Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

We’re not going back!

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Live Free or Die Like a Bug on a Windshield

Live Free or Die Like a Bug on a Windshield

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This post is in: 

I hope I’m not the only one who is glad to see the Iowa/New Hampshire lock on early nominating contests start to loosen.  Big shout out to the organizers of the write-in campaign, by the way, since they denied the worthless political press their “Joe Biden isn’t popular with Democrats” story by giving him a bigger win than Trump.  Fuck the New Hampshire Democratic Party for holding this primary.  There’s no reason they deserve to be first every year, and Biden did the right thing by not participating.

Speaking of the useless, worthless, lazy political press, I’m going to love the anxiety that’s going to accompany the 2028 primary season.  These fuckers might have to go out and actually write a story that isn’t a mad-lib version of what’s been written for decades about New Hampshire and Iowa.  This herd of sheep has a huge problem whenever they have to do something original, and when South Carolina or Nevada or some other state is first, they’re in dire danger of having to write about an issue or two instead of what they’re serving in some diner in Nashua.  I’m sure they’ll find some simple prop to occupy their minds, but at least they’ll have to look.

Finally, following up on Betty’s post about DeSantis earlier today, it strikes me that one of Bootsie’s main problems is that he’s such a fucking cowardly splitter.  Is he supporting Trump or not?  In his concession speech, he endorsed Trump.  Now he’s out shitting all over him.  The dude is already short and has fewer social skills than bag of used diapers, but he’s also a both-ways Charlie.  It’s obvious he hates Trump, but he’s too much of a chickenshit to do anything but act like the kid who kisses the bully’s ass when he’s around, then talks shit about him when he’s gone.  And we all hate that kid.

Reader Interactions

137Comments

  2. 2.

    Jackie

    When he endorsed TIFG, Pudd’n Boots sounded as low energy as JEB!. He flat out stated he’d taken the “required” oath to support the Republican nominee, so he did.

    Left unsaid, he implied that didn’t mean he had to go out of his way to help TIFG get re-elected.

  5. 5.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    The dude…has fewer social skills than bag of used diapers

    Another one for the clip file!
    Five minutes after reading that and I’m still laughing.

  7. 7.

    Urza

    They did not deny the worthless political press their “Joe Biden isn’t popular with Democrats” story, I’ve seen several articles about it specifically dealing with him not getting a higher percentage of the vote.  I assume pre-written but I wasn’t going to give them the clicks.

  8. 8.

    balconesfault

    I suspect that his “handlers” told him he had to give the proper subjugation to Trump if he wanted any hope to be Trump’s VP candidate.

    Then he got to spend some time with Casey, and she told him that in no way would she ever want to spend one minute standing next to Trump and Melania, especially after Trump crapped on her for “dirty and illegal tactics” when she made the stupid comment encouraging supporters to come to Iowa to caucus.  Casey has way too big an ego to want to follow Melania around at photo ops.

    After a few days of being read the riot act at home (as well as people telling him he had no chance in hell of being the VP nominee, and he’d do better spending some time salvaging his flailing reputation in Fla) Ron had to make a choice.

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    one of Bootsie’s main problems is that he’s such a fucking cowardly splitter.  Is he supporting Trump or not?  In his concession speech, he endorsed Trump.  Now he’s out shitting all over him

    He’s just taking his cues from Pence, who praised trump…then noted that trump put himself before the Constitution…then praised trump…then talked about how trump ‘shifted’ the party away from limited government and towards personal grievance…then praised trump…

    (you get the idea)

    None of them except for Cheney and Kinzinger have the balls to knock trump around good and hard, much less keep knocking him around.  I don’t understand it.  The slightest deviance from “TRUMP IS KING” gets you all sorts of MAGA hate-mail, so why not fire back with everything you’ve got??

    Authoritarian followers are just weak, weak people.

  11. 11.

    Yarrow

    Speaking of the useless, worthless, lazy political press, I’m going to love the anxiety that’s going to accompany the 2028 primary season.  These fuckers might have to go out and actually write a story that isn’t a mad-lib version of what’s been written for decades about New Hampshire and Iowa.

    At the rate things are going there won’t be any political press left in 2028. Maybe a few low level staffers to run the AI bots that generate content.

  15. 15.

