Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

It’s the corruption, stupid.

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

We still have time to mess this up!

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Let there be snark.

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

Everybody saw this coming.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

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

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Grind

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Grind

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Special counsel Jack Smith said his team “stood up for the rule of law” as it investigated President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, writing in a much-anticipated report released Tuesday that he stands fully behind his decision to bring criminal charges that he believes would have resulted in a conviction had voters not returned Trump to the White House.

“The throughline of all of Mr. Trump’s criminal efforts was deceit — knowingly false claims of election fraud — and the evidence shows that Mr. Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States’ democratic process,” the report states.

The report, arriving just days before Trump is to return to office on Jan. 20, focuses fresh attention on the Republican’s frantic but failed effort to cling to power in 2020 after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. With the prosecution foreclosed thanks to Trump’s 2024 election victory, the document is expected to be the final Justice Department chronicle of a dark chapter in American history that threatened to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, a bedrock of democracy for centuries, and complements already released indictments and reports…

The Justice Department transmitted the report to Congress early Tuesday after a judge refused a defense effort to block its release. A separate volume of the report focused on Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, actions that formed the basis of a separate indictment against Trump, will remain under wraps for now.

The report is unsparing in its details about schemes undertaken by Trump to undo the presidential contest, accusing him of an “unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power.”

It recounts his role in trying to force the Justice Department to use its law enforcement authorities to advance his personal interests, participating in a scheme to enlist fake electors in battleground states won by Biden and having directed “an angry mob to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification of the presidential election and then leverage rioters’ violence to further delay it.”…

Though most of the details of Trump’s efforts to undo the election are already well established, the document includes for the first time a detailed assessment from Smith about his investigation, as well as a defense by Smith against criticism by Trump and his allies that the inquiry was politicized or that he worked in collaboration with the White House — an assessment he called “laughable.”

“While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters,” Smith wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland attached to the report. “I believe the example our team set for others to fight for justice without regard for the personal costs matters.”…

 
Good advice:

These are good questions, but we need social support too.
Think about forming a group of friends or colleagues with whom you can do reality checks. Trump's power comes from keeping us off balance.

[image or embed]

— Cheryl Rofer (@cherylrofer.bsky.social) January 12, 2025 at 9:24 AM


Also on point…

I actually think part of the problem the Democrats face in the current political climate is that the instinct to argue from a position of "everything sucks, everything is broken" strengthens the reactionary, nostalgic appeal of their opponents, but its a habit they can't seem to shake.

— "Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux (@bretdevereaux.bsky.social) January 12, 2025 at 12:23 PM

Liberalism cannot admit that it won. Bread was conquered and a human being can feed themselves for a day on just an hour of minimum wage work. Universal mass suffrage. Universal high school education. 40 hour work weeks. The sum of human knowledge in your pocket.

— Sasho Todorov (@sashotodorov.bsky.social) January 12, 2025 at 12:26 PM

How does a millenia long struggle defined by seizing gains from a ruling class manage to shift to a mentality where the primary purpose is to protect, defend, and promote how strong those gains were?

— Sasho Todorov (@sashotodorov.bsky.social) January 12, 2025 at 12:28 PM

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Grind

(Clay Jones via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

138Comments

  1. 1.

    TBone

    Online Rent A Sage and Sasho are right on! *pumps fist

    I tell people they can’t knock me off balance because I am already off balance and accustomed to it.

  2. 2.

    Professor Bigfoot

    Once again, until America stops and grapples with the role of white male Christian supremacy inherent in the “conservative movement,” ANYTHING we do can only be palliative.

  6. 6.

    Scout211

    Thank you for the Clay Jones comic, AL.  I needed a laugh this morning.  The Russian flag on his sleeve with the sippy cup is perfect.  I think the sippy cup reads, “Cannon’s Con” but it looks blurry on my screen so I could be wrong.

    In other misinformation news, last night the media was all aflutter, citing a Bloomberg story exclusive stating that one of the plans for TikTok after it’s banned in the US is for Musk to buy it.  Reuters

    China’s government has a “golden share” in ByteDance, which several members of Congress have said gives the government power over Tiktok.

    Under one scenario, Musk’s social media platform X would take control of TikTok U.S. and run the business together, the report said. Officials have yet to reach a consensus about how to proceed, according to Bloomberg News.

    TikTok was not having it.

