Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

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

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

This really is a full service blog.

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

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

The willow is too close to the house.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

We will not go back.

The National Guard is not Batman.

Everybody saw this coming.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

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Hegseth

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Hegseth

The FBI didn’t bother to interview Hegseth’s accuser.

The FBI’s probe into defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth did not include an interview with a woman who accused the former Fox News anchor of sexual assault in 2017, sources familiar with the situation told ABC News.

The top senators on the Armed Services Committee were briefed on the FBI’s background investigation last week but sources said investigators did not speak to the accuser.

A police report previously obtained by ABC News, stated that a woman — who is identified only as Jane Doe — told investigators in October 2017 that she had encountered Hegseth at an event afterparty at a California hotel where both had been drinking and claimed that he sexually assaulted her.

As usual the FBI is a political organization with a keen perception of which side their bread is buttered.  See, also, Kavanaugh.  Jane Mayer did a better job than they did, uncovering things like Hegseth downing three G&Ts starting at 10 AM as recently as 2023.  It doesn’t matter much since most of the Democrats won’t see the report anyway.

Shaheen and Gillibrand are hitting him hard on his attitude towards women in today’s confirmation hearing.  Here’s the AP live feed.  Besides being an (alleged) rapist and alcoholic, he’s also grossly unqualified, lacking anything like the experience needed to run an organization the size of the DoD.

Trumpistas are pouring a ton of money into this fight, and Trump is making it a loyalty test.  So we’ll see if the norms of the cooling saucer of democracy will allow Hegseth’s nomination to be filibustered.  I don’t know the answer to that, but I’m skeptical.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Grind

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Special counsel Jack Smith said his team “stood up for the rule of law” as it investigated President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, writing in a much-anticipated report released Tuesday that he stands fully behind his decision to bring criminal charges that he believes would have resulted in a conviction had voters not returned Trump to the White House.

“The throughline of all of Mr. Trump’s criminal efforts was deceit — knowingly false claims of election fraud — and the evidence shows that Mr. Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States’ democratic process,” the report states.

The report, arriving just days before Trump is to return to office on Jan. 20, focuses fresh attention on the Republican’s frantic but failed effort to cling to power in 2020 after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. With the prosecution foreclosed thanks to Trump’s 2024 election victory, the document is expected to be the final Justice Department chronicle of a dark chapter in American history that threatened to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, a bedrock of democracy for centuries, and complements already released indictments and reports…

The Justice Department transmitted the report to Congress early Tuesday after a judge refused a defense effort to block its release. A separate volume of the report focused on Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, actions that formed the basis of a separate indictment against Trump, will remain under wraps for now.

The report is unsparing in its details about schemes undertaken by Trump to undo the presidential contest, accusing him of an “unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power.”

It recounts his role in trying to force the Justice Department to use its law enforcement authorities to advance his personal interests, participating in a scheme to enlist fake electors in battleground states won by Biden and having directed “an angry mob to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification of the presidential election and then leverage rioters’ violence to further delay it.”…

Though most of the details of Trump’s efforts to undo the election are already well established, the document includes for the first time a detailed assessment from Smith about his investigation, as well as a defense by Smith against criticism by Trump and his allies that the inquiry was politicized or that he worked in collaboration with the White House — an assessment he called “laughable.”

“While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters,” Smith wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland attached to the report. “I believe the example our team set for others to fight for justice without regard for the personal costs matters.”…

 
Good advice:

These are good questions, but we need social support too.
Think about forming a group of friends or colleagues with whom you can do reality checks. Trump's power comes from keeping us off balance.

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— Cheryl Rofer (@cherylrofer.bsky.social) January 12, 2025 at 9:24 AM

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Grim Dawn Open Thread: Pete Hegseth Has A Senate Confirmation Hearing Today

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Unless, of course, it gets rescheduled again, for reasons (that his GOP defenders haven’t been able to scrub his record, or his language, to the point where even Fox News can defend his nomination). This is the first confirmation for one of the incoming maladministration’s choices, which is yet another reason for its high profile.

