Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

He really is that stupid.

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

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

The revolution will be supervised.

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

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

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Reader Interactions

141Comments

  1. 1.

    bbleh

    His replacement will be worse regardless.  And it doesn’t say he’ll be LEAVING the Senate, so he’ll still be around to “advise.”

  2. 2.

    cain

    I think we can count on McConnell to not have a replacement that is MAGA. I think he hates all those people. Looking at his pictures from the meeting in the white house, he looks more tired and old than I’ve seen him.

  4. 4.

    CaseyL

    A generation too late, and it will be two more (at least) to undo the damage – and that’s only provided we fight our way out of the christofascist hell McConnell enabled his entire career.

    Another of the very long list of people upon whom I would not pee if they were on fire.

    BTW WaterGirl – Is this site still on WordPress?  WP is saying they’re going to scrape all their sites to train AI.  There is supposed to be an opt out at  https://wordpress.com/support/privacy-settings/#share-site that shows an image of what the UI looks like and tells you how to get there. (Thanks to a commenter over at John Scalzi’s blog)

    edit by WG: Before anyone else reads this and panics – before they read my reply below – this is not a problem for Balloon Juice.

  5. 5.

    gratuitous

    Apparently he’s staying put in the Senate, just stepping down as Minority Leader. So for the next eight months, he keeps the big office and the perks, but nobody looking to effect a lasting change will go to him for assistance or support, as he sloughs all responsibility.

    If I had to guess, I’d guess he got some bad medical news recently, and this announcement keeps him in his privileged position until the inevitable.

  7. 7.

    skerry

    Folks on Threads are posting that the FTNYT is reporting Trump has posted a $100M bond in an attempt to appeal the $500M penalty from his civil fraud case. I can’t access the article but that’s what the headline say

    ETA: Here’s an abcnews link on the topic

  9. 9.

    jonas

    I’ve seen John Thune (SD) and John Barrasso (WY) floated as the most likely candidates to replace McConnell. Thune would be preferable, I guess, as in “not a complete idiot/total fascist” like many of his colleagues. I don’t know much at all about Barrasso, but since he’s from WY, my guess is that he’s pretty cuckooballs.

  11. 11.

    Jackie

    @cain:

    I think we can count on McConnell to not have a replacement that is MAGA. I think he hates all those people.

    I agree McConnell hates MAGA with a passion, but he doesn’t get to pass his position on to whoever; his successor will be voted in.

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL:  If that actually goes through, it will affect sites that are HOSTED on WordPress.com – Balloon Juice is not.

    This may be a terrible thing in general, not even the first of many many many problematic A.I.- related uses and misuses, but Balloon Juice will not be impacted by this, if it even goes through.

  15. 15.

    Citizen Dave

    Like jeffg and gratuitous posted,  this surely means he is meeting his end sooner than later.  Hoping somehow Jimmy Carter outlives Mitch just for fun.

  16. 16.

    MattF

    There were reports of ‘negotiations’ with McConnell for a Trump endorsement. Now I expect a ‘I’ll vote for the Republican nominee’ level endorsement. And maybe not even that.

  17. 17.

    jonas

    @skerry: Folks on Threads are posting that the FTNYT is reporting Trump has posted a $100M bond

    What would happen to an ordinary defendant who had to, say, post $100k in bail and walked in with a bond for $25k?  Just because shut up, that’s why.

    The balls on these people…

  18. 18.

    Jackie

    @japa21:

    This tells me that McConnell realizes that the GOP is not going to regain control of the Senate.

    From your lips… I hope you’re correct!!

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @jonas:

    I don’t know the rules here. It may be that the lower bond is permitted to shield some but not all of his assets.  If he had posted the whole thing, all of his assets would have been shielded pending appeal.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    @japa21:  That’s what I am thinking.  GOP sees a blowout in the making.

    I hope McConnell will work hard to get aid to Ukraine, in his remaining months as Minority!! Majority Leader.  He might.

    WaPost had an editor hop into the top of their comments page to remind people to “keep it civil.”  They know how badly Mitch is despised, and that he is held personally responsible for driving our democracy and Supreme Court into a ditch.

  23. 23.

    hueyplong

    Wouldn’t mind seeing NY decide that collection is paused on $100mm of the judgment and seize assets forthwith to recover the balance of the judgment.

