Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

This blog will pay for itself.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You cannot shame the shameless.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

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

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Alternative history is always a weak argument. Always.

We still have time to mess this up!

Battle won, war still ongoing.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / I’d Suggest Mitch McConnell Look in a Mirror…

I’d Suggest Mitch McConnell Look in a Mirror…

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…but I don’t think his kind show up in them. Here’s a headline to stop you in your tracks, via The Financial Times:

“Mitch McConnell: We’re in a Very, Very Dangerous World Right Now”

My immediate thoughts echoed those of reporter Helen Kennedy on Bluesky:

Is he….is he bragging?

[image or embed]

— Helen Kennedy (@helenkennedy.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 6:32 PM

No, he’s not. He is trying to present himself, at least for the benefit of the FT’s reporter, as the anti-isolationist, brave truth-teller within the GOP. Really. One excerpt:

“McConnell has been Kentucky senator since 1985. Having committed to serving the final two years of his term, he intends to spend the time pushing back against the increasingly isolationist elements of today’s GOP. ‘The cost of deterrence is considerably less than the cost of war,’ he says, reeling off the figures to prove it. In the second world war, the US spent 37 per cent of GDP on the fight. Last year that figure was about 2.7 per cent. His words are targeted directly at Trump and vice-president-elect JD Vance, who have argued that the US should not be spending any more money on Ukraine. . . . Though some of his biggest moments as Senate leader came during Trump’s first presidency, he is no fan of the president-elect.”

Alas! If only he could have done something to stop Trump’s political career in its tracks. Such a shame the opportunity never presented itself more than twice! The sheer unmitigated brass neck of this monster never ceases to amaze. If the GOP sends American democracy into a fatal spiral, there’s a nice, deep, well-dug grave ready for it courtesy of the senior senator from Kentucky.

If you can handle a sharp spike in your blood pressure, you should be able to read the FT article here via a gift link. If not, try this one instead.

Reader Interactions

98Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    He succeeded in his goal of getting white working class people to love the oligarch party. Nothing else really matters to him.

  3. 3.

    Citizen Alan

    No living person has done more to harm America than Mitch McConnell. I am honestly angry about the fact that I expect him to die peacefully in his bed. People like him are why I cling to a belief in God–because I want to believe in Hell.

  5. 5.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Baud: Trump, now 55%

    Considering all he has done so far is nominate cabinet posts, this suggests that people really don’t care that he’s assembling a clown show of creeps, con artists, and klansmen.

    The RFK thing bothers me the most, because he will likely discredit sincere efforts to make our food and drugs safer for decades.

  6. 6.

    Trollhattan

    I’ve worn out 3.5 cars since Turtle was elected to the senate and I keep cars a LONG time.

    Somebody trade him in for a Camry.

  10. 10.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Baud: They’ll only care if they see something noticably bad happening to them.

    Those bad things will happen to me too, all of us. But I’ll still be laughing.

  11. 11.

    JustRuss

    Though some of his biggest moments as Senate leader came during Trump’s first presidency, he is no fan of the president-elect.”

    Writing this without noting that McConnell voted against Trump’s impeachment is malpractice. Then there’s his inconsistency regarding SCOTUS nominees during election years…

  13. 13.

    oldster

    I despise McConnell, and agree that he has been one of the most damaging figures if the post-Reagan era (for pure evil, Leonard Leo is right up there with him).

    However, the defense of Ukraine is a big issue for me, and McConnell is a lot better on that than Vance and the Putin caucus. So, I’ll take his help on that front.

  14. 14.

    Rose Judson

    @Trollhattan: He was elected a few weeks before my youngest sister was born. I obviously wasn’t paying attention at the time, given that I was six, but nowadays that’s how I remember how long he’s been in the senate. (Sometimes it’s also how I remember what year J. was born.)

  15. 15.

    Mart

    He was the most effective leader of our lifetime, but for evil, not the greater good. As far as pro-Putin isolationists, I got into an email spat with Hawley’s team after he repeated the “we need to spend the $200B on Ukraine here, not there.” I wrote that 90% is being spent here, on munitions production, so stop with the BS. Assume I am headed for the gulag. If you listen in on right wing radio it is a constant talking point.

  18. 18.

    sentient ai from the future

    Open thread, and the OP is UK based so….

