Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So many bastards, so little time.

People are weird.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Fight them, without becoming them!

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Bark louder, little dog.

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

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

The words do not have to be perfect.

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

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Righteous Rant Open Thread

Righteous Rant Open Thread

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I never embed TikTok videos – most of the time TikTok videos don’t even play for me on this device – but this is one righteous rant!

@ang.rose1 No response IS a response. Dont sit around and allow hate to be spread. Stand up and SAY SOMETHING. Thank you Senator Bisignano #iowasenate #transgender #lgbtq #representALLconstituents ♬ original sound – Ang

h/t SWMBO

In case anyone is interested in something besides the NY trial jury selection.

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia: Did you listen all the way through?  Iowa senators  making remarks and mocking school kids who are visiting the senate?  Who dare to be black or brown or trans?

    What the fuck is wrong with these people?

  8. 8.

    cain

    I didn’t have the sound on – it was good rant. Slightly meandering but good! I think people need to park their bullshit outside the chambers when conducting the people’s business – I think that was a good point. You’re a representative – act like one.

  10. 10.

    schrodingers_cat

    It started with beef bans. Last week, Modi mocked people who eat meat, poultry and fish as Mughals in an election rally. This is in a country where only less than 20% of the population is  vegetarian. Surely a winning strategy.

    Its all about control, the RWNJs want to control what you eat, who you marry and what you say.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    That’s good. Glad to hear him say it. I wish more would. I put out what I can with my truck.

  14. 14.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl: Last year we had two local GOP school board candidates who had to drop out after they were caught mocking the autistic kid who sang the national anthem at a school board meeting. (The mocking occurred on their YouTube channel where they watch meetings remotely and comment on them.)

    At least one of them got back into the race after waiting a few months for the outrage to die down, in case you had the impression that they actually had any shame.

  15. 15.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @WaterGirl:

    What the fuck is wrong with these people?

    They haven’t been punished for their bad behavior. In fact, it’s likely how they got elected and stay in office.

    There’s nothing wrong with Iowa that can’t be fixed by pulling all Farm Subsidies going to any entity associated with a farm of more than 250 acres or an LLC or whateverthefucktheyhidebehind associated with more than 1000 acres. It’ll suck for them, but I’m willing to put up with their pain.

  16. 16.

    schrodingers_cat

    The judge in NY trial says that T will be arrested if he doesn’t show up for trial everyday. Snooze Hour professional talkers Brooks and Marcus were pooh poohing this case on their Friday segment.

  17. 17.

    Bex

    OT, but Nikki Haley has taken a job with the ultra conservative Hudson Institute in DC.  Other former TFG officials who took jobs there are Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo and Elaine Chao, wife of Moscow Mitch McConnell.  Nikki isn’t the moderate she campaigned as.  Surprise, surprise.

  19. 19.

    RaflW

    Nicely done, Sen. Bisignano. I’ll note he’s also 71 years old, so it’s not just the young who can find their way to accepting and loving all.

    We do need more roll models like this in these times. We are not going to get Iowa back on track any time soon, but he brings enough heat that at least the rw jagoff who spouted the anti-trans crap sin’t just getting to fulminate unanswered.

    I don’t really expect there to be a “Have you no decency, at long last” moment in this era like there was for McCarthy (and that moment didn’t just snap shut the raving nutbags, but it did signal a pivot), but people of good conscience can keep pushing back publicly, and with effective anger + clarity like Bisignano, and it will make a difference.

  25. 25.

    Redshift

    @rikyrah: Particularly fitting since his lawyers have continually been trying to play the schedules of different trials against each other to get them all delayed. If you claim other trials can’t proceed because you have to been in court for this one, the judge should take a dim view of requests not to be in court.

  32. 32.

    Martin

    Iowa just passed a Texas-style immigration policy, effectively July 1. Some farmers are freaking out. Expect IA GOP to quietly inform them that they won’t enforce it. If you see them pushing to lower the minimum work age to 10, you’ll know it didn’t work.

  35. 35.

    Redshift

    @schrodingers_cat:

    They were in agreement that it was the weakest of the Trump’s cases.

    I get the sense that most pundits think this case is “weak” because they see it as being about sleaze, rather than the actual charges. There’s an argument to be made that it has the least serious charges, certainly, but weakest? I doubt they have any insight.

  37. 37.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Bex:

    Nikki isn’t the moderate she campaigned as.

    On the scale of the GOP, ‘moderate’ means you oppose having the U.S. turned into an autocracy or theocracy, but otherwise you’re to the right of Dick Cheney.

  40. 40.

    JML

    I know people like Sen. Bisignano; they won’t get all the words exactly right but you know their hearts are righteous.

  41. 41.

