Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Dear legacy media: you are not here to influence outcomes and policies you find desirable.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

This blog will pay for itself.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

So very ready.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

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

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

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

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

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War for Ukraine Day 1,014: Not Now South Korea, We’re Busy!!!!!

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A quick housekeeping note: what I thought would be a nice, sedately paced week shifted into high gear today. And no, it was not the coup du jour. So I’m just going to run through the basics tonight so I can go get cleaned up and rack out.

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

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Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Trump’s Bug-Eyed Gremlin, Kash Patel

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Biden didn’t pardon Hunter until Trump said he would appoint Kash Patel as head of the FBI.
Kash Patel has openly admitted he would abuse the power of law enforcement to go after Trump’s enemies.
Why doesn’t anybody recognize that the person who is breaking norms and abusing power is TRUMP?

— Mikel Jollett (@mikeljollett.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 10:29 AM

I half-hoped the deluge of unpleasant stories about Kash Patel’s past might convince his Dear Leader that putting him in front of the Senate was a bridge too far, but we’re in High Kakistocracy mode now…

My latest on Kash Patel and the FBI: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb…

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— Frank Figliuzzi (@frankfigliuzzi.bsky.social) December 2, 2024 at 1:58 PM

… It isn’t just that Patel is wholly unqualified to lead the pre-eminent law enforcement and intelligence agency in the nation and perhaps the world. Yes, he lacks the professional experience needed to lead the bureau’s 37,000 employees in 55 U.S. field offices, 350 satellite offices and 63 locations abroad that cover nearly 200 countries. But that’s the least of my concerns. After all, Trump’s picks for homeland security secretary, director of national intelligence and defense secretary are also remarkably lacking in competency for their proposed roles. Trump’s first choice for attorney general was so problematic that he withdrew from consideration before the Senate confirmation process could begin.

Patel’s particular problem goes far beyond competence: His record shows no devotion to the Constitution, but blind allegiance to Trump. Patel helped spread the fabricated conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump. He has promoted the conspiracy of a “deep state” within government institutions whose aim is to topple Trump. Court findings and the jury system are things that should matter to an FBI director, yet Patel seems not to care that more than 60 court challenges found no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, nor that grand juries and trial juries of American citizens determined Trump should be criminally indicted, held civilly liable and even convicted.

If he becomes FBI director, Patel will have to take an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, but his public statements raise concerns about his ability to keep that oath. In an interview last year with Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Patel promised to pursue judges, lawyers and even journalists he perceived as having wrongly investigated Trump and influenced the 2020 election. “We will go out and find the conspirators,” he told Bannon, “not just in government but in the media — yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.” That doesn’t sound like a man who intends to strictly adhere to the rule of law. It sounds like a wannabe cop planning on false arrests and fabricated evidence…

@radiofreetom.bsky.social
on the nomination of Kash Patel:
“Patel is about as dangerous as it gets, not because he’s that much of a true believer in anything, but because…he believes in nothing except serving Donald Trump…”

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— Republicans Against Trumpism (@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social) December 1, 2024 at 4:20 PM

Until Christopher Wray is fired by AG, resigns or ends his term, Trump has no more right to name an FBI director than you or I do. Every Republican senator voting to confirm any AG must hold any AG candidate accountable for the consequences of Patel at FBI, and should be held accountable.

— Ben from New Mexico (@bluefiddleguy.bsky.social) December 2, 2024 at 9:30 AM

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Denver Meetup – Jan 3

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comrade scott’s agenda of rage has proposed a Denver meetup on Jan 3.

Denver BJ Meetup Proposal
Date: 3 Jan 2025 (Friday)
Time: 5-8pm
Where: My House

Why “My House”? I’m centrally located, just 5 blocks west of City Park right on the boundary of the Whittier and City Park West neighborhoods. Plenty of free parking.

We like to host. Two-plus decades of running a B&B beats that into you.

We’ll also provide food and beverages (Free Booze is a tried and true “pull”, just see “One Froggy Evening”).

Doing it this way is far better than trying to get people to a place, which is Denver so will be moronically loud and expensive. Think of it as a BJ dinner party except far more casual. Conversations can be had and heard plus I’ll show you what was buried in the crawl space in the house. And anybody remotely interested in historic renovation/restoration, our place is a case study.

Doing it on a Friday eliminates weekend conflicts and obvious weeknight hassles everybody would have across the metro region.

Interested BJ peeps, chime in below!

List of people who plan to attend the meetup.

Scamp Dog
Bokonon
Dr Daniel Price
Snarlymon
Starfish (she/her)
Dr Fungus
Nickdag
hedgehog the occasional commenter
mvr
MountainBoy
Baquist
Madame Bupkis
ll jones

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Afternoon Links

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Here’s a new (to me) news aggregator that puts up the latest 3 stories from a bunch of different sites (sadly, not this one).  It’s run by Oliver Willis.

Stacy Mitchell wrote a piece about food deserts at the Atlantic.  If you’re paywalled, her thread on Bluesky has the basics.  As with a lot of bad things, it started with the Reagan administration, specifically, with the rollback of antitrust enforcement.   Unfortunately, the Reagan hagiography has completely obscured what a retrograde administration that was.

This story of a rogue prosecutor in Kansas City, KS, and how her misconduct is intertwined with a whole lot of police misconduct, is a hell of a tale.

That’s all I have, but at least it isn’t about butter knives, pick me’s or pardons.