Hegseth’s career could’ve been written for a prestige tv miniseries as a bombshell designed to damage the maximum number of female Senators on both sides of the aisle (which is no doubt part of his appeal to his defenders). At NYMag, Rebecca Traister says “Pete Hegseth Is a Test”:

Pete Hegseth is, by every measure, an abysmal nominee to run the American military. The Army National Guard veteran and former Fox News commentator has no experience managing enormous, complex organizations like the Pentagon and would, as secretary of Defense, be in charge of an $850 billion budget and 3 million active-duty and civilian personnel. His spotty professional record includes having been asked to step down from two nonprofit veterans’ groups whose budgets he reportedly ran into the ground. Questions about his personal behavior abound: He has been accused of rape (he reached a civil settlement with his accuser in 2017) and has a reported habit of excessive drinking, including while on the job and to the point of incapacitation in public. He has defended waterboarding and torture, advocated on behalf of alleged war criminals, and as recently as November he declared, “I’m straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles.” Even Republicans haven’t been able to find much good to say about him. “If it were a secret ballot,” one moderate senator told me, “I don’t think he’d be confirmed.”

But the battle for his confirmation will not be secret; it will be glaringly public, with televised hearings of the Senate Armed Services Committee scheduled for Tuesday. It is the first serious test of Donald Trump’s newly invigorated strongman model of governance and of whether he can continue to bend the Republican Party to his will even as Hegseth breaks procedural precedents, including skirting a vetting process designed to protect national security. It is also a window into the influence that Trump’s heavy, Elon Musk, is exerting across Washington by threatening to bankroll primary challenges of anyone who defies Trump. And Hegseth’s nomination is a measure of just how strenuously Democrats are planning to fight back, at a moment when they are powerless to stop the Republicans in Congress and are second-guessing past resistance efforts that have been retrospectively cast as failures. Trump has singled out Hegseth as the figure he cares most about pushing through, his next administration’s big opening number, showcasing what he hopes will be his own party’s submission to his whims and the Democrats’ humiliating impotence in the face of his authority.

The Armed Services Committee is not one that has historically been the venue for explosive partisan warfare. “The thing to understand about it,” said one staffer, “is that it’s designed to have hearings about defense policy, draft the defense bill every year, and is sort of bipartisan.” But Hegseth is all but certain to cleave the group into partisan camps. His nomination has put an uncomfortable spotlight on Republican senators who might be persuaded to vote against his nomination, especially on Iowa’s Joni Ernst, a staunch Republican who is respected by her Democratic colleagues for her commitment to the committee’s work.

A survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence, Ernst has been an ally of Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, another committee member, in the ongoing fight to address sexual assault and harassment in the military. She has worked with Elizabeth Warren, also on the committee, on a law that directs the Department of Defense to protect servicemembers from blast overpressure and traumatic brain injury. A combat veteran whose daughter is a West Point graduate, she has been a fierce advocate for women in the military. Ernst herself would have been a logical candidate for Trump’s secretary of Defense. “She probably would have gotten 90 votes,” one staffer to a senator on the committee speculated, noting that she “would have been probably far more effective at the job, since she’d actually know how to do it and people would actually listen to her.”…

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War for Ukraine Day 1,055: A Brief Monday Night Update

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

A quick housekeeping note: I had some dental work done to bring some very old repairs up to 2024 standards this afternoon. I’m very tired and expect discomfort as the anesthesia wears off. I’m just going to hit the highlights, have something to eat, and rack out. No real analysis tonight.

About 2/3rds of Ukraine is under air raid alert as of 6:30 PM EDT/1:30 AM local time in Ukraine. The alert maps don’t have any Russian fixed wing craft up as part of the alert, just drones. At least for now, this appears to be another drone swarm attack.

⚡️Explosions heard in Kyiv.

Several loud explosions were heard in central Kyiv late at night on Jan. 13, Kyiv Independent correspondents reported.

According to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, air defense units are repelling a drone attack against the city.

— The Kyiv Independent (@kyivindependent.com) January 13, 2025 at 4:51 PM

Kharkiv region is under the russian drone attack right now‼️

— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) January 13, 2025 at 1:41 PM

“Target down.” A video of the downing of one of the “Shaheds” on January 13 has surfaced online.

The Air Force Command released footage of combat action against a Shahed-type attack drone on the eastern front.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) January 13, 2025 at 9:30 AM

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Save the Date – Zoom on Saturday Jan 25 – Where Do We Go From Here?

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Please join us for a zoom with Brendan Walsh, executive director of Worker Power, one of the boots on the ground groups we have supported .

We had a tough loss in November, and it’s been with us every day since then.  Where do we go from here?

Please join us hear about it, and talk about it!

This will be a free-ranging conversation with labor organizer and GOTV expert Brendan Walsh, whose organization, Worker Power, we supported in the last two election cycles.

JANUARY 25, at 3:30 Eastern Time
RSVP in the comments and send email so I can reply with the zoom link.

