Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How stupid are these people?

I really should read my own blog.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

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

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

The revolution will be supervised.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

People are weird.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Accountability, motherfuckers.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The National Guard is not Batman.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

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Archives for 2024

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: No Tears for Rudy

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Rudy Giuliani Melts Down In Court: ‘I Have No Cash’ talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo… via @TPM

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— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 10:26 AM

David Kurtz, at TPM:

I hope it goes down as more than a footnote to history that the most substantive accountability any higher-up in Trump World received for their roles in trying to subvert the 2020 election was imposed by two Black women, the election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whose $148 million defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani offers the only genuine taste of schadenfreude from the coup attempt.

Giuliani was back in federal court yesterday, where, as the NYT put it, he lost his lawyers and his temper. In addition to getting smacked around by a federal judge for his courtroom outburst, Giuliani was taken to task once again for his dilatory efforts to surrender assets to Freeman and Moss to satisfy their enormous judgment against him for lying about them trying to commit election fraud during the 2020 vote count.

With his original lawyers allowed to withdraw from the case, having cited an unspecified dispute over “professional ethics,” it was left to Giuliani’s new lawyer to shut his client up in front of the judge, to no avail. The judge warned that Giuliani, himself now disbarred in New York and D.C., would face sanction for any further outbursts.

The judge refused to delay a trial set for January over the disposition of some of Giuliani’s assets, a delay Giuliani has sought so he could attend Donald Trump’s second inauguration. The irony of course is that Giuliani got himself in this mess while representing Trump, who failed to pay him. Giuliani’s claims against the Trump campaign for unpaid bills is one of the assets he’s having to surrender…

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War for Ukraine Day 1,009: Russia Attacks Ukraine’s Energy Infrastructure in the Small Hours of the Night

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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)

About two hours or so after last night’s update published, Russia committed more war crimes by attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Approximate movement of targets in Ukraine tonight.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) November 28, 2024 at 7:53 AM

▪️ Lutsk: Part of the city is without electricity. Critical infrastructure is being connected to generators.
▪️ Rivne region: more than 280.000 people are without electricity in the region. There are problems with water.
▪️ Kyiv: debris falls on an open area in the Dnipro district.

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— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) November 28, 2024 at 3:32 AM

▪️ Kharkiv: damaged production buildings of enterprises and a high-rise building.
▪️ Vinnytsia region: damaged residential buildings, destroyed utility building. There is a victim.
▪️ Mykolaiv: due to the power outage, transport and educational institutions are not working.

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— MAKS 24 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) November 28, 2024 at 3:32 AM

Ukraine has been forced to implement emergency power shutdowns this morning after a massive Russian missile and drone attack targeting key energy infrastructure in cities across the country, authorities said.
@financialtimes.com live news: www.ft.com/content/d509…

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— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.bsky.social) November 28, 2024 at 2:34 AM

⚡️’Putin wants to escalate’ before Trump takes office — Zelensky hits back at Oreshnik threats.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to escalate the war in Ukraine so that U.S. President Donald Trump fails to end the full-scale war, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Nov. 28.

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— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) November 28, 2024 at 3:50 PM

From The Kyiv Independent:

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to escalate the war in Ukraine so that U.S. President Donald Trump fails to end the full-scale war, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Nov. 28.

Zelensky’s comments come in response to Putin’s fresh threats to target “decision-making centers” in Kyiv and Ukrainian military facilities with Oreshnik, Russia’s new intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

“(Putin) is aiming to disrupt the efforts of President Trump that are sure to come after his inauguration,” Zelensky said in his evening address.

“Putin wants to escalate the situation now so that President Trump fails to end the war.”

Speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Astana earlier in the day, Putin said that Russia’s military leadership is now “choosing targets” in Ukraine to hit them with Oreshnik.

Zelensky called Putin’s actions “pressure” to force Trump to accept Russia’s terms.

On the campaign trail, Trump has criticized military support provided to Ukraine by Joe Biden’s administration and pledged to get the U.S. “out” of the war. While the details of his plans remain elusive, some reports indicate this would entail forcing Ukraine to cede territory and at least temporarily give up on its NATO accession plans.

Russia first launched Oreshnik in an attack against the city of Dnipro on Nov. 21. Shortly thereafter, Putin claimed that “there are currently no ways of countering this weapon,” which later was refuted by Zelensky.

Russia’s Oreshnik attack followed Kyiv’s first successful strike on a military target on Russian soil using U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles. The Russian Defense Ministry admitted more such strikes against targets in Kursk and Bryansk oblasts had followed later.

More on Putin’s threats after the jump.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Thursday Evening Open Thread: ‘Disrupt Thanksgiving!’

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time to diSruPt Thanksgiving wapo.st/497t7tv

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— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 3:41 PM

Alexandra Petri, at the Washington Post, “Make Thanksgiving Efficient Again” [gift link]:

… Elon Musk here. You might know me from the Department of Government Efficiency, a.k.a. DOGE (get it?), or from the fact that you are forced to think about me every day whether you want to or not. That’s peak efficiency, when people are thinking about me and working to my benefit.

I can’t wait to start doing to the federal government what I have already done to Twitter: removing all the parts that made it responsive to users, and replacing them with DOGE memes, tumbleweeds and a vague air of menace.

As a fun warm-up for my work on the government, I thought I’d start by tackling Thanksgiving. I’m a disrupter at heart. Whenever I see anything functioning as intended, a little something in me dies…

First, it doesn’t need to be in person. Thanksgiving should be mostly VR. Imagine if instead of sitting at a dining table with your relatives, you were fighting a virtual minotaur in the comfort and isolation of your home! Imagine if instead of eating lovingly prepared green beans and mashed potatoes in the company of human beings, you were eating a dense, flavorless nutrition pellet while sitting next to an animated AI rendering of the Mona Lisa! Much better.

By eliminating the in-person and food elements of Thanksgiving, we can maximize the value of the holiday: increasing everyone’s time for posting, where it can build value for me, Elon Musk!…

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Reminder: Balloon Juice Zoom Tonight at 8 pm Eastern

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If you haven’t already, please send me an email message if you want to be part of the Balloon Juice zoom tonight – and I’ll reply with the zoom link.

I’m sure this will be like the calendar threads, almost no comments but lots of email messages will arrive, so I’ll know that someone read it. :-)

 

 

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Happy Thanksgiving

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Happy Thanksgiving 2

What are we doing today? What time is the zoom? And yes I kinda did just ask that publicly to irritate Watergirl instead of asking via text and there is a reason for that. She’s been very down since the election, so I thought maybe I could piss her off and get her angry instead of depressed. What can I say, I’m a giver.

It’s a tough time, but I am still grateful. For all the things watergirl does here, for all the awesome front pagers, for my family, for my pets, for the little lady, and of course, for most of you commenters.

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Dessert Table Monitor Open Thread

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Happy Thanksgiving, Jackals! Hope your meal prep is going well. My eldest niece in Pennsylvania just posted this to the family group chat with the caption, “somebody just learned he likes pie crust.”

a messy table covered with board games and pies. at the far end, a pair of point ears pokes up

Those ears belong to Red, the Blue Heeler. While I’m fond of dogs, he is the only dog I’ve ever loved. Hope you have someone similarly vigilant willing to test your desserts for you. Open thread.

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