Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

The revolution will be supervised.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

No Justins, No Peace

When we show up, we win.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

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2024 Primaries

Odds & Ends (Open Thread)

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Is it Friday already? Days of the week are meaningless here in Happy Funville. That said, the news has been a lot more fun since the, uh, vibe shift in the 2024 election.

Exhibit A, did you know Trump is now too fucking old to be president? Even Republicans acknowledge that: (Newsweek)

In a fresh polling blow for Donald Trump, a majority of Republican voters have said they would prefer a president who is younger than the 78-year-old former commander-in-chief.

In a YouGov poll conducted between July 25-29, 59 percent of Republicans surveyed said they would prefer a president under the age of 75. Trump celebrated his 78th birthday in June. Forty percent said they had no preference, and just two percent said they would prefer a president over the age of 75.

After reveling in the media’s “Biden is old” chorus for years, even as their own candidate decayed before our eyes, now Trump and his shitty campaign say age is just a number:

“It’s not about age, it’s about competence…a Trump campaign spokesperson told Newsweek…

This latest poll could suggest the tables are turning on Trump, who regularly attacked his former rival, President Joe Biden, over his age. Biden is 81.

Trump seemed to row back on this sentiment at recent remarks at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“81 is not old,” Trump said, and now Biden has withdrawn from the race, Trump is faced with a substantially younger competitor in Vice President Kamala Harris, who will turn 60 just weeks before Election Day.

Good luck to the self-masticated lump of vintage Naugahyde and the henchmen who are trying to sell that!

Continuing with the general twin Trump campaign themes of pathetic and weak, Trump surrogates are trying to steal the limelight from Joe Biden by claiming credit for the prisoner swap. The sofa-shagger weighs in: (The Hill)

“But we have to ask ourselves: Why are they coming home? And I think it’s because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump’s about to be back in office, so they’re cleaning house,” he said. “That’s a good thing, and I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.”

(Slurp slurp!) The non-entity from North Dakota had similar thoughts: (The Hill)

“The reason why Russia wanted to do the deal now is that they think that President Trump’s gonna win and they don’t want to deal with him,” [Doug] Burgum said in comments.

As every schoolchild knows, it’s weak and pathetic to take credit for someone else’s work. When asked about Trump’s preposterous attempt to steal credit, Biden very sensibly asked, “Why didn’t he do it when he was president?”

Answer, as Biden noted while announcing the deal: the task required the participation of allies. Multinational collaboration is a skillset He Who Does Not Play Well With Others conspicuously lacks. (There’s also the matter of Trump being Putin’s obsequious toady.)

***

Here’s an item that may be of interest to the many ambitious home cooks who comment in this space — a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the stack of cookbooks in Kamala Harris’s kitchen: (Esquire)

Odds & Ends (Open Thread)

Here is a person whose horizons are broad but whose focus is pragmatic. What is immediately clear is that, if these cookbooks are indicators of an overall umwelt, Harris values the restorative powers of cooking—not individually but as part of a community. In other words, she cooks not just for herself but for others. She understands food not simply as caloric intake but as identity.

The best cooks do! Also, it warms my heart to see Louisiana Kitchen in that stack.

Have we ever had a competent cook in charge of the country? I can’t recall one. The article speculates that Biden visits the kitchen only to raid the freezer for ice cream, which seems fair. He’s a good president even without apparent cooking skills, but maybe a candidate’s approach to food — and sharing it — says something meaningful nonetheless.

***

Looking ahead, Harris will announce a VP pick soon, and the DNC is coming up fast. The potential lack of media attention on Trump and the sofa-shagger may cause them to wilt like water-dashed wicked witches.

Or maybe they’ll do or say additional stupid things to attract the media herd. Who knows? Who cares? Trump and Vance are the worst kind of weirdos — stale and boring!

I’m interested in Harris’s VP decision (pick Pete!) but don’t believe any of the candidates being vetted would fundamentally change the race. If she can wring a point or two out of a battleground state with a VP pick, it sounds like she should do so.

That’s all I’ve got. Open thread!

