Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

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

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

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

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

“woke” is the new caravan.

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Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread: The Return of Shaun King

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There is a fresh block of naive individuals on social media, angry about a widely publicized tragedy, eager to donate their mite to reparation or retribution — especially if they can gain clout among their peers by doing so.

Of course Shaun King has reemerged from the grey zone, with an eye-catching announcement…

Perhaps we cynics wrong Mr. King… possibly he has seen the errors of his past and renounced them?…

A refresher, if necessary, from Ralph Leonard at Unherd — “Is Shaun King’s Islam conversion a grift?”:

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War for Ukraine Day 749: Russia Attacked Kryvyi Rih, Sumy, and Myrnohrad Overnight!

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Screen shot of new artwork by NEIVANMADE. The background is black. In the bottom foreground are grey Ukrainian homes and apartment buildings being bombarded by red Russian missiles with the Special Military Operation "Z" symbol on them. Above the missiles, written in red is the word "Ruzzians". Below the buildings being attacked is the statement "Turns Homes Into Graves".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1767857756944335132

Myrnohrad, Sumy, and Kryvyi Rih. Overnight, russian attacks destroyed residential buildings in three Ukrainian cities.

In Myrnohrad, 2 people died. 4 people died and more than 50 were injured in Kryvyi Rih. 8 residents were injured in Sumy, 3 people are considered missing.

The world must see the consequences of russian terror. The world has to support Ukraine in our fight against russian evil.

https://twitter.com/maria_avdv/status/1767801305701978254

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

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Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Has Ol’ Man Trump Lost His Touch?

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Has Ol’ Man Trump Lost His Touch? - STOCKPILE

(Nick Anderson via GoComics.com)

 
Excellent argument from Josh Marshall, at TPM — “Has Ol’ Man Trump Lost His Touch?”:

… [P]olitically [Trump] is very, very rusty. Even in Trumpian terms his speeches these days are disjointed, weird, discordant. And again — not by the standard of who you might want within a mile of the Oval Office. I mean even in terms of Trumpian politics. He’s not the same.

I suspect some of that is his age. Some of it may be that he’s just out of practice, despite basically campaigning from the moment he left office. Trump used to have a very clear eye for what people wanted and what they didn’t. Plausibly or not, back in 2016 he was very clear that he had no interest in touching Social Security or Medicare. Why? Because people like them. Trump wants love and he wants power. The way to get those is to make people happy, to give them what they want or at least tell them you’re going to give them what they want. He was very down on Obamacare. But that is because back in 2016 the word if not the program was still not very popular. A politician like Trump is never in the business of convincing anyone that it’s important to do something that doesn’t sound fun and immediately appealing.

Once in power, of course, Trump essentially delegated most of his policy agenda to the GOP. The only thing that seemed to really animate him was trade policy or using domestic trade subsidies to reward supporters — which amounted mostly to the same thing. But in most respects Trump’s entire presidency amounted to taking office with the assumption that being President meant unlimited power and unlimited love. That quickly turned out not to be the case and much of his subsequent presidency and post-presidency became a mix of grievance and payback for that not being the case.

There is a key difference here that is important to understand. Trump’s 2016 campaign’s success stemmed in large part from channeling the cultural and social grievance of middle aged white American men. His 2024 agenda is heavily focused on his personal grievances and doing away with all the restraints on the presidency that hobbled him and led to ego injuries in during his first term — Trump Unbound, as it were. (Think back to 2016 and consider where the “Deep State” or unbridled marxist civil servants would have figured into anything he was talking about.) His enemies are your enemies and he’s going to kick all of their asses. We know all this. It’s the essence of most of his speeches, threats, and so forth. To execute on this he’s surrounded himself with a cast of ideologues who have created a program for him. The folks making the plans are unsurprisingly hard core right-wingers who support a lot of very unpopular things. That’s why Project 2025, the Trumpian government blueprint assembled by a group of Trump administration alums under the aegis of the Heritage Foundation, looks like such a juicy target for Democrats. The people around Trump now know how to write out the plan, how to plug it into the various departments and agencies, and whatever other right-wing stuff that goes along with it is fine with him because it all means power and retribution in his hands…

I’ve thought for some time that Trump shows a lot of the signs of the kind of rage dementia that often eludes detection because the energy of the aggression gets read as focus and executive function rather than cognitive deterioration. What’s been harder for me to read is what part of this is the psychic pressure of the 2020 defeat combined with the accumulating legal peril and what is the accumulated impact of going from 69 years of age to 77. Whatever the precise mix, it also impacts his political agility and feel for the popular mood. It leads to stuff like this wholly unforced social insurance goof. This probably won’t be the only example. It hasn’t gotten much attention yet because even though Trump gets coverage, he hasn’t been in the mix of an actual campaign in years. We’ll see more of it because, again, he ain’t the same.

