Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

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

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

This really is a full service blog.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

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

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

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

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

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

He really is that stupid.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Afternoon Open Thread

Tuesday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 150 Comments

This post is in: 

Hey everybody, busy all morning elsewhere, so I haven’t even seen any new.  Please share new below, and talk about any else you like, too.

I liked this so much from one of yesterday’s tweets, I thought I might use it to dress up various posts.  Seriously can’t think of a post where this wouldn’t fit with at least some of the comments.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

150Comments

  1. 1.

    Old School

    In a climactic ending to a historic case, a judge sentenced James and Jennifer Crumbley both to 10-15 years in prison for their roles in the 2021 Oxford High School mass shooting committed by their son, who murdered four students, injured seven other people and terrorized a community using a gun that he had long begged for.

  2. 2.

    Scout211

    Well this is bad news.

    PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 160-year-old near-total abortion ban still on the books in the state is enforceable, a bombshell decision that adds the state to the growing lists of places where abortion care is effectively banned.

    The ruling allows an 1864 law in Arizona to stand that criminalized abortion by making it a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs or helps a woman obtain one.

    . . .

    The decision — which could shutter abortion clinics in the state — effectively undoes a lower court’s ruling that stated that a more recent 15-week ban from March 2022 superseded the 1864 law.

    . . .

    In a 4-2 ruling, the court’s majority concluded that the 15-week ban “does not create a right to, or otherwise provide independent statutory authority for, an abortion that repeals or restricts” the Civil War-era ban “but rather is predicated entirely on the existence of a federal constitutional right to an abortion since disclaimed” by the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

    “Absent the federal constitutional abortion right, and because” the 2022 law  does not independently authorize abortion, there is no provision in federal or state law prohibiting” the 1864 ban..

    They added, that the ban “is now enforceable.”

  3. 3.

    Chris

    The Simpsons gets shit for both-sides-do-it and otherwise shallow politics, but boy, that picture is just perfect.

  4. 4.

    bbleh

    Team Trump 0 for 2 in 2 days at NY Appellate Division.

    Now where’d I put that violin … was it THIS pocket or …?

    @Scout211: more bad news for women, tho likely a boost for Dems in November.  (1864?  really?)

  5. 5.

    Trollhattan

    @Old School: Good Old Dad got a hefty sentence last month. He couldn’t stay at the school meeting about their son’s behavior on account of needing to leave for his food delivery job. The kid had the gun in his backpack and later went on to commit his massacre.

    Entire family now in prison. No word on whether the gun was spared.

  6. 6.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Scout211: Damn. Makes me feel even better about the postcards I am sending out for Ruben Gallego. Things have been slow at work so I have been getting them done while at the office :

    ETA: I know it’s a state not a federal issue for now, but still…

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    @bbleh: Team Trump 0 for 2 in 2 days at NY Appellate Division.

    Mr. Innocent suuuuuuure does seem to want to put off his COMPLETE AND PUBLIC VINDICATION, doesn’t he?  Odd, that…

    Most anyone else would want their name cleared, stat.

  10. 10.

    Tony Jay

    @Scout211:

    Sounds like the foundational case underpinning the urgent need for Congress to pass a Federal Abortion Law. That’s what the judges are saying would be necessary to overcome the barrier of the 1864 ban, yes?

    Would be pretty damned popular too.

  11. 11.

    West of the Rockies

    @Scout211:

    Just as Republicans are trying to distance themselves from the issue, and when Trump declares leaving it to the states is best, reproductive rights enters stage right.

    This helps Team Blue in November.

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    @Scout211: PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 160-year-old near-total abortion ban still on the books in the state is enforceable

    Does anyone in the snooze media want to ask the Orange Super-Genius for his thoughts on this particular consequence of “letting individual states decide”?

    (I don’t really want to hear his thoughts…I just want him on a mic telling AZ women, “tough shit”)

  14. 14.

    Jeffro

    @West of the Rockies:

    Just as Republicans are trying to distance themselves from the issue, and when Trump declares leaving it to the states is best, reproductive rights enters stage right.

    This helps Team Blue in November.

    Yes indeed!  Let’s goooooooooooo!!

  15. 15.

    Delk

    I hit catastrophic stage! This weeks prescriptions would have cost around $550.00 but I was charged $0.00. Free drugs for the rest of the year.
    Too bad it takes $8000.00 to reach catastrophic.

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    OT but I did not realize until just now that it was (former Republican representative) Ken Buck that called MTG “Moscow Marjorie”…that’s just awesome.

