Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Please don’t feed the bears.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

In after Baud. Damn.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Shut up, hissy kitty!

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

You are here: Home / Politics / Go Ahead, Make My Day

Go Ahead, Make My Day

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Watching this made my day.  I can barely stand to watch this sanctimonious prick, but he’s only on for 15 seconds, and then he takes a serious beating from none other than President Bartlet.

This was fun, too.

Another great Jasmine Crockett clip. Kamala Harris inspires her; she inspires me.

h/t TBone

Full 30-minute interview with Jasmine Crockett.

h/t NotMax

Anything you’ve seen recently that inspired you, that you might want to share?

Or not.  Totally open thread.

Reader Interactions

157Comments

  1. 1.

    Eunicecycle

    That’s one of my favorite clips from the WW. There’s another good takedown of religious bigots in the very first show, when Bartlet’s young teenaged granddaughter expresses her opinion on abortion in a teen magazine. And I love Rep. Crockett!

  2. 2.

    Chris

    I remember the Bartlett moment from over twenty years ago.  Quite possibly it was the single best known moment from The West Wing in the online culture I was discovering.  Still great.

    For all the ways that show hasn’t aged well and gets dinged these days by later liberals who often have a good point, the way it repeatedly said “fuck you” to the religious right at a time when it was probably at its zenith is something I’ll never not appreciate.  All the more so because most of the characters on the show were some form of religious themselves.  President Bartlett was the voice of every Christian who was sick to fucking death of these people being treated like they were the only Christians who mattered and were entitled to speak for the entire religion.

    (And then the 2000s, when most of the show aired, was also the decade during which any claim the religious right had of being the voice of the American people just completely collapsed.  They definitely had their finger on the pulse of much of the nation at least in that way.  People were just getting sick of them at this point).

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    @Eunicecycle: @Chris:

    I noticed the sound of thunder in the background as President Bartlet was speaking.  It reminded me of one of my favorite moments in the show, when it was also storming.

    Jed is shouting at god, calling him feckless, while a storm rages.  Such a powerful scene.

  5. 5.

    jimmiraybob

    There’s a reason that they’ve, religious leaders, narrowed down the Commandments from 613 to the 10 that they can live with.  Personally, I think all 613 should be hung on the walls of our schools.

    Perspective.

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    It’s funny, I keep hearing what I think is thunder, but it’s not raining.  I wonder if we’re about to get a storm or if my hearing thunder in the clip and thinking about the other West Wing scene with the storm raging has me hearing a truck somewhere in the distance and thinking it’s thunder.

    Hoping for a storm.  Love storms.  Though it did take me about two years after the huge tree hit my house to love storms again.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    So apparently Joe Biden said some mean but true things about Republicans yesterday, and Mike Johnson in particular is whining about it.

    President Biden, speaking at a campaign fundraiser in San Francisco on Wednesday night, compared current Republicans in Congress to the “real racists” he served with as a senator in the 1970s and claimed today’s GOP lawmakers are “worse” and have “become a party of chaos and division.”

    “I’ve been a senator since ’72. I’ve served with real racists. I’ve served with Strom Thurmond,” Biden said, referencing the South Carolina Republican senator who died in 2003. “I’ve served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race. But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles.”

    […]

    House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called Biden’s most recent remarks about the current Congress “outrageous.”

  12. 12.

    Ken

    @dmsilev: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called Biden’s most recent remarks about the current Congress “outrageous.”

    But didn’t go so far as to call them “wrong” or “false”?

  14. 14.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @dmsilev:

    “I’ve been a senator since ’72. I’ve served with real racists. I’ve served with Strom Thurmond,” Biden said, referencing the South Carolina Republican senator who died in 2003. “I’ve served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race. But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles.”

    Yet another reason why Biden is the best president of my lifetime.  Also too, I doubt earlier iterations of Biden would have been this plain spoken.  I really think he’s benefited by waiting so long to be President.

    Being his age is a wonderful example of “No More Fucks Left To Give” and that statement is a poster child for it.

    Now waiting for FTFNYT and the rest of the corporate media to decry him for being too abrasive or partisan or wtf phrasing they’ll use to beat on him.

  22. 22.

    Chris

    @dmsilev:

    “I’ve been a senator since ’72. I’ve served with real racists. I’ve served with Strom Thurmond,” Biden said, referencing the South Carolina Republican senator who died in 2003. “I’ve served with all these guys that have set terrible records on race. But guess what? These guys are worse. These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles.”