    “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a TikTok spokesperson said, responding to the report.

  7. 7.

    TBone

    Digby read it, but not the footnotes yet.  She is depressed, and she says

    It’s pretty clear from the report, although he doesn’t say it, that [Jack Smith] believes the Supreme Court decision was an abomination, not least because it left so many loose ends that it would have taken years to unravel (which I assume was a feature not a bug.) I’d guess that was all for the purpose of protecting Dear Leader had he lost the election. They were never going to let him be tried. I think they would have dragged it out until he was in his grave if need be.

  8. 8.

    H.E.Wolf

    Palliative care is humane, compassionate, and worth providing… while we work on lowering the barriers to providing restorative and sustaining care.

    We can, after all, do both. And as the Jewish faith tradition says, “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

  11. 11.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: It’s really no longer about TCFG anymore, but the way the Republican Party is willing to go right along with the wrecking ball.

    From the Supremes to the individual stated legislatures that are gerrymandered to Republican supremacy, the GOP as an organization are as dedicated to bringing down these multicultural United States as quickly as they can.

     

    [ed because, as a pedant, I hate spelling errors. “muticultural,” indeed. oy.]

  15. 15.

    mapanghimagsik

    Posted from previous. I gave the Jack Smith Report to Google Notes, and its LLM summary of the 174 page report was pretty nice, when asked if the report indicated Trump Interfered:

    Yes, the report states that Donald J. Trump engaged in a criminal effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election in order to retain power. The report details several ways in which Mr. Trump allegedly attempted to interfere with the election:

    • Pressuring state officials. Mr. Trump contacted state legislators and executives, urging them to ignore vote counts and change results, using false claims of election fraud. For example, he pressured the Speaker of the Arizona House to replace legitimate electors with illegitimate ones. He also called Georgia’s Secretary of State and urged him to “find 11,780 votes”.
    • Creating a fraudulent elector plan. Mr. Trump and his co-conspirators organized individuals in seven states to sign and send false certifications claiming to be the legitimate electors. These false certifications were then intended to be used to obstruct the congressional certification of the election.
    • Misusing official power through the Department of Justice. Mr. Trump attempted to use the Justice Department to spread his lies and pressure states to overturn election results. He also considered appointing a DOJ attorney who was willing to use the department to further his goals.
    • Pressuring the Vice President. Mr. Trump pressured Vice President Mike Pence to use his ministerial position as President of the Senate to change the election outcome. He made false claims about the election to Vice President Pence.
    • Inciting a mob to obstruct the certification of the election. On January 6, 2021, Mr. Trump directed an “angry mob to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification of the presidential election and then leverage rioters’ violence to further delay it”. Mr. Trump also tweeted an attack on Mr. Pence which fueled the riot. The report also states that Mr. Trump’s claims of election fraud were demonstrably and, in many cases, obviously false. The report further asserts that evidence suggests Mr. Trump knew his claims were false because advisors both within and outside of his campaign told him the same.

    It really saves people like me who are drowning in docs some time. I like that in the Notebook it provides citations.

  16. 16.

    Torrey

    @Professor Bigfoot:

      Thank you! Guessing that neither Devereaux nor Todorov have lost any rights lately and that both face prospective traffic stops with the calm annoyance of men who know it will result in only a brief delay and, at worst, a ticket.

  17. 17.

    Spanky

    @Scout211:

    “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,”

    A phrase that I think will need to be uttered a lot in the coming 4 years. I doubt it will be, sadly.

  18. 18.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: Yeah, thats one right there.

    Motherfuckers.

    This is one reason why I’m avoiding Jack Smith’s report– I’m ALREADY an angry Black man, I don’t need to grind my own teeth down to nubs, right

    (I’m also gonna (’cause you know i have to) point out that the techbroligarchs are all white dudes propping up white dude supremacy) 

  21. 21.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: I’ve been thinking that ESPECIALLY since the Maria Butina incident.

    Putin has been funneling massive amounts of cash to the GOP and no doubt has a nice THICCCC dossier on every major one.

    “Plomo o plata” is an ancient motivator.

  22. 22.

    Melancholy Jaques

    I don’t know if I am going to be able to handle it when that asshole and his coterie of corrupt troglodytes takes over. Currently searching for isolated cabins on zillow.

