Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

He really is that stupid.

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

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

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

In after Baud. Damn.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

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

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

I really should read my own blog.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

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How Many Votes Does Johnson Really Have?

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Jonathan Cohen posted a link to his Google sheet where he’s looked at every roll call vote since the House has been in session, and put percentages on voting with Trump as well as voting absent. To show my love to all who read my posts, I downloaded it and did some analysis.

Here are a couple of take-aways:

  • Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife are under indictment for allegedly taking $600K worth of bribes from Azerbaijan.  He’s the only Democrat who’s voted 100% with Trump’s agenda.  He’s a risk to cross over to the Republican Party in an Eric Adams-style deal.  Here’s my post with more details on the role of the DCCC in enabling this piece of shit.
  • The only absentee issue that Johnson seems to have is Roger Williams from Texas.  He missed 27% of the votes.
  • Jeffries has a number of members missing a lot of votes:  Raul Grijalva has lung cancer and he’s missed every vote this year.  I just became a Colorado resident — my Rep, Brittany Petterson, is #2 in the absentee list with 82% absent votes because she’s almost ready to deliver a baby and the shitty animals who run the House are cracking down on proxy voting. Fredrica Wilson of Florida has a 64% absentee rating, don’t know what’s up with her.  Nancy Pelosi broke her hip and used a walker to get to the floor pretty often — she has a 55% absentee rating.   Another half dozen or have missed 27% or more of the votes this session.
  • Johnson’s caucus votes 100% with Trump unless they’re absent.

Roll Call has an analysis of votes 2024 Congress.  Grijalva made 12% of the votes last year.  He’s from the D+24 AZ-3 district, so there’s no reason that he couldn’t have quit last year.  Another Democrat who could vote would almost certainly have been elected from that district.  I hate to say that because I like the guy and he represents the place my mother, who also had lung cancer, grew up.  But the issue of reps hanging around when they can’t vote is a bipartisan one.  Roll Call identifies a couple of Republicans and some other Democrats who were unable to vote for most of the session yet hung on.

Part of the reason these members stick around is because Congress has gold-plated medical care that costs a whopping $54/month for each member.

So, while I was hoping to see that Johnson had some members who weren’t reliable votes, the sad fact is that this session the issue is with our team.  If we do have a really close vote in the House — such as one where Jeffries peels off a couple of Republican defectors from Biden/Harris districts — it’s going to be a sad day in Mudville if Cuellar’s defection or the incapacity of a couple of members who should have retired cause us to lose that vote.  There’s also the possibility that the special elections to replace some Trump appointees could go our way, if there’s a massive uproar over King Elon’s diktats.  We need every vote in those scenarios, too.

How Many Votes Does Johnson Really Have?Post + Comments (45)

Morning Round Up

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Musk’s vassal got his sharpie out and squiggled on this:

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a sweeping executive order bringing independent agencies under the control of the White House — an action that would greatly expand his power but is likely to attract significant legal challenges.

It represents Trump’s latest attempt to consolidate power beyond boundaries other presidents have observed and to test the so-called unitary executive theory, which states that the president has the sole authority over the executive branch. And it reflects the influence of Russ Vought, Trump’s budget chief, one of several conservatives in his orbit who have called for axing independent arms of the executive branch.

The theory was long considered fringe, and many mainstream legal scholars [Ed: LOL] still believe it is illegal, given that Congress set the agencies up specifically to act independently, or semi-independently, from the president. These include the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which enact regulations and can impose hefty fines on businesses that violate the rules.

That’s Politico but it’s free and seems like a decent run-down on the order.  I had to laugh at the notion that “mainstream legal scholars” are going to have much of a say on this one.  Today’s “mainstream legal scholar” is tomorrow’s “Wal-Mart greeter”.

Moving on, here’s a good article from a very sober specialty publication on the layoffs at the FAA.  I’ve posted on this enough but wanted to get this article out there for those of you who like deep dives.  The short answer is “safety-critical” is most people at the FAA, including maintenance folks who clear a path to safety-critical instruments, and examiners who review medical certificates for pilots and controllers.

