Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Books are my comfort food!

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

“But what about the lurkers?”

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Bark louder, little dog.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

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

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

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

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Simple Truths are the Best

Simple Truths are the Best

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This post is in: 

Betty highlighted Josh Marshall’s piece pointing out that Trump is relatively popular.  I agree with her observations (paraphrasing) that (a) it’s true and (b) Trump’s support is soft.  The polls saying people might vote against Trump if he’s convicted, or that they’re unhappy with some Trump statement that the pollsters ask about, are pretty indicative of discomfort even among die-hard Republicans.  Our job as Democrats is to highlight the things Trump says that are really bad, and also the bad consequences of that fucker’s politics (especially abortion), in the frankest and simplest manner possible.

Today’s comments by Biden calling Trump’s NATO remarks “un-American” is a great example.  That’s a Washington Post gift link, but the Guardian did a better job with their headline “Joe Biden calls Trump’s Nato remarks ‘dumb’, ‘shameful’ and ‘dangerous’”

One of Trump’s perceived strengths is plain talk, and being unafraid to say things that other politicians are shy about.  But, when it comes to being beholden to Putin, he dances around the question.  When it comes to abortion, his narcissism makes him want to take credit for ending Roe, even though a lot of the smarter Republicans are running away from the issue.

Trump has the support of, pick a number, say, 45% of the population.  The key to beating him is to make sure that the fraction of that 45% who aren’t super stoked about him don’t go to the polls, or if they go to the polls, they simply don’t vote for President (like the brave Chris Christie).   Calling Trump “un-American”, “Putin’s stooge” or pointing out that 50,000 rape babies in states where women can’t get abortions is an ugly consequence of his proudest moment aren’t things that Democrats are usually comfortable saying, but to get the point across to these folks, we need to start getting used to saying them.

Reader Interactions

107Comments

  1. 1.

    Alison Rose

    I think it’s always important to remember that people are not always honest with pollsters. There are undoubtedly some Republican voters who will say they support Trump, but when it comes time to mark their ballot in the general, they might not actually do it. Maybe they can’t get themselves to say it out loud that they won’t vote for him, and telling a pollster they will vote for him isn’t necessarily gospel.

  4. 4.

    Lapassionara

    I am so old, I’m not even a Boomer. One of the highlights of my travel experience was visiting Omaha Beach in Normandy, and seeing the US cemetery there. Row after row of graves, of mostly young men, who sacrificed their lives to help defeat Nazism and Fascism. What a sobering and poignant experience.

    Trump basically is saying that their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of their families, was in vain. That the US can elect a leader who could just decide that the treaties the US entered into after WWII can be disregarded at the snap of a finger, even though those treaties are part of US law and even though he, as President, takes an oath to enforce the laws and uphold the Constitution. The fact that one of the US’s major political parties would even welcome a candidate with these views is completely demoralizing. Even allowing him to run for office calls into question whether we, as a nation, can ever be trusted again.

  5. 5.

    Alison Rose

    I do want to say that I don’t think “rape babies” is a term we should use. I realize maybe you’re being glib because it’s BJ, and I absolutely think pointing out how many people become pregnant as a result of rape is very important. Most victims probably want to terminate, but not all. There will be some who, for whatever reasons of their own, choose not to do so. And some of them may choose to raise and be able to love that child. That’s not for us to judge. There are people out there who are the result of a sexual assault, and I can’t begin to imagine how one comes to terms with knowing that about your origins. But that person is not the bad one in this scenario. And tagging them as “rape babies” can seem to imply that they are worthy of ire.

    We certainly should highlight the cases, which I’d assume to be the vast majority, where someone got pregnant from an assault and wanted to terminate and couldn’t thanks to the end of Roe and other intrusions. But the derogatory terms should be applied to the rapist and the politicians acting as accessories after the fact.

  6. 6.

    Ryan

    “That’s a Washington Post gift link, but the Guardian did a better job with their headline “Joe Biden calls Trump’s Nato remarks ‘dumb’, ‘shameful’ and ‘dangerous’””

    I’d go one step further and state that this was the step of a weak man.  Trump is going to do everything he can to make this a weak v. strong election, so actions like this have to be perceived as weakness rather than strength.  Sure, it’s easy to seem strong by portraying yourself as the head of a protection racket, but the Biden team I think can find a way to jujitsu that into a strength by standing by our allies.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    Open thread? FYI.

