Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

This fight is for everything.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

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

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

This really is a full service blog.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

The revolution will be supervised.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

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Life Imitating Art

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The Hegseth news is predictably stupid and no there will be no accountability and yes they are using signal because they don’t want to leave a record or FOIA trail of what they are doing, but for me, it all boils down to this. Every single day I check the headlines and see something dumber and more evil than the previous day, and I think of Jon Lovits playing Michael Dukakis on SNL debating the first George Bush:

it’s so god damned depressing.

Reader Interactions

71Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    I can believe we’re losing to them because I don’t cling to a romantic view of the nature of American culture.

  4. 4.

    sab

    Happily for me, my home and family life is so painful lately that I don’t give a shit about politics or world events.

    Things may look up in a month or so.

    Why does meth make people such utter shitheads? I can see running around demented while bleeding and naked in strange peoples’ house, terrifying their children. It’s awkward to be really wasted.

    But why does meth make you plot out real damaging revenge fantasies against bereaved children who are not yours or relatives who are yours and said no to you sometimes in your spoiled existence?

    Drugs or not, some people are just rotten to the core.

  8. 8.

    Jackie

    @sab:

    Happily for me, my home and family life is so painful lately that I don’t give a shit about politics or world events.

    I’m so sorry. I read your post last night and I can only send you hugs, and if allowed, prayers.

  9. 9.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jackie:

    Only if people allow it. I can’t imagine the Atlantic wanting to piss off their subscribers by firing him and getting blowback for that

  10. 10.

    Jackie

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I can’t imagine the Atlantic wanting to piss off their subscribers by firing him and getting blowback for that.

    LOL! You are joking, right? Look at how major networks are capitulating to FFOTUS.

  11. 11.

    sab

    @schrodingers_cat: Amd I appreciate the help but we asked too late. Latest rumor is that deceased loved child is back in Ohio, a viewing will be held, but only a select few of relatives,  all children, no adults other than the birth parents, will be allowed to attend.

    That is stuff out of a nightmare. Both parents are meth-addled.

    There are ten children, some are tiny, about four are young but legally adults. This could be ugly but will be  more if kids attend as no mothers allowed. No step-parents allowed.

    I wouldn’t let my child or grandchild attend unsupervised woth these people.

    Whatever. It is what it is and they are who they are. She did everything to get away from them except go to court. Now we know why.

  13. 13.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jackie:

    LOL! You are joking, right? Look at how major networks are capitulating to FFOTUS.

    I’m not, actually. They can be pressured by the public

  14. 14.

    just another boomer

    If a private fires his weapon accidentally, the Army calls it a “negligent discharge” and the private may be charged under UCMJ Article 134.   according to Bilecki law group, a soldier who is convicted of negligently discharging a firearm under Article 134 of the UCMJ will face a maximum sentence of: Confinement for 3 months and Forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for 3 months.  Captain Hegseth would surely hold a private to account for a negligent discharge.

  15. 15.

    sab

    @schrodingers_cat: In the US every state has different laws, and lawyers are only admittwd to their own or a few other selected states. We are Federal.

    I know you have been here for decades, but you aren’t a lawyer. I used to be so I remember the federal side of things. We as Americans move around a lot, but every state has different rules, and every county nas different interpretations of those rules.

    Missouri is not Virginia, nor is Ohio.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    Lifted from downstairs.

    FYI. How to delete your 23andMe data.

    23andMe has filed for bankruptcy, raising concerns about what will happen to the DNA-testing company and all the data it’s collected from customers over the years. In the event that 23andMe is sold, its massive genetic database may end up in the hands of a different company entirely — one that users never consented to handing their personal information over to.

  19. 19.

    schrodingers_cat

    @sab: Oh I know that. I have lived in 4 different states.  I thought the possibility that he would know someone who practiced in Richmond in within professional/personal networks was high.

    Missouri is considered a part of the south right? So is Richmond, VA. So similar type of law practice and the same region broadly speaking.

  24. 24.

    sab

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes you are right. I never fail to underestimate your knowledge, but that is just because Americans I know are often so clueless. And I know nothing of physics.

    Death can be so fast and yet the law is so damn slow it’s often worthless. So here we are.

    Most of us will get over this and move on. Anger was so far from who she was.

  26. 26.

    Mendo

    If anything, the Trump years are proving that stupidity is an advantage (if you’re a Republican). It can’t be altered or bargained with in any way. It reminds me of the Mitch Hedberg bit about playing tennis.

    “The thing that’s depressing about tennis is that no matter how good I get I will never be as good as a wall. I played a wall once, they’re relentless.”

    The stupidity is relentless, and it’s an advantage.

  27. 27.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @sab: … but every state has different rules, and every county nas different interpretations of those rules.

    Another aspect of legal procedure where My Cousin Vinny is true to life, yes?

  30. 30.

    Jackie

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I’m not, actually. They can be pressured by the public

    And, how’s that working so far? Social Security and Medicare are safe? Nope. Federal employees jobs safe? Nope. Public pressure means diddly squat to this administration.

  32. 32.

    different-church-lady

    @Mendo: “A perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility…. A survivor. Unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality…”

  35. 35.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jackie:

    For one, I meant public pressure applied to the Atlantic to not cave, for example.

    It’s important to be publicly seen opposing the administration and making your voice heard (provided it’s safe for you to do so, this will vary person to person), to not obey in advance, to throw sand in the gears, make it as painful for them as possible, and show the public what is happening is wrong.

