see Mitch McConnell just falls down all the time it’s fine right
— Philo of Alexan (@philoof.bsky.social) October 16, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Per ABC, “Sen. Mitch McConnell falls in Capitol hallway”:
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, 83, fell to the ground in a Capitol hallway Thursday afternoon as he made his way to Senate votes.
McConnell, who announced in February that he would not seek reelection, fell to the floor while two volunteers from the environmental advocacy group Sunrise Movement approached the senator and asked him a question about Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. He did not respond to the question.
The senator seemed unsteady, but got up and kept walking with the help of his detail. He then waved to the two individuals who were questioning him.
The Senate was taking a series of votes on Thursday related to the government shutdown, now on its 16th day. After the fall, McConnell voted and he is expected to vote late in the day as well…
As a fellow (not quite that) Old Person with balance issues, I can attest that very slightly uneven surfaces, like tile floors, can be especially tricky when one is distracted. I’m sure the Sunrise Movement is happy to take the credit, of course…
It’s not as though McConnell’s exit, in 2027 if not sooner, is liable to change national politics for the better. Per Politico, yesterday:
Rep. Andy Barr has maintained his early fundraising edge in the crowded Republican primary to succeed GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell in Kentucky…
Kentucky’s Republican primary, shaping up to be among the most expensive and competitive 2026 Senate primaries, has emerged as a bellwether for the direction of the Republican Party.
All three leading GOP candidates interned for McConnell at some point in their career — but are now trying to distance themselves from the longtime Senate Republican leader. They are instead moving to embrace Trump, betting that an endorsement from the president would be a silver bullet in the state that he carried by 30 points in 2024.
if this was any back bench Democrat it'd be the single largest story of the day, former leader of the Republicans? not so much.
— Henry (@henrythedog.bsky.social) October 16, 2025 at 2:26 PM
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I can't help but chuckle at the poor folks wishing death on mitch mcconnell, when kentuckians know he's been dead for 30 years
— Gallifreyan Jedi (@jediofgallifrey.bsky.social) October 16, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Simple and Powerful Messaging Open Thread
Craig
Things weird connection wise here, so reposting from last thread.
Can someone help me out. My friends and I have always said Anti Fa, like Anti Fascist. I look at all these scared Mike Johnson’s squeaking about An teee fuh. Is that a Robe repurposing ala Democrat Party, or have me and my anti fascist friends been wrong for years? Thanks in advance.
RoseWeiss
He should have retired years ago.
Splitting Image
Man, if I didn’t hate McConnell’s guts, I’d feel sorry for the guy.
cain
I so badly want to see this man humbled. he will be forgotten immediately by his own party.
I hope realizes that charlie kirk would have a bigger send off.
Mai Naem mobile
Why doesn’t the guy either get a scooter, an electric wheelchair or a walker? He’s fallen enough times. He’s not running again so it’s not like he needs to look young and healthy for his constituents. It’s not like money is an issue either.
WTFGhost
@Craig: It should be “anti-FA” emphasis on the last syllable. If you put the emphasis on the middle syllable, it sounds like anTEEfa.
SpaceUnit
Mitch will be fine. He tumbles down steps for a living.
Tony Jay
@Craig:
Anti-FA all the way. An-tee-fa sounds like a derivative haemorrhoid cream.
Or just go with Anti-Fash. Makes the meaning plain and sounds swish.
Tony Jay
It’s not that McConnell is falling over. It’s just that Hell is impatient and calling him home.
Craig
@WTFGhost: that’s what I’m asking. I’m with the former. Why are all the Republicans voicing it as the latter?
Sally
Well, they don’t want any emphasis on the fascism. And they are mocking.
Sally
My answer from previous thread
I say it with the emphasis on the final syllable though I often also use the full anti fascist. And explain that I will proudly fight fascists as my ancestors did.
hitchhiker
I’m so tired of the USA being a farce. Who are we now? An eighty-three-yr-old doddering around the deserted capitol taking meaningless votes, falling down and having to be helped up and escorted away from cameras. There’s a metaphor.
What is the point of this? Every scrap of dignity and authority gone. Demanding respect and not getting it because the days when we seemed to deserve it are in the past.
We can recover. We have resources. But we have to somehow remember who we thought we were, and what we thought we could become, and claim that without flinching.
JWR
Guys, everybody, I’m sorry to be so dump and run with my comments today, but I think this right here is a great way to get under the president’s thin, thin skin. I just saw it on NBC, (channel 4 in SoCal.)