    The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) maintains that artificial intelligence systems cannot be named inventors, but humans can use AI tools in the process of creating patented inventions and must disclose if they do.

    The agency published its latest guidance following a series of “listening” tours to gather public feedback. It states that while AI systems and other “non-natural persons” can’t be listed as inventors in patent applications, “the use of an AI system by a natural person does not preclude a natural person from qualifying as an inventor.” People seeking patents must disclose if they used AI in the invention process, just as the USPTO asks all applicants to list all material information necessary to make a decision.

    However, to be able to register a patent, the person using the AI must’ve contributed significantly to the invention’s conception. A person simply asking an AI system to create something and overseeing it, the report says, does not make them an inventor.… Source

  8. 8.

    narya

    I think there’s a difference between “liking” TIFG and reflexively voting for anyone w/ an R after their name–perhaps what’s meant by “soft” support.

  9. 9.

    FelonyGovt

    I think this is right. We have to put things plainly, without niceties or pulling punches, to normies who aren’t immersed in this stuff like we are. ETA but I do agree with Alison about “rape babies”, ouch

    I now “control” 4 votes- my husband’s, my daughter’s, and my (Alzheimer’s patient) father-in-law’s. My husband and daughter are normie Dems who appreciate my “fact finding” and we mark our ballots together. My FIL just knew he didn’t want Trump to get in again.  All have been marked and submitted- Biden, Adam Schiff, and other tasty Dems (my FIL gets to vote for Auntie Maxine!)

  10. 10.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Lapassionara:

    You’ve just provide an outline of a political ad by The Lincoln Project.

    Not that I’d ever give those untrustworthies a dime of money but ideas?  Sure.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    CBS news is covering Biden’s comment..   “No one else has bowed down to a Russian dictator, and I never will”

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    Unrelated PSA: Raffle tickets available until 5pm Eastern on Wed 2/14.

    Ukraine Quilt Raffle:

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    Send email to WaterGirl with your nym and your BJ Ukraine thermometer donation confirmation, and which raffle(s) you want tickets for.

    If you are one of the 21 people who donated to the Ukraine thermometer AFTER I mentioned the upcoming raffle on Sunday 2/4, you are eligible for the # of raffle tickets that match your donations.  Send me email to let me know if you would like raffle tickets for either or both quilts.

    More details and quilt images in the Ukraine raffle post from yesterday.

  13. 13.

    $8 blue check mistermix

    @Alison Rose:

    I do want to say that I don’t think “rape babies” is a term we should use. I realize maybe you’re being glib because it’s BJ, and I absolutely think pointing out how many people become pregnant as a result of rape is very important.

    Agreed but I didn’t have a better “simple facts” way of saying it.

  17. 17.

    RevRick

    @Lapassionara: It’s actually worse. He is spitting on their graves, because he’s stating he wants to establish a fascist regime here. They died in the struggle to crush fascism overseas, and he wants to usher it In through the front door.

  18. 18.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: I think polls close at 9 p.m. Do you get AM radio? WCBS 880AM will have reports through the hour. It will be a big story there. WCBS is clear channel so you can probably pick them up where you are. You could hang out in your car and listen, like a real political junkie.

    Or, follow Tom Watson on Twitter. Watson lives across the Sound in Westchester and is a good source for New York political news.

    Did you get snow today? Long Island was expected to get 5-8″ and that may be a factor in the election.

  21. 21.

    Jackie

    Speaking of votes, do we know yet if the impeachment vote on Mayorkas is happening tonight?

    Per CNN:

    The House GOP’s renewed attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Tuesday night hinges on the potential absences in the chamber.
    Due to snow impacting regions of the US, members in both parties could miss the vote — impacting the vote count.
    GOP leadership is expected to hold a vote on another matter first in the 6:30 p.m. ET vote series to gauge the absences, Republican sources said.
    If there are too many absences, Republicans will consider delaying the vote — a risky move given the outcome of the New York special election could affect the vote total if it is delayed.

  22. 22.

    RevRick

    @JPL: Crime? When it’s back down to a 50 year low? Taxes? When Biden only nicked the +$400,000 income folks? Immigration? When Trump sabotaged a bipartisan bill to deal with it?

