Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Consistently wrong since 2002

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

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

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

This really is a full service blog.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

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

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

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

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

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

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

You are here: Home / Politics / No Time For a Holding Pattern (Open Thread)

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201Comments

  1. 1.

    scav

    Well, at the very local level, there’s negotiating a border treaty between my mother and the neighbors who can (once again!) be counted on to be “visiting” within 5 minutes of a work crew showing up at mom’s and dragging them away to look at work that needs to be done next-door.  Equally impossible to do anything about, I might add.

  2. 2.

    schrodingers_cat

    There is a huge election going on India. Only the final phase of polling is left. People are worried whether Modi will respect the popular mandate if his party doesn’t win a majority. Or will he attempt a Jan 6th.

  4. 4.

    Jackie

    Apparently South Africa is having “the most significant election since apartheid ended.”

    And Jenna Ellis lost her Colorado law license for three years 🎻

  5. 5.

    Nelle

    I may, or may not, team up with a college student to make some tiktok videos.  “Grandma talks to the young about voting.”  One  problem is my hair in front stubbornly refuses to turn white.  But I have enough wrinkles to likely pull it off.  The young woman thinks her peers are more likely to listen to kindly grandparents than parents.  It probably won’t happen, but we’re having fun talking politics.

  6. 6.

    narya

    In extremely “local” news I got my genetic ancestry today (I’m a healthy volunteer for a massive study–they’re looking to enroll a million people, I think), and there was actually a little surprise for me! I expected the 54% Northern/Central Europe, as my dad’s family was German, and I wasn’t terribly surprised by the SW Europe (34%) or S Europe/Mediterranean (5%), but apparently there’s a little bit (7%) of Middle East/N Africa, specifically Western Asia and the Caucasus thrown in for good measure. So, somewhere along the line, there was an adventurer in there

    ETA: and I can taste bitter (I can), I’m likely to like cilantro (I do), and I’m not likely to be lactose-intolerant (I’m not).

  7. 7.

    Belafon

    Justin Holland lost his runoff here in Texas, so it looks like I’m going to be represented by Katrina Pierson in the state House. So we went from Sagittarius A levels of suck to center-of-the-galaxy-black-hole levels of suck.

  10. 10.

    RedDirtGirl

    This may have already been posted, but there is a website that allows people to file a complaint about Justice Alito with the Supreme Court. It has the paperwork all prepared and you just have to download it and fill out your information, and then mail it in. And they recommend sending a copy of the complaint to Sen. Durbin, as well. As a bonus, you can also file a complaint with the 11th Circuit about Judge Cannon. DumpAlito

  12. 12.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Josie: The final phase is this weekend. Results are expected by June 4th. IDK what Modi will do and don’t want to add to the speculation. It all depends on how many seats BJP gets, if they are close to the majority there will lots of horse trading and intimidation to bring over people from the smaller parties.

    Its too soon to tell. FWIW I think Modi will win his own Loksabha seat of Varanasi. If he doesn’t that would signify a total BJP wipeout.

  13. 13.

    Geminid

    @narya: Maybe you have a Circassian ancestor. The Russians forced a lot of them out of the Caucasus region in the first half of tbe 19th century

    Ed. Most of the Circassians enxed up in the Ottoman Empire, and there are 2 million of them in .odern day Turkiye. But I think some of them endd up just about everywhere.

  14. 14.

    Belafon

    Off topic, but the Google Doodle is funny, then again, I don’t live in Illinois.

  15. 15.

    Nelle

    Alito tells Congress that he won’t recuse from Jan. 6 cases.  Nah, nah, nah, you can’t touch me.

  17. 17.

    Jackie

    @Belafon:

    I’m going to be represented by Katrina Pierson in the state House.

    That SUCKS! Does she still sport her bullet choker necklace?

  18. 18.

    Soprano2

    I wanted to highlight this story about the diverging diamond interchange because my city had the first one in the nation. Talk about freaking people out! LOL Now we’re used to them, we have at least 3 of them here. They make traffic move a lot faster, but they’re freaky because you feel like you’re on the wrong side of the road.

  20. 20.

    narya

    @Geminid: I have to admit that I’m really curious. No possible way am I going to go on one of the ancestry sites, and I’m not famous, so Skip Gates isn’t going to find MY roots, but it’s still kinda fascinating. Having read Dorothy Dunnett, I have a sense that there was a lot of movement around Europe and the Middle East and Western Asia, despite a lot of people staying in the same place their whole lives.

  21. 21.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: How secure and tamper-proof are elections in India? Last year’s Turkish Presidential election was similar to India’s in that Erdogan is an autocrat and was assisted by powerful media allies, but Turks were still very confident in the integrity of the election process itself.

  22. 22.

    Another Scott

    @Soprano2:

    … where it could often take as long as 20 minutes to make a left turn.

    Zooks!

    Clever.

    It reminds me of one of my first driving trips in DC (pre Google Maps) and needing to make a left turn. :-/

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I would think India would be less complacent than America in a successful J6 situation.  Although thankfully we don’t know how Americans would react if push came to shove.

  26. 26.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Bostondreams:

    Same one. And lookee here at this, from Wikipedia:

    In 1997, at 20, Pierson was arrested for shoplifting, to which she pleaded no contest, received deferred adjudication, and, ultimately, a dismissal with the case sealed.

    If that had happened during a Trump administration, she would have been shot and he would have been gleeful.

    (ETA: I probably should have said “during a second Trump administration,” which gods forbid.)

  29. 29.

    Eyeroller

    @Belafon: Sagittarius A (I guess A* to be specific) is the location of the galactic-center black hole.  You mean you went from Milky Way black hole suckitude (estimated 4.3 million solar masses) to Andromeda (estimated mass of central black hole varies a lot depending on method but call it about 50 million solar masses) levels of suckitude.

    Oh, and black holes don’t actually suck anything in, just for clarification.

  31. 31.

    catclub

    @Soprano2: That NPR article is bad because it does not show how the lanes get back to right side driving.

     

    There have to be TWO diverging diamond intersections to get back to normalcy. Correct?

  32. 32.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Geminid: They are pretty tamper proof and have been above board. The only caveat is that the  current leadership is could be like DeJoy. They are untested. They have been afraid of applying the uniform code of conduct to his Fakeness, Mr. Modi.

  34. 34.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: India had an emergency in 1975. There was a nationwide agitation against it.

    My money is on horsetrading and intimidation by the BJP if there isn’t a clear majority for either side.

  35. 35.

    Ohio Mom

    @Nelle: Margaret Mead observed that  grandparents and grandchildren were natural allies because they shared the same antagonists, the parents.

    i don’t know if I totally but there is some truth there.

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    The Atlanta Journal Constitution seems to want a cookie for discovering that a Democratic Candidate for Congress has done nothing but make political contributions to REPUBLICANS.

