Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Republicans in disarray!

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

No one could have predicted…

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

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

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

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

I really should read my own blog.

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

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Trump’s Candidate Lost – Too Bad, So Sad

Trump’s Candidate Lost – Too Bad, So Sad

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Voters to choose between Jenkins, Sculti in special election for Westchester County executive

Democrat Ken Jenkins and Republican Christine Sculti are vying for Westchester County’s executive seat in a special election Tuesday to select a new county executive in a special election Tuesday.

Jenkins is Westchester’s first Black county executive, and the frontrunner in Tuesday’s race. But he won’t get to skate through: Sculti, a deputy elections commissioner and one-time chief advisor to former County Executive Rob Astorino, is running a last-minute campaign to become the first woman in the seat.

Speaking with WAMC, Republican Sculti says her first priority as county executive would be to repeal what she calls Westchester’s “sanctuary county law.” Passed in 2018, the Immigrant Protection Act restricts how and when county agencies cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

“My legal team has analyzed the law, which we find to be flawed,” says Sculti. “So, what I’m prepared to do is issue an executive order that will repeal the law and direct the county departments, specifically corrections, probation, and public safety, to immediately start working with the federal authorities to detain, deport violent, criminal, illegal aliens.”

 

Trump throws weight behind GOP candidate Christine Sculti in Westchester County special election

President Trump threw his weight behind the GOP candidate in the Westchester County executive’s special election set for Tuesday, blasting Democrats in the Big Apple suburb for “protecting” criminal migrants.

The president injected himself Monday afternoon into the little-known race which pits County Executive Ken Jenkins, a Democrat, against Republican challenger Christine Sculti in a bid to wrap up the rest of George Latimer’s term after he resigned to start his gig in Congress last month.

“On Tuesday, February 11th, there is an important Special Election for Westchester County Executive in New York! Democrats have made Westchester County a ‘Sanctuary County’ protecting criminal illegals!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Too Bad, So Sad (Not Really!)

Jenkins sails to victory over Sculti in special election for Westchester County executive

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins trounced Republican Christine Sculti on Tuesday in a special election to serve until the end of this year in the office Jenkins was appointed to fill last month.

In unofficial results with all election districts tallied, the Democrat led by 63.6%-36.4%, a 27.2-point margin. He and Sculti were vying to finish the unexpired term of Jenkins’ predecessor, George Latimer, who stepped aside in January after seven years as county executive to take up a House seat he won in November.

 

 

 

 

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    Passed in 2018, the Immigrant Protection Act restricts how and when county agencies cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

    The Republican candidate planned to repeal the Immigrant Protection Act on day 1.

    I’ll bet there are a whole bunch of relived people in Westchester County today.  Too bad, so sad, for the people who are filled with hate.

  6. 6.

    Gin & Tonic

    @WaterGirl:

    I’ll bet there are a whole bunch of relived people in Westchester County today

    Yeah, all the rich homeowners who were looking at the prospect of a summer without lawn service.

  9. 9.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Gin & Tonic: There’s a lot more to the county than Scarsdale. Peekskill, for example, is 21% Black and 37% Hispanic and 10% of families live below the poverty line.

  10. 10.

    Scout211

    WaterGirl, I want to thank you for continuing to post good news and encouraging positive actions that we can all take. I look forward to your posts even though I don’t comment very often anymore.

    IMHO, we need to expand our coalition, not narrow it based on our own individual preferences. I hope we can focus on building a larger coalition before the mid-terms, because we really need that. Inviting a larger group of voters into our coalition may require us to be more open to all kinds of different Democrats.  A coalition is a group of diverse people with diverse interests who come together to focus on the task at hand.  Can we do that?

    I do understand that people are still angry at the loss and are still trying to figure out what went wrong and who to blame.  Grief takes time to get through.  But building a larger coalition also takes time.  I hope we can focus on that soon because mid-term campaigning will start soon.

