Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“woke” is the new caravan.

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

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

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

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

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

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Thursday Morning Open Thread: The GOP Has No Idea What They’re Doing (But We Democrats DO!)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: The GOP Has No Idea What They’re Doing (But We Democrats DO!)

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If we can’t force the Repubs to do the right thing, we can at least make sure the voting public knows who to blame:

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  3. 3.

    sab

    Donald will probably lose the election but in the meantime he may well have destroyed Ukraine.

    I am frothing at the mouth but that doesn’t actually help.

  4. 4.

    schrodingers_cat

    I am wondering how much of the Gaza protests and the whole Oct 7 attacks are Russian ops? Jewish Americans are an integral part of the Democratic base. This is a wedge issue that hurts the Ds. The only thing that is standing between a Putinist autocracy and the US.

  5. 5.

    Kathleen

    I subscribe to David Pepper’s Substack “Pepperspectives”. David heads Blue Ohio, a group dedicated to funding Democrats who want to run for local/state offices to chip away at the Red stranglehold. He’s also working with Missouri Blue and other states to provide strategies and game plans for countering Rethug horror show. Today’s newsletter focuses on strategies for Missouri, Florida and Arizona. Just wanted to share.

    https://davidpepper.substack.com/p/back-to-1864-the-days-of-bloodletting

  7. 7.

    Baud

    Via reddit, good news for Reacher (TV) fans

    Reacher’ Star Alan Ritchson Baffled At Religious Support Of Donald Trump: “He’s A Rapist And A Con Man, And Yet The Entire Christian Church Seems To Treat Him Like He’s Their Poster Child

  8. 8.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Has he met religious people? They are the biggest hypocrites out there. And I am not just talking about the white evangelical base of the Rs. BJP’s upper caste Hindu base is pretty similar in this aspect.

  13. 13.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: There are religious people who are kind and good. Their religion is private and personal

    I am talking about those who wear their religion on their sleeve, make a big deal about being religious on social media and public life. And who use religion as a stick to control women and people who are at a socially lower status than they are.

    In  the Indian context handles with an angry muscular Hindu deities who look like they have roid rage as their avaatars are obnoxious hypocritical blowhards. If there is an exeception I haven’t found it yet. Most of the BJP-RSS leadership and their amen chorus follows this model

  14. 14.

    JoyceH

    I can’t for the life of me understand why we’re not shoveling weapons and ammo to Ukraine as fast as we can make it and as fast as they can fire it. They’re destroying Russia’s military for us! At least they were as long as we supported them. Oh wait, the GOP belongs to Putin, don’t they? Every last one of them. If two Republicans crossed the aisle we could get it done.

  15. 15.

    Mousebumples

    Good morning, everyone!

    Postcarders –

    A new campaign is up with Postcards to Voters, for Robin Skibber for a Pennsylvania State House election. The election is April 23rd, if you’re wanting something to work on this week(end).

    Let’s GOTV!

  17. 17.

    TBone

    @JoyceH: AND most of the money we spent was spent RIGHT HERE IN THE U.S. making more ammo and weapons to replace the old ones we were sending!  Economic stimulus is too complicated for these dumb fucks.

  18. 18.

    JML

    Props to Harrison, who is exactly right here. You do NOT lose Rule Votes in the House! But when you have a “majority” that is completely uninterested in passing legislation or governing, then this kind of nonsense happens.

    not surprised that Emmer failed to do the basics of the job: counting votes. He’s always been in over his head, a mediocre mind and pretty bad guy. But there’s literally no one in the House GOP that’s any good at their jobs, at least not anyone with influence.

    They don’t know how to legislate at all. And that works for them much of the time, because their retrograde brains are all about stopping progress, so they think that all they have to do is vote no on stuff and preen for FauxNews. but the House does actually have to do some things.

    Every time government doesn’t work, it’s because the GOP makes it fail. GOD, they suck!

  21. 21.

    lowtechcyclist

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I am wondering how much of the Gaza protests and the whole Oct 7 attacks are Russian ops? Jewish Americans are an integral part of the Democratic base. This is a wedge issue that hurts the Ds.

    If the Israelis weren’t killing literally dozens of Gazans for every Israeli killed on October 7, it wouldn’t be a wedge issue.  Is Bibi a Russian operative?  (Would explain why he won’t authorize Iron Dome for Ukraine.)

  23. 23.

    Redshift

    @Rich Gardner:

    He claims that Russia did not materially support the rebellion in the Donbas, but that the rebellion there was spontaneous and indigenous.

