Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

You cannot love your country only when you win.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

No one could have predicted…

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

When I was faster i was always behind.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

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

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

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A Slow, Fat Pitch Over The Plate

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Reading Anne Laurie’s overnight thread about Musk blowing up the House spending bill, it occurred to me that elected Democrats could not hope for a slower, fatter pitch right over the plate to kick off their role as opposition party in the second Trump Error.

Yesterday, the World’s Richest Man™️, who was not elected to any office, demanded that the U.S. government shut down for weeks, which will cause great hardship for regular people. And every elected Republican, from the alleged president-elect to the lowliest House backbencher, scurried to carry out the decree.

House Minority Leader Jeffries seems to understand the opportunity this presents. (The Hill)

“House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support,” Jeffries posted on social platform X. “You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”

That’s the spirit! Also, it’s a very low bar, but maybe Trump and Vance understand how the government works better than Musk does.

“Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling,” Trump and Vance said. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country.”

Emphasis mine. Trump wants the debt ceiling raised before he takes office so he can blame it on Biden. Fuck that. Unelected oligarchs are already running the country through a Nazi-infested social media platform even before Trump is sworn in. Let those fuckers figure it out.

***

It’s important to keep in mind that the average voter doesn’t see Musk as an unelected oligarch who is determined to destroy the social safety net so he can add even more to his unimaginable wealth. Lots of folks buy the hype about Musk, just as they bought the bullshit The Apprentice sold about Donald Trump. Hell, even some elected Dems who should fucking know better talk about Musk as if he’s not the comically obvious Bond villain that he is (looking at you, Senators Fetterman and Blumenthal).

That needs to stop. Musk needs to be “rebranded” to reflect what he actually is. The good news is those efforts are getting a big assist from Musk himself. It’s a softball the size of Mars.

Open thread.

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Repub Stupidity / Oligarch Venality Open Thread: Pig Persons Piss on Budgeting Plans

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House Republicans have been directed to shut down the government, hurting everyday Americans across the country.

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— House Judiciary Dems (@housejudiciary.bsky.social) December 18, 2024 at 6:14 PM

On CNN tonight, former Rep Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) is referring to “President Elon” and “Vice President Trump”

— Scott MacFarlane (@macfarlanenews.bsky.social) December 18, 2024 at 8:11 PM

Looks like Elon has decided that bullying Trump in advance is a workable, or at least an entertaining, strategy. Per the Bulwark:

Going forward, how are we going to hash out how much the government spends and on what? Through a combination of public edicts from Elon Musk and harried Fox News appearances from Speaker Mike Johnson, apparently. Musk denounced Johnson’s short-term spending plan to keep the government open in last night, forcing the man third in line to the presidency to scurry to do damage control.

“I was communicating with Elon last night,” Johnson said on Fox News this morning. “Elon, Vivek [Ramaswamy], and I are on a text chain together and I was explaining to them the background of this. And then Vivek and I talked last night until almost midnight. . . . They understand the situation. They said, ‘It’s not directed at you, Mr. Speaker, but we don’t like the spending.’ And I said, ‘Guess what, fellas? I don’t either.’”

Are we allowed to be consoled that the speaker of the House isn’t having much fun either?…

The richest man in the world says he wants to shut down the government, forcing millions of American workers – including our troops – to go without pay through the holidays.

Republicans are following his orders. This is insane.

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— Congressman Don Beyer (@repdonbeyer.bsky.social) December 18, 2024 at 4:56 PM

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War for Ukraine Day 1,029: Yes I’m Being Followed by a Storm Shadow, Storm Shadow, Storm Shadow

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I’m sure everyone’s seen the breaking news, so let’s get the “two more shopping days until the government shuts down” part of the update out of the way.

Now that that’s done, President Zelenskyy travelled to Brussels today where he met with Macron, Rutte, and then did an interview with La Parisien.

Zelensky to French news: “Trump knows about my desire not to rush to the detriment of Ukraine. The country has long been fighting for its sovereignty. No matter how many presidents or prime ministers want to declare an end to the war, we are not going to just give up and surrender our independence.”

— Christopher Miller (@christopherjm.bsky.social) December 18, 2024 at 2:18 AM

Zelensky commented on the partners’ demands to lower the mobilization age.
t.me/c/1377735387…

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) December 18, 2024 at 11:44 AM

Here’s the short video of President Zelenskyy and Mark Rutte addressing the press:

And here’s the video of President Zelenskyy’s interview with La Parisien:

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Respectfully Open Thread

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An old weightlifting buddy of mine bought a house this year – a real fixer-upper. Someone else’s brown tabby decided that he liked what she’d done with the place, and the last owners had installed a cat door in the kitchen, so he moved in, too. She calls him Chris, and she does what any midstream-aged Millennial would do: she records their life together on Instagram. Here is a post from a few days ago which I feel is very Balloon-Juice coded:

a brown tabby sits in front of a throw pillow with a cheerful rainbow motif around the words "FUCK OFF"

I find myself overwhelmed with an avalanche of moderately bothersome life events: I am in the middle of upgrading my current ILR permit (a UK green card) to the new electronic format; I’ve just applied to the Home Office for citizenship; my mortgage was finally approved and my house purchase is sprinting toward an early-January closing; all four of my clients realised they had a bunch of unspent marketing funds, which means I suddenly have a ton of projects to deliver by 12/30; I had bronchitis, and I’ve just been to the GP about some pain in my left wrist which, it turns out, is almost certainly carpal tunnel.