An “ASMR” video of an alien deportation flight has been posted by the White House (link to Xitter, you’ve been warned).  It shows agents putting deportees in chains and those chains clanking up the stairs of a plane.

Finally, I posted this on BlueSky last night but I thought it was worth seeing:

This is a woman I follow on Instagram. She's in Mexico (Baja) and the shelves are full of eggs. Interesting fact: eggs aren't refrigerated in Mexican grocery stores. They don't wash off the bloom, so they stay fresh on the shelf.

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— mistermix (@mistermix.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 7:06 PM

If you don’t know what the bloom is, here’s a piece explaining it. Unwashed eggs with the bloom on can be safely stored for a up to a month. They need to go in the fridge as soon as the bloom is washed off. The bloom keeps salmonella from penetrating the egg shell.

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Microscopic Marco (Open Thread)

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In this accursed time of exuberantly fascist rule-to-ruin via literally the worst fucking people on the planet, it can be difficult to make out the diminutive cockroach skittering among all the jackboots — the little bug trying desperately not to get squashed while also fancying itself a part of the victorious march. And yet attention should be paid — briefly, as befits the topic — to the contemptible wretch Marco Rubio.

A man who has always embodied the Platonic Ideal of mediocrity, Rubio was preposterously hailed by Time as “the Republican savior” a dozen years ago. As one of the unfortunates who witnessed his rise in Florida politics, I snort-laughed aloud when I saw that cover. Rubio has always been utterly devoid of any trait aside from ambition.

The way Rubio tells his own story — always in an nauseatingly reverent, sing-song tone — has long been a tell about the snobbery, dishonesty and cowardice at his core. A Cuban-American who came up in the rabidly anti-Castro batshit paranoid South Florida GOP stronghold, Rubio used to condescendingly say “immigrants” were all well and good, but he was proud to be “the son of exiles” whose parents fled Cuba when Fidel Castro came to power.

He had to drop that cherished stump speech line when a reporter reviewed official documents that revealed the senior Rubios left Cuba years before the Marxists took power. Instead, they fled the corrupt U.S.-backed Batista regime, coming to America in search of better economic opportunities, just as generations of immigrants before and after.

Now playing Ribbentrop in the modern version of the infamous Stalin-Hitler pact, Rubio is carrying out Trump’s mandate to betray Ukraine. He was retconned as “head” of USAID to give cover to Musk’s gleeful “woodchipper” destruction of that agency, a pillar of American soft power, which Rubio pretended to care about before Trump came on the scene.

Perhaps the most ungenerous wretch who ever lived, Trump once taunted Rubio with the nickname “Lil’ Marco.” It was far too generous a pejorative; Microscopic Marco is more like it.

Rubio makes me ashamed to be an American, a Floridian and a Florida Gator, in that order. More to the point, his inexcusable actions on behalf of Trump predictably bring shame upon every Democrat who voted to confirm him, which is all of them.

Open thread.

Microscopic Marco (Open Thread)Post + Comments (113)

War for Ukraine Day 1,090: The Trump Administration Surrenders to Putin

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Right now, at 9:15 PM EST/4:15 AM local time in Ukraine, all of north central Ukraine is under air raid alert. While there’s no drones showing on the alert map, that is likely what the alerts are for. There were drone swarms earlier:

Ukrainian air defense is firing on Russian attack drones over Kyiv right now. Audible and visible. We are under another air raid alert, along with half of Ukraine.

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— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.ft.com) February 18, 2025 at 3:40 PM

US and Russian officials have started talks in Riyadh about the war in Ukraine, amid fears in Kyiv and in European capitals that Donald Trump wants to settle the conflict on Vladimir Putin’s terms.
on.ft.com/4gKlSd9

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— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.ft.com) February 18, 2025 at 3:45 AM

Given the reporting about the outcome of today’s talks, those are legitimate fears. From The Associated Press:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Russia and the U.S. agreed Tuesday to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, the two countries’ top diplomats said after talks that reflected an extraordinary about-face in U.S. foreign policy under President Donald Trump.

In an interview with The Associated Press after the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow, to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.

He stressed, however, that the talks — which were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and other senior Russian and U.S. officials — marked the beginning of a conversation, and more work needs to be done.