  23. 23.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: yup. Of course, Pooty himself is a “broligarch,” literally the one richest man on the planet.

    They’re much less coerced than they are willing fellow-travelers, the sonsabitches.

  26. 26.

    TBone

    @mapanghimagsik: not my job.  I’m retired and I said others may appreciate YOUR summary!  Please excuse my repulsion to AI, it’s ingrained from reading legal documents.  There’s usually a catch that AI would miss.

  28. 28.

    TBone

    @Melancholy Jaques: I don’t recommend that at our ages, unless it’s in an area generally not populated by rednecks and is close enough to emergency medical care.  Been there, done that.

  29. 29.

    Ohio Mom

    @mapanghimagsik: I know careful documentation is essential, I know Smith’s report will be important through the ages, but I knew the broad outline of this already, so did all of us.

    It’s discouraging that it doesn’t make any difference. If the truth sets us free, it’s on an awfully long timeline.

    Oh well. The day’s chores await me. I am sorting through the unfinished projects in the girl cave/office/guest room, with the goal of uncovering the bed and floor by the end of the month. Whatever awaits us all, I plan to have a lightened and organized load.

  30. 30.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @TBone:

    True. And reports written by lawyers have nuances, careful language, subtleties a spectrograph would miss. I do not know if LLM or AI can recognize such things.

    I read a bit of what’s been put into circulation and my initial thought is that everyone knew or suspected all of this but they voted for him anyway. I have to step away because my rage only hurts me.

  31. 31.

    Ohio Mom

    @TBone: Emergency medical care — and ideally, a teaching hospital. All the ER does is stabilize you, after that you need specialists to treat and monitor.

  32. 32.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Ohio Mom: Oh well. The day’s chores await me.

    I find myself saying that all the time. Well, less about the chores than, “oh well, it will be what it will be” and just focus on whatever’s right in front of me.

    Like learning CAD to go with my 3D printing hobby. ;)

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

     “unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power.”

    trumpov should probably resign, right GOP?

    I mean, if it were a Democratic president returning to power under these circumstances, what would you be asking of the D party, eh GOP?

    #SameStandards

  35. 35.

    TBone

    @Melancholy Jaques: I’m sure Rachel Maddow and the MSNBC legal team, and the team at the new Contrarian outfit that MM posted about yesterday, will comb through this with a fine tooth – I don’t blame nonlawyers for not wanting to wade through all of it!  I remember when Jack Smith urged us all to read his indictment for ourselves.  But it’s not required reading for busy people!

  37. 37.

    Jackie

    The purging/saving ass moves begins:

    MSNBC president Rashida Jones is stepping down just days before Donald Trump returns to the White House.

    Rebecca Kutler, senior vice president of content strategy at MSNBC, will step in as interim president effective immediately, although Jones will remain in an advisory role through March, reported the New York Times.

    We’re gonna see a lot of media shuffling the next few weeks.

  41. 41.

    Belafon

    How does a millenia long struggle defined by seizing gains from a ruling class manage to shift to a mentality where the primary purpose is to protect, defend, and promote how strong those gains were?

    This one is easy: People don’t live for a millennia, and their memories are even shorter. It’s both a blessing and a curse that we measure things relative to where we personally are. As a curse, it keeps us from remembering as a people that we are doing better. As a blessing, it keeps from remembering how it felt when things were that crappy. But, if you get people who refuse to learn history and learn the lessons from it, some things slide backwards.

  45. 45.

    Jeffro

    @Professor Bigfoot: It’s really no longer about TCFG anymore, but the way the Republican Party is willing to go right along with the wrecking ball.

    110% this.

    He has, through his utter lack of principles/shame and arsonist mentality, informally created a permission structure where they are free to be their absolute worst selves.

    We need to put that out to the public at every opportunity.  They’ll get it.  And GOP reps will (eventually) pay a price for being as unhinged as trumpov.  They don’t have the fame, wealth, or name recognition that unfortunately helps many Americans excuse trumpov’s behavior.  The rest of the GOP is just a bunch of schlubs acting out horribly.

  48. 48.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Leto: I used to work with a bunch of crackerjack mechanical engineers, including the one who introduced me to 3D printing… and I used to stand outside their cubicles sometime and watch ’em manipulate things in 3D models.

    I WAS INTIMIDATED.

    But I’ve discovered “TinkerCAD” is simple enough for a blockhead like me to BEGIN to create useful things.