    Name names, non-Putin-puppets!!  We’re all ears!

  17. 17.

    Tony Jay

    @Chris:

    In comparison to South Park, I’ve always thought The Simpsons came over as practically a rabid partisan.

    Those SP douches are, after all, the effluent funnels who both-sidesed the 2004 Election. 2004! After four years of El Residente’s nonsense and a full year of the Iraq clusterfuck.

    Wankers. Never watched it since.

  18. 18.

    hueyplong

    1864, when things were looking up on the other slavery front.  Now Arizona women get to be sent yet further backward due to a law passed 48 years before it became a state.

    DeNiro:  “One day a blue wave will come and wash all this scum off the streets.”

  20. 20.

    RedDirtGirl

    @BeautifulPlumage: Me too. Quite a read. And then I saw that the same lawyer is representing Alec Baldwin in the new lawsuit for the Rust Movie shooting. That should be interesting.

  21. 21.

    Mike S

    “Rita Palma, who has identified herself as the Kennedy campaign’s state director in New York, has repeatedly made the case, including in a meeting with Empire State Republicans, that efforts to put Kennedy on the ballot in New York will help “get rid of Biden,” which she called her “No. 1 priority,” and make it easier for Trump to win the historically Democratic state.”

    At least she is honest about it.

  22. 22.

    Trollhattan

    @Mike S: She seems practically giddy revealing her One Weird Trick to rid us of the pestilence that is the Biden Administration. Elect Trump to get there? Maybe not ideal, but we’ll take it!

    Got some NY-style thoughts for ya right here, lady.

  23. 23.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl:

    ABC

    NEW YORK — A New York appeals court judge Tuesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s latest bid to delay his hush money criminal trial while he fights a gag order. Barring further court action, the ruling clears the way for jury selection to begin next week.

    Justice Cynthia Kern’s ruling is yet another loss for Trump, who has tried repeatedly to get the trial postponed.

     

    It’s the second of back-to-back days for Trump’s lawyers in the appeals court.

    On Monday, Associate Justice Lizbeth González rejected the defense’s request to delay the April 15 trial while Trump seeks to move his case out of heavily Democratic Manhattan.

  24. 24.

    Chris

    @Tony Jay:

    The Simpsons still gives a shit about something, no matter how much it enjoys being the class clown.

    The two big points of contrast between the shows are Lisa Simpson and Eric Cartman.  South Park doesn’t have a Lisa Simpson (no, Stan and Kyle aren’t it) and The Simpsons doesn’t have an Eric Cartman (no, Bart isn’t it).

    The Simpsons pokes as much fun as Lisa at it does any of its other characters, but it also always seemed to realize that if more people were more like her, we’d all be better off.  South Park by contrast is made by people who are genuinely offended that people like Lisa Simpson exist, and not only are they offended by it, they’re so offended that sticking it to these people has become literally the sole guiding light of their entire worldview.

    And the ultimate “sticking it to these people” in human form is, well, a Nazi.  Enter Eric Cartman.

  25. 25.

    Mike S

    One of our shows is interviewing the coauthor of the CNN article right now.  Looking forward to its airing.

  26. 26.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Trollhattan: Has there been much MSM coverage of this? I saw it on twitter, and on the blogs over the past few days, but wondering if it has surfaced on any of the news programs or major papers…

  28. 28.

    One of the Many Jens

    Hey WaterGirl, is there still match available for the Four Directions donations? Hope you’re having a good day!

  32. 32.

    Trollhattan

    @RedDirtGirl:

    I haven’t seen any–just bloggy resources and such.

    I’d like the infant RFK Jr campaign strangled in the crib, frankly which, if anybody actually listened to what comes out of his pie hole, would happen quickly.

    But he’s attracted quite a few sycophants, some of whom are rich.

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    MTG sent a letter to the House GOP putting Mike Johnson on notice: give aid to Ukraine or reauthorize FISA and I’m make a motion to vacate your Speakership.

    LOL

    What a clown party!

  34. 34.

    One of the Many Jens

    @Delk:  I’m sorry for the catastrophe, but I’m glad at least they’re now free. I’m afraid I’ve missed it if you’ve talked about your health situation here before, but best wishes on working your way through it!

  39. 39.

    Chris

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Watching the obsession of people like Dinesh D’Souza against Obama and things like “the roots of his anti-colonial rage,” I was fairly convinced they’d have been happy to undo the American Revolution too.

    I suppose “at least” Trump’s moved them on from that.  He thinks the British Empire were a bunch of Woke Capitalists who should have been stamped out by the German Empire.  (Preferrably the third one).