    Not to be a pedant, but what else are Internets for: doesn’t this actually make them exactly like Strom Thurmond?  Thurmond threw a whole third party campaign because he was outraged at the basic democratic principle that white supremacists shouldn’t be allowed to disenfranchise everyone who wasn’t them.  The only difference was that he didn’t have the votes to have his way, let alone impose it nationwide.  Trump is what Strom Thurmond would’ve been if he had half the population behind him.

  23. 23.

    jimmiraybob

    @WaterGirl: One of the 613 comes out of Deuteronomy 24:1:

    “When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.”

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    @Sis: That’s a good one.

    I like how nearly all of the current democrats they show are people of color.  The only two I caught that are not were Sherrod Brown and Nancy Pelosi, and I can’t think of two better people they could have chosen

    They also had at least 3 young pups who are Democrats, too.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    The West Wing was great TV, IMO. People complain about it not reflecting reality, and it doesn’t. It often portrayed Republicans as patriots who put country over party. But it’s a TV show, so a fantasy element is okay! ;-)

  28. 28.

    matt

    i’m willing to take Johnson at his word and believe that his thought process is a raggedy-assed assortment of mushy parables and weird admonitions, without a hint of any logic anywhere to be found.

  29. 29.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax:  Thanks for supplying. Saw it last night, and it’s a great example of identifying bullshit and shovelling it outta here.

    And do like hearing from Rep. Crockett, who I hope can stay sharp.

  30. 30.

    jimmiraybob

    @topclimber: “Only 10 in Exodus perhaps?”

    I’m not a Biblical expert or, FSM forbid, a theologian, but the Old Testament contains 613.  I did not know this until I took a class on Spinoza (and one on Maimonides) at a synagogue.

    But, if you are a literalist fundamentalist Christian, waves at Mike Johnson, I don’t know why all of them aren’t the Word of God.

    I assume that calling for the posting of all 613 would be quite controversial and would bring the wrath of the literalist fundamentalist Christians.  And the MAGA know nothings.

  31. 31.

    EarthWindFire

    @WaterGirl: Ah, Truman. If I remember my history correctly, the “sure thing” Dewey supporters were just as whiny about “getting hell” from Truman as Trump supporters are about it from Biden today. Same as it ever was.

  35. 35.

    Harrison Wesley

    I dunno.  When it comes to MAGAts, I have to agree with Speaker Johnson.  I’d much rather they solved their problems by picking up a Bible than by picking up a gun.

  37. 37.

    Chris

    @Betty Cracker:

    Abigail at LGM has pointed out that the best thing TWW did from a reality point of view was introducing a whole generation to the idea that work in politics could be exciting, inspiring, honorable, and generally just a worthwhile pursuit.  This at a time when the view that politics was just inherently dirty and crooked was mainstream and very few people were arguing the opposite.

    Which pretty much gels with my experience at American University in the mid to late 2000s where a lot of people were going into politics or public service of some kind.  TWW was one of the shows that would reliably be on in the dorm rooms.

  38. 38.

    M31

    remember, if you mix fabrics, like 60/40 cotton/poly blend, you are going to hell

    cheeseburgers? hell

    I can’t remember — if your brother dies are you required to marry his widow or is it forbidden?

  39. 39.

    Ken

    @jimmiraybob: I’m never sure if posting links is OK.

    Normally I’d not post a bare link, without adding some context and commentary. But it’s the Jewish list of commandments, so there is plenty of commentary available.

  40. 40.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, Whitehouse.gov has Jill Biden’s prepared remarks:

    […]

    In November, President Biden launched the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. This work is informed by years of advocacy by people like Maria Shriver, and the initiative’s chair, Carolyn Mazure.

    We have a clear goal: to fundamentally change how our nation approaches and funds women’s health research. Research on women’s health has always been underfunded, many medical studies have focused on men and left women out, many of the medicine dosages, treatments, medical school textbooks, are based on men and their bodies – and that information doesn’t always apply to women. There are big gaps in research on diseases and conditions that only affect women, that disproportionately affect women, or that affect women and men differently.

    We’ve heard from so many researchers and doctors and women who are excited about this project.

    However, we’ve also heard that too many exciting discoveries for women’s health never leave the lab because they’re seen as “too risky” to invest in.