  11. 11.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Gin & Tonic
    February 12, 2025 at 10:49 am
    @WaterGirl:
    “I’ll bet there are a whole bunch of relived people in Westchester County today”

    Yeah, all the rich homeowners who were looking at the prospect of a summer without lawn service.​

     

    Possibly also the 16% of its residents who are Black, the 25% of its residents who are Hispanic/Latino, and/or the 26% of its residents who are foreign-born residents, including 4% from the West Indies.

    [Edited to remove a needlessly tart comment on my part.]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westchester_County,_New_York​

  16. 16.

    TBone

    @stinger: not by a long shot.  I have discovered reserves I never knew I had or was capable of anymore.

    Seems like I grow even stronger every day – hope it ends well!

  19. 19.

    kindness

    I grew up in Westchester.  Back in the 60’s/70’s Westchester was NorthEast Republican.  You know, socially liberal, fiscal conservative types.  They don’t exist in the party any more.  One reason I suspect Westchester now elects Democrats.  Yeay, Go Team!

  21. 21.

    Kristine

    Thanks for the good news, WG!

    Significant snows hitting northern IL for the first time in a while. Predictions of 3-6″, with more expected this weekend.

    I know we need the precip, but I’ll miss the clear roads.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211:  Thank you!

    Yep, every day that we spent arguing about how we got here and whose fault it is… that’s a day that we’re not rolling up our sleeves trying to fight the wave of evil.

  23. 23.

    Another Scott

    Good, good.

    The stories are weird though.

    “resigned to start his gig”…  ??  Being a Member of Congress is a “gig” now??

    “stepped aside in January”… ??  Resigning a local office to serve is a MoC is “stepp[ing] aside” now??

    Did some AI LLM write these things??

    [ sigh ]

    Thanks.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    Old School

    A distraction for those who care.

    The 2025 Nominees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame have been announced:

    Bad Company
    The Black Crowes
    Mariah Carey
    Chubby Checker
    Joe Cocker
    Billy Idol
    Joy Division/New Order
    Cyndi Lauper
    Maná
    Oasis
    Outkast
    Phish
    Soundgarden
    The White Stripes

    You can vote for your top seven.

  31. 31.

    feebog

    Based on the registration numbers Water Girl posted, it looks like Dems actually showed up and voted.  We are only three weeks into this nightmare.  Let’s see the results of some special elections and what happens in VA in November.

  32. 32.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @prostratedragon:

    I read on the internet, thus it must be true, that this is on purpose.

    They hold back lots of iconic artists so they can have one or two every year that unarguably deserve to be in. This year, it’s Chubby Checker.

  34. 34.

    RaflW

    @Steve LaBonne: New Rochelle, where TV’s Rob and Laura Petrie lived 1961-66, is a city of almost 84,000 people. It is less than 50% white and almost 50% renters.

    I was a kid in ridiculously fancy Pelham Manor, right next door, so I am — was, it was a loooong time ago — all too familiar with the folks G&T is talking about, and yeah, Westchester is way more than stately Wayne Manor (which coulda been across the street from our 1960s house built on a carved-off side lot of another big home).

  35. 35.

    Ruckus

    @H.E.Wolf:

    I live in SoCal and those percentages don’t sound all that far off of here. My apartment complex has a lot of people who are (well)over the minimum age to rent, 55 (like me) and have one or two generations of family coming up behind us. A fair number of the people I see or talk to regularly have many different languages as their native one. I imagine that many large population areas of this country have a lot of people around that speak other languages. And one reason they are here are there are jobs. They can exist and live here. And prosper. Some of the less populated areas have people whose families have lived in that area for generations and seem to think that they are the top of the heap of humanity. And as it always has, humanity can look (and sound) a lot different every 50-100 yrs. Where I live does and it is a lot of humanity, with a lot of differing original languages. And it’s rarely boring. Because it’s actual humanity, with all the differences and all the normalcy of a wide variety of humans. Just checked the population number and LA county is over 10 million people.

  36. 36.

    Matt

    @Scout211:

    Inviting a larger group of voters into our coalition may require us to be more open to all kinds of different Democrats.

    Have the courage to be specific: exactly which sort of bigot do YOU think should get a pass?