  42. 42.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl: Ooh, I had totally missed Moscow Marge.  When did that come up?

    Reposted from downstairs:

    Did you hear about Ken Buck’s new name for MTG? Link

    “My experience with Marjorie is, people have talked to her about not filing articles of impeachment on President Biden before he was sworn into office, on not filing articles of impeachment that were groundless made on other individuals in the Biden administration,” he told Erin Burnett in a CNN interview Monday.

    “And she was never moved by that. She was always focused on her social media account,” Buck continued. “And Moscow Marjorie is focused now on this Ukraine issue and getting her talking points from the Kremlin and making sure that she is popular and she is getting a lot of coverage.”

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    @One of the Many Jens: Yes, in addition to the external match Four Directions found us, we have Angel matches for both AZ and NV.

    So all donations up to $50 turn into 4x the amount donated through the thermometer.

    Let me know in the comments, or send me email, if you want your donation to be Angel matched.

  46. 46.

    Trollhattan

    Swiss grannies won a first-ever climate change suit in the European Court of Human Rights, on the basis of new summer heatwaves being a direct threat to their wellbeing based on age and gender. Go, you German/Italian/French-speaking grannies!

    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68768598

    Immediately wondered Switzerland? What the heck are they doing there, smelting steel in chocolate-fired furnaces? Imagine my surprise to learn more than half their electricity comes from carbon-based fuels. Oil 38%, gas 10%, wood 4%, waste 5%. Hydro is a mere 12% and second surprise, 23% is nuke.

    They’ve got their work cut out for them. However, the far-right Swiss People’s Party have a much faster solution: leave the Council of Europe.

    Gird your lederhosen for a big Alpine battle ahead.

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: I think they’re convinced that the blessed “Deep State” used and continues to use FISA as a pretext for spying on MAGA politicians and their henchmen er I mean staff.

    trumpov throws it around in his anti-Obama word salads from time to time (or used to, anyway

    ETA: I just did some Googling and it turns out that there’s some bipartisan interest in reforming FISA but keeping it.  There are particular concerns that if trump wins, he’ll abuse these powers like he will all other areas of the government.  Marge of course doesn’t want her Main Mango Man handcuffed like that.

  52. 52.

    Trollhattan

    This is my shocked face :-//

    Boeing delivered the fewest planes in almost three years last quarter. The company said Tuesday that only 83 of its jetliners made their way to customers from January through March — the lowest number since 2021, when production was still recovering from a pandemic-induced slowdown.

    In the last three months of 2023, Boeing delivered 157 planes. The shortfall came just as the company was trying to ramp up production to retake its lead over French rival Airbus.

    But amid heightened scrutiny from regulators after a door plug blew out on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 plane in January, the company has had to slow things down as it deals with everything from Federal Aviation Administration callouts of its safety culture to Justice Department criminal probe and lawsuits from passengers who were onboard the Alaska Airlines flight.

    In October, Boeing told investors that it would be able to bump 737 Max output from the current 38 planes a month to 50 by about 2025. After the Alaska Airlines incident, though, Boeing abandoned its fiscal guidance for the year and affirmed its then-current rate of production. But at its now-current rate of production, it’s getting just 27 planes a month out the door.

    Boeing’s backlog of unfilled orders stands at almost 6,300.

    “Hi new CEO. We’d like this fixed before Q3, m’kay? Thanks.”

  53. 53.

    bbleh

    @WaterGirl: @eclare: there are still further proceedings on at least one of the two that have been denied for now, but the trial isn’t halted at this point. And yes he’s also suing the judge over the gag order, which effectively is like an appeal, but that won’t be heard before the trial either. So for now, jury selection starts Monday.

    And then the following Monday is the hearing on his bond-that-apparently-isn’t-a-bond, and if I had to bet I’d say that Engoron is not going to be in a forgiving mood. Gonna be a bad week for Donnie Short Fingers unless something comes up…

  55. 55.

    Baud

    A Republican hoping to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate suffered a setback to his campaign this week after facing allegations that he lives in Florida.

    Former Congressman Mike Rogers, who has made much of his local roots in a bid to win over voters, faced backlash online after the staff of Democrat rival Elissa Slotkin released information on X, formerly Twitter, apparently proving he is still registered to vote in the Sunshine State

  57. 57.

    Chris

    @Jeffro:

    They’re convinced of this, of course, because this is exactly how police agencies operate relative to left-of-center political causes and movements.  See also the decades of obsessive surveillance of environmentalist, anti-war, and civil rights groups, and to a lesser but real extent the way agencies like the FBI feel free to fuck over Democratic politicians even all the way up to presidential candidates.