     

    The UK is fucking TERF Island, just banned puberty blockers for gender dysphoria (not, of course, for precocious puberty, for which it has a 50 year record of safety). Meanwhile my own trans kiddo just cried tears off joy at hearing their own first dosage was covered. And then there were Skrmetti oral arguments.

    I don’t know how to navigate this environment, I have a co-parent that had to be taken to court to get this far and I am scared for my kid.

  19. 19.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    He succeeded in his goal of getting white working class people to love the oligarch party. Nothing else really matters to him.

    Nah, Ronald Reagan gets the credit there.  Mitch’s main accomplishment has been to use the filibuster to minimize what opportunities the Dems have had to win the WWC back.

  21. 21.

    Rose Judson

    @sentient ai from the future: I am so sorry you are having to navigate this world that has decided to be openly hostile to your child’s effort to live as themselves.

    I spent the day yelling about this with a friend, yeah. It’s grim. For every tiny morsel of goodness Labour give us – a nationalised railway company here, some more cooperation with the EU on a very narrow issue there – they hand us a big fucking sandwich of reactionary shit like this. I keep trying to post about it but they keep adding to the litany of WTF.

  23. 23.

    Motivated Seller

    Mitch McConnell is not the target audience.  Media properties know that triggering the Libs makes for great clicks!

    If you fall for it, then you are a) feeding the beast, while simultaneously b) subsidizing the trash that gets fed to the rest of America.

    Find other better outlets and give them your support.

  27. 27.

    JML

    @MazeDancer: a reminder that democrats should never appoint fucking republicans to anything ever. (I know Wray wasn’t a Biden appointee, but the point stands): you can never trust those fucks to do the right thing, bipartisanship doesn’t actually yield votes, and all it does it suggest that Dems aren’t capable of handling the job.

  28. 28.

    Splitting Image

    @Baud:

    People aren’t paying attention, but they also don’t care. They’ll only care if they see something noticably bad happening to them.

    Which is scheduled to begin happening next month.

    I think a lot of what is being called “obeying in advance” right now is people trying to make themselves look as small as possible because they hope that the Goldfish-elect will be focused on something else on January 20th. The assumption is that he will wreck whatever that is so badly that nothing else he’s got planned will actually get done.

    This might be more realistic than it would currently appear.

  29. 29.

    Old School

    @JPL:

    Is Mitch the guy that won’t stand up for his wife when she is being attacked by trump?

    He’s one of them.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Well … damn. Chris Wray is leaving as FBI Director at the end of the Biden administration in January instead of sticking around to fight for the remaining years in his lawful term. Of course we all know TCFFG would have found some excuse to fire him, but this feels as though he’s capitulating needlessly and just handing the reins to Kash Patel. I’m pretty bummed.

  31. 31.

    suzanne

    @Splitting Image:

    I think a lot of what is being called “obeying in advance” right now is people trying to make themselves look as small as possible because they hope that the Goldfish-elect will be focused on something else on January 20th. 

    It’s ass-covering. Which: understandable.

    I don’t want to go to prison, either.

  33. 33.

    gene108

    @Splitting Image:

    The assumption is that he will wreck whatever that is so badly that nothing else he’s got planned will actually get done.

    I think it takes 8 consecutive years of being president to wreck things so badly that people will take notice. Bush, Jr. won re-election in 2004, but the train wreck we were heading towards didn’t happen until his second term.

    Four years is too short a time to screw up an inherited strong economy and relative lack of military engagements abroad.

  34. 34.

    gene108

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Wray is a Republican Trump appointee. There were a few Trump appointees, during his first term, who took their jobs kind of seriously. Wray was one of them.

  37. 37.

    TBone

    @gene108: I’m so tempted to hope but my only thought is “sweet, summer child.” They’ve been working on P2025 this whole time so they can be ready on Day One.

  39. 39.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @gene108: After Bush wrecked America in 8 years, Trump accomplished it, worse,  in 4.

    If the pattern holds, we’ll be a smoldering crater in 2 years, don’t worry.

  41. 41.

    brantl

    @Trollhattan: Trade him in for a broke down dump truck loaded with garbage and you’d still be getting the best end of the deal.

    Mitch McConnell, the best example of a anthropomorphic STD I’ve ever seen.

  43. 43.

    brantl

    @Mart:  How tough is it to just fuck things up, with as many millionaires and billionaires as you could wish for, for henchmen?

