As @DavidFrum has said: Empty the NATO warehouses and send it all. https://t.co/jLs03EEP31
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 17, 2024
.
Chuck Schumer is currently humiliating Ted Cruz pic.twitter.com/rV5wzcctSW
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) April 17, 2024
.
OPINION: Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot. She is trying to wreck the GOP https://t.co/ZBhkARHEyS
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 17, 2024
Open thread.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
There’s
alwaysnever “one simple trick”, despite what the internet sez.Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
It’s taken the clowns at Fox this long to see and say the obvious? Traitor Greene isn’t the dumbest person in the GQP, but she’s among the bottom 100 or so.
Omnes Omnibus
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: No, but there are many small things that can add up.
WaterGirl
If this isn’t a rainy day for NATO and democracy, I don’t know what is.
Sister Golden Bear
Keep fucking that chicken Republicans.
Dangerman
Is today the Einstein Zoom? I am forgetful. I blame the medicine. Or, perhaps, the number of procedures. I just had Cardioversion #3 and am scheduled for Heart Ablation #4 in about a month. All but one done at one of the finest Hospitals in SoCal (actually, the World). I’m complicated.
I want to show up in the Zoom with this as my photo. Possible? Actually kinda looks like me. Although I wouldn’t be caught dead in a tie any longer (well, if I was passed, they can dress me in whatever they want).
moops
With Russia so sunken into Ukraine, there is no near term need for those weapons anywhere else in Europe. Russian military is so drained and committed that you could defend the rest of Europe with handguns at this point. There are no advanced tanks left, no advanced jets left, no cruise missiles left, the cupboards are really bare.
If those weapon systems in NATO are destroying Russian assets in Ukraine then they are doing the job they were built for.
Baud
I thought Ted Cruz was self-humiliating.
Old School
WaterGirl
@Sister Golden Bear: I don’t see how they would have to flip TWO votes.
30-30
If one changes their mind, it becomes 31-29, so it just takes one flip, right?
WaterGirl
@Dangerman: Yes, today is the Einstein zoom at 8 pm Eastern time.
Have you RSVP’d? If not, please send me email so I can send you the link.
Someone else with more zoom experience than I have will have to answer about the picture.
Baud
@Old School:
Yeah for Manchinema for doing the right thing.
Jackie
That editorial by Liz Peek was a delicious takedown of MTG 😁
Tony Jay
Just goes to show how shrunken and curdled the Republican Party has become that a no-class steroid-case like Margangrene can throw any weight at all around inside it. Just a decade ago she’d have been crushed and flicked aside like any other spoiled nut, but since Obama’s re-election broke the Party they’ve been easy prey for her breed of rabid yelper.
SpaceUnit
Are NATO warehouses an actual thing?
WaterGirl
@Baud: Not normally willing to lend a hand to Ted Cruz, but for extra humiliation, I am all for making an exception.
Jeffro
@Baud: right?
I was going to say, “Please don’t humiliate him, Chuck; he likes it.”
Reminds me of the old joke…
Masochist: “hurt me!”
Sadist: “no”
Thankyaverramuch, I’ll be here all week…
Baud
@SpaceUnit:
NATO prefers to call them fulfillment centers.
WaterGirl
@Old School: YAY!!!
Slightly shorter:
Dangerman
Yuppers.
ETA: Hmmm, may have to speak to the Doc about the pills. Although, taking one of everything makes it easy on the Pharmacy.
Jeffro
This might have already been brought up, but I’m sure y’all saw that Bill Barr has decided he’s going to “vote for the Republican ticket” after all. There aren’t enough eyes to roll in the whole wide world.
(In my book, this technically makes him worse than trump, and I will make a point of letting everyone know that. If Barr wants to ‘signal’ that GOP voters need to come home and support the blessed ‘ticket’, I’m going to signal that I think such folks are beyond contempt.)
Knowing all that he knows, having seen everything he has seen, and even having the examples of Cheney and Kinzinger to (pathetically, meekly, begrudgingly) follow, he’s choosing to get behind trump.
B1naryS3rf
Uh oh, Daddy Murdoch’s getting nervous that just enough squishes out there in “Real America” might actually vote against his Orange Pancaked Bad Pony he brought to the derby, or not place any bets at all. Well Rupes, you made that horse lame, now you get to watch it buck, rear, foam at the mouth and fall over.
RaflW
@Jackie: I got a “Join Fox to read this” box over the content. And there ain’t no way I’m joining Fox, even if they managed to get one op-ed contributor to diss Margie.
eta: In circular fashion, I found this. (Circular in that Liz writes for the Hill as well as for Fox…)
SpaceUnit
@Baud:
I used to shop at NATO Warehouse.
Then they changed management. After that you could never find what you were looking for.
Eyeroller
@moops: They’re not being used for their intended purpose; the Europeans won’t send them, because they might need them.