  58. 58.

    Martin

    @Baud: I think she’s accidentally on the right side of this one. A lot of good Dems also oppose reauthorization of FISA, mainly because it can serve as a 4th amendment loophole. If you and I are on a Zoom call and that call gets routed through Canada, we lose our constitutional protections.

    Some Dems want to close up some of these things such that FISA can search the foreign person on the call, but not the domestic person – that would need a conventional warrant (which the information gleaned form the foreign warrant could justify).

    MTG opposes it because FISA revealed some of the Trump crews contacts with Russia. Ostensibly she kind of agrees with Dems, but in her usual ‘white conservatives should be allowed to do whatever they want’ kind of way.

  60. 60.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Baud: Point of order: the adjective form of “Democrat” is “Democratic”, unless of course you’re an a-hole. (Directed at the original author you’re quoting, not you.)

  63. 63.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Small bit of good news, Two Cultists Agree To $1M NY Fine For Racist Robocalls. I believe this is called the Finding Out stage:

    Conservative activists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have agreed to pay $1 million to the New York attorney general’s office and others for running a voter suppression campaign targeting Black voters during the 2020 election….

    If Wohl and Burkman fail to make an initial payment of $105,000 by the end of the year, the fine rises to $1.25 million. Criminal felony charges against both men remain pending in Michigan.

    In February 2024, they were hit with a separate $11 million racketeering lawsuit brought by a Maryland man they falsely accused of being a child predator.

    In June 2023, the FCC hit Burkman and Wohl with a $5.1 million fine for making more than 1,100 “unlawful robocalls” in August and September 2020.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    Via reddit

    Donald Trump has crashed out of the ranks of the world’s 500 wealthiest people after the value of his meme stock nosedived.

    The former president has fallen off the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as his net worth has dropped below the $5.8 billion required to make the cut. Forbes’ rich list pegs Trump’s total wealth at $4.8 billion, ranking him 659th in the world.

  72. 72.

    TBone

    @HumboldtBlue: 💙 I just downloaded a white flag of surrender meme to mark the occasion.  May they live in continuous defeat on all fronts henceforth.  Wailing and gnashing style.

  79. 79.

    Dangerman

    I’d change the first sign.

    “We want what’s best for us; screw everyone else.”

    I’m cool with the evil thing (or, in DJT’s case, Evil).

  83. 83.

    catclub

    @Sister Golden Bear: Were they really stupid enough to cheat in NEW YORK STATE to give Trump a win there?  Wouldn’t PA or Wisconsin be a better place to try?  … maybe they did it everywhere and only NYS caught them.

  85. 85.

    Dangerman

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: (Back when The Simpsons was the best-written show on TV.)

    Haven’t really watched the show since they tried a wee bit too hard with the musicals (although the one where Bart was the doorman at a House of Ill Repute was brilliant). But it was great early on

    Also, when they shot Homer’s Itchy and Scratchy character into the Sun. Gives us ideas for Trump

  88. 88.

    Chris

    @West of the Rockies:

    @Starfish:

    South Park will be indispensable viewing for any historian in the far future looking to understand the Trump era.  And a big part of that is because it’s the first television show of the modern era that considered it completely normal for one of its protagonists to be a Nazi.  Want to talk about “normalization,” they were doing it fifteen years before Trump.

    (“Oh, but it’s ironic!”  He’s the breakout character of the show, and the one both writers have identified as their favorite character.  And if he wasn’t, he’d still be a cautionary tale in exactly what happens when irony for irony’s sake is your only guiding principle).

  90. 90.

    karen marie

    @Scout211: Bad news for the next couple of years – AZ has a Republican majority in the legislature – but this will certainly have an effect in November.

  91. 91.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Frank Wilhoit: There is a Deep State: it’s what we call the civil service, and the US created it to stop the kind of pervasive corruption that Republicans want to bring back and establish some continuity of people who can keep the lights on.

    They want everyone down to the last government official to be an ideological soldier for the Dear Leader and an accomplice to his crimes. That’s what they mean when they rail against the Deep State.

  94. 94.

    rikyrah

    @bbleh:

    And then the following Monday is the hearing on his bond-that-apparently-isn’t-a-bond, and if I had to bet I’d say that Engoron is not going to be in a forgiving mood. Gonna be a bad week for Donnie Short Fingers unless something comes up…

     

    I hope the judge watched Rachel Maddow yesterday, and let it all sink in.