  45. 45.

    BlueGuitarist

    @MazeDancer:

    @JML:

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Timothy Snyder has been saying don’t obey in advance as loud as he can, but instead Christopher Wray will be example number too big of Josh Marshall’s description of Trump as “dignity wraith.” 

  51. 51.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    I’d like to suggest Mitch McConnell go fuck himself.

    He was Trump’s most valuable enabler during his first term as POTUS and he’s the ultimate gravedigger of American democracy.

    If Hell exists, Mitch deserves to go there along with all the other Trump enablers and sycophants in Congress and in the media.

  52. 52.

    brantl

    I think that’s almost as good but as an STD he’d be catchable. And I think he’s spread a long ways,

  53. 53.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Citizen Alan:

    No living person has done more to harm America than Mitch McConnell.

    My normie wife has been saying this for years.

    Moscow Mitch: The Gravedigger of Democracy.

  55. 55.

    Shalimar

    @The Audacity of Krope: You will isolate as much as possible and get a vaccine as soon as possible.  Yes, bad things can happen to all of us.  Your odds are still a lot better than the  RFK, Jr. supporters.

  56. 56.

    brantl

    to all the people who keep saying that it’s going to be worse because Trump doesn’t have the tried-and-true Republicans around anymore, Try to remember what an asshole Bill Barr turned out to be, And all the other mainstream Republicans that turned out to be such shit under Trump  (Chris, Christie, etc.).

    now picture that there’s a complete shit-stick on both ends of the conversation.

  57. 57.

    RevRick

    @rikyrah: Dr. Frankenstein, would you care to comment on your creation? Well, the monster did get a little out of hand, but the villagers overreacted with their pitchforks and torches.

  58. 58.

    TBone

    @Belafon: I dunno about the all plans failing thingy, but I am damn sure in favor of opposing every move.  I hope we have the resources to outwit these billionaires tech bro fuckups and their evil conspirators all over the planet.

    Yesterday, Marc Elias on MSNBC highlighted the new lady who will be in charge of the DOJ Civil Rights Division (hence, voting rights). I’m still shuddering.

  65. 65.

    Another Scott

    I understand it, but it bothers me that current “news” stories do not use current pictures of the subject in question.

    Compare that picture up-top with the second picture in the slide-show here (from yesterday).  The picture above seems to be from about 15 years ago.  :-/

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: (From memory) “The three things that matter in politics are: money, money, and money.” – Moscow Mitch.

    Yeah, no sympathy, no kudos from me.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  69. 69.

    Miss Bianca

    @Baud: Is Ro Khanna really just a troll? Does he actually accomplish *anything* as a so-called “progressive” except to make himself as obnoxiously visible as possible spouting vacuous horseshit?

  70. 70.

    TBone

    @TBone: take ten minutes and watch Marc Elias explain what’s coming.  He knows of what he speaks, and it ain’t good.  I’m surprised no one has mentioned this here yet, it’s our cornerstone for all the things.

  71. 71.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Miss Bianca:

    Is Ro Khanna really just a troll? Does he actually accomplish *anything* as a so-called “progressive” except to make himself as obnoxiously visible as possible spouting vacuous horseshit?

    Just look at his district.  He’s basically representing techbros…thus, his comments make perfect sense.

    //

  76. 76.

    RevRick

    In the world of taking practical steps to combat pessimism and cynicism, I participated in a one hour webinar sponsored by the Creation Justice Ministry of the United Church of Christ. It featured Sam Daley-Harris talking about his work with Results, an organization he founded in 1978 after he had been invited to a hunger advocacy conference. He had been a member of a professional orchestra and music teacher for twelve years and realized he was called in another life direction. He has written a book about creating a successful advocacy group involving everyday citizens, Reclaiming Our Democracy. The aim of the effort is to create a movement of climate advocates, and since I live in PA-7, which flipped from Democratic to Republican as well as having a Republican replace Sen. Bob Casey, this work takes on added urgency.

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    LongTime🤓FirstTime👨‍💻 (@LongTimeHistory) posted at 11:41 AM on Wed, Dec 11, 2024:
    Immediately after winning election as a Democrat, Florida Rep. Susan Valdés switches to Republican Party.

    This is nothing but a bait & switch fraud that was perpetrated on voters.