It reminds me of a long-ago episode of MASH where Hawkeye and Trapper need an incubator to culture bacteria. They find a quartermaster with three in storage who won’t give them one because if he gave it to them, then “he wouldn’t have it.” He was not doing anything with any of them. Hawkeye and Trapper try to shame General Mitchell into doing something, unsuccessfully. Finally they find a corrupt colonel who sells them one illegally.
piratedan
@WaterGirl: they have a 2 seat advantage and u need a majority to move it, they only had one GOP vote…
Quiltingfool
So Fox News is saying, “Shut up, Marjorie. Nobody likes you.”
I would pay good money to hear Senator Schumer say the same thing – “Shut up Ted. Nobody likes you.”
In other news about Republican politicians, it seems that Michigan AG Dana Nessel is going after Lee Chatfield (R), former MI state rep for all sorts of financial shenanigans. This particular case started when Chatfield’s sister-in-law accused him of repeated sexual assaults over a ten year period.
I was reading about this over at LGM, and whoo boy, this Chatfield fella is a piece of work. He began sexually assaulting the sister in law when she was a student at the Christian school, and he was one of her teachers. She married his brother (she was 18) and stated that Chatfield raped her in a closet on her wedding day.
No charges are being brought in re sexual assault (no other evidence besides the testimony of the victim). Damn it.
She is divorced now, and it seems she and her children had some severe financial struggles, like in being homeless for a period of time.
The Party of Family Values indeed. What the hell is wrong with these people?
rikyrah
Does the President Needs Congress’s approval to request of NATO to send everything to Ukraine?
Jackie
@Sister Golden Bear: Well, Kari Lake did remind Arizonians that legal abortions are only a three hour drive away…
I think a GQP bloodbath will be a given come Nov 5.
Eyeroller
@Dangerman: Log in at zoom.us with the account you plan to use. Click on Profile. I normally use a desktop or laptop and on those it’s in a menu bar on the left. Not sure where it would be on a device like a phone or iPad. To change your avatar, click on it. It will let you browse for a photo.
RaflW
@RaflW: “Greene would ‘rather burn down the House, metaphorically speaking, than work towards the greater good.'”
I’m not at all convinced that its only metaphorically.
West of the Rockies
@SpaceUnit:
NATO Warehouse: you’re gonna like how you bomb.
BellaPea
I have a very strong suspicion that MTG will try one trick too many and the Repubs will kick her to the curb. All of the white sexist bastards in that party hate women who try to attract too much attention.
Quadrillipede
matt
‘this Marge woman is not a good team player’ – Fox ‘News’.
raven
@Eyeroller: God, the shit we would sell in Korea!
Trollhattan
BBC, which takes a conservative approach to calculating it, released their latest estimate of Russian war dead in Ukraine: 50,000. In a little more than two years they have buried that many soldiers, a number that by definition is an undercount because it’s only verifiable deaths.
US deaths in Vietnam, from all causes (combat, accidental, missing, etc.) across all years: 58,220. Deadliest year was 1968: 16,899 with the period 1965-1971 accounting for most losses.
Russia’s population is smaller than the US in 1968 (200 million) and Vlad and Co. do not give a whit about expending Russians there, while tossing war opponents into the gulag for “insulting Russian Army.”
IDK how this ends.
Jackie
@RaflW:
Hmmm, I got this link via RawStory and didn’t have to join anything to read. I, like you, am NOT signing up for Faux’s “news” contents.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/marjorie-taylor-green-idiot-wreck-gop
Jay
@moops:
ruZZia has deployed less than 29% of it’s full time military assets in the War against Ukraine, (manpower, hardware),
less than 8% if you include Active Reserves.
As an example, out of 220 t-90M tanks, (ruZZia’s most modern), only 15 have been deployed in the war.
It took NATO a long time to fill those warehouses.
That said, we can supply Ukraine with a lot more than much of what NATO has been doing.*
*some countries have gone above and beyond.
TBone
@Quiltingfool: I sent this to my cousin in Michigan
Wow. AG Nessel FTW
https://www.mlive.com/politics/2024/04/former-michigan-house-speaker-charged-with-embezzlement-conducting-a-criminal-enterprise.html
Personal slush fund campaign money from the rubes.
Jay
@SpaceUnit:
Yes.
WaterGirl
@piratedan: So they just needed ONE MORE.
TBone
Your reminder that financial aid to Ukraine has mostly been spent right here in the U.S. making new ammo to replace the old ammo we send them. It’s economic stimulus 101.
RaflW
@Jackie: Thank you!
But holy mother of pearl, Liz seems a bit over the top (par for the Fox course, I’m sure). Mikey-J is “attempting to keep his caucus intact as he navigates treacherous issues including funding Ukraine.”
Oh, no. Being in Ukraine is treacherous. Funding resistance to Russian land grabs is still popular among Americans. Yeah, the Russophile wing of the GOP wants Mikey-J to lose is precious leadership job. But even being deposed as Speaker isn’t freakin’ fatal.
And Jeffries may well round up enough support to keep him around for more dumb shenanigans
Also, too, Liz: WTF does this mean? “If President Biden had allowed an all-out aggressive war against Moscow, we would not be at a seeming stalemate.” Huh? You wanted us to go over there with our forces? Really? Moron.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: For all their grandstanding they have been good team players on many issues
Has the Squad and Squad++ signed on to discharge petition for arming Ukraine?