    Today, I am here to announce that ARPA-H is launching its first-ever “Sprint for Women’s Health.” Over the next year, ARPA-H will invest $100 million to fund life changing research. Through this sprint, we are going to make the types of investments that you told us would change everything.

    We are going to invest in your discoveries early, when private companies may not be willing to take the risk. We are going to give women’s health researchers and startups the funding they need to grow and help them bring ideas to market – and to the women who need them most.

    Because if you ask any woman in America about her health care, she likely has a story to tell. You know her.

    She’s the woman who gets debilitating migraines, but doesn’t know why, and can’t find treatment options that work for her.

    She’s the woman whose heart attack isn’t recognized because her symptoms don’t look like a man’s heart attack, even as heart disease is the leading cause of death among women.

    She’s the woman going through menopause, who visits with her doctor and leaves with more questions than answers, even though half the country will go through menopause at some point in their lives.

    Together, through our White House Initiative on Women’s Health, we will write new stories about women’s health care. We will accelerate your ideas and change these women’s lives. We will build a health care system that puts women and their lived experiences at its center. Where no woman or girl has to hear that “it’s all in your head,” or, “it’s just stress.” Where women aren’t just an after-thought, but a first-thought. Where women don’t just survive with chronic conditions, but lead long and healthy lives.

    […]

    Good, good.

    More, please.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  41. 41.

    indycat32

    Since this is a totally open thread:  I have a cat problem (yes, again).  An intact male, maybe 2 years old, (Wesley) has showed up (appointment to get him fixed on Tuesday) and he’s a total bully to my small colony of cats.  Just now, Callie, the sweetest, quietest, never makes a sound cat, let out a blood curdling scream.,  She was safe inside one of the cat houses, but Wesley was right outside it. He’s intimated all of them.  My kittens won’t come out to eat.  All this intro is to get to this question:  I’ve put him in the large dog crate in my garage where I kept the feral four.  Would it be OK to keep him in there until Tuesday?  And will getting him fixed solve the bullying problem?  He’s very friendly and I’ve asked Indy Humane to take him for adoption but they can’t get to him until May  25!!!

  42. 42.

    jimmiraybob

    @M31:

    In my earlier life I was not much into fabric blends but, boy o boy, after my first cheeseburger I was dedicated to a life dooming me to hell.

    Also too, does mixing meats on pizza also doom one to hell?

  44. 44.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, …

    Laffy
    @[email protected]

    👀 Via Emma Loop:

    UPDATE: An odd wrinkle here…

    The Teamsters reported the $45,000 donation to the FEC (link in story).

    But the RNC has neither received a check from the union nor heard anything about the contribution coming, a source familiar says.

    Waiting on an explanation from the union…

    Feb 22, 2024, 10:14

    Hmmm…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  48. 48.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @indycat32:

    We went thru this way too many times back in rurl Misery.

    Obviously getting him fixed will help…in the long run.  The various permutations of our 20-year colony showed that bullying doesn’t stop overnight and it can often take years for such behavior to subside…if it ever does.

    Keep the big guy in the crate until he’s fixed, then turn him loose and see what happens over a week or so.  90% of the time we did that, they’d simply vanish upon release.

    If he doesn’t and it’s not too much of a pain, you can always keep him crated with litter and water while waiting on Indy Humane or something else to appear.

    Good luck and thank you for doing this.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @cain: Since the media mostly doesn’t promote the good things our side does, the best we can hope for is that the other side squawks, and the media covers the story because of that.

    The Streisand Effect?  One can only hope.

  54. 54.

    catclub

    @jimmiraybob: Yes, there are 613. There are a lot of things that aren’t taught.

     

    For instance, the llth commandment forbids  swimming for a half hour after eating. Also, never sniff a gift fish.

  56. 56.

    Suzanne

    @Chris:

    President Bartlett was the voice of every Christian who was sick to fucking death of these people being treated like they were the only Christians who mattered and were entitled to speak for the entire religion. 

    Honestly, more left-wing Christians need to fucken expose and lay into right-wing Christians. Make it fucken uncomfortable. Call them out as hypocrites and bad Christians. Lay down some markers.