    The most fun thing about it– I have an engineering notebook again, full of scribblings about “this is 39.5mm wide so the slot needs to be 40.1…”

    (there’s also the fact that there are no deadlines… LOL)

  49. 49.

    sentient ai from the future

    The top line clownfucks, like Hegseth, nominated to That Fucking Guy’s cabinet are solely there to forestall a 25th amendment challenge. They are bureaucratic cannon fodder.

  50. 50.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @cain: I figured that out about whiteness long ago… but I was a grown-ass man before I understood about the *misogyny.*

    Here’s the thing about the Patriarchy– once you see it, you cannot STOP seeing it, EVERYWHERE.

    “Not all of us, just so goddamn many of us…”

  52. 52.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: holy moly.

    When I opened that article, I thought, “oh, that makes sense, sure, you could print all the components other than the lenses WHAT? THEY’RE PRINTING LENSES TOO???

    I am only familiar with FDM printing, but apparently you can do it with a resin printer… and I’m totally like “holy shit.”

    In the words of Captain Jack Aubrey, “…this modern world we live in!”

    (ed to add that FDM is “Filament Deposition Method,” which melts a plastic filament to deposit in exactly the right places to create an object. Resin printing uses a completely different technology- my MS Mechanical Engineering friend, who I consult with ’cause he’d been doing it for 20 years, threatened to beat me to death if I ever purchased a resin printer. Apparently they generate a lot of nasty fumes ‘n’ such– and anyway, I’ve got my hands full and my wallet empty doing what I’m doing!)

  60. 60.

    Belafon

    @Professor Bigfoot: As a straight white man, I personally have no problem with a broad “Ugh, white men” because yeah, white men need to be dealt with as a group. Unless the solution is eliminate all white men, I or my sons will ultimately benefit from it, because I really don’t feel the need to be superior to anyone else.

  62. 62.

    sentient ai from the future

    Multiple disruptions of hegseth’s speech to the Senate, my first guess would be veterans groups

  64. 64.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @sentient ai from the future: Bloody hell, I hadn’t even considered that.

    Good grief, the infighting in this administration is going to be EPIC.

    “Oh well, it will be what it will be. Meanwhile- say you need your car jump started this cold ass morning, neighbor, I got you.”

    ‘Cause we’re all gonna be in so much shit, we gotta cultivate our local communities.

  65. 65.

    p.a

    Hackers should see to it that every time the SUCo-6 open an electronic device this report downloads in a continuous loop.

     

    And it should be nailed to the judges’ entrance to the USSC building.

    Won’t change anything, but when all you have left is contempt, use it.

  66. 66.

    raven

    @Baud: Yea, there is a bunch of them in the hearing. He got a big USA,USA when he walked in. This dude is full of shit but we knew that.

  67. 67.

    New Deal democrat

    It’s important to note that only Volume 1 of the report, dealing with January 6, has been released. Volume 2, dealing with the documents are Mar-A-Lago, is still bottled up by Judge Cannon, who has scheduled a hearing for Friday. I am sure she will issue some sort of order after next Monday – probably that the issue has become moot because the new Administration will agree that the report should be buried.

    Among her many other outrages, please note that her Order is a prior restraint on speech, the worst kind of First Amendment violation. Smith has a report and wishes to publish it (indeed the statute appears to require it). Cannon is ordering that this speech not be published. This is exactly the sort of prior restraint that even the Burger Court of the 1970s moved expeditiously to overturn.

  69. 69.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Belafon: You are wise.

    White supremacy is ultimately corrosive to white people, despite the loss of that “privilege.”

    And believe me, when women say “good god, men are such shite,” I just nod my head sadly, thinking “ain’t we, though? not all of us, obviously, but so fucking many of us that she’s only being fucking rational.” [sigh]

  70. 70.

    Geminid

    Time of Israel correspondent Jacob Magid had some interesting reporting yesterday about efforts this past weekend to achieve a Gaza ceasefire:

          Trump Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff had a “tense” meeting w/PM Netanyahu during which the former leaned hard on the Israeli prime minister to accept compromises neccesary to secure a hostage deal by January 20. 1/3

    Witkoff’s pressure on Netanyahu appears to have worked, with two officials saying that key gaps were filled in the talks over the weekend. 2/3

    While the PM long pushed for a temporary ceasefire that amounted to the 2st phase of the 3-stage proposal submitted in May, the deal being finalized is increasingly close to original offer, with clauses connecting first phase w/2 others, making it harder for Israel to resume fighting. 3/3

    Witkoff had a meeting with Qatari Prime Minister al Thani Saturday morning, before he visited Israel, to familiarize himself with the negotiations thus far. I expect al Thani gave him an earful about the Israeli PM’s mendacity and obstruction.

