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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: One Hopes for An Extinction Burst

Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: One Hopes for An Extinction Burst

by Anne Laurie|  December 7, 20254:08 am| 125 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republicans in Disarray!, Schadenfreude

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Polish Foreign Minister replies to Musk: šŸ‡µšŸ‡±

[image or embed]

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) December 6, 2025 at 2:52 PM

Elon Musk is so fucking racist he wants to abolish the EU because it won't let him peddle white supremacist drivel to European citizens.

[image or embed]

— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha1.bsky.social) December 6, 2025 at 11:15 AM

===
The wheels are falling off the Trump 2028 juggernaut, and the minions are beginning to fight with each other…

I'm not quite sure where to start

[image or embed]

— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree.bsky.social) December 6, 2025 at 10:21 AM



… While the rank-and-file True Conservatives begin to panic:
Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: One Hopes for An Extinction Burst

Sitting in a comfortable home with a steady income; living a life of almost unbearable tedium and routine; fantasizing about the psychopathologies potentially unleashed by the fall of civil society, the only freedom still possible for him.

[image or embed]

— Rufus Hickok (@rufus-hickok.bsky.social) December 6, 2025 at 1:35 PM

see the thing about them all being the worst people in the world is that even when one of them gets killed they can’t create a proper cult of martyrdom around him because the others get jealous he’s getting all the attention.

Right wingers keep talking about civil war & FAFO, & all I can think is "we are very lucky that they are so fucking stupid"

[image or embed]

— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) December 6, 2025 at 3:19 PM

The guys who rioted during covid lockdowns because they couldn’t get a harcut or harass food servers are going to fold on day 2 of the civil war, if they manage to survive that long

COVID provided a lot of real-time evidence of which people would sacrifice for the greater good, innovate, keep up morale and emotionally endure devastating loss…and which would sell out their grandma if it meant they could go back to Applebee's.

[image or embed]

— Zeddy (@zeddary.bsky.social) December 6, 2025 at 7:54 PM

There's also just the fact that they don't feel like they won because they're psychopaths completely divorced from reality. People are still getting abortions, the TV shows still have people of color, gay people haven't disappeared.

[image or embed]

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) December 6, 2025 at 2:37 PM

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Reader Interactions

125Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 4:37 am

    “Tucker’s Christmas Party” may actually be worse than the “Star Wars Christmas Special.”

  2. 2.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 4:38 am

    They’re mad about not personally receiving the respect (deference) they think they are owed

    Correct. Keep it up, libs. Your contempt is your greatest weapon.

  3. 3.

    JCJ

    December 7, 2025 at 4:55 am

    @Baud: I hope they sang “The Little Drummer Boy”

  4. 4.

    Shalimar

    December 7, 2025 at 5:08 am

    “I look forward to the day when liberals and conservatives go to Civil War.”

    Yes.Ā  I also hate Americans and want tens of millions of us to die over stupid shit.Ā  Nothing could be more American than that./s

  5. 5.

    Jay

    December 7, 2025 at 5:10 am

    The Dead Bird site is banned in:

    ruZZia,
    China,

    Iran,

    North Korea.

    Myanmar,

    Turkmenistan,

    Venezuela

    and yet, Felon Husk promotes all these countries

    There is a theme there.

  6. 6.

    Rusty

    December 7, 2025 at 5:11 am

    When you only see people as a means to an end, then when they die their utility to what you want is over.Ā  Kirk was just another tool, now useless to their ends, so why waste time mourning him?Ā  Ā I finally understood this when Scalia died.Ā  Within hours the right was consumed with how to replace him, no one really cared about him as a person.Ā  There was even a backlash on the right from those that thought it unseemly to move on so fast, but that group was a distinct minority and by now has been mostly purged from the Republicans.Ā  Ā Compare his death with the death Ruth Bator Ginsburg, who was actually adored for her person and what a she represented.Ā  Now, immediately after Kirk’s death he had utility to bash liberals, but that had a short shelf life,Ā  so why care about him any longer.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 5:15 am

    @Shalimar:

    If there’s a civil war, aim for the monster trucks.

  8. 8.

    Ten Bears

    December 7, 2025 at 5:18 am

    Wait, wait, is that entitled dude threatening me? Cuz … I’m not a lib-er-al

    I take threats seriously … don’t turn a cheek

  9. 9.

    Quiltingfool

    December 7, 2025 at 5:23 am

    @Rusty:

    When you only see people as a means to an end, then when they die their utility to what you want is over

    Interesting. Ā So, do you think this will happen when the ferret-headed shitgibbon keels over?

    Scalia had friends, who mourned his death. Ā I don’t think Trump has friends. Ā Hell, I don’t think his wife or children love him.

  10. 10.

    MattF

    December 7, 2025 at 5:28 am

    Did not anticipate RW turning against Charlie Kirk. They really are nuts. Again, more finding out about psychopaths than I ever wanted.

  11. 11.

    patrick II

    December 7, 2025 at 5:35 am

    Something that has bugged me from the beginning of the tariff debateĀ  — who is going to pay for it? Chinese manufacturers or Americans? The answer is that to the final consumer, it makes no difference. If a Chinese manufacturer is making a profit on a product but then has to add a tariff to his costs, his wholesale price for that product will go up because he is not going to manufacture it at a loss. So, to the American importer, if the cost is passed on to him from China, he must add that to his end retail price to profit. Otherwise, if he pays the tariff himself, he will be the one to add that price to the retail price. Either way, whether China or the American importer pays the tariff, the cost rises, and the American consumer will end up paying more.

  12. 12.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 7, 2025 at 5:36 am

    @JCJ:

    “I have no fuks to give.

    Pa rump pa pa pum”

  13. 13.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 5:37 am

    @patrick II:

    You could say the same thing about any tax on business. Republicans often use that argument against income taxes and regulations.

    The big problem with tariffs is that their regressive taxes, and they can harm trade which reduces competition in a way that imposes costs beyond the revenue raised.

  14. 14.

    Geminid

    December 7, 2025 at 5:43 am

    Hassan I. Hassan’sĀ New Lines MagazineĀ published an article December 1 that is very relevant to this post. The title is:

    Ā  Ā The MAGA Battle Over the Epstein Files

    Trump’s image as a warrior against supposed elite pedophile cabals now faces a unique threat.

    Independent journalist Ryan Biller describes the symbiotic relationship between Trump and the QAnon movement that arose in the 2017, the first of first term. He then traces developments through Trump’s 2024 election campaign to last month, with a focus on the threat the Epstein affair poses to Trump’s relationship with his base.

    The article is long, like many other New Lines offerings. It’s efficiently written; it just covers a lot of ground. This link might work:

    share.google/OUXCGmdhST0GUpRYE

  15. 15.

    patrick II

    December 7, 2025 at 5:46 am

    This is old news, but did you see Trump at the FIFA Peace Prize ceremony? It was so strange, and truthfully, in spite of all of the dumb things he has said over time, I have never seen him look dumber. He was taking it so seriously — a solemn look on his face, hands held at his side, walking stiffly as he imagines someone accepting a real Nobel Peace Prize. All he needed was to be holding a candle, and he would have looked like a twelve-year-old in a procession for his first communion, the picture of rectitude. O.K. maybe an evil twelve-year-old. Foreign countries are treating him like a child — give him a lovely but meaningless bauble and he is all yours. I mean, this is worse than the love letters from Kim Jong Un.

  16. 16.