    Why is it incumbent on everybody else to accommodate these “different kinds of Democrats” by bending to their policy preferences? If they’re on-board to fight against fascism, they should stop being such purity ponies.

  37. 37.

    prostratedragon

    Historian Ryan LaRochelle:

    Trump’s actions are stunning, but they’re not entirely unprecedented. Richard Nixon used a similar strategy in an attempt to unilaterally shut down the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the federal agency created under President Lyndon Johnson to implement the War on Poverty. Mobilization by unionized federal workers and the courts eventually put an end to Nixon’s efforts. This history highlights how opponents of Trump’s power grab can potentially fight back—and protect one of the most sacrosanct principles embedded in the Constitution.

  39. 39.

    Miss Bianca

    @Matt: you know, Democrats have to  tolerate *your* type of bigot – the leftier-than-thou who spews contempt and vitriol over everything. Tell me, should they be including you? Be specific. And tell us the ways in which *you* will stop being such a purity pony. That should be good for a laugh. Or half a laugh, anyway.

  40. 40.

    Jay

    It looks like Elmo and the Incels have tampered with J-6 evidence (Fair Warning mobile readers: PDF).

    THE PRESS COALITION’S MOTION TO ENFORCE STANDING ORDER 21-28

    Pursuant to Local Criminal Rule 57.6, the Press Coalition1 respectfully moves this Court to enforce Standing Order 21-28 and ensure continued access to video exhibits and other judicial records submitted in criminal cases arising from the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

    Over the past four years, this Court and the other District Judges in this District have repeatedly ordered the government to make such riot-related records publicly accessible through an electronic drop box on the government’s “USAfx” portal. Within the past week, however, certain video exhibits submitted in connection with the sentencing of at least one Capitol riot defendant (United States v. Simon, No. 21-cr-346-BAH) have disappeared from that drop box. The Press Coalition conferred with government counsel about that disappearance and, as of this filing, government counsel have offered no explanation for why these judicial records are no longer publicly accessible or whether any other Capitol riot records that were previously available on USAfx have disappeared as well.

    Memory-holing history is the leitmotif of the 4th Reich, but actually removing evidence? That’s gonna bunch the robes of some judges.

    https://mockpaperscissors.com/2025/02/11/news-that-will-drive-you-to-drink-2246/

  42. 42.

    Jackie

    The MAGAts win. The USA will no longer be given top secret info from our allies. We are now an isolated country.

    The Senate voted 52 to 48 to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, the Washington Post reports.

    Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined with all Democrats to oppose Gabbard.

  44. 44.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Ruckus: ​@H.E.Wolf:

    I live in SoCal and those percentages don’t sound all that far off of here.

     Yes! Same in the many places I’ve lived… although, far too often, it takes some searching to find the truly diverse neighborhoods.

    I’ve found it fascinating (and educational) to look up the cities and towns to which I’ve written postcards. We are so much more richly diverse and varied than we sometimes know. It lifts my spirits.

  45. 45.

    Scout211

    @Matt: Why is it incumbent on everybody else to accommodate these “different kinds of Democrats” by bending to their policy preferences?

    There is a big difference between “bending to their policy preferences” and pointing out to them that we don’t want their vote because they don’t have the same policy preferences as we do or have the correct ones.  All votes will be needed.  All of us (even here on this blog) have different “policy preferences.”

    they should stop being such purity ponies.

    As should we.

  46. 46.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Jackie:

    With each passing day, this Republican party sinks to a new low. Their scumbaggery takes my breath away. And fuck the so-called reasonable Republicans that the Washington Press Corps continues to praise.

  49. 49.

    MoCaAce

    @Matt:

    Have the courage to be specific: exactly which sort of bigot do YOU think should get a pass?

    Why is it incumbent on everybody else to accommodate these “different kinds of Democrats” by bending to their policy preferences? If they’re on-board to fight against fascism, they should stop being such purity ponies.

    being in a coalition doesn’t require us to bend to their policy preferences… It may help though if you don’t scream at them and call them bigots and purity ponies.  But I think you know that.

