Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

This fight is for everything.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

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

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

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Archives for February 2024

Open Thread: The GOP Has An Impeachment Problem

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Another 'Informant' - STOCKPILE

(Clay Bennett via GoComics.com)

 
They know these non-stop show trials reflect badly on them, both the individual members & the GOP as a whole (not to mention wasting time & resources that could be of far better use elsewhere, because the GOP hasn’t cared about anything outside their own clan for at least fifty years)… but it feels so good in the moment!

… This isn’t even the first time we’ve learned that a person has been indicted after the GOP cited his claims. Nor is it the first time a person has been linked to Russian intelligence after the GOP leaned on their version of events.

The cast of characters Republicans have sought out to substantiate President Biden’s purported corruption over the years has come to include half a dozen convicted and accused criminals, as well as multiple people the U.S. government has linked to Russia, corruption and subverting American democracy.

The most recent example is Alexander Smirnov, whom the government said last week had invented the claim that Biden and his son Hunter took $5 million bribes. That allegation was promoted far and wide by Republicans, many of whom treated it as fact.

The government then said this week that Smirnov has “extensive foreign ties, including, most troublingly and by his own account, contact with foreign intelligence services, including Russian intelligence agencies, and has had such contacts recently.”

The news comes seven months after the indictment of another GOP source was unsealed. Republicans had conspiratorially suggested that a key witness who claimed to have damaging information about Hunter Biden had mysteriously gone missing. It turned out the witness was Gal Luft, who the government said had skipped bail after his indictment for alleged arms trafficking and foreign lobbying violations was handed down months earlier…

Rooting out corruption sometimes involves dealing with unsavory characters. Some of the legal actions against Trump, for instance, have leaned on the testimony of his convicted former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.

But thus far, Republicans have very little actual evidence against the Bidens to show for their efforts. And when your most-touted claim is apparently falling apart in spectacular fashion, against the backdrop of the aforementioned, it sure risks looking like you’re desperate for anything to grab hold of — no matter where it comes from.

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Donald J. Trump: Weakling

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Guess who still hasn’t cracked 60% of votes in a Republican primary?

South Carolina GOP primary result — Trump 59%, Haley 39% Trump “won” the Nevada caucus with a Saddam Hussein-like 99.1% result when his cult orchestrated a race with a god-bothering megachurch nobody named Ryan Binkley. But in every other contest so far, 40%-plus of the most engaged GOP voters expressed a preference for not-Trump.

Of course, Trump will win the nomination, barring an event like a ketchup-slathered chunk of overcooked gristle lodging in his windpipe. The snippets of savvy political analysis I’ve seen since yesterday in the major dailies are using the word “coronation.”

But it should be noted that Trump is a weakling despite being the de facto incumbent and leader of his shit-show party. So, duly noted!

I make no predictions, and I acknowledge that hope is not a strategy. That said, I believe we have an opportunity to beat the walking collection of untreated personality disorders known as Donald J. Trump like a rented mule.

Open thread!

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Random Thought Open Thread

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After seeing the comments a couple of weeks ago about the NYT reporting about the bigoted attacks coming out of the mouths of Republicans in the House and the Senate, I had a thought.

Could Sexism Work for Our Side For a Change?

I mean, whatever happened to “the gentle lady from wherever”?

Seriously, we should just nuke every “tradition” in the House and Senate that is based on the assumption of comity.  Every single tradition that isn’t actually a rule.  Gone.  And then when we control that chamber, we need to nuke all the rules that are based on the assumption of comity are gone, too.

But back to my original thought.  Since Marge appears to be the face of the new Republican ugliness, maybe sexism can work for our side for a change?  Men can be seen as strong or forceful, but all Marge represents is in your face lies, over the top anger and *ugliness, the worst kind of partisanship, and racism.  So I’m not sure that strong or forceful is what folks come away with from Marge.

A fair number of people still have conventional views about gender roles, and even though I am not a fan of traditional gender roles, she sure violates every traditional gender role for women that I can come up with.  There is an *ugliness about her that brings to mind gender-based insults.

I don’t see how it helps the Republican party to have Marge be the face of it.   Is it too much to hope that moderates will see that and be turned off?  That they will judge her behavior more harshly than they would judge the same behaviors coming from a man?

In any case, I hope that Marge being the face of the new republican party comes back to bite them in the end.

I know everyone doesn’t read every thread, so here’s the article:  On Capitol Hill, Republicans Use Bigoted Attacks Against Political Foes

*ugliness as in mean and nasty, not as in not pretty.