    Frankensteinbeck

    one of Bootsie’s main problems is that he’s such a fucking cowardly splitter

    Can’t be the champion of white supremacy if you’re a weenie who can’t at least go “I know you are but what am I?” when the schoolyard insults fly.

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    Btw Ramesh Ponnuru is quite the hack (not nearly Thiessen-level, but then again who could be?) but here he’s spot-on: The Winner of the 2024 GOP Primary Was The ‘Big Lie‘

    Among Republicans, the lie has won.

    When Donald Trump insisted against all evidence that he had won the 2020 election in a “landslide” it was not merely a psychological defense against the fact of his defeat. It was a canny, though reckless, political tactic. It preserved his political viability in the Republican Party and kept him from smelling like a loser. Republicans never had the normal discussion of what they, and their candidate, did wrong in their failed campaign: a discussion that would have had to dwell on Trump’s character flaws and the general public’s reaction to them.

    You could see the results in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Voters in the GOP contest were split roughly evenly on whether President Biden had won legitimately last time. If the primary had been confined to Republicans, there would almost certainly have been a solid majority for the view that Trump had won and had been cheated. The elected Republicans who didn’t want Trump to be the nominee have allowed his narrative about 2020 to go unchallenged for the past three years. Or they have abetted it
    Now those politicians get to run again with Trump and feign happiness about it on the record
    There has been an anti-Trump majority in every national election since he announced his candidacy in 2015, and that majority had enough electoral strength to prevail in large part in 2018, 2020, and 2022. The one time he won, in 2016, it was arguably only because the majority didn’t believe he could win. That complacency won’t be present this November.

    He’s quite right in noting that ‘big lie’ or not, reality is still coming for trumpov.

    And that thought makes me really, really happy.

  17. 17.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jeffro:

    It preserved his political viability in the Republican Party and kept him from smelling like a loser.

    I will always claim that Trump was covered in loser stink until DeSantis marched up and volunteered to be Trump’s jobber.

    If the primary had been confined to Republicans

    I looked it up.  The ‘independents’ vs ‘Republicans’ numbers were normal for a NH Republican presidential primary.  What this actually means is that the squishy Republican voters don’t like Trump, and there are a lot of them.

  20. 20.

    $8 blue check mistermix

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Can’t be the champion of white supremacy if you’re a weenie who can’t at least go “I know you are but what am I?” when the schoolyard insults fly.

    Yeah – they want a reliable hater, and if he can’t lash out at someone he hates (Trump) what kind of hater is he?

  21. 21.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @japa21:

    To me he always sounds like that.

    Yeah, I stopped and actually listened to him talking when a television was on in another room and I couldn’t see DeSantis himself.  I only heard his voice.  It leaped out to me that he sounded like the awkward, unpopular kid on a TV high school sitcom.  The buzzy, stopped-up-nose voice, you know?  Who always sounds whiny?

  23. 23.

    $8 blue check mistermix

    I should have said more about the Iowa Democratic Party and their horrible, terrible, no good app.  Enshrining the anti-democratic caucus process into an app, and then having that app fail, was chef’s kiss for these state parties that looooove the completely out-of-proportion attention they get for being first.  So glad we won’t have to hear another fucking word about the caucus process.

  25. 25.

    Suzanne

    It’s obvious he hates Trump, but he’s too much of a chickenshit to do anything but act like the kid who kisses the bully’s ass when he’s around, then talks shit about him when he’s gone.  And we all hate that kid.

    LAWL, do we ever.
    I really don’t see him failing upward any longer.

  26. 26.

    JWR

    Bootsie

    Lol! I don’t think I’ve run across that one, but it’s just so… elegant, and I knew right away to whom it referred.

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    Instead of trashing them, I say hail New Hampshire Democrats, for delivering their state’s Electoral votes to the Democratic candidate in five straight elections, and putting two excellent Democrats in the Senate.

  29. 29.

    rikyrah

    Finally, following up on Betty’s post about DeSantis earlier today, it strikes me that one of Bootsie’s main problems is that he’s such a fucking cowardly splitter.  Is he supporting Trump or not?  In his concession speech, he endorsed Trump.  Now he’s out shitting all over him.  The dude is already short and has fewer social skills than bag of used diapers, but he’s also a both-ways Charlie.  It’s obvious he hates Trump, but he’s too much of a chickenshit to do anything but act like the kid who kisses the bully’s ass when he’s around, then talks shit about him when he’s gone.  And we all hate that kid.