Jackie
I hadn’t heard or read about NJ Rep Payne Jr having a heart attack! This doesn’t sound good… 😟
piratedan
@WaterGirl: yes, the original repeal bill was from a GOP Rep who saw that keeping the bill was political harikari, the rest of the GOP called him out for being a poser and not a true believer.
Baud
Via reddit
West of the Rockies
@Trollhattan:
Well, if it ends with fewer Russians, take the win.
TBone
I can’t wait for our team to introduce this into the Congressional Record.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/17/russia-foreign-policy-us-weaken/
Gift link
Classified addendum we didn’t know about to public document we knew about provided by European Intelligence.
Trollhattan
How can I miss you when you won’t go away? Editor’s note: California fast food minimum wage raised to $20 on April 1.
I’m utterly baffled. And now I have to find a new place not to eat, golldurn it.
lowtechcyclist
@Jackie:
I’m also getting the ‘join Fox News for access to this content’ box.
Maybe if one goes there from Raw Story?
lowtechcyclist
@Jay:
ZZ??
RaflW
@RaflW: Sweet jebus, I can feel myself becoming momentarily more stupid just reading her drivel. “…travel even further down the road towards erratic and unreliable green energy while our bounteous and inexpensive domestic oil and gas resources go to waste.”
Oil left in the ground (though we are producing as much hydrocarbons as we ever have, but facts, what are they?) has “gone to waste”? Does g-d delete it from the underground reservoirs in his 6,000 year old creation if we don’t burn it as fast as possible? That would be an interesting punishment by a mercurial and punishing sky-daddy who hates you, Liz.
I feel unclean having read such shit.
Trollhattan
@Baud: Like Ron Desantis could distinguish between the Republican Party Platform and The Communist Manifesto. [In the teacher’s guide, “woke” and “kulak” are synonyms.]
Betty Cracker
@Jackie: It was also riddled with outrageous lies about Democrats. Peek is right when she says Moscow Marge is a moron who’s damaging the party. She’s wrong about everything else. I hope they both fall into open manholes.
HumboldtBlue
Judge Merchan has been reading aloud memes and mean tweets sent by prospective jurors and it’s hilarious.
Trollhattan
@RaflW: Fun fact: God (praise be unto him) keeps the engine idling on the Heavenly Suburban and so is consuming precious hydrocarbons 24/365.25.
We have to pump harder (heh) just to keep the tank topped up.
MattF
So far, the Senate has had nine roll call votes on the Mayorkas impeachment, each time Rs defeated by 51-49 votes. Article one has been deemed unconstitutional, Article two not yet.
Jackie
TIFG is always on the take; this time from “his own party”:
So, if TIFG endorses anyone, they basically have to pay for that dubious “honor.”🙄
Trollhattan
@Jackie: What would be genius would be charging downballot candidates 10% for not using his image.
Parfigliano
@Trollhattan: 50,000 Russians dead. Not enough.
HumboldtBlue
@SpaceUnit:
Yes they do.
MattF
Schumer has moved to adjourn the impeachment trial sine die.
Jeffro
@TBone: glad it’s out there…only took a decade(!)
Baud
@MattF:
Oh Lord, Trump is going to make his attorneys file motions to dismiss sine die in all his cases now.
HumboldtBlue
@Trollhattan:
Huge loss! Of course, I’ve never and will never eat at a Cracker Barrel, so there’s that too.
RaflW
@TBone: It is still somehow astonishing to me that a noisy and reckless minority of the House GOP has utterly silenced what was a pretty clear anti-Russia and pro-projecting-America’s-power worldview in the Republican Party.
One doesn’t imagine that House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R–OK-04 … home of Fort Sill) is a shrinking violet. But he and many others have let MTG run roughshod over them. A shitshow of weak men who pretend to be strong.
gene108
@Jeffro:
1. Not surprised. Barr showed how much of a coward he was in 2020. Assface knew about the coup. Quietly quit and kept his mouth shut.
2. Why can’t these 70+ year old fucks retire and not plague us anymore? I doubt he’s hurting for money.
Greg T
@SpaceUnit: Not actually under the control of NATO itself, no. But the US has tons of equipment sitting in warehouses in Europe. They are called “pre-positioned stocks”.
Jay
@lowtechcyclist:
ruZZian soldiers and equipment identify themselves* with white painted capital Z markings to avoid friendly fire. The capital Z can be inside a square, a triangle, a circle or paired with other markings to identify the Brigade that the unit belongs to.
*both sides use similar equipment, body armor and uniforms, although for the Ukrainians, Western uniforms and body armor are becoming more common. Both sides also identify themselves with survey tape and other tapes as armbands and on helmets. Blue and Yellow for Ukraine, Red and White for ruZZians. Ukraine also identifies ruZZian POW’s with blue bags, so they don’t get shot by Ukrainians as they are escorted out of the combat zones.
lowtechcyclist
@Trollhattan:
“How much do you charge for not mentioning his name in casual conversation?”
“You couldn’t afford it.”
RaflW
@Jackie: Ahh, yes. Trump introduces multi level marketing commission scams to the GOP fundraising environment. Delicious.
