Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving up is unforgivable.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

“woke” is the new caravan.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

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

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

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

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Stand up, dammit!

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

“They all knew.”

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Grand Old Putin Party

Grand Old Putin Party

by | 174 Comments

This post is in: 

We discussed this clip briefly in the morning thread:

The most appalling thing about this clip is how many MAGA cultists are swooning over the dramatization of their paranoid fantasies. But it’s really not surprising. With light editing, it could be a DeSantis campaign commercial scripted by someone like Christopher Rufo.

There are still lots of GOP senators and reps who came up in politics during the Cold War  — guys like Graham, Romney and McConnell — who instinctively want to kick the former Soviet Union in the shins. But that’s the old guard.

Following the lead of the Fox News primetime lineup, a growing number of elected Republicans are hostile to any attempt to confront Putin, and dozens voted against additional aid to Ukraine.  They justify it with all kinds of excuses, but the bottom line is that they’re on Putin’s side.

Conservatives have openly patterned their movement after that of “soft” autocrat Viktor Orbán. That’s why Tucker Carlson and the CPAC crowd made pilgrimages to Budapest. They’re siding with Putin for the same reason; they all share his vision of an ethnonationalist, patriarchal state.

Again, not surprising but it adds more weight to the upcoming election. A great deal is at stake — at home and abroad.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

174Comments

  2. 2.

    eversor

    Putin won them over by waving the bible as well, Orban got Dreher there and Dreher got Tucker there by waving a bible and saying the west must be Christian.  The National Conservatism platform expliclity calls for a Christian state with Christian pushed by the state and elevated.

    You can’t keep dodging that Christianity is the driving factor here.  So unless it’s dealt with the issues it’s spawning from Trumpism to Putin/Orban support to Jan 6 to National Conservatism cannot be dealt with.  Those are all symptoms, the disease is running about with a bible and a cross.

  4. 4.

    pacem appellant

    I am biting my nails over Nevada. It shouldn’t even be close, and gods I hope the polls are all jucking wrong. If Cortez Masto loses to Laxalt, I’m gonna move into a bunker for the rest of the decade.

  6. 6.

    Zzyzx

    At the gym this morning, I saw an outright racist ad from some PAC with a name like Citizens for Sanity. Look! Scary Black people! They’re committing crimes!

    It was really weird because it was a Seattle focused ad on MSNBC. Is that the market for a group that won’t see through that?

    I also saw an anti-Patty Murray ad that was so effectively disguised as a pro-Murray one that if it weren’t for the key phrase of “Critical Race Theory,” I was going to be all, “Go Murray!” about it. It was weird.

  7. 7.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Following the lead of the Fox News primetime lineup, a growing number of elected Republicans are hostile to any attempt to confront Putin, and dozens voted against additional aid to Ukraine. They justify it with all kinds of excuses, but the bottom line is that they’re on Putin’s side.

    Could these guys be pressured by an Indivisible-type pressure campaign where their offices are inundated by phone calls/faxes urging them to vote for aide to Ukraine? It worked to save the ACA back in 2017, IIRC

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    @eversor: I don’t think  anyone here is dodging the role of a specific subset of Christians — mostly white evangelicals. We just don’t think it’s fair or even possible to address it by abolishing Christianity.

  9. 9.

    pacem appellant

    @JPL: There is one thing I’m jealous of the right wing: their pols are viscerally tuned into whatever guano-crazy conspiracy oozes out of their putrifying brains. For once, I’d love for Dems in power to pay lip service to the left wing of the party.

    For example, they can’t throw enough resources at CTE poster child Hershel Walker in GA. For christ’s sake, if McConnell can prop up that walking meatsack, Schumer can throw a bone at Ryan and Corto Mastez.

  10. 10.

    trollhattan

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): “When the last house in Florida is repaired, then we can talk about aid to Ukraine.”

    That sort of thing? I, too, have what it takes to be a 2022 Republican.

    “Once criminals are back in jail where they belong, then we can maybe talk about firearms legislation.”

  11. 11.

    cain

    The oregon governors race is also turning into a shit show. I’m trying to figure out how the fuck they can divide the vote like that. It’s crazy to me.

  13. 13.

    patrick II

    Religion, not just Christianity, is often used to give false authority to untenable or uncharitable ideas.  It changes opinions from “I think this is true,(based on science or logic or whatever) so we should act on it” to “god says it’s true, so you must listen to what I say and obey”.

  14. 14.

    MattF

    Putin justifies his actions by referring to history that is generally unknown. This is a very recent book on Russian history by an actual historian (Orlando Figes). It’s chronological, and I read it up to the chapter on the Revolution. Worth reading. FWIW, Figes says that old libelous rumor about the cause of Catherine’s death is false.

  16. 16.