  23. 23.

    JPL

    @Geminid: Washington Post has a live election feed.

    Concerns about immigration made even some of Suozzi’s supporters think twice. Margaret Bell said she always leaned toward Suozzi because she has known him in Glen Cove for years, but the campaign messages about immigration swayed her. “So many of them are coming over here — they should be worrying about here before they take care of someone else,” she said of politicians who support more liberal immigration policy. Still, she stuck with Suozzi.

    “At the end of the day, I feel he’s trying to do the best he can for us.” Maria Deluca also acknowledged hearing “a lot of negativity toward his stance on immigration” but decided she preferred moderation to Republicans’ hard line. Suozzi, she said, would “protect us but also be fair to those who are seeking asylum.”

  24. 24.

    wjca

    @Lapassionara: Trump basically is saying that their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of their families, was in vain.

    Well, since he thinks that anyone who is wounded in combat, let alone killed**, is “a loser,” it’s hardly surprising.

    ** Actually, I think he believes that anyone who volunteers to serve, or who didn’t scam his way out of the draft, is a fool.

  25. 25.

    New Deal democrat

    This is one of the rare times I disagree with Josh Marshall.

    I do not believe it is accurate to say that Trump is popular. It is more accurate to say that he maintains the support of the same 43%-46% of likely voters that he did in 2016 and 2020. He is no more nor less popular than that.

    I would not call someone whom a majority of likely voters have a negative opinion of “popular.”

    The real issue is that 43% to 46% may be enough to re-elect him in 2024 depending on the relative popularity of Joe Biden and how it is spread out in swing states. Very small shifts – e.g., the Arab American vote in Michigan – may make all the difference.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    I wouldn’t necessarily trust people the media find to highlight.

    It’s a wealthy district. Ripe for being influenced by Republican issues.

  30. 30.

    p.a.

    If Candidate Combover is puking up shit like this without pressure, imagine in a debate?  I think his handlers will try to avoid debates and use Fox etc to push whatever bullshit reasons they throw out.

    They’ll have to contend with his ginormous ego to convince him to avoid debates; we know he really  thinks he’s a genius.

     

    ETA: whatever system here wordchecks, my iPad or Safari or the B-J host, had no problem with ginormous.  No redline, no alt spellings offered.

  32. 32.

    Eolirin

    @RevRick: The migrant busing to NYC that Texas is doing is putting legitimate strain on local resources and causing issues, but it’s really just that Nassau county is Republican voter dominated, and those three things, regardless of how connected they are to reality, are what Republicans voters respond to

    Especially in a state like NY, and especially Long Island, where being anti-abortion and anti-gay aren’t as powerful motivators.

  33. 33.

    cmorenc

    @Alison Rose: Sorry, but your post is a paradigm example of progressives arguing among ourselves about what language is most politically correct to go against opponents bringing verbal sledgehammers, guns, and knives to the fight.  Maybe “impregnated by rape” would be a good hammer to beat our forced-birth opponents with, but frankly this is not a battle ti be won with strained nuance of wording.

    Shorter version: to Hell with getting overly hung up in politically perfect wording.

  34. 34.

    prostratedragon

    With classical fascism springing up right here in the ISA,  why are voters on (excuse me) Long Fucking Island in a twist about the southern border?

  35. 35.

    dmsilev

    @Jackie: It’s still a “maybe” according to the latest update from the Post a few minutes ago:

    House Republicans careened Tuesday evening toward another vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his stewardship of the U.S. immigration system. If they succeeded, Mayorkas would be the first sitting Cabinet member in 150 years to receive such a censure amid loud Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

    Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s team planned for a floor vote shortly after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. But House GOP leadership was prepared to pull down the vote, as it remained unclear whether enough GOP lawmakers would appear in the chamber to pass the measure, according to a person familiar with the matter. As lawmakers were returning to Washington, a major snowstorm blanketing the Northeast might have disrupted travel for some.

    Apparently Republicans have trouble with basic counting.

  37. 37.

    Robin Goodfellow

    @schrodingers_cat: With the snowstorm? Hard to say, Suozzi held a early vote gathering and many of his local supporters showed up after voting. This might make the difference.

  39. 39.