    Since that’s blatantly false, that should tell you everything you need to know about his credibility.

  24. 24.

    kindness

    I do love and miss Nancy Smash! being the face of the party.  Hopefully she keeps doing these pieces.

  30. 30.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @TBone: I like that these ads show Trump sans whatever that is he lathers on his ugly mug in his saggy golf clothes.

  37. 37.

    beckya57

    @sab: correct.  The headline of the post is wrong.  The GOP knows exactly what they’re doing, and they’re succeeding.  Johnson knows better (supposedly he’s been convinced of the necessity of aiding Ukraine now that he’s getting security briefings as the leader), but as Pelosi is pointing out, he cares more about his job than Western security.  Pelosi is on record that she was ok with losing her speakership in 2010 as the price for getting the ACA passed.  That’s a leader.

  38. 38.

    Rich Gardner

    @Redshift: That certainly doesn’t fit with what I’ve read about the rebellion in the Donbas. My impression was that it was like the Contras of Nicaragua, there was some grounding for a rebellion, some fertile soil, but that a rebellion would never have taken place without Russian assistance.

  42. 42.

    Bex

    @TBone: I tell people this all the time and they’ve never heard it before.  Why aren’t the non right wing media making this clear?

  44. 44.

    beckya57

    @Rich Gardner: I’m absolutely not an expert, but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard before that the “Donbas was an indigenous uprising” narrative is pure Putin propaganda, ie lies.

  46. 46.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: The Israeli government that preceded Netanyahu’s prohibited the export of Iron Dome to Ukraine. Netanyahu continued the ban. Most analysts attribute the policy to Israel’s and Russia’s fraught relationship in Syria, where Russia grudgingly tolerates Israeli strikes on Iranian assets despite its own air defense capabilities.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @Butch:

    At some level, they all hate each other. The only question is whether they can stand up to her.  So far, almost no one has been able to stand up to her or others I’m Trump’s orbit.

  49. 49.

    TBone

    @Bex: from your lips to their ears!  We need to put this on a loudspeaker, continuous loop.  Every chance we get.  I see my R(ussia) House Rep taking credit for President Biden’s stimulus money in EVERY newsletter email.  They KNOW what stimulus means, let’s HAMMER THAT NAIL.

  50. 50.

    db11

    @Rich Gardner: Since it was such obvious horseshit, what were your intentions in amplifying his name and Russian-boosting message here?

    If you’re not an actual sealion, maybe stop doing such a convincing impression.

  55. 55.

    Rich Gardner

    @db11: I was unclear as to what his reputation was and if anyone had done rebuttals on his work as I didn’t find anything in my internet search. I just found positive, supportive pieces.

  56. 56.

    lowtechcyclist

    @sab:

    Aren’t a substantial portion of Bibi’s cabinet Russian immigrants heavily involved in Russian mob activity? Sex trafficking etc.?

    While it wouldn’t surprise me, I can’t say I know a thing about that.

  59. 59.

    TBone

    @Bex: we need a much wider reach than we’re using now.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/29/ukraine-military-aid-american-economy-boost/

    In all, 31 senators and House members whose states or districts benefit from funding for Ukraine have voted to oppose or restrict that aid. They include some of the most prominent anti-Ukraine voices in Congress, such as Republican Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) and Mike Braun (Ind.), as well as Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bill Posey (Fla.), Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.) and Lance Gooden (Tex.). At a time when both major parties are competing to win working-class votes and strengthen the U.S. manufacturing base, our military aid to Ukraine does exactly that — it is providing a major cash infusion into factories across the country that directly benefits American workers. It is also creating jobs and opportunities for local suppliers, shops, restaurants and other businesses that support the factories rolling out weapons.

  60. 60.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Agreed. I have no love lost for the Likud leader. Hamas and Likud are two sides of the same coin. But I don’t like the harrassment many Jewish Americans have been enduring the past few months from the uber left.

  62. 62.

    RaflW

    I met Tom Emmer once in person, for an LGBTQ lobby day. He was a blowhard, and while he didn’t seem stupid, I’d put him at extremely average in terms of smarts. The GOP really hasn’t been sending their best for many years now.

  64. 64.

    sab

    @RaflW: Do they even have a best anymore? I keep seeing the press go all enthusiastic about whatever latest GOP to some high office, and they invariably turn out incompetent or corrupt. In Ohio our longtime GOP utilities lobby guy just hanged himself before he went to jail , but we are still paying the higher utility fees he engineered.

  68. 68.