    Cameron

    I have to admit that one thing Republicans have done is bring real clarity to this election.  Got my mail-in ballot on the 5th and sent it back the same day; Democrats where there was a Dem candidate, write-in whoever where there wasn’t (should check with Manatee County Democratic Party to find out why there wasn’t a Dem candidate for county commissioner in my district).  Retention of judges took a bit more work (about 20 minutes), since they can’t affiliate by party but they all have online bios.  First pass was easy: you were appointed by DeSantis – no soup for you.  Some were a bit harder – I said ‘yes’ to retention for some of Nosferatu’s appointees if they had a background (e.g., public defender) that indicated they might not be wingnut shills.  I’m curious if FL voters in general will find it persuasive that their reps in Congress voted against hurricane relief.  In a sane world, any candidate like that would hang up their spurs.

  17. 17.

    John S.

    @Zzyzx:

    I’ve commented on that insane “Citizens for Sanity” ad here before. It is awful, and running on heavy rotation in the Seattle metro market on multiple channels.

  19. 19.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    It’s interesting. When people point out that none of that stuff in the clip happens in real life, a bunch of others in the replies say, “It’s just satire, hyperbole. It’s not supposed to be a documentary. The underlying kernel of truth is what matters and liberals are missing the point.”

    And then others post a video of white people allegedly kissing a black man’s feet in the wake of George Floyd’s death or try to compare getting banned from social media for dead naming trans people with what’s going on in the clip

  22. 22.

    Zzyzx

    @John S.: The Patty Murray ad I’ve seen a lot on Mariners and Seahawks games, but this one was new to me.

    It’s so over the top that I can’t imagine it working – the whole point of this game is to be subtle when you’re trying to convert people – but I also didn’t think Trump would win so…

  23. 23.

    patrick II

    Open thread so:  Have the classified emails found in Hillary’s private emails ever been declassified?  She asked for them to be long ago so she seems to think there is nothing worthy of classification, but as far as I know, her wish was never acted upon.

  25. 25.

    currants

    Whew.  There is a LOT at stake, and not just here.  Spoke with a former student yesterday who’s a former citizen of the former Czechoslovakia, who says the disinformation campaign is intensifying, and it’s worldwide.  Those numbnuts who don’t want to face down Putin are buying the disinformation in one way or another.

  26. 26.

    Tony Jay

    That clip is pretty much indistinguishable from any of a thousand 1970s British comedy sketches. Except when Dick Emery or the Two Ronnies did it, it was supposed to be funny because it was so ridiculous.

    All it needs is to finish on the Russian husband turning to the stewardess and asking “But you have no conscription, yes?” before shrugging and taking the knee.

    Liberal America – Still Better Than Rumpelstiltsputin’s Stupid Damned War

  27. 27.

    KrackenJack

    I’m old enough to remember Abscam. If the FBI has time between Hunter Biden leaks, perhaps they could follow the f’ing rubles…

  31. 31.

    Ruckus

    Never forget the conservative politicians who went to Moscow on July 4th.

    Never forget the SFB sucking up to authoritarian dictators everywhere.

    Never forget that vlad is firing missiles on Ukrainian cities and citizens, because he’s getting his ass kicked.

    Never forget that vlad attacked a sovereign nation that he is trying to steal the rights to.

    Never forget that vlad called up and sent into warfare, untrained, under armed and unwilling citizens because he’s a fucking looser and will do pretty much anything to destroy what he can not have.

    Never forget that conservatives do not want equality in any way, shape or form.

    Never forget that conservatives have zero policy goals other than fucking over everyone else and stealing everything not tied down and a lot that is.

    Never forget that in this country’s history there is only one side of the political aisle that has tried to overthrow a fair election – conservatives. What they can’t win they will attempt to steal.

    Never forget that the wealthy like the tax structure like it is, so that SS is taxed if you get more than a minimum amount per month while the very wealthy can earn millions and pay zero.

    Never forget that this is supposed to be a democracy, that every thing is supposed to be the same for all of us, no matter our color or sexual orientation or wealth and it isn’t even close to that.

    There is more. That’s enough for one day.

  32. 32.

    Another Scott

    Popehat had COVID 5 months ago.

    Having one of those weird post-COVID absolute exhaustion days. Fortunately Murderball has diagnosed the issue: I’m wearing a shirt with buttons, which must be destroyed. pic.twitter.com/nHt821NDTz

    — IfHatHadHappened (@Popehat) October 10, 2022

    Be careful out there. And remember that the GQP is holding up federal funding for new treatments, vaccines, and preparation for the next pandemic.

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    I feel like I’ve been hoping and praying FOR-EV-ER that all of the Russian money being laundered through/paid under the table to GOP campaigns would come to light and be an a-ha moment for the whole nation.

    But half of us have known for years, and the other half just can’t snap out of their “there’s absolutely nothing worse than Democrats” zombie trance.

    Wasn’t it like six or seven years ago, on the Senate floor no less, that McCain told everyone Rand Paul was paid by Putin?  McCarthy told the House GOP caucus that Putin pays trumpov and Rohrbacher.

    (crickets)

  35. 35.