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The Case for Pete

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No, not this Pete:

Goofy dog yawning

He wouldn’t be a good vice president since he growls at people, refuses to share toys, tries to monopolize everyone’s attention and steals unattended food. If our Pete were any more incorrigible, I’d suspect him of being a Republican!

I’m talking about Pete Buttigieg, who I hope is getting serious consideration as a potential VP pick for the Harris ticket. Here are five reasons I think Sec Pete would make a great VP candidate.

  1. Buttigieg could step up as POTUS if need be. That’s the most important qualification for the job, and Buttigieg has it, IMO. Skeptics will note he doesn’t have a ton of political experience at the state or federal level, but he does have an impressive executive track record as mayor and as the head of a huge and important agency in the Biden admin. Moreover, he has the right temperament. He knows how to handle a community crisis with grace and empathy.
  2. He speaks Midwestern.  There was a (pointless and dumb, IIRC) controversy during the 2020 primary over how many languages Buttigieg speaks. But the man grew up in South Bend, got standout results in the Iowa caucuses during his presidential run and is already legendary for his ability to convey complex ideas even to Fox News goobers. (Note: I’m NOT saying Midwesterners are goobers — lord knows as a Southern woman, I hardly have standing to cast stones on that score.) Also, Buttigieg is currently a resident of Michigan.
  3. Buttigieg is unapologetically smart. A young Sec Pete hoovered up just about every academic accolade available during his education: high school class valedictorian, standout student at Harvard, Rhodes scholar, first-class honors at Oxford (the England one!), etc.  He can speak extemporaneously and in detail and at length on complicated policy matters. I think he does it without coming off as a smarty pants but also without hiding behind a fake folksy mask like so many highly educated pols do. We’re the party that believes in science and expertise. Let’s lean into that!
  4. He’s gay. Representation matters, and a Buttigieg candidacy would likely be inspiring for many in the LGBTQ community, a constituency that reactionary Republican troglogdytes have bullied and persecuted nonstop. As a husband and father, Sec Pete is redefining family values for a new era, and while it might be a risk to field a ticket that generates a list of historic “firsts,” would any gettable voters recoil from that and choose the degenerate Trump instead? I don’t think so. Also, Buttigieg would cheerfully defenestrate reactionary shillbilly J.D. Vance in a VP debate, perhaps asking him to explain why the thrice-married Trump models traditional values better than Pete’s family does.
  5. Buttigieg is young. She doesn’t look it, but VP Harris is pushing 60. That’s positively youthful compared to Old Man Trump, and Democrats can look forward to the striking contrast in visuals between the ticket-toppers, thanks especially to Repubs and the media harping on Biden’s age for years. At 42, Sec Pete would deepen that contrast. Let Republicans carry the banner of gerontocracy forward — we’ve got a new generation of leaders stepping up on our side.

So that’s my pitch for Pete. Of course, it’s entirely VP Harris’s decision, and there are plenty of other great candidates who have attributes that Buttigieg perhaps lacks. Ultimately, I don’t think the VP pick will make much of a difference in the vote count, except for its value as a media spectacle. But I like Pete.

Open thread!

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Wokety Woke Broke

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As valued commenter Kay has pointed out, self-proclaimed wingnut messaging guru Christopher Rufo‘s “war on woke” as a GOP electoral strategy didn’t resonate with voters much outside of already red states like Florida. But is the anti-woke crusade spent as a cultural force? I think you can make the argument that it succeeded in that realm as conspicuously as it failed in electoral politics.

Example: to activate Rufo’s cynical anti-woke strategy, FL Gov. Ron DeSantis made the Left Coast-dwelling Rufo a state college trustee to help dismantle famously liberal New College of Florida. DeSantis also signed a slew of constitutionally questionable culture war legislation that disrupted schools and businesses — and cost taxpayers many millions of dollars to defend in court.

Angry Boots hoped to push future convicted felon Donald Trump aside and march triumphantly into Iowa on the strength of actions like that, i.e., to reap the electoral benefits of the anti-woke agenda. But DeSantis crashed and burned, immolating hundreds of millions of GOP donor funds along with his national political future as anti-woke as an electoral force proved a dud even with Iowa’s conservative GOP base.