Good luck, all you congressional knoobs who fell at his feet. He’ll walk all over you to make a buck.
Jackie
@Betty Cracker: Yah, I ff’d through the usual Faux BS lies and false talking points and focused on her dissing Marge. MTG’s feelers will be hurt – more so because the editorial was pro GQP – OTHER THAN burning MTG. It seemed
bitchiercrueler that way.WaterGirl
@MattF: So what does that mean? Is it essentially dead? The person just above you said there’s an article 2, also? Im not up on impeachment rules.
lowtechcyclist
@Jay:
Yes, I know Russian soldiers identify themselves thusly. Calling them ‘ruZZian’ on account of that seems like third-grade shit regardless.
Jeffro
That’s it – Mayorkas fake impeachment is now done, dead, over, one for the history books!
Way to go, GOP!
MattF
Impeachment trial is now over.
MattF
@WaterGirl: It’s over now with adjournment sine die.
Baud
Nice work, Senate Dems.
Jay
@Greg T:
Each NATO country, has it’s own set of storage facilities and warehouses. When the Soviet Union collapsed, there was a major downsizing of NATO militaries, so tons of hardware went into storage. Some stuff can be stored in the open, some stuff can’t.
Jeffro
That, but also…why can’t the actuarial tables kick in with the GOP’s viler clods like Barr? The guy is 73, incredibly overweight, and clearly has a desire to burn in hell. No wait, that’s my desire that he burn in hell, whatever. See also: Gingrich
WaterGirl
@Baud: Good job, Chuck Schumer. And the rest of the Dems.
Stupid farce of an impeachment deserves what it got in the Senate.
gene108
@Trollhattan:
Doesnt matter.
Ukraine’s population is 38 million. Russia’s population is 144 million.
That’s the advantage Russia has.
Jackie
I never root for poor losers, but I’m making an exception for Kevin😂
Leto
@RaflW: remember when the RNC was using his image/likeness near the end of 2021, and Trumpov pitched a fit and demanded tribute? Now that he has control of the entire apparatus, the grift is simply expanding. Demanding tribute, kick backs, and not giving a fuck about any of them. Can only hope this helps cripple them for the fall.
Jay
@lowtechcyclist:
there are much worse things I can call them.
sab
@gene108: Barr is not a coward. He is a determined christian nationalist and Federalist Society activist who has shamelessly done everything he can do to advance his/their agenda and pack the courts with their anti-democratic pro-right wing Catholic judges. (Yes I know not all Catholics are RWNJ. I am old enough to have admired John XXIII and Vatican II.)
SiubhanDuinne
@lowtechcyclist:
It’s apparently a sarcastic Ukrainian usage, per this Wikipedia article:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(military_symbol)
Sister Golden Bear
@WaterGirl: Republicans hold one seat lead in the AZ House, e.g. 31-29, so if only one legislator flipped, it would end up in a tie, which apparently wouldn’t be enough to repeal the abortion ban.
Cacti
@Jeffro: Alleged moderate Chris Sununu will also be supporting the candidate that he said led an insurrection against the U.S. government.
Spoiler: There’s no such thing as a moderate in a fascist party.
lowtechcyclist
@Jay:
So you’re cosplaying by using capitalization in the middle of words and pretending that you’re doing something to Russia, rather than just being annoying here.
Albatrossity
Wow. I read the article at that FoxNews link, and the number of outright lies in that thing is staggering. Hillary spied on the Trump campaign using FISA, the Bidens enriched themselves immensely because Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, etc. So yeah, they finally are telling the cultists that MTG is a moron, but it has to be spoon-fed to them with the lies as sweetener…
Jay
@lowtechcyclist:
fuck off Vatnick.
Have some pie.
rikyrah
@Jackie:
ROBBING THEM BLIND
lowtechcyclist
@SiubhanDuinne:
Ah. I see that even allowing for that, he does it wrong.
lowtechcyclist
@Jay:
Boy howdy, it sure doesn’t take much to get under your skin, does it?
Also, it’s ‘Vatnik’ (no C) and per Wikipedia, it’s ‘RuZZia’ with an initial cap, not lower case.
If you’re going to throw this horseshit around, at least do it correctly.
brantl
@Jeffro:
“Knowing all that he knows, having seen everything he has seen, and even having the examples of Cheney and Kinzinger to (pathetically, meekly, begrudgingly) follow, he’s choosing to get behind The Rump.”
Fixed it for you.
WaterGirl
@Sister Golden Bear: What wasn’t clear in the original comment I replied to was that they had already flipped one seat. So we are all correct.
The were referring to flipping 2 seats overall, which would be flipping one more seat since they had – unbeknownst to me– already flipped one.
I thought they were saying that had to flip 2 seats to get from 30-30 to a majority 31-29, which was not the case.
rikyrah
Miranda (@DoomScroling) posted at 1:20 PM on Wed, Apr 17, 2024:
Pregnancy centers are NOT medical centers. They are religiously back organizations that are NOT bound by laws like HIPAA.
These pregnancy centers are being taxpayer funded as they provide lies, threats, & coercion.