     

    DeathSantis is such a loser.

    And, it’s going to get worse.

    Disney is not going to give up. This Disney case is going to encapsulate everything that’s wrong with him.

    And, as he loses and costs the State of Florida MILLIONS (IMO), it’s just going to be hung around his neck.

    I feel bad for Florida, because he’s back focusing on them. All his hate. He’ll come up with more awful stuff to do to Floridians.

  30. 30.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Gary K: and, being mistermix, he got the lyric correct, unlike every bar band in the late eighties who sang “a simple thought” [sic]

  31. 31.

    Suzanne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    It leaped out to me that he sounded like the awkward, unpopular kid on a TV high school sitcom.  The buzzy, stopped-up-nose voice, you know?  Who always sounds whiny? 

    You mean Screech? Or Arvid?

  33. 33.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    Today I taunted my former libertarian, former friend, who started texting me out of the blue last week because all he cares about is President Trump, because Biden got more support in NH than Trump despite not being on the ballot.

    I was subsequently instructed to kill myself. He offered to teach me how to tie a noose, very considerate.

  39. 39.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation:

    Today I taunted my former libertarian, former friend, who started texting me out of the blue last week because all he cares about is President Trump, because Biden got more support in NH than Trump despite not being on the ballot.

    I was subsequently instructed to kill myself. He offered to teach me how to tie a noose, very considerate

    That’s a perfectly normal response /s

    I can see why he’s a former friend. Sorry that happened to you

  41. 41.

    cmorenc

    OTOH maybe the political press may realize Charleston or Myrtle Beach are much nicer in January than slogging through slush in New Hampshire.  The press can schmooze out their stories playing golf with political operatives.  They may even fight among themselves who gets assigned to cover the gop caucuses in Iowa vs South Carolina.

  43. 43.

    wjca

    @$8 blue check mistermix: I should have said more about the Iowa Democratic Party and their horrible, terrible, no good app.  Enshrining the anti-democratic caucus process into an app, and then having that app fail, was chef’s kiss for these state parties that looooove the completely out-of-proportion attention they get for being first.

    Perhaps they will decide instead to go out and build a party that can win elections there.  Now THAT would get them some serious attention.

  45. 45.

    sdhays

    One of DeSantis’ base attributes is that he basically hates everyone. He seems like a particularly miserable human being, and that’s an increasingly common trait among Republicans.

    I wonder what comes first – the misery or the being a Republican.

  47. 47.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Baud: A real libertarian would recognize the fact the money allows private interests to exerise power over society in a way that power over people in ways that in today’s world are more intrusive and less accountable than we’ve seen our democratic form of government to date

    Edited

  49. 49.

    Jeffro

    This is encouraging: NH and Iowa point to signs of trouble ahead for trumpov

    in New Hampshire, 44 percent of Republican primary voters were independents: Ms. Haley won most of them, 58 percent to 39 percent.

    Polling suggests many of those voters were not just enamored with a fresh face, but were specifically voting to register their opposition to Mr. Trump. Four in ten voters who backed Ms. Haley said their dislike of Mr. Trump was a more important factor in their vote than their approval of Ms. Haley, according to exit polls. More than 90 percent said they would be dissatisfied if Mr. Trump won the nomination for a third time.

    Mr. Trump had some of the same struggles with independent-minded voters in the Iowa caucuses, a contest that typically draws more conservative, Republican base voters. Exit polls there show that 55 percent of people who identified as independents backed one of Mr. Trump’s opponents.

    Mr. Trump will no doubt win many of these voters in November. But the number of Haley supporters telling pollsters they will back Mr. Biden — roughly 40 percent according to state and national polls — is striking. Even if some of those voters were never Trump voters to begin with, the figure suggests a large number of Republicans, or former Republicans, may not be coming home.

  50. 50.

    Brachiator

    Big shout out to the organizers of the write-in campaign, by the way, since they denied the worthless political press their “Joe Biden isn’t popular with Democrats” story by giving him a bigger win than Trump.

    Comparing the results of the two primaries is meaningless. It doesn’t tell you anything significant about either candidate or either political party.

     it strikes me that one of Bootsie’s main problems is that he’s such a fucking cowardly splitter.  Is he supporting Trump or not?

    Of course he’s supporting Trump. But why would it matter one way or another?