    Barney

    December 7, 2025 at 5:48 am

    More on the Loomer/Greene/Milo/”Tim” (that’s Tim Pool) fight, from Indian media (who will print political gossip without checking, I realise):

    Tim Pool claims shooting at house after podcast where ‘Erika Kirk divorce’, ā€˜Charlie Kirk gay’ claims were made

    Conservative podcaster Tim Pool said on December 6 that someone shot at his house last night. He noted that nobody was hurt in the December 5 incident. Pool lives at Harpers Ferry, in West Virginia. His claims about the shooting came after a podcast episode aired where a guest made shocking claims about Erika and Charlie Kirk.

    ā€œLast night a vehicle approached our property and opened fire. No one was hurt,ā€ he wrote on X. Pool added ā€œOur security team is reviewing the incident and will be relaying the report to appropriate law enforcement. This is the price we pay for speaking out against evil.ā€

    …

    Georgia RepresentativeĀ Marjorie Taylor GreeneĀ reacted to the news of the shooting, and said, ā€œThis is terrifying. I’m glad everyone is ok. Everyone must stand together against this type of political violence and intimidation. No matter who it happens to. Whether you like them or not.ā€
    hindustantimes.com/world-news/tim-pool-claims-shooting-at-house-after-podcast-where-erika-kirk-divor…
    and at timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us-streamers/tim-pool-reports-shooting-at-his-house-as-podcast-sti…

  17. 17.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 5:50 am

    @patrick II:

    reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1pg8zmy/i_have_never_been_more_proud_of_my_accomplishments/

  18. 18.

    Jay

    December 7, 2025 at 5:51 am

    @patrick II:

    Tariffs(FFS) are “collected” at the US end.

    In the beginning, the US Customs was not set up for collecting tariffs(FFS) as they changed,

    So, I export from Canada, ( no more de-minimus) a $1.98 part from Canada, non CMUSA compliant, the US Importer pays me $1,98 plus the shipper, shippingĀ  and handling costs, (they vary), plus the tariff ( US Customs) of $0.48, so the cost is $2.46 plus shipping and handling.

    That’s what the importer pays. They can pass that $0.48 on to the customer, or they can “swallow it”. Costco has for example, “swallowed it”. Now they are suing. $7.8 billion and growing because the tariffs (FFS) are illegal.

  19. 19.

    patrick II

    December 7, 2025 at 5:53 am

    @Baud:

    I agree. While Trump asserts tariffs are meant to restore American manufacturing, and I think he actually believes that, a largely unstated reason for tariffs is replacing progressive income tax with regressive tariffs (let’s call them taxes, shall we?)

    That is a thing I find interesting about many of Trump’s policies or decisions: they are often a mix of unreality (instant manufacturing restoration) with a usually hidden, realistic, intentional policy, in this case, the replacement of progressive taxes with more regressive ones.

    People are often distracted from the real purpose byĀ  the less real ones that draw most of the discussion.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 5:55 am

    @patrick II:

    the replacement of progressive taxes with more regressive ones

     

    Long-standing Republican goal. I don’t think they even hide it much.

  21. 21.

    patrick II

    December 7, 2025 at 5:57 am

    @Jay:

    I know that Jay.Ā  What I am saying is that, to the end consumer, those prices will be added on somewhere along the line, and he will pay more regardless of where they are added.Ā  So that discussion is often a distraction that makes no difference to the guy paying a higher price for a new lawnmower at Walmart.

  22. 22.

    Tony Jay

    December 7, 2025 at 5:59 am

    @Quiltingfool:

    So, do you think this will happen when the ferret-headed shitgibbon keels over?

    They’ll immediately try to deify him so that they can appoint themselves – individually – as his one true heir and successor. Someone – probably Steve Miller – will cry ā€œMurder!ā€ and decry a coup. The ones with paramilitary units under their command will panic and move to pre-empt betrayal by arresting their rivals. There’ll be a dizzying whirl of everyone in the Maga Party accusing everyone else in the Maga Party of being a Radical Liberal traitor to Trumpism. The hair-trigger loons will see coded messages in the weather reports telling them to start targeting enemies within. Loomer, OfKirk and Musk will individually call for competing Million MAGA Marchs on the White House that will crash TicketMaster. And by the time the smoke clears the next morning- roughly 5 hours after The Orange Ogre initially popped his clogs – the FTFNYT will run banner headlines saying AS A NATION MOURNS – DEMOCRATS ACCUSED OF SHOWING INSUFFICIENT RESPECT

    Probably.

  23. 23.

    Geminid

    December 7, 2025 at 6:01 am

    @Geminid: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the QAnon-influenced politicians reporter Ryan Biller discusses in hisĀ New Lines article.Ā  It turns out Greene will be on 60 Minutes tonight, interviewed by Leslie Stahl.

    And Minnesota Rep. Ihlan Omar will appear on CBS’s Face the Nation later this morning.

    It’s hard to think of two more dissimilar politicians than Greene and Omar. I’d like to see a candid conversation between the two, though. Maybe Greene will start a podcast next year, and bring Omar on as a guest.

    I think Rep. Omar would be game. I just hope and pray Greene doesn’t have Ro Khanna on.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 6:08 am

    @Geminid:

    Ro was strong on Epstein, and so was Greene. So that may happen.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 6:12 am

    @Tony Jay:

    DEMOCRATS ACCUSED OF SHOWING INSUFFICIENT RESPECT

     

    Oh we’ll definitely be showing insufficient respect. NYT would be spot on with that headline.

  26. 26.

    Geminid

    December 7, 2025 at 6:21 am

    @Baud: That’s right. And I know Khanna will be game.

  27. 27.

    piratedan

    December 7, 2025 at 6:21 am

    @Barney: If there’s one “thing” that Charlie Kirk did, it was that whoever bankrolled him got their money’s worth as he actually built a new Conservative organization that roped in a not insignificant number of politically disaffected youth and roped those young nihilists into the Conservative front lines.Ā  When you compare that some of the others….

    Fuentes – Nazi’s as an ethos
    Ramaswarmy – Asian Fascists built on their own unique racism
    Greene – QANON pinup girl
    Lauren B – Gun Bunny heiress to the Palinesque Only Fans
    O’Keefe – the GOP version of The Producers
    Milo – example #1 that gay people can be just as politically stupid and obtuse as anyone else

    and these are the “up and comers” of the future of the GOP, who else has actually done anything?Ā  They all come from a nice secure niche and was opportunistic to grab onto a thread and try and leverage themselves into being relevant.Ā  Not an original thought or redeeming value to be found amongst them.Ā  They are strange bedfellows at best and to find them splintering now before Trump is completely out of the picture is not unexpected, I’m sure that they’ve never seen each other as allies, only rivals.

  28. 28.

    Tony Jay

    December 7, 2025 at 6:21 am

    @Baud:

    The sub-heading will be:

    AMIDST PLEAS FOR CALM, WHITE HOUSE INSIDERS POINT FINGER OF SUSPICION AT ā€˜DEMOCRAT CONSPIRACY’

    And under that:

    DEMOCRAT LEADERSHIP ā€˜WE WERE ALL IN BED’ CLAIM FAILS TO TAMP DOWN CONCERNS ABOUT THEIR ā€˜DANGEROUS RHETORIC’

  29. 29.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 6:23 am

    @Tony Jay:

    DEMOCRAT LEADERSHIP ā€˜WE WERE ALL IN BED’ CLAIM FAILS TO TAMP DOWN CONCERNS ABOUT THEIR ā€˜DANGEROUS RHETORIC’

     

    The orgy alibi never works.

