Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

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

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

We still have time to mess this up!

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

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

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

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Dank Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Histronic Historical Research

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Blog favorite chewtoy Megan McArgleBargle made a strong move for the Worst Historical Commentary of the past week…

… But board-certified GOP-owned historian Jonathan Turley would not be overlooked…

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War for Ukraine Day 732: A Brief Sunday Night Update

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Screen shot of new artwork by NEIVANMADE. The background is black. In the bottom foreground are grey Ukrainian homes and apartment buildings being bombarded by red Russian missiles with the Special Military Operation "Z" symbol on them. Above the missiles, written in red is the word "Ruzzians". Below the buildings being attacked is the statement "Turns Homes Into Graves".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Just a brief update tonight. Was a not long enough weekend after a very busy week.

There are no updated daily addresses or speeches on the President of Ukraine’s website. I expect those will resume tomorrow. I think the reason for that have been the meetings that President Zelenskyy has been attending. Here is a clip from remarks he made about Russian military actions:

The Russian opened up on Kostiantynivka today.

An important trip to the frontline with Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi.

Awarded our soldiers. Those who defended Avdiivka. Those who covered the withdrawal of their brothers in arms from the city. Those who destroyed the enemy.

10 years of defense of Avdiivka is a feat that will go down in history books. You have caused irreparable losses to the enemy.

The Polish government is still having trouble preventing extremists from attacking Ukrainian grain shipments being moved by truck through Poland.

These pictures show 160 tons of destroyed Ukrainian grain. The grain was in transit to the port of Gdansk and then to other countries.

The fourth case of vandalism at Polish railway stations. The fourth case of impunity and irresponsibility.

How long will the government and the Polish police allow this vandalism to continue? Once again, all these agricultural products are transported in sealed railcars and are in transit to other countries. We are strictly following the law. And you?

@JacekSiewiera @BBN_PL @MKierwinski @PolskaPolicja @sikorskiradek @PolandMFA

Yevpatoriya, Russian occupied Crimea:

The Financial Times has the details:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the US that Ukraine needs the $60bn aid currently stuck in a congressional stand-off within a month.

Zelenskyy said the long-awaited package was about military not financial support and that he was unsure Ukraine would be able to find the types and amounts of weapons it needed if the funding did not materialise.

“Our position on the battlefield will be weaker [without it],” Zelenskyy said, speaking at a conference in Kyiv on Sunday.

He gave the example of US-made Patriot air-defence systems, which have helped protect key cities from Russian missiles, but cost around $1.5bn and which Ukraine could not afford without US support.

Zelenskyy said Europe could not replace the US in terms of weapons supply, pointing to the continent’s shortage of air-defence systems, although he said it could supply more long-range missiles.

The EU has provided Ukraine with a €50bn aid package, but this is mostly financial rather than military support.

If the US does not pass the bill, “it will leave me wondering what world we are living in”, Zelenskyy said, but added that he was confident that the US Congress would ultimately agree to the package. Although Ukraine would “search for others, loans and exert pressure on partners” if needed, he added.

Following Zelenskyy’s comments, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan pressed Republican congressional leaders to unlock assistance to Ukraine.

“We need money to be able to provide the weapons to Ukraine. We don’t have the money. Only Congress can provide the money,” Sullivan said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

He called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to “bust through the politics in his caucus” and put US President Joe Biden’s aid package request to a floor vote.

Zelenskyy reiterated during his speech that Ukraine had no plans to enter into negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite the deteriorating situation on the front and the gap in crucial military aid from the US.

Russia has not been invited to the four peace talks Ukraine has held over the past year in Europe and the Middle East, with the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, saying that the Kremlin would only be asked after a change in Russian leadership.

Zelenskyy characterised negotiating as a dead end for Ukraine and Ukrainians. “The hardest bit was two years ago and we have no alternative. If we lose, there will be no us,” he said.

He also rebutted reports that Ukraine’s military losses were in the hundreds of thousands, citing a total of 31,000 soldiers killed but declining to confirm injury numbers. Russia’s total casualties were around 500,000, he claimed.

But Zelenskyy’s figures fall well short of the 70,000 Ukrainians killed that US officials gave to The New York Times in August — and many more have died since while repelling fierce Russian attacks in Ukraine’s east, where Russia is trying to capture land.

Ukraine defence minister Rustem Umerov, who also spoke at the conference, said that half of western military aid was being delivered late, leading to the loss of territory and people.