Plus there’s prepping for the holidays. And also the political news. In both countries I pay tax to, it seems that the person running the show is actually E. Musk. Rumours are swirling that he’ll give $100 million to Nigel Farage’s Reform party to help them replace the Tories as the opposition from the right—this, after his social media site amplified, often via his personal account, false reports about a murder that seem to have contributed to nationwide race riots this summer. Would be nice if someone would investigate his dipshittery! There are laws for that kind of thing over here, after all. But as we Americans know (and with apologies to Charles Dickens), the law is a vibe.

Le sigh. Talk about whatever in the comments. And drop your carpal tunnel management tips there, too, if you have them. I’ve bought one of those braces, but am happy to hear more advice.

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Wally World Waffen

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Dog help me, I had to go to the local Walmart Super Center today. I can count on one hand the visits I’ve made during the six years we’ve lived here, and under normal circumstances, a team of rhinoceri couldn’t drag me to a Walmart in the run-up to Christmas.

But I discovered my meringue powder had expired, and I need some to make royal icing. No other place had it, so off I went.

I think I saw four older teens/young adults at Walmart dressed kind of like Nazis, so that was disturbing. Three boys and a girl. They weren’t displaying swastikas, but their black trench coats and old-fashioned black military-style clothing had what looked like fake insignia of indeterminate origin.

I hope it’s just some weird non-Nazi-affiliated fashion trend I’m unaware of because I’m old. After seeing the group clomping through the store in their heavy boots earlier, I accidentally bumped into the girl in the baking goods aisle. We had a good-natured exchange about it, which one wouldn’t expect from a Nazi.

Back in the day, I was a teenaged punk in this same county and felt judged for the outlandish clothing and hairstyle I favored at the time. So I want to believe these kids are just expressing something harmless that eludes me. But yeah, it was unsettling.

I’m baking cookies anyway, Nazis be damned. Our annual cookie event doesn’t take place until Friday, but over the years we’ve sensibly taken on more prep work in advance so that actual cookie night is less grueling.

At various points in this hellish year, I’ve thought about saying to hell with, well, everything. But for whatever reason, I keep on keeping on.

Cookies and butter lambs and other bullshit like that, no matter what. It’s arguably a pointless groove, a rearranging of deck chairs, but it’s mine.

What keeps you plugging along?

Open thread!

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A Little Programming Note

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Here’s the thing about bloggers who started in the mid-2000s, like me.  We started by criticizing Democrats, specifically the Democrats who endorsed the Iraq War.  That war is the biggest mistake made by this country in my adult lifetime.  Despite that criticism, the party survived.  The most politically talented Democratic President of my adult lifetime, Barack Obama, got it right on the war.  In part he was informed by the critique of the war that bubbled up from the Democratic base, in a tiny part because of blogs, which were a lot more visible and influential then.  We “made space,” as the kids say, for a view about the war that was almost completely ruled out of bounds by mainstream media, but was shared by a large number of Democrats.

Today, we’re in a much worse situation.  Trump is an existential threat to the country.  This has spurred me to write about two topics:  the threat Trumpism poses, and how Democrats need to change to meet that threat.  Right now, with the weak sauce coming out of the party elders, I’m thinking the second is a more important job.

In writing about this, there are some positions that I don’t accept:  The view that Democratic positions are minority positions and therefore we’re doomed to be a minority party.  That it was only racism and sexism that caused us to lose this election, though they played an important role.   That messaging doesn’t matter.  That silence is a smart move by our electeds.   That we need to quietly sacrifice trans rights (I think it shows only weakness and fecklessness to do so.)  That campaigns are pointless  (though I do think that dumping hundreds of millions into TV ads is the dumbest way to campaign.)

Here are some things I believe:  The “resistance” was as effective as it could be, and there’s no shame in participating in those protests after Trump’s first election.   Calling your Congresspeople is a worthwhile activity to stiffen their spines.   We need a new media ecosystem, but that’s a long-term project.  The short-term project is getting more eloquent advocates (other than Elizabeth Warren)  criticizing Polio Boy Bob and Trump’s plan to privatize the USPS, among other terrible ideas, now.

With that in mind, here are some bloggers I respect and have respected for a while who I think have similar attitudes.  I don’t agree with these people on everything, but I read them regularly and appreciate their insight.  They’re in the same place as me when it comes to the events of the last few days:

Doc Zoom at Wonkette:  What the Fuck Do Democrats Think They are Doing?

David Dayen at Prospect.org:  What We Have Here is a Rudderless Ship

Oliver Willis:  Democrats:  The Surrender Party

Brian Beutler:  More on Ethical Populism (how to resist Bobby Polio Jr)

If what I wrote gets you mad, please target your anger towards your Democratic Member of Congress and/or Senators, if you have them, by calling or emailing.  If you think that Democrats need a kick in the ass, well, here’s me making space for that.

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