  30. 30.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 7, 2025 at 6:25 am

    @Geminid: I hear Ro Khanna regularly on Thom Hartmann, but I do not know enough about him to hold an opinion of him. Yours of him does not seem very high, so I’m curious why?

  31. 31.

    p.a.

    December 7, 2025 at 6:25 am

    Just read G Will’s “slum of an administration” oped the WaPo posted on fbook, no sub required, and while he does call trash trash… well 2/3 through he’s back to blaming deficits, entitlements & lack of martial spirit…

    They just can’t quit the crack.

  32. 32.

    piratedan

    December 7, 2025 at 6:34 am

    @Baud: well yeah, the GOP always wants to be included if there’s the possibility of extracurricular sex involved, you know, as Jesus intended.

  33. 33.

    geg6

    December 7, 2025 at 6:36 am

    @Tony Jay:

    Sooooo…The Death of Stalin. Ā Only stupider.

  34. 34.

    Geminid

    December 7, 2025 at 6:40 am

    @piratedan: I ran across a long, in-depth article about Charlie Kirk and TPUSA published December 2. It was written by Eamon Whelan for a site called The BafflerĀ and titled:

    Ā  Ā  Ready for War

    Is Nick Fuentes the Successor to Charlie Kirk?

    There is a lot of material on Kirk,Ā  Fuentes and the “Groyper Wars” that broke out in in October of 2019. Whelan contends that it was Fuentes who came out on top, with Kirk accomodating himself to Fuentes’ ethno-nationalism after initially opposing it.

    Kirk and Fuentes both happened to grow up in the suburbs of Chicago. There is also material on Candace Owens, who grew up in Stamford, Connecticut.

    This link worked once here so maybe it will work again:

    share.google/W7UGe3VooF98cEsFc

  35. 35.

    dm

    December 7, 2025 at 6:40 am

    Whenever right wingers start talking about civil war I think about how they wet their pants at the thought of a ā€œcaravanā€ of mothers and children heading north through Central America during the run-up to the 2018 mid-terms.

  36. 36.

    TS

    December 7, 2025 at 6:48 am

    @Tony Jay:

    Much more likely to be a disaffected MAGA – but the media will have to be led screaming to the wall beforeĀ  they will admit the truth. The funeral will be small – no previous Presidents pretending he was one of them.

    The Thatcher rebels showed what should be done. There will be parties and dancing in the street.

  37. 37.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 7, 2025 at 6:48 am

    @dm: I think of the clowns holed up at the bird sanctuary, who had french vanilla coffee creamer on their list of needed supplies.

  38. 38.

    Tony Jay

    December 7, 2025 at 6:48 am

    @Baud:

    The Madison Cawthorn defence.

  39. 39.

    p.a.

    December 7, 2025 at 6:54 am

    @dm: Covid internet meme: you can sit in a deer stand covered in camo head to toe and with deer piss “odorant” but can’t mask up for the coffee shop.

  40. 40.

    Rusty

    December 7, 2025 at 6:59 am

    @Quiltingfool: No, like in all things, Trump is different.Ā  Ā He is the alpha, he sees everyone else as a means to an end, and he has a true cult following.Ā  No one else has people put his signs up for a decade, decorate their trucks and so on.Ā  When he goes there really will be this weird sense pf loss by his followers.

  41. 41.

    Professor Bigfoot

    December 7, 2025 at 7:23 am

    @Shalimar: “Plainly you’re ready to kill for white supremacy, PapaBear. But are you also ready toĀ die for it? You are not the only ones who own guns and know how to use them; and some of you will not write your mamas again. Are you ready for that to be YOU, PapaBear?”

  42. 42.

    Princess

    December 7, 2025 at 7:26 am

    @Barney: the Independent is reporting that Pool himself has made this claim (not that it’s true or happened).

    They are all fighting to control the TPUSA cash cow.

  43. 43.

    prufrock

    December 7, 2025 at 7:26 am

    @Barney: Couldn’t have been the ghost of John Brown.

     

    John Brown wouldn’t have missed.

  44. 44.

    Princess

    December 7, 2025 at 7:32 am

    @dm: These people are too scared to walk around downtown Chicago. I mean…

  45. 45.

    p.a.

    December 7, 2025 at 7:36 am

    @Professor Bigfoot: I remember a guest lecturer in US hist from Tougaloo College and someone questioning about physical resistance during the original Jim Crow, and he brightened up- “of course there was*…” and went into it: more Black history memory-holed, at least for whites like me.

    *IIRC Ā marginally effective in Black-majority areas (not with respect to legalities on the books but effective staying alive and protecting property: driving off night riders etc.)

    Of course, overall, outnumbered, outgunned…

  46. 46.

    Geminid

    December 7, 2025 at 7:43 am

    @MagdaInBlack: I was a little tongue-in-cheek there. Ro Khanna is somewhat of an attention hog. My joke is that netwok “Sunday Show” producers have Khanna’s and Lindsey Graham’s phone numbers filed under, “cheap dates.”

    But speaking more seriously, I’ll credit Ro Khanna for dojng some good work, like in Epstein matter. He’s also done some bad work, like the letter calling for a negotiated end to Russia’s war on Ukraine that was put out in mid-October, 2022. That letter undermined Ukraine’s interests as well as Biden administration policy.

    Most of the twenty Democratic Representatives whose signatures appeared on the letter disclaimed it; some said they’d approved a tentative draft back in June but were blindsided by its appearance two weeks before the midterms.

    Congressional Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal had also signed. She walked the letter back that afternoon, and said the release was the CPC staff’s doing. But Khanna was still talking up the stupid letter that evening, on Fox News (of course), and that tells me who instigated that sorry affair.

    Khsnna is knowledgeable in some areas like tech policy. But when it comes to the broader political issues he so frequently pronounces on in his prolific TV appearances, he’s more of a weather vane.

    An example: Khanna is the only Congressional Democrat to endorse social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh in the Illinois 9th CD primary. I know there are plenty of people who think this winsome TikToker is the next New Thing and evidently Khanna thinks so too. But to me it shows a disregard for 9th CD Democrats, as well as deficient political judgement on his part.

    I also don’t like how Khanna will brag about not taking political donations from corporations while he also attends fundraisers hosted by people like David Sacks, who is a crony of Elon Musk’s. How is taking money from Silicon Valley tech titans any better than taking it from corporation?

    I guess what I’m saying is that while I’ll give Ro Khanna his due for his work on the Epstein Files and other matters, I do not trust him.

  47. 47.

    Professor Bigfoot

    December 7, 2025 at 7:47 am

    @p.a.: I HIGHLY recommend: “Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms” by Nicholas Johnson. Highly readable, and like the Sack of Black Wall Street, contains a lot of history that white people don’t know.

    Also, “Negroes with Guns,” by Robert Ā F. Williams; someone who actually lived with and had to draw down on white cops in the South.

    Black folks haveĀ fought back since 1619, but it’s not in the interests of white supremacy to acknowledge that white people can be killed, too.

  48. 48.

    AM in NC

    December 7, 2025 at 7:49 am

    @Professor Bigfoot: Ā  Exactly. Ā  These people are all hat, no cattle, and have shown themselves to be so over and over and over again.

    My close friends and I are constantly saying “God forbid a Gen X white man be inconvenienced,” because you’d think it was the end of the world (and we are married to Gen X white men!).

    We have also talked about how none of us owns a gun or knows how to shoot a gun, but like the women in Ukraine, we are capable of making Molotov cocktails, are fiercely protective of our children, and are used to dealing with a fuck of a lot more discomfort than most of the MAGA men.