    Personally, I just want all Republicans to do stupid shit and then lose. It would not mean anything to me if DeSantis declared himself to be a Never Trumper.

    ETA. It is fun to watch Trump, DeSantis and Hayley slap each other around, but we have seen this before. Trump punishes any betrayal.  Then the losers become Good Republicans and kiss Trump’s ass. 

  51. 51.

    Tony Jay

    All the usual apologies

    I stayed in too late
    Got nothin’ for my shame
    That’s what pundits say, mm-mm
    That’s what pundits say, mm-mm
    I flew on too many planes (Haha)
    But now the PACs they just won’t pay
    At least, that’s what the donors say, mm-mm
    That’s what donors say, mm-mm

    But I keep on oozin’
    Can’t stop, won’t stop cruelin’
    It’s like I got this Newsmax in my mind
    Sayin’, “The Woke are creepin’ up behind”

    ‘Cause the MAGAts are still cray, cray, cray, cray, cray
    And the drag acts are still gay, gay, gay gay, gay
    Casey, I’m just gonna rake, rake, rake, rake, rake
    I’ll rake some off, I’ll rake some off
    Angry fascists gonna break, break, break, break, break
    So us fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake
    Casey, I’m just gonna make, make, make, make, make
    I’ll make Florida suck, Florida suck

  52. 52.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: ​
     
    I have old, former friends, who are the same. The main difference is that when that break occurred (because they went full tilt MAGAt in 2016), I cut them off at the knees and made sure they couldn’t text/message me out of the blue.
    Other friends realize that if they want to remain friends/acquaintances (this applies to one particular hobby), they don’t mix politics with socializing. As long as everybody does that, everybody gets along in the sand box.

  54. 54.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @balconesfault:

    Then he got to spend some time with Casey, and she told him that in no way would she ever want to spend one minute standing next to Trump and Melania

    Did you catch the photo of Melania’s “if looks could kill” stare down of Trump as they were leaving in separate cars from her mother’s funeral service? Sincerely hope that the maybe not equally but certainly reprehensible Melania dumps his ass loudly, publicly and soonest.

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/melania-travelled-separate-car-donald-31926266?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

  55. 55.

    Jeffro

    @Yarrow: yes, that’s what he was saying, and I agree!

    I will be calling them out on their agency at every turn, and I’m sure many of us will be doing the same.

  56. 56.

    sdhays

    @balconesfault: Ummm…I haven’t seen any evidence that Casey is repulsed by Donald Trump. After all, she’s had more than one child with Ron DeSantis.

    Just as with Melania, let’s not pretend the women better than they are.

  59. 59.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Brachiator:

    Comparing the results of the two primaries is meaningless. It doesn’t tell you anything significant about either candidate or either political party.

    Doesn’t keep the pundits from writing about it anyway.  So it’s worth it to muck up their narrative.

  60. 60.

    Rusty

    @Frankensteinbeck: This is wrong.  The Washington Post had an exit poll, and registered Republicans voted for Trump 74% to Haley’s 24 percent.  In a state where she spent a year and a half of time and money,  where she had the endorsement of a popular governor,  where the electorate skews older, wealthier, and more educated,  people more inclined to Haley, she got crushed by 50 points.  She will lack all those advantages elsewhere,  and they will be closed primaries with no independents or cross over dems.  She is road kill and will get curb stomped.  Trump owns the Republican party and they love him.

  62. 62.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Anoniminous:

    To the clip file of Glibertarian Slurs!

    Libertarian: no real principles or solidarity, just vapid self-interest coated over with a thin veneer of intellectualism.

    Libertarians are Republicans who won’t admit they’re Republicans.

    If they understood cause and effect, they wouldn’t be libertarians.

    Libertairans are basically house cats in that they are convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they don’t appreciate or understand. (this is a famous one, I don’t know who originally said it)

    “Libertarians are anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.” -Kim Stanley Robinson

    Narcissists are like (and overlap with) libertarians: They can only think in terms of easy solutions that only they’re smart enough to see.

    This is why libertarianism will never work: the world is full of drunk stupid assholes most of whom don’t even drink.

    Libertarians only stand for less government when it harms white people and College Republicans. And yes, one is a subset of the other.

  63. 63.

    catclub

    @Jeffro: wow, usually I think that Ponnaru is worse than Thiessen – who is terrible. So Ponnaru saying this is first time I have read sanity from him.