    Bill Arnold

    Russia is not a “ethnonationalist, patriarchal state”.
    Russia is a pathocracy:

    After spending his early life suffering under the Nazis, and then under the Soviet rule of Stalin, Andrzej Lobaczewski recognised that ruthless and disturbed individuals were strongly drawn to political power, and often constitute the government of nations. He began to study the relationship between power and personality disorders – like psychopathy – and coined the term ‘pathocracy’ to describe the phenomenon. As he put it, pathocracy is a system of government ‘wherein a small pathological minority takes control over a society of normal people’. Since he was living under a ‘pathocratic’ regime himself, Lobaczewski took great risks studying this topic. He was arrested and tortured by the Polish authorities, and unable to publish his life’s work, the book Political Ponerology, until he escaped to the United States during the 1980s.

    As Lobaczewski wrote, ‘If an individual in a position of political power is a psychopath, he or she can create an epidemic of psychopathology in people who are not, essentially, psychopathic’ (2006, p.25). The pathocratic government presents a compelling simplistic ideology, promoting notions of future greatness, with a need to defeat or eliminate alleged enemies who stand in the way of this great future. The government uses propaganda to stoke hatred towards enemies, and to create a cult of personality around the leader.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I do remember her, albeit fuzzily — but ISTR that she was well on the way to becoming a total nutcase a long time ago. What’s she done recently? I haven’t thought of her in years.

  37. 37.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @MattF:

    Excellent article:

    A panel event titled ‘What next for the Conservative consensus?’ answers its own question by being almost deserted by the time I arrive. The organisers have over-catered. They are handing out wine and cupcakes to anyone passing, and I eat one quickly before someone offers me a job in the Cabinet Office. “So what,” I ask one junior MP with a gorgeous navy suit and the appalling luck to be volunteered for this panel, “actually is the Conservative consensus?” He does not ask if I’m a reporter, nor does he care. He gives me a kamikaze grin. and says, in an accent that could engrave silver: “Basically, we’re all screwed.”

  38. 38.

    James E Powell

    Again, not surprising but it adds more weight to the upcoming election. A great deal is at stake — at home and abroad.

    And yet it remains a struggle to get D leaning normies to: a) pay attention & b) vote!

    If you want to avoid depression & agita, do not sign up to make phone calls!

  42. 42.

    Shalimar

    I try to stay positive, but we saw in 2018 what happens when we win.  Sure, we did great overall and with taking the House and making up ground in the Senate.  But that didn’t stop DeSantis and Abbott and Kemp and many others from squeaking by.  If that happens this time, suddenly we have a dozen fascist Secretaries of State entrenched to fix 2024.

    And that is our best case.

  45. 45.

    Tony Jay

    @MattF:

    However bad you think the Tories are, they can always surprise you. Absolutely hollowed out by their ‘victory’ in the 2016 Referendum and the subsequent takeover by UKIP, controlled top to toe by its feuding donors, devoid of any binding ideology except the maintenance of power with the intent of selling it.

    Truss and Co are so impossibly bad at everything except mugging for their membership of deplorables that they’ve made NuNew Labour look polished by comparison, and that’s really saying something.

    She won’t last until the New Year.

  46. 46.

    Cameron

    @Shalimar: And you just identified the problem – state vs. Federal offices.  The Democrats do seem to be fighting a whole lot harder at the state level this time around than I can recall in the past, although perhaps that’s just my impression because there are some very high-profile state races (such as gubernatorial in Georgia and Pennsylvania).

  47. 47.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    She put out this this OpEd on the “Eurasia Review” 2 weeks into the invasion. The usual half-truths and outright Russian propaganda are present, and so is outright calling Biden demented and corrupt, bringing up the Hunter Biden connections to Ukraine.

    Is it a surprise she was also against the COVID lockdowns, masking, and vaccines, too? What is it about people like Sheehan from the Bush years it seems that have become absolutely deranged in the last 10 years?

  53. 53.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    Video from Zelenskyy’s FB page with scenes from the atrocities today. (Note there are some images of bodies (blurred) and people with blood on their skin and clothes.) I want to fucking scream. Every other country has some of this blood on our damn hands.

    Machine translation of the text on the screen:

    Ukraine
    October 10
    Kyiv

    Almost 100 missiles and drones

    12 dead and almost 100 wounded

    High-rise buildings

    Children’s playgrounds

    Universities

    Office centers

    Tourist places

    Museums

    What else does a terrorist have to destroy?

    Who else does the terrorist have to kill

    To call him a terrorist?

    Ukraine will defeat the terrorists

    We cannot be broken

    But we need more weapons

    Weapons that will end terrorism

  55. 55.

    H.E.Wolf

    Re: blog trolls, Putin, Cindy Sheehan, LA City Councilmembers, et al:

    The amount of control I have over other people’s behavior is zero.

    So instead of spending time contemplating the actions of any of those individuals, I’m writing GOTV postcards for Sen. Warnock and Stacey Abrams, via http://PostcardsToVoters.org

    I’m using vintage Black History stamps, acquired for this very purpose. With Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and a host of other great figures of American history, tremendous things are possible.

  56. 56.

    Gin & Tonic

    If the R’s take control of the House, Ukraine gets cut off. That’s why russia is working the propaganda/disinfo angle so hard. Unfortunately, it has a good chance of success, because Americans are morons.

  57. 57.