    We also work every fucking day to try to make sure our country doesn’t come to this pass, but if it does, I think right-wingers are going to be greatly surprised.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 7:50 am

    @p.a.:

    People forget that Jim Crow wasn’t established overnight. It took many, many years of erosion.

    Much like we’re seeing now with Republicans and the Roberts Court.

  50. 50.

    Aziz, light!

    December 7, 2025 at 7:52 am

    @Professor Bigfoot: Does PapaBear know that there are Antifa cells in every community waiting for the war to start? The Elks and VFW are hotbeds of Antifa infiltration. Does PapaBear yet suspect that some of them are posing as his best friends?

    I’ve said too much.

  51. 51.

    TONYG

    December 7, 2025 at 7:52 am

    @Quiltingfool: Ronald Reagan was revered as a saint for about a decade after he died — but that, of course, was a different era. Ā By the time Trump came along, Reagan had mostly been forgotten.

  52. 52.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 7:54 am

    With advances in AI, the oligarchs soon won’t even need white guys like PapaBear.Ā  They’ll just manufacture them.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 7:55 am

    @TONYG:

    Reagan still practiced racism through code.

    Trump got rid of all that. Of course, he outshines Reagan.

  54. 54.

    RevRick

    December 7, 2025 at 8:00 am

    @Shalimar: The thing about fantasizing about a civil war is that those doing the fantasizing never think they might suffer and die. And what exactly would victory look like?
    They never stopped to think about the scarred landscape of destroyed businesses and burned out homes and ruined infrastructures. They never stop to consider how much poorer we would all be and that nobody would Marshall Plan us in the aftermath. They never stop to think that in our weakened state other powers might decide that we are a tasty morsel to feast upon.
    Nah, in their fantasies they only imagine a kind of neutron bomb where their enemies are killed but the buildings are left standing. But even that fantasy is stupid.
    If we want a true sense of where this civil war fantasy would lead, just read some history of what happened in the Western world following the collapse of the Roman Empire. And they at least had the advantage of a Church which had the moral authority and connectivity upon which to rebuild.

  55. 55.

    Shalimar

    December 7, 2025 at 8:02 am

    @Professor Bigfoot: It’s the same general thing as slavery.Ā  Lots of these fuckwads are in favor of bringing back slavery.Ā  All of them see themselves as owners, not as losers who would be someone’s slave if that happened.

  56. 56.

    Shalimar

    December 7, 2025 at 8:06 am

    @MattF: The people turning against Kirk are those like Fuentes and Loomer who were his enemies when he was alive too.Ā  The Trump administration brought this on themselves by covering up that his killer was a groyper.Ā  They had an opportunity to take out Fuentes and they didn’t take it.

  57. 57.

    They Call Me Noni

    December 7, 2025 at 8:08 am

    @Baud: There won’t be enough popcorn and champagne in the world……

  58. 58.

    Dave

    December 7, 2025 at 8:13 am

    @Baud: I’d quibble with that if only because I’m not sure it’s actually possible to show insufficient respect.

    At least from any perspective that isn’t purely the performative pearl clutching idiocy the NYTs and it’s fellow travelers demand from Democrats in general.

  59. 59.

    TONYG

    December 7, 2025 at 8:15 am

    I cannot imagine the degree of misery, tedium and pure evil that would be “Tucker Carlson’s Christmas Party”. Ā The thing about these assholes is that in addition to trying to destroy everyone else, they have no happiness in their own sclerotic lives.

  60. 60.

    TONYG

    December 7, 2025 at 8:16 am

    @Baud: “PapaBear”. Ā Is that gay man still in the closet?

  61. 61.

    TONYG

    December 7, 2025 at 8:18 am

    @Baud: That’s right. Ā Reagan portrayed himself as kindly old uncle Ronnie, as he was ruining millions of lives. Ā Trump figured out that there was no longer any reason to pretend — and his followers love him for it.

  62. 62.

    Joey Maloney

    December 7, 2025 at 8:18 am

    @Barney:

    Pool lives at Harpers Ferry, in West Virginia.

    The spirit of John Brown lives on!

    …meh, beaten to the punch as usual.

  63. 63.

    TONYG

    December 7, 2025 at 8:24 am

    @Aziz, light!: PapaBear should take his AR-15 to the closest US Army base and start shooting at soldiers. Ā Let’s see how many seconds he lasts before he becomes a Martyr to the Cause. Ā (I have young, right-wing gun nut in my extended family. Ā Not my favorite relative. Ā He has the exact same “tough-guy” beard. Ā Do they buy those fucking beards online through Amazon?)

  64. 64.

    lowtechcyclist

    December 7, 2025 at 8:26 am

    @MagdaInBlack:

    ā€œI have no fuks to give.

    Pa rump pa pa pumā€

    Now I’ve got that accursed song as an earworm.Ā  Darn you to heck!

  65. 65.

    mappy!

    December 7, 2025 at 8:32 am

    @TONYG: They’re looking for the next big grift. The next windup.

    Like MTG, they’ve moved on or are moving on. Taco is old grift, soon to fade (the gossip must be dire). They’re trendsetters in their own minds.

  66. 66.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 7, 2025 at 8:32 am

    @lowtechcyclist: Fa-la-la-la-la works too =-)

  67. 67.

    Professor Bigfoot

    December 7, 2025 at 8:35 am

    @TONYG: Ā That beard, that hat… all ā€œChris Kyle drag.ā€

  68. 68.

    cmorenc

    December 7, 2025 at 8:36 am

    @patrick II:

    Something that has bugged me from the beginning of the tariff debateĀ  — who is going to pay for it?

    The core purpose of tariffs is precisely to make imported products more expensive, in order to make domestic production of them economically viable against competition from imports.

  69. 69.

    YY_Sima Qian

    December 7, 2025 at 8:38 am

    Germany (& by extension, Europe) between a rock & and a hard place:

    Finbarr Bermingham @fbermingham

    The great slowdown: Germany at a standstill as ā€˜China shock’ hits As Europe’s biggest economy is pummelled by structural problems and external threats, rocky China ties are compounding the dreary picture My report from a rather depressing week in Berlin

    It is not unusual for Berlin to be cloaked in a blanket of grey on the brink of winter. What hangs over the city this year, however, feels heavier. This new shade of gloom cuts through conversations about everything.

    Germany’s coalition government is just six months old, but already some are wondering how long it can last. The economy is no larger now than it was five years ago and is being pummelled by a heady brew of structural problems and external threats.

    The German foreign minister warned that Nato could be attacked by Russia within four years. Relations with China, meanwhile, are on the rocks. ā€œI was not prepared for the kind of pessimism that I come across here,ā€ said Joerg Wuttke, once Europe’s top business lobbyist in China

    When listing the many problems facing Germany, it is difficult to know where to start. The industrial economy is haemorrhaging 10,000 jobs a month, Berlin says For the first time since records began, manufacturing contributed under 20% to Germany’s economy last yr, per Eurostat

    Industrialists gripe that working cultures, energy costs and bureaucracy are killing the country’s competitiveness. ILO statistics show that the average German works 29.6 hours a week, compared with 36.1 hours in the United States and 44.8 hours in China.

    Studies show that industrial electricity prices in Germany are around three times higher than those in the US and China, amid the dual shock of the nuclear phase-out and the collapse of Russian gas supplies. Compounding this dreary picture is Beijing.