  64. 64.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Steve in the ATL:

    and, being mistermix, he got the lyric correct, unlike every bar band in the late eighties who sang “a simple thought” [sic]

    I hope you will agree that before websites like lyrics.com, REM’s lyrics were often inscrutable. You might not believe what I sing to “Sitting Still.”

  65. 65.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Brachiator:

    Comparing the results of the two primaries is meaningless. It doesn’t tell you anything significant about either candidate or either political party.

    Couldn’t it be an indicator of enthusiasm among a party’s rank and file?

  66. 66.

    Mike in NC

    @sdhays:  A House Republican stated that he sat on some committee with DeSantis for a year, and go-go boots never once spoke to him or even looked in his direction. That boy ain’t right.

  68. 68.

    Marmot

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Libertarians are basically house cats in that they are convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they don’t appreciate or understand. (this is a famous one, I don’t know who originally said it)

    That’s my new favorite.

    Old standby: Republicans who smoke weed.

  70. 70.

    Jay

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Yeah, no.

    Once you have played their songs 1000 times each, you know all the words.

    First time I saw them was at UBC’s War Memorial Gym, and they wern’t even the headliner.

    Aboot the only radio play they were getting here was on the UBC Student Radio.

  71. 71.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Other friends realize that if they want to remain friends/acquaintances (this applies to one particular hobby), they don’t mix politics with socializing.

    He’s gotten better at this when I see him at mutial friends’ houses, but even still it’s clear MAGA has supplanted his whole personality.

    He pulls up listening to Bem Shapiro podcast with his Let’s Go Brandon hat, and has to be repeatedly asked to not obsessively denigrate trans folk.

  72. 72.

    catclub

    @Rusty: This is sounding like Bernie Sanders exceptionalism. He won all the votes that counted, the rest aren’t real votes.

     

    In the vote counting Haley got 44% to trumps 56,

    among some subgroups of those voters she did better, among others trump did better.

  74. 74.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Rusty:

    She is road kill and will get curb stomped.

    I’m not talking about that and don’t care.  Of course Haley has no chance of winning the primary.  It’s the general where this matters.

    Trump owns the Republican party and they love him.

    But Trump doesn’t own all the people who vote Republican.  He’s great with the base voters.  He can’t afford for the people who merely would never vote for a Democrat to stay home.  The guy is for all practical purposes the incumbent, running against nobodies, and now twice in a row he’s barely cleared 50%.  He is weak.  He’ll clear the primary, but he’s got a major enthusiasm problem going into the general.

  76. 76.

    JWR

    @Rusty:

    She will lack all those advantages elsewhere,  and they will be closed primaries with no independents or cross over dems.

    I heard about that, that there are 7 upcoming closed primaries which are gonna crush her like a bug. Then there’s Nevada, where she hasn’t campaigned at all.

  77. 77.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Martin: No Labels can solve this. We just need compromise between <checks notes> killing yourself and not killing yourself.

    Just a normal, healthy political interaction between people with reasonable disagreements. Though some may deem it a sign of my extreme attitudes that I’m reluctant to comply with his request.

  78. 78.

    Marmot

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation:

    He pulls up listening to Bem Shapiro podcast with his Let’s Go Brandon hat, and has to be repeatedly asked to not obsessively denigrate trans folk.

    Funny—there’s some new book out about how MAGA folks are akshually economically liberal and socially conservative. Gonna look it up sometime. I could use an example for “intellectual janitor.”*

    * One of the O-Bros calls these people “intellectual Zambonis,” but I feel like that’s a bit niche.

  80. 80.

    Brachiator

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Doesn’t keep the pundits from writing about it anyway.  So it’s worth it to muck up their narrative.

    I totally see your point.

    The pundits will write stupid shit no matter what. Democrats need to stop playing into their hands.

    The Labour Party and most recently the Green Party are running into the same problem with the press in the UK.

    Fortunately in the UK there are some independent allies, especially on social media, helping them to fight back.

    Also, some of the FP folk have provided some examples of the Biden Administration deftly deflating pundit nonsense. Hopefully we will see a lot more of this.

  81. 81.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Libertarian: no real principles or solidarity, just vapid self-interest coated over with a thin veneer of intellectualism.

    Utterly accurate.