    C Stars

    This ad is so funny. A boring family of mediocre snowflakes gets terrified about moving to a place where the state doesn’t tell them how to think and feel, and no one is going to protect them from (gasp!) lesbians and vegetarians!! And people who look a little different! These fashies pretend to act so tough but they’re all such insecure weenies at heart.

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

     

    Watching Nicole Wallace and getting furious.
    They are admonishing Democrats for not running on DEMOCRACY.
    They were talking about Arizona’s bat shyt GOP candidates.
    My thing is WHY is it the Democrats’ responsibility?
    Why isn’t it the MSM’s responsibility to tell the voters what these people are about.

  66. 66.

    trollhattan

    @rikyrah: ​So they now have the green light to say with their outside voices they plan to overturn Griswold? Wondered how long it would take.

    His mom should have used a little Griswold.

  67. 67.

    ColoradoGuy

    I want to see Rupert Murdoch and his awful family investigated … thoroughly. He has been working on destroying democracy on not one, not two, but THREE continents. Without question, he is pro-autocracy, and has been friendly with both the Chinese and Putin regimes. He’s Tokyo Rose with entire networks of newspapers and TV stations to spread the message of xenophobia and race hatred. He and his family are directly responsible for Brexit, T****, and the relentless pro-Putin drumbeat from Tucker C et al.

    In the typical Republican style of projection, their bogeyman is Soros, who is conveniently Jewish. But the real Bond villain is Murdoch and his family, who have unparalleled influence in the English-speaking world.

  69. 69.

    bupalos

    @eversor:

    Nope. Every religion can be done different ways, there is Christianity that is perfectly compatible with liberal democracy.

    This isn’t a meaningfully Christian movement, it’s an anti-modernity movement. In both Russia and the US that means going back to their particular old-time religion along with all their other old-time stuff like beating women and whatnot.

  72. 72.

    Citizen Alan

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Um,  my recollection is that she was pretty unstable in the Bush years.  I am actually less surprised to see that she’s gone outright nuts than I am to see that she is still politically active at all.

  73. 73.

    trollhattan

    Can I go Cole and bitch about being surveyed afterwards about every tiny thing I do? Ten-minute vaccination appointment. How did you like us? Ultrasound. How was your experience? Buy bicycle tire tube and shifter cables. How was your shopping experience? Amazon order. How would you rate [vendor]? How would you rate your shipping? How do you rate your delivery? Would you write a review the product? Liquor store shopping to forget all this. How was your shopping experience? Did you find everything you wanted?

    This is just what I recall from the last four days. CDC asking about my covid vaccine, I’m totally cool with. More data are better data.

  74. 74.

    japa21

    @Omnes Omnibus:  Besides, I am pretty sure a lot of Dems are running on the whole concept of saving Democracy.  That is Biden’s whole thing in a nutshell.

    And if Johnson wins in Wisconsin, I am disavowing all my Wisconsin roots.

  75. 75.

    bupalos

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m not so sure. I think there are enough R’s in the house that would be willing to cross over for this one. That may be the perspective of someone exposed to the eastern european variant of Republican. As well as the Catholic fetus-person republican. They aren’t all one thing.

    Actual mass suffering and death is going to be a lot harder for R’s to do the cover their ears and saying “nah-nah-nah can’t hear you” thing.

    Though we might want to get in front of this by talking more loudly about how EEVIL OBAMA ABANDONED UKRAINE IN 2014!!!!

  78. 78.

    Redshift

    @Zzyzx:

    It’s so over the top that I can’t imagine it working – the whole point of this game is to be subtle when you’re trying to convert people – but I also didn’t think Trump would win so…

    They’re not trying to convert people; hardly anyone gets converted in the current environment (despite the political media’s fascination with “independents” and “Trump-Biden voters.”) They’re trying to make their people outraged to get them to come out and vote. That’s why it’s not subtle.

  79. 79.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    Exactly.  Constantly criticizing Democrats is what all the cool media kids do.  They have cable broadcasts, newspaper gigs, podcasts.  They could discuss and report on the Republican threat to Democracy but instead they just constantly complain about how democrats aren’t messaging or saying or campaigning correctly.

  80. 80.

    Citizen Alan

    @bupalos:  What do you mean “cross over”? If the nazi swine take the house, it just won’t ever get brought up for a vote!

  83. 83.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    I know people say phone calls help with turnout, but how that can be in this day and age is life’s biggest mystery to me.

    I sure hope it’s doing some good, because I’m feeling like Jay Leno & every fourth one is a Trumpster.

  84. 84.

    James E Powell

    @japa21:

    I’d like to see more them make the case that Biden & Democrats are working to make things better. Sure, things aren’t perfect, but we started with a lot of problems we solved, and we are working on the rest. Republicans are just trying to make things worse.

  85. 85.

    japa21

    @James E Powell: Again, I like to compare this to 2010.  Back then Dems ran away from Obama and didn’t brag about what they had accomplished.  This year, with a few exceptions, Dems are running on what has been accomplished and embracing Biden.  I am prouder of the Dems this year than just about any other election year.

  86. 86.

    Kathleen

    @rikyrah: That’s why I refuse to watch her or anyone else on TV for that matter. Conversation always comes back to Dems in Disarray. They all are fascist enablers.