    My thing is….you knew this shyt before the primary…why wasn’t it brough up then?

  38. 38.

    Belafon

    @Eyeroller: I’m still tired from yesterday. I actually meant Betelgeuse, the star.

    As for black holes sucking or not, what happens around them is close enough to sucking for this analogy.

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    I have enjoyed that Black Twitter isn’t remotely going to humor people about this new Reagan movie. Tweet after tweet about why Reagan was hideous and take your admiration for him somewhere else.

  41. 41.

    john b

    @WaterGirl: the ones they’ve installed near me have done wonders, and I’ve rarely seen accidents there. The one I’m thinking of, the traffic is going slowly enough there, that you’re not going to get high-speed collisions if someone does get confused.

  48. 48.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Yes they did. But JanSangh (that’s what BJP called itself then) sabotaged that government and IG returned to power in 1980

    Sanghis were not ready to renounce their RSS membership and that issue brought down the government. The RSS loyalties made socialists in the coalition uncomfortable

    BJP is weaker and less popular than 2019. That’s for sure. To use a cricket term, Modi has been on the backfoot playing defense this entire campaign season, reacting to the attacks from the INDIA alliance

    People are openly making fun of the cult of Modi.

  50. 50.

    narya

    @sab: He’s so much more fun than Francis! Sure, more of a dick, too, but I would much rather hang with Nicholas.

  51. 51.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I seem to recall him starring with Ginger Rogers in a flick about the Klan.

    And then there was “Where’s the rest of me?”

    Not to mention That Hagen Girl, in which he was either Shirley Temple’s father or her boyfriend.

    And who can forget Bonzo?

  52. 52.

    Dangerman

    There’s a Reagan movie?

    Dude ranks maybe a bit over Trump at IQ level but was a skilled reader of the Teleprompter.

  54. 54.

    brendancalling

    The new Progress Pondcast is live. We discuss the trial, whether the closing arguments matter, crappy jazz critics, the pee-oh-are-en industry,and Rudy 911’s new coffee gig. IT’S CHOCKALY!

  55. 55.

    catclub

    @rikyrah: My thing is….you knew this shyt before the primary…why wasn’t it brought up then?

     

    Where was the opposition research team of her opponent in the primary?

  56. 56.

    sdhays

    @rikyrah: The only positive thing I can say about Reagan – other than that he’s dead, of course – is that he actually took “yes” for answer with Gorbachev and the Soviet Union and pursued peace. Pretty much everything else is nothing special to actively terrible.

  57. 57.

    rikyrah

    Anyone a Bridgerton fan?

    I have not liked this season so far because I don’t think Colin remotely earned Penelope.

    I wanted to see a full-fledged courtship of Penelope by Lord Debling. She deserved to be wooed.

    Colin hasn’t groveled.

    I love Francesca. Just adore her.

    And, I think Cressida is misunderstood…

  59. 59.

    Ohio Mom

    @Soprano2: We have three fairly  new roundabouts in my neighborhood, and yes, I white-knuckled my way through them at first. Just about all the neighbors I talk to said the same.

    Two of the circles I can avoid by taking alternative, if longer routes, but there is no way to avoid the one on the way to the supermarket. I adjusted.

    I did see a couple of fender benders in the first months but there were many more accidents when there were stoplights. I think it is easier for pedestrians now too because they only have to watch for traffic in one direction at a time.

  62. 62.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    There is a huge election going on India. Only the final phase of polling is left.

    When will voting be completed and when will results be announced?

  65. 65.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: Westerners generally dislike Erdogan, so there was a lot of speculation that he would steal last year’s election. One Turk was offended and wrote out an explainer on that country’s election process that convinced me it would be hard to tamper with.

    What I’ll remember most about that election was the lamb that followed its young owner to her precinct and into the voting booth. Then it followed her home. The lamb was famous by then, so she posted a picture of it wearing the orange flag of Erdogan’s AK Party.

  66. 66.

    John S.

    @rikyrah:

    Sure, why not. Dennis Quaid is all in on supporting Trump, so why not give Reagan a tongue bath for good measure.

  67. 67.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Baud: I dunno. Reagan certainly fooled enough voters into thinking he was presidential. Deserved an Oscar.

  70. 70.

    trollhattan

    South Africa votes today and it may herald the first time since independence that ANC is not in power. A majority winner is said to be unlikely and so a coalition must be formed by whomever wins the popular vote. There’s a vast collection of candidates.

  71. 71.

    rikyrah

    Trump Is Making Some Seriously Big Demands of His Top Donors: Report
    DIVA

    Matt Young
    Night Editor
    Updated May 29, 2024 5:01AM EDT /
    Published May 29, 2024 12:31AM EDT

    Forget lunch for a $1 million donation to his campaign. Donald Trump is now telling his top donors that it will cost $25 million or more to get a chance for a private moment with the former president, according to The Washington Post. Donors who attended a lavish meeting with the former president at a hotel in New York earlier this month told the newspaper about a story Trump allegedly told them of a businessman who offered the $1 million lunch deal. “I’m not having lunch,” Trump is said to have responded. “You’ve got to make it $25 million.” Another businessman was told the former president would not be “very happy” if the man donated his traditional $2 million to $3 million, and that Trump expected a $25 million or $50 million contribution. The donors said Trump backed up his comments by blaming Biden for ending tax cuts for the rich by 2025 if he is to resume office. “So whatever you guys can do, I appreciate it,” Trump said.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-is-making-some-seriously-big-demands-of-his-top-donors-report?via=twitter_page&utm_campaign=owned_social&utm_source=twitter_owned_tdb&utm_medium=socialflow

  72. 72.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Ohio Mom: Yep. For instance, when visiting my grandkids, there’s a “no climbing on Grandpa” rule which I respect, but find it slightly annoying as I enjoy being climbed on, and there was never a “no climbing on Dad” rule when my daughter was a kid.

  73. 73.

    Jeffro

    @narya: that’s interesting!  Being able to taste bitter and liking cilantro are genetic predispositions??  Who’d have thought?

  75. 75.

    trollhattan

    @Dangerman: He was avuncular. Trump can’t spell avuncular. His suits fit, as well.

    He let a team of vicious, criminal assholes run the country while he napped and shook hands; they certainly have that in common.

    He did not, however, let Ron Jr., Michael and Maureen ransack the nation. We’re not sure what exactly Nancy did, but there was her astrologer.

  77. 77.

    rikyrah

    LanaQuest aka RosaSparks (@LqLana) posted at 8:33 AM on Wed, May 29, 2024:
    Biden’s campaign has stayed clear of Trump’s trial for weeks.

    Tuesday they showed up to hold their own presser.