    ā€œThe pessimism is towards domestic economic circumstance in this country, but along with the noise level about the US tariffs, the Ukraine-Russia war … it actually distracts our leadership from a much bigger problem … China,ā€ Wuttke said on the margins of a conference in Berlin

    For decades, Sino-German trade was a match made in heaven. German factories provided the machines to kit out the workshop of the world, while China’s increasingly rich consumers favoured German cars.

    During the boom times, China could rely on Berlin to water down Brussels’ moves to clamp down on its alleged trade malpractice, but now German politicians increasingly talk a tougher game.

    ā€œWe haven’t grown in five years and have had no strategic direction for 16,ā€ said one government official. ā€œWe cannot wish those lost years away, but we need to do something now.ā€

    Many economists are increasingly convinced Europe’s largest economy is in the grips of a China shock. Chinese buyers and suppliers have become cutthroat competitors. German exports to China have been dropping like a stone, China’s exports to Germany hurtle in the other direction

    In October 2015, Germany ran a US$630 million trade surplus with China. By October 2025, it flipped to a US$1.78 billion deficit, a swing of 338% in the last decade. In the first 10 months of this year alone, China’s trade surplus with Germany soared 121% vs a year earlier.

    ā€œThe China shock is now macro-critical for Germany: the collapse in German exports to China since the peak already amounts to a hit of roughly 1 per cent of GDP,ā€ said @SanderTordoir, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.

    Industry insiders find it hard to establish where one problem ends and the other begins: Germany’s structural problems are hamstringing efforts to compete with China’s industrial prowess, which is in turn compounding Germany’s industrial competitiveness.

    Beijing’s tight controls on exports of rare earths and other minerals critical to German industry have further blurred the lines. ā€œWe could live with the competition from China if we were more competitive here,ā€ said one businessperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Wuttke, now based in Washington after more than 30 years in Beijing, said Chinese competition was fierce, but the weak consumption levels in the country were further hampering German industry.

    ā€œThe Chinese economy is softening at the same time as a tsunami of Chinese goods are entering the European market and other markets, meaning that we are running a real risk of losing our industrial landscape to the Chinese if you don’t act now,ā€ he said.

    On the geopolitical front, things are scarcely better. China’s close ties with Russia are a perennial poison pill in relations with Europe. German officials keep asking Beijing to use its influence to rein Moscow in, even if expectations are low after nearly 4 years of asking

    In Berlin and Brussels, officials notice a swagger to Beijing that has grown over the year. Having forced Trump to climb down on tariffs, Chinese diplomats care less about pleas on Ukraine.

    Sanctions on Chinese firms for backing Moscow’s war machine make it more likely, not less, that Beijing will send major military support to Russia, European diplomats have been told.

    German foreign minister Johann Wadephul will raise the issue again when he goes to China on Monday, after postponing a trip in October due to a lack of productive meetings.

    Berlin sources believe his scheduling issues arose from comments made during a trip to Japan, when he criticised Beijing for ā€œincreasingly aggressive behaviour in the Taiwan Strait and the East and South China seasā€ and for its support of Russia in Ukraine.

    The trip’s been rearranged but China has pushed Wadephul to ā€œcorrect his viewsā€ & stop talking about Taiwan Berlin estimates any disruption in Taiwan Strait would shave up to 10% off EU economy, so insists it’s a ā€œcore issueā€. Agreeing to be silent would be a ā€œslippery slopeā€

    Other European capitals see Beijing trying to create an environment in which no commentary on Taipei is countenanced. Wadephul wants to lay the groundwork for Merz’s first state visit to China next year, with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expected to follow later in 2026.

    Insiders were pleased that Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil’s recent visit went smoothly. In a sign of how low the bar was, there was relief that the Social Democrat did not openly contradict his conservative coalition partners on major issues.

    Taken together, these pressures expose a deeper problem: Germany cannot adjust quickly enough. Its paralysis reflects a broader malaise in Europe: problems so vast that governments appear frozen between diagnosis & delivery. In Germany, the inertia appears particularly acute.

    On the morning the Dutch government used a Cold War-era law to seize control of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia, it wanted to give Berlin a heads-up. The company has a fabrication facility in Hamburg, and Germany’s car industry would be affected by any blowback.

    After trying all day to get in front of the right officials, an audience was finally granted after business hours, by which time the order had already been given.

    The Dutch then worried that Nexperia’s Chinese owners would start shipping equipment from Hamburg to China and asked the German government to help. Frustrated by the sluggish response, they resorted to calling the local police and asking them to keep watch at the plant.

    Meanwhile, in closed-door meetings, German car companies have lobbied The Hague to reinstate Nexperia’s Chinese management, which was ousted by an independent Dutch court, highlighting divisions in European industrial circles on one of its biggest supply crises since the pandemic

    he government’s answer to competition from China’s electric vehicles, meanwhile, has been to lobby Brussels to delay the phase-out of combustion engine cars. Beyond Berlin, few believe that stopping the clocks will deliver progress.

    In his book Kaput: The End of the German Miracle, political commentator Wolfgang Munchau traced many of today’s ills to this lust for the past. ā€œThis is why errors of judgment in the corporate sector get amplified,ā€ Munchau wrote. ā€œEverybody hangs together….

    Munchau wrote: “Everybody believes in the old industrial model. If you believe that you need a fuel-driven-car industry to run a successful economy, you may not spot an electric car when it is coming your way and running you over.ā€

    The same car companies pushing for a delay in the transition appear less wedded to Germany than ever. Volkswagen announced last month that it would make an electric vehicle entirely in China for half the price it would elsewhere, a fresh blow to domestic manufacturing.

    The gridlock has crept into the supply chain too, best illustrated by the stark contrast between the car lobby VDA and the machinery group VDMA. Both depend heavily on China, yet their readings of the risks differ wildly.

    The car sector sees China as an indispensable market and fears retaliation if Europe pushes too hard. The machinery firms see a competitor whose state-backed industrial power is eroding their global position.

    To officials in Berlin, the groups appear to be living in different realities The discord has sparked existential soul-searching in business circles One figure said in the past they used to laugh at China’s 5-year plans, worshipping instead at the altar of agility & flexibility

    Now, with the EU rolling out proposals on technology transfer, local content requirements and industrial subsidies, they observe echoes of what’s happened for decades in Beijing. ā€œIt’s an open question now among industry: what if we lose the systemic competition?ā€ they said.

    Wuttke believes things are getting so bad that change is inevitable. ā€œThe Chinese assume that we will bark and not bite, but they underestimate the pressure our industrial landscape is under. Eventually Europe will have to act… possibly in a couple of sectors next year.ā€

    Clearly, some protective barriers are in order to prevent European industries from being washed away before European governments have had a chance to react. However, blanket protectionism will merely ensure European industries fail to rise to the competition, & become increasingly obsolescent & irrelevant in any market where Chinese exports are not blocked.

    The EU & European governments will have to go industry by industry, sector by sector, product by product, to determine where they need to protect domestic industry, where to leverage cheap Chinese imports to alleviate inflation & facilitate industrial upgrade, & where to collaborate w/ Chinese corporations to promote tech. transfer & osmosis of knowhow. By & large, the EU (& the US) has yet to start this cold headed & hard-nosed process.

  70. 70.

    p.a.

    December 7, 2025 at 8:41 am

    @TONYG: I cannot imagine the degree of misery, tedium and pure evil that would be ā€œTucker Carlson’s Christmas Partyā€. Ā The thing about these assholes is that in addition to trying to destroy everyone else, they have no happiness in their own sclerotic lives.