    Been saying for awhile that they were trying to scam AG James. with this bond bullshyt.

  95. 95.

    wjca

    @Trollhattan: Immediately wondered Switzerland? What the heck are they doing there, smelting steel in chocolate-fired furnaces? Imagine my surprise to learn more than half their electricity comes from carbon-based fuels. Oil 38%, gas 10%, wood 4%, waste 5%. Hydro is a mere 12% and second surprise, 23% is nuke.

    And looking just at their geography, they would appear to be naturals for hydro.

  97. 97.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    And she’s a former Trumper! 2016 and 2020. That whole campaign is one big lie.

    so glad that we are on it, this time. Not letting anything slip. calling out these clowns and making them prove otherwise.

    We would have been accused of being ‘paranoid’ in 2016.

    Today, we don’t give a phuck. We will investigate and bring forth the background receipts for all these clowns.

  98. 98.

    Tony Jay

    @Mike S:

    I really don’t understand the calculation behind the Rat Fucking Kook’s bizarre campaign strategy. Do his franchised-out brains for hire really think their garbled nonsense gives them some kind of permagrip on the loyalty of ‘The Left’ so strong it can drag them one and all into the electoral orbit of a deranged slapstick like Stench? Really? Really??

    Fucking deluded gobshites.

  99. 99.

    bbleh

    @WaterGirl: @eclare: ah, AND there is a pending motion before Merchan himself to recuse, which likely will be decided like today or tomorrow, with a ruling along the lines of 🤣

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @Tony Jay:

    His gross campaign people call him “Bobby” in that article – excessively – Bobby this and Bobby that. I think that’s new. They’re going for the incredibly stupid vote.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    nytimes

    Breaking News: A Florida woman was sentenced to a month in prison for her role in a scheme to steal the diary of Ashley Biden, President Biden’s daughter, and sell it to a right-wing group, in what prosecutors called a plot to disrupt the 2020 election.

    Like Obama, one can tell Biden isn’t corrupt because none of these jerks have found a thing on him.

  104. 104.

    Fake Irishman

    @Baud:

    The Arizona ballot initiative for abortion rights has already been gathering signatures for several months. They almost certainly will have enough to get in the ballot. Flip 50,000 votes on net and get 50,000 more Dems out, Biden and Gallego win comfortably and Dems flip both chambers of the statehouse. A Michigan 2022 scenario is possible if you squint right.

  107. 107.

    Tony Jay

    @Chris:

    Yup. The Simpsons wants to entertain and occasionally make points about where America is right now, while South Park is a sneering, nihilistic loogie hawked straight into the face of ‘do-gooder Liberal snowflakes’ by a pair of wannabe bullies.

    Though Shut Your Fucking Face, Unclefucker is going to be played at my inevitable coronation as Emperor of The Mortal Realms.

  110. 110.

    wjca

    @Martin: Downballot matters. These assholes had a better 50 state strategy than the DNC. [Emphasis added]

    Amen!  The worst mistake the Democratic Party has made this century was not going all out in state races in 2010.

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    The Influential Conservative Group Making it Harder for Idaho Districts to Fix Their Schools
    The Idaho Freedom Foundation has gone beyond the education culture wars by targeting local bond and levy elections, which districts rely on heavily to build and repair schools.
     

    by Becca Savransky, Idaho StatesmanApril 9, 6 a.m. EDT

     
    The blue and orange leaflets that arrived in Idaho Falls mailboxes ahead of the school bond election in November 2022 looked like the usual fare that voters across the country get. Sent out by the school district, the mailers encouraged people in the eastern Idaho city to register to vote and listed bullet points highlighting what the bond would pay for.
    But the mailers, along with other materials the district distributed, would lead the county prosecutor’s office to fine the superintendent and the district’s spokesperson, accusing them of violating election law by using taxpayer money to advocate for the bond measure. According to the prosecutor, it was illegal for district officials to describe the schools as “overcrowded” and “aged” or to say that students “need modern, safe, and secure schools.”

    Such penalties were made possible by a 2018 state law originally pushed by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a conservative lobbying group that has become a big player in Idaho Republican politics. The foundation has stoked hostility toward public education across the state, pushing book bans in school libraries and accusing districts of indoctrinating students with “woke” ideas like critical race theory.

    But unlike groups in other states, the Freedom Foundation has extended its reach by targeting school bond and levy elections, which have traditionally been local issues and are the main ways districts build and repair schools.

    https://www.propublica.org/article/the-influential-group-disrupting-efforts-to-fix-idaho-schools?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature

  112. 112.