    Any other course seems “unfair” and would constitute “two-tiered justice.”

  24. 24.

    Yutsano

    I suppose I should at least feel somewhat sorry for Yertle, but nah. I think he knew the long knives are coming for him, so he’ll just throw the Senate Republicans into chaos rather than get shivved. Now if he would just kick off the mortal coil that would be okay too.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  Heat, coffee, and Internet, in that order.  Welcome back to creature comments.

    Follow on from last night’s big storm?  Are we missing a lot of Chicago area peeps today?

  29. 29.

    JMG

    I think McConnell sees himself as losing no matter how the election goes. Biden wins, Dems keep Senate, 2 more years as minority leader. Trump wins, GOP wins Senate, McConnell has to deal with Trump on a daily basis for at least two years. Not sure I (or he) know what he thinks is a worse fate.

  30. 30.

    Geminid

    @japa21: I don’t think McConnell has given up on the Montana Senate race, and that could yield the 51st Senator Republicans need. A more likely explaination isthat McConnell is in failing health. Otherwise he would postpone this announcement until November 6 in order to avoid starting a leadership fight in the middle of election season.

  31. 31.

    cain

    @WaterGirl: AI is being used in the same way that personalized credit cards were used. Getting to use their branded credit card to make money. AI is the next step that social media was doing earlier which is to use your copyrighted works and use it to train AI that you can sell others.

    That’s not really fair since nobody is being compensated.

  32. 32.

    smith

    @skerry: He’s just requested that the appeals court approve a reduced bond, he hasn’t been given any go ahead. AG James has already filed her objection to it, saying he can’t be trusted to pay the full amount if he loses his appeal.

  33. 33.

    Chris

    I’ve always said that Republicans do the right thing, once it no longer matters.

    Eisenhower gave that speech denouncing the military-industrial complex… after riding the Red Scare into power and spending eight years feeding said complex.  Barry Goldwater denounced the religious right and the party’s social conservative drift… in the eighties, long after he’d stopped being a party leader on anything, and after he himself worked his ass off to push his party into a Dixiecrat direction that threw the doors wide open to said social conservatives.  Colin Powell said nice things about gays in the military… long after he retired from any government position and after he personally sabotaged any attempt to make it happen by taking on his commander-in-chief in a highly public media battle.  James Comey wore a T-shirt that said “elect more women” after personally throwing the election to Trump.

    And Mitch McConnell… resigned well, will resign, some day, soon.  Which doesn’t even rise to the level of what any of these others did, but hey, it’s about the best anyone can expect from an elected Republican these days.  After spending your entire time in office fucking the nation, eventually you’ll resign.  If only you’d done it the day you were sworn in.

  35. 35.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Elizabelle: No, this was distressingly local. The only ones without power were us (an over–55 bldg), the library next door, and a hospice bldg behind us. We must be on the same line somehow. All three of those would be high priority for power restoration if multiple places were affected.

  36. 36.

    Wapiti

    @Baud: But who decides which assets fall into the $100 million? Trump’s side can’t be expected to fairly appraise the value of a 2024 penny.

  40. 40.

    hueyplong

    @Geminid: It’s fair to focus on his obvious failing health as a potential motivator, but a couple of other things have happened recently that could also have played at least some small role.

    First, there was the meeting with Biden and Johnson and the Dem leaders from the two houses.  More importantly, over the last couple of days we saw leaked tales of negotiations over a possible McConnell endorsement of Trump.

    Without any information at all, I’d be tempted to guess that Trumpsters leaked that (or simply made it up) to pressure McConnell to do it when in reality he was taking a hard line in any such negotiations, and today’s announcement is McConnell’s response.  Scuzz that he is, one of the very few things we like about McConnell is his obvious contempt for Trump.  Don’t have a link handy, but I think Thune (likely successor?) recently endorsed Trump.

    Or he could be fixing to drop dead.  I’m ok with that, too.

  41. 41.

    Gravenstone

    @CaseyL: WP is saying they’re going to scrape all their sites to train AI.

    Hey, we can look forward to future AI being aware of the phrase “skullfuck a kitten”!

  45. 45.

    Jackie

    More good news:

    “A federal appeals panel on Wednesday denied former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s request for a new hearing on whether to move the Georgia election interference case against him from state to federal court, a shift he had sought on the grounds that he was a federal officer at the time of the actions that led to his indictment,” the Washington Post reports.

