Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

When I was faster i was always behind.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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Reader Interactions

135Comments

  4. 4.

    different-church-lady

    Half the country is FUCK NO THIS IS NOT FINE, and the other half is THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT!

  5. 5.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Here in the SF Bay Area we’re expecting 50 mph winds tonight due to our version of the Santa Anas. Fortunately with all the rain we’ve had, which SoCal didn’t, there’s no fire danger. There’s a major power outage further up the Peninsula, so  I’m guessing power lines must have gone down.

  6. 6.

    mali muso

    So after a solid 2 weeks holiday vacation from school, kiddo has still not been back this week due to snow-related cancellations. And tomorrow is yet another one. Lucky that this is a slow time of year for me and I can work from home.

    Relieved to see that we held the necessary seats in the Virginia special elections today. Can’t wait to kick governor sweatervest to the curb.

  7. 7.

    different-church-lady

    @Miki: No recipe: there was some haddock on sale, and we put in a pan with some olive oil, diced tomatoes, olives, garlic and a bit of lemon, and it was heaaaaaaavenly….

  8. 8.

    pat

    The news tonight is all about the horrible fire raging in southern CA.  Santa Ana winds up to 80-100mph coming over the ridge , traffic jams so bad the people are told to leave their cars and escape on foot, bulldozers shoving abandoned cars off the road so fire equipment can get through.  Horrible.

  10. 10.

    tam1MI

    So this was all over my Facebook feed today.

    Nice to see that Zuckerberg’s plan to do away with fact checkers is going swimmingly…

  11. 11.

    Hungry Joe

    I haven’t Juiced for a couple of days, so I don’t know if anyone has brought this up:

    If the U.S. sends troops to take Greenland, wouldn’t other NATO countries be bound (by the NATO pact) to come to Denmark’s defense? War with Canada! The U.K.! And France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, etc. etc. Maybe we could make a pact with Putin, and Russia could attack from the east …

  18. 18.

    eclare

    Same.  Trying to decide what to watch.  If anyone has ideas, I have Netflix.  Note, I do not like British stuff, outside of baking show, generally.

  25. 25.

    kalakal

    @Hungry Joe: Don’t forget the invasions of Canada, Mexico, and Panama! And all the troops in the US required to occupy the major cities when he invokes the Insurrection Act! And the occupation of California. He may be heading for overstretch here…

    Meanwhile China takes Taiwan.

    Manly Men will come up to him with tears in their eyes..

  28. 28.

    Percysowner

     

    @eclare: Cobra Kai is kind of fun. The early seasons are better, but it is still fun. If you can do subtitles and a very different outlook on life there are some good Chinese Dramas and Korean dramas out there. I lean toward fantasy type, so Untamed, Mystic Pop Up Bar, Hotel de Luna are all good. Under the Queen’s Umbrella is a Korean historical drama.

  30. 30.

    Ohio Mom

    @Sister Golden Bear: We had 50 mph winds once, I’m guessing about 17 years ago. The power went out for five days and our house is all electric. It was a long week.

    It was the remains of a hurricane. Fortunately it was fall so we weren’t too cold or too hot. And the elementary school had electricity so Ohio Son had something to distract him.

    50 mph winds are scary, especially watching the trees fight to stay upright.

  33. 33.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @tam1MI: Why, you can’t possibly mean you don’t live to engage on a platform dedicated to free speech where any old common fake bot person can call you an asshole? Killjoy.

  34. 34.

    sentient ai from the future

    @tam1MI: i pointed it out in the earlier thread about it, but moving that team from CA to TX is an especially fuckety fuck-you to any team members with trans kids.

  35. 35.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @pat: Although the fire is small by CA standards — only about 3,000 acres — unfortunately it’s on the east side of a densely populated area, with very limited access in and out, since Pacific Palisades is right on the Pacific and the fire cut off several major roads. Fire map here. So the Santa Anas are blowing directly towards the home, and when the winds reach that speed there’s not that much firefighters can do to stop it.

    News reports as of about two hours ago said the Getty Villa museum had its galleries and library archives were sealed off from smoke by state-of-the-art air handling systems, and fortunately they had completed major brush clearing around the museum last year, to create a fire barrier. So hopefully there won’t be too much damage.

  36. 36.

    Another Scott

    @Hungry Joe:

    AFAIK, the concept of a plan is to buy Greenland.

    5,390,178 acres

    Google tells me that US farmland averages about $4,000 per acre.

    $21.6B

    Melon could write them a check!!

