Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

No Justins, No Peace

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

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

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

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

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

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

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Archives for February 2024

Monday Night Open Thread

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The combination of all of the posts today about the Republican bullshit has me just so sick of it all. It’s always the same. On fucking everything. The only thing that changes are the items under consideration and the faces. It’s the same over and over and over again, the only thing mildly interesting about it this time is that it occurred in relative proximity to the actual Groundhog Day. Live long enough you get to see the issues recycle. Fuck, we done a go around with prayer in school this year?

And Mistermix is right it’s a terrible fucking bill. Meanwhile, Israel doesn’t need any money they’re pretty much bouncing rubble at this point, Ukraine desperately needs fucking money and weapons and not only that the display that we’re with them for real. Although anyone who has ever read anything about the Kurds would know better than to trust the United States- we’ll fuck you over in a heartbeat and then spend the rest of eternity telling you it was your fault. That’s just who we are.

***

Another cold front and some rain are moving in, so I wanted to spend some time cleaning up the back patio and did, and then we had dinner. Joelle has some show she has to watch with her friend Buzz, so I am sequestered in what Joelle calls the “Den of Iniquity,” aka the small bedroom that has my desktop and new antique chair (THAT I FUCKING LOVE).

I don’t remember if I have mentioned Buzz before but the easiest way to do it is to describe him as Joelle’s Tammy. They have been best friends since the 90’s when they were on the road with bands in the Pittsburgh area. At any rate, he lives up in Anthem, and his parents live nearby having recently moved here (last six months) from Mt. Lebanon in the Burgh. Their names are Tony and Pat aka Topat. So if I ever mention Buzz or Topat that is who I am talking about. Didn’t want to throw in new characters without a proper introduction.

I’ve made a command decision that I am not doing shit with the yard. I’ll do that when I come back in the fall. There’s just too much other pressing things to do that can be done for free. The most expensive thing I intend to do is paint, and I think I can keep that under a hundred. Joelle has repeatedly stated she can not believe how different the house looks and feels, and I don’t think I am even a 1/4 of the way done. The outside can wait another year.

***

I need to do a major product endorsement right now. I also need to do a disclaimer- I have no idea what is in this stuff, I have not looked at the label, and I will not because I do not want to know. But I swear to everything that is holy, Chef Merito’s Red Fajita seasoning is fucking amazing.

For those of you on the east coast, you know how obnoxious everyone from Maryland is about Old Bay seasoning? I feel comfortable saying everyone who has ever known anyone from Maryland has had a jarring encounter with them when they profess their love for the shit and you find out they put it on everything. It may be a regional thing, but it is true and also beyond parody. Honestly shocked there has never been an SNL skit about it.

At any rate, my point was that if Old Bay seasoning tasted like Chef Merito’s Red Fajita seasoning, then their love for it would totally fucking make sense. Because Chef Merito’s is amazing. When I make fajita’s I walk by the kitchen at least ten times picking slices of pepper and onion out of the skillet and eating them.

I’m gonna try it on a sear pork loin and see how it goes. How about that?

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War for Ukraine Day 712: The “Bipartisan” Senate Compromise Supplemental for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, & the Border Is DOA Before It Gets To the House

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This will never make it to a cloture vote. Other than McConnell, Murkowski, Lankford, Graham, and Romney no GOP senator is going to support this.

Mitch McConnell, in the face of growing GOP opposition, pushes for action on national security package, which includes the bipartisan border deal.

“This is a humanitarian and security crisis of historic proportions,” he said. “And Senate Republicans have insisted — not just for months but for years — that this urgent crisis demanded action.”

“It is now time for Congress to take action on supplemental national security legislation that finally meets those challenges head on,” he said, adding; “Make no mistake, the gauntlet has been thrown and America needs to pick it up.”

And despite McConnell’s statement, he will not force them too. McConnell’s surrender will be out of sheer cowardice so they don’t have to take a tough vote that plays against Trump, the GOP base, and the conservative movement in an election year. We’ll have to see if Lankford actually support his own bill when it comes up for a vote in the Senate or if he pulls a Little Marco.