    Old School

    Here’s the transcript:

    Geoff Bennett:

    We have seen Donald Trump actually benefit politically from all of these legal troubles. Does that — will this change? Will the resonance and the impact change now that this is a criminal trial, the first of four that is actually getting under way?

    Ruth Marcus:

    I have a complicated answer to that question.

    This is a case that makes me the most nervous for kind of for the reason that you say. It is the shakiest case legally. It’s a case about falsification of business records that doesn’t quite have the resonance of interfering with an election or obstructing justice and mishandling classified information.

    It involves some serious things. Trump tried to keep salient information from voters at a time when he was in potential trouble because of the “Access Hollywood” tape. But I do think that, when you see a criminal trial and, in particular, if we do see a criminal conviction, which is more likely than not — this is a Manhattan jury — that that really could have an impact in a way that Trump has not been used to.

    The criminal charges against him, he won’t look as much of a victim as he will look if he’s convicted like a felon.

    …

    David Brooks:

    I think it’s more or less — I wish this case were not going first, because it may — the stronger cases are further down the line.

  42. 42.

    Martin

    @schrodingers_cat: It’s about business fraud in the furtherance of campaign finance fraud. The business fraud would normally be a misdemeanor but because it was done in furtherance of another crime (violating NY state and federal campaign finance laws) that elevates those crimes to felonies.

    The campaign finance violation is what Michael Cohen went to prison for, but the case is really to show that Trump falsified business records to cover up the payments to Cohen (and others) for paying Daniels and MacDougal. That’s expected to be pretty straightforward. To keep the felony, they need to show that the motive for doing that was to violate those campaign finance rules, and I don’t think they need to prove that those rules were actually violated (though one has already been proven).

    Basically, the case is whether or not Trump stole the 2016 election (as he would express it if the tables were turned).

  44. 44.

    Martin

    @Redshift: This is my take too. The other cases are about ‘important stuff’ and this not so much. I don’t quite agree with that view.

    The behaviors characterized by those other trials are more important behaviors to prevent repeating, but any of these trials can achieve that goal. NY can lock him up just as well as anyone else. Maybe better because he can’t pardon his way out of this.

  48. 48.

    Martin

    @Baud: I think that legal analysts have held that the classified documents case is the strongest in terms of having him dead-to-rights and the Georgia case the weakest because RICO is generally very hard to prove, and because it lacks support from the state AG and has the greatest chance of being pardoned (provided Trump isn’t elected). The DC case and this one were always stated in similar terms – both relying on juries accepting an argument of intent that has never been heard in court (that the hush money payments were an illegal contribution and the payments were hidden for that reason, and that Trump knowingly participated in the fake elector scheme even when he should have known it was illegal).

  50. 50.

    Dan B

    @Msb: I second your sentiment.  The outraged Senator has compassion in spades.  The right views compassion as weakness.  Bisingano demonstrates that it is strength.

  53. 53.

    Citizen Alan

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    Marcus really ought to know better

    Why? IMO, Ruth Marcus is worse than David Brooks. Because as far as I can tell, his schtick is to be a “moderate Republican who blames the Dems for everything” while hers is to be a “moderate DEMOCRAT who blames the Dems for everything.” Brooks demonstrates a higher level of fundamental honesty than Marcus.

  54. 54.

    Another Scott

    @Martin:

    the Georgia case the weakest because RICO is generally very hard to prove, and because it lacks support from the state AG and has the greatest chance of being pardoned (provided Trump isn’t elected). 

    If I’m reading things correctly, a GA governor cannot pardon a felony conviction. And of course the GA RICO trial is under state RICO law so there’s no federal pardon there either.

    Corrections welcome.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  57. 57.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    Some farmers are freaking out. Expect IA GOP to quietly inform them that they won’t enforce it. If you see them pushing to lower the minimum work age to 10, you’ll know it didn’t work.

    Kids today spend too much time posting videos on TikTok and playing video games. Also, too much time in school with demonic book learning.

    They need to be shipped out to farms. If ignorance was good enough for our forefathers it should be good enough for or children.

  58. 58.

    cmorenc

    @schrodingers_cat: Shame that with most other federal judges other than Aileen Cannon, it would likely be the very strongest criminal case v Trump that went to trial first, the willful retention & concealment of some of the nation’s most critical, classified national security docs.

  60. 60.

    Ken

    Pundits are unanimous: Going after Al Capone for tax evasion was a weak case, lacking the “resonance” and “six figure book deals” that a murder prosecution would have created.

  61. 61.

    Ken

    @Dan B: I guess they haven’t heard that Treasury says the US economy is robust because of immigration.

    I think the farmers and meat packers of Iowa, to say nothing of the construction industry, are well aware of that.