    Libertairans are basically house cats in that they are convinced of their fierce independence while utterly dependent on a system they don’t appreciate or understand. (this is a famous one, I don’t know who originally said it)

    Utterly delightful.

  82. 82.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: This is one of the (many) ways you know Libertarians are completely full of shit.  According to their claimed principles, they should be up in arms about the way state governments are trying to restrict the freedom of Transgender People.

  83. 83.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Brachiator:

    the FP folk

    ??

    ETA:

    The pundits will write stupid shit no matter what. Democrats need to stop playing into their hands.

    How did the successful write-in campaign play into anyone’s hands?

  84. 84.

    Marmot

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    … Libertarians are completely full of shit.  According to their claimed principles, they should be up in arms about the way state governments are trying to restrict the freedom of Transgender People.

    No sir! They are already very busy protecting the freedom of speech of people who hate trans people!

    /s

  85. 85.

    lashonharangue

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    He can’t afford for the people who merely would never vote for a Democrat to stay home.

    I am beginning to think it might be better for these folks to stay home rather than vote for Biden.  Would help down ballot Democrats who they would probably vote against.

  86. 86.

    sab

    @Marmot: ” Libertarians are housecats.” I would love to tell my  brother that if only we were still on speaking terms. His politics during Covid just knocked me off the ledge of civil discourse.

  87. 87.

    Rusty

    @catclub: She did better with groups that aren’t Republicans.   Republicans ultimately pick their candidates.   Iowa and New Hampshire are idiosyncratic in that they allow non-Republicans to vote. It is like Bernie in that he did better with people who weren’t Democrats,  but when he got to South Carolina where it was Democrats,  he lost big.  The same is going to happen to Haley, she will lose big when it’s just Republicans.   The exit poll made this clear.

  90. 90.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    I’m sure Trump is going to go through the roof on Truth Social because Biden got more votes than he did

  92. 92.

    sab

    OT : Ohio’s whack-job legislature is planning to abolish state personal income tax by 2030. They say the cut in taxes will make the economy boom and thus make up the deficit. ( I feel like I have heard that before.)

    Older middle and lower income Ohioans who actually plan for the future and retirement count on state medicaid to pay for their nursing home care. Oops. That probably won’t work going forward.

  93. 93.

    Brachiator

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    RE: Comparing the results of the two primaries is meaningless. It doesn’t tell you anything significant about either candidate or either political party.

    Couldn’t it be an indicator of enthusiasm among a party’s rank and file?

    *Sigh. No.

    Enthusiasm is typically pundit bullshit. Like momentum, in either politics or sports.

    Whatever happens in a primary is specific to that political party and primary. Also, the primaries are not any kind of measure of eventual voter intent in the general election. And what Democrats do has no impact on what Republicans do in any particular primary. And vice versa. They are discrete events.

  95. 95.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Jay:

    Yeah, no. Once you have played their songs 1000 times each, you know all the words.

    Yeah, no.

    One of those bands I wasn’t in the right place at the right time to see in concert so I’m envious. Murmur is still my favorite “album” of theirs (even if I don’t know the words).

  97. 97.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Marmot: That’s how Dennis Duffy in 30 Rock described himself – fiscal liberal social conservative. Intellectual Zamboni is a good description of the character. That show was so prescient…the Steve Austin character foreshadowed Trump and the MAGA movement so accurately it’s almost scary.

  98. 98.

    sab

    @Marmot: He is anti-gay and therefore had issues with Fauci. And his best friend is Tibetan and has issues with China. So there we were. China and Fauci conspired to develop the virus.

    Then he thought Pompeo would save us.

    I just lost all patience with him at that point.

    Also too we have a trans niece that we can count on him being an asshole about.

    He wasn’t hostile to vax. He just thought it should be a personal choice.

  99. 99.

    wjca

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: If they understood cause and effect, they wouldn’t be libertarians.

    I think it’s more that they have a fantasy about what motivates human beings.  And that fantasy is immune to revision based on trivia like real life experience with real people.

  101. 101.

    sab

    I got two new mottos to live by in 2023, so in that respect it was a good year.

    ” There is light at the end of the frog.”

    ” It is comforting to know that you are a normal zebra not a strange horse.”

  102. 102.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @sab: If they are looking for some guidance on implenenting an elimination of the income tax, I understand Kansas tried the same thing a decade ago.  How did that go for them?