  88. 88.

    Jinchi

    The most appalling thing about this clip is how many MAGA cultists are swooning over the dramatization of their paranoid fantasies.

    I expect Tucker C. will put this on blast tonight, with a point-by-point argument proving the video is a totally accurate representation of life under Joe Biden.

    That will be followed unironically by a rebroadcast of his homoerotic documentary on testosterone .

  94. 94.

    Ohio Mom

    @trollhattan: I agree. There is a difference between being a good citizen by contributing to the data concerning the vaccination effort, and working as an unpaid market researcher for private companies.

  95. 95.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Unfortunately, it has a good chance of success, because Americans are morons.

    You don’t know it’s going to work for certain, G&T

  101. 101.

    Joy in FL

    @H.E.Wolf: Thank you for articulating this. Partly because of you and other postcard writers, I finally ordered some postcards and postcard stamps. The cards should arrive tomorrow. I am going to do my best to move my fear and despair toward postcard writing.
    So thank you : )

  104. 104.

    opiejeanne

    @Zzyzx: I saw both of those, and the Patty Murray one confused me because I thought it was pro-Murray.

    The one I just saw a few minutes ago is an attack ad aimed at ANTI-FA.  They’re not using dog whistles any more.

  106. 106.

    Ohio Mom

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Back when she was first riding to prominence, Cindy Sheehan wrote a book on Why You Should Not Enlist; I don’t remember if it was warning readers specifically about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars or wars in general. It was a thin volume and a very easy read.

    I gave a heavily annotated copy to my friend’s two sons, who were both at loose ends; they were finishing up high school and knew there wasn’t going to be money for college. There were some noises about them considering signing up.

    My annotations were comments connecting Sheehan’s thoughts to their particular circumstances and my note in the front of the book warned to read carefully, I would be testing them. But I never mentioned it again.

    Both boys stayed home and one of them has since figured out how to do college on his own. The other one recently thanked me for the book, saying he’s glad he got over that idea.

    So TL/dr, yes, there was a moment that Cindy Sheehan made a good difference.

  107. 107.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @H.E.Wolf:

    Is it necessary to put a return address when sending the postcards? I’d really rather not have strangers know where I live

    ETA: NVM, apparently you don’t need one

  109. 109.

    Dan B

    @Baud: Well, aren’t you a stickler!

     

    I believe Pete and Chasten’s were in vitro so 50%?  Thiel’s probably also.  There’s also a weird statistic that half of gay and lesbian couples in the south have kids, probably because of pressure to get heterosexual married.

  111. 111.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @eversor: It is and isn’t at the same time. As Betty mentioned it’s the Evangelicals, it’s been this way since easily the 90s.  Christianity is more like a mask they hide behind, what they really are is a bunch of cults/pyramids schemes pretending to be a religion.  It’s no accident the leaders of these Evangelical churches think two grifters like Trump and Putin are awesome.

    The inverse is also true, the members of these Evangelical Churches have been so heavily indoctrinated into following a leader who says the correct phrases. Remember Putin was a Communist and both his parents were Communists; that means he’s an atheist to the core and they still think he’s awesome, because he says the magic words.

    As to how the Evangelical get away with their shit is on full display here;  persecution complex is so deeply ingrained into Christianity that when an outsider calls a Christian sect on dangerous behavior even the Christians who agree with that accusation will instinctively start screaming about prosecution.

  112. 112.

    Winston

    Michael Moore is predicting a Democratic Landslide. He’s pretty good with prognostications, as I recall. I really don’t know about them at all. h/t Joni Mitchell.

  115. 115.

    karen marie

    With the enactment of G.L. c. 258F, Massachusetts became the 17th state or territory to provide statutory due process for certification requests for victims who intend to petition for legal status under the federal “U” and “T” visa programs.
    ***
    The statutory due process provided by G.L. c. 258F has the potential to alter the life trajectories of immigrants who are victims of violent crime or human trafficking. As a result, if certifying entities faithfully execute the newly-enacted G.L. c. 258F, Massachusetts immigrants may obtain employment authorization, deferred action and ultimately visas faster. This new law illustrates how statutory due process matters.

    I’m proud to have lived in Massachusetts for three decades. I’m sorry I ever left.

  116. 116.

    MomSense

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    It was fantastic!  Kid’s band did really well and then we got to go watch some great musicians.  Molly Tuttle is amazing.
    I’m exhausted today, though.  It was probably too much so soon after getting COVID but it was a magical night.

  118. 118.

    C Stars

    @trollhattan: This really bugs me too. Every single Dr. appt., every time I pick up a prescription, they send me about three “how did we do?” emails. I want emails about upcoming appt.s and lab results, but these surveys are junk and there’s no way to opt out of them.

  120. 120.

    piratedan

    @rikyrah: and in the State, they have been in the ads, but this is apparently true everywhere… while the ads state that these folks are too radical for whatever position (abortion, economy, immigration, racism), no one comes out and just says it….

    these folks believe that the last election was stolen and have stated that if they win, that will NEVER happen again, why? because with THIS mob, there will never be free elections anymore and a peaceful transition of power.

  121. 121.