    Kay

    ronaldfilipkowski

    This was the Speaker of the House for AZ in 1864 when their abortion law was passed, which will now take effect. 3 days after the legislative session ended, Jones married a 15 year old girl. He was 49. From the grave he now decides reproductive rights for women in AZ, thanks to Trump.

    That’s what they want for your daughters! Or grandaughters in my case.

    The US is just lurching backward on womens rights. Our abortion laws are more restrictive than those of Saudi Arabia.

  113. 113.

    Shalimar

    @WaterGirl: Johnson’s only smart move is to call Greene’s bluff.  I don’t think that is what he will do.  It looks like his strategy is to stall as long as he can, promising to bring Ukraine aid up but never actually doing it for a series of bullshit excuses.  Democrats should keep working on the discharge petition.   Johnson isn’t negotiating in good faith.

  114. 114.

    rikyrah

    Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) posted at 9:53 AM on Sun, Apr 07, 2024:
    RNC Chair Michael Whatley says the quiet part loud on Maria Bartiromo’s show and portrays Ukraine as an “aggressive” adversary of the US

     

     

    Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) posted at 11:16 PM on Mon, Apr 08, 2024:
    Since Trump just installed this guy, seems like pretty good chance a newly elected President Trump would actually go to war with Ukraine or at least supply Russia with weapons to complete its conquest.
    (https://x.com/joshtpm/status/1777551213359218694?t=FJckoyoT_ksnHMqag9WulQ&s=03)

  115. 115.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Fake Irishman: My thinking too. Similar to Florida, this anti-abortion law will hurt women in AZ in the short term (still BAD of course), but may boomerang on the forced birthers in November. Let’s make it so.

  117. 117.

    Tony Jay

    @Kay:

    Their candidate looks like thirty mutant walnuts stuffed into a khaki condom. If that doesn’t give them a crack at the Blindly Stupid Vote, nothing will.

    @sab:

    “You know, I learned something today. I learnt that it doesn’t matter if you belatedly realise you were a pair of pissy little dickheads when you dismissed global catastrophe so you could sneer at ‘Liberals’, because you’re still a pair of pissy little dickheads, and you always will be. So fuck you guys.”

  118. 118.

    rikyrah

    @Shalimar:

     Johnson isn’t negotiating in good faith.

     

    OF COURSE, HE’S NOT.

     

    sorry, don’t mean to shout, but, this is just infuriating to me.

    The Democrats need to stop dealing with that muthaphucka.

  119. 119.

    Geminid

     

     

     

    @rikyrah: Foungkin’ Youngkin is vetoing a lot of good bills, but at least that slick liar finally has a record. With the two General Assembly houses split in the last session, he never had to sign or veto contested legislation. Now Speaker Scott and Senator Lucas are making Youngkin stand up and be counted..

  120. 120.

    Hoodie

    @Kay: Of course, the meatheads on the AZ Supreme Court engaged in George Constanza “moops” statutory interpretation, but the silver lining is that it is likely a gift to AZ  Dems.   You can see that even Kari Lake is immediately running away from it because she knows it’s electoral poison.  It will be interesting to see if the GOP legislature tries some sort of backpedaling like the AL legislature after the biblical AL Supreme Court ruling on IVF.

  121. 121.

    dirge

    @Jeffro: I think they’re convinced that the blessed “Deep State” used and continues to use FISA as a pretext for spying on MAGA politicians and their henchmen er I mean staff.

    Pretext?  If you throw in the MAGA politicians’  FSB handlers, that’s precisely what FISA is for.  The “Deep State” damned well ought be listening in on Moscow Marjorie’s calls.

  122. 122.

    Tony Jay

    @Mike S:

    They’ll try, but the PUMA ratfuck at least had a popular, accomplished, DEMOCRATIC candidate to hang the rodent copulation on. What do Grandpa Wrinkle’s strategerists have? Moe Szyslak’s crazy anti-vax testicle and a pool of talent that couldn’t get jobs on the main Trump team.

    I haz me doots.

  123. 123.

    WaterGirl

    @Kay: @Fake Irishman:

    We raised $ for Worker power, just a few weeks ago before this Four Directions fundraising. Some of their teams are also collecting signatures for the ballot initiative in AZ while they do voter registration.

  124. 124.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Shalimar: Johnson isn’t negotiating in good faith.

    @rikyrah: OF COURSE, HE’S NOT.