People need actual medical care, not misinformation mills.
H/T @drjenlincoln
https://t.co/MWs1wQLr5B
(https://x.com/DoomScroling/status/1780662706887971243?t=99joKXHln29CvS79sqPTNw&s=03)
Chief Oshkosh
@Old School: Fuck those 48. There is no reason for any of them to vote for impeachment, and they know it. And fuck the MSM, who I’m sure will treat this as just another he-said-she-said disagreement rather than the historic and complete abdication of their responsibilities.
Timill
@WaterGirl: Article 1 was dismissed 51-48-1 and article 2 similarly 51-49.
This means no R voted in favor of dismissal, so they can’t move to reconsider the dismissal, so it’s really dead.
rikyrah
Acyn (@Acyn) posted at 2:05 PM on Wed, Apr 17, 2024:
Biden: Thanks to my bipartisan infrastructure law, we’ve announced 51 thousand new infrastructure projects all across America so far. My predecessor promised infrastructure week after week after week for four years and never built a damn thing. Nothing https://t.co/JJwaHUcwoC
(https://x.com/Acyn/status/1780673984289501601?t=UtEKv5M-RlwGgvspAQSHVA&s=03)
WaterGirl
@Timill: Oh, yay, thank you!
I had missed that they also voted on Article 2. So happy to know, thank you.
Mike in NC
@SpaceUnit: Well, in the late 1980s the Navy sent me to Scotland for a couple of weeks. We were at a large NATO ammunition storage facility which sort of counted as a warehouse. There probably are others now that NATO has expanded so much since then.
rikyrah
Candidly Tiff (@tify330) posted at 7:41 AM on Wed, Apr 17, 2024:
Larry is running as a populist with no solutions other than to complain about Democrats and Republicans. He has no energy and doesn’t even want this job.
Have several seats no longer Governor Larry Hogan.
(https://x.com/tify330/status/1780577328549990791?t=xXW-50CCB3DWTXZAJgtBKg&s=03)
WaterGirl
@rikyrah:
Too long for a rotating tag?
jonas
@Trollhattan: It’s even less when you consider that a substantial chunk of that population isn’t ethnic Russians, but Central Asians, Caucasian, and Siberian peoples, who make up a disproportionate number of the conscripts serving in the Russian military. It *is* a little like Vietnam in the sense that the country is forcing its minority underclasses to do most of the fighting.
cain
@Trollhattan: they just left Oregon.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I don’t understand what this means:
???
WaterGirl
@Cacti: I heard back from Cole – you are free again.
zhena gogolia
@lowtechcyclist: Asked and answered.
rikyrah
Jannifer Gao 🌶 (@Jani__Gee) posted at 9:42 PM on Tue, Apr 16, 2024:
I was at this event talking for Black Maternal Health Week and this amazing law professor and author from Georgetown started talking about how raping Black women became a pillar of the American economy because it was a “free” way to expand your wealth during slavery and…
Jannifer Gao 🌶 (@Jani__Gee) posted at 9:43 PM on Tue, Apr 16, 2024:
… how a lot of documents about how it affected the descendants of the rape victims are being erased and how 8-year olds were jumping off of roofs to commit suicide rather than be the living proof of their families pain and…
Jannifer Gao 🌶 (@Jani__Gee) posted at 9:44 PM on Tue, Apr 16, 2024:
… how much strength it took to raise and love and instill pride in a baby that was the product of your rape and how much strength it took to feel pride and self love being a product of such evilness and violence and pain…
Jannifer Gao 🌶 (@Jani__Gee) posted at 9:49 PM on Tue, Apr 16, 2024:
… and I thought of the topics on this app over the last few days and got so frustrated bc we just aren’t far enough removed from the terror we have had to face to be tearing each other down and stripping each other of identity when we only recently obtained the luxury of choice
(https://x.com/Jani__Gee/status/1780428272502776164?t=BDmFUzKupxWu2-t5A6Vt6g&s=03)
rikyrah
chris evans (@notcapnamerica) posted at 2:22 PM on Wed, Apr 17, 2024:
Louisiana Republicans have passed a House bill that authorizes the police to arrest ANYONE that can’t immediately produce documentation proving they are U.S. citizens and take them in for fingerprinting
Thought you were safe because your family came here “the right way”?
OOPS! https://t.co/yicEafRSTK
(https://x.com/notcapnamerica/status/1780678318989148580?t=Nzr3jYO8guWDSXyd48EbOA&s=03)
jonas
From the “every accusation a confession” file, I forgot where I saw it, but there was some reporting back in 2020 or 21 that claimed that the Trump WH in fact requested NSA “unmaskings” of domestic surveillance targets something like 10x more than the Obama WH had. Never saw much follow-up on that, but it seemed like a *huge* story potentially that never went anywhere. Probably because not long afterwards, Trump was caught stealing hoardes of classified documents or something…
TBone
@RaflW: the worldview and plans laid bare by the new classified Russian document outlined in that WaPo article makes it more than crystal clear just how utterly, criminally insane (or just plain bought and paid for) anyone who still supports Rump is. The detail laid bare for all to see in that article is still shocking in its breadth. Even though we’ve known it generally, we now have specifics in writing. I urge everyone to read it for themselves (I think I posted it here on BJ four times today in an effort to spread the word far and wide). Pooty recruits his craziest evil genius think tank people to submit plans, and they do not disappoint him.