But overall, Ukrainian officials emphasised their belief that western support would continue and that they would be able to find solutions in order to win the war against Russia.

“We already have a plan for 2024, but we will not talk about it publicly. The plan is powerful, strong and will give us not only hope but a result in 2024,” said Umerov.

To mitigate the deficit created by wavering US support, Ukraine planned to triple domestic weapons production, said Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries.

He added that Kyiv also aimed to build its own air-defence system this year and introduce Ukrainian-made land drones on a large scale, adding that Ukrainian-made weapons had proved effective and were inexpensive.

“The war will not be won by those with the most resources but by those who use them most effectively,” said Kamyshin.

More at the link

Peter Fouche has some additional thoughts on the lack of support:

https://twitter.com/markomihkelson/status/1761753651893198868

That’s enough for tonight.

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https://twitter.com/PatronDsns/status/1761101327579398335

Open thread!

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Sunday Night Open Thread

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So last night I had intended to do a second post as I had promised, and even typed one out but didn’t post it. I swear. I thought I had hit the post button. It wasn’t much but I did write it. The gist of it was “I lied, there will be no second post, my head hurts and I am tired.” And that was it. I am here to rectify that now.

It was another warm day, but the days in which it is bearable to eat and cook heavier foods are waning, so I am making braised short ribs over whipped potatoes for dinner. Why whipped and not mashed potatoes? Because it’s 2024 and what you do in your own god damned house is your business.

I got the short ribs for a steal at the International Marketplace down on Broadway. They have every cut you can imagine and ox tails and tongues and it’s pretty much just an amazing place. And prices for most things are a steal. While I was there I got some jackfruit to try- not a whole thing, just a little bit already dissembled, and I kinda like it. I don’t know how to describe the taste other than it tastes like the fresh corpse of the love child between a pineapple and a mango. It has a thick, slightly rotting floral and honeyed sweetness to it, and you’re sort of left with the same sort of floral sensation you get when you drink something with hibiscus. If that makes any sense.

It also has these large, pearly seeds that have this smooth mouthfeel and are fun to spit out.

***

Saw an interesting story today about Warren Buffet’s son, Howard, who has given over a half a billion dollars to Ukraine aid and relief. More than many entire nations. I still firmly believe that every billionaire is a policy failure and I will have my stitched “Throw Things at Billionaires” art in my office until the day I die, but if you are going to half to have billionaires, this is the kind of shit they should be spending money on:

The wartime leader and American philanthropist have a profound mutual respect.

Buffett told Business Insider, “There are very few people in the world that could step up” and do what Zelenskyy’s done. “I think he’s a pretty amazing guy,” he said.

As a result, Buffett’s Howard G. Buffett Foundation has emerged as a stalwart ally to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, injecting $521,779,225 into humanitarian assistance for Ukraine as of January 2024.

Again, fuck billionaires, but that’s pretty baller even if it helps him dodge taxes.

***

Catfest. It was great and we spent just the right amount of time at it. It was the first year, so it was not huge, but it had really solid attendance and I saw a couple cats get adopted so that was awesome. And to families with kids, which means we are starting the cat indoctrination young so when they are older they don’t even question how they ended up at age 42 with a bigger mortgage than they wanted because they had to have a yard for their five cats.

The art and display at the museum featured the works of Karen Kuykendall and Joelle and I both agreed we had seen her work before but just did not know her name:

Sunday Night Open Thread 9

Afterwards, we went to an antique market to get Joelle some lowball glasses because she keeps wanting a whiskey sour and I refused to put them in a fucking mug or some other bullshit. I may be an alcoholic but I still have standards. While we were there I found this super cheap handmade box and was shocked to find it was only 28 bucks so I snagged it right up:

Sunday Night Open Thread 10
After that we went home.

***

That’s about it for me, but since I know who you all are really here for, here is a picture of Steve, who claimed the bed for himself whilst we were changing the sheets. And by we, I mean Joelle because I was in the kitchen SLAVING OVER A HOT STOVE.

Sunday Night Open Thread 11

Night.

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Medium Cool – Music and Culture

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

We’re nearly at the end of Black History Month, and I realized that we haven’t talked about that at all on Medium Cool, and maybe not even on Balloon Juice more generally – though there has been talk of the “audacity” of a certain black female artist who dared to make some country music.  How dare she suggest that country music might have its roots in something besides good ‘ole redneck boys?!  Doesn’t she know her place!?

Anyway, let’s use this space to talk about the cultural roots of all sorts of music.  It seems to me that culture spreads in all directions.