    Wag

    @cmorenc:   Agreed.  Call them what they are.  Rape pregnancies.  No need to inflame by calling the resultant pregnancy a “rape baby”

  41. 41.

    Eolirin

    My hope here isn’t just that Suozzi wins, but that he wins by an unexpectedly large margin. That’d bode extremely well for us picking up the other lost seats during the general.

    But Nassau county has turned pretty damn red. I’m not entirely sure that seat is winnable without somewhat rigged maps. I hope it is! We could really use that seat right the fuck now. But we’re gonna have to see.

  42. 42.

    Jackie

    @dmsilev: Thanks 😊 I’m hoping the weather favors a postponement, plus A Dem pick up tonight in NY! OR… another House GQP switches yea to nay!

    Lots of heavy wishing, I know 🤞🏻🤞🏻😂

  43. 43.

    JaySinWA

    @Jackie:

    If there are too many absences, Republicans will consider delaying the vote — a risky move given the outcome of the New York special election could affect the vote total if it is delayed.

    How quickly can they certify the election and swear in the congressman? In a regular election it would be a couple of weeks, wouldn’t it?

  44. 44.

    topclimber

    @prostratedragon: Immigrants can burden schools with a high number of English as a Second Language kids. They won’t be turned away from emergency rooms. They add to the housing crunch.

    Of course, they also work and contribute to the tax base, which offsets justifiable concerns about paying for such things. But that’s immaterial because the prime problem is bigotry.

  45. 45.

    cain

    @dmsilev:

    They have no sense of timing do they?

    Of course, this is the group that keeps on voting and looking like fools. As they become more extreme, they are being more clownish.

  46. 46.

    Eolirin

    @topclimber: When there’s no system in place to process them and get them set up with services and housing because they’re being dumped by the busload by assholes from Texas, there are additional problems.

    Right leaning folks are great at victim blaming when faced with any kind of inconvenience.

  47. 47.

    Scout211

    @p.a.: had no problem with ginormous

     

    Ginormous is an actual word now listed in all the dictionaries.  I like the word and use it when something is bigger than big.

    It was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2007.

    But Merriam-Webster traces ginormous back to 1948, when it appeared in a British dictionary of military slang. And in the past several years, its use has become, well, ginormous.

    Visitors to the Springfield-based dictionary publisher’s Web site picked “ginormous” as their favorite word that’s not in the dictionary in 2005, and Merriam-Webster editors have spotted it in countless newspaper and magazine articles since 2000.

    That’s essentially the criteria for making it into the collegiate dictionary — if a word shows up often enough in mainstream writing, the editors consider defining it.

  51. 51.

    dmsilev

    Adventures in “well, that escalated quickly”. I need to buy some metal stock for a project at work. Because Reasons, it needs to be high-purity copper. The product page for one supplier says that “It is typically used in conductors, wiring, and particle accelerators.”.  No applications anywhere in between “wire” and “Large Hadron Collider”?

  52. 52.

    Eolirin

    For context, between spring and December of last year we had 150k people dumped into the city with no process set up to handle them ahead of time and no financial assistance from the feds. It’s been a mess.

  53. 53.

    geg6

    Rachel Bitecofer (sp?) just wrote a book about this very thing.  Start telling the bare truth about Cheetolini and the rest of the GOP and be assertive about it.  Stop cringing and being polite.

  55. 55.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Nassau county is Democratic when voting for president.  Obama got 54% of the vote in 2012 and Biden got 54% of the vote in 2020.  So the question is how does the county vote in an off year election and how is the congessional seat map drawn.

  56. 56.

    Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    reposting from the last thread because it fits better here.

    Next up, refraining from use of rethuglican framing. Follow the lead of Catherine Ramplell in today’s WaPo.
    “The surge in immigration is a $7 trillion gift to the economy” (gift link)

    But what if that premise is wrong? Voters and political strategists have treated our country’s ability to draw immigrants from around the world as a curse; it could be a blessing, if only we could get out of our own way.

    Consider a few numbers: Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released updated 10-year economic and budget forecasts. The numbers look significantly better than they did a year earlier, and immigration is a key reason.

  57. 57.

    p.a.

    Michigan repealed the state’s anti-union right-to-work law last year, and that legislation goes into effect today.