    Along with CIA Director Burns and Egypt’s intelligence chief, al Thani has been one of the mediators between Israel and Hamas. He was the one who came up with the 3-stage framework that has been the basis for talks held on and off since last February.

  72. 72.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: Gangsters be gangsterin’ and Vladimir Vladimirovich is a straight up gangster.

    “So yeah, we’re funneling millions to your party and we have all the documentation of that; and also we have these videos of some of your members doing questionable things in our nice, thicccc dossiers. So you can keep your mouth shut and get rich, or open your mouth and get exposed. Take your choice.”

    GANGSTER.

  74. 74.

    bluefoot

    @Professor Bigfoot: I hear you on this.  One of the things I resent about TCFG, MAGA and their hangers on is that up until recently, hate was an extremely rare thing for me.  Now there are people I actually hate.  And anger and/or hopelessness seems ever-present.  As a WOC, I gotta say I am tired of all of it, and tired ot constantly fighting for my right to exist.

  75. 75.

    Princess

    @Geminid: Why does Witkoff want one *by* Jan 20th? I’d think Trump would want it on Jan. 20 in the afternoon. Or do they want Biden to get the blowback for the Palestinian prisoners who will be released?

  77. 77.

    Jackie

    @Jeffro:

    He [FFOTUS] has, through his utter lack of principles/shame and arsonist mentality, informally created a permission structure where they are free to be their absolute worst selves.

    The FFOTUS is a lame duck, and imo, hasn’t the power to make the GQP – in particular the HFC and senate hardliners – do his bidding any longer out of fear and retribution. They will use him to push their agendas, not the other way around.

    It’s going to be an entertaining – albeit in a train wreaking way – the next two years and beyond. A handcuffed Trump will prove to be very weak.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    Senator Reed is calmly stating that Hegseth supports war crimes and war criminals. Not retreating on core principles. Bravo.

  79. 79.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: Wow. I’d long ago heard about how “Lucky” Luciano used his connections to support the Allies in WWII.

    Fucker was a stone gangster, but was still a patriotic American (or perhaps he had the good sense to know what side his bread was buttered on… but still) and THESE sonsabitches are selling us out to Russia.

    But then, that’s how we know exactly who’s the capo di tutti capi, don’t we? Or perhaps I should call him Босс всех боссов.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    The Israeli Right screwed Biden though. Thoroughly. Now he owns the deal but got no political credit for it. Now Trump doesn’t have to deal.with it AND can blame Biden and Democrats and the deal for anything bad that happens there the next four years. Trump got all of that.

  85. 85.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    Fucker was a stone gangster, but was still a patriotic American (or perhaps he had the good sense to know what side his bread was buttered on… but still) and THESE sonsabitches are selling us out to Russia.

    The current parallel analogy is Liz Cheney.  Stone conservative, awful politics but still a patriotic ‘Murkin who sees what “these sonsabitches” are all about vis a vis Russia.

    Now, the other Never Trumpers see that too but are mostly about grifting.

  86. 86.

    Kay

    The Tik tokkers are moving to another Chinese app as a protest.

    So that was successful censorship. Good job, everyone. We’ve turned them actively pro China.

  87. 87.

    Soprano2

    Boy, I feel sorry for whoever at AT&T calls me back, because I discovered that not only did they not restore my home phone service yesterday, they gave our phone number to someone else after telling me we could have our old phone number back!!!!!!! Wow, am I pissed!!!!! I am SO FUCKING TIRED of people not doing the things they say they are going to do. First they cancelled our home phone service even though I called them TWICE and told them I didn’t ask for that. Now I find out what I wrote above. I called the number just to make sure it was still disconnected, and I got some plastics business. I’m sure it’s our number because I have a display phone at work!!!!

  88. 88.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @TBone:

    I was being facetious. My wilderness days were long ago.

    I do believe I need to construct a metaphorical place where I can take my mind to find peace.