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Hahahahaha – Elon Musk Edition

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He who laughs last…

Is it too early to celebrate?

On The Road - patrick II - 4th of July, Small Indiana Lake 2
Photo credit: Patrick II from On the Road

x

These assholes always always always bring it upon themselves.

Open thread.  Open season on Musk!

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HAHAHAHA Ken Buck Fucked Lauren Boebert (Figuratively!)

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HAHAHAHA Ken Buck Fucked Lauren Boebert (Figuratively!)
This just in:

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert said Wednesday that she will not pursue the Republican special election nomination to replace U.S. Rep. Ken Buck in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District after he departs Congress at the end of next week.

Boebert is still running, however, in the Republican primary to be the GOP nominee for the November election in the 4th District.

In a written statement, Boebert called Buck’s resignation “a swampy backroom deal to try to rig an election” for her opponents.

“Forcing an unnecessary special election on the same day as the primary election will confuse voters, result in a lame duck congressman on day one, and leave the 4th District with no representation for more than three months,” she wrote. “The 4th District deserves better.”

Buck apparently quit without telling Pastor Mike in advance, cutting the R majority in the House down to a couple (depending on health, etc.).  Part of the reason for Buck’s abrupt resignation probably lies the rules for special elections in Colorado:

Whoever wins the Republican vacancy nomination for the special election may have a slight advantage in the primary because their name will appear twice on the June 25 ballot. [Gov Jared] Polis said blending the two elections will save money, but voters in the 4th District may be confused about why there are two similar races on their primary ballot.

Republican and Democratic vacancy committees, made up of party insiders, will have to meet within the next few weeks to select their respective nominees for the special election. Vacancy committees are notoriously unpredictable.

Yes, they’re unpredictable, but it doesn’t take a genius to predict that Republican “party insiders” in CO-4 won’t pick Boebert because they’re hella pissed that she decided to bring her carpetbag full of money and her family drama into their district.  Boebert is attempting to blunt the inevitable humiliation of not getting chosen by saying she’s not even going to run. (ETA: Also, she would have to resign her CO-3 seat to run in the CO-4 special, so Buck put her between a rock and a hard place.)  This is similar to a kid saying he didn’t even want to play with a toy after mom gives it to his sister.

The result of all this machination is that voters in CO-4 will have ballots:  one to pick the interim replacement for Buck, which will contain the party nominee for the seat,  and one for primary to choose the Republican candidate for the November general election.  Getting the nod for the special is a powerful endorsement and incentive for voters to vote for the same person in the special and the primary.

The bottom line here is that Boebert underestimated Ken Buck and he gave her a fuck-you, adios, you lose present going out the door.  You love to see it.

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True Detective’s Nic Pizzolatto Needs a Time Out

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Nic Pizzolatto Needs a Time Out 1

When compared to comedic gems such as The Producers, Young Frankenstein and Silent Movie, I have to confess that History of the World, Part 1 is disappointing. This lackluster 1981 film by Mel Brooks feels like a series of hit-or-miss comedy sketches barely held together by duct tape.

However, a highlight of History of the World, Part 1 for me is the hilarious “Dawn of Man” sequence in the beginning of the film. Underneath the sitcom caveman schtick, Brooks sees a fundamental truth and happily knocks it out of the park.

Narrator: Even in primitive man, the need to create was part of his nature. This need, this talent clearly separated early men from animals, who would never know this gift.

[a group of cavemen is intently watching someone doing something on the wall]
Narrator: And here, in a cave about 2 million years ago, the first artist was born.

[a drawing of a buffalo is shown, and a proud artist exhibiting his work to the tribe]
Narrator: And, of course, with the birth of the artist, came the inevitable after birth… the critic.

[the critic urinates on the drawing]

And millions of years later, some things never change. The war between Artists and Critics goes on, with no ceasefire in sight. However, oddly enough, there are times where the combatants will switch roles and go to the Dark Side.

Case in point, Nic (True Detective) Pizzolatto. He went all in and Nic ain’t taking any prisoners.