    Dave

    @lowtechcyclist: Right; I’d be almost shocked If Russia and other actors weren’t encouraging dissension they’d have really had to lose a step not to exploit an obvious and useful wedge.

    That said though I’m also certain that the vast majority of the energy is organic.  Certainly there are any number of actors (organizations, individuals, etc) that might benefit from it but that doesn’t in any way equal that most of the energy is being driven by outside entities.

    After all it’s generally much more effective and easier to exploit an actual pre-existing wedge then to attempt to create one from whole cloth.

  69. 69.

    BretH

    @Gin & Tonic: I actually found the post useful. There are many commenters on the war that have what look to be pretty good credentials. Swiss Army, NATO Advisor, etc etc. It’s useful to know they can be Putin’s shills – and ponder as to why.

    There’s also the intersection of anti-war sentiments and opinions like those of *that* Baud. IMO falls under the “Know thy Enemy” rule.

  70. 70.

    TBone

    @BretH: it’s a good rule.  I still check out tankie and vatnik websites to see what bullshit Pooty is pushing today.

    Lately it’s been a lot of anti-vaxx propaganda and insistence that economic sanctions are a failure.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @sab:

    In Ohio our longtime GOP utilities lobby guy just hanged himself before he went to jail

    That Ohio’s massive corruption doesn’t get more attention has to be one of the biggest success stories on the Right in the country.
    The state government is basically collapsing because of unchecked corruption, and everyone just ignores it. The giant utilties scandal followed the giant charter school scandal. They’re getting more and more brazen.

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    @sab:

    Donald will probably lose the election but in the meantime he may well have destroyed Ukraine.

    I am frothing at the mouth but that doesn’t actually help.

     

    Come sit by me

  80. 80.

    TBone

    @sab: not according to Fux News!  I mean I know that and you know that but most red hats have no idea about geography.

  81. 81.

    sab

    @Kay: Apparently racism is an extremely powerful and addictive drug. So we vote for the pro-white guys whoever they are and whatever they want to do.

  82. 82.

    rikyrah

    @JoyceH:

    I can’t for the life of me understand why we’re not shoveling weapons and ammo to Ukraine as fast as we can make it and as fast as they can fire it. They’re destroying Russia’s military for us! At least they were as long as we supported them. Oh wait, the GOP belongs to Putin, don’t they? Every last one of them. If two Republicans crossed the aisle we could get it done.

     

    Keep on bringing that truth.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    This is what sab is talking about:

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — 3News has confirmed Sam Randazzo, the former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio who found himself embroiled in the largest public corruption scandal in state history, has died by apparent suicide at the age of 74.

    The Franklin County Coroner’s Office says Randazzo was found dead inside a building on East Mound Street in Columbus. According to officials, his body was hanging from a rope in the rafters. Records from the Franklin County Auditor’s Office list the building’s owner as Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio, an LLC owned by Randazzo.

     

    The DOJ was way too timid in this case, IMO. They plucked some low hanging fruit and let the rest off. It would have been the Trump DOJ at the outset – I don’t think the problem is a particular leader – I think they have a culture of risk avoidance that overrides holding people accountable. Sometimes you have to risk losing.

  85. 85.

    Jinchi

    Any Republican Rep who supports Ukraine could solve the Speaker’s quandry by letting him know that his choice is between being ousted the the Chaos caucus or ousted by the members who want actually want to run the country.

    it’s time for the half of Republicans who claim to support Ukraine to step up and stop hiding behind Johnson and MTG.

  86. 86.

    laura

    @PaulWartenberg: i hope cancer nearly decapitated him, or that cancer split him open from his abdomen to his neck, but I can accept that cancer killed him deader than a doornail. I still feel so sorry for his children.

  89. 89.

    sab

    @Kay: I know from accounting circles that First Energy’s books have been fucked up beyond belief for at least thirty years. They are a publicly traded company. How do they keep getting away with it?

  92. 92.

    Bill Arnold

    @Rich Gardner:

    He claims that Russia did not materially support the rebellion in the Donbas, but that the rebellion there was spontaneous and indigenous. A search on Ballon Juice and Daily Kos on his name turned up zero hits.

    He is full of shit. It was a Russian hybrid warfare operation, and this is well documented.
    I don’t have many links handy on this computer, but for example,
    Burning Bread Basket of Europe: Behavioural War in Ukraine (Oleh Pokalchuk, 2017(8?))
    (The translation to english could use some work, but it’s clear.)

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    @sab: It’s fairly easy to check the number of Russian immigrants in Netanyahu’s cabinet, since a Wikipedia article lists all of them. There are 35 or more, because Netanyahu had to hand out more than 30 portfolios to cobble together his rotten coalition, and some some posts havr changed hands.