Lavrov echoed Rubio’s remarks and told reporters that “the conversation was very useful.”

“We not only listened, but also heard each other,” he said.

Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, and special Mideast envoy Steven Witkoff joined Rubio at the table, along with Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv didn’t take part, and he postponed his own trip to the kingdom scheduled for Wednesday.

Trump showed little patience for Ukraine’s objections to being excluded from the talks. He said repeatedly that Ukraine’s leaders never should have allowed the war to begin, suggesting the country should have been willing to make concessions to Russia before the 2022 invasion.

“Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you been there for three years. You should have ended it three years” ago, Trump said during a news conference at his Florida residence. “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

Rubio said Tuesday that ending the war in Ukraine could “unlock the door” for “incredible opportunities” to partner with the Russians on issues of common interest “that hopefully will be good for the world and also improve our relations in the long term.”

His comments were further evidence of the remarkable U.S. reversal on Russia after years in which Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, led international efforts to isolate Moscow.

Tuesday’s meeting was meant to pave the way for a summit between Trump and Putin. After the talks ended, Ushakov and Waltz said no date has been set yet for that summit. Ushakov told Russian television that a meeting was “unlikely” to take place next week, while Waltz said he thought it could be arranged in the coming weeks.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Lavrov mentioned the same three goals as Rubio and said that Washington and Moscow agreed to appoint representatives to carry out “regular consultations” on Ukraine.

“I have reason to believe that the American side has started to better understand our position” the Russian foreign minister said.

More at the link.

The first and most important thing to keep in mind is that Lavrov is not in the inner circle. He’s the Foreign Minister, but he’s got no real influence within Putin’s government. Which is why Ushakov is involved. He’s Putin’s chief foreign policy advisor and Ushakov’s own spy – Naryshkin – is also involved. Naryshkin served in the KGB with Putin. They’re the power players here. Of course, Rubio is also not in the inner circle and is merely a figurehead, which is why Waltz and Witkoff were there.

Second, these talks are not really about ending Russia’s genocidal re-invasion of Ukraine. Rather, they’re about Trump trying to get his great deal and “alliance” with Putin that he was trying to pursue in his first term. It’s all about letting Russia and Putin off the hook in pursuit of that goal. What neither Trump, nor the sycophants he’s surrounded himself with seemed to have noticed during that first term is that no matter how far Trump put his hand out to Putin to get a deal, Putin’s hand was always just out of reach. The same will be the case here. Putin isn’t interested in a deal, he never has been. What he wants is to level the US, the EU, and NATO so that they are at Russia’s level and he can then claim he’s just as great a power as they are. Trump and his natsec team, however, will go to ever more absurd lengths to get his “deal,” all while Putin and his team play them over and over and over again.

Bloomberg reports that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wanted Zelenskyy to be present at today’s negotiations, but the Americans and Russians rejected the idea.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article…

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 1:04 PM

You know you’re in trouble when MBS is the voice of reason.

Zelenskyy in Turkey: “If we didn’t accept such ultimatums in our hardest moments, why would we now?”

Good question, really.

— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 10:13 AM

During a press conference in Turkey, Zelenskyy outlined three conditions for a just peace for Ukraine: a prisoner exchange, strong security guarantees, and the non-recognition of territories occupied by Russia.
t.me/c/1377735387…

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) February 18, 2025 at 12:54 PM

President Zelenskyy was traveling again today. This time to Turkiye. Here is his joint press conference with Erdogan.

show full post on front page

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Let’s Make Sure He Can’t Buy This, Shall We?

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President Musk thinks he can buy everything.

BREAKING: Elon Musk is now trying to buy Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court majority.

Election is on April 1—the first statewide election of the new Trump/Musk era. Musk wants to own state-level courts to thwart any possible check on their coup. Help us fight back. secure.actblue.com/donate/wisde…

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— Ben Wikler (@benwikler.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM

Let’s
do
our
part
to
make
sure
he
can’t
buy
the
Wisconsin
Supreme
Court.

Open thread.