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Pick-Me’s Bringing Butter Knives to a Real War

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Jasmine Crockett gets it:

CNN has reported that Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter has left some Democrats fuming, as he repeatedly and unequivocally claimed that he would never take that step.

“I can’t say why my colleagues are acting the way that they are. I can say that the American people are tired of us bringing a butter knife to a real fight, a real war. And the reality is that, you know, a lot of my colleagues, even if they are lawyers, they’ve never practiced law, they’ve never actually been in a courtroom,” Crockett said of some Democrats who are critical of Biden.

“I need people to really recognize that we are living in some different times. And I applaud the president, because the American people have been so upset with Democrats not fighting back and not fighting with the same tools that the Republicans have been fighting with.”

(CNN is so messed up it’s hard to link to this directly, but here’s the page it’s from.)

Steve M has a good name for people like Jared Polis, who added to his track record of saying nice things about RFK Jr. by tweeting about his concern about the pardon:

 

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Here’s One About the Enablers and Shelterers

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Here's One About the Enablers and Shelterers

I always have to chuckle when people say “well, she’s going to divorce him” after they find out that an apparently reasonable woman is married to a whack job / misogynist / red pill incel.  No she isn’t.  She’s an enabler who derives some benefit from the relationship, and she’s used to tolerating the behavior of her spouse.  Today’s case in point is RFK the lesser’s wife Cheryl Hines.  Remember how she was so upset when the news that her husband and Olivia Nuzzi were sexting?  That, like probably the dozen other women that he’s cheated on her with, is in the past.  Now Cheryl is sitting between Bobby Very Junior and Tucker Carlson at Trump’s table at Mar-a-Lago, and hawking a line of MAHA candles while standing in front of her nude husband.   See, also, Usha Vance.

Institutions have long provided shelter for abusers, and our silly belief that most Christian churches follow the teachings of their namesake and therefore deserve the benefit of the doubt allows those places to shelter child rapists, extreme misogynists, and (alleged) adult rapists, too:

In the years since [being accused of rape], Hegseth — now on his third marriage — has claimed that he rediscovered Christ, saying “faith became real” to him in 2018. He became deeply involved with the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS), moving to Tennessee to enroll his children in a branch of this fundamentalist organization. He also joined the associated denomination, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. Both are led by Doug Wilson, an untrained and self-proclaimed pastor who advocates for Christian nationalism and has become famous for his trollish promotion of his far-right political views. At the center of Wilson’s philosophy is a misogyny so overt that it’s sometimes hard to believe he’s serious. [ed. – I have no problem believing he’s serious]

“Wilson holds the most extreme views of women’s submission found in any form of Christianity,” Julie Ingersoll, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida, told Salon. “Women are taught that submission to their husbands (and other male authorities) is submission to God. Independence of any kind is cast as sin.”

In one famous passage from his book on marriage, Wilson suggests that sexual violence is women’s fault for not being submissive enough. “[T]he sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party,” he writes. “A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.” The alleged failure of women to submit, he continues, leads men to “dream of being rapists,” deprived of the “erotic necessity” found in women’s submission. Nancy Wilson, Doug Wilson’s wife, backs this view, comparing a wife to a “garden” cultivated for the husband’s pleasure: “But of course a husband is never trespassing in his own garden.” […]

Journalists Peter Bell and Sarah Bader have been producing a podcast about Wilson and the culture of abuse at CREC churches and ACCS schools, titled “Sons of Patriarchy.” They’ve recorded a seemingly endless number of interviews with people who witnessed or survived sexual abuse or domestic violence — and documenting the unwillingness of CREC leaders to take it seriously. Bader told Salon women are told they are “accountable for all of their husband’s sins” and that Wilson just “rewrapped rape as ‘submission.'” Students at ACCS schools who said they were sexually abused by teachers reported being blamed for causing the older men to “stumble.” Women say they’ve been blamed for being raped, for husbands who abuse alcohol and for men’s infidelity.

Wilson says that God designed women “to make the sandwiches”.  Weird that whenever God’s teachings come up, they sound like the masturbatory fantasies of a teenage boy.  By the way, this is Wilson, and if he doesn’t give you the ick, maybe you need to recalibrate your ickometer:

Here's One About the Enablers and Shelterers 1

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Et Voila! (Open Thread)

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As I mentioned in a thread yesterday, I made Italian wedding soup from scratch for supper last night.

Soup in a colorful bowl.

It was an unexpectedly arduous task that involved making dozens of tiny meatballs. It’s tasty, but if I ever make it again, I’ll add some diced tomatoes. (Kind of a gross picture. I need a food stylist!)

Bill has had a Man Cold™️ for the past week, and unfortunately I’ve contracted the lady version. It’s weird having a regular illness. I’ve become used to more exotic ailments, so a common cold is almost welcome in a strange way.

To treat the most annoying symptom, after supper I made myself a toddy similar to what my father administers to children afflicted with a cough, i.e., a shot of whiskey with lemon and honey. (I use better bourbon than he does, but the recipe is otherwise identical.)

It still works — I promptly fell asleep on the couch and missed most of Monday Night Football, which featured the Broncos vs. Browns. I don’t really care about either team, but Jameis Winston is the Browns QB, and I hate him with the white-hot heat of 10,000 exploding supernovas.

Since I was asleep, I missed the second pick-six and a fourth quarter interception in the end zone thrown by Winston, which doomed the Browns’ late drive to retake the lead. I enjoyed reading about it though!

Open thread!

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