    Gift link: https://wapo.st/3UXVbKFhttps://wapo.st/3UXVbKF

  47. 47.

    Almost Retired

    I checked in on the wingnuts at Free Republic.  They hate him and wish him ill as much as we do.  He’s a uniter.

  48. 48.

    Miss Bianca

    @Elizabelle:

    WaPost had an editor hop into the top of their comments page to remind people to “keep it civil.”

    I civilly hope that Mitch McConnell meets the kind of end that he so richly deserves.

  50. 50.

    TBone

    I am feral and hope he doesn’t last till November, causing even more chaos and infighting on the RWNJ side of things, while we calmly hold it together and get things done.

  51. 51.

    Leto

    @smith: the frauding fraudster can’t be trusted not to commit fraud? Even after this long, long. LONG documented history of stiffing everyone he owes money to?

    “This time, I pinky promise (!!!) that my client will pay the money. Totally!” – whoever his lawyers are

  52. 52.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @japa21: I don’t agree. This tells me that McConnell realises he no longer has the control he once had. He’s bucked MAGA on Ukraine funding. Because they take their orders from Trump, they’ve not taken it well. If Trump wins and McConnell is still a leader in the Senate, he’s coming after McConnell. If McConnell resigns, he no longer presents an obstacle. I thought I’d cheer when he stepped down. Now, I’m just worried about what happens next.

  55. 55.

    Frankensteinbeck

    His replacement will be worse regardless.

    His replacement will be less cruel, less determined to destroy America, less talented in seeing and destroying norms (McConnell’s greatest power), much dumber, much less organized, and have much less control over his caucus.  His replacement will also be much less skilled at hiding those first two traits.

  58. 58.

    catclub

    From CNN:

    In their motion for a stay, defense attorneys Clifford Robert and Alina Habba called Engoron’s order “draconian” and said the punishments would unfairly impede Trump’s family real estate business.

    It was the real estate business that was doing all the crimes. They should be impeded.
    Is there a law against draconian punishments? No.

    Allowing him to post a 1/4 bond is a double standard justice system. Who else gets to pick their own amount of the bond to pay?

  60. 60.

    smith

    @Leto: If we hold the Senate it will be imperative to nuke the fillabuster. Otherwise the Senate will be as paralyzed as the House is now.

  61. 61.

    Jeffro

    people, of course his replacement will be worse…these are Republicans we’re talking about, after all

    BUT

    in the meantime, let us savor…and imagine all of the intra-party fighting that’s about to take place to succeed ol’ Mitch.

    (let’s also make sure we each have a spotter in mind for the day that McTurtle finally kicks the bucket!)

    FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS CELEBRATE ‘TURTLE DEPARTURE DAY’ ALONE!

  62. 62.

    Quaker in a Basement

    @JBWoodford: Indeed. Ol’ Mitch is practiced in his dark arts

    EDIT: Just looking down the seniority rankings–Jeebus what a parade of mooks! I guess my money would be on John Cornyn.

  63. 63.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @zhena gogolia:

    Yes.  Mitch McConnell is one evil motherfucker who has learned to smile politely for the cameras.  This is the guy who laughed when asked about the suffering and death caused by Covid.  The guy who said appointing Barret was his birthday present to Hillary Clinton.  The guy who failed to repeal Obamacare because he was so god damn determined to include gutting Medicaid in his bill.  McConnell revels in hurting people.  He is mean, he is petty, and he is a huge bigot.

    EDIT – And remember, it is Mitch McConnell whose tireless work got Roe repealed.  Trump didn’t give a shit.  McConnell stuck his hand up Trump’s ass and used that dimwit like a sock puppet to get judges who would do what McConnell wanted, not what Trump wanted.

  64. 64.

    catclub

    @smith: AG James has already filed her objection to it, saying he can’t be trusted to pay the full amount if he loses his appeal.

     

    I hope she used “can’t be trusted as far as you could throw him.”

  67. 67.

    JaySinWA

    @Anoniminous:

    And here I thought mindless panic was a staple of BJ right up there with naked moping.

    Naked moping, is a staple here for sure, meanwhile naked mopping is the trademark of the Blogfather.

  68. 68.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @zhena gogolia:@Frankensteinbeck:

    less cruel? you think so?