    The repeal is significant: It’s the first time a state has repealed a right-to-work law in half a century, an outcome that’s downstream of both rising pro-union politics in the U.S. and Democrats’ solid majority in the Michigan legislature, which was won the same year a referendum protecting the right to an abortion was on the ballot. Right-to-work laws, pushed by various conservative politicians and interest groups over the last several decades, let union members opt out of paying dues, dramatically undermining the power of organized labor.
    -TPM

  60. 60.

    dmsilev

    @JaySinWA: I would say that the House GOP was a bunch of clowns, but I don’t want to get sued for slander by Bozo and his associates so I’ll just say that I’m not surprised.

  61. 61.

    JPL

    @JaySinWA: Who will they impeach next?   Sec.of Defense has missed a lot of work due to the fact that he has been in and out of the hospital, so he might be a candidate.  Another candidate might be Sec. Haaland, because she show’s favoritism towards indigineous people.

     

    there are no good republicans

  62. 62.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Jackie:

     Right. They wouldn’t be scrambling and dragging a cancer patient in for a vote if they thought they had this special election in the bag.

    Action speaks louder than words from diners printed in FTFNYT.

  69. 69.

    Geminid

    @Eolirin: I saw that the are 4 other special elections today, all state House districts. I think one in New York, one in Pennsyvania and two more in stares west. Two are safe Republican districts and two are safe Democratic.

    The New York 3rd CD is the only purple district up tonight, with a Cook’s rating of D+2.

  70. 70.

    Brachiator

    The polls saying people might vote against Trump if he’s convicted, or that they’re unhappy with some Trump statement that the pollsters ask about, are pretty indicative of discomfort even among die-hard Republicans.

    It’s still too early to pay attention to polls. Also, there are too many variables at play here to tease out voter intent. “Would you still vote for Trump if he defames Ms Carroll four more times and jacks up the damages to a billion dollars?”

    One of Trump’s perceived strengths is plain talk, and being unafraid to say things that other politicians are shy about.  But, when it comes to being beholden to Putin, he dances around the question.

    Interesting point. Even though Trump dances around the question, things always end up with him saying how much he loves Putin and other authoritarians.

    But also keep in mind that the MAGA dopes believe that Trump is a foreign policy master of the universe, and that all other world leaders naturally defer to him.

    When it comes to abortion, his narcissism makes him want to take credit for ending Roe, even though a lot of the smarter Republicans are running away from the issue.

    Republicans only pretend to run away. None of them support a return to Roe. None. And no matter what they say, it’s more than apparent that they will push for the most restrictive federal ban on abortion possible if they gain enough power to do so.

    Trump has the support of, pick a number, say, 45% of the population.  The key to beating him is to make sure that the fraction of that 45% who aren’t super stoked about him don’t go to the polls, or if they go to the polls, they simply don’t vote for President.

    Has this strategy of discouraging voters ever really worked?

    It is foolish to try to manipulate people into staying home. And by the time we get to October, die-hard Trump supporters might be especially energized. We have to get out the vote and convince swing voters and Independents to vote for Biden.

    Calling Trump “un-American”, “Putin’s stooge”…

    I’m all for things like this, especially because it will get under Trump’s skin and increase the odds that he will say or do something stupid in return.

  74. 74.

    frosty

    Open Thread? Valued Commenter sab mentioned a Republicans For Ukraine Scorecard downstairs. I checked mine. Knock me over with a feather! My useless Rep, Lloyd Smucker, isn’t completely useless. His votes are green across the board and he’s labeled “Excellent”. I guess I’d better call and thank him.

    My former Rep, Scott Traitor Perry, is completely the opposite.

    https://gopforukraine.com/ukraine-report-card/

  75. 75.

    Jackie

    @sdhays: Sad. Even the GQP members who admitted Mayorkas had NOT committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors voted to impeach because they are scared to death of the Orange god. Sickening.

  76. 76.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    I always felt Dems should have impeached Bill Barr and the nazis Dump had at DHS.  But they wanted to stick to norms.   Now that rethuglicans  have broken that norm they’ve inadvertently opened the door to impeachment of future Rethug henchmen.

  79. 79.

    geg6

    @JPL:

    PA still has a lot of blood red rural counties and two very blue cities (with Erie being third largest and trending blue).  But Dems have finally taken over the House, so that’s a good thing.  The state has lost population and most of that loss is from those blood red counties/districts, so that makes the very blue cities and their ‘burbs more politically powerful and thus we got two Dem senators, a Dem governor and a Dem controlled statehouse.