    I am only moderately sympathetic to the protests I see on this blog (usually when our resident PITA goes on one of his boring anti-Christian screeds) about how #notallChristians. Yeah, we all know that not all Christians are right-wing assholes. But Christianity is still in command of a huge amount of social power and influence in this country in a way that other religions and atheism are not. Afflict the comfortable/empowered here. Stop demanding deference and nuance and pulled punches from others. Punch up, not down or sideways. Right-wing evangelical Christianity has power over all of our lives and those people need to get called out on their shit. And they need to get called out as Christians because they are building a fascist, discriminatory society in the name of Christianity.

  58. 58.

    Eyeroller

    @jimmiraybob: Paul said that most of those 613 don’t apply to gentiles, which ultimately got extended to all converts to Christianity. But which ones don’t apply seems to have been controversial, and of course Christianists like Pastor Mike are highly selective about which they think are applicable.

  61. 61.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl:

    It was mentioned here yesterday or so.

    Warning TheHill (has autoplay video of acordion hands man):

    The Teamsters political action group donated $45,000 to the Republican National Committee (RNC) late last month, according to Federal Election Commission records, a rare case of the labor union supporting the GOP.

    Teamsters President Sean O’Brien met with former President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in mid-January, with the donation following days later. The union’s full leadership group met with Trump in Washington just after the donation was made.

    The donation represents Trump’s strategy to split Democrats’ historical hold over organized labor, and came a day after United Auto Workers endorsed President Biden’s reelection.

    […]

    (Supposedly they’ve given $30k to Democrats at the same time, IIRC.)

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  62. 62.

    catclub

    @Ken: Actually I think this could be a great strategy for the Union.

    Report a donation to the RNC but never send the check.

  63. 63.

    West of the Rockies

    Conor Friesdorf has a craptacular essay in The Atlantic about why we should vote for Nicki because Trump brings out the worst in everyone, Republicans and Democrats.

    Hmmm…  isn’t that why people should vote for Biden?

  64. 64.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Indycat32:

    Poor guy.

    Sounds like neuter than crating for a while.  I’ve seen some pretty amazing turnarounds but then I’ve seen plenty of no-change in terms of the cat-on-cat dynamics.  We simply managed them, sometimes with okay results but most of the time managing the conflicts that never went away.

  65. 65.

    smith

    @Another Scott: However, we’ve also heard that too many exciting discoveries for women’s health never leave the lab because they’re seen as “too risky” to invest in.

    Investment in treatments for conditions affecting more than half the population is too risky? Especially given that it’s the half more likely to seek medical care in the first place? Misogyny in action — women’s lives just are worth less, so obviously less worth investing in.

  66. 66.

    Eyeroller

    @M31: Only if your brother died without children, which really meant without a son.  The actual sin of Onan was that he refused to impregnate his brother’s widow.

  69. 69.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @West of the Rockies:

    Conor Friesdorf has a craptacular essay in The Atlantic…

    Does he write any other kind?  That publication is another one that’s gone down the toilet since Jobs’s widow’s group bought it in 2017.

  75. 75.

    Chris

    @Suzanne:

    Honestly, more left-wing Christians need to fucken expose and lay into right-wing Christians. Make it fucken uncomfortable. Call them out as hypocrites and bad Christians. Lay down some markers.

    That’s… pretty much what The West Wing did, yes, and at a time when “fuck the religious right” was a much less mainstream opinion, even if it was becoming so.

  78. 78.

    JoyceH

    One of my pet news peeves is when an anchor says something like “Johnson, who doesn’t have a bank account…” Correct phrasing would be “who SAYS he doesn’t have a bank account…”. Because – yeah, no, I don’t believe him. The guy owns significant real estate. Did he buy it with cash, actual stacks of paper bills? What company would give a mortgage to a guy with no bank accounts? How does he get paid? How does he pay his bills? Does he go home every month to run around to the electric company office and the insurance office and all the various businesses that bill once a month to pay his bills in cash?

    The guy has bank accounts. He just doesn’t want to report them. Someone should investigate that. Ronan Farrow?

  79. 79.

    TBone

    Author be damned but the poem is a thing of beauty.

    Do not show me a young rebel,
    whose eyes are bright
    and whose tail is bushy.

    Young rebels are fine and good,
    but they are merely doing
    what the young are meant to do.

    Show me an old rebel.
    One who keeps punching
    when his hands are arthritic,
    when her hair is white,
    when his friends are all dead,
    when her knees are shot,
    when it hurts him to pee,
    when her shoulders are so bad
    that it would be much easier to punch down
    than to punch up.