    This morning, Mika from Morning Joe questioned why it was done and said that they were politicizing the courthouse.

    There lies the problem.

    When Dems go on the offensive we get questioned, and chastised.

    If the media won’t go to any of Biden’s events. Won’t report on the great things that he is doing like having his 200th judge confirmed, then we have to create our own buzz.

    Now is not the time to wait and settle. #DemsUnited
    (https://x.com/LqLana/status/1795810683621118047?t=Y9eVfU5J6nA9tcIo13R-AA&s=03)

  78. 78.

    scav

    @Soprano2: They really are clever in cutting down the number of different cycles the traffic lights have to go through as well.   Just the two simple interchanges.  I was briefly around when the one in Brighton went in, and there certainly was fluttering.  Initially disconcerting (especially seeing headlights as you wait for the lights to change) but golly the logic is clever.  Easy left and right turns.  There are some interesting variations on multi-lane roundabouts being developed too.

  79. 79.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2: There are two of those down the road a bit from us, in (relatively) rural VA.  It feels pretty odd going through them.

  80. 80.

    Brachiator

    @Nelle:

    I may, or may not, team up with a college student to make some tiktok videos. “Grandma talks to the young about voting.”

    This sounds like fun. I hope you give it a shot.

    ETA. Yeh, grandparents and grandkids are natural allies.

  81. 81.

    Bex

    @narya: Skip Gates had an episode this season where three “normal people” had their ancestry done.  All three had “mysteries” in their family trees and wanted them solved.  You could check with the Finding Your Roots website to see if he’s going to do more of them and apply for a spot.

  82. 82.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Fuck Reagan.

    Diverging Diamond Interchanges:

    https://americastransportationawards.org/past-projects/2010-2/mo-diverging-diamond-springfield-interchange-project/

    Our office worked closely with MoDOT on that one as it was the first in the nation.  I remember driving it for the first time and yeah, it’s mentally whacked…and very successful in terms of the design outcomes and goals.

    Their post-construction study:

    https://spexternal.modot.mo.gov/sites/cm/CORDT/or10021.pdf

    Totebagger Radio would have it’s audience think this is a new thing when it’s been around for 15 years.

    Oh yeah, Fuck NPR.

  83. 83.

    JPL

    @rikyrah:  I mentioned to a friend, that Jill can mention trumps affairs and rapes, but not Biden.   It would be difficult for them to call out her.  IMO

  84. 84.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Nelle: Yes, and news just broke that he lied, L-I-E-D, about the events that led up to the little missus hoisting the inverted Stars and Stripes. Christ what an asshole.

    So I’m sure Dick Durbin is going to send another Dick Durbin letter to John Roberts.

  85. 85.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @catclub: The article has several embedded videos, but none of them show the part of the system where drivers are making left turns that used to be very difficult but are now easy.

  86. 86.

    Barbara

    @narya: I found a site that allows you to guess what a percentage means in terms of how far back in your family tree you would expect to encounter a person with that particular type of DNA.  Link.

    7% puts you in the great-great-grandparents generation, assuming it was one person in the entire tree, and not for instance, two or more but further back.  My grandfather was born in Serbia in 1889.  I can totally see that one of his grandparents might have fled or migrated from an Ottoman Empire nation.  And if any of the people in this tree lived in what was called the Austria — for sure, there was substantial migration among metropolitan areas at least.  Soldiers, for instance, were often deployed outside of their country of origin.

  89. 89.

    SuzieC

    Still writing Vote Forward letters to overseas US voters.  There are millions of them and they are rarely contacted to ask for their votes.

  90. 90.

    Soprano2

    @john b: Same here. It freaked people out at first, but the way it made traffic move made people happy. Traffic circles, however, cause a lot of angst.

  92. 92.

    rikyrah

    Stoller has been a butt hurt clown since the Obama years.

    Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) posted at 8:50 AM on Wed, May 29, 2024:
    Obama was a failed President. Like George W. Bush, he won reelection against a weak opponent, and wiped out his party in the process. There’s a warm glow of nostalgia for the man, little for his policy legacy.

    Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) posted at 9:43 AM on Wed, May 29, 2024:
    This is just a weird take. Obama was an overwhelmingly successful president. Turned around an economy in freefall, with one hand tied behind his back due to austerity hawks. Passed such a deep and fundamental health care reform that voters today can’t even fathom life without it.
    (https://x.com/fawfulfan/status/1795828328752095529?s=03)

  94. 94.

    mali muso

    @rikyrah: I read the books a decade ago and have been enjoying the series.  I do want to see some more groveling from Colin, but I’m guessing that maybe we’ll get that in the second half of the season?  I did like the secondary romance with Francesca quite a bit.  The two of them sitting in silence and having that be the big romantic moment was adorable.

    Did you like/hate the side plot of the former boxer and his family being launched into the ton?

  95. 95.

    Cacti

    @Jackie: And Jenna Ellis lost her Colorado law license for three years

    If they’d have made it 5, she would have to take the Bar Exam again and submit a new character and fitness application to be readmitted. Darn.

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    truth

     

    Dante Atkins (@DanteAtkins) posted at 11:14 AM on Wed, May 29, 2024:
    The thing is, you don’t get to say “we don’t want a Trump presidency, but we’re not voting for Biden, so you have to change nominees.” If you really don’t want a Trump presidency, then vote for Biden. Otherwise, you’re saying you’d rather have a Trump presidency than do that.
    (https://x.com/DanteAtkins/status/1795851116221014329?s=03)

  98. 98.

    frosty

    @Soprano2: PennDOT just rebuilt our closest interstate connection with one of these. You’re right, it’s freaky but it gets rid of the long lines for left turns onto the onramp.

    I don’t know about accidents. Ms F had one when a guy ran through the red light at the part of the interchange where it switches sides . She was going through on the green and she T-boned him. He jumped out, said “You ran the red light!” She replied “No I didn’t, you did, and I have the dashcam to prove it.” No further argument.

    We all have dashcams now. Buy one, they’re not that expensive and they’ll back you up when something happens (unless you’re the one who ran the red LOL).

  99. 99.

    rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun)

    Hopefully Bobby Gold Bars gets convicted. I also hope Andy Kim is our next Senator. Jersey is a great state and yeah, we have corruption, but Menendez is a bridge too far. Even the Jersey City council member who lives in public housing and did a hit and run is less corrupt.

  100. 100.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @rikyrah:

    The comments in that thread are fun to read.

    They’re both clowns.  I’ve become less and less a fan of much of Obama’s presidency as time has gone on but what Stoller’s saying is beyond nonsense.  I can pull more accurate takes outta my arse.

    Chapman’s just another self-described “progressive” (aka fauxgressive) when he’s simply another neoliberal, Reaganomic clown…which is probably why, in part, he’s defending Obama’s overall record.