    ETA: I admit I don’t have all of the answers. Things are really screwed up right now

  36. 36.

    schrodingers_cat

    @sab:And I know nothing of physics.

    That’s not true. You use physics every single day and have a good physical intuition even if you can’t express that in terms of mathematical equations.

  37. 37.

    lgerard

    This line in the Politico story about Waltz made me laugh out loud

    “Nothing is decided yet, and White House officials cautioned that President Donald Trump would ultimately make the decision over the next day or two as he watches coverage of the embarrassing episode”

    Yes, the TV will tell him what to do!

  42. 42.

    Jackie

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @lgerard:

    Goki, this post from @Igerard says it best:

    “Nothing is decided yet, and White House officials cautioned that President Donald Trump would ultimately make the decision over the next day or two as he watches coverage of the embarrassing episode”

    Yes, the TV will tell him what to do!

  45. 45.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Any bets on which one of them is the first to  drown will brushing their teeth?

  54. 54.

    Marc

    @schrodingers_cat:  Missouri is considered a part of the south right?

    When I was a kid, my Dad got a big offer (like VP level) from McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis.  We were all really excited about it, and he took a trip to St. Louis to check out the scene and find a place to live.  He came back and never mentioned that job again.  It must have been like when I later got a job offer from a big instrumentation company in Madison, Wisconsin in the early 80s . Before I left the airport I had, uh, three separate racial incidents (the worst was the hotel shuttle driver refusing to pick me up, I had to take a taxi, which was also a problem).  Neither is in the south, but they might as well have been.

  62. 62.

    Ohio Mom

    @sab: Sadly, I think you have a “what came first, the chicken or the egg” question here. Was she evil to begin with and the meth stripped off whatever veneer of sociability she had, or did the meth change an average person into a very bad person?

    The question Why evil exists and why there are evil people, is beyond human understanding. We are used to stratching our heads over the likes of Trump, Musk and Vought, but that’s at a distance, we aren’t prepared for when evil visits us in our homes.

    We are defenseless, that’s part of what evil is, it is that which we have no way of coming to terms with or protecting ourselves against.

    Certainly a small evil is sending children to a viewing without the support of their parents or other loved adults.

    Once again, I send you my deepest sympathies. It’s all just too awful for words.

  63. 63.

    Quiltingfool

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Missouri is, well, weird.  We aren’t really southern and we aren’t really northern.  Half and half, maybe?

    The Civil War started in Missouri long before the actual beginning of the war.  There were lots of fighting between Kansans and Missourians on the border of the states; Missouri was a slave state and Kansas was a free state, in the 1850s.

    There was also fighting between Arkansas and Missouri, too.
    One great-great grandfather (Northern Arkansas) fought for the Union; another fought for the Confederacy.  The Confederacy grandpa?  While he and his son were away fighting, his wife went up to Missouri and worked as a laundress for Union troops.  Her kids had eat, ya know.  When hubby came home and found out, he and the son left.

    Missouri was a horrible place during the war.  If a group came riding up to your place and asked which side you were on, the wrong answer was met with a bullet and a house burning.

    Let’s just say Missouri had a split personality.  Neither fish nor fowl.

  64. 64.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Quiltingfool:
     

    Let’s just say Missouri had a split personality. Neither fish nor fowl.

    I think you meant “neither wave nor particle”

    #callback

  65. 65.

    Martin

    @satby: I agree with every word of that.

    It’s why my family is semi-seriously searching for a different country to move to, while I’m the ‘no, we stay and fight’ party, and yet, I only partially have my heart in that because I don’t see a path to address the moral rot.

    Remember my arc around Covid. I wrote here regularly, looking at a model that could result in a million dead Americans. That was inconceivable to all of us. And my instinct was to say ‘but we’ll see that projection and then really get our ass in gear’ and that didn’t happen. And more than a million did die. And what did we learn from that? Not a fucking thing. If anything we are VASTLY less prepared for Covid today than we were in 2023. The only conclusion you can draw is that a million dead fellow citizens is fine. We’re not cheering for it, but we’re fine with it. Shame, but I can’t be bothered to do anything different.

    I don’t know how to dig out of that hole, even in the abstract. My sense it you don’t dig out of it, you fill it with a meteor.

    If my family told me they really wanted to move to Norway or New Zealand or wherever, I think that sense would lead me to sign on. I don’t like that feeling. I like fighting.

  66. 66.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:

    TBH, that kind of moral rot seems to be present to varying degrees in multiple different nations atm. The same kind of rural vs urban, men vs women divides, plus increasing wealth inequality, is everywhere. The possibility is there and has always been there; it seems like there’s this 20-30% of every population that’s attracted to authoritarianism

    I firmly believe the only way out is through. I know in my bones that Trump can never be allowed to happen again and we have to do everything in our power to ensure it never, ever, happens again if and when he and the GOP lose their grip. I think the opportunity will present itself in the near future

  67. 67.

    Anyway

    Only catching up now on the news — hope there were no DEI folk on the signal chat. Can’t have ‘em messing up war planning.

  69. 69.

    Liminal Owl

    @sab: I’m so sorry you are going through such pain.  (Again? Or is my memory confused?). I don’t understand, either, why some substances turn people so horrible, nor why the users can’t prefer something that mellows them out.  Much sympathy.

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