The House GOP Freedom Caucus is going to even kill the standalone Israel aid bill, which is amazing considering most of those folks are dispensational millennialists.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Counterpoint Open Thread: The Repubs Just Shot Themselves in Their Clown Shoes

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We complain that every GOP legislator is an angry moron, but at least some of them have been functional enough to put together bills sufficient to be treated as legislation… or to hire staffers that will handle those details for them. But the Repub (Very) Base, and the Angry Toddler Caucus that speaks for them, is doing its best to undermine those last remaining props, like Langford. Cynic that I am, I agree with Josh Marshall — “Make No Mistake. The House GOP is On the Ropes Here.”:

I wouldn’t be so quick to assume Democrats got taken by working with Senate Republicans to put together this bipartisan border deal. There are a number of provisions in this deal which many Democrats won’t like at all just on the merits. That is an important question. But here I’m talking about the politics. It’s House Republicans who are in an awkward position now.

House Republicans are now clearly refusing to support provisions they’ve been demanding for years. Now they claim that they are refusing to support or even allow a vote on the deal because it doesn’t go far enough. But it’s a bit late for that since they were already pretty open about simply refusing to vote for anything until Trump becomes President again.

They certainly aren’t the only political party to opt for politics in an election year over the policies they purportedly want. But if they’re going to do that, it’s elementary that the other party will and should hit them over the head with it. Trump told them to kill the bill and the House leadership is doing everything it can to accomplish that. Trump owns them. They follow his commands…

Over the last 48 hours every House Republican has been putting out statements that the bill is absolutely, positively dead on arrival. DEAD, they tell you! They’re protesting a bit too much. They really, really want this bill to die in the Senate. If it doesn’t get a vote in the Senate, there’s not a lot of pressure. Schedule a vote on what? House Republicans can reasonably ask. It hasn’t even passed the Senate. If and when it does pass the Senate it gets harder to refuse it a vote.

You and I both know that “NO!” is the Republican superpower. You have something so popular, so un-no-able and yet they say “NO!” and it works. But here the protestations give away the game. Can they prevent it from getting a vote in the House even if it passes the Senate? Probably? If I were betting I would say they can and will. But their actions tell us that they know refusing the bill a vote in the House after it’s passed on a bipartisan basis in the Senate will do them a lot of harm on their signature issue during an election year.

Democrats should force them to accept that damage. It won’t do itself. They have to force it. And the key is getting it passed in the Senate.

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A Bipartisan Piece of Shit

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The immigration bill that’s maybe going to pass the Senate sure sounds like it solves a lot of problems:

…[T]he deal doesn’t include redline proposals for conservatives like a pathway to citizenship (the focal point of the 2013 effort) or protecting the children of undocumented immigrants, or “dreamers” (as the deal Lankford worked on in 2018 would have).

On the one hand, we have Democrats who would like some reasonable immigration legislation that isn’t just more money for border enforcement.  On the other hand, probably 2/3 of the Republicans in the House and Senate would vote for a bill to set up machine guns at the border to mow down anyone trying to enter the country.  Split the difference on that, and you get a bill that sounds like it’s all enforcement.  Even though the DC Press Corpse issues double gold stars with rainbow glitter sprinkles for “bipartisanship,” Republicans will hate the bill anyway, and a lot of Democrats who have families and friends who are immigrants or potential immigrants will not be happy that we’re trumpeting this turd of a bill as some kind of “win”.

The one bright spot in this dark picture is, if this abomination passes the Senate and dies in the House, at least Democrats will get a decent talking point.  They’ll be able to say that they had a solution to the border “crisis,” but the Republicans would rather play politics and try to elect Trump.  That ain’t nothing, but it puts us in a place where we’re buying into this ridiculous notion that any immigration from the southern border is a “crisis”, when in fact we need immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America when our unemployment rate is effectively zero.