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A Good Day for Leonard Peltier

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(AP)

SUMTERVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Native American activist Leonard Peltier was released from a Florida prison on Tuesday, weeks after then-President Joe Biden angered law enforcement officials by commuting his life sentence to home confinement in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents.

Peltier, 80, left Coleman penitentiary in an SUV, according to a prison official. He didn’t stop to speak with reporters or the roughly two dozen supporters who gathered outside the gates to celebrate his release.

Peltier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota, was headed back to his reservation, where family and friends will celebrate his release with him on Wednesday and where the tribe arranged a house for him to live in while serving his home confinement.

Throughout his nearly half-century in prison, Peltier has maintained that he didn’t murder FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams during a confrontation that day on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Native Americans widely believe he was a political prisoner who was wrongly convicted because he fought for tribal rights as a member of the American Indian Movement.

“He represents every person who’s been roughed up by a cop, profiled, had their children harassed at school,” said Nick Estes, a professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe who advocated for Peltier’s release.

I hope this was a good day for Joe Biden, too.

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Thoughts on Guerrilla Messaging (Open Thread)

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There are many reasons we’re in this authoritarian pickle,* but one of the most maddening and intractable is the media environment. We discuss that here a lot, so I won’t belabor the point.

For whatever reason, a lot of people don’t know what’s happening. You can blame the media mogul fuckery, and you wouldn’t be wrong. You can blame poorly informed people for not bothering to seek information beyond their social feeds, and you wouldn’t be wrong there either.

The question is what to do about it? How can messages about what’s happening and who’s to blame break through if people are stuck in their self-selected bubbles? I think it will take a heavy lift by a lot of people, including those in power speaking out, parties with standing filing lawsuits, and citizen protests.

Guerrilla messaging by individual ordinary citizens can be useful too. Here are a couple of examples I saw on my Bluesky feed recently.

Car top sign reading "He's signed hundreds of executive orders and not one focused on the price of groceries."

Another car top sign makes a great point:

I like the idea of putting up posters around town, which lowers the chance of a vehicle being vandalized. Here’s a short and sweet message that was covered in a Maddow episode and also featured on signs at protests covered here on the blog:

Guerilla Messaging (Open Thread) 2

A printed version of something like this could work in an empty supermarket egg case:

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— Betty Cracker of Florida (@bettycrackerfl.bsky.social) February 17, 2025 at 2:38 PM

Guerilla messaging can’t fill the gaping information void left by media organizations that abdicate their responsibility. It can’t bridge the gap when too many voters don’t bother to avail themselves of the facts that are out there. But, along with elected Democrats speaking out, lawsuits, and citizen protests, it’s a relatively low-risk and low-cost way to raise awareness. I’ve seen it work in my community.

Example: a local family felt screwed over by the care their child was receiving at a chain hospital that serves our town. They created a Facebook page explaining their complaint and put up homemade signs all over the place (highway medians, etc.) to drive traffic to the page. Pretty soon, the shitty local paper had to cover it too because everyone in town was talking about it. I heard the hospital reversed course to avoid further blowback.

Another example: my county’s shitty right-wing sheriff was ousted last year due to a similar grassroots campaign that highlighted the shabby way he treated an injured deputy. It was the first time an incumbent sheriff running for reelection lost since I was in high school.

Nationally, the corrupt crooks who are illegally destroying the federal government seem a tad nervous about Musk being perceived as the face of that effort. Just yesterday, Politico reported that the White House denied in court that Musk is in charge of the DOGE wrecking crew, despite multiple statements by Trump and Musk that unequivocally say the opposite.

Perhaps the Trump people are changing their tune because someone finally told them it’s illegal to put an unelected, unconfirmed billionaire in charge of such an effort. But maybe it’s also because they’re feeling the heat from the collective resistance effort.

If we private citizens can find creative ways to turn up the heat, that’s a good thing. Even if all we do is apply a silly sticker or deploy a homemade sign.

Open thread.

*Beware anyone peddling a simple explanation for our current pickle; they invariably have an agenda that centers themselves in some way. (R. Traister wrote a relevant piece about that here.)

Maybe this is not a hill I’m actually prepared to DIE on. But I am determined to hold it while being pelted with rotten produce and other nasty objects, that’s for sure!

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