    I don’t think so. You aren’t going to find a potential GOP successor who is less cruel. McConnell is a monster, but all the MAGAs and those complicit with MAGA are as well.

  70. 70.

    Chris

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    His replacement will be less cruel, less determined to destroy America, less talented in seeing and destroying norms (McConnell’s greatest power), much dumber, much less organized, and have much less control over his caucus.

    ????

    How do you figure?  The last three I believe, but the first three not so much.

  71. 71.

    catclub

    @Frankensteinbeck: I will still argue that the Majority leader is the agent of the majority, and he is doing what they want him to do.

     

    Second, he is typically the best fundraiser as well, which is  a main source of influence.  The stepping down is a combination of bad health but also losing mojo on fundraising.

  72. 72.

    Anoniminous

    @cain:

    There are an ever-increasing number of copyright infringement and Intellectual Property violation law suits being filed against OpenMind.

    I follow this time wasting AI stuff because I have to

  73. 73.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffg166: I don’t know, the governor of Kentucky is a Democrat. Do they have a law there that he has to be replaced with another Republican?

  77. 77.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Chris:

    Less cruel:  I had addressed this already, but gutting the safety net, overturning Roe, petty displays of sadism, McConnell loves hurting people.

    Less determined to destroy America:  McConnell launched the total obstruction strategy.  McConnell was the organizer in trying to crush the stimulus so America would enter a new Great Depression.  McConnell is the guy who could have slapped down any of Trump’s democracy-destroying actions and didn’t bother.  Again, he earned his title of Gravedigger of American Democracy.

    Seeing and destroying norms:  This is McConnell’s one area of genius.  It is hard.  Do you think just anybody would have held Garland’s seat?  Even have spotted the opportunity?  McConnell has been the leader in shredding the unwritten rules of the Senate.  It seems easy after he has done it, but being that first person is hard.  Very few people have that talent.  McConnell and Trump both do.

  81. 81.

    trollhattan

    Senior Senator Rand Paul a phrase I’ll never not shudder from.

    Yes, Kentucky has done worse than Turtle and will do worse than Turtle and perhaps even worse than Rand Paul. Thanks for asking.

    Maybe they’ll elect Rand Paul’s neighbor instead?

  82. 82.

    Ken

    @cain: [The way AIs are trained is] not really fair since nobody is being compensated.

    As Molly White noted in her blog, OpenAI (for one) has said outright that they can’t train AIs without using copyrighted materials.

  84. 84.

    Ken

    @skerry:  the FTNYT is reporting Trump has posted a $100M bond

    I wouldn’t make a good bureaucrat. I would be too tempted to “accidentally” assign that bond to the E. Jean Carroll case, and if questioned say “it’s an easy mistake, it’s the amount he needs for that one.”

  85. 85.

    smith

    @Soprano2: He’s not resigning from the Senate, just from leadership. He intends to finish out his term, if he lives that long.

    When he had his health crisis last Spring there was a lot of discussion about how he might be replaced, and the gist of it is, the procedure is rigged so a Republican would replace him.

  88. 88.

    Manyakitty

    @Ken: he’s going to do everything in his power to avoid paying her. I hope he rots under a bridge, alone, penniless, and forgotten.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: Yes, Kentucky law provides that a replacement Senator be a member of the departing Senator’s party. I think state legislative leaders of that party get to propose three nominees for the governor to choose from.

  91. 91.

    Eyeroller

    @Soprano2: In fact they do have such a law, but McConnell isn’t leaving the Senate (yet, at least not voluntarily), just quitting the Minority Leader position in November. I think his health is a major and mostly concealed part of the reason; he probably just doesn’t have the energy anymore.  He seems considerably less healthy than Biden, though some of that is the post-polio syndrome.

  92. 92.

    Jay C

    @Soprano2:

    Yes: the KY Lege passed a law a while back (right after the D Governor was elected, IIRC) saying that in case of a Senate vacancy, the Gov has to name a replacement from a list (of three) provided by the State Party leadership.

    Kentucky isn’t the only state that has the requirement that replacement Senators have to be from the same party as the former incumbent- AZ and, I think, WI do also

  93. 93.

    Ken

    @Manyakitty: I hope he rots under a bridge, alone, penniless, and forgotten.

    And without even a TV antenna to cook his sparrows on, so the other under-bridge dwellers can look down on him.