  50. 50.

    realbtl

    OT. I wonder how J Roberts feels about the tsusami of shit heading his way. And when T/M tell him to get fucked.​

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    @Matt:

    Have the courage to be specific: exactly which sort of bigot do YOU think should get a pass?

    That hardly seems fair.  When did you stop beating your wife?

    What about people who didn’t vote because of Gaza?  Those aren’t bigots.  They also weren’t able to see the bigger picture.  I bet they can now!  I don’t want to ban those folks forever because they were short-sighted.  Or perhaps young enough to have been used by others.

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    @realbtl: First thought:  Julia Roberts, what tsunami of shit is heading her way … oh wait, his way, backtracks.

    Oh, John F. Roberts.  The F stands for fucking.

  58. 58.

    TBone

    Open thread gripe.  I love Cook’s Country TV show usually.  Yes, they are nitpicky but usually the recipes are *chef’s kiss.  Today, they made Philly the theme and messed up both recipes!  Roast pork sandwich with broccoli rabe was going along fine until they put the Philly bread into a hot oven to melt the provolone. When eating a roast pork sandwich in Philly there is NO toasty crunch. The bread is strong enough to handle the au jus AND the hot pork & broccoli are all that is needed to melt cheese!  Do NOT toast your Philly “sub” rolls you absolute dunces (or call anything from Philly a “sub”). Also the tomato pie recipe was just wrong.  Pica’s would like a word! 💚

    I was so homesick yesterday so I was really happy about the Philly theme today, but they lost me when I heard them crunching into their “sub rolls” sammies – I think I physically cringed.

    Thank you for coming to my nitpicky TED talk.

  60. 60.

    Jay

    @ExPatExDem:

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It’s not just 5 Eyes, it’s all intelligence cooperation that is dead, financial, criminal, weapons technology, etc. The information flow will become severely restricted and anything from the US will be highly suspect, anything the ROW shares with the US will be so heavily redacted and edited to be useless. And of course, Iran, China, the NORKs, Venezuela and ruZZia will quickly be rolling up US intelligence networks and any Allied network that has in the past shared “actionable” intelligence or anything that can be used to identify an agent or network with the US.

    NATO will still be around for a while, but it will be quickly replaced by a EU+Allies force. Norad will also disapper.

  61. 61.

    ArchTeryx

    @TBone: SUB ROLLS?! They’re calling hoagies SUB ROLLS now?!

    Talk about adding insult to injury. Sheesh. I bet any average Philadelphian would have quite a bit to say about that. I didn’t live in Philly very long, but I was there long enough to know what a hoagie is and call it by its proper name.

  64. 64.

    AM in NC

    @WaterGirl:  A number of my husband’s aunts, uncles and cousins live in Westchester.  ALL of them despise Trump/MAGOP and very likely contributed to the drubbing.  Go NY Quinns!!!!!!!!

  66. 66.

    ArchTeryx

    @TBone: Some of my fondest memories of Philly, besides riding on SEPTA and seeing Center City and the Philly Zoo, was their hot beef hoagies. OMG. Calling those “subs” is sacrilege no matter how you slice your beef.

  68. 68.

    Jackie

    @ExPatExDem:

    Five Eyes is dead.

    @Gin & Tonic:

    So is NATO.

    So is our Democracy. I’m so thankful my WWII veteran dad isn’t here to witness the fall of the USA. I wish I wasn’t either. My heart breaks for my grandchildren’s future.

  69. 69.

    Captain C

    @Jackie: Too little, too late, Moscow Mitchie.  You could’ve voted to impeach the fucker and encouraged your fellow ‘thugs to do the same.  You could also have not advanced Loose Cannon’s judicial nomination.  Now you just care about your legacy, which is already way too tarnished to ever repair.

  71. 71.

    TBone

    @ArchTeryx: *drools…

    In DelCo, we have the famous Nick’s Roast Beef, and they also do roast pork THE PHILLY WAY!  They didn’t used to do much else, just those two, to perfection.  I fear they may have added to their menu since I’ve been gone.  Concentrate on the food that made you famous, I say! It was perfect!