Old School
@Chief Oshkosh:
Just to clarify, that wasn’t 48 votes for conviction. There wasn’t a trial. The proceedings were dismissed as unconstitutional.
Harrison Wesley
@Jackie: A nonprofit that doesn’t have to disclose its donors – I never worked for one like that. I’m not sure allowing such entities is a good thing.
Jackie
@gene108: Barr voting for TIFG; I hope this means he KNOWS TIFG’s gonna lose biggly in the state he votes in, so his vote means nada. OR he lives in a Blue state and his vote, again won’t matter.
Butt, Barr’s still an asshole, regardless.
Jay
@TBone:
Yup, 4 times, and thank you for each time.
UncleEbeneezer
@RaflW: The lesson of the Obama-Trump-Biden Years: Republicans decided that they love White Supremacy more than they hate foreign adversaries. When Russia became a White Supremacist Christian Ethno-State, (who hated Hillary) it was unavoidable that the GOP would end up siding with Russia. Or an alternate phrasing: as soon as Putin decided to meddle in our elections to help Trump (and stop Hillary), Republicans were guaranteed to be all-in for Russia.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: When the Orange One walked down that escalator he put a target on every visible immigrant’s back. Even those born here to immigrant parents.
WaterGirl
@Jackie: I suspect it’s because Barr thinks votes don’t matter.
Voting is for little people. This is a public bow to Trump, from one piece of shit to another.
Barr has absolutely no credibility. Perhaps this is just a hedge by Barr in the hopes of Barr saying out of prison if Trump is elected?
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
Concur.
rikyrah
Qondi (@QondiNtini) posted at 9:42 PM on Mon, Apr 15, 2024:
Some think America can survive another four years of Trump
The planet cannot survive another four years of Trump
Environmental Protection is not on Trump’s agenda
We know this because he decimated the EPA from 2017 – 2020 https://t.co/X9xvzg7mMK
(https://x.com/QondiNtini/status/1780064101437251927?t=iDdUfIuU5l-SjMW-86qY8Q&s=03)
Jay
@UncleEbeneezer:
If the European experience is anything to go by, some of them were bought and paid for long ago.
rikyrah
David Darmofal (@david_darmofal) posted at 6:58 AM on Tue, Apr 16, 2024:
The thing is, I actually like @JoeBiden. A lot. This 2024 election isn’t about settling for someone. He’s been a great President. The best President of my lifetime. If he’s not exciting enough for you, go to an amusement park or something. That’s not what politics is about.
(https://x.com/david_darmofal/status/1780204226888556815?t=B4CThj528kQ-KWtR4YTmxA&s=03)
Sid
If European NATO countries were to send weapons to Ukraine, would the United States be able to replenish those stockpiles as a matter of the collective security agreement? In other words, would the Biden administration be able to do an end-around the House?
TBone
@Jeffro: well we’ve known about this “war” on the West in general, but the new classified document referred to was only just written in 2023. The details are bone chilling.
Old School
@WaterGirl:
I read it as:
You can take a seat, or several seats, No-Longer-Governor Larry Hogan.
japa21
Deleted
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Larry Hogan, “Sit down and STFU”.
Ohio Mom
@Dangerman: As organs go, your heart sounds rather recalcitrant. Wishing you luck going forward.
Jackie
Meghan McCain still doesn’t like Kari Lake. This in regards to Lake telling her supporters to strap on a Glock:
OOOH SNAP!🫰
Steeplejack
For those lauding Liz Peek for her “takedown” of Marjorie Taylor Greene, please note that this doesn’t represent some outbreak of sanity at Fox News. Peek is still writing from Crazytown, just a different neighborhood. Some snipppets from the article:
Mike in NC
@Trollhattan: I’d gladly skip lunch rather than eat at Cracker Barrel or Olive Garden.
Harrison Wesley
@Jackie: That strap-on glock thing….sounds like AZ Republicans are into some kinky stuff.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
True if you remove the adjectives.
True.
True.
Ruckus
@UncleEbeneezer:
Putin knew SFB and I believe he figured that if he stroked SFB’s ego, even the slightest bit, he could make a lot of headway against the US.
So he gave him attention and praise – fed his ego, and that being all that one needs to do to get SFB on one’s side – he got what he needed.
japa21
@Steeplejack: Right on one count. The administration did hold back a lot on what it was sending Kyiv and it has impacted the current situation.
Other than that, total drivel.
Jay
@Sid:
they should be able to replace some equipment, but they won’t.
NATO Countries other than the US, have sent 886 tanks to Ukraine, upgraded T-64s, upgraded T-72’s, PT-91’s, Leopard I’s, Leopard I I’s, Challengers and AMX-10RC tank destroyers.
The US sent 31 M1A1 Abrams, (not the upgraded M1A2), out of the 3700 M1A1’s and M1A2’s in storage.