  62. 62.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I’m not a fan of rants anymore, righteous or otherwise. I honestly don’t think they’re productive. Perhaps they can be entertaining and are a way of rallying the already-convinced troops? Apart from that, they come a little too close to mimicking Fox-like anger/rage addiction IMO. It’s emotional cotton candy, providing a temporary high and leaving nothing of substance.

    edited.

  63. 63.

    Kirk

    @Another Scott: nope, I tend to agree.

    To qualify for a Pardon for offenses other than sex offenses which require you to be listed on Georgia’s Sex Offender Registry:

    ●      You must have completed all sentence(s) at least five (5) years prior to applying.

    ●      You must have lived a law-abiding life during the five (5) years prior to applying.

    ●      You cannot have any pending charges.

    ●      All fines must be paid in full.

    from Georgia’s state board of parole and Pardon, Pardons.

  64. 64.

    piratedan

    I kind of looked at the campaign finance law crime as follows….

     

    Mom and Pop send in money to elect DJT to the highest office in the land.  Because DJT is a scumbag, he took money that Mom and Pop gave his campaign and used that to pay off porn stars and playboy centerfolds and certain tabloid publications to ensure that his image is not “tarnished” by sleazy accusations of actual “campaign activity”, so to speak.

    In short, Trump is such a cheap bastard, he uses campaign donations to pay off his mistresses and stomp any reporting that would cast him in a bad light, instead of using his own money, like the multimillionaire he claims to be.  That’s the illegal bit.

  67. 67.

    Martin

    @Dan B: Counterpoint: they break the rules as laid out by my culture – they eat the wrong food, and listen to the wrong music, and have the wrong style, and value the wrong things.

  68. 68.

    Martin

    @Another Scott: Republicans will either ignore or change the rules, or use the new law they just passed to scuttle the case (which they may be in the process of doing).

  69. 69.

    Kay

    Criminal defense lawyers say RICO cases are hard to prosecute but the thing is, Fani Willis wins them.

    For all the shit she took she actually wins the RICO cases she brings. So we shall see. I’m betting on her.

  70. 70.

    Martin

    @piratedan: In this case, it doesn’t involve donor money. The Trump corporation gave an in-kind contribution by paying Michael Cohen and the National Enquirer to bury a damaging story, thereby giving the campaign something of value, and they hid that contribution by lying on business records.

    Americans often aren’t great at differentiating between Trump Inc doing something and Trump doing something (in part because he more than almost anyone has worked hardest to blur those lines), and they often aren’t great at seeing an in-kind contribution as a serious act. Fortunately, those aren’t the parts that they really need to prove – Cohens guilty finding already did that.

  71. 71.

    Martin

    @Kay: To my understanding, Willis has never prosecuted a RICO case against rich white people, just poor brown ones. This is why they are hard to prosecute, because juries really struggle to hold someone accountable for specific actions they had no knowledge of, just because they were involved in some larger act. It’s easier for them to see a bunch of people in suits and think ‘what kinds of things do I do at work, etc. that could be cast in this way?’ and it doesn’t require a huge amount of imagination to find something. It’s a lot easier when it’s a bunch of brown people accused of being in a gang, even though structurally it may be little different than your church, it looks different.

  72. 72.

    Eolirin

    @O. Felix Culpa: I think in situations like this is very important for people to stand up and say these things aren’t okay, even if it doesn’t accomplish anything immediately tangible.

    There’s issues of normalization and considerations of allyship beyond just behavioral changes on the part of the bad actors. That stuff matters.

  77. 77.

    Pink Tie

    I’d be interested to know who got flamed by Bisignano and what they said for him to be that angry — literally sputtering mad! I guess the other legislators had to have known. Maybe that righteous rant will inspire others to speak up as well, because it’s unlikely to produce any feelings of shame in the people he was addressing

    ETA: basically what Eolirin said at #74.

  78. 78.

    cain

    @Martin:  lol – who is going to tell the immigrants?

    and they will absolutely go after the immigrants when they need to show they hate immigrants and need to make some examples.

  79. 79.

    Martin

    @cain: Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Also, execute the immigrants.

    Rulers don’t invoke religion to set good examples, they invoke religion to keep people in line. Orwell warned everyone.

  80. 80.

    Martin

    @cain: Oh, they know. People already planning to leave the state – including people here legally. They know they can’t enforce this law without racially profiling everyone.

  81. 81.

    smith

    @Martin: The Trump corporation gave an in-kind contribution by paying Michael Cohen and the National Enquirer to bury a damaging story, thereby giving the campaign something of value, and they hid that contribution by lying on business records.

    There’s also the matter of the amount exceeding allowable limits for campaign contributions, as well as the tax evasion committed by calling the funds business expenses.