  102. 102.

    narya

    @Bex: OOOOOH! thank you!

    @Barbara: That is so interesting. The rest of mine is so expected, that I bet it’s just the one great-great grandparent.

    @Jeffro: Most people can taste the bitter (as in broccoli, cabbage, etc.), apparently; for cilantro, the predisposition to think it tastes like soap or to like it is genetically linked, too, though I think it’s closer to 50/50? Given the rest of my profile, the lactose-tolerant (actually, lactose-loving) piece isn’t surprising.

  103. 103.

    rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun)

    @TBone: I keep getting Jenna Ellis mixed up with Jenna Bush (one of W’s daughters.)

  104. 104.

    lee

    @Belafon:

    Woah. You & I are neighbors. I’m over in Frisco.

    I find it disappointing that there are still races where there is not a Democrat on the ballot.

  105. 105.

    RaflW

    FWIW I just composed and sent constituent emails to both Senator Klobuchar and Smith in regards to Sam Alito and his insurrectionist flag-flying habits. In particular, I riffed on a Pwnallthethings skeet today, saying:  “The Senate is not powerless here, despite the separation of powers. Hold a hearing whose purpose is to propose and pass legislation defining “during good behavior” within the meaning of Article III, to clarify mean following SCOTUS’ ethics rules. It is past time to outright assert Alito’s failure to do so as disqualifying of a SCOTUS judge.

    eta: Wrote to Hickenlooper and Bennet as well, since I have a valid CO address I can use. Why not push this as much as possible!

  106. 106.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @Belafon: I am inside the house, which is solidly-built and has well-fitted windows, and I can still hear them grinding out their song: “Love me…love me…love me…love me…”

    If only the neighbors’ lawn guys would show up to mow and drown them out for half an hour or so…

  109. 109.

    brendancalling

    @rikyrah: there’s a bunch of ‘em like that. Matt Stoller. Max Blumenthal. Duncan Black.

    I want to ask them to show me on the doll where Obama did the bad touch.

  110. 110.

    narya

    UPDATE! The jury had questions. To quote Josh Kovensky (TPM): “All four pieces of testimony that the jury requested go to instances in which Trump himself was allegedly involved in critical moments, either around the hush money scheme or the reimbursement.” The four pieces were (again from TPM):

    1. David Pecker’s testimony regarding the phone conversation with Donald Trump while Pecker was in the investor meeting.
    2. David Pecker’s testimony regarding the decision not to sell Karen McDougal’s life rights.
    3. David Pecker’s testimony regarding the Trump Tower meeting.
    4. Michael Cohen’s testimony regarding the Trump Tower meeting.

    Looks like the jury is heading right for the heart of the matter . . .

  111. 111.

    Tony Jay

    In UK News, now that drippy cringe in humanoid form Rishi ‘California Dreaming’ Sunak has issued the Tory Party’s suicide note by calling a July Election, the vile creatures running the machinery of Sir Kier Starmer’s newnewlabourincpartei have started their completely surprising and not at all long predicted purge of actual, real-life Labour MPs.

    While the National Media pretend to be oh so disappointed at the Starmerpartei’s hounding and bullying of trailblazing black, female and socialist MP Diane Abbott, behind the scenes (well, out in the open, but the same media that ran months of front page fainting fits at any hint or suggestion that Corbyn had so much as raised a bemused eyebrow in the direction of the feral rightwingers stabbing him in the back are uninterested in covering it) they’re quietly using the same tactic that they’ve been employing for years to remove thousands of troublesomely left-wing councillors and Party members – wait until just before an election or selection, have someone make an anonymous complaint about past behaviour or comments, suspend them, say they can’t possibly remain a candidate and now it’s too late for members to vote on a replacement, impose some obedient suit and threaten anyone who complains with expulsion.

    It’s four days until all the Party’s candidates are officially endorsed. I confidently expect that between now and then the grey-souled hatchetcreeps who haunt Labour’s corpse will unleash a Night of the Long-Held Grudges on anyone with an ounce of social Justice in their marrow. Including my own MP, who survived a deeply corrupt deselection exercise only last year by getting out hundreds of actual Labour members to outvote the hundreds of fictional characters, misinformed pensioners and local gang members dredged up to sign postal votes for the Leadership’s silhouette of a rival candidate.

    The scissors are all ready to slice my Party membership card into red, white and blue confetti. Which will drift away into the vast, empty void signified by the level of coverage our brave, truth-telling media will give this bayoneting of basic democratic principles in the Party that be will be most likely forming the next Government.

    Fuck the Light Blue Meanies, and fuck the Dark Blue Tories for being so appalling that people will vote for the barbed-wire and tyre-rims just to get them out. This country is utterly fucked.

  112. 112.

    rikyrah

    @mali muso:

    Did you like/hate the side plot of the former boxer and his family being launched into the ton?

     

    I like it. He was never a climber, and now, they’ve been thrown into that world. He’s got to find his way, in order to guide his son. And keep his own moral compass.

  114. 114.

    narya

    @rikyrah: Okay, I haven’t started Bridgerton yet, but if you like it, I’m gonna take that as a recommendation and get on it.

  116. 116.

    Baud

    @Tony Jay:

    On Reddit,  young UK people were mocking/freaking out about Sunak’s national service plan. How’s it playing over there?

  118. 118.

    dc

    @narya: If you have South West Europe and Southern and Mediterranean Europe, it seems normal that you would have anywhere along the Mediterranean, including Northern Africa and the Middle East. There was so much movement and interchange in the region for centuries, BC and AD.

  119. 119.

    Belafon

    @lee: I’m in Rockwall. And every Republican here will vote for her. I’m disappointed in there not being a Democrat, but at the same time, I wouldn’t want anyone to donate money to the candidate, because they aren’t going to win. The district was trending blue so Republicans redrew it to make it redder.

  121. 121.

    Another Scott

    @Tony Jay: I saw a Reuters story about that and posted a link and some comments downstairs. I was hoping you would comment as well, and I’m glad to see your thoughts.

    It looks really, really bad.

    She’s been there for decades and her people obviously like her representing them. That doesn’t make her a good person – look at gerrymandered places in the USA – but it shouldn’t be dismissed lightly either.

    As I said downstairs, the Labour leadership doesn’t seem to understand that a normal party tries to increase its membership and numbers in a legislature to increase the chances of getting its policies enacted. Labour’s leadership seems to have other ideas in mind…

    Sorry for the heartburn.

    Is there any chance she (like Corbyn) can run as an independent and win?