    But of course, Denmark would want a premium at least as good as Jack got with Twitter:

    The initially proposed $13 billion in money borrowed by Twitter was equivalent to seven times the company’s 2022 projected operating cash flow; […]

    The final price was $43B, or 43*7/13 = 23.15x 1 year cash flow.

    $21.6B x 23.15 = $500B.

    Melon could write them a check!!

    But Denmark would obviously want a premium beyond that, since they’d be giving up Greenland forever, so they might say they’d be willing to start negotiations at 10x that, or $5T. And for collateral, they’d want equivalent assets in the USA – say, Texas and Florida. Melon likes Texas and Donnie like Florida, so that should work out fine.

    That’s what I would do.

    [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]

    Best wishes,
    Scott.
    —
    (Who also remembers Scott’s buying Miracle-Gro and paying the owners of it so much that they ended up in control of the combined company. Funny how that works.)

  37. 37.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Well crap. Went to urgent care after work because I’ve been having lightheadedness sporadically since Sunday. BP is high compared to my normal 110/70 and the Doc saw some things during a test so sent me to ER. 2 hour wait to hopefully find out it’s nothing!

  40. 40.

    dmsilev

    Huh. Well, the foothills not too many miles north of me are visibly on fire. Far enough away that I’m not in any danger, but I know people who live a lot closer to the area currently burning. Fingers crossed that they’re all ok.

    This is the ‘Altadena fire’ for those keeping track.

  42. 42.

    Scout211

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Aaaaand another fire near Altadena. Eaton Fire

    Los Angeles County firefighters are battling a second brush fire with a large potential for growth in the Eaton Canyon area near Altadena.

    The fire, dubbed the Eaton Fire, was first reported at around 6:40 p.m. in the area near Altadena Drive and Midwick Drive above Altadena, according to Cal Fire and LACoFD crews. Early numbers from firefighters show that the blaze had engulfed about 200 acres of brush and was burning uphill, as noted by the Angeles National Forest on X.

    Pasadena Fire Department crews say that significant wind in the area is causing the flames to act erratically and spread quickly.

    As of 7:20 p.m. evacuation orders were issued for some people living in both Altadena and Pasadena.

  43. 43.

    Ruckus

    @pat:

    I live about 4 miles below the San Gabriel Mountains and it’s blowing  as hard as I’ve ever seen it, having lived here for most of my 75 years. The winds are in the 50-70 mph range with gusts to 80 mph. I’ve seen fires, earthquakes, and winds but this one is as high level as I’ve ever experienced. And of course there will be fires.

  44. 44.

    Kyle Rayner

    @mali muso: Also happy about today’s special election victory! I believe that means there’ll be yet another special election down the road? lol

    SO ready for the gubernatorial race. Not that it’s a sure thing, but feels like there’ll be plenty for the Dem platform to work with.

  45. 45.

    eemom

    @mali muso:

    Fellow Virginian here. My kids are long past snow days but I checked the FCPS website Sunday evening and shared the closure notification with them, and my daughter noted “Wow they really haven’t updated the interface at all” since she graduated HS in 2013. 😳

  47. 47.

    KatKapCC

    @pat: There are nitwits in comments on Gov Newsom’s FB posts about evac orders being like “Eff you, you can’t tell me what to do” and “You just want to control us like during Covid” and blah blah. I’m like…sure, please, go ahead and let yourself burn to death as a way to stick it to the governor. Good Lord.

  51. 51.

    MobiusKlein

    It’s fucking winter, why is SoCal burning this much?

    My buddy down that way (where the winds are blowing from, not to) is all scattered in brain from all the shit going down – fire, nazis, and post 1/6 amnesia.   No normal is here

  55. 55.

    KatKapCC

    @MobiusKlein: Remember that “winter” doesn’t necessarily mean a damn thing in California. They have not had much rain at all and the Santa Ana winds can be brutal. As we’ve seen in other situations, it only takes one tiny spark and some dry brush and breeze to start something like this.

  59. 59.

    Trivia Man

    @Ruckus: not to change the subject, but ive been curious. Whats the one state you have never visited? I thought you had lived all over but it sounds like mostly  one place plus lots if travel. You always have interesting insight and stories to share.

  60. 60.

    dmsilev

    @Sister Golden Bear: yikes, that is bad.

    I’m hearing that government and church buildings in my neck of the woods are opening up as shelters for people evacuating from the Eaton fire. The evacuation warning zone starts maybe three miles from me.