    Show me an old rebel
    who keeps standing up after being knocked down
    over and over again,
    year after year,
    decade after decade,
    who after the thousandth blow
    merely spits out a tooth
    and says “Son, you have no idea what you’re dealing with, do you?”

    Are you a young rebel?
    Are you Sticking It to The Man?
    Are you upsetting the gray brainiacs and knocking over their word castles?

    That is fine.
    Youth will youth.

    But show me a young rebel
    who became an old rebel,
    who stuck with it through the setbacks and the beatings and betrayals,
    who watched the hippies become yuppies
    and the protesters become pundits and still kept a fire lit
    amid the monsoons of infiltration
    and the hurricanes of heartbreak.
    Who will close their tired eyes for a final time
    without ever once having cast them to the ground
    or peered up in imploring subordination.

    That, my friends,
    that is a true spirit.

    If you are still a fiery rebel
    even as everything is ripped away from you,

    I will be humbled and awed by you,
    because I will know that you will carry that with you to the grave.
    And I will know that whatever you find on the other side
    will be met
    with that same defiant glare.

    And I will sing your song when you are gone.

    by Caitlin Johnstone

  81. 81.

    Suzanne

    @Chris: No, I agree with you…. WW did it. We need to do it more.

    Right-wing Christians don’t get to have Christianity. They don’t speak for it. They’re bad at it.

  84. 84.

    Jackie

    @TBone: TBone, could you please give a heads up on what your links are about? I don’t like to click w/o knowing the subject first. TY

  85. 85.

    lowtechcyclist

    @WaterGirl:

    Give ’em hell, Joe!

    Yeah, I think of that Truman quote often these days.  We don’t have to make up anything about the Rethugs.

    The truth about them is hard enough for many people to believe, on account of the MSM rarely thinking it’s newsworthy enough to cover, I guess.

  86. 86.

    TaMara

    @Wategirl  So glad you posted the Lawrence video. I watched last night after someone mentioned it on the hell-hole formally known as twitter and was going to try and find a time to make a post on it today. It was great.

  87. 87.

    Steeplejack

    @TBone:

    You shouldn’t omit the author’s name—Caitlin Johnstone—while quoting her work, just because you don’t like her.

  88. 88.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Suzanne:

    I mean, that commenter was literally calling for the genocide (or at least the “destruction” of Christianity) of Christians as I recall and eventually went pro-GOP last year out of spite because people, including several self-described atheists, were calling him out. Oh, and accused several commenters of being pro-rape for insane, nonsensical reasons

    ETA: They didn’t seem to make distinctions between left leaning Christians or right-wing fundamentalists

  90. 90.

    Subsole

    @WaterGirl:

    Levitican code.

    Covers everything from loan forgiveness to marriage to remarriage to how long women are supposed to remain isolated on the edge of town during their menstrual cycle.

  91. 91.

    Steeplejack

    @TaMara:

    O’Donnell was en fuego last night. I watched it live and got more and more amazed and impressed as he broke it all down in great detail—the horse-race press, the Klein fantasy nominating convention, the erasure of Kamala Harris—everything. And ending with the crushing observation that not one of the pundits’ dream candidates has rised a single cent for a presidential campaign.

  93. 93.

    TaMara

    Doing a quick scan of the comments, bless all of you who work with, rescue, care for and do the TNR for these feral colonies. You are true angels.

  95. 95.

    Eyeroller

    @jimmiraybob: The argument was/is that they were covenants with the Jewish people so did not apply to Gentiles.  One might question whether that means the “10” commandments (there are multiple versions) apply but Jesus may have mentioned them so they’re still in force.  Back when there was a movement, mostly in the Confederate states, to set up government-sponsored monuments with some Protestant version of the commandments, I was greatly amused by the pictures of the Christianists bowing down to and worshipping the sculptures containing a commandment against worshipping graven images.

  96. 96.

    TaMara

    Okay, I have got to get back to work and stop doomscrolling the hellscape (I have a super limited curated list I checkout each a.m, but still hellscape). This was interesting (for a poll, which JFC, who knows anymore)

  100. 100.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @TaMara:

    It looks like utter shit. Very poor design imo. You can tell it wasn’t made by good artists

    Beyond that, it’s just incredibly sad

  101. 101.

