Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

The revolution will be supervised.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

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

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

The National Guard is not Batman.

Second rate reporter says what?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

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

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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Archives for 2024

Late Night Open Thread: Let the Masses Enjoy Their Simple Pleasures

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I would much rather undergo a(nother) root canal than even the most refined of sea cruises, but c’mon. Ever-bigger cruise ships are built because more people want to take the kind of vacation their improved incomes finally permit them to dream about! Even if one objects to ‘tourists’ cluttering otherwise attractive foreign sites and threatening local eco-systems, why not let people congregate on a big floating petri dish cargo ship where they can gorge on familiar dishes, unleash their screaming offspring, and make potentially terrible romantic choices?

Quote from a locked account:

Late stage capitalism means that roughly once a year a middle class family can go on a decadent entertainment ship staffed by people who are also making a living wage and can afford their own vacations.

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War for Ukraine Day 692: Russia Has Once Again Bombarded Civilian Targets in Kharkiv

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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)

President Zelenskyy was in Davos today where he addressed the World Economic Forum. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Tuesday Night Open Thread

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Another busy day, Got a bunch of work done, did some more organizing, and most importantly, I got to the cox communication store and turned in the modem and remote tv boxes that had not been upgraded since 2016 or so. The internet and everything is working MUCH MUCH BETTER now.

Was at Wally World to pick up a couple things for dinner (we had most of the stuff on hand), but I was making chili and wanted some cornbread muffins, so I picked up a box of Jiffy and some jalapeno’s. Is there a better more consistent product then Jiffy brand cornbread? Yes, I’m sure there are better, and making from scratch is always the best, but damned if that shit has been the same for as long as I’ve been cooking and always gets the job done.

While I was there I picked up some yeast, and think tomorrow I am going to bake some bread.

What are you all up to? BTW- I have Joelle crack rock addicted to Loudermilk on Netflix.

*** Update ***

I have also been informed that when explaining how to use a remote saying “Use the button that looks like carriage return” is not helpful because no one other than me has apparently used the term carriage return in 50 years.

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Tuesday Evening Open Thread: How We Win

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Relational positioning, from Never-Trumper J.V. Last, at the Bulwark:

… [U]nlike every other contested primary in the modern era, Trump will arrive at the nomination in a pre-campaign state where he has yet to take a punch.

And the reality is this: Do you think Republican voters are likely to become more comfortable with Trump the more they see of him over the next 10 months? I do not. Historically, Trump’s approval numbers have moved inversely to the magnitude of his public presence.

I expect that once there is a real race, with Biden actually hitting Trump where he is softest, and Trump is in everyone’s face, we are likely to see some erosion of Republican support for Trump at the margins. Not a huge decline—but enough to measure. Enough to be dispositive.

Finally: Do you think Democratic voters are likely to become more disaffected with Biden over the next 10 months? I do not, for two reasons.

First, because the objective economic facts continue to improve and filter through the electorate. Second, because as we approach the election, not supporting Biden transforms from being a signal of dissatisfaction with his administration to an act of concrete support for Trump. On this score, I suspect we are near the high-water mark for Biden discontent among those Democratic groups and that they will gradually return to their party’s fold.

All of which is to say that it is hard to see why Trump could move any further ahead and not difficult to see why Biden’s standing could/should improve.

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Relational organizing, per Victor Shi, “Youngest Biden Delegate 20”:

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Turnout

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Josh Marshall has some observations about Iowa turnout:

Roughly 110,000 voters turned out for last night’s caucuses. That compares to 187,000 in 2016. (2012 and 2008 were closer to last night’s numbers 122,000 and 120,000, respectively.) But that’s still the lowest turnout in more than a decade and dramatically lower than the last contest in 2016. […]

Josh looks at a couple of possible reasons, including cold and the fact that Trump’s nomination is a foregone conclusion.  But he also thinks that it’s another example of lackluster enthusiasm on the part of Republicans (something we’ve seen for the last couple of years.)

For all of the context-free “if I could talk to the animals” pieces about Trump voters in diners, the political media’s coverage of Iowa voters doesn’t talk much about the role of Fox News and allied conservative outlets as cynicism factories.  The daily Fox message is “everything is fucked up and bullshit,” which is a easy message since on any given day of the year, things are fucked up and bullshit.  What Fox is missing, in marketing speak, is a Call to Action (CTA).  “Everything’s fucked up, vote for Trump” is not a valid CTA when their audience has voted for Trump once and, let’s face it, have gotten very damn little.

Anyone with two eyes, two ears and a barely functioning brain can figure out that things were still fucked up and bullshit under Trump’s benighted reign — and whether you agree or disagree with them, there are a lot of Iowa Republicans with eyes, ears and at least a wee bit of common sense.  The one “real” accomplishment of the Trump era, Dobbs, is a hobby horse for a smaller percentage of the Republican electorate than I think is usually recognized, especially if it means your daughter might bleed to death because her OB is afraid of doing an emergency D&C without approval of the church and the district attorney. His tax cuts weren’t that great for middle-class, older voters.  Trump never did build his wall:  voters in rural states like Iowa realize that you can’t run a packing plant or a pig confinement operation without migrant labor, so I’m guessing that migrant caravans might be something that people complain about, but it’s not enough to get voters to a high school gym when it’s -20 and blowing snow.

Finally, Trump’s schtick isn’t new anymore, and his legal troubles have made him (and his rhetoric) far more inward-focused than he was in 2016.  Never forget that Trump had the most free media of any candidate in modern history, The Apprentice.  You could see why Iowa voters would be excited about him 8 years ago when he was a shiny new toy.  Today, he’s no more exciting than boring DeSantis, or brown/female Hayley.  Better to stay home on the recliner than to risk frostbite to vote for any of them.

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So Much Winning

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While i am (impatiently) waiting for a ruling on Trump’s immunity claims from the appeals court, which may not even come today, though I still think it might, let us savor.

🌼

Do you feel like we “waited for Mueller”?  From one perspective, I kind of fell like I did.  Of course I was politically active in the meantime, but for quite some time I thought Mueller would save us.  Mueller did good work, but he most definitely did not save us.

🌼

Open thread.

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The Ron DeSantis Challenge Open Thread

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As far as I can tell, this tweet that Anne Laurie posted recently is the only good thing DeSantis or his campaign has ever done.

The Ron DeSantis Challenge: Can you name even one good thing that he or his campaign has ever done, besides put together the video below?

In case you can’t come up with anything else good Desantis has done, please feel free to list the WORST thing you think he and his campaign has ever done. Bonus points if you can explain why that’s the worst thing.

The Ron DeSantis Challenge Open Thread

Think of it as a early roast for the going away party for Ron.  On Monday, when I first put this post together, I had written this, but sadly, it looks like we’ll have Ron DeSantis to kick around for awhile longer.  Maybe just two more weeks?

He surely won’t be in the race after, what, Wednesday?  Or maybe by Wednesday they will figure out that he’s toast, but they will think that if they wait a week maybe no one will notice and it will be less humiliating to drop out.

*Pausing the campaign also counts as dropping out.

Open thread.

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