    Ohio Mom

    @Dan B: Pete and Chasten’s twins were not in vitro, the mother decided to place them for adoption. Now how Pete and Chasten were matched with the babies, I haven’t read. But I seem to remember the newborns’ availability was a surprise to them.

  123. 123.

    catclub

    @opiejeanne: ​ Surprised there is not a thread yet on (fucking Alabama Senator) Tommy Tuberville quote via WAPO:

    “They’re pro-crime,” Tuberville said. “They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”​

    … The people that do the crime. Russian mobsters?​

  124. 124.

    Bupalos

    @Citizen Alan:

    There’s some more or less obscure mechanism for any majority to bring a bill up, isn’t there? I know it doesn’t really happen, but in this case I think it could, I think there are some R house members who can lose their seat on this single issue.

  126. 126.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @Baud: I agree, my get out the vote phone banking for Biden seemed to be massively unproductive and occasionally annoying people. Mostly no connections but a few people had been called many times and were quite testy. I’m sure postcards are better, but my hand writing sucks.

    (Essential tremor and/or inattention I’m’ not sure which is the best explanation. My college GPA would have been a full point higher if I had a word processor.

  127. 127.

    Eyeroller

    @Baud:  I am not sure I really buy that it was just Comey.  I had a feeling even in the summer of 2016 that there was a good chance Trump would win, just due to people lying to pollsters, “unlikely voters” showing up, etc.  Not exactly a premonition, just a feeling.  (I was sufficiently worried about Trump that when I adopted a kitten in fall 2015 whose shelter name was “Donnie,” I immediately changed it.)

  128. 128.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Joy in FL: ​
     I’m delighted to have been one of the reasons you’re testing the waters! I’m pretty sure I hold the record for their slowest writer, but I tell myself that every postcard does some good.

  131. 131.

    Winston

    @Baud: Comey just made me want to vote for Hillary harder. I doubt I was alone. There was something else going on. Don’t know what

    eta maybe Michael Moore can never be wrong?

  132. 132.

    cope

    @Betty Cracker: I would never call for or agree with the abolition of Christianity or any religion. What I do consider a bottleneck to the advancement of the human species is the use of religion to determine laws that have power over those not adherent to a particular belief system.

  134. 134.

    Zzyzx

    @opiejeanne: I only groked it because I know right wing media enough to know their codes. If you put that in Seattle, it’s likely to get her more votes.

     

    @Redshift: Yes, but why air that on MSNBC in the Seattle market? That’s actively anti-targeted.

  135. 135.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @H.E.Wolf:

    Yes! I bought stamps and envelopes today just for it. I plan on using Postcard Patriots

    I like that they provide PDF postcards for free that can printed out

    Do I need special card stock or would regular printer paper, do?

  136. 136.

    Bill Arnold

    @Eyeroller:

    I am not sure I really buy that it was just Comey.

    There was a drop in the tracking polling just after the Comey letter that continued through to the election, that is difficult to explain any other way.
    I think of the 2016 POTUS election as the type of “rogue wave” that is a combination of smaller waves that combine at one spot and time.

  137. 137.

    Eolirin

    @cope: That isn’t unique to religion; it applies just as much to Nazism and Russian/Chinese Communism which were/are atheistic.

    Humans are bottlenecked by tribalism and religion is just one manifestation of it. In absence of religious differences it becomes politics, or nationality, or skin color, or what sports team you’re into, or what university you went to, or if you went to a university, or how much money you make.

    It has to be addressed at the emotional level, not the abstract level; people need to be taught to be kind to one another regardless of where they come from and what they look like and to not be afraid of differences. And good luck getting that to happen.

  139. 139.

    Jinchi

    @Gin & Tonic: If the R’s take control of the House, Ukraine gets cut off.

    They’ll try, but it’s harder than you think. Ukraine is a pretty sympathetic partner here: a democracy defending against an invading dictator, who has repeatedly threatened the world with nuclear annihilation.

    Cutting Ukraine off against the wishes of the US president and the national defense community would be a really hard sell at this point. Especially since they’re already fighting suspicions, since Trump, that they’ve been bought and paid for by a foreign power.
    They’ll try to slow walk things without a doubt, but I doubt they can cut off aid entirely unless they defeat Biden in ’24.​

  141. 141.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​
     That’s great! So glad you’re giving it a go.

    I think regular printer paper would be too flimsy for the automated USPS sorting machines.

    If your printer won’t handle card stock easily, the best bet might be a local FedExOffice type of printing place. They can probably sell you the card stock, too.

    (MazeDancer, if you’re out there, do you have advice?)

  143. 143.

    Cameron

    Hmm.  Hinky stuff may already be afoot here in FL.  Talking with a friend in Sarasota County who told me she had to put two stamps on her mail-in ballot; has always been one in the past AFAIK.  She found this out by going to the Supervisor of Elections’ site – it wasn’t noted in the package she received with her ballot.  Now I’m wondering about my ballot – Manatee Supervisor of Elections site doesn’t show it as having been received.  Oh, well, gives a retired Old Fart something to do….

  144. 144.