    Mike in Pasadena

    Need a cigarette after watching those clips. I don’t smoke. Ok, maybe a joint.

    Dont miss on yahoo dot com the article from the LATimes, “I attended a trump rally so you don’t  have to. . .” Author quotes what trumpty dumpty says instead of translating trump’s gibberish into coherent English. Reveals much.

  102. 102.

    cain

    @indycat32: I’ve always found that projected aggression is a sign of wanting more attention from their human. You might also playing with him more often.

    My two black cats, one is super sweet and the other is also sweet but has an asshole streak in him where he goes after his brother at  a particular time of day. I call them Lav and Kush, but they are more like Cain and Abel.

    I also keep feliway around.

    Speaking of cat issues – my one cat has been peeing all over the place. The vet found crystals in her urine, and we have her and the other 3 on medicated food. But after 2 weeks she was still peeing. So, over teh long weekend, I did a massive soak carpet with enzyme cleaner and let it sit for a few hours and then ran a carpet cleaner, and then a dry powder cleaner every where and then completely cleaned with bleach and enzyme all the cat litter boxes, got rid of the old stuff and it’s been 4 days now or so and there hasn’t been any peeing so far!

    I also replaced door handles with handles with locks. The smartest of the cats frequently goes and opens ALL THE DOORS she can and then she and her gang of sycophants go around and fuck things up. I never know what the day brings. :D

  106. 106.

    MisterForkbeard

    @dmsilev: He’s not even calling them racists. He’s saying that even the really racist fuckwads tried to actually govern and at least adhered to election results, even as they tried to take rights away from brown people.

    And he’s right.

  107. 107.

    Soprano2

    So, an update on hubby. He’s in the ICU because his kidney problem is pretty severe. I did what Yarrow suggested and went home after he was admitted around 11:30 last night. He’s probably going to be in here a couple more days at least. They think his stent may be clogged from all the kidney stone debris. That’s probably because he wasn’t drinking enough water after the procedure to remove the stones. So it kept getting worse, but he kept telling me he was “fine”. He already seems better, although he didn’t eat much this morning. Wish I had called several days ago, but of course hindsight is 20-20.

  108. 108.

    jimmiraybob

    @Eyeroller: This never made sense to me.  Especially by those that tout a never changing Bible as God’s Holy Word.  An endless game of picking and choosing what fits your message.

    The Christians that I hang out with are considered the greatest of sinners by the right-wing of the faith – primarily for choosing so many of the Words of Jesus that come off as woke in support of diversity, equity and inclusion.  It’s ever been so, those that frame a literalist, fundamentalist orthodoxy declaring all others to be the unorthodox betrayers (heretics).  Bring out the stones!  Light the pyres!  Kill for the faith in God’s name!

  109. 109.

    cain

    @Suzanne:

    Honestly, more left-wing Christians need to fucken expose and lay into right-wing Christians. Make it fucken uncomfortable. Call them out as hypocrites and bad Christians. Lay down some markers.

    I’ve said that a few times. In fact, if they don’t do that they are contributing to the drop off of people who longer are Christians because the right wing Christian wing is more interested in being modern day pharisees than actual Christians. Everyone loses.

  110. 110.

    indycat32

    Well, the crate experiment was an unmitigated disaster.  Litter everywhere, food and water dishes overturned.   Anybody interested in adopting a cat? He’s very pretty, gray on top with white underneath and extremely friendly.   But probably best if he’s an only cat. :)

  113. 113.

    cain

    @Soprano2: I would forgive yourself here, you can only go with what your hubby says. In the end, you acted decisively despite him and he’s getting the help he needs.

  116. 116.

    Indycat32

    @cain: That is too funny about the doors. I’ll try spending more time with him. Maybe I can wear him out so he won’t harass the other cats.

  117. 117.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Soprano2: I send you my best wishes. I think of Bemused Senior’s medical care (very different situation, cancer) and I wish I had acted sooner on occasion but there’s no going back.

  120. 120.

    Paul in KY

    I think if Pastor Johnson ever loses his job or zest for it, he should take up acting. He’d be a shoe-in for any ‘nebbish serial killer’ part. If I was auditioning for that and he walked in the door, I’d just sigh and leave.

  121. 121.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @Mike in Pasadena: sorry for the bad tip. Article, opinion piece, from LA Times was not as good as I had been told. Good, but not for the reasons I’d been told. Glad I made the suggestion on a nearly dead thread.