  85. 85.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Citizen Alan:

    Agree with you about Ruth Marcus. She’s a haranguing scold. Sorry if that sounds sexist, but I’d say the same about Joe Lieberman, who is still dead, and I probably did at some point.

  87. 87.

    MomSense

    One of my best friends is in Iowa.  We’ve never met IRL but we are sisters. We met through the Obama campaign in 2007. I’m going to send this video to her.  It has been really frustrating to be Democrat in Iowa and this will cheer her up.

    She is currently undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma.  It has been a really tough time.

  89. 89.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    It’s quite astonishing, but every few months he sends a link to some “irrefutable, scientific proof” video, which is (a) incomprehensible, so I usually quit watching after about 30 seconds; and (b) pushed by some YouTube person who, when you look them up on Wikipedia, always turn out not only to work for the most extreme right-wing media, but also to cart around a long history of having been fired from various not-quite-but-almost-as-extreme right-wing media, for plagiarism. Again and again. Different people, I might add. There are apparently a LOT of plagiarists in MAGAMediaLand.

  92. 92.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    Oh no, that’s impossible. What you and I, in our naïveté, think of as “Antarctica” is really an impenetrable border guarding the entire perimeter of the (flat) earth. Also too, the sun and moon are the same size.

    I’m sure I needn’t tell you that the much-vaunted moon landing in 1969 was a massive fraud, a hoax perpetrated by hundreds of thousands of people in scores of nations, all of them extremely good at keeping secrets.

  93. 93.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    It’s not worth it. I try to remain civil about things like family and home-town memories, but we really don’t communicate much. There are very few conversational topics these days that are immune from tipping over into politics.

    It’s sad. He and I, as the non-twins, had a special bond for a long time. I have no idea how to retrieve it without treading on landmines.

  97. 97.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    I think my brother’s current (fourth) wife got him into all this. For sure she agrees with every word. FWIW, his third wife (to this day a dear friend of mine) is a retired NASA engineer at Langley.

  99. 99.

    Quiltingfool

    @WaterGirl:

    I can barely comprehend that a thinking adult could believe the world is flat.

    Oh?  The last principal I worked for was a flat-earth believer.  Really.  He once tried to get me to “debate” evolution theory (I was a science teacher).  I told him to get away from me, I’m not going to be doing that.  I suffered no repercussions as I was retiring that year!

    He got his degree from the local Baptist university, and that was a real selling point with the board.  As long as you were a “Christian in Good Standing” they didn’t care if you were an idiot nut job.

    The fools I have suffered…

  100. 100.

    Ajabu

    @MomSense:

    Please let your friend know, my 50 year old niece just had a lengthy bout with multiple myeloma,  last month received a stem cell transplant and this month is cancer free. Hallelujah!

    It can be beaten… 😇

  101. 101.

    karen marie

    @WaterGirl: I was looking for that video in a format other than tiktok – couldn’t find one – but I did see that Senator Bisignano has quite a history of standing up on behalf of his constituents and the people of Iowa.  I’m surprised I’ve never heard of him before.  He’s A+.

  102. 102.

    karen marie

    @Old School:   Are Marcus and Brooks unaware that Michael Cohen went to prison for over a year for his participation in Trump’s scheme?  Or that the lies he admitted to were to benefit Trump?

    Mother of God, save us from the wisdom of these two maroons.

  105. 105.

    MomSense

    @Ajabu:

    Hallelujah!! That’s wonderful news!! So happy she has recovered.  Yes, my friend is having a stem cell transplant.  I didn’t realize it required isolation following the procedure so I’m worried for her being so alone.  Hopeful that she will recover.

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @Martin:

    To my understanding, Willis has never prosecuted a RICO case against rich white people, just poor brown ones.

    The rappers/gang members weren’t poor at all – and they had very good lawyers. She managed to turn a jury against school teachers in the cheating scandal chase – which was sort of a bullshit case. I wouldn’t bet against her.

  107. 107.

    SFAW

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Don Snorleone is trending and ya gotta love it.

    Over at LGM, the first comment to the “TFG fell asleep in class court” post was:

    “The war on woke continues.”

  108. 108.

    Timill

    @MomSense: Similarly, Kevin Drum was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2014, had various treatments culminating in a Car-T (IIRC) treatment last year, and is now cured of that.

    I would say cancer-free, but he’s just had a prostate cancer diagnosis, so…

  109. 109.

    Ramalama

    As one of the gays, I was heartened by this Iowa person’s (state senator?) rant. I’ve been avoiding rants lately because it feels like… “Fish in barrel? Meet my gun.”

    But this was different to a different audience and so it felt fresh and more powerful to me.

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