     

     

    Vanilla cake and mayo frosting. 🤢

  71. 71.

    lowtechcyclist

    December 7, 2025 at 8:44 am

    @p.a.:

    Just read G Will’s ā€œslum of an administrationā€ oped the WaPo posted on fbook, no sub required, and while he does call trash trash… well 2/3 through he’s back to blaming deficits, entitlements & lack of martial spirit…

    They just can’t quit the crack.

    Why anyone bothers to give George Will a platform anymore is beyond me.Ā  He’s 84 years old, and hasn’t had a new insight in at least forty years.Ā  If ChatGPT started writing his columns, nobody would notice the difference.

  72. 72.

    lowtechcyclist

    December 7, 2025 at 8:58 am

    @Baud:

    Reagan still practiced racism through code.

    Trump got rid of all that. Of course, he outshines Reagan.

    Yeah, literally millions of white men were too oblivious to pick up on the decades of GOP dog-whistling, so they didn’t bother to vote because the GOP racism hadn’t registered with them.Ā  But by being blatant about it, and by effectively giving them permission to be loud and proud about their own racism, Trump got them to show up and vote.

  73. 73.

    Kathleen

    December 7, 2025 at 9:01 am

    @Geminid: Peter Thiel also contributed to his first Congressional campaign, I believe. I agree with you about Khanna.

  74. 74.

    Kathleen

    December 7, 2025 at 9:04 am

    @Baud: Reagan pioneered “outside voice” (campaign kickoff in Philadelphia, MS, “Welfare Queen” etc.) Prior to him Rethugs still using “Southern Strategy” euphemisms (“War on Drugs”.

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    December 7, 2025 at 9:10 am

    @MagdaInBlack:

    @lowtechcyclist: Fa-la-la-la-la works too =-)

    I can deal with “Deck the halls.” But that other accursed song should be thrown into the fires of Orodruin which sufficed to unmake the One Ring.

  76. 76.

    p.a.

    December 7, 2025 at 9:14 am

    @lowtechcyclist: and others:

    Anyone without a last name ending in a vowel ever hear “Dominic the Christmas Donkey”?

    DO NOT SEEK IT OUT

  77. 77.

    Scout211

    December 7, 2025 at 9:24 am

    FTFNYT:Ā Judge Halts Justice Dept. Effort to Seek New Comey Indictment

    (archive.ph version)

    A federal judge on Saturday night threw up a roadblock to the Justice Department’s plans to seek another indictment against James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, as early as next week.

    The decision by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of Federal District Court in Washington temporarily blocked the department from using a crucial trove of evidence in it efforts to bring new charges against Mr. Comey. But it was unclear whether the ruling would permanently stop prosecutors from trying to re-indict him.

    Judge Kollar-Kotelly’s four-page decision barred the government until at least next Friday from having access to much of the evidence it employed to secure its original indictment against Mr. Comey in late September. The move effectively prevents the Trump administration from using the same proof to seek new charges in the coming days.

    . . .

    The bulk of the evidence came from communications between Mr. Comey and one of his close confidants, Daniel C. Richman, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Columbia University’s law school.

    The Justice Department has claimed that Mr. Richman’s emails and text messages show that Mr. Comey lied about using him as a conduit to convey information to reporters about the sensitive investigations. But in an emergency filing to Judge Kollar-Kotelly on Friday night, Mr. Richman argued that the Justice Department had obtained his files in violation of his constitutional rights, and that it should not be permitted to use them in any new attempt to re-indict Mr. Comey.

    . . .

    The case is now technically dead after a separate judicial ruling determined that Mr. Trump’s handpicked choice to run the office, Lindsey Halligan, had been put into her job illegally. The same ruling invalidated a second case Ms. Halligan had filed against another one of Mr. Trump’s political opponents, Letitia James, New York’s attorney general.

    A Virginia federal grand jury failed on Thursday to return a new indictment against Ms. James, in yet another blow to Mr. Trump’s attempts to seek retribution against his perceived enemies.

    Where’s a president to go for retribution now?

  78. 78.

    p.a.

    December 7, 2025 at 9:27 am

    @Scout211: Where’s a president to go for retribution now?

     

    Instigate a pig person physical attack.

  79. 79.

    lowtechcyclist

    December 7, 2025 at 9:27 am

    @Scout211:

    Where’s a president to go for retribution now?

    I suppose he could always order a compliant governor’s National Guard unit to surround Comey’s house, but that might be a bit too blatant for even the FTFNYT to normalize.

  80. 80.

    Professor Bigfoot

    December 7, 2025 at 9:36 am

    @p.a.:Vanilla cake and mayo frosting.

    Looked down from watching Lando Norris celebrating becoming WDC to read this— and promptly spewed coffee on my screen. šŸ˜‚

  81. 81.

    Betty Cracker

    December 7, 2025 at 9:38 am

    The Bulwark published a piece (thinly sourced) speculating that Trump may kick Noem to the curb soon. Here’s an excerpt:

    Still, there are a few factors that make the possibility of a Noem exit likely.

    The first is that Trump may want to begin the New Year with a clean slate, hoping that fresh blood could improve either the execution of his signature mass deportation policy or—more importantly—the public’s perception of it.

    The second is that a prominent, if slightly faded, Republican governor may be soon on the job market, ready to burnish his MAGA credentials with a Trump appointment.

    Anyone know which governor they’re talking about? DeSantis will be out of a job soon, and he’s spent millions of taxpayer dollars and immiserated countless lives in border security theater, which could be interpreted as an audition for a Trump appointment to keep his stupid face on TV and in the 2028 mix.

    On the other hand, I think Trump’s antipathy toward DeSantis is real, so it seems unlikely Trump would throw him a bone. What other “prominent, if slightly faded” GOP govs could they be talking about? Fleece Vest of Virginia?

  82. 82.

    Scout211

    December 7, 2025 at 9:56 am

    @Betty Cracker: Anyone know which governor they’re talking about?

    Glen Youngkin seems most likely.

    • Glenn Youngkin (Virginia): Virginia is the only state that limits its governors to a single, non-consecutive term. As a result, Governor Youngkin cannot run for re-election in the 2025 election and will leave office in January 2026.

  83. 83.

    narya

    December 7, 2025 at 10:01 am

    @Professor Bigfoot: Dude, I’m gonna have to skip you in the comments on Sundays. I don’t watch the race until later in the day.

  84. 84.

    Librettist

    December 7, 2025 at 10:18 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    So The Bulwark is doing blind items now? Maybe they should go all in and hire Perez Hilton.

  85. 85.

    Doc Sardonic

    December 7, 2025 at 10:23 am

    @Betty Cracker: As long as Susie Wiles is there as Mango Mussolini’s COS, DeSantis has no future in the administration

  86. 86.

    Geminid

    December 7, 2025 at 10:33 am

    @Scout211: I could see Trump hiring Youngkin. He’d be elevating a potential rival to JD Vance for 2028, but Trump doesn’t seem all that enthusiastic about his Vice President anyway. Trump’s gotta resent Vance if only because the VP is the only person in his administration he can’t fire.

    Young would probably take the job. He needs to build his resume some more. Youngkin has been pretty much a null factor as Virginia governor. I can’t think of anything he’s accomplished besides slow-walking recreational cannabis despenseries. But that didn’t kept weed from being cheap and plentiful; it just cost the state revenue so what was the point?

  87. 87.

    Betty Cracker

    December 7, 2025 at 10:39 am

    @Doc Sardonic: I don’t know how vindictive Wiles is, but she certainly has every reason to want to put landmines in DeSantis’s path. To know DeSantis is to despise him, evidently. (I despise him without having met him, but almost everyone agrees he’s a dick, across the ideological spectrum.)