    The timing is key. Switching parties just weeks after election day is completely differently than a lawmaker who has an honest disagreement with their party during the course of their career.

    Republicans now hold a supermajority in the Florida House of Representatives.

    #DemVoice1 #wtpBLUE #DemsUnited #ProudBlue

    https://t.co/LADaq03hV0
    (https://x.com/LongTimeHistory/status/1866901242686910802?t=nwtq0u28ZMzfMinJT6RBuA&s=03)

  80. 80.

    RevRick

    @Other MJS: He represents a district with a lot of Jewish retirees, so he definitely will not support any cuts to Social Security and Medicare. I think he wants to troll Musk like he trolled Comer, and I doubt he would be angling for a seat at the table if he didn’t have the okay from leadership.

  81. 81.

    MazeDancer

    Manchin and Sinema showing up to vote against installing the pro.-labor appointees to the Labor Board just further cementing their passing entry requirements to hell.

  83. 83.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: Chris Wray has always been a piece of shit with an agenda of his own.  I would say good riddance, except that he should have stayed and made Trump fire him for record in the history books.

    And Trump will replace Wray with a piece of shit x100.

    I guess he’s never heard of

    DO NOT COMPLY IN ADVANCE.

  86. 86.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @West of the Rockies: I’d say that at least a quarter of them if not more are sympathetic to Trump (the NY FBI in particular should have been cleaned out like Hercules did to the Augean Stables, they should have been dispersed to remote armpit field offices across the continent)

  88. 88.

    Martin

    So, I was out running an errand with Ms Martin and she was struggling with a problem with a coworker at the school where she sometimes works. I noted ‘oh, that person just has a transactional personality type – you can’t hire those kinds of people in government’, and I thought I would mention that here as well. Transactional people are cancer to government because there is nothing the voter or customer base can offer them to do their job well, so they seek out someone else who can offer them something – donors, bribes, favors for advancement, etc. Voters need to learn to see that as a red flag.

    Notably, the ‘run government like a business’ types are drawn to transactional personality types because there’s a lot of business that works better that way. That’s what commissions are designed to do – ‘go find the customers spending a lot of money and ignore the ones not spending much’ is a feature, not a bug. In government, it simply delegitimizes the entire effort.

    Those people are really showing their colors now, particularly the Dems.

  90. 90.

    Miss Bianca

    @Martin: I’ve never understood the “run government like a business” trope. For one thing, the goal of government is not “make a profit”. For another, as someone else here recently observed, businesses *fail* all the time!

  91. 91.

    zhena gogolia

    Think how happy we’d be for the holidays if we were about to welcome Kamala and Tim to the White House. Goddammit.

  92. 92.

    catclub

    @SiubhanDuinne: instead of sticking around to fight for the remaining years in his lawful term.

     

    Didn’t the last FBI guy who had a scrap with Trump lose his pension? I may not know for sure, but I bet Wray does.

  95. 95.

    Martin

    @Miss Bianca: There is a perception that business is efficient because of that profit motive. And I would say that’s true to a fault – that is, it’s pretty reliably short term efficient and long-term inefficient and relies a LOT on being able to duck accountability. Is that what we want from government?

  96. 96.

    Bupalos

    I could give two shits about whether McConnell is found to be “evil” or ends up with his reputation completely laundered, or any of this over-moralized meaninglessness. I don’t care why or how he does it. If he wants to help with Ukraine, then he is an ally in that respect and good for him. An opponent in certain respects and an ally in certain respects.

    Of course, he’s already given away most of his power specifically by not following his own advice here. In 2020 he was France before the Nazi takeover and now he’s France after the Nazi takeover, specifically because he followed a political policy of appeasement and failed to find his sagging balls when they would have been of use.

  97. 97.

    Jackie

    @MazeDancer:

    Manchin and Sinema showing up to vote against installing the pro.-labor appointees to the Labor Board just further cementing their passing entry requirements to hell.

    Schumer was pissed and felt blindsided.

  98. 98.

    frosty

    @Belafon: Or as noted philosopher Mike Tyson once observed “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

    (I actually got to use this at a project kickoff meeting for a client this week. For which I am the project manager and I had finished presenting our plan LOL.)

    ETA But I agree with your comment that we need to support the opposition working on the metaphorical punch in the mouth to P2025.

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