  89. 89.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yes, this.

    Liz and Dick may well be bog-standard white male Christian supremacist conservatives, but they draw the line at treason.

    I honor them for that, though I still recognize them for what they really are.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @Princess: Witkoff wants a ceasefire ASAP because negotiators are close and conditions are favorable right now. He can’t count on the situation being as good next week, and Witkoff’s boss does not want to inherit this problem and all the difficulties and political costs involved in solving it.

    Just managing the ceasefire will be present enough problems over the next 18 weeks. That’s assuming they use the same format of 3 x 42-day phases that Prime Minister.al Thani originally proposed.

    That’s looking at the question on the political level. On the real world level, every day of delay brings more destruction and death to people in Gaza, and to IDF soldiers as well.

  91. 91.

    sab

    @Soprano2: AT&T. My parents had it with autopay. AT&T refused to be cancelled even after we had sold the house and the purchaser had knocked it down.

    I had to go in with two death certificates and my probate appointment.

    And yet you, an actual customer, get shat on.

    My SIL was recommending them for cable until she wasn’t. I told her that I had told her so years ago.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    Gillibrand is going after Hegseth on all the shit he said about Democratic voters while he was a Fox news personality. Are Democrats not allowed in the military now?

    Its effective, probably because she’s defending ordinary Democratic voters. Good job!

  93. 93.

    TBone

    @Professor Bigfoot: I wish Gillibrand would ask Hegseth about his fundie tattoos, I want to see him squirm.  Or renounce his victimhood white supremacy.  He already played one Christian Victimhood card.

  95. 95.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @TBone: See, you’re a far better human than I.

    I am very CAREFULLY avoiding those hearings, since I’m pretty sure they’ll approve of the incompetent, racist, misogyinistic son of a bitch because that’s who they are.

  96. 96.

    sab

    @Kay: YY  Sima Qian, commenting from Wuhan last night, says Tik Tok was never going to sell itself to an American oligarch because it loses money in USA because of Oracle’s high fees. Indonesia is its biggest market

    ETA Oops. Linked to wrong kay comment. Meant to link to #86.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    Well, there was an Israeli reporter yesterday using the tag #Trump Effect to “report on” the Biden ceasefire, so pretending US politics doesn’t play into this is nonsense.

    60 Minutes just had a piece last Sunday where US diplomats were told to remove references to child casualties in Gaza in reports because  the Biden State Department preferred to pretend they didn’t exist. Callous. Did not want news of civilian casualties. Didn’t care.

    Joe Biden gets that legacy. Dona!d Trump gets a ceasefire for short term political gain and then anything bad that happens in Israel for the next 50 years will be blamed on Democrats and this deal.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    @sab:

    I think it’s ridiculous. We have a US based Nazi who owns X, and Meta has now all but announced they’re turning the company over to MAGA. This insane DENIAL of what is right in front of us is what will destroy us. This cowardly inability to look.at ourselves. We are in trouble. Attacking China won’t get us out of this.

  101. 101.

    gene108

    Cannon and SCOTUS committed election interference by stalling the two federal cases.

    It’s like every asshole with a bit of power is working to prop Trump up from Putin, to Cannon, to SCOTUS, to billionaires, to Fortune 500 companies, and the media.

    It’s disgusting.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    I actually think Gaza did a lot if damage to Biden, and not just among Arab Americans or Muslims. I think it went against his core argument for getting elected – that he was decent, humane, caring.

    Clinton could have gotten away with it, everyone knew c he was ruthless, and Obama was cold , not warm. I’m cold too so that’s not an attack – I liked Obama’s coldness and rationality.

    But Biden was supposed to be warm and when people saw that carnage and how he petulantly dismissed it every time it was raised he contradicted something essential that people believed about him.  You can’t do that in politics. People don’t forgive it.

  105. 105.

    TBone

    “Completely cleared” on sexuaul assault hahaha Mazie choked a little laugh out.

    Drunk at work!  It’s prohibited!  Answer my question!  GO MAZIE!  Will you resign if you drink at your 24-7 job?  Answer:  No!

    There it is!  “Would you carry out an illegal order to shoot protesters!??”

    ARE YOU GONNA FOLLOW ILLEGAL ORDERS?  YES YOU WILL.

    Hegseth: “Whatever the President wants.”

  107. 107.