  80. 80.

    Alison Rose

    @cmorenc: Forgive me for not wanting to be cruel to people who don’t deserve it. I didn’t realize that was not a progressive value. I was not “arguing”, I was simply offering my opinion.

  81. 81.

    frosty

    @geg6: ​ PA still has a lot of blood red rural counties…

    [Raises hand]. Lehigh Valley is fairly blue also. I canvassed there for Susan Wild, Fetterman, and Shapiro. They had a really good GOTV organization going; way better than I’ve seen in my own County.

  82. 82.

    wjca

    @dmsilev:  I guess Trump’s Magic Sharpie of Storm Redirection was, umm, in the shop getting reinked or something?

    Perhaps hidden behind ketchup running down the walls and onto the floor?

  83. 83.

    wjca

    @JPL: Who will they impeach next?   Sec.of Defense has missed a lot of work due to the fact that he has been in and out of the hospital, so he might be a candidate.

    Nonsense.  How could they impeach someone for not working?  Not working is how they roll, after all.

  84. 84.

    Robin Goodfellow

    But Nassau county has turned pretty damn red.

     

    But Nassau county has turned pretty damn red.

     

    Nassau has always been a Republican Stronghold, so strong in fact Reagan was impressed when he visited, calling it the strongest in the country.

    This is the land of real life Archie Bunkers.

  85. 85.

    Another Scott

    Whitehouse.gov:

    FEBRUARY 13, 2024

    Statement from President Joe Biden on House GOP’s Baseless Impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas

    History will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games. Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, a Cuban immigrant who came to the United States with his family as political refugees, has spent more than two decades serving America with integrity in a decorated career in law enforcement and public service. From his time in the Justice Department as a U.S. Attorney to his service as Deputy Secretary and now Secretary of Homeland Security, he has upheld the rule of law faithfully and has demonstrated a deep commitment to the values that make our nation great.

    This impeachment already failed once on a bipartisan vote. Instead of staging political stunts like this, Republicans with genuine concerns about the border should want Congress to deliver more border resources and stronger border security. Sadly, the same Republicans pushing this baseless impeachment are rejecting bipartisan plans Secretary Mayorkas and others in my administration have worked hard on to strengthen border security at this very moment — reversing from years of their own demands to pass stronger border bills. Giving up on real solutions right when they are needed most in order to play politics is not what the American people expect from their leaders. Congress needs to act to give me, Secretary Mayorkas, and my administration the tools and resources needed to address the situation at the border. The House also needs to pass the Senate’s national security supplemental right away. We will continue pursuing real solutions to the challenges Americans face, and House Republicans have to decide whether to join us to solve the problem or keep playing politics with the border.

    ###

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  89. 89.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Since the Senate is in Dem hands, the Mayorkas impeachment will go nowhere, but will it have any effect beyond a few news cycles, if at all?

  90. 90.

    trnc

    @JPL: CBS news is covering Biden’s comment.. “No one else has bowed down to a Russian dictator, and I never will”

    Good! I was wondering if the nightly news shows had carried it.

  91. 91.

    Ken B

    @Baud: Why not make the goons run a trial? They’ve got no crimes to go with, and they’ve picked some of their stupidest members to be managers\prosecutors.

    Why not make them own it and show how much of a farce this is? And Dem senators can rub their noses in their own malfeasances and general ineptitude.

  92. 92.

    Ken B

    @Baud: Why not make the goons run a trial? They’ve got no crimes to go with, and they’ve picked some of their stupidest members to be managers\prosecutors.

    Why not make them own it and show how much of a farce this is? And Dem senators can rub their noses in the Republican’s own malfeasances and general ineptitude.

  95. 95.

    Baud

    @Ken B:

    Show it to whom? It’s pretty clear by now that much of the public can’t tell for themselves what’s a farce and what isn’t.

  96. 96.

    trnc

    @New Deal democrat:

    It is more accurate to say that he maintains the support of the same 43%-46% of likely voters that he did in 2016 and 2020. He is no more nor less popular than that.

    I would not call someone whom a majority of likely voters have a negative opinion of “popular.”