    Jinchi

    @Bill Arnold: I think of the 2016 POTUS election as the type of “rogue wave” that is a combination of smaller waves that combine at one spot and time.

    Yup. Comey alone wouldn’t have sunk Clinton’s campaign. But as the stick that broke the camel’s back? Absolutely. The election was that close.

    He only had to shift a fraction of a percent of votes cast.

  145. 145.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @H.E.Wolf:

    I was actually just planning on mailing the postcards in envelopes, using the free pdf postcards from here

    Would that be alright?

  146. 146.

    Eolirin

    Jinchi: Hopefully we don’t have to find out but given the level of crazy in the house caucus I’m not convinced we have more than a 50/50 chance we can avoid defaulting on US debt if there’s a Republican majority. So I’m less sanguine about it. 

    Hopefully we can pass something very large in the lame duck session if it comes to it.

  147. 147.

    AWOL

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You lose your son over a fascist lie. Awful beyond belief. And the corporate media just ignores you.

    You try to find a platform for your rage and grief on a far-left RT-funded horseshoe platform such as Pacifica/WBAI-NYC/Amy Goodman/—“Democracy Now!”/KPFA et al and you go insane.

  149. 149.

    Jinchi

    @Cameron: Talking with a friend in Sarasota County who told me she had to put two stamps on her mail-in ballot

    Interesting. In California, they’re all postage paid. No stamps required.

  150. 150.

    AWOL

    @rikyrah: That entire show is Republican Anon, with some still-GOP lovers such as Michael Steele. Olivia Troye, a Mike Pence–adorer, is always on that show. Wallace actually thinks Geo W Bush ran an integral WH

  151. 151.

    KMG

    @Betty Cracker:

    “Conservative” ideologues, Catholics, Protestants, and even some atheist libertarians and the Chinese Communist Party all share the desire to control people in general, and women in particular. I think that’s the “conservative” part. The “True Belief” part is just the justification and the labels are just tribal markers.

  152. 152.

    Cameron

    @cope: This is a screwy state – every county is different.  I know in the past 5 years it’s only taken one Forever stamp to get my ballot in, and I check every time to make sure it’s been received.  IIRC, my envelope was just marked that it required first-class postage.

  153. 153.

    Cameron

    @Jinchi: I’d like to see that here.  Am thinking of contacting the county supervisor of elections to see if it would be legal for me to raise grant funds to pay for mail-in-ballot postage.

  154. 154.

    Dan B

    @Ohio Mom: Thanks.  Now I remember so… they were good birth control… sorta.  It’s interesting that in non- human animals the gay couples often rear infants, some of whom were orphaned or abandoned.

  155. 155.

    Ohio Mom

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No, it has to be cardstock. A quick google tells us:

    “You may think that your mailpiece is a “postcard,” because it is a single sheet of paper. But to qualify for mailing at the First-Class Mail postcard price, it must be: Rectangular. At least 3-1/2 inches high x 5 inches long x 0.007 inch thick.”

    You seem pretty chipper right now. It’s good to see!

  156. 156.

    J R in WV

    @James E Powell: ​

    If you want to avoid depression & agita, do not sign up to make phone calls!

    In the 2016 election I went into Charleston several nights a week to phone bank into Ohio for Hillary. That was OK at first, but by about a week before the election it had turned dreadful. I had to give it up.

    Then in the 2018 election Wife and I went to phone banks for a congressional candidate — was pretty bad out of the gate, got worse. Not going there again. Can’t imagine door-to-door canvassing, would feel in danger even going up to a Democratic registered person’s house to knock on the door.

  158. 158.

    Scout211

    @Jinchi: Yes, our ballots here in California are free to mail. And we also now have plenty of county drop boxes if you prefer not to use the postal service.

    But the law that mandated free postage was only passed in 2018 and went into effect in 2019.  It hasn’t been around all that long. I remember the whole dilemma of wondering if one stamp was enough, especially when it was a thick primary ballot.  I usually used two stamps even though I probably didn’t need to.

  159. 159.

    Cameron

    @Winston: Like I said, every county is different.  It does sound like there’s no state law preventing postage-paid ballots, so I guess I will contact the supervisor of elections’ office after all.

  160. 160.

    J R in WV

    @C Stars:

    …these surveys are junk and there’s no way to opt out of them.

    I suspect if you always give them the lowest possible scores on everything, they will soon stop asking your opinion. Just a suspicion.

    Weird thing happened today. Wife went outside to garden the rocks some, pull trash off the rock faces to allow the ferns to thrive. Since she is still doing PT, I suggested she take a cordless phone with her in case she needed me to help her.

    Then I tried to call a prescription refill in at the pharmacy, phone was busy. I asked her if the had butt-dialed it, to turn it off if she had. Can’t find it anywhere she was working. So I begin to suspect one of the dogs may have carried it off.

    There’s a locator function that makes a lot of noise, I turned that on, one a sound around the rocks she was working on. But the phone is “busy”… is why I suspect a dog may have picked it up and ran off with it. Can’t use the phone as long as the cordless phone is “on”… Damm!  Was supposed to have a maintenance visit for the Maytag washer which is acting weird… but if they can’t reach us?