    Geminid

    @Kay: I think one thing going here was that Netanyahu believed Trump would back his maximalist goals in Gaza, and that he just had to outlast Biden.

    If that was the case, Witkoff threw cold water on these hopes. At least, that’s what it sounds like. I guess we’ll find out more in coming days. In the meantime, I just want to see a durable ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible and hopefully today.

    Setting aside questions of blame– and there’s plenty to go around– the prospective ceasefire terms seem to likely to track those presented by the mediators in late April. That’s a lot of death and destruction that could have been avoided.

    And the larger resolution to the Gaza war that this ceasefire will initiate will likely not be much different from the one proposed by regional actors including Saudi Arabia last January, I think, although this remains to be seen.

  108. 108.

    Spanky

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    And believe me, when women say “good god, men are such shite,” I just nod my head sadly, thinking “ain’t we, though? not all of us, obviously, but so fucking many of us that she’s only being fucking rational.” [sigh]

    “Happier to see a bear than me”, I sadly think to myself when I see a woman eyeing me cautiously.

  109. 109.

    sab

    @Kay: I agree it’s ridiculous.

    Apparently the Powers That Be want a new cold war, this time with China. Forget Russia, it’s a has-been.

    I don’t much like the current Chinese government, but this new anti-China approach bothers me a lot. It wipes out my sister’s whole life work, and is very divisive for families. We have a lot of Chinese immigrants in this country, bright, hardworking people. Let’s make their lives even more difficult

    ETA Not to mention the economic impact.

  110. 110.

    TBone

    Yes, go to directly to Alaska fellas.  You’ll be able to see your beloved heartland homeland from there.

    Daydrinking begins at Casa TBone:  WOKE MILITARY IS BIDEN’S FAULT.

    Now I REALLY wanna see his tattoos!  No racist, they’re the racists!

    These fellas are literally salivating about NO MORE WOKE

  111. 111.

    Aussie Sheila

    Good on Ernst for raising the failure of the DoD to ever pass an audit. She’s a GOP arsehole of course, but she’s right. I get why Dems wouldn’t do it in public right now, but JFC, their budget is close to a trillion it’s eye watering.

    I’m loving the squirming tbh. He’s such a dishonest disgusting prick. And he should be asked about his tats. They are disgusting.

  112. 112.

    Josie

    @Kay: ​
     This is a good point. It didn’t stop me from voting for him, since I was well aware of my choices. It could have, however, caused some people to stay home or to leave that part of the ballot unchecked. It was disappointing for many of us, to say the least.

  113. 113.

    Belafon

    A guy here at work is wearing a shirt that has Trump in front of a flag with his arms wide and with “Daddy’s Home” on it. Yeah, the daddy you only hug because you know he’ll beat you if you don’t, and he’s always taking a couple of hours each night to tuck you in and his wife won’t report him because she knows the cops will just take his side.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    Why do you say Netanyahu though? You’re very well informed. You know as well as I do that Trump is wildly popular in Israel. Two thirds of Israelis  supported him over both Biden and Harris.

    I think we can assume Trump will be successful with his “maximalist goals”. They’re the same goals as 2/3rds of Israelis.

  116. 116.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Josie: There were two aspects of the whole thing that bothered me: one was the insistence of the protesters that we Black folks owed them a vote against our own best interests here at home on behalf of people on the other side of the world when we have enough challenges as a people– and that they never answered, “so what if Harris loses, what is Trump gonna do?”

    So I’m sorry, I don’t give a damn about Gaza.

  117. 117.

    Geminid

    @Kay: I did not pretend that US politics did not play in to this. That was a point I was making when I said Trump did “not want to inherit this problem and all the difficulties and political costs involved with solving it.”

  118. 118.

    Kay

    Tim Kaine is doing an excellent cross of Hegseth. He looks genuinely pissed, too. Good. That’s what will awaken the Dem base, not capitulating to these creeps.

  119. 119.

    jimmiraybob

    I still think that Biden should have him arrested as a national security threat as soon as he steps off the plane in DC.  Or sooner.

  120. 120.

    TBone

    TATTOO Jerusalem Cross being whitewashed right now

    Puking noises from Casa TBone, who knows a Nazi when she sees one.

  122. 122.

    Geminid

    @Kay: I say “Netanyahu” because he and not popular opinion has driven Israel’s Gaza policy since Gantz left the government in May and the War Cabinet was dissolved.