And we’re off.

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Open Thread: The GOP Has An Impeachment Problem

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Another 'Informant' - STOCKPILE

(Clay Bennett via GoComics.com)

 
They know these non-stop show trials reflect badly on them, both the individual members & the GOP as a whole (not to mention wasting time & resources that could be of far better use elsewhere, because the GOP hasn’t cared about anything outside their own clan for at least fifty years)… but it feels so good in the moment!

… This isn’t even the first time we’ve learned that a person has been indicted after the GOP cited his claims. Nor is it the first time a person has been linked to Russian intelligence after the GOP leaned on their version of events.

The cast of characters Republicans have sought out to substantiate President Biden’s purported corruption over the years has come to include half a dozen convicted and accused criminals, as well as multiple people the U.S. government has linked to Russia, corruption and subverting American democracy.

The most recent example is Alexander Smirnov, whom the government said last week had invented the claim that Biden and his son Hunter took $5 million bribes. That allegation was promoted far and wide by Republicans, many of whom treated it as fact.

The government then said this week that Smirnov has “extensive foreign ties, including, most troublingly and by his own account, contact with foreign intelligence services, including Russian intelligence agencies, and has had such contacts recently.”

The news comes seven months after the indictment of another GOP source was unsealed. Republicans had conspiratorially suggested that a key witness who claimed to have damaging information about Hunter Biden had mysteriously gone missing. It turned out the witness was Gal Luft, who the government said had skipped bail after his indictment for alleged arms trafficking and foreign lobbying violations was handed down months earlier…

Rooting out corruption sometimes involves dealing with unsavory characters. Some of the legal actions against Trump, for instance, have leaned on the testimony of his convicted former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.

But thus far, Republicans have very little actual evidence against the Bidens to show for their efforts. And when your most-touted claim is apparently falling apart in spectacular fashion, against the backdrop of the aforementioned, it sure risks looking like you’re desperate for anything to grab hold of — no matter where it comes from.

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Donald J. Trump: Weakling

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Guess who still hasn’t cracked 60% of votes in a Republican primary?

South Carolina GOP primary result — Trump 59%, Haley 39% Trump “won” the Nevada caucus with a Saddam Hussein-like 99.1% result when his cult orchestrated a race with a god-bothering megachurch nobody named Ryan Binkley. But in every other contest so far, 40%-plus of the most engaged GOP voters expressed a preference for not-Trump.

Of course, Trump will win the nomination, barring an event like a ketchup-slathered chunk of overcooked gristle lodging in his windpipe. The snippets of savvy political analysis I’ve seen since yesterday in the major dailies are using the word “coronation.”

But it should be noted that Trump is a weakling despite being the de facto incumbent and leader of his shit-show party. So, duly noted!

I make no predictions, and I acknowledge that hope is not a strategy. That said, I believe we have an opportunity to beat the walking collection of untreated personality disorders known as Donald J. Trump like a rented mule.

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Random Thought Open Thread

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After seeing the comments a couple of weeks ago about the NYT reporting about the bigoted attacks coming out of the mouths of Republicans in the House and the Senate, I had a thought.

Could Sexism Work for Our Side For a Change?

I mean, whatever happened to “the gentle lady from wherever”?

Seriously, we should just nuke every “tradition” in the House and Senate that is based on the assumption of comity.  Every single tradition that isn’t actually a rule.  Gone.  And then when we control that chamber, we need to nuke all the rules that are based on the assumption of comity are gone, too.

But back to my original thought.  Since Marge appears to be the face of the new Republican ugliness, maybe sexism can work for our side for a change?  Men can be seen as strong or forceful, but all Marge represents is in your face lies, over the top anger and *ugliness, the worst kind of partisanship, and racism.  So I’m not sure that strong or forceful is what folks come away with from Marge.

A fair number of people still have conventional views about gender roles, and even though I am not a fan of traditional gender roles, she sure violates every traditional gender role for women that I can come up with.  There is an *ugliness about her that brings to mind gender-based insults.

I don’t see how it helps the Republican party to have Marge be the face of it.   Is it too much to hope that moderates will see that and be turned off?  That they will judge her behavior more harshly than they would judge the same behaviors coming from a man?

In any case, I hope that Marge being the face of the new republican party comes back to bite them in the end.

I know everyone doesn’t read every thread, so here’s the article:  On Capitol Hill, Republicans Use Bigoted Attacks Against Political Foes

*ugliness as in mean and nasty, not as in not pretty.

Open thread.

 

 

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