Still, we shouldn’t overlook the real-world consequences of the anti-woke push where wingnuttery already holds sway. The transformation of New College from an academically over-achieving hippie haven into a space that caters to meathead conservative jocks is proceeding apace. And the anti-woke agenda has successfully rolled back a lot of the progress (or at least made dead letters of pledges to make progress) in the corporate and academic worlds too.

NYT columnist Michelle Goldberg addressed this in a May essay (gift link) that reviews a book written by cancel culture-obsessed journalist Nellie Bowles.

“At various points, my fellow reporters at major news organizations told me roads and birds are racist,” [Bowles] writes. “Voting is racist. Exercise is super racist.” Even allowing for 2020’s great flood of social-justice click bait, these are misleading and reductive caricatures. It’s hardly revisionist history, for example, to point out that Interstates were tools of racial segregation.

But my biggest disagreement with Bowles lies in her insistence that the movement she’s critiquing has triumphed. She describes the New Progressivism as the “operating principle of big business,” as well as the tech sector and academia. This week, speaking on the podcast of her wife, the Times Opinion writer turned heterodox media entrepreneur Bari Weiss, Bowles said, “The revolution didn’t end because it lost. It ended because it won.”

It didn’t, though. Even at the zenith of the George Floyd demonstrations, the corporate social-justice stuff was mostly window dressing; the operating principle of big business is and always was the pursuit of profit. And now, we’re in the middle of a furious reversal.

Goldberg is right about the reversal. As she notes, corporations and institutions are jettisoning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies as fast as they adopted them in 2020. Elite colleges are cracking down on protesters. States and institutions are banning consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in investment decisions.

Maybe it’s the inevitable backlash that arises to vociferously oppose every scrap of social progress, however modest and necessary and overdue. But it also looks like a partial victory for the Rufos, Bowles and Weisses of the world. We shouldn’t expect them to recognize that since their cashflow depends on monetizing nonexistent conservative victimhood. Luckily for them, it’s an inexhaustible resource.

Open thread.

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Open Thread: Boebert Shutdown, National Media Should Take Notes

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I really wasn’t going to post about the CO4 Republican debate, because it’s so inside Colorado baseball. But it has gone viral so I did what I didn’t want to do, I listened to Boebert lie and lie and lie again.

I passed on the debate the first time because the district she’s carpetbagging – I mean running in – is no longer my district by just a few blocks. The legislators came to their senses and redrew the lines so I’m now in Joe Neguse’s district, thank the stars.

If you’ve tuned into a few of my posts, the moderator will look familiar. I’m usually posting his good news stories.

Kyle Clark doesn’t just hold Boebert’s feet to the fire…enjoy.

 

If you feel the need to torture yourself, the entire debate is here (youtube link).

=====

Besides his funky jackets and his nightly good news, he also reads feedback in the last minutes of the broadcast. And he often chooses some of the most brutal. And has some snappy comebacks. But this was brilliant.

 

Since the debate has gone viral, lots of big names are calling for him to go national. My reply, he’s ours, hands-off. I may not agree with him all the time, but he’s as brutal with the Dems as he is with the rethugs and his journalism makes (some) of the other local news stations up their game, too.

Open thread

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Botox-Filled Rooms (Open Thread)

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This isn’t surprising, but it sure is repulsive: (Bloomberg)

Trump Auditions VP Picks Before Wealthy Donors in Palm Beach

Vance, Rubio, Burgum and Scott among leading contenders
Trump says he will likely announce running mate in July

Donald Trump is sharpening his focus on a possible running mate by taking a page from his days hosting reality show “The Apprentice” and parading the top contenders for the slot in front of rich benefactors this weekend.

Grotesquely attired, preternaturally smooth-faced GOP fat cats presiding over a Hunger Games-style winnowing process for potential Trump second bananas is painfully on brand. It’s a fitting successor to the fabled smoke-filled rooms — Boss Trump’s Palm Beach star chamber of aggressively rejuvenated billionaire scum.