  62. 62.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    @Sister Golden Bear: I was just reading Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and nobody in California is worried about fire.  Nobody.  And the Okies are building – and leaving behind — cooking and camp fires all over the place.

  67. 67.

    Scout211

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    CalFire aircraft has been grounded due to high winds.

    This is the accurate version (I think) of what you removed:

    Firefighting resources across the region have already been stretched thin to the point that the city of L.A. Fire Department requested that all off-duty firefighters call in to their supervisors to report if they’re available to assist in the firefight.

  69. 69.

    RevRick

    Tomorrow, I begin the day as part of a UCC clergy group discussing the book Preaching in the Purple Zone , about preaching social justice sermons in a politically divided church. In the early afternoon, it’s a Zoom commissioning service for our Climate Hope Affiliates with Keynote preacher, Rev. Michael Malcolm. The group I want to organize will advocate for environmental issues on the federal and state level in the PA7 district. Later in the afternoon, MrsRev and I head to the Philly suburbs for our granddaughter’s evening Winter Concert.

  73. 73.

    Redshift

    @mali muso: I’m very pleased about the special election results, too. Youngkin has been sucking up to TCFG for his own benefit instead of doing anything to benefit Virginians, and it’s important that his asinine plans go nowhere.

  74. 74.

    Ohio Mom

    @Another Scott: On another silly note, it obviously hasn’t occurred to Trump that after being purchased, the former citizens of Greenland — or Canada, or Panama — might not turn out to be loyal Republican voters. He could be bringing in a lot of Blue voters.

  75. 75.

    scav

    @KatKapCC: And we know damn well those exact same individuals will be front and center afterwards, carefully sitting in ashes and whining to the cameras that they’ve been abandoned by the government.

  76. 76.

    Ruckus

    @Trivia Man:

    Never been to Alaska. Every other state yes.

    Been to New Zealand, the UK, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Gibraltar, Italy, Greece, I think that’s about it.

    But if this weather in LA keeps up I may be blown there. I’d say it’s blowing over 40 mph in gusts. Good times.

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    @Ruckus

    Greenland, Canada and Panama are shiny, empty baubles dangled in front of the media to shift focus from his nominees.

  83. 83.

    pieceofpeace

    @Sister Golden Bear: I best stop and look into this.  My home is there, but so far outside is a lovely starry night.  Going outside gives an immediate  healing respite after political reads of the day.

  84. 84.

    Trivia Man

    @Ruckus: that was my guess. I am still short 5  for the full set of 50. (Well, 46 states and 4 commonwealths). Might get to nab WV on a road trip this summer.

  86. 86.

    NotMax

    @eclare

    If you’re okay with subtitles, for lighter fare might give a look at He’s Expecting and/or Marry My Dead Body. In a more dramatic vein, if you’ve never seen it, also too Dark>/em>.

  87. 87.

    FelonyGovt

    @MobiusKlein: Been very, very dry here, bringing us back into drought territory, and these winds are vicious. I’m in Los Angeles County, south of the fires, and these winds are whipping. Scary.

  88. 88.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:

    Oh of course!

    And every other nation, all 50 states and especially Washington DC.

    shitforbrains has gotten mentally far worse than he was not long ago. As someone who was a mental health counselor for 4 years and has talked to many normal people and a few not so normal, and attended collage to learn to be a mental health counselor – I’ll give a statement here. shitforbrains has gone around the bend – and yes has been living on the wrong side of reality for some time. But he is past the concept of not normal, and has fallen down into the hole of abby normal – deep, deep down. I have no idea what the near future will bring but our national government is going to be just a tad stressed for some time. And yes that tad is doing a hell of a lot of work.

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @FelonyGovt:

    I’m on the north east side of LA County and the wind gusts coming off the north hills have got some pretty decent velocity. Not as much as farther north but not insignificant either.

  92. 92.

    scav

    Those winds.  And they’re essentially on the flat (or at least foothills) where we’re getting video.  What’s going on when they’re compressed going down the mountain canyons?

  94. 94.

    Ruckus

    @scav:

    They tend to be stronger in the canyons.

    But they are a blowing rather strongly in the north east of LA county.

    I’ve seen stronger winds in the middle of the Atlantic but not much stronger.

  96. 96.

    Joey Maloney

    Regarding John’s interaction with the Sky Harbor mall cop he described downstairs, I only want to say: John, you’re my hero.