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  122. 122.

    laura

    @rikyrah: 100% agree. At the dimming of the day, no matter where you are, if you look west and squint you may see the absolute white hot rage that burns inside me that is the inextinguishable tire fire of vitriol I burn for that Man- from destroying my state’s public education system and then exporting it, to closing state hospitals, never replacing it with anything resembling a safe and dignified place to shelter and receive care in and criminalizing the public manifestation of mental illness and filling our prisons with the sick and the vulnerable, to closing state workplaces and forcing families to up sticks and flow towards Sacramento, to running a racist presidential campaign, looking away while Black neighborhoods were Flooded with cocaine, and redeveloped out of existence, and tougher, ever tougher on crime or conduct that could be criminalized. He allowed a plague to wipe out so many lives, I lost so very many friends, but gained a Fauci. He traded arms to terrorists. He exported the most vicious economic policies that immiserated foreign nations and backed it up with so many guns. I could go on, but I’d like to briefly pause and rinse the bike from my mouth.

  123. 123.

    Eric S.

    @john b: The one I know of is in Naperville, IL, where Hwy 59 crosses I88. It’s a little bit odd going through it the first few times but, like many things, becomes second nature. They really do improve traffic flow and apparently safety too.

  124. 124.

    Dan B

    @rikyrah: Harassers at Robert de Niro’s press conference with Capitol Hill Police Officers yelled “pedophile” at them.  The story being repeated in right wing a Christian Nationalist circles is that gay people can’t reproduce so they must “recruit”.  It’s the kinder version of Trans women being secual predators.  Unfortunately it resonates with people who don’t know any LGBTQ people.  Calvinism is still lurking.

  125. 125.

    Baud

    @Dan B:

    The story being repeated in right wing a Christian Nationalist circles is that gay people can’t reproduce so they must “recruit”

     
    Pretty sure that’s an old calumny.

  126. 126.

    laura

    @laura: bile, not bike.

    Also, I voluntary moved to Sacramento as an adult and think it is one hell of a swell town chock full of neighborhoods.

  127. 127.

    Brachiator

    @Dan B:

    The story being repeated in right wing a Christian Nationalist circles is that gay people can’t reproduce so they must “recruit”.

    Like vampires?

    This shit is so stupid. But it’s typical that these idiots recycle old lies and slurs.

  128. 128.

    Dan B

    @Nelle:  Yesterday was senior citizen day at the local Japanese market.  The checker asked if I was a senior citizen.  My hair still has lots of dark brown and there is only one spot if white in my beard.  In a few weeks it will be ten years since I became a senior citizen.  My partner is three years younger and is white with a hint of gray.  My “baby brother” is all white.  I’m not complaining.  And I got the discount without showing my ID.  (Reverse carding,?)

    Have a great time with your political “grandkids”!

  132. 132.

    Dan B

    @rikyrah: Don’t visit Australia, or anywhere south of the Ozarks, including the tropics and subtropics!!

    Let me tell you about Arkansas, the center of the greatest concentration of Tarantulas in North America.  Plus other critters.  (Tarantulas, at least US versions, are cool and not very venomous.  Now, Australian and Amazon versions, don’t ask.)

  133. 133.

    Kosh III

    @schrodingers_cat:  Will Modi try a Jan. 6?

    Remember this?

    The Emergency in India was a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared across the country.

    Officially issued by President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed under Article 352 of the Constitution because of prevailing “internal disturbance”, the Emergency was in effect from 25 June 1975 and ended on 21 March 1977. The order bestowed upon the prime minister the authority to rule by decree, allowing elections to be cancelled and civil liberties to be suspended. For much of the Emergency, most of Gandhi’s political opponents were imprisoned and the press were censored. Several other human rights violations were reported from the time, including a mass campaign for vasectomy spearheaded by her son Sanjay Gandhi. The Emergency is one of the most controversial periods of Indian history since its independence. The final decision to impose an emergency was proposed by Indira Gandhi, agreed upon by the President of India, and ratified by the Cabinet and the Parliament from July to August 1975. It was based on the rationale that there were imminent internal and external threats to the Indian state.[1][2]

  134. 134.

    Jeffro

    @JPL: great minds and all that – I just read that over lunch and was gonna post it here!

    I think he has a good argument (two, actually).

    The U.S. Department of Justice — including the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, an appointed U.S. special counsel and the solicitor general, all of whom were involved in different ways in the criminal prosecutions underlying these cases and are opposing Mr. Trump’s constitutional and statutory claims — can petition the other seven justices to require Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves not as a matter of grace but as a matter of law.
    The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland can invoke two powerful textual authorities for this motion: the Constitution of the United States, specifically the due process clause, and the federal statute mandating judicial disqualification for questionable impartiality, 28 U.S.C. Section 455.

    Cool to think about: still cannot see DOJ/Garland taking this step, unfortunately.  (But hey it’s worth a try!  It’s not like Thomas and Alito are going to do the right thing on their own)

  135. 135.

    scav

    @Dan B:

    The story being repeated in right wing a Christian Nationalist circles is that gay people can’t reproduce so they must “recruit” 

    Well, oddly enough, it’s Christians that make it a virtue to recruit others to the lifestyle. Even make careers out of being “missionaries” (in-person cold-call spam plus recuitment). And they apparently know that it’s a lifestyle so fundamentally unattractive that they can’t let their own children ever see a viable alternative to it or they’d instantly be all over it.

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    Raskin:

    At his Senate confirmation hearing, Chief Justice Roberts assured America that “Judges are like umpires.”
    But professional baseball would never allow an umpire to continue to officiate the World Series after learning that the pennant of one of the two teams competing was flying in the front yard of the umpire’s home. Nor would an umpire be allowed to call balls and strikes in a World Series game after the umpire’s wife tried to get the official score of a prior game in the series overthrown and canceled out to benefit the losing team. If judges are like umpires, then they should be treated like umpires, not team owners, team fans or players.

    Justice Barrett has said she wants to convince people “that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.” Justice Alito himself declared the importance of judicial objectivity in his opinion for the majority in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overruling Roe v. Wade — a bit of self-praise that now rings especially hollow.
    But the Constitution and Congress’s recusal statute provide the objective framework of analysis and remedy for cases of judicial bias that are apparent to the world, even if they may be invisible to the judges involved. This is not really optional for the justices.
    I look forward to seeing seven members of the court act to defend the reputation and integrity of the institution.

    Here’s hoping DOJ/Garland (and then, five of the seven justices, somehow) can be brought to the same conclusion.

  137. 137.

    Barbara

    @rikyrah: But it wasn’t the plan Matt Stoller and his fellow travelers supported so it doesn’t count.

    My daughter has ACA coverage.  He is an idiot if he thinks the ACA did not move the ball way forward.

  139. 139.

    VFX Lurker

    @Tony Jay: Thank you for keeping us up-to-date on what’s brewing in your backyard. I’m focused on cleaning up the hot MAGA mess over here right now, but it’s good to know what’s going on elsewhere.