Some of the European NATO Countries that sent tanks and F-16’s didn’t even have tanks and F-16’s, they worked out deals to buy them and upgrade them from other European NATO Countries.
Lyrebird
@Dangerman: Hi, were you considering a VitaMix etc? Don’t know whether you saw my reply, but if so, I apologize that the website no longer offers many recipes w/o some kind of subscription. The notion of a smoothie with cottage cheese in it doesn’t work for me, but for people who can digest milk products & need a balanced meal drink, interesting…
Best wishes with everything!
WaterGirl
@Sid: That’s an interesting idea. I don’t know the answer to that.
Trollhattan
@Steeplejack: I’d love this nitwit to go with me down to the border–TJ, Mexicali, Campo, she can name the place–then demonstrate for me and the cameras how “open” it truly is. WTF is with these people and their lizard brains?
No lizards harmed in the filming of this metaphor.
WaterGirl
@Old School: Aah! That makes sense. thank you!
Ruckus
@Dangerman:
I want to leave this world the same way I came in. Sure, I won’t be crying, screaming or crapping all over the place but buried in the nude sounds just crude enough – and as a bonus NO TIE!
BTW I’ve heard that is not a bad likeness of you…….
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: Ha! That might have been clearer! :-)
lowtechcyclist
@Jackie:
But the example’s still important. Barr’s saying that Dump trying to overthrow the government and turn us into an autocracy matters less than the other guy being a…[shudder]…Democrat.
Wavering GOP voters in tossup states will hear that message.
Trollhattan
@Jay: IIUC the big shortages are artillery shells, SAM missiles, antitank weapons. Maybe even rifle ammo.
Tanks get blowed up too, but not at the rate of Russia’s.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Thank you for that!
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: Is it too late to email for the Einstein Zoom?
Steeplejack
@HumboldtBlue:
Nitter link so people can read the whole thread. Contains comedy gold.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I hope Mayorkas has a nice glass of wine and sleeps well tonight.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
We should invite dismissed jurors to Balloon Juice.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: Nope, not too late!
Subsole
@lowtechcyclist:
The Russians paint the letter Z on their vehicles as a visual identified to prevent friendly fire.
This is pretty important, because both sides are using variations of the same equipment (e.g. T-72 tanks).
Ruckus
@Trollhattan:
When I worked in pro sports full time I traveled 8-9 months a year almost every week for events and stayed in hotels and ate in restaurants far, far more than I did at home. I avoided Cracker Barrel as much as possible but there were places that it was about the best restaurant in town. (And yes, that does not say a lot about those towns!) I haven’t
eatenbeen in one since I left that job, almost 20 yrs ago. And I’m a better person for it.sab
@Trollhattan: Whole power station supporting a major city blowed up because Russians had 5 more missiles to attack than Ukraine had to defend.
I am deeply ashamed to be American, since we cannot keep our word anymore.
Patriotism used to stop at the border. Now that is where partisanship becomes incandescent.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Especially the ones who tweeted about Trump!
Baud
@sab:
Dems supported Bush in the polling immediately after 9/11, and the Republicans thought to themselves, “suckers.”
Prometheus Shrugged
@Trollhattan: Wasn’t there a Michelin starred restaurant in that same strip mall with the The Cracker Barrel, or at least close by (can’t remember the name now–I grew up there but haven’t been back since ~2019–I want to say “The Kitchen”)? I thought that was genius juxtaposition–fine dining, sandwiched between Cracker Barrel and Denny’s. It was guaranteed to earn a Michelin star by sheer comparison.
wjca
Which may contribute to Republican opposition. Why give Biden a “win” by (further) improving the economy?
Jay
@Trollhattan:
Tanks are dominantly used in Ukraine by the Ukrainian’s as indirect fire, artillery. Ukraine is also running out of artillery barrels, and those take a long time to make
All the rest of NATO had less than 1/3rd the number of modern tanks in active service, and modern and older models in storage, than the US has of M1A1’s and M1A2’s in storage, and the US only decided to send those few tanks after everybody else had already sent tanks.
The US has 480 Patriot systems in service, 826 in storage, and sent 1, Germany had 11, and they sent 2, with one more on the way.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Jeffro:
What that shows is that Barr has a problem with doing the right thing, instead preferring to do the wrong thing because of party loyalty. That is absolute proof of how unfit he is for any public office. Someone who is easily influenced by ‘feelings’ should never be put into a position of power.
If you can’t do the right thing no matter the issue then you are unfit for any purpose.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I thought the crack about Larry Hogan taking several seats was a way of saying he has a big butt. And Hogan is a wide guy.
I can’t say I approve of this type of message, but it’s still kind of funny.
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: I have read it in context of folks who were not as generously proportioned as the former Governor
Jay
@wjca:
a large number of those arms factories are n Red States Red Districts with Red* Senators and Reps.
Red* Senators and Reps are not shy about taking credit for stuff they voted against.
*Red as in ruZZian.