  97. 97.

    sentient ai from the future

    @Ruckus: by the time the 2028 election cycle is in full swing it is going to be very apparent to us political junkies whether we should be organizing for voter turnout or for a general strike.

    he’s putatively a lame duck.

    there are nitwit extremist members of his caucus who are wiling to oppose him, for now

    his VP is a lightweight whose qualification is brown-nosing

    so. we organize the fuck out of the 2026 midterms, which you should be doing now, and we assess our chances that he can command an insurrectionary force to violate the constitution and keep him in power, assuming he hasn’t died or his subordinates have enough confidence in his longevity that they dont 25th amendment him to sieze power

    (one thing people who do hospice work know is, NOBODY fuckin knows how long people last after asking for or agreeing to hospice)

  99. 99.

    scav

    @Ruckus: Yeah, I lived in one of those canyons (Baldy).  And these seem possibly stronger than anything I saw up there (including during at least two wildfires).

  100. 100.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Just a heads up: we had to evacuate due to the Eaton Canyon Fire.  We got the kitties and are at a friends house.  Fingers crossed for our house.  Winds should die down in the am.

  101. 101.

    hotshoe

    @BeautifulPlumage: ​
    Looking at that map, I see there’s evacuation order in effect for the city of Santa Monica, the northernmost neighborhood of 100 blocks of homes north of San Vicente Blvd. So let’s see, 100 blocks times hmm, twenty houses per block, mostly single-family; 2000 houses, that’s about 5000 more people evacuating tonight.

    This would be terrifying if this was your life:

    Evacuation ORDER: Immediate threat to life. This is an order to LEAVE NOW. The area is closed to public access.

    Well, at least, in the city there are infinite possible evacuation routes. Not like being trapped on the twisty road up by Topanga Canyon or on the end of Sunset behind 100 abandoned cars.​

  102. 102.

    Socolofi

    @NotMax: 100% yes. And the media is either too stupid and/or too motivated by stupid clicks but to keep running stories on this BS.

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:

    There is a reason I call him shitforbrains…

    As stated above I’ve professionally deal with people with mental health issues but never anyone as far into cuckoo land as he’s dived into, and by landing on a cement sidewalk – head first. From the top floor of his tallest building. The level of insanity has gone rapidly higher – as it often does once it starts. He’s aged out, gone gaga, lost the script, done everything but say bye-bye, because he likely has no real conscious idea of what he’s saying/doing. None at all.  I’ve dealt with people that were never seen by only one person in the room and two wasn’t really enough. (And I’ve been shot at before, and that was less scary)

  104. 104.

    JoyceH

    I read in the Post about Trump’s news conference, they talked about the content of what he said, mentioned his “rambling tangents, insults, false statements and hyperbole”. But I saw some clips on the news, and I was struck by his appearance – he looked baggy-eyed and disheveled, more than usual. Has anyone seen a news outlet mention Trump’s appearance?

    And does anyone else wonder if Vance is having prepped for him an inaugural speech Just In Case?

  105. 105.

    Jay

    @JoyceH:

    And does anyone else wonder if Vance is having prepped for him an inaugural speech Just In Case?

    Don’t you mean Apartheid Clyde rather than the MetroSectional?

  108. 108.

    Ruckus

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I used to live just east of the fire area, now I live about 15 miles east.

    Wishing you the best.

    This wind is brutal but I’ve seen worse. In the Navy, middle of the Atlantic with 50 foot seas and strong winds from the north west. For 5 days the wind didn’t drop below 40 knots, and was on occasion 50 knots. And I was in charge of the department that was in charge of the wind direction and speed equipment. Was up the mast (IN PORT) several times to work on the equipment – wind speed and direction. Good times. And none of you paid me a reasonable enough salary to do that…… Oh well it was better than being shot at on the other side of the world – Vietnam.

  111. 111.

    Ruckus

    @JoyceH:

    As a prior mental health counselor he looks like he’s losing it completely. Listening to him only strengthens my take on this.

    Once someone goes over the line (and he has) there is an extremely small possibility that they will come back to normal. But at his age and past distance from the edge, I doubt he will ever get better. This isn’t a disease that one takes a shot and gets over, this is one that very rarely stays at a constant negative level, it usually only gets worse. He’s aged out is the way we used to say it. And that isn’t about physical age, it’s about the inability to maintain any sort of normalcy. Not everyone that gets old goes there but once the trip is started – and to me it looks like it has – it only goes one direction. DOWN.

  115. 115.

    Michael Bersin

    Currently 14 degrees out tonight with a forecast low of 3.

    I saw a call for volunteers at a warming center in the basement of a local downtown church, so I ended up volunteering for the 11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. shift tonight.