    If you’re ever in need of tomato pie, this is where it’s at:

    https://picas-restaurantud.com/

    Upper Darby is almost literally part of the City of Brotherly Love.

    And Nick’s has NOT added much to their menu, much to my relief.

    https://www.nicksroastbeef.com/springfield.php

  72. 72.

    Jay

    @Gin & Tonic:

    everybody but the US, Hungary and Slovakia will react.

    After Dolt 45 telegraphed that the US would be useless in NATO, and Biden clung to escalation fears, a whole bunch of NATO and non-NATO countries started signing bilateral defense agreements.

  73. 73.

    Jackie

    @Miss Bianca:

    Gee, you ever get the feeling that Mitch no longer controls his majority…?

    He isn’t the Majority Leader anymore. He stepped down and that title belongs to Sen. John Thune S.D.

  76. 76.

    Ruckus

    @H.E.Wolf:

    Born in Los Angeles a long time ago. Have lived (or been stationed in – USN) 2 other states for a number of my years. I’ve traveled to 49 of the states, I’ve been to Antartica (USN) and to the northern tip of Norway (also USN) – a fair number of miles above the Arctic Circle. I’ve lived in the very north of this country and on each coast. And I’ve met people in all of those places except Antartica. Humans range in all possibilities of humans, good, bad, indifferent. Everywhere. Most on the better, larger part of humanity. Thankfully. Most of the shitheads eventually get buried under their own shit, just because that’s the way it works. Shovel too much shit and it often lands on your own head. Or is shoveled on there by your “friends.” It’s humanity, from top to bottom and every spot in between. There is no guarantee that it will be good (or bad), that it will last a short or long time. It is how you see it, how you experience it and how you understand it. (Or at least try)

    BTW this is not the first time I’ve typed the same concept above in a comment section in the 2 + decades I’ve been on this blog.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    A little pick me up for folks.

    Tesla has endured two months that it would prefer to forget. Since its peak on December 17, the stock price has lost 31.5% of its value, while the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq have remained virtually flat during the same period. This trend of underperformance, which already pushed Tesla into the red for 2025, accelerated following the release of disappointing results at the end of January. Total revenue grew by 2% in the fourth quarter, but it was only slightly positive thanks to its energy storage and generation business, while revenue from its vehicles dropped by 8%, a decline the company attributed to price cuts on its Model 3, Model Y, Model S, and Model X cars.

  81. 81.

    ArchTeryx

    @TBone: Sadly I couldn’t participate in the roast pork, due to allergies. Beef and turkey, though? That’s fine and the combo made a great hoagie.

    It’s the little things that get is through these very dark times. I’m a Chicago native, but I also spent most of my adult life as a gypsy scholar, and I appreciated every place I came to live!

  83. 83.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Baud:

    Nice piece.  Tesla is an insane company (in a bad way) when looked like this:

    The stock is valued at 120 times projected 2025 earnings, compared to nine times for Toyota, six times for Ford, and four times for Volkswagen. Tesla’s market capitalization of just over $1 trillion is three times that of these three rivals combined. This indicates that the market still believes that Tesla’s growth potential is much greater.

    FYI, if gauged by market capitalization, Tesla is the 8th largest in the *world*.  Okay, VW is in a world of hurt but Toyota and Ford?  Again, makes no sense.

    None of this is sustainable.

    Tesla’s sales in China, a key component of it’s sales, where up in 2024 but the January reports have gotta be chilling: sales down 11.5% while BYD’s are up 47.5%.

    I know the general EV Intelligentsia feels that a strong Tesla is crucial for a strong EV market but given their sales, and sure they might rebound as the year progresses, it’s still unfathomable to understand the numbers cited.

  85. 85.

    Geminid

    @feebog: Westchester Democrat Tom Watson:

       Hudson Valley Republicans are reeling this morning at the size of Ken Jenkins’ blowout win against Christine Sculti, endorsed by Trump. Experts reckoned on a much tighter race, and Mike Lawler staked his reputation on Sculti, went all in. Lost 64-36.

    Mike Lawler is the Republican who in 2022 flipped NY17(?), which includes northern Westchester County . Tom Watson is on a mission to help knock Lawler out in next year’s midterms.