  105. 105.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @sab:

    Oh Jesus Christ. I remember hearing them talking about it for the past two years. This is bullshit

  110. 110.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @sab: Why would our current Ohio legislature look anywhere else to learn anything?

    To provide good constituent services… 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

  111. 111.

    Marmot

    @sab:

    He wasn’t hostile to vax. He just thought it should be a personal choice.

    It’s always hilarious to hear the Libertarian spin on the “tragedy of the commons.”

  112. 112.

    sab

    @Baud: My granddaughter is autistic, which is why everyone finally noticed me. She is obsessed with unicorns. I think her unicorns should henceforth have stripes.

  113. 113.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Sure Lurkalot: I was chatting with Stipe one night at the Globe in Athens (hi raven!!!) and he commented that most of his lyrics were “non-linear”.  Didn’t play well with the law student I was at the time!

  116. 116.

    sab

    @sab: That might be a project, if I can find the right pink or purple striped fabric: yet another unicorn , this one made by grandma not just bought by her.

  118. 118.

    zhena gogolia

    @JWR: The problem with that cartoon is that snowstorms are beyond the control of humans. The Republicans could have gotten rid of Trump at a number of junctures in the past eight years, and certainly after Jan. 6, 2021.

  119. 119.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @sab:

    OT : Ohio’s whack-job legislature is planning to abolish state personal income tax by 2030. They say the cut in taxes will make the economy boom and thus make up the deficit. ( I feel like I have heard that before.)

    It’s not just whack-job legislatures. My governor, (Jared Polis), a Democrat, would definitely support eliminating state income taxes and just recently called for cutting income, sales and property taxes. Colorado may be blue but our governor and two senators definitely line up on the right side of the democratic aisle.

  120. 120.

    ColoradoGuy

    I remember being annoyed with self-styled Libertarians in college. I’d pin them down and ask, “What do think will happen if government goes away tomorrow?”

    They’d burble some Ayn Rand fantasy, and I’d say “No, that ain’t what happens. Anywhere in the world, at any time in history. What happens is the local motorcycle gang takes over, and then fights with the next gang, etc. Everything gets wrecked and people get killed.”

    Which describes most of human history … local warlords arise, etc. etc. There’s a reason even medieval markets had armed guards nearby … thieves would steal everything otherwise. That’s the entire point of market regulation.

  122. 122.

    sab

    @WaterGirl: Dr Fauci saved gays with his medical research and his sensible  medical public health steps back in the AIDS plague days. I am a cis straight woman but I had a lot of gay friends die back then. It was a traumatic time.

    Fauci’s efforts angered my brother. Our relationship has been in thin ice ever since. He welcomed my friends dying. Covid finished it.

  124. 124.

    gwangung

    @sab:

    He wasn’t hostile to vax. He just thought it should be a personal choice.

    Personal choice that >HE< takes away from others when he tools around in public.

    That’s the thinking of a selfish asshole.

  125. 125.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @gwangung: Personal choice that >HE< takes away from others when he tools around in public.

    Those others should take responsibility for my decisions…/winger

  128. 128.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Urza: Motherfucking Stinklair Broadcasting recently acquired the Baltimore Sun. I’ll never pay a single cent for that rag again.

  130. 130.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @WaterGirl: Dr. Fauci has been married to a women since 1985.

    But… he was one of the leading researchers during the AIDS epidemic, and was also praised for engaging with AIDS advocates, and he helped to make experimental AIDS treatments more accessible.

    So maybe that’s the trigger for sab’s brother.

  132. 132.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia: @sab: @Sister Golden Bear:

    Boy, hating him because he did AIDS research  that helped gay people – it’s hard to know whether that would fall under “less bad” or “even worse” as compared to hating him if he were gay.  Either way there should be a special ring in hell for people with that much hate.

    These people are sick.

  134. 134.

    SFAW

    one of Bootsie’s main problems is that he’s such a fucking cowardly splitter

    I’m probably an old man howling at the wind, but I really wish you had not given that mofo a nickname adjacent (so to speak) to that of a truly great American, i.e., Mr. William Earl Collins.

  135. 135.

    wrog

    @Marmot:

    Fuck the New Hampshire Democratic Party for holding this primary

    It’s not the party’s decision. They have this idiotic state law, and the GOP controlled legislature is never going to repeal it.

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