    @Scout211: Could be. I don’t know that much about Youngkin, but he seems to lack the crude, feral nature that would appeal to those who favor maximum cruelty toward immigrants, like Stephen Miller. Noem fits that bill. Maybe the Bulwark is wrong.

  88. 88.

    frosty

    December 7, 2025 at 10:39 am

    @Tony Jay: the FTFNYT will run banner headlines saying AS A NATION MOURNS – DEMOCRATS ACCUSED OF SHOWING INSUFFICIENT RESPECT

    Yep.

  89. 89.

    frosty

    December 7, 2025 at 10:47 am

    @Professor Bigfoot: I read “This Nonviolent Stuff Will Get You Killed” awhile back. Same topic as the ones you mentioned: armed Black men protecting the Civil Rights movement.

  90. 90.

    Jackie

    December 7, 2025 at 10:50 am

    @Scout211:

    Trump may kick Noem to the curb soon.

    It depends on the day? Noem’s name can be replaced with Patel or Bondi or Hegseth in that sentence. Of course they ALL need to go, but replaced with what even more evil person(s)?

  91. 91.

    Geminid

    December 7, 2025 at 10:52 am

    @Betty Cracker: I saw a funny nickname for Suzie Wiles the other. There’s this Republican guy named Aaron Baker who’s running against Randy Fine in the FL-06 primary, over on the east coast.

    So Baker was saying that the only way Republicans can avert disaster in the midterms is to switch Susan Wiles out for General Michael Flynn!

    “What about Steve Bannon?” someone responded. He’d be good too, Baker answered; but regardless of the replacement we gotta get rid of “Swamp Granny.”

  92. 92.

    frosty

    December 7, 2025 at 10:52 am

    @cmorenc: Like our domestic production of bananas and coffee. Which they finally had enough sense (or pushback) to roll back. Idiots.

  93. 93.

    Scout211

    December 7, 2025 at 10:53 am

    @Betty Cracker: The rumors are that it’s Lewandowski who they want to get rid of and Noem would have to go to get rid of Lewandowski.

    It seems like Youngkin is a chameleon so he might be compliant to Miller’s direction.

    It’s irresponsible not to speculate!

  94. 94.

    Geminid

    December 7, 2025 at 10:58 am

    @Scout211: Youngkin might have his new high-tech fleece vest ready. It will change colors depending on which side of his mouth he’s talking out of.

  95. 95.

    Miss Bianca

    December 7, 2025 at 10:59 am

    @frosty: that one I have read, too. I believe Adam S recommended it to me.

  96. 96.

    oldgold

    December 7, 2025 at 11:02 am

    Recently, I ran across this amusing and pathetic story.

    Don Snoreleone has been claiming that in 1964 Ā he was the ā€œbest high school baseball player in the state of New York.ā€ A review of his senior year box scores reflect he batted 1 for 21 as a senior in high school for an abysmal batting average of .047!

    Further, the Ā Manchurian Cantaloupe claims he was overlooked at a major league tryout in 1964 because the scouts were mesmerized by a fellow prospect – Willie McCovey. Not likely, given at the time of this alleged major league tryout, Willie McCovey had already hit more than 100 home runs for the San Francisco Giants.

  97. 97.

    Scout211

    December 7, 2025 at 11:04 am

    In other news, Donald Trump jr.,Ā ever the diplomat.

    Donald Trump may walk away from the Ukrainian war, the US president’s oldest son has said in comments to a Middle East conference.

    In a lengthy tirade against the purpose of continued fighting in Ukraine, Donald Trump Jr also said Ukraine’s ā€œcorruptā€ rich had fled their country leaving ā€œwhat they believed to be the peasant classā€ to fight the war.

    Trump Jr has no formal role inside his father’s administration, but is a key figure in the Maga movement. His intervention reflects the antipathy among some inside the Trump team towards the Ukrainian government, and comes as Trump’s negotiating team is putting pressure on Kyiv to give up territory.

    Trump Jr said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was prolonging the war because he knew he would never win an election if it ended. He said Zelenskyy was a borderline deity on the left, but argued that Ukraine was far more corrupt than Russia.

    Grrrrrr!

  98. 98.

    Doc Sardonic

    December 7, 2025 at 11:06 am

    @Betty Cracker: I’m thinking that she has a vicious streak a mile wide, because most Repub operatives that started during Reagan and survived and prospered to now have to. Ā That said, I think she probably will shiv Ron just to further destroy Dollar Tree Jackie O’s dreams of the White House.

  99. 99.

    Professor Bigfoot

    December 7, 2025 at 11:07 am

    @narya: Oh, shit, I’m sorry! I… honestly never considered anyone would actually DVR it and watch at a civilized time; F1 is always weekend mornings and fresh coffee for me!

    But you will enjoy the race— an amazingly clean one with so much on the line. And I’m learning not to hate Max! šŸ˜³šŸ˜‚

  100. 100.

    wombat probability cloud

    December 7, 2025 at 11:10 am

    @MagdaInBlack: Nominated for seasonal rotating header here.

  101. 101.

    kindness

    December 7, 2025 at 11:13 am

    Late to the thread.Ā  I don’t know if Kirk was gay or whether Charlie and his wife were about to get a divorce.Ā  What I do know from my own seeing is that Charlie Kirk’s wife wore the black leather pants to that event with JD Vance because she knew Vance’s sofa humping kink.Ā  Ā I mean just look at the way she grabbed Vance when they warmly embraced.Ā  That was some come hither sofa teasing action it was.

  102. 102.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    December 7, 2025 at 11:14 am

    Fave xmas tune:

    youtube.com/watch?v=kOm0yQXSzyY&list=RDkOm0yQXSzyY&start_radio=1

    “Christmas is pain”

  103. 103.

    Betty Cracker

    December 7, 2025 at 11:15 am

    @Geminid: LOL!

  104. 104.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 7, 2025 at 11:23 am

    @wombat probability cloud: šŸ¤—

  105. 105.

    Rusty

    December 7, 2025 at 11:51 am

    @lowtechcyclist: It is painful to consider, but more overt racism and bigotry energized the occasional voter.Ā  The Republican establishment has been happy to go along, since they were already responding to the dog whistles.

  106. 106.

    stinger

    December 7, 2025 at 12:07 pm

    @patrick II:

    a solemn look on his face, hands held at his side, walking stiffly as he imagines someone accepting a real Nobel Peace Prize.

    What made me laugh was when they showed him the medal in its box, and he grabbed it and plonked it over his own head. Normally such things are placed over the recipient’s head by someone else. He’s so clueless.

  107. 107.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 7, 2025 at 12:10 pm

    @stinger: It’s Napoleon crowning himself to reject the primacy of divine right, only if the crown was a Burger King crown.

  108. 108.

    Ruckus

    December 7, 2025 at 12:11 pm

    @patrick II:

    I understand your point but calling him a child is offensive to actual children, who are most likely far smarter and far less pompous.

    He is an old fart, who has always been past his prime, even as a child.

  109. 109.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 7, 2025 at 12:14 pm

    @Geminid: You know, there was a time when I thought the Republicans might try to outflank the Democrats and go hard left on cannabis legalization to get the vulgar-libertarian pothead vote. But that didn’t happen at all. Even though the rich techbros and alt-med flakes all love their recreational drugs.

  110. 110.