    More from Watson:

      The Lawler/Sculti team stoked hatred of immigrants, trans children and DEI, aping Trump. And Jenkins held his ground. He did not “move right,” but simply defended sane, competent liberal government. And he outwoked OUTWORKED the local Trump-drunk Republicans.

    “Trump-drunk Republicans.” I like it! Both pithy and true.

       The blowout shows the real situation. Dems should not retreat. Trump (and especially Musk) are unpopular in many areas, and delivering for the people is more important than hate filled slogans. Grateful to Ken Jenkins for taking the fight to the Republicans, especially now.

    Tom Watson posts on Blue Sky as [email protected]. He describes himself as an “unreformed liberal.” I’ve followed him for a while from Virginia, but he has plenty of local Democrats rssponding One reported:

       My local Dems were quietly ferocious about turnout.

    “…quietly ferocious…” I like that one too!

  86. 86.

    Ruckus

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    As it has always been.

    We often think that life is good. When often it isn’t. Some of us live in very small circles and don’t actually get out a lot. But it is all levels, from pure shit to DAMN THIS IS AMAZING. Some of this is how you look at it and some is how you let it get to you. I experienced a lot of this when I was a mental health counselor a few decades ago for 4 years. Never forget that humanity has/takes ALL KINDS of humans. Every level, high, middle, low and every sub level and levels you likely can’t believe below that. Most are in the middle, reasonable, decent levels. Some have skills that most can’t comprehend or come close to. Others are pure shit walking. It’s humanity.

  87. 87.

    Belafon

    @Geminid: Democrats should all stand up and defend liberal core principles of freedom and caring for each other. When they do, we can’t just keep asking “What more have you done?”

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    It is against their very core to work/play with DEMOCRATS!

    The better the entire country gets, the worse they will get, trying to reverse anything that equates to equality of humanity. Why?

    Because they are special, just ask them…..

  92. 92.

    Jay

    ‪Darth Putin‬ ‪@darthputinkgb.bsky.social‬
    ·
    35m
    It’s 2030. After throwing Ukraine under a Russian tank, the entire MAGA cult & an increasingly senile President Trump all wonder where China got the idea USA would sit by while they invade Taiwan….

  93. 93.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Ruckus: BTW this is not the first time I’ve typed the same concept above in a comment section in the 2 + decades I’ve been on this blog.

     And I appreciate it, every time. Thank you!

  94. 94.

    Jackie

    Laugh of the day:

    The Daily Beast reports Luna wants to question the members of the Warren Commissions which investigated President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination.

    She apparently wasn’t aware they are all dead.

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    @RevRick: You had a couple of stray letters at the end of RevRick, so you’ll need to fix that before posting again, if you haven’t already.

  100. 100.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Jackie:

    I’m guessing she’ll use her office budget to purchase a Ouija board.

    Hey, it’s not less batshit insane than anything else that comes out of any given House (R) in these  times.

  103. 103.

    Captain C

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    And fuck the so-called reasonable Republicans that the Washington Press Corps continues to praise.

    I’m assuming they’re hallucinatory reasonable Republicans, because that species is all but extinct, and completely so in any positions of power.

  107. 107.

    ExPatExDem

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:  BYD will win the war with Tesla because they took a bottom up approach, building EVs that are affordable like the Dolphin and the Seagull that sell for $10k – $14K in China.

    Meanwhile, Tesla never really outgrew its roots as a higher end product for affluent buyers, with the model 3 starting at $39,000.

  108. 108.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: The Westchester County Executive’s office was held by a Republican as recently as 2017. That’s the year George Latimer, a popular state Senator, beat Republican incumbent Ron Astorino by 14 points.

    George Latimer is U.S. Rep. Latimer now. He won the 16th CD last November after unseating Rep. Jamaal Bowman in a hard-fought primary. That was a very divisive primary, at least on a national.level, but Ken Jenkins’ win last night showed that Westchester Democrats are still united.