    Just my own $0.02, but popularity is relevant, so I wouldn’t consider 50% a hard threshold for being popular. Song number 27 in the top forty list is popular. The guy having a major party nomination wrapped up almost before the primaries began is definitely popular, as much as it pains me to think about.

  97. 97.

    Geminid

    @JPL: According to an ABC news story about the Pennylvania special election, House District 140 is in Bucks County and is voting to replace a Democrat. Joe Biden and John Fetterman carried the district by double digits in 2020 and 2022, but Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick carried it by 3 points in 2022 so it’s a little swingy.

    The Republican candidate is Candace Cabanas, who has “worked in healthcare and hospitality,” while the Democrat is Jim Prokopiak, “a lawyer and a member of the Pennsberry school board.”

  98. 98.

    Bill Arnold

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
    The impeachment articles are buttressing their portrayal as problems at the southern border being an “urgent crisis” which they sadly must vote against solving. They are/will argue that Mayorkas would not follow any new legislation anyway. Which is a blatant lie even if “true” (which it is not; the executive branch has broad authority over the border), evidenced by the CBP Union’s endorsement because it gives them a pile more money.
    Constitutional Law Scholars on the Impeachment Proceedings Against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas (Joshua Matz and Laurence H. Tribe, January 10, 2024)
    Worth a skim; it’s short.

    Constitutional Law Experts on the Impeachment Proceedings Against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas
    Senior Republicans in the House of Representatives—including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Chairman Mark Green of the Committee on Homeland Security—have stated that they intend to pursue an impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This proceeding will apparently occur in the Committee on Homeland Security on an accelerated timeframe. As scholars of the Constitution, considering the facts currently known and the charges publicly described, we hereby express our view that an impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas would be utterly unjustified as a matter of constitutional law.
    …

    Signed by:
    Laurence H. Tribe, Joshua Matz, Donald Ayer, Philip C. Bobbitt, Corey Brettschneider, Erwin Chemerinsky, Gabriel J. Chin, Rosalind Dixon, Michael Dorf, Amanda Frost, Michael Gerhardt, Stuart Gerson, Aziz Huq, Kevin R. Johnson, Pamela S. Karlan, Jon D. Michaels, Timothy Naftali, Victoria Nourse, Deborah Pearlstein, Robert Post, Cristina Rodríguez, Jack Rakove, Kermit Roosevelt, Peter Shane, David A. Strauss

  99. 99.

    Another Scott

    @JaySinWA: It was a hail-Mary vote.

    Via twitter.com/Fritschner :

    One California Democrat was out with COVID.

    One south Florida Democrat and 2 south Florida Republicans were out (maybe weather related transportation issues).

    They got “lucky”, and came close to losing again.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  100. 100.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Bill Arnold:

    The impeachment articles are buttressing their portrayal as problems at the southern border being an “urgent crisis” which they sadly must vote against solving. They are/will argue that Mayorkas would not follow any new legislation anyway. Which is a blatant lie even if “true” (which it is not; the executive branch has broad authority over the border), evidenced by the CBP Union’s endorsement because it gives them a pile more money.

    Do you think it will work? Can’t the Senate just dismiss the articles of impeachment or something?

  104. 104.

    SomeRandomGuy

    Calling Trump “un-American”, “Putin’s stooge” or pointing out that 50,000 rape babies in states where women can’t get abortions is an ugly consequence of his proudest moment aren’t things that Democrats are usually comfortable saying, but to get the point across to these folks, we need to start getting used to saying them.

    More importantly, Democrats need to get more comfortable pointing out that Trump looks like a toad with some diseased rodent constantly skull-fucking him. “He thinks you all are so stupid, you believe that massive lard-butt is only 240lbs. Well – maybe JUST the butt….”

    While Trump is still massively dangerous, he’s still patently ridiculous, and there should be ten times more mockery of him than there is, a statement that will, miraculously, always be true, until we reach infini-mock, which is a *limit*, not a *number*.

  106. 106.

    prostratedragon

    @topclimber:  Yeah, I doubt that the immigrant influx from the south is a huge burden on Nassau County compared to what the House Repubs are trending toward.

  107. 107.

    Barney

    @Mart: Maybe there’s an opportunity to combine things here: Trump the rapist is committed to forcing rape victims to give birth to their rapist’s babies.

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