    Four cabinet members are foreign born. Ron Dermer was born in the US, Haim Katz was born in Germany (1947), and Aryeh Deryeh, the Shas party boss, was born in Morocco in 1959. Fellow Shas member Ya-kov Margi was also born in Morocco, in 1960.

    No current cabinet members were born in the Soviet Union. There is a party, Yisrael Beitanu, that was built on a base of Russian immigrants and is led by Moldova-born Avigdor Lieberman. He emigrated to Israel when he was 20 years old. Two other Yisrael Beitanyu MKs were born in tge Soviet Union. They were in the last government but currently are in opposition.

  95. 95.

    Frank Wilhoit

    @sab: The PUCO is defined by statute as 50/50 D and R.  Kasich appointed 100% R to all such state boards and there were no consequences.  Kasich was not personally on the take but put his friends where they could skim.  That, for example, is why he took the Medicaid money, to such overegged perplexity at the time.

  97. 97.

    Tony Jay

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Netanyahu, and through him Likud, is a Russian ally of convenience, though his own business dealings and the powerful role played in his coalition/electorate by the Russian emigres to Israel with their links to Putin-controlled organised crime may make him personally controllable.

    If I were looking for real bang for the buck for Russia’s interests, though, I’d be funding both the extreme faux-Left muppets like Cenk and the extreme faux-Centrist windbags who are so, so eager to empower the faux-Left’s anti-Biden message of “They’re all the same and think they’ve a divine right to your precious vote!” by constantly accusing anyone questioning Biden from the Left of being a Russian asset and/or a selfish crybaby with no political ideology other than attention seeking and a bit of endemic racism.

    Talk about a horseshoe meeting at the loose ends. Those two groups literally couldn’t survive without the other to point at and megaphone. If I were running a Russian propaganda campaign, that’s where I’d be investing my roubles.

    Not that I am, of course.

  100. 100.

    catclub

    @Butch: I am not convinced. The media loved to have pieces about the GOP senate caucus was fed up with Tuberville’s blocking military promotions. But then it kept up another 6 months.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @RaflW:

    The GOP really hasn’t been sending their best for many years now.

    Actually they have been. That’s the problem.

  103. 103.

    RaflW

    @Kathleen: Great piece. And an interesting counterpoint to last night’s discussion about wether to fund Dems in ‘hopeless’ GOP districts.

    One big difference is that Pepper is talking about running in every race for state legislatures. At that scale, retail politics — door knocking, house parties, local debates — can really reach voters.

    Of course Democrats in MO, AZ, etc won’t sweep every seat, but if the flip several, and motivate enough local Dems to GOTV and check the Biden box (and Gallego, etc) it can really, really matter

    And I know the MAGA fever is nowhere near breaking (it’s been building for 40 years), but Dems flipping a bunch of R-leaning seats in multiple red states could, possibly, send messages to Republican state parties that starts to get heard.

  104. 104.

    Geminid

    @sab: Around ten years ago, Lieberman served as Defense Minister in a Netanyahu coalition. He ended up hating Bibi’s guts, which is often the case for politicians who have worked with Netanyahu. Lieberman is also very hostile to Netanyahu’s Ultra-Orthodox partners.

  105. 105.

    Kathleen

    @Frank Wilhoit: Was he David’s predecessor as ODP chair? David is no longer Chair – I think Liz Walter is now. I hesitate to criticize an organization I don’t volunteer for or am involved with, I don’t think David did a good job as ODP Chair. I don’t know hurdles he faced, etc. I think he’s now making his mark as proponent for liberal candidates/initiatives as opposed to “Democratic Party” leadership. He’s doing good job with Blue Ohio I think. Still seethe over his endorsement of Nina Turner but I think they go way back.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @sab:

    Well, some accounting firm is giving them a clean bill of health. We have municipal electric here. I get a check sometimes if they turn a profit. It should all be public. Germany privatized their whole energy utility and then turned it back public when the private companies jerked them around and ripped them off.

    Publicize instead of privatize? :)

    It’s the only time I can remember any government accepting privatization and then rejecting it when it failed.

  108. 108.

    Geminid

    @Kathleen: A lot of good people endorsed Nina Turner the first time, in the 2021 OH10 special election primary. I suspect some of them were relieved when she lost

    Ed. I was relieved, but I had been for Shontelle Brown throughout. I think that’s the last Democratic primary I really cared about. I have preferences, but I don’t see as much riding on the outcome as I did in 2021.