    I think this election bodes well for Virginia Democrats. We will vote for Governor and 100 House of Delegates seats this November. Virginia and New York differ in many ways, but both have a lot of suburban voters and suburban voting trends seem more and more to track across regions.

  109. 109.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: it’s a cold dark feeling, to understand more and more of how our shared intelligence and defense agreements with allies has been undone, or made worthless.
    i am glad other countries are forming alliances with each other.

  112. 112.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @ExPatExDem:

    Well, at least in the North American market, EVs have basically been yet another sign of gentrification both in where they sell, who buys them and the cost.  It’s not solely a Tesla thing.

    Of course one could say the same thing, in terms of price, about new cars in general, again, not solely a Tesla thing.

    That’s starting to change on the EV front with model’s like Chevy’s base-trim Equinox EV at $35K and presumably by the end of the year, the revamped Bolt EUV at around $30K.

    Tesla yammered several years back about the Model 2 being a $25K EV but of course Edolph essentially put that project on the perpetual back burner so he could get Der WankPanzer out the door.

    Yeah, this ramble is something of an apples-to-oranges thing in that BYD’s in-China work force ain’t making anything close to what any EV maker who sells them in North America is paying their work force.  Trying to get EVs into a one-to-one sales price comparison with ICE vehicles is still very much a work-in-progress for any automaker outside of China.

  113. 113.

    Belafon

    Norman is a college town. The city school Superintendent also pushed back on the state fanatic who wanted to put the Ten Commandments in schools.

  114. 114.

    Spanky

    Off with their heads!

    Trump Orders ICE Purge of Top Officials as Deportations Fall Short

    From the Daily Beast

  116. 116.

    jonas

    @Gin & Tonic: Was just going to say something along these lines. If you’ve ever been to WC, it’s pretty clear that it takes a *a lot* of manual labor to keep everything that fancy looking good. I don’t know what percentage of that labor force might be undocumented, but if anyone knows how hard it is to find good help, it’s probably people in Westchester Co.

  117. 117.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Darn it! Watson wrote that Ken Jenkins “outworked” the Trump-drunk Republicans, not “outwoked” them.

    My proofreader has been slacking off lately. I’d fire him, but he’s family.

  119. 119.

    TBone

    @ArchTeryx: I’m a huge fan of Chicago pizza when the urge strikes!  Can’t get it around here anymore, but I have fond memories of it from a franchise we had in the past.  Deep dish delish!  Of course, since I haven’t had the real thing, I coulda been duped, but Pizzeria Uno made some really good pizza in deep, cast iron pizza pie pans.

  120. 120.

    Miss Bianca

    @Jackie: JFC.

    I mean, I like a good laugh at the expense of Republican stupidity as much as anyone. But at some point, I’m not sure whether to laugh or scream.

  122. 122.

    sixthdoctor

    Seems like an ice cube of good news in this volcano of shit:

    BREAKING
    On Monday, Popular Information broke the news that the NIH had frozen virtually all grant funding in violation of 2 federal court orders

    On Wednesday, NIH leadership distributed a memo, acknowledging that its funding freeze was illegal and directing staff to resume issuing grants.

    [image or embed]

    — Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 2:36 PM

  124. 124.

    TBone

    @Jackie: my neighbors’ son worked in her office and this was the level of knowledge/curiosity (none!) displayed many times here at my house by an ostensible “honors” student.

  125. 125.

    JML

    @TBone: Nick’s looks like my kinda place. wish I had a shop like that in my town. (I live in a town of about 12k that can’t figure out if it’s still rural or an exurb bedroom community for the larger cities and has absolute crap for locally owned restaurants. the best local place is owned by some obnoxious god-botherers who threw a hissy fit during the pandemic about being forced to close, violated the public health orders and outed themselves as terrible people. it’s slim pickings, sadly)

  126. 126.

    Captain C

    @TBone: To paraphrase one of the Beloved Announcers, Chicago “pizza” is not pizza, it’s a delicious deep dish tomato pie.