Here it is at Instagram, and at Youtube. It’s a “Stick it to Trump on Prop 50” ad.
Oh, and sorry if already guffawed at. Now off to getting rid of this nasty ass, whatever the Hell it is… really bad cold or flu. ;)
SpaceUnit
@JWR:
Hang in there and get better. We’ve got some soldiers on the wall.
Odie Hugh Manatee
He needs to do this at the top of a long flight of stairs or near a large open window on an upper floor, the higher the better.
I hope the rat bastard lingers and suffers in every way possible before he escapes to Hell for the damage he has wrought on this nation, its people and numerous others around the world.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Is it okay to wish a particular ill upon someone if it’s something that you’ve experienced yourself? ‘Cos I’ve been through some crap this year that I’d love for Moscow Mitch to experience.
JoyceH
Something that really needs doing and in fact should have been done already is to push back against the administration fiction that Antifa is an actual organization rather than a concept. Pam Bondi made the ludicrous claim that DOJ had arrested the girlfriend of a founder of Antifa. The media needs to be questioning that. Name the girlfriend. Name the founder. Show the evidence that Antifa exists as an organization. Put up or SHUT UP.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Absolutely. Wishing him some real life is just find and dandy. The more real, the better. I’d wish RA on him but it’s too slow.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@JoyceH:
This could have been done a long time ago if our press was interested in educating people about something that is so important.
They don’t do that, thus the continuing fiction of antifa being an organization and not the concept/belief.
Tony Jay
Speaking of Rightwing gobshites with a crush on fascism, over here in the UK the deeply unpopular ‘Hard Labour’ Government headed by Sir Keir Starmer is trying to relive the thrill of its 2017-2020 glory days by tossing accusations of antisemitism around like confetti at a wedding.
Not content with slapping TERRORIST labels on anti-genocide campaign groups and arresting hundreds of peaceful protestors (while giving free rein to Far-Right thugs terrorising asylum seekers and charity workers), they’ve appointed the odious Lord John Mann as their ‘independent’ advisor on combatting antisemitism.
Mann is the former Labour MP and all-round slimy loo-plop who was so vocal and dishonest in smearing the pre-Starmer Labour Party with false accusations of antisemitism that non other than Alexander Boris de Pfeffel fucking Johnson elevated him to the House of Lords as a reward. Man’s got more ties to the Israeli Right than he’s got ermine spots on his robes, so of course Starmer has given him the job of
throwing fake charges ofantisemitism atrooting out antisemitism in the UK’s Universities and in the NHS. I predict a massive shitshow.And following the joint decision of West Midlands Police and Birmingham council to ban supporters of Maccabi Haifa from attending a match at Aston Villa’s ground because of persistent hooliganism and the clear probability of violence, Starmer has accused those organisations of antisemitism as well. Bear in mind, fan-bans are absolutely standard fare when public safety is an issue, happens all the time, but for Starmer’s mob, that plays second fiddle to keeping their chums in the Israeli Lobby happy.
The Starmerites have been homaging the Tories since they took office, but this of all has the stink of Trumpism about it. It’s going to lose them millions of votes, but it must be making someone happy.
like a metaphor
can’t they just park him in the shed out back, with all of the other unwanted Confederate statues?
p.a.
Gives you an idea of how fucking easy these jobs are that almost no one does a “Barry Sanders” and leaves at the top of their game, whether left or right. Talking Senate mostly. What’s the worst part? Ass-kissing for $$$.
TS
@Tony Jay: There hasn’t been a labor party for years that acted for labour. Same as in Australia – very slightly left of the right wing parties, but suggest they tax the billionaires to give support to those who need support & introduce some rent control so people can actually afford to rent a home & they sound just like their opposition.
I am in despair of Australia negotiating to supply the US with needed minerals – no strings attached – we should stay well away from trading with the US at the minute while trump is blackmailing countries with his tariffs and anti trade actions. As for sending troops to help with the “peace actions” I so pray (not sure who to) that we stay well away from any such support.
Ohio Mom
@JWR: Did you take a Covid test? If it’s positive, you can shorten your suffering by taking Paxlovid.
Eyeroller
@Craig:Pronunciation of “antifa” has come up here a few times already. To people insisting on anti-FA, you are simply not going to win that fight. It’s not natural in English to put the stress on the last syllable, especially if it ends in a vowel.
The word originates from German as an abbreviation of their word equivalent to “antifascist.” English doesn’t typically make short forms like that. So the word looks (and is) foreign and it’s going to get an Anglicized “foreign” pronunciation.