    That’s putting it mildly. [Not snark!]
    This cannot be overemphasized. There is no such thing as good faith negotiation with the congressional GOP

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Hoodie:

    I wonder if Trump had a heads up on the decision, hence his announcement yesterday. They’re all cult members – I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there’s Trump cultiists at all levels to report back to Trump. Ginni Thomas was communicating with all of Thomas’ former clerks during the insurrection.

    They’ve really been panicking on these far Right decisions. The in vitro decision scared them more than I have seen in a while.

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    They’ve really been panicking on these far Right decisions. The in vitro decision scared them more than I have seen in a while.

     

    How did it scare them? We have an overwhelming vote by the GOP caucus to ban IVF Nationally.

    The GOP Senators wouldn’t vote for Senator Duckworth’s attempt to protect IVF Nationally.

     

    They wanna do it, but not be held accountable?

    Yeah, You’re right on that.

  131. 131.

    Another Scott

    @Scout211: @bbleh:

    (Repost) NPR Throughline – Before Roe: The Physicians’ Crusade – Transcript:

    […]

    UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: Part 2 – A Century of Criminalization.

    UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Horatio Storer) The moral guilt of criminal abortion depends entirely upon the real and essential nature of the act. It is the intentional destruction of a child within its parent. And physicians have now agreed from actual and various proof that the child is alive from the moment of conception.

    ABDELFATAH: In 1860, governors of every single state in the U.S. received this letter from the recently established American Medical Association.

    UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Horatio Storer) The evil to society of this crime is evident from the fact that it’s instances in this country are now to be counted by hundreds of thousands.

    ABDELFATAH: But there was really only one guy holding the pen.

    HAUGEBERG: Horatio Storer.

    […]

    UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Horatio Storer) The child is alive from the moment of conception.

    ABDELFATAH: …That life began at conception. Remember, up till now, people generally agreed that life began when a woman could actually feel life move inside her at quickening. But that wasn’t enough for Storer. He campaigned on a moral argument that also tapped into the racial fears of the moment, fears that would eventually inspire a pseudoscientific field of, quote, “racial improvement and planned breeding of the population.”

    GOODWIN: American eugenics.

    ABDELFATAH: These racial fears would inspire forced sterilization programs to decrease certain populations, whereas Storer’s anti-abortion campaign was trying to increase other populations by focusing on…

    HAUGEBERG: Protestant white women.

    ABDELFATAH: Because elite Protestant white women were often the ones going to people like Madame Restell. And people like Horatio Storer were realizing that that had consequences.

    HAUGEBERG: The birth rate for Protestant white women had been declining over the course of the 19th century, so he had fears of what were commonly – what was commonly referred to as race suicide, that the Anglo stock wasn’t going to replenish itself fast enough to keep up with the swells of new immigrants to the United States.

    [LESLIE] REAGAN: And who is going to have power and populate this country and populate the Great Plains and the Great West? Well, it is going to be Chinese migrants, it’s going to be African Americans, newly freed people and Catholics. They are not the ones using abortion. It’s our, you know, Yankee women who are using abortion, trying to get into medical school, trying to do politics when they should be at home having babies and taking care of them.

    […]

    The GQP is always recycling stuff because they always want to go back in time. Where white guys ruled everything, white women stayed home, and everyone else knew their place at the bottom.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  132. 132.

    sab

    @Another Scott: Basically we only made abortion illegal in the US to help doctors drive midwives out of business. It had nothing to do wirh saving babies or protecting women. It had everything to do with MDs restricting competition.

  133. 133.

    Lumpy

    Could we possibly set up a Giving Circle or organize a donation drive to the States Project? They focus on down ballot races which cost less than the big federal races, but can have a huge, direct impact on peoples’ lives. I know Balloon-Juice is already organizing other fundraising, and we may already have our hands full. So no pressure…

    https://statesproject.org/

    I rarely post here, but I’ve been reading the site on a daily basis since Cole was Republican, I’m a Patreon member, and I’ve donated to “angel” (matching) fundraising efforts. In case anyone thinks this is a random post from someone who doesn’t even care about BJ.

  134. 134.

    Another Scott

    @Trollhattan: (Quoting a news story)

    But amid heightened scrutiny from regulators after a door plug blew out on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 plane in January, the company has had to slow things down as it deals with everything from Federal Aviation Administration callouts of its safety culture to Justice Department criminal probe and lawsuits from passengers who were onboard the Alaska Airlines flight.

    (Emphasis added.)

    Zooks! I hate that framing!

    They aren’t delivering fewer planes because of the FAA and the Justice Department and lawsuits and people being mean to them.