  109. 109.

    Steeplejack

    @Rich Gardner:

    The article you linked to is two years old. You said you searched Balloon Juice and Daily Kos. Did you look anywhere else? Because a general Google search yields plenty of material on Jacques Baud.

    Maybe ask Adam Silverman in the Ukraine posts what he thinks.

  112. 112.

    Rich2506

    @Bill Arnold: ​
    @Bill Arnold: ​
     Thanks! This is just what was looking for. If people here say that the fellow is fulla shit, that’s completely convincing as far as I’m concerned My object was to get a comment that would convince others.

  116. 116.

    Soprano2

    @RaflW: I’m hoping we can flip another House seat in the state legislature down here. We’ve gone from having one Dem from my area to three in six years. This area is getting slowly more liberal as it grows and more people move here from other places.

  119. 119.

    dirge

    @Rich2506: But I wanted to reply with more than just “My buddies think this guy is full of it.”

    Well, you can also say “this guy is saying stuff that’s clearly untrue,” though that ultimately relies on the argument that some other authority is more trustworthy, so isn’t really that much different from “my buddies say so.”  There aren’t a lot of other options, unless you were in Donbas in 2014.

  120. 120.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Kay:

    I love that “found himself embroiled.” Like it was a thunderstorm or something. Like he had nothing to do with it. It just happened.

  121. 121.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Rich2506: On the assumption that you are genuinely interested, Jacques Baud is another in a long line of Western “experts” on Ukraine who do not speak Ukrainian, have no significant interlocutors in Ukrainian governmental or military circles, and have spent little or no time actually in Ukraine. They style themselves knowledgeable in realpolitik and, perhaps for this reason, along with their decades-long biases, view the war in terms of russia vs the US (or “the West”) – conveniently ignoring the wishes of the Ukrainians themselves. The trouble for them is that Ukrainians have made their desires very clear, and ridding the country of russian forces and russian influence is of paramount importance to them. This war is existential for Ukrainians, And Baud, Mearsheimer, Sachs, et. al. give only prescriptions that would destroy Ukraine. Snyder, for example, is a Western academic who is reasonably fluent in Ukrainian and has actually visited Ukraine many times and has many high-level contacts there who can make clear what Ukraine wants. Why does he arrive at completely different conclusions? It’s not some academic disagreement, it comes from his knowledge of the country.

    Having looked at your blog and your Twitter, while it appears you clearly support Ukraine, you seem also to surround yourself with tankies and Code Pink types. We are known by the company we keep, Rich.

  122. 122.

    Gin & Tonic

    @dirge: Here is what Donetsk looked like in April 2014. Of note is that the speakers are addressing the crowd in russian, saying “Donbas is Ukraine” – then the crowd breaks into the Ukrainian national anthem. This is after the annexation of Crimea.

    This whole idea that russian-speakers want russian control needs to die an ignominious death. Ukraine is a de facto bilingual country, which I have been pointing out here at least since the bad old days of arguing with BiP about the Maidan revolution.

  124. 124.

    gene108

    @Rathskeller:

    Why is MTG talking about the FISA court?!

    Something about the FBI “spying” on people in the 2016 Trump campaign with FISA warrants, when the FBI was investigating Russia trying to influence the election.

  125. 125.

    dirge

    @Gin & Tonic: April 2014. Of note is that the speakers are addressing the crowd in russian, saying “Donbas is Ukraine” – then the crowd breaks into the Ukrainian national anthem.

    Thanks.  The point I was trying to make is that @Rich2506 may be dealing with some “tankies and Code Pink types” who want to treat this as a he-said-she-said thing.  If so, it doesn’t help to point to competing authorities, since it just goes down the “why should I trust your guy instead of my guy” rabbit hole.  This kind of evidence — contemporaneous primary sources — should cut through that, if (and it’s a big if) @Rich2506’s interlocutors are arguing in good faith.

  126. 126.

    Rich2506

    @Gin & Tonic: Many thanks! Yeah, I was watching videos by personal friends of mine at the beginning of the full-scale war and soon recalled that Britain and France thought in 1940 that they were just re-fighting World War I. People I knew were making the presumption that we were just redoing the Iraq War, with the US as the bad guy. I looked more deeply into it and realized that Russia and NATO are not at all similar. The reason “NATO expanded to the East” was that Eastern Europeans asked them to as they all opposed Russia. They all recalled the Warsaw Pact years with revulsion.

    In any event, I found a Reuters piece and responded with that and a hefty bit of skepticism.  https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0FY0UA/

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