Like all of us, despite some brights spots and victories in the areas they organized, Brendan was devastated and disheartened by the election results.   But now that we’ve licked our wounds (quite thoroughly), it’s time to look ahead and get our feet back under us!  Brendan is not giving up.  Worker Power is not giving up.  I am not giving up.  There’s too much at stake to give up.

It’s been a long 10 weeks – and we’re going to talk about the future.

*The future pretty much starts now, by the way.  In case you’re wondering.

Worker Power engaged extensively with Arizona voters, and gained a lot of insight into what motivated (or demotivated) them.  So Brendan will talk a little bit – maybe for 5 or 10 minutes – about what they’ve learned about turning out the working class vote and what they’re looking at going forward.

Then, we’ll open it up to questions and comments and what we hope will be a thoughtful discussion.

So if you have any questions or discussion topics ahead of time, let us know in the comments.

This will be the first of several zooms we’ll be having with our organizations over the next few weeks. Looking forward to hearing from all our partners!

They are all such good people.  Come meet them!

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Find the Hook, The Way In

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It's Ok to Lead 1

This is a Mexican fireman (“Bombero”) with a kitten – supposedly taken in LA, but it’s too good to check (via).

It's Ok to Lead 2

This is real — from Claudia Sheinbaum’s insta, a photo of Mexican aid leaving for LA.

Wouldn’t it be great if, while noting that Mexico stepped up to help, some Democratic politician said that the Mexican workers who will rebuild LA deserve a fair, humane work visa?  (If you know of one, please leave it in the comments.)

Here’s Erin Reed live-skeeting the committee hearing and floor vote in the Montana legislature over an anti-trans bathroom bill that would affect two legislators, Erin’s spouse Zooey Zephyr and non-binary legislator SJ Howell.

Wouldn’t it be great if some Democrats other than Maxwell Frost, AOC and other progressives said something like this:

Mace is a “huge attention getter, so this is part of her attention-getting fetish,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), a newly elected co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.

  • Frost added: “I just don’t understand why bathrooms are top of mind for her, why she’s thinking about where future members are going to piss and shit.”

I’m not going to give up on immigration, or trans rights.  Every issue has a hook, a handle, a way in.  One way in for immigration is that immigrants do all the work that we don’t want to do, so how about we stop pretending that we can’t see what’s obvious to anyone who lives in an area with lots of immigrant labor?  The way in for trans rights is that Republicans who want to inspect genitals of others before they’re allowed to piss and shit are fucking weird and awful human beings.  I’m sure there are other ways in — we just need to find them.

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The Maestro Says Its Mozart, But it Sounds Like Bubblegum

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This Semafor piece is making the rounds:

Washington Post subscribers quit the paper en masse following owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to withhold its endorsement of outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris. But the Post’s audience problems extend beyond angry former subscribers.

Over the last four years, web traffic has cratered. According to internal data shared with Semafor in recent weeks, the Post’s daily traffic last year reached a nadir of just a quarter of what it was at its peak in January 2021. That month, the Post had around 22.5 million daily active users. But by the middle of 2024, its daily users hovered around 2.5-3 million daily users.

Last year, Washington City Paper noted that the Post had stopped publicly disclosing its traffic numbers in press releases, after a 60% decline in monthly traffic. On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Post’s revenue fell from $190 million in 2023 to $174 million last year.

Legacy or mainstream media has been circling the drain for a while, but an order of magnitude drop in users is way more than what I would have expected.

The only time I watch cable TV is at the gym, and today, like last Friday, I watched CNN and Fox side-by-side.  The Fox News coverage of the LA fires is notably better, by the standards of cable news.  They have reporters on the ground, they’re able to cover the whole press conference, and they’re not breaking to commercial every couple of minutes.  Both Friday and today, CNN did not have a correspondent on the ground.  The footage they showed was clearly sent in from viewers, and then they have very long interviews with people affected by the fire.  On Friday, it was James Woods (ick), and he yammered for at least 15 minutes straight.  Today it was a couple who had lost their house.  Sad, but this story is still evolving, and there’s more to it that hearing from people who were burned out.

The advent of decent quality video from a laptop over the Internet is a huge benefit for cable news, but there’s no substitute for a correspondent or two on the scene for a disaster of this magnitude.  Maybe I’m just catching CNN at a bad time, but 9:30 AM Mountain / 11:30 AM Eastern is pretty prime cable TV time for their diabetes and Ensure ads..  I’m guessing that the next “revelation” from Semafor will be that CNN’s viewership and earnings are in the toilet, just like the Post, because, setting aside ideology, Fox just has a better news product.

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