    They’re delivering fewer planes because their management has broken the company and everyone sees it now. They’re no longer given the benefit of the doubt that they know what they’re doing and will deliver safe planes that don’t kill everyone on board, don’t catch on fire from bad battery system designs, don’t have doors and other parts fly off, etc., etc. They have to show their work now and get it right because their management broke the company and abused their position in the chase for ever more profits.

    Unsurprisingly, there are big problems with their space business, also too.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  135. 135.

    WaterGirl

    @Lumpy: We looked into that organization as a possibility last cycle, and we ultimately decided against supporting them.  I don’t recall details, so I will need to check my notes to find details of why we didn’t go in that direction at the time.

  136. 136.

    rikyrah

    @Another Scott:

    They’re delivering fewer planes because their management has broken the company and everyone sees it now. They’re no longer given the benefit of the doubt that they know what they’re doing and will deliver safe planes that don’t kill everyone on board, don’t catch on fire from bad battery system designs, don’t have doors and other parts fly off, etc., etc. They have to show their work now and get it right because their management broke the company and abused their position in the chase for ever more profits.

     

    TELL THAT TRUTH!!!!!

  137. 137.

    Another Scott

    @Lumpy: I give to them occasionally.  I like the idea of their work.

    They seem to be a much bigger outfit than B-J, though.  Let’s see…

    They’re backed by the “PAC for America’s Future”.  OpenSecrets.org says the PAC raised around $27M in the 2022 cycle.

    As I say, I like the idea of what they’re trying to do and will continue to contribute occasionally.

    FWIW.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  138. 138.

    WaterGirl

    @Lumpy:  I have more information about the States Project.

    As I said, we thought they looked interesting, so we checked into them for the 2022 cycle.

    They identify key states, but there was no transparency in terms of what they did with the funds, and their website didn’t connect their activities with results.  It was like putting money into a black box.

    We felt that handing off our funds to another organization that functioned in that way really didn’t fit with the strategic, targeted approach we have been taking since 2020.

  139. 139.

    WaterGirl

    We are just $165 in NV donations away from our BJ Angel being able to add his $1,000 to Nevada.  Though I’m sure there’s more energy for AZ today.

    Once we raise the $165 in matches for NV, we’ll be starting new Angel matches for both AZ and NV.

  140. 140.

    Another Scott

    @sab: The AMA wanted to drive midwives out of business, true.  The Throughline piece covers that aspect as well.  But racist segments also wanted to turn white women in to chained-up baby factories.

    It’s not fears of midwives that are driving the RWNJs now.  But there’s no doubt that midwives and women MDs, and all the rest, are on the list if the monsters get their way.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    sab

    @Another Scott: My father, an MD, belonged to a country club. He was employed by a hospital and wanted socialized medicine.

    He used to laugh that the country club admissions committee had an exception in their veto rules, because doctors could be counted on to veto other doctors wanting to join. So doctors on the committee couldn’t veto other doctors.

    It is a very competitive profession

    ETA But I agree with your modern take on the situation. Doctors are now angry that legislators are interfering with their practices.

  144. 144.

    Uncle Cosmo

    $50 in the kitty from me to 4 Directions NV. Net access crashed before I could pair that with $50 for AZ as well, but it’ll get there soon as it comes back. (Just came back, the AZ cash is now in.)

    Please to be matching both!

    FTR I infinitely prefer sending cash to folks who are doing the work on the ground vs national campaigns that are hassling me several times a day for $$$ to stuff the wallets of overpriced “insultants.”​

  145. 145.

    sab

    @sab: I don’t hate all doctors or think they are bad. I respect my family practice doctor and my husband’s internist. I am sceptical about my husband’s neurosurgeon who drives a Maserati and did not think husband should see or listen to an infectious disease specialist after husband caught an infectious disease in their hospital.

    Catching the disease was an unfortunate possibility. Receiving very bad advice was just trying to kill off a bad outcome.

  146. 146.

    Barry

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​

     

    “We joke about how the GOP wants to take us back to the 1860’s but it’s literally true.”

    Only as a way station on the road to the Antebellum era (at best).

  147. 147.

    Lumpy

    @WaterGirl: Thanks for the reply, also thanks to Another Scott for providing additional information. I think your decision last year to work with other groups makes sense (to focus more on the smaller organizations who might get overlooked by major donors). Thanks again for your reply.

  148. 148.

    wjca

    @UncleEbeneezer: We joke about how the GOP wants to take us back to the 1860’s but it’s literally true.

    Presumably they have forgotten how that worked out for the racists that time.

Comments are closed.