The Germans pronounce it ANteefah which would sound better in English too (IMHO). I think it’s the vaguely Spanish or Italian appearance of the word that results in the anTEEfuh pronunciation. Americans especially are somewhat used to Latin American terms resembling it.
Aziz, light!
I can hate Moscow Mitch without bringing his age or infirmities into it. The issue is his legacy as a sworn enemy of democracy. As an old I would want to be judged for my deeds, not for getting older.
lowtechcyclist
@Eyeroller:
I don’t partake of much TV or radio news, so I don’t always hear how People Out There are pronouncing stuff. But the prefix ‘anti’ always has the accent on the first syllable, whether it’s ‘antiwar’ or ‘anticommunist’ or ‘antifascist,’ with the word for the thing you’re against getting an accent as well. That would seem to ought to still apply when ‘antifascist’ is shortened to ‘antifa.’
Tony Jay
@TS:
When the mob running Starmer’s leadership team needed funding and connections to wage war on their own Party back in 2017-2020, a lot of the middleman work was done by people working for Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair, both of whom are elbow deep in lobby work for every Tech-Bro Billionaire, Central-Asian dictator and oil-rich bonesaw aficionado they can get on the books.
The ties forged then, running through both the first Trump Administration and the Israeli Right, got them the free-rein they needed to stage their coup and be in a position to benefit from the Tory collapse. Now those same ties are a noose around the Party’s neck, tightening with every fresh demand for a favour returned. It’s all going to make a small number of people even richer than they are right now, but it’s also going to crush this iteration of Labour at the ballot box.
They can’t say “No”, though. Not if they want the records of the meetings they held and promises they made to remain secret.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: In order to balance out the ban on the Maccabi Haifa hooligans, Tommy Robinson is visiting Israel. He was invited by Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, who has never met a European fascist he didn’t like.
Robinson posted about the visit and someone responded, “How’s the powder over there?”
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
I saw that. When I picked my jaw up off the floor I just pocketed that revealing factoid to throw in the faces of apologists when they whine about Israel being unfairly maligned.
Yaxley-Lennon (I won’t call him by his stage name, he’s not Prince) is a vile little racist fucker and a proud antisemite. The Israeli Govt inviting him over because he’s also a proud islamaphobe… well, tells you everything you need to know about who those people are and how credible their claims about antisemitism should be considered.
Betty
@lowtechcyclist: My perspective is that if you have to explain that antifa means anti-fascist, and there isn’t agreement on how to pronounce it, it would be best to use clearer language to describe what you are against. Let Republicans pronounce it how they please.
Shalimar
@JoyceH: I saw an article that did name the girlfriend and Antifa “founder” in question. He is supposed to be a founder of a local Portland neighborhood Antifa group (which I assume is real, though it wouldn’t surprise me if the government made up a name for some group that has a Facebook chat). The “founder” in question, a prominent local latino activist, denied even being a member of the organization they claim he leads.
MagdaInBlack
As the committee discusses the proper pronunciation of “antifa” the frog and unicorns march on.
Rugosa
@Tony Jay: +++
Rugosa
My first thought was, why isn’t he using a cane? He would keep both his balance and his dignity. Then my second thought was, let the bastard fall. I hope these videos of him are getting lots of attention online.
Paul in KY
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: With him tis fine. Please wish away…
Paul in KY
@p.a.: Power is a hell of a drug…
Paul in KY
@Eyeroller: If we can say tah-CO, then we can say an-ti-FAH.
Ruckus
Anne
This getting old bit can/does quite often have an issue with balance. Part of that is sometimes not realizing that you are having an issue OR misbelieving that you will remain 99% because you most always have. Some just refuse to admit actual aging, that often everyone else can see very easily. Getting old has more and different issues than just being a klutz, although that one is quite normal. Especially to those who can’t admit anything other than perfection, which they never could get to or even got close to, not in any way, shape or form. It’s one of those bits of humanity that many think far more of themselves than anyone else and have the concept that they will and are always right and perfect. Sure some are very successful at something and do very well at it, but that never applies 100% of the time.
Ruckus
@Rugosa:
They give two _ _ _ _ _ about anything other than political power and keeping it. That word starts and ends with an s.
And they think that power also means that they are always strong and at least look like they are in full charge. But get old enough and that bravado fades or flys away. And as one gets old enough there is NOTHING to replace that bravado. So the more bravado one exhibits before they get to that last possible hint of bravado, the harder it is to look reasonable or rational or anything more than just another useless old fart.