  122. 122.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There are a number of “kill the left” games all over the place, usually very loosely hidden. There are several on Steam that are basically “play as Kyle Rittenhouse as he murders a bunch of people in ‘self defence'”, for example.

    And they’re all terrible quality. People don’t buy these games for fun – they buy them to get liberals angry, and for a small amount of wish fulfillment.

  134. 134.

    Paul in KY

    @Soprano2: Best of luck. With my mother, it’s an all-day chore to get her to drink enough liquids. She grew up in poor Northern England during 20s – 30s, so water was generally a nogo & that has persisted. We get her to drink juice & Pedialyte. She drinks tea alot, but that only helps some.

  136. 136.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Suzanne:

    Honestly, more left-wing Christians need to fucken expose and lay into right-wing Christians. Make it fucken uncomfortable. Call them out as hypocrites and bad Christians. Lay down some markers.

    A-fucking-men.

  137. 137.

    Paul in KY

    @WaterGirl: I think you have to knock down all the ‘Commie Police’ targets twice and then the ‘Hang Pence’ ball catcher will open up…

  140. 140.

    Subsole

    @M31:

    Required.

    And you aren’t just going to hell. You’re getting beat to death with rocks by the rest of the community.

  141. 141.

    Chris

    @Paul in KY:

    Batshit McChimpy and Darth Snarly are precisely when TWW viewership especially among young people considering a public service career went through the roof.  It was key to the wish fulfillment that kept it running for seven seasons, in fact; real life politics was such a dumpster fire that watching a relatively sane and law-abiding president in fiction was a breath of fresh air.

  143. 143.

    Suzanne

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I mean, that commenter was literally calling for the genocide (or at least the “destruction” of Christianity) of Christians as I recall and eventually went pro-GOP last year out of spite because people, including several self-described atheists, were calling him out. Oh, and accused several commenters of being pro-rape for insane, nonsensical reasons 

    That commenter is an idiot and a clown.

    But every time he says something dumbassed, a few people chime in to basically say, “not all Christians are like that”. And yes, we know. But the ones who aren’t like that should, IMHO, remember if it isn’t about you, then it isn’t about you. We need to be able to talk about where power lies and the groups of people who have it — and use it unfairly — in order to destroy it. (Many) Christians explicitly claim Christianity as the reason that they would return us to the white patriarchal Dark Ages. So, if you are a left-wing Christian who disagrees with that, don’t get up in your feelings about it. Be secure that people aren’t criticizing you personally. And — quite frankly — I want to see left-wing Christians be more vehement about how right-wing Christians ARE DOIN IT RONG. I think there’s an impulse to be polite and that’s not helpful.

    I call out straight white men all the time. Guess what? I’m married to one. He’s totally fucking on board with that. Sometimes, he does it too. And it isn’t because he’s self-hating or a beta or whatever else the right wing would say. He understands that I’m calling out a social system, not him as a person. That’s what I want to see from people.

  144. 144.

    artem1s

    @WaterGirl: ​ 

    Jed is shouting at god, calling him feckless, while a storm rages. Such a powerful scene.

    He also curses at him in Latin. pretty ballsy.

  149. 149.

    jimmiraybob

    One of many leaders in sounding the alarm within Evangelical world about the dangers of right-wing Christian Nationalism is Tim Alberta.  All should check out his book, “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory:  American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism.”  Or check out his reporting at the Atlantic.

    There are those within the ranks that are currently, and have been for some time, calling out the dangers of right-wing Christian Nationalist extremism.  It’s a destructive force to both the Church as well as secular government.  They need a bigger audience.  Please help.

    For the record I get no commission.

  151. 151.

    indycat32

    @Paul in KY: Indy Humane is the shelter and they won’t take him until May 25.  Animal Control is full and they tell you right up front any animal you take to them will undoubtedly be euthanized.

  152. 152.

    Steeplejack

    @indycat32:

    Maybe there is someone who could foster him (as a solo cat) until the shelter can take him. (And maybe failed foster becomes adoption?)

  156. 156.

    Captain C

    @M31:

    I can’t remember — if your brother dies are you required to marry his widow or is it forbidden?

    IIRC you have to try and get her pregnant.  Also IIRC, that was Onan’s sin:  he pulled out rather than father a child that would be seen as his brother’s, legally.

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