For all the talk about Republicans being the “adults in the room,” Democrats are constantly suppressing discussion of uncomfortable facts that Republicans are too childish to accept.  Apparently, if your mental age is prior to puberty, you can’t accept that this country needs immigrants from brown-skinned countries that speak a different language.  If you’re just out of diapers, mentally, you don’t understand that the proxy war against Russia is a boon and a bargain for us.  And if you wish newspapers would still carry the funny pages, mentally, you think that women who are raped should carry babies to term because preacher tells you that every Sunday.

These adult babies will be the death of us all.

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The Wheels of the Bus Go Round and Round: Thump-Thump Edition

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In January 2023, Ronna Romney McDaniel was elected to another term as chair of the RNC, a post she’s held since Trump elevated her to it in 2017. McDaniel had opponents for the position in 2023 because rivals sensed an opening after the party suffered a string of defeats and generally underperformed during her tenure. They’re all too cowardly to blame Trump, so they blamed his stooge instead.

I was happy to see the RNC keep McDaniel in the role because she sucks at her job. But now it looks like Trump is going to throw her under the bus: (Axios)

Former President Trump, in a stunning public rebuke of a longtime ally, suggested on Fox News today that Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel should get the boot…

The RNC reported this week that it had its worst fundraising year in almost a decade last year — entering 2024 with just $8 million in cash. Trump’s comments are a sign of him flexing muscle as the de facto head of the GOP, even though the soonest he could clinch the nomination is March.

The comments also reflect growing friction between Trump and the RNC, even as McDaniel has faced criticism for publicly trying to push Nikki Haley out of the race to consolidate around Trump. A shakeup at the RNC would be extraordinary just five months before the Republican National Convention.

Prediction: shit-canning McDaniel won’t cure the RNC’s fundraising woes. Trump and affiliated PACs hoovered up tens of millions of dollars for his army of shitty lawyers last year, which might have something to do with the RNC’s short haul since there’s only so much wingnut donor cash to go around.

Also, even before his legal troubles emerged, Trump correctly identified the GOP base as dumb, slow, easy marks he could exploit for personal financial gain, so it’s reasonable to assume that’s where lots of the money is going. But of course crack reporter Maria Bartiromo wasn’t going to point that out:

“You have to understand, I have nothing to do with the RNC, I’m separate,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo.

“I think she did great when she ran Michigan for me, I think she did OK initially in the RNC. I would say right now there will probably be some changes made,” Trump said when asked about McDaniel.

So McDaniel is learning what every other disposable careerist and sycophant who enters The Beast’s orbit finds out: Loyalty is a one-way street, and if Trump can dodge blame by pointing a stubby orange finger at someone else, even a person who has served him with unswerving devotion, he won’t hesitate.

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Open Thread and Two Small Things You Can Do Today

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File this under things I never thought I would see:
Alexander Vindman writing the words Motherfucking traitors.

Take a minute to call your representative and tell them what you think of the traitors in the House?  When you call, I strongly recommend not using the word motherfucking, in any of its forms.  And maybe call that motherfucking traitor, Scalise, too.

Zoom With Four Directions Set for Thursday at 7 pm ET 1
Make calls for the Democratic candidate who could replace the lying sack of shit, Santos.

Flip NY-3 – Tom Suozzi leads in the early polls and will win if we give Tom the resources and volunteers he needs. The election is Feb. 13th and early in person voting has begin so please take an action to help Tom today! If you want to learn more watch my recent interview from last week, and take an action here:

Donate – Learn More – Get Updates – Canvass – Make Calls

IF Tom Suozzi wins, the R margin gets significantly smaller than it will be if he LOSES.

Is there a way to call the White House with feedback, as we can for senators and representatives?

Zoom With Four Directions Set for Thursday at 7 pm ET 1

Also, people have been asking about charities to support Ukraine, so I just want to remind you that the Ukraine thermometer is still in the sidebar.  The two organizations in the thermometer are World Central Kitchen and Razom for Ukraine – you can choose to donate to just one of them, or both of them.

Remember: it’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Open thread.

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Monday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

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BLISS! It’s Monday, it’s February, and I assume I’m not alone in filtering my Grammy news through social media…

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