a couple days ago, in a new media site called The 19th*. Unsurprisingly, she says she can beat Rick Scott.
Ed. She pointed put that Scott has never won by more than 1 point and has never run in a presidential year.
Mucarsel-Powell knocked of Rep. Carlos Curbelo in 2018, then lost her reelection in 2020. She is Peruvian-born and came to the U.S. in 1985, when she was 14.
Kay
I love this story.
Ken
@twbrandt: Excellent news, since I refuse to belong to a social media network that would have me as a member.
Hat tip Groucho. Actually it’s the terms of service that keep me away.
Shana
@twbrandt: I guess they think THEY can use them as leverage instead of the other way around
Dan B
@cain: Hustlers flock to conservative conventions. It’s like Christmas with better tips. Perhaps I should look for studies and (juicy, but tasteful) stories.
Dan B
@Tony G: Plus, someone has yo hoover up that sweet billionaire money. If not Mom’s for Bigotry then who? Astro-turf ain’t gonna grow itself!
Hob
@cain: “Is it such a big deal these days? If someone made a tape of themselves having sex – so what? What do I care? I just don’t know why it is such a scandal – people doing normal things while married but decided to record it. I’m almost sure a lot of people do it.”
I don’t disagree with that principle, but your comment doesn’t make a lot of sense regarding the case you’re responding to. Susanna Gibson and her husband weren’t making private sex tapes, they were running an online porn business – broadcasting sex videos live for money. There is also nothing wrong with that IMO, but it’s hardly difficult to imagine it being a problem for a politician, and I think Gibson’s claim that she didn’t imagine those videos still existed out there, after having literally put them out there, is ridiculous.
NotMax
@Dan B
In the case of Republicans, okay to capitalize Hoover.
//
Scout211
They’ve been around since 2020 and many of us have linked to the site in comments and on the front page. They’ve been especially good for in-depth news around the country for abortion rights. 19th News.org
Brachiator
So, it’s okay to DO Gay, as long as you don’t say it.
What a bunch of hypocrites.
I will bet that there are more people who have endorsed these hateful policies who lead colorful sex lives.
I’m just hoping that the reporters investigating this hot mess will keep up the pressure.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah: Wow, that’s a kind of one-act play right there.
Scout211
@rikyrah: That was really sad. But the time stamp was 06/26/2022 so I’m pretty sure we’ve seen that one before.
But drunk Karen gotta Karen.
jimmiraybob
I can’t even imagine the millions upon millions of innocent little baby-seeds and zygotes that were murdered in the process in the name of Liberty for Mom’s.
Brachiator
@Suzanne:
Totally OT.
Do you have any opinion on the work of architect Jeanne Gang?
I saw this recent profile of her on CBS Sunday morning.
Pappenheimer
@twbrandt: in 1945 the vehicles (trains, cars, etc.) of Nazi officials fleeing the Allied and Russian armored columns could probably be tracked by the litter of burning documents being thrown out windows. Everyone who wanted to prove how useful they’d been to the Fuhrer had compiled their own death warrants in triplicate.
Eduardo
@Geminid: Yes, I know her, she is not electrifying but more of a workhorse. The way things are now in FL, I think she may have a chance.🤞
Geminid
@Scout211: Maybe New-ish?
I mean, they’re kind of new. When I looked them up I did not not check their date of founding. I did notice the two Texas Tribune veterans.
Dan B
@Burnspbesq: Is that an electric Taycan? Is there such a thing. My partner, an EV fan – we lease a ’22 Leaf – loves VW’s.
NotMax
Ouchie. Right (dominant) hand feels as if someone repeatedly slammed a cinder block on it.
No swelling, no discoloration so going with the assumption I snoozed on it wrong.
Was planning on doing some specialty baking for the holiday today. That’s now right out the window. It’s all I can do at the moment to gingerly lift a full mug of java.
Stupid body. ;)
cain
@Hob:
You are right – that’s true. I think there are still people uncomfortable with that.