    Keep fighting the good fight. ❤

  141. 141.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    Like a distant, burbling fart in a neighbour’s emptying bathtub. Everyone knows it’s an absolutely ridiculous nothing of a policy, impurely designed to appeal to some beau-ideal of a a wavering Tory heartlander who would be willing to forgive the disasters of the post-Brexit years if only those lazy, tattooed, genderfluid younglings were forced to shave their heads and march around in the cold saluting the King like back in The Good old Days.

    That voter doesn’t even really exist outside the pages of the Daily Mail. Maybe he’s just trying to grease the wheels for a Reform/Tory Alliance. It’s such a bad policy you can be sure someone in newnewlabourinc is pushing to adopt it.

  143. 143.

    Librarian

    One right wing buzzword I’ve noticed lately is “lawfare.” I’m not sure what it means, but it’s apparently something that liberals do.

  145. 145.

    Brachiator

    @Tony Jay:

    While the National Media pretend to be oh so disappointed at the Starmerpartei’s hounding and bullying of trailblazing black, female and socialist MP Diane Abbott, behind the scenes (well, out in the open, but the same media that ran months of front page fainting fits at any hint or suggestion that Corbyn had so much as raised a bemused eyebrow in the direction of the feral rightwingers stabbing him in the back are uninterested in covering it)

    No matter what Starmer did with respect to Abbot, embrace her or disown her completely, the press would bash him because that is what they do. They tried to claim that Starmer was letting Angela Rayner dangle out by herself because of the “scandal” about her taxes, but this was obviously nonsense. And now that the police have formally closed their investigation, the vultures are looking elsewhere for scraps.

    Corbyn is old news. He’s running as an independent, God bless him, but he is just not important. But watch Rinsed Out Sunak invoke Corbyn’s name during an upcoming debate like a necromancer raising ghosts from the dead.

    About 80 Conservative Party MPs have decided not to stand for election. How many Labour candidates have been or will be purged and replaced?

    It’s unfortunate, I suppose. But the point is to use tactical voting to obliterate the Tories. People should stay focused.

  146. 146.

    Belafon

    @Jeffro: So what would be the outcome of the 3-3 tie when asking the other seven members to recuse Alito and Thomas?

  148. 148.

    Bard the Grim

    @Baud: Nope.  See the bottom panel of the 3rd figure.  You start out heading north, then turn right (east), do the sort-of-U-turn (it’s a divided highway, so probably not technically a U-turn), and now you’re heading west, i.e., you’re 270 degrees from the direction you started in = you’ve turned left.  It doesn’t save time in most circumstances but it’s a heckuva lot safer than a conventional left turn.  (Grrr. Ignore the North and South labels in the figure, or pretend they’re West and East–then they’ll match up with my description.)

  150. 150.

    JPL

    @Jeffro: Maybe it will happen, but like you said, it’s doubtful

    At least he stated that there is a way, if Biden is reelected.

  151. 151.

    JPL

    @Belafon: Everything would remain the same, except the supremes would have shown their hands.  Amy keeps saying they are not political, let her prove it.

  152. 152.

    trollhattan

    Meanwhile, the Be More Like Saudi Arabia Party has been busy tidying up Gawd’s corner of the classroom.

    “Schools in Louisiana could soon be required by law to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom,” CNN reports.

    “The state House of Representatives gave final passage to House Bill 71 on Tuesday in a 79-16 vote, sending it to Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk. Only Democrats voted against the legislation.”

    I canNOT wait for Miss Landry’s explanation of adultery and covetness to her second graders. Also, “what is sabbath?”

    “That’s when your daddy worships the Saints.”

  153. 153.

    Tony Jay

    @Another Scott:

    The Right Wing of the Labour Party thought they’d won the long war against the party’s founding principles back in the 90s, when Blair put them in complete control. The Fall of Blair outraged them, how dare anyone judge their Dear Leader, and the collapse of the Party in the 2010 and 2015 elections was mostly down to them dragging the policy offerings to the Right, when the electorate wanted to go Left (though I’d bet that most voters wouldn’t have thought about it in those terms).

    Corbyn’s victories in 2015/6 and the huge increase in Labour’s 2017 vote outraged them. They spent the next two years working hand in glove with the Tories, the Media, and certain foreign governments to trash the Labour Party using Brexit and fake antisemitism smears to prevent any chance of a Leftwing Government. Then they got their figurehead into power post-Corbyn by lying to the membership about what he’d do in power, and the last four years has been about performative victimisation of every shred of Leftwing Labour, carried out with the silent acquiescence of the media.

    So yeah, Abbott could stand as an independent and win, but she shouldn’t have to. That’s also what the newnewlabourinc apparatchiks want. I said a year or more ago that they’d use social media comments about Corbyn as their excuse to purge decent MPs, and that’s exactly what they’re doing. They’ll do the same to anyone supporting even the concept of an independent Abbott candidacy, while at the same time promoting and rewarding creeps who actually campaigned against the Party in 2019.

    Basically, I firmly believe they see this as the time when they cut Labour’s ties with millions of traditional voters and make a serious bid for the loyalty of millions of traditional Tory voters to replace them. Adopting the policies and language of the pre-Brexit Tory Party while the Tories shred themselves on the rocks of the Hard Right. They want to become the new centre-right ‘natural party of government’, and punching the Left in the face like the cowardly little shiteaters they are is just their preferred way of doing it.

  154. 154.

    Martin

    So more evidence for my grand unifying theory of contemporary politics.

    So, we looked at the data another way, measuring the gap between each person’s birth year and their ideal decade. The consistency of the resulting pattern delighted us: It shows that Americans feel nostalgia not for a specific era, but for a specific age.

    The good old days when America was “great” aren’t the 1950s. They’re whatever decade you were 11, your parents knew the correct answer to any question, and you’d never heard of war crimes tribunals, microplastics or improvised explosive devices. Or when you were 15 and athletes and musicians still played hard and hadn’t sold out.

    Now, my parents divorced and Star Wars Holiday Special came out when I was 11, so that might explain my trajectory, but the problem with the world today is that we insist on making it clear that the slurs your mom said when you were 11 were wrong, and she was kind of a shitty person. (We were all shitty people.) We just want to be able to say the slurs again to restore mom’s reputation.

    Zoomers never experienced that. They were 11 between the Great Recession that fucked over their parents retirement, if it didn’t kick them out of their house entirely, and make them lose their job and Trump and Covid. Everything was dogshit when they were 11, and that safe space when you and I were just getting into popular culture but didn’t yet know that the lead singer of Queen was gay (there might have been a hint there, folks) they never had. Social media made it clear from day one that the polite social norms were about lying to kids about damn near everything. Say what you want about ‘fighting them over there so we didn’t need to fight them over here’, they saw the body parts from the wedding we blew up on Instagram. Mom and dad’s hot take they got from watching Wolf Blitzer made them look like liars when kids were 11.