  94. 94.

    JWR

    @Almost Retired:

    I checked in on the wingnuts at Free Republic.

    Wow, I had no idea they still existed, let alone kept up on the latest day-to-day. Last time I checked was probably in 2008, (because “Barry” took the brass ring), and they were still posting pictures of the scary Muslim hordes waiting under my shaky American bed.

  96. 96.

    New Deal democrat

    @hueyplong: Agreed. Giving the devil his due, McConnell is by far the cageyest and most cunning pol in Washington. There’s a *reason* he announced this now, rather than waitin until after the election.

    There are only two such likely reasons:

     

    1. health.

    2. to deprive Trump of leverage over him.

    if it’s number two, I expect him to start sabotaging Trump very effectively very soon. That will be the “tell.”

  97. 97.

    trollhattan

    @Geminid: Given the bang-up job House Republicans did finding their new speaker, I can only imagine what their Senate counterparts will dredge up.

    Minority Leader Tuberville, anybody? Cruz? Whee!

  98. 98.

    David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch

     telling the court that he intends to post a bond of only $100 million –

    we all know he never violates a promise

  99. 99.

    Ken

    Popehat’s take on McConnell’s announcement:

    The great thing about Mitch McConnell has been [pauses awkwardly for 20 years]

    The comments sound a lot like ours….

  102. 102.

    RaflW

    Much as I despise McConnell (and I do!), I fear his announcement today, the day after the meeting with Biden and the four congressional leaders, suggests that a shutdown is basically baked in for the end of this week, and the GOP has decided to go full Putin and screw Ukraine for an indefinite period.

    McConnell has many instincts. Protecting himself from further losses is high on that list.

  103. 103.

    RevRick

    Mitch McConnell has been a guy with sharp elbows. He’s made it clear that the comity, norms, and traditions that have previously existed for the way the Senate governs itself are a mook’s game. And he has a new set of rules for governance, which may be summed up as follows: what the Constitution doesn’t forbid, do, and what it permits, do maximally.
    We may not like that, but he has given calls to blow up the filibuster new strength. I see it may also lead to Congress exercising its power to limit and regulate the courts under Article 3, particularly around rights related legislation.

    I am no fan of McConnell. He’s a bog-standard Republican, especially when it comes to economic policy. In other words, garbage. He clearly feels more at home with Chamber of Commerce types than the social conservative warriors. That time he showed up at an NRA convention brandishing a rifle always struck me as awkward as Dukakis in the tank.

    The two parties are moving in a quasi parliamentary direction, which means that the politics McConnell reveled in is dying. He knows his time is passing. The MAGA Trump takeover makes that inevitable. He is wasting away. He is the walking dead.

  104. 104.

    lowtechcyclist

    @brendancalling:

    I can’t wait til he’s dead so I can go make #2 on his headstone.

    That reminds me, I still need to track down Wernher von Braun‘s grave. He’s buried somewhere in the same cemetery as my father.

    I think I’ll settle for #1 in his case though.

  105. 105.

    B1naryS3rf

    The only thing to read into this is Mitch is very old and tired. He’d do this another 50 years if he could. He loves accomplishing the neo-Feudalist goals and is unmatched at them. He’s a bitter to the end company type man so, his endorsement of Trump when it comes will be simultaneously meaningless and significant, making no practical difference except getting more backhanded insults from the man he failed to neutralize when he could have. And maybe another slur at his wife for good measure. One more “dignity wraith” as Josh Marshall calls those who capitulate to Cheetolini.

  106. 106.

    Noskilz

    Good riddance to bad rubbish – even if we have to wait until November to formally see the back of him, he’s been largely irrelevant to his caucus for quite some time.

    Hopefully whatever time he has left on this earth is as miserable as possible.

  107. 107.

    RaflW

    @smith: Saw on Bsky that apparently the appeal filing is 1,800 pages long (I have not verified this).

    That seems … bonkers. The skeet also claims that some of the pages of the appeal are just screenshots of tweets.

    The ongoing embarrassment to the legal profession that is called “representing” Trump rolls on.

  108. 108.

    Elizabelle

    @New Deal democrat:  I really hope it is the second.

    McConnell may realize what hell awaits if Ukraine is allowed to go under.  He may want to do what he can in the months remaining to him, politically or physically.