    Baud

    December 7, 2025 at 12:19 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    there was a time when I thought the Republicans might try to outflank the Democrats and go hard left on cannabis legalization to get the vulgar-libertarian pothead vote.

     

    Turns out libertarian potheads are pretty loyal to Republicans.

    Also too, libertarian porn watchers, as we’ll soon find out.

  111. 111.

    Iron City

    December 7, 2025 at 12:25 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t think Governor Fuzzy Vest of Virginia (has a nice alliteration to it) as a private equity guy is not quite actively fascist enough.Ā  He could hire Eric Prince?Ā  It would take a governor or similar who really is actively Nazi or is compliant and stupid enough that they can be used to reach the Nazipublican goals.

  112. 112.

    artem1s

    December 7, 2025 at 12:33 pm

    @Rusty: No one else has people put his signs up for a decade, decorate their trucks and so on

    every sportsball fan in the US does this. Most are now eager to dump their heroes as soon as they no longer help their fantasy teams win or they lose a bucket of money betting on the in Fanduel. The loyalty only lasts as long as the fan wants or needs to identify with the hero they are worshiping and there is some payoff for them in it. 95% of MAGAts will ID a new “f*ck, marry, kill” political issue or candidate within 6 mouths of whenever Assmouth decides to finally take a dirt nap, or whenever the next general election occurs (i.e. when the Federalist Society needs to defeat some Dem candidate then some curiously well funded splinter group will suddenly spring up with the exact same talking point about how Dem candidate XX truly sucks).

    The other 5% will be so deep in the MAGAt information blackhole (or their own dementia) that they will assume he’s actually still alive and serving as President because they never accept any information from the real world anymore.Ā  Family members will just nod and smile and roll their eyes when MAGAt Papaw pontificates at the dinner table about how Great American has gotten since HE’S taken charge.

  113. 113.

    no body no name

    December 7, 2025 at 12:34 pm

    @RevRick:

    Sadly you’re wrong here in many cases.Ā  Many of them want a smoldering waste land as revenge for crimes against conservatism.Ā  The mass suffering and pain will be divine punishment to purify the nation of it’s sins against god for all sorts of social reasons.Ā  Race is a big one but the biggest issue of all is not race it’s issues around sex and gender.

    They are pining for a collective punishment of everyone, including themselves, because the nation changed.Ā  It’s a death cult.Ā  Thinking they want murder and not a murder suicide is naive.

  114. 114.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 7, 2025 at 1:12 pm

    @Baud: Maybe they figure that the war on drugs is mostly a means to persecute minorities and other people Republicans don’t like (which by all appearances it is), and white guys who vote low-tax will never be touched by it.

  115. 115.

    HopefullynotCassandra

    December 7, 2025 at 4:00 pm

     

     

    @patrick II: the on again/ off again nature of these tariffs opens up many opportunities for great grifting as more companies come begging, gifts in hand, for tariff exemptions.

  116. 116.

    WTFGhost

    December 7, 2025 at 4:54 pm

    @Rusty: Worse yet, no one really believed we liberals were evil for calling a nazi a nazi. Plus, all that embarrassing young conservative energy, calling Charlie – CHARLIE! – hateful. Man. It really sucks.

    I was pleased to note that the .30-06 round was once again proven effective, despite its age, I’ve always considered that to be a real man’s gun, unlike the beloved-of-the-2A AR-15, which has been replaced for not having enough power at new tactical ranges. I say this, with a full measure of thoughts and prayers for Charlie’s beloved, and simply note, for historical record, the tactical efficiency.

    @MattF: Well, with Kirk, we have to consider Schrodingers Homosexuality.

    In one situation, Kirk was gay, and possibly headed for divorce, because he was gay and his sainted wife didn’t want to be his beard. If we live in this situation, rumors would likely ooze out, and he would be legitimately hated, for being “a fag.” Remember, Republicans include people who listened to a fat fasci fucker laugh, while listening to the names of people who died of AIDS, and they gave that shithead a Presidential Medal Of Freedom, during a State of the Union speech.

    Now, in another universe, Kirk wasn’t gay, and whether his marriage was in trouble is a different question. Here, jealous soi disant conservatives would leak rumors that he was gay, and yes, that would lead to some hateful turning on him, because now he’s a safe hate-target.

    But we shouldn’t assume rumors he was gay are from this universe, where is *wasn’t* gay.

    Maybe he was – it makes it lots of fun to talk about the stuff you’re hot for, even if you have to condemn it. You can use your passion for two men wrestling, with just the right amount of lube, to put that passion in your voice while you rail against it.

    @MagdaInBlack: I do have to say, how many massive birthing parties happen in mangers? When do small children happen to be able to get in the same effing manger as royalty? Huh?

    If we were as vicious as the rightwing, we’d be spinning tales about why they love that “little drummer boy” so much, how he was not merely the slave, who learned drumming to avoid having his own drum beaten, he was ordered to play for the new king, and played subserviently. Oh, we’d spin stories about how, in the Old South, he was known, by religious doctrine, to be a beloved slave, showing that slavery was good, and the Old South turned a blind eye toward what “beloved” meant in this context. But now, today, he has become a free white boy, because people want to believe in the innocence of teh baybeez.

    Ahem. But we’re not like right wingers.

    @patrick II: It’s precisely the love letters from Kim Jung Un. It’s just, now, it’s not a sniggering dictator feeling he’s putting one over on the entire free world, it’s the free world resignedly playing like Kim Jung Un.

    ETA: Yes, I know the gun commentary might be skirting the edge, but I am trying to be all “edgy” here, because we know how happy people were when Krybaby Kyle could kill two, and maim a third, with his designed for n00Bz rifle.

    (BTW: n00Bz is pronounced “nooBEEz,” that is why the B is capitalized – you n00Bz really… never mind — old school fellow.)

  117. 117.

    Marc

    December 7, 2025 at 5:29 pm

    @WTFGhost: (BTW: n00Bz is pronounced ā€œnooBEEz,ā€ that is why the B is capitalized – you n00Bz really… never mind — old school fellow.)

    These are all leetspeak (common internet respellings) variations of newbies. Which replaced a number of other more obscure terms for new system/game users such as lusers (pronounced “losers”).

  118. 118.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    December 7, 2025 at 5:34 pm

    @Marc: system administrators’ lives would be so much better if it weren’t for users 😁

  119. 119.

    Paul in KY

    December 8, 2025 at 12:50 pm

    @patrick II: IMO, he just likes tariffs cause he can put them on unilaterally and doesn’t have to mess with Congress.

  120. 120.

    Paul in KY

    December 8, 2025 at 12:53 pm

    @Baud: Need to have film.

  121. 121.

    Paul in KY

    December 8, 2025 at 1:00 pm

    @TS: I pray to God that I’m alive to see it and to celebrate it!

  122. 122.

    Paul in KY

    December 8, 2025 at 1:02 pm

    @AM in NC: It’s not too hard to learn to shoot a gun adequately. That’s one of the reasons they are so dangerous.

  123. 123.

    Paul in KY

    December 8, 2025 at 1:10 pm

    @TONYG: I know you’re not being serious (I hope). He could murder a few before they got him.

  124. 124.

    Paul in KY

    December 8, 2025 at 1:14 pm

    @p.a.: ‘Shoppers Village’ alcohol put into bottles of the good stuff, etc. etc.

  125. 125.

    Paul in KY

    December 8, 2025 at 2:30 pm

    @Betty Cracker: DeSatanis would fit the bill on cruelty. Think Wiles knows she has other evil minions that can do the job.

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