    The right just wants to get back to lying to their kids and each other rather than fixing all the shitty stuff in the world. $17 quarter pounder meals means that capitalism is busted, but that’s hard to fix. It’s a lot easier to say that Biden just hates America and pretend that capitalism is fine. Talking about trans people in school isn’t a threat to kids, apart from revealing that their parents are bigots. That’s the real threat.

  156. 156.

    Dan B

    @Baud: What’s old calumny is new again.  I hope the current crew of LGBTQ’s recognize what’s happening and consult with older gays, like me, who lived through the smears and lies.  What Harvey Milk, and many others said is, you must come out.  You must be visible or everyone will be accused of being a pervert and criminal.

  157. 157.

    JPL

    Alito admitted that the flag flew several days.   He said that he asked his wife to take it down, and she refused.

    Does Alito not know how to take down a flag?    hmmm   enquiring minds want to know.

  158. 158.

    rikyrah

    @Dan B:

    Which is why everytime I come across those sexual predator stories with a Republican, Pastor, GOP Politician, etc…

    I always post…

     

    NOT.A.DRAG.QUEEN

     

    Every single time.

  160. 160.

    Dan B

    @Brachiator: I’ve certainly nibbled on some necks but do not recall the taste of warm blood.  Biting has a limited cohort for successful promotion.

  164. 164.

    Tony Jay

    @Brachiator:

    I’m afraid Corbyn is important, not for who he actually is, but for what he represents in the diseased minds of the Labour Right. His continued existence is a standing insult to their fictional version of history and they will never, ever stop punishing him for embarrassing them and showing them up. The entire newnewlabourinc policy manifesto is basically NOT CORBYN scrawled over 100 pages in dark blue ink.

    So while the Left and the wider electorate are laser focussed on getting the Tories out, the Labour Right are absolutely obsessed with purging the party of everyone who isn’t them. They’re a cult of spiteful Agent Smiths and a pestilence on this country. Fuck them. Fuck their vendettas. And fuck their Tory-lite politics of failure.

    Sorry. They annoy me.

  166. 166.

    WaterGirl

    @Kosh III: More than 7 links, including replies, throws you into moderation

    If you use “paste and match style” or whatever your OS calls it, then you can paste in all that text without all the links.

  167. 167.

    Sister Golden Bear

    I’ve been battling a mene that’s showing up on my Facebook feeds falsely claiming the the Dema are doing a virtual nomination because Biden is so unpopular and the y don’t want to face the wrath of protesters. <smacks head>

    Explaining that 1) Yes Virgina there still will be an  in-person convention, and 2) the only reason they’re doing the virtual nomination is because Republican fuckery to keep Biden off the OH ballot.

    And yet some of them are replying that the ballot issue is just an excuse to do what the DNC wanted to anyway, I.e. quash protests. FFS. None of them have answered when I ask them if they’d rather Biden if not on the OH ballot

  168. 168.

    Central Planning

    @Soprano2: We got a diverging diamond intersection in a Rochester suburb back in 2012. No issues that I’m aware of.

    That NPR article only shows half the diamond. Maroons…

  169. 169.

    cain

    @rikyrah: I’ve hated that asshole since 1980. Couldn’t figure out why people around us liked him so much. He is the fount of why this country is where it is today.

  170. 170.

    Jeffro

    @Belafon:

    @Belafon:

    If they ask the other 7 members (you were right the first time), there’s no 3-3 tie.  But my guess is, there would need to be 5 votes (a majority of the Court) in order to force/mandate/? recusal by Alito and Thomas.

    I don’t see how we get a 4th vote for that, much less a 5th.  ACB and Roberts joining the more liberal 3 justices?  To essentially kick Thomas and Alito off of a case or cases?  No way.

    (Gorsuch and Kavanaugh seem to be obvious ‘hell no’ votes)

    Also, they’re so far gone, I can see Alito and Thomas simply saying “nope” and insisting that they’re staying put anyway.  They’d be making the argument…to themselves?  To history?  But if they refused, it’s like, now what??

  172. 172.

    Princess

    @Nelle: If you do, let us know so we can help you go viral. I hope you do — you’re a great communicator.

  175. 175.

    cain

    @rikyrah:  my wife stopped watching it – she says it doesn’t follow the books at all.

    I don’t care if things don’t follow the books. The Wheel of Time had some very divergent stuff. But as long as the character is true to the character in the book – it’s all good. I dont care about race,  look or whatever, but they must capture the essence. After that, if you put them into whatever situation – it’s kind of fun, like alternative reality. I mean, I’ve read the books, I know the story, I know how everything turns out. Surprise me.

  178. 178.

    Another Scott

    @Tony Jay:

    Thanks for that.

    I’m reminded of a famous Harry Truman speech:

    […]

    Nobody ought to be in doubt, now. That was the Republican answer to the latest plea, from one of their own members, for a bipartisan foreign policy. That was their answer to a fellow Republican who dared to stand up and say that our country is doing a good thing when it cooperates with other countries, in Europe and in the far East, to hold back aggression.

    Isolationism is not dead. Far from it. Even if the Republicans get a presidential candidate with a good record in foreign affairs, he will not be able to drown out the raucous isolationist outcries of the rest of the party. And that prospect is beginning to scare the voters–and it ought to scare them.

    Now, we can always rely on the Republicans to help us in an election year, but we can’t count on them to do the whole job for us. We have got to go out and do some of it ourselves, if we expect to win.

    The first rule in my book is that we have to stick by the liberal principles of the Democratic Party. We are not going to get anywhere by trimming or appeasing. And we don’t need to try it.

    The record the Democratic Party has made in the last 20 years is the greatest political asset any party ever had in the history of the world. We would be foolish to throw it away. There is nothing our enemies would like better and nothing that would do more to help them win an election.

    I’ve seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the fair Deal, and says he really doesn’t believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don’t want a phony Democrat. If it’s a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don’t want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign.

    But when a Democratic candidate goes out and explains what the New Deal and fair Deal really are–when he stands up like a man and puts the issues before the people–then Democrats can win, even in places where they have never won before. It has been proven time and again.

    We are getting a lot of suggestions to the effect that we ought to water down our platform and abandon parts of our program. These, my friends, are Trojan horse suggestions. I have been in politics for over 30 years, and I know what I am talking about, and I believe I know something about the business. One thing I am sure of: never, never throw away a winning program. This is so elementary that I suspect the people handing out this advice are not really well-wishers of the Democratic Party.

    More than that, I don’t believe they have the best interests of the American people at heart. There is something more important involved in our program than simply the success of a political party.