    (I agree with him on all counts :^) )

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    @Ruckus:

    We are many shades by the same chemical that creates all of our skin colors. We are humanity, good, horrible or indifferent. We have emotions, we have greed – which is supposed to make us rich and so better than others. And sure we have bits and pieces that can show how much money we have. And often that makes us worse humans, because we aren’t better unless we try to be better humans and respect each other. And of course some earn no respect because they have none for anyone else. It’s a big world and we range from great to pure shit. And if you are an old, you’ve very likely seen both ends. Sometimes it doesn’t take a lifetime to get there. We are different in how we see things, in how much greed we have, in how much suffering we expect others to experience so we have a smoother, better life in comparison. I am an old. I may have 20-25 yrs left on this planet. I may have one day. We never really know. I’d very much like to see it be better for humanity than when I arrived. Better for ALL humanity. Not just the ones that look like me. There are real possibilities to be better, because in some ways it is. In many ways it’s always been survival of the strongest. We have far better medicine, but everyone needs access to that, not just those with the money. We need to get rid of racism – it’s bullshit and always has been. But we have in this country a horrible history of racism. It is way past time to get past this. So far past.

  133. 133.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    Norman is a cool town. Very different from most of OK. Home of University of Oklahoma and Anita Hill. Fairly liberal college town.

    Elizabeth Warren and former Speaker of the House, Carl Albert (remember him? Wasn’t he all of 5’2″?) are from there.

    Great little Jazz Fest in the summer. Haven’t checked to see if they still have it.

    A very liberal sister of a good friend of mine in St. Louis was mayor of Norman for about 10 years. She and her husband own a second home in Santa Fe that I rented a couple of times on my travels before moving here. Cindy and her husband love Norman. They were transplants from back East and acclimated without a problem with her becoming mayor sometime before 2011.

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Tesla got a semi head start on most everyone else, in the production of modern electric cars. They of course were not the originators of electric cars. We had electric cars long before we had much in the way of actual highways or even paved city streets. But that goes back to a time before humans alive, including this old fart. We had electric buses in LA when I was a young kid. Overhead wires rather than batteries but still electric motors for propulsion. I ride the electric train in LA all the time. And an entire electric rail transit system that covers a lot of LA county for the 10 million that live here. That first opened about 30 yrs ago. Many big cities have electric rail lines. I’ve ridden the Chicago metro system decades ago. Gas powered cars were superior because one could drive them where there were no overhead lines, which was and is most roads. But there are many ways to create electricity but liquid fueled vehicles have to refuel on sort of a regular basis and it sometimes doesn’t make a lot of sense to have overhead wires, like the national highways, and mountain roads. Or places where the population is spread out and/or not as dense as say Los Angeles, or most of our big cities. But. Now we know how to make better batteries that don’t use lead so an electric car does not have to weigh tons more to have any range. And electricity is rather widely available today. And not all created by burning stuff. That is getting more and more expensive as we use so much of it.

  138. 138.

    Ruckus

    @Miss Bianca:

    It’s laugh at their stupidity and scream because they don’t actually have to be that stupid. It’s just how they see the world. Stupidly. Some people think they have the right to be in charge. Of everyone else. And even when they have maybe a concept of 10% of their own lives.

    Look what we are doing right here, communicating and it’s possible to do this in most parts of the world now. Unless the government doesn’t want it because they lose some control. Most of us have never met in person and likely never will but we can still communicate ideas, ideals, fun, good and bad times. IOW life.

    There will always be humans that need to feel like they are better than everyone else and many of them will “know” that they are. I call them fuckups, mainly because they seem to do that on an at least semi regular basis. Sometimes far more often. I mean we all are capable of this and many of us at least make an unconscious attempt at it once in a while, but we at least recognize that we did and attempt not to. It’s called learning. Many seem incapable of learning much of anything after maybe 6th grade. I think it hurts their brains to think. It is possible they like being dumb. Maybe they think it shrinks their level of human responsibility.

  139. 139.

    opiejeanne

    @TBone: broccoli?? And not just broccoli, but broccoli rabe?  I don’t think of either belonging on a pork sandwich, especially the latter

     

    ETA: apparently, this is a thing. I’m not from Philly, if you couldn’t tell.

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