    And yes, I am a Pollyanna.  But don’t we all think McConnell has no illusions about how awful the MAGA GOP set is, even more than we do?  He must hear almost everything.

    And:  maybe shoes will drop on Trump in the coming weeks.  He is desperate for cash, and his legal troubles are gathering steam, not abating.

    I have always wondered, if there is such a thing as “Deep State,” how Trump has been allowed to get this far?  Why isn’t more information coming forward?

  110. 110.

    Jeffro

    @Citizen Alan: I should probably pick up a second bottle of champagne just in case.

    RIGHT??

    I’m going to have to draw up some rules, or a rubric, or something to have on hand.  Otherwise I’ll be celebrating this kind of stuff all year without any sense of proportion.

    McConnell announces he’s stepping down as majority leader in November = 1 glass of wine

    McConnell croaks = 2 bottles of champagne

    1st trumpov asset sold to pay for his fines = 1 bottle of champagne (2nd, 3rd assets = just a beer.)

    trumpov VP selection asks to be taken off of the ticket in October = call the paramedics

  121. 121.

    Paul in KY

    @rikyrah: He might lose a primary election to another evil GQPer, but if McTurtle croaks, then his name will be one of the three sent to the Gov. And the other 2 will be so, so, so nuts that Gov Beshear would be forced to pick Cameron.

  122. 122.

    smith

    Appeals court has denied a stay of enforcement of the NY fraud case judgement. This is one of those temporary rulings by a single judge until the full appeals court can take it up. The interest clock keeps ticking…

  129. 129.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Seeing and destroying norms:  This is McConnell’s one area of genius.  It is hard.  Do you think just anybody would have held Garland’s seat?  Even have spotted the opportunity?  McConnell has been the leader in shredding the unwritten rules of the Senate.  It seems easy after he has done it, but being that first person is hard.  Very few people have that talent.  McConnell and Trump both do.

    McConnell and Trump have different talents.

    McConnell blew up Senate norms while staying within the letter of the law. That requires extensive knowledge of both the norms and the law.

    Trump just does what he wants, ignoring both the norms and the law. Trump’s talent seems to be in knowing where the line is. Trump treats Republicans like shit, but he hasn’t done anything that would so alarm the McConnell wing of the GOP that they would turn on Trump, whatever the cost to themselves.

  131. 131.

    RaflW

    @smith: OK. But what legal weight whatsoever do tweets have, even as an exhibit.

    Reminds me of what a friend said about his 450 page dissertation, something to the effect that he was going for heft since he didn’t really have a particularly interesting new idea.

  132. 132.

    Ascap_scab

    Please welcome Senate Minority Leader, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, Rand Paul, Tommy Tuberville, JD Vance!

  133. 133.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Here (north metro Atlanta) too. Heavy rain with thunder and lightning moved through an hour or 90 minutes ago. Didn’t last long, but it knocked everything out for the duration.

  134. 134.

    Redshift

    I’m sure others have said this since I’m not going to read all the way through a dead thread, but I’m certain McConnell’s replacement will be a worse person, but they will but be as effective at being evil, so they won’t be worse for the country.

  135. 135.

    cain

    @Ken: Well they got a legal problem don’t they? Their loophole is that we have given our license to our content to social media and they can broker training our content.

    However, I don’t remember licensing my content so that they can make money off of it through that. Sure, I am the product since the content I create is being shared and reacted to as part of a community and they make money through ads. This is something else altogether.

  136. 136.

    glc

    @hueyplong: Not “forthwith”. March 25 I believe.

    This is just noise from Trump in the meantime.

    Not following that closely, I’ll wait for something to actually happen.

  137. 137.

    Ruckus

    @jonas:

    That’s not balls, that is likely all the cash he’s likely got. He has property that can be seized and sold but how many wealthy people are going to pay top or even reasonable dollar?

    No matter what he says he’s worth in cash, just by hearing him over the last few years, I’d bet that not only does he not really know, but also that it’s nowhere near what he thinks/lies that it is. At the end of the all of this I’d bet that all or at least most of his properties will have to be sold – and only get, likely at most 50 cents on the dollar that the tax collector thinks they are worth.

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    McConnell has the intelligence to lead, even if he leads in an absolutely shitty direction. ShitForBrains, AKA widdle donnie, has all the intelligence of a flat tire. And is far less useful.

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