Quadrillipede
I took a five-minute break to do some research, and if Wikipedia is to be believed, in 1970 the population of the US was around 203,212,000 and Vietnam’s was 44,928,000. Which gave the US a larger population delta than Russia currently enjoys. Which may not mean anything, but seems pertinent to the discussion…
hueyplong
Kind of surprising that anyone might contemplate the possibility of Bill Barr acting in good faith about anything, such that it would be possible to be “disappointed” by some statement he makes.
“Shitbird Declares for Trump” is hardly a news story.
Lyrebird
@WaterGirl: @Geminid: In my muddled head “take several seats” or “take ALL the seats” are all intensifiers for yes the polite version of sit down and STFU.
As
@Old School:
and
@schrodingers_cat:
already said… but I won’t delete this, just to wave HI to BJ world.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, a way of emphasizing the point, and not neccesarily an appeal to the low humor of people like me.
WaterGirl
@Lyrebird: Better to have 3 answers than none at all. :-)
WaterGirl
.
wjca
Might be more teling to compare men of military age. (Subtracting out the tens of thousands of them who exited Russia to escape the draft.)
sab
@Baud: Yes indeed.
Trollhattan
@Prometheus Shrugged:
Good memory. The Kitchen lives! Moved to new quarters on Broadway south of downtown, across from the scenic Historic Sacramento Cemetery.
Dine with a Crocker.
Jay
@wjca:
That one would be a hard one to do.
Ukraine takes volunteers of almost any age based on fitness levels, and conscripts on age, (27-35). Ukraine wants their young to have families. Ukraine has no draft for reservists/conscripts who have aged out, (over 35)
ruZZia takes any volunteer willing to sign a contract, empresses foreign workers, runs bait and switch ops on foreign workers, and conscription is 18- 57. If you were once in the Soviet/ruZZan military and are 57 or younger, you can be drafted, despite having already served your conscription service.
It’s apples to oranges.
Uncle Cosmo
Defend?? DEFEND???? Pan Bóg, the Polish Army is all but sending balloons on the prevailing eastward winds to drop buckets of leaflets in Red Square reading
(pleeeez cross our border) – they crave another crack at the Rooskies & are supremely confident (in classic cocksure Polish fashion) their armor would be rolling down Tverskaya Ulitsa in four days’ time (taking an extra day to string up Lukashenko from a convenient lamppost on their way through Minsk)…
Uncle Cosmo
@Jeffro: “Tip the veal and try your waitress…” ;^p
Uncle Cosmo
@Omnes Omnibus: So instead of One Weird Trick it comes down to One Bazillion Dumb Trickles. Got it.
Uncle Cosmo
@TBone: I did a guy-in-the-street interview once with IIRC the local Faux Noise outlet asking if I supported foreign aid. Of course, I snapped – don’t you realize all those dollars are spent right here in the USA?
Uncle Cosmo
Or a socialist in National Socialism. Cf. Strasser, Gregor, who left the NSDAP in March 1933 and was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives 15 months later.
Jackie
@Uncle Cosmo: Did your interview get on air?
Local Fox is a different species than cable faux news, as I know you’re fully aware.
Miss Bianca
Well, whoever wrote that “Moscow Marge is a idiot” OP-ed for Fox is too big a lying sack of shit and a idiot in her own right for me to take any pleasure in it, even counting any obligatory Schadenfreude over Repub on Repub violence into the mix.
TBone
@Jay: 💙
TBone
@wjca: of course, they shoot us ALL in the foot at every opportunity just to be complete assholes at all times. Jerome Powell up next…
TBone
@Uncle Cosmo: 💜
karen marie
I am screaming with laughter that Fox News is going after Empty Green. If you scroll down in the story, they have posted one of the worst photos of her I have ever seen. You can see the texture on her neck, her face looks bloated, and, boy, does she look unhappy!
Is Liz Peek – the author of this opinion – is apparently unaware that there was a bipartisan immigration bill back in February 2024 but “Republicans in both the House and Senate yielded to objections from their all-but-certain presidential nominee, former president Trump.”
February – for Fox viewers – is so long ago that it may as well not have existed.
brantl
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): I think you’ve undersold just how stupid she is. Non-cogito, ergo dumb.
Ruckus
@Jay:
Might there be some concern that if we supply massive amounts of military equipment that we might be considered effectively fighting Russia?
1. And did you expect shitforbrains to want to support a country fighting Russia?
2. I’m not saying we shouldn’t, I’m saying that there is more to think about in a worldly sense, all things considered, than a quick decision to go all in might affect.
Bokonon
The pro-Russian stuff came from many directions, but the chief source of mainstreaming it was Fox News.
Tucker Carlson spent some of his broadcasts openly parroting the Kremlin’s messaging. With an eager audience of millions, who then carried it to millions more.
Bokonon
You have to go through a whole lot of effort and establish your conservative credentials and hatred of the Democrats in an undeniable way … before you can level any criticism on the GOP or its members. First principles, after all.
brantl
@lowtechcyclist: I can see all the psychological damage you eere done, from here. NOT.
whatsleft
@Baud: An excellent opportunity to teach my 2nd grade students how the things the leaders say is so different than what they do, and they should pay attention to what leaders do instead of what they say 😉