This is not a healthy party. But we knew that.

Open thread!

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The Biggest Loser?

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This isn’t a prediction, but my gut feeling is Trump is going to lose in November more decisively than generally supposed right now. I also believe his candidacy will have a measurably negative effect on his party’s fortunes, partly because of stuff like this: (Politico)

Donald Trump’s bid to oust a Florida Republican who backed Ron DeSantis over him is reviving a long-running GOP anxiety: that he can’t be dissuaded from the grudges and inflammatory rhetoric that plagued his party’s lawmakers during his first term.

Trump’s call for a challenger to Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.), the only House Republican from DeSantis’ state to endorse the Florida governor in the primary, reveals a campaign with little interest in courting his former rivals and their supporters.

The article quotes sundry Republicans who are shocked — shocked! — that Trump seems indifferent to the electoral fate of any GOP candidate not named Donald J. Trump. But as the noxious orange fart cloud is fond of braying at his hate rallies, “You knew I was a snake when you took me in!”

Lee, the targeted rep in the Tampa Bay area, will likely win her primary. IIRC, the candidate filing deadline had already passed before the alleged political savant Trump tried to gin up a MAGA challenger.

But local Dems have identified an excellent candidate to oppose Lee in the general, Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp. I know Kemp a little from working with the Democratic Party in that county before we moved. Like all Florida districts, the 15th is heavily gerrymandered, but Kemp seems exactly the type of experienced and disciplined pol who could pull off an upset.

Anyhoo, some in the crappy national political media are finally noticing that substantial portions of the Republican base are still voting for Trump opponents in primaries long after those candidates flamed out, and these savvy pundits are belatedly concluding that this isn’t a positive sign for GOP unity. All I can say is welcome to the party, pals!

I’m not confident about anything. The past several years revealed the galloping stupidity and malevolence of a greater portion of our electorate than I fully comprehended before 2016.

But today, the Trump-led Republicans are failing on the basic blocking and tackling parties must do to succeed, like not turning the party institution into a personal grift operation and not gratuitously attacking incumbents with seats in a closely divided chamber. May they reap what they sow in abundance.

Open thread.

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Donald J. Trump: 267-Pound* Weakling

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Florida held its presidential primary yesterday. Controversially, the FL Democratic Party opted not to expend resources on a presidential primary and threw its support behind Joe Biden.**

The Florida vote was pretty meaningless since both candidates had already clinched their nominations. But it’s fascinating that although Trump won big with 81%, the FL primary was yet another result that demonstrates there’s a significant portion of Republicans who want a not-Trump.

Florida Republicans in this closed primary state also rejected DeSantis. He got 3.7%, and Haley got 13.9%. Even Marco Rubio had a better showing than DeSantis in Florida during Rubio’s losing effort to Trump in the 2016 contest, and pretty much everyone despises Rubio, including his supporters.

Trump came up short in red Ohio too, according to ABC News:

Two in 10 to as many as three in 10 Republican primary voters in Ohio continue to resist Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy — and among those supporting Nikki Haley, nearly half say they’d back Joe Biden in November, according to preliminary exit poll results from the Republican primary.

Leave it to Politico Playbook to offer the dumbest possible take on the OH senate race:

Democrats got the candidate they wanted in Moreno, but the race will offer an interesting strategic test for Sen. SHERROD BROWN, the most populist, nationalist and protectionist Democrat in the Senate. (In other words, the most Trumplike.)

Brown is “Trumplike?” These fucknuckles are still listening to what Trump says rather than looking at what he does, and that’s been inexcusable for several years now. The comparison is an insult to Brown, who, unlike the orange fart cloud, actually has genuine principles.

Anyhoo, Trump will almost certainly win Ohio and Florida in November. But he still appears to be a weaker candidate in 2024 than he was in 2020, and as a reminder, in 2020 HE LOST.

Open thread.

*A more plausible guess than Dr. Ronny “Candyman” Jackson’s bald-faced lies.

**I understand the disgruntlement, but meh, get over it. FL Dems have enough on their plate without spending millions to indulge no-hopers like Phillips and Williamson.

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