Open thread.

 

 

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: It’s Biden vs. Trump — Our Very Serious Media Will Have to Deal

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And it may just break a few of them, over the next eight months…

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Fields of Glory

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Fields of Glory 1
 
From ace gardener and photographer Ozark Hillbilly:

Last year I was able to catch a number of my DiL’s 5K runs. Mostly I stand around waiting for her at the finish line (maybe even catch the beginning of the race!) and be a familiar face when she crosses the finish line (she only competes with herself).
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Then we sit and visit for 15 or 30 mins and she heads for home to her family and I wander the back roads to our place.

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The bonus is I get to see some places I would otherwise never go to. These pics are from a St Charles County park that is heavily invested in prairie restoration. (Sorry, I have forgotten which one and when I searched their website, nothing rang a bell — they have some really nice parks to visit!)

The grasses were glorious.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Fields of Glory

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What’s going on in your garden (planning / prep / memories), this weekend?

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Saturday Night Slap Fights Open Thread: Repubs in Disarray!

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Be a lot more fun if so many innocent peoples’ lives weren’t hanging on the results, but I’ll take some consolation in Preacher Johnson getting handbagged by his own team. Per CNN, “Speaker Mike Johnson once again stuck in the middle as funding deadline looms”:

… With just days until a partial government shutdown and lawmakers out on recess until next week, House Republicans are divided over the best path ahead with Speaker Mike Johnson yet to make a call and House and Senate appropriators still haggling over conservative policy riders deemed poison pills by Democrats.

It’s a messy and complicated situation that comes as Johnson is still grappling with how to lead his unruly and narrow majority and as patience is running thin for the inexperienced speaker who has already punted several funding deadlines since taking the gavel.

“Now, we are in a fully Johnson-run House, and he’s got to own all the decision making in the 12 appropriations bills. That’s probably not best for him. Probably not best for public policy either,” Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said. “It’s actually drug out what is sort of inevitable here, which is we will either perform to the (spending caps) or have a government shutdown.”

In January, Johnson announced a deal with the Senate to fund the government at $1.66 trillion much to the frustration of his right flank. But the fight over where that money goes and what programs get funded has dragged on for weeks now, with appropriators working around the clock to try and reach a deal before the next government funding deadline on March 1. Johnson is facing pressure from members of the House Freedom Caucus to include dozens of policy riders that would never pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Earlier this week, Johnson huddled with members of his leadership team in Florida, but sources present said that Johnson didn’t articulate or lay out a specific path to keeping the government funded, instead summarizing how the process worked and signaling he hoped a deal could come together next week that he could put on the floor…

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War for Ukraine Day 731: Year Three of Putin’s Three Day Genocidal Re-invasion of Ukraine Begins

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. A Ukrainian Soldier leads several Ukrainian civilians. He is holding the hand of one woman. They are painted in golden yello and are standing on the crest of a hill that has concertina wire and other anti-tank and anti-personnel obstacles on it. The hill and the obstacles are painted black. They are facing away and to the right where the sun is rising in the east and the sky is lightening from a light yellow to an orange. Below the Ukrainian Soldier and Ukrainian civilians, written in gold, is "TOGETHER YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

The third year of Ukraine’s defense against Putin’s and Russia’s genocidal re-invasion has begun.

 

2 years ago, russia started a full-scale war against our people and state.

The enemy planned to destroy us in three days. But Ukrainian unity and bravery broke an aggressor’s plan.

In two years, we eliminated more than 400,000 thousands of russian personnel, destroyed almost 7,000 tanks and 10,000 artillery systems. We sank the cruiser Moskva and shot down two “no-analogue” A-50 planes. We liberated our cities.

We are grateful to every country, leader, and person who has stood—and continues to stand—with Ukraine.

We fight for our freedom.
Ukraine will win!

We should not forget that while the third year of the re-invasion begins today, this is actually the tenth year of Russia’s invasion and occupation of Donetsk and Luhansk and the illegal annexation of Crimea. I know the start dates for those events are normally recognized as being in the spring, but the medals that Putin awarded actually date to February of 2014. This most likely reflects the covert infiltration of the Little Green Men into Ukraine. It also reflects that Putin believes that the end of the EuroMaidan Movement protests and the beginning of the overthrow of Yanukovych’s corrupt regime as the beginning of his initial war on Ukraine.

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

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