    I’m reduced to hoping the cordless handset battery dies, we have 2 others…

  161. 161.

    Geminid

    @Jinchi: I think the outcome of the 2016 election turned on 6 or 7 factors. I could identify any one of them as critical, but that election was so close they all had to be present.

    One obvious one was Comey’s actions. Another was the effective social media campaign led by the Russians.

    I think one of the other factors was the widespread expectation thst Trump was certain to lose. Some less motivated Democratic voters stayed home because of this, and even more defected to third parties because they thought Clinton had the election in the bag, so they had a “free” protest.

    Democrats often focus blame on the Green Party. But I think the Libertarians siphoned many more votes away from Clinton. Gary Johnson received 4,5 million votes that year. Four years later Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgenson got 1.8 million. I think that in 2016 the Libertsrians snared enough potential Clinton voters to deny her majorities in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The more honest of these voters may have been kicking themselves when they saw trump win.

    Libertarian voters used to be seen as being to the the right of Republicans, and the core of the party may still be. But I think at least half their 2016 voters held a mishmash of ideologies and attitudes. And although I have never seen a demographic breakdown of these voters I bet that a good majority these were men, and that misogyny was a motivator.

  162. 162.

    eversor

    @Betty Cracker:

    Oh you all are, and that’s the catch, that’s why they will win.  You’ll call out patriarchy, whiteness, racism, oligarchy, trumpism, republicans, but you will not explicity state CHRISTIANITY with them as well.  And that’s their in.  And that’s what caused all the rest.  So until it starts to get called out each and every time the battle is lost.

    So, if you have the guts to call out all these other issues and say there are no good Republicans or good Trump voters than either slap that shit on Christianity or admit you gave up the fight because you are going to cost us all our freedoms if you do not.

  163. 163.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    Toward the end, William Weld was practically begging people to vote for Clinton, but he never officially broke from the Libertarian ticket.

  164. 164.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​
     I think it might be best to use real honest to goodness card stock. Mailing them *as* postcards honors the spirit as well as the letter of the system! (The Postcards to Patriots website has a “Contact Us” button, if you want to be sure.)

    Postcard sizes can be from 3.5″ by 5″, up to 4.25″ by 6″. If you use 8.5 by 11 card stock, it can be cut into 4 cards, each 4.5 by 5.5.

    I often do a “practice card” first, on a plain piece of paper. I mark off the size I intend to use, allowing for address and stamp, and check that I can fit what I plan to write into the space available.

  165. 165.

    H.E.Wolf

    It’s always interesting to note which trolls are hyperactive at the time of the full moon.

  166. 166.

    dww44

    @Geminid: Morning Joe himself was opining this morning about why America has yet to elect a woman President when virtually every other First World country has not only elected one but in a number of places more than just one. He concluded it was misogyny.  What else explains it?

    Sadly, women were as responsible for HRC losing as were men.  I knew lots of women who voted for the businessman over the vilified Clinton. We do deserve what we get, as sad and angry as it makes me.

  167. 167.

    Geminid

    @Baud: A lot of people underestimated Trump’s political attraction, but Weld did not. I’m not sure he could have made a difference, though. Many of those Libertarian voters did not know who Weld was until they saw his name on the ballot, if they even looked at the ballot.

  168. 168.

    Geminid

    @dww44: Misogyny, and above and beyond that, patrarchy. Patriarchy runs so deep in our society and culture that I don’t think we can truly appreciate its scope and power. We can see misogyny, but that’s just the tip of an iceberg.

  169. 169.

    Miss Bianca

    @eversor: Oh Jesus Christ, just shut up. Or, as John Barrymore once shouted at a heckler, “Hurry and saddle yonder braying ass!”

  170. 170.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Dump lost by 3,000,000 votes.

    Imagine the environment if a Dem (especially one connected to a Clinton) won the electoral college but lost by millions and millions.

  171. 171.

    Eolirin

    @eversor: Black voters are overwhelmingly Christian and vitally important to us winning any election, so please, shut the fuck up. 

    You also have the arrow of causation exactly backwards in terms of what’s responsible for what with respect to why White. Evangelical. Christianity went the way it went.

  172. 172.

    cain

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    That’s what is puzzling me. I mean seriously – we have unlimited access to abortion here. Womens rights are on the table – do people really not see that letting one Republican in will fuck things up for the whole state – they are like ticks.

  173. 173.

    Bill Arnold

    @eversor:
    Here’s the deal – if you used the term “Christian Supremacists”/”Christian Supremacy”, everyone here would agree with you, rather than pie you. Then you could chip away at that, e.g. argue that anyone “Christian” who votes R is a “Christian Supremacist”.
    But most of us know people who self-identify as Christian who are not Christian Supremacists, and many, maybe most, of them vote for team D and some are politically active for team D. Since margins of victory are often very very small in the USA, expelling voters from your team without cause is objectively supporting the fascists.

    Work out ways to reduce/neutralize/reverse the political influence of Christian Supremacists. These cultish movements usually have a lot of fault lines and are driven by leaders, and many of them (the cultists and especially the leaders) are considered loathsome by outsiders.

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