    It’s quiet. People are warm, safe, and asleep. There are two volunteers for each shift.

    This is my first time volunteering here.

    We have to do better as a society. A lot better.

    There is no reasonable justification for a billionaire. None.

  119. 119.

    eclare

    Thank you to all of you who had viewing recommendations!  I appreciate it.

    Also, thoughts to people in fire danger in CA, I can’t imagine.  Stay safe.

  120. 120.

    NotMax

    @eclare

    If you have Prime video (i know, i know) and don’t mind subtitles you could do a whole heckuva lot worse than Little Coincidences (Pequenñas Coincidencias).. Fun multi-season romp with writing sharp enough to slice steel.

  121. 121.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @JoyceH: I was meeting friends for new years and one of them had the actuarial over/under on Trump at 1.7 years from the start of his presidency.

    If it’s a bit less than that then there would be flags at half mast for the 250th in July 2026.

    January 8 – Elvis’ birthday. Chance of Trump going out like Elvis did – on the bathroom floor?

  122. 122.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @NotMax: Greenland, Canada and Panama are shiny, empty baubles dangled in front of the media to shift focus from his nominees.

    The person being distracted is Trump because he is jealous of all the love being shown for Jimmy Carter.

    I saw a little bit of that “press conference” and Trump really did come across as mentally ill.

  125. 125.

    Ruckus

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Was a mental health counselor long ago, but brains and their deterioration haven’t changed. His brain hasn’t been all that and a box of anything for a lot of decades, I’d say 8 of them….

    But from what I’ve heard/seen he’s on the downhill segment. Now he’s been on it for some time, and showing it, but the ride gets steeper as time goes by, and he didn’t seem to start out on the upper side of the charts, so I don’t expect that it will be long before everyone sees the decline. Or already have.

  126. 126.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Ruckus: Today he was certainly a lot worse than even than his weird acceptance speech at the RNC

    I wonder how much drugs they load him up with to keep him sounding rational enough that his supporters can pretend.

  127. 127.

    Mike S

    The Pacific Palisades fire has decimated what I expect to be high hundreds of homes. In the 50 plus years I’ve lived in santa monica I’ve never seen anything like it. My wife grew up in the palisades and has heard from a lot of her friends that they lost their or their family homes.

    The fire tore through the city from the hills to the beach. I saw the start of it from my station and I knew they were screwed but I didn’t think it would be this bad. There are over 10,000 housing units up there.

    And it’s spread north to Topanga and south toward santa monica.  We don’t even know where the front lines are because it’s too windy and dark to fly.

    Fuck! Tomorrow is going to be horrific.

  128. 128.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I think the Palisades Fires shows what the real problem with Trump as president – Trump’s basically useless, only good for shit talking on the best of days, but the government will run it’s well enough until something serious goes wrong and then there is no leadership to deal with the problem because Trump is to busy giving press conferences on how we need to smash the gnomes who are stealing his socks.

  129. 129.

    Ruckus

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Last I knew there really wasn’t anything that can restore a brain that has started down that noticeable downhill road to the end. And from what I’ve heard the last few days……..

    Now of course he didn’t start at the top of that hill so the ride down won’t be normal. And he’s already past the starting line

    I also believe that he’s way beyond what any drugs can do – and likely has been for some time

    Now I’m not a doctor and not up on what’s what on the reviving a brain situation these days but my limited experience is that once on the downhill side there isn’t anything more that a possible slowdown. See the sentence above.

  130. 130.

    NotMax

    @eclare

    i maintain an Amazon prime membership primarily for the savings on shipping (costs to Hawaii elsewhere are brutal). That it includes Prime video along with the membership is a pleasant bonus; lotta stuff therein, especially as in my case if one is a vintage movie/TV buff.

    Not too widely known is that anyone with a prime membership can piggyback one other person on their membership. Maybe you have a family member or friend willing to do so? Splitting the annual fee among two is a bargain. (I added Mom to mine, though as a gift – I pay the full fare.)

  132. 132.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Unless he decides the thing to do is start a war, which is what it sounds like he’s gearing up for this time.

    What I’m really afraid of is the general mental corruption, the way a majority of the people are just going to decide that whatever diarrhea came out of his brain is a great idea and they were for it all along.

  134. 134.

    lowtechcyclist

    Personally, I could do with things being a lot less interesting.

    As the tag line says, “fuck these fucking interesting times.”

  135. 135.

    No Nym

    @Michael Bersin: “There is no reasonable justification for a billionaire. None.”

    This is where my thoughts always land when I consider our current cultural crisis.

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