    The rights and the welfare of millions of Americans are involved in the pledges made in the Democratic platform of 1948 and in the program of this administration. And those rights and interests must not be betrayed.

    […]

    Wise man, Harry.

    Parties change and evolve and grow and disappear. Maybe Labour’s time as an actual party of, er, labour, has passed. But it’s hard to believe that the UK actually wants two major right-wing parties. As Harry said, they would just stick with the genuine article.

    Thanks again. Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  180. 180.

    cain

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: whut, that’s kind of fucked up. Congress I, was always conflating, Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Mahatma Gandhi and there would be posters everywhere. They made sure you never forget the glorious war of independence, and did you know that Indira Gandhi was Nehru’s daughter??!

  181. 181.

    Dan B

    @rikyrah: The Truth!  JoeMyGod used to post all the times that religious and religious adjacent right wingers were caught diddling kids, especially of the same gender as the perv.  It was almost daily and often twice a day.  Drag Queens only once in many years.

    Panti Bliss has some great talks about anti LGBTQ+ discrimination.  There’s an expertly filmed TedX talk that raised even my well worn consciousness.

  182. 182.

    Tony Jay

    @Another Scott:

    With this lot in power newnewlabourinc are an active enemy of Labour, labour and the working class in general.

    Them in power for five years is about the only thing that can save the Tory Party from utter dissolution.

    Ah well, never mind. They’ll all die eventually.

  184. 184.

    Dan B

    • @Tony Jay: New new labour seems to ignore the evidence that moving dramatically to the right has not benefitted left wing groups.  People want to know what you stand FOR not what you’ll give up before being asked.  Bipartisanship is not about giving up in advance.  When you do so the outcome will resemble the right’s policy goals.  Who wants to elect the party that desires to lose and/or surrender their principals in advance?
  188. 188.

    Dan B

    @Baud: You vile human!  You are neglecting Newsmax, OANN, Sinclair, and more.  Not all lies and venom spew from FOX!  Get a clue!!

  189. 189.

    zhena gogolia

    @Sister Golden Bear: Here are the two conspiracy theories I heard from a local (she doesn’t subscribe to them, she just heard them):

    1. There will be no income tax next year. It was an emergency measure for WWII and it will be removed. My friend asked, “By whom?” The answer was, “People.”
    2. Everything will be shut down for three months in advance of the election. Be sure to have three months’ worth of gas and non-perishable food.
  191. 191.

    prostratedragon

    This post links to a tribute from a couple of years ago to Cecilia Sayat Marshall, wife of Thurgood. Concerning her life going back to his Solicitor General days, “She was always ‘careful’ to avoid conflicts of interest. ‘I had to cut out a lot of my friends…because of the cases involved.’”
    This crop we have now are thoroughly selfish.

  192. 192.

    JaySinWA

    I haven’t seen any comments about this, but in other “while we are waiting” news:

    Michael Fanone, a former police officer who was nearly killed by a mob during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, spoke outside the courthouse during closing arguments in Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Tuesday, calling Trump “an authoritarian” with “a violence fetish.”
    Hours later, Fanone’s mother was “swatted” at her home in Virginia.

    On Tuesday, a fake “manifesto” attributed to Fanone was sent to a number of email addresses, including some associated with a high school that Fanone attended for a year more than two decades ago. The “manifesto,” viewed by NBC News, claimed that the writer had killed their mother and planned to go to the recipient’s school on Wednesday and shoot more people. It provided Fanone’s mother’s home address.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justicmother-jan-6-officer-michael-fanone-swatted-

  193. 193.

    prostratedragon

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    And yet some of them are replying that the ballot issue is just an excuse to do what the DNC wanted to anyway, I.e. quash protests.

    . . . And that was when the murders started.

  194. 194.

    Brachiator

    @Tony Jay:

    I’m afraid Corbyn is important, not for who he actually is, but for what he represents in the diseased minds of the Labour Right.

    Maybe this is too inside UK politics for my little brain. The only people I regularly see who are concerned about Corbyn are the Tories and the media. As far as the press is concerned, his full name is “Unelectable Jeremy Corbyn,” and they are always hot to slam Starmer and other people if they even admit to having been in the same room as Corbyn. But Corbyn is not the Labour leader and I really don’t see that he represents much of anything going into the general election. And do you really believe that the average voter is going to compare the Labour Party manifesto to some Corbynite ideal?

    So while the Left and the wider electorate are laser focussed on getting the Tories out

    This is not true. I see self-proclaimed Left purists like Owen Jones and the Novara Media crew constantly moaning about how there is no difference between the Tories and Labour, and about how Starmer just isn’t right. And the biggest tell: they always whine about austerity and about how Blair failed them years ago, even though many of them were in diapers when Blair was prime minister. And yet, these clods have little to say about how the Tories are fucking up the UK right now.

    Many of the advocates of tactical voting are hard headed Labour supporters and some moderates who may not agree with many current Labour positions, but know who the enemy is.

    The Left purists talk about spoiling their ballot or voting their conscience, even if that might help elect a Tory candidate.

    the Labour Right are absolutely obsessed with purging the party of everyone who isn’t them.

    Again, how many people are we talking about? Who are these Obviously Bad and Untrue Candidates?

  195. 195.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: @Baud:

    It may have a short shelf life, but that has to be a rotating tag.

    The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

  197. 197.

    Brachiator

    @Tony Jay:

    With this lot in power newnewlabourinc are an active enemy of Labour, labour and the working class in general.

    Them in power for five years is about the only thing that can save the Tory Party from utter dissolution.

    The goal of a new breed of Labour supporters is to use tactical voting to obliterate the Tories. The next step would be to change the voting system to one using proportional representation, so that the Tories could never claim a majority again.

    I don’t think that New Labour will be able to sell people old shit in a new box.

    There is a roadmap for something better. It will be interesting to see what happens.

  198. 198.

    Miki

    @Martin: “Talking about trans people in school isn’t a threat to kids, apart from revealing that their parents are bigots. That’s the real threat.”

    Truth.

  200. 200.

    like a metaphor

    The jury just rang the bell again with anther note, which requires everyone including Trump to come into the courtroom. They literally have a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. This is the greatest thing ever

    I’d be pulling that bell every 5 minutes-   “Where would you be right now, defendant Trump, if I hadn’t rung that bell?”

  201. 201.

    Dan B

    @JaySinWA: It feels like the rabid right’s leaders will be relying on conspiracy theories and existential rumors to enlist the lumpen proletariat followers and other true believers to carry out a reign of terror.  AI and Russian goons will provide cover.  They want a reign of terror while concocting stories that the evil hearted left, anyone who gets in the way – see Capitol Police, are on a killing rampage and targeted, but somehow invisible, murder and mayhem (being impolite in public is an existential threat, right!?)

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