Bet you the majority of the people they made money off of were Republicans. I reckon she probably made a lot of extra money when the GOP helped their business. :-)
Mai Naem mobile
@NotMax: yes he did. I’ll split an oatmeal chocolate chip! I do think the electric hybrids will be a bridge to more all electrics for people who have range phobia.
cain
@trollhattan:
Last year, I got hit by a Tesla – was going around the bend and got hit by a Tesla almost head on in california.
We ended up getting a model 3 – mostly because i know the software is more mature (we didn’t do auto driving – there is no way as a software developer I know that will ever be mature enough) – it’s still a fun ride. But we only did a 2 year lease so that we can let the software be more exposed in the other cars – I mean, it’s all 1.0 out there!
cain
@NotMax: Dunno, a lot of my stuff comes the next morning now.
cain
@Mai Naem mobile: We have a lot of Rivian – I can see that Portland is embracing electric cars quite eagerly. Our gas prices tend to be higher than other areas in the country. About a dollar more I would say.
Craig
@Brachiator: I like the Mira Tower in downtown SF.
rikyrah
@NotMax:
Awe :(
Paul in KY
@Alison Rose: How about crypto or beanie babies?
rikyrah
@Hob:
You said it so well.
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: Publish and be damned! Only thing to say (IMO) when someone tries that on you.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: Or it’s not gay if you are doing the giving, vice the receiving.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: “Baby, everything’s still on the internet..” She seems to be a bit of a dingbat.
Martin
@trollhattan: I’ll leave this here.
Another Scott
@Hob: Dunno.
Richmond.com:
I’m no expert on this stuff, but it sounds like Chaturbate is designed to be streaming only and she and her husband apparently didn’t realize that anything on the web can (and will) be recorded by someone, somewhere.
So, I can understand her being outraged and yelling about violation of privacy. If they were violating the terms of service, and that’s not clear to me as the site uses “tokens” and people there can earn income from them, but whatever, that’s a separate issue (which also may be a sign of naïveté).
It’s unfortunate that she didn’t win her race, but it’s yet another illustration that the web is the Wild West when it comes to protections for actual people.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Martin:
Hah! :-)
Subsole
@Stacy:
A commenter here advanced a very plausible theory.
They want it illegal because for them, the risk is part of the thrill. They want it kept seamy and puerile and shameful because that is how they process it, and no one else should ever be allowed to process it or experience it differently.
This is, of course, insane.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Lyrebird: “I have started calling the astroturf haters “Moms for Bigotry””
“Hos for Hitler” works too!
Captain C
@Subsole:
I had a college friend acquaintance who had that attitude about weed. He loved smoking it (to the point that weed and booze consumption likely were factors in his flunking out, never to return, during his junior year), but wanted it to remain illegal, as that gave him a greater thrill. Of course, he didn’t even bother to think about the many people who had to suffer in prison for his enhanced enjoyment of a (wrongly illicit) substance
Lyrebird
@JCJ: very apt, and
@Tony G: very true! but I’d like to think that any setback we can give them is for the better.
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Yes, so right! I think I first saw “Hoes for Hitler” from Rikyrah. That’s more zestful. “Moms for Bigotry” is definitely starchier but sometimes that’s useful.
I hope someone is making a tape loop of the Southern (and Northern) white moms and grandmas who are out there standing up for the Justins in TN and for reading banned books.
Dan B
@Brachiator: Jeanne Gang’s Aqua Tower is genius. The balconies are inexpensive. They break up the wind eddies and turbulence that almost always necessitate expensive, massive floor-filling counterweights. The balconies are not only lyrically beautiful but also add to the profitability of the project. From pictures I’ve seen it is easy and natural to see to other balconies. It seems that would replicate some of the feel of cities in Europe with balconies overlooking the street or town piazza.
Jinchi
It’d be pretty ironic if the thing that finally brought Moms for Liberty down was an unfounded accusation that they were actually just cover for a lesbian sex club.