    As for Trump’s popularity in Israel, it does not at all track with Netanyahu’s deep unpopularity and it is misleading to conflate the two. Trump’s popularity has been a seconday factor in Israeli politics anyway, and it will likely still be a secondary factor once he takes office.

  124. 124.

    JML

    @Aussie Sheila: Ernst sucks, but she would have been a reasonable GOP choice for SecDef. but god forbid they pick a woman, and they’re probably freaking out that they might somehow lose a senate seat if/when chaos reigns after dipshit takes over.

  125. 125.

    Matt

    @Geminid:

    On the real world level, every day of delay brings more destruction and death to people in Gaza, and to IDF soldiers as well.

    lolwut we’re both-siding genocide now?

    An IDF soldier can stop warcriming any day they like, so if they choose to continue I hope they reap all the consequences.

  126. 126.

    Bill Arnold

    @bluefoot:

    Now there are people I actually hate.

    Contempt and loathing are less stressful and easier to maintain, and the targets can be more upset about them.

  127. 127.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Correction: Benny Gantz left the War Cabinet around June 15. The Knesset created the War Cabinet on October 11, 2023 which was four days after the October 7 attack. The Cabinet had three voting members– Gantz, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, and was given full control of war policy.

    Similar arrangements were made during the run-up to the 1967 “Six Day War” and when the 1973 October War with Syria and Egypt began, with war cabinets and multi-party “unity” governments formed to meet the emergency.

    In the more recent case, other opposition leaders would not join a government with the toxic Itamar Ben-Gvir and Belezal Smotrich, but they encouraged Gantz to join because they did not want the lying, self-interested Netanyahu in charge of war policy. Also, it was known at the time that Netanyahu was so stunned by the events of October 7 that he wasn’t functional. Unfortunately he bounced back after a few weeks.

  130. 130.

    Bill Arnold

    @gene108:

    Cannon and SCOTUS committed election interference by stalling the two federal cases.

    They committed obstruction of justice. IMO.
    SCOTUS obstructed justice, on behalf of an authoritarian who has no respect for the USA constitution.

  131. 131.

    greenergood

    @TBone: This is just so deeply disturbing – I mean, I know I’m an old and remember the Cold War (and spent shedloads of time as an anti-nuclear activist in the US and the UK – delusional, moi? maybe, who cares …) but to read how this spoilt, aspiring trillioniare has control of MAJOR US defense mechanisms, when he has absolutely NO sense of loyalty to anything but his bank balance and his plans for world domination is just appalling. How the US Gov’t got itself into this position with Musk is a complete conundrum – What US department(s) left their eye off the ball to let this shyster in? What US departments were bribed to let him in? It’s disgusting and shocking!

  133. 133.

    Ramona

    @Kay: I too think that Gaza made the difference. I suspect some people just couldn’t bring themselves to get to the polls because of Biden’s approach.

  134. 134.

    greenergood

    @TBone: do you mean Drumpf or Musk? It’s Musk I’ve even more disturbed about in the past few years. Trump has been an unfortunate feature, with all his happy, disgusting adherents since 2016, but Musk’s ‘ascent’, especially during the Biden years, means that people on Biden’s team were not on their watch,  and let a Putin-loving, racist oligarch into the the webs of US defense networks – disgraceful …

  135. 135.

    tam1MI

    @Josie: It could have, however, caused some people to stay home or to leave that part of the ballot unchecked.

    Why? Biden wasn’t on the ballot. The people who hated Biden because of Gaza got their way. He was pushed out in the most humiliating way possible. Biden’s position on Gaza meant exactly dick and squat by the time November rolled around.

  136. 136.

    tam1MI

    @Ramona: I too think that Gaza made the difference. I suspect some people just couldn’t bring themselves to get to the polls because of Biden’s approach.

    And I once again point out – Biden wasn’t on the ballot. And if Gaza was so all fired important to so many voters, how come two Dems taking the pro- Gaza position lost by thumping margins?

  137. 137.

    different-church-lady

    I hate to disagree with Cheryl, but Trump’s power comes from taking the fuckin’ presidency.

  138. 138.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: I look forward to any catches and missed details of importance. It’s a good point.
    you may have guessed, reading all that whole thing is not going to end up on my pressing list.

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