Pizzolatto created the True Detective series for the premium cable network, with the first season starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. The fourth season, titled True Detective: Night Country, stars Kali Reis and Jodie Foster and is the first season without Pizzolatto’s involvement, although he is still credited as an executive producer of the drama.

Night Country recently wrapped its season and now ranks as the most-watched season of the franchise that started in 2014. Although the show created by Issa López has enjoyed good ratings and positive reviews, franchise originator Pizzolatto has thrown shade throughout the series’ run. 

Pizzolatto has reshared posts from some viewers criticizing the fourth season of True Detective. In a screenshot posted on social media, Pizzolatto shared an opinion from a fan slamming the finale, calling it “some of the sloppiest writing” and praising the show’s first season.

Is it me or does Pizzolatto sound like a bitter divorcee who’s enraged that his ex-wife has the gall to be happy without him? Worse, Pizzolatto doubled down on his online blitzkrieg.

Phillip Maciak@pjmaciak . Feb 19
You may have liked the TRUE DETECTIVE finale or you may have hated the TRUE DETECTIVE finale, but one thing is indisputable: Nic Pizzolatto is on Instagram, posting other people’s stories about how Issa López ruined the franchise like an absolutely enormous baby.

I see a “cease and desist” order in Nic Pizzolatto’s future. Nic has already found out to his dismay that if you can’t stand the heat, stay out the kitchen you tossed a grenade in. If this public meltdown was happening at a bar, Pizzolatto would have been cut off already. Sorry, dude. You don’t gotta go home, but you can’t stay here.

Anyway, in response to these slanderous comments, Issa López refused to get into the trench and wrestle in the mud with Pizzolatto. Instead, López released a statement that was more gracious and compassionate than he deserved.

In an interview with Vulture, López said, “I believe that every storyteller has a very specific, peculiar, and unique relation to the stories they create, and whatever his reactions are, he’s entitled to them.”

Translation: Not my clowns, not my circus.

(Wanna bet López choosing to take the high ground made Mr. Pizzolatto feel like she was rubbing salt into his wound with a Brillo pad?)

Still, it begs the question: why did Nic Pizzolatto decide to piss in his own bowl of cornflakes?

Here’s a theory: Sometimes the creative architects who build franchises get lost.

Maybe Pizzolatto is freaking out that True Detective became a puzzle he forgot how to solve so he does the guy thing and blames the women who he thinks don’t deserve to keep what he used to have even though he can’t tell you why.

It’s not Ms. López’s fault, Nic. You’re on the same side. Stop acting like a drunk Fred Flintstone writing your critique on the wall in the cave.

Sometimes the Muse stops speaking to you. Poetry becomes gibberish and the lovely melodies you used to sing together abruptly degenerated into loud and intolerable static.

The last thing an Artist ever wants to hear from their Muse is I’m not into you anymore, goodbye. Sadly, it’s an occupational hazard that inflicts creative people, and it happens without warning.

Why? Who the hell knows? Creativity is fragile magic to begin with. But yeah, it happens. A lot.

Chris Carter of the X-Files forgot who Scully and Muldur were.

Star Wars needed to step out from the enormous shadow of George Lucas to find itself again.

It took a while for Star Trek: The New Generation to build an identity because a Gene Roddenberry-sized road block was in the way.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey movies were such a joyless, by-the-numbers corporate product that moviegoers would be justified in asking for a DNA sample just to confirm that Peter Jackson was somewhere in there.

James Cameron, one of the best action movie directors of his generation, is trapped in a time loop making endless sequels to Avatar.

These visionaries got served an eviction notice from the franchises they built from the ground up and nobody knows why.

Too much interference from the Boss who signs the paychecks? Burnout? A cunning pickpocket stole your Karmic Lottery Ticket? Ain’t got a clue. Sometimes it goes and all you can do is hope it comes back.

I hope Nic Pizzolatto works it out soon and gets back in the game. No more standing outside your ex’s house with a boom box over your head. Please. It wasn’t a good look when John Cusack did it.

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Judge McAfee in GA Case – No Need To Panic

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I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from the legal eagles soon, as to whether this is a big deal. While we wait.

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h/t Omnes on this last one.

Update with further details at 2 pn:

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Update at 4:27 pm

Judge nixes some of Georgia’s charges against Trump and his allies − but that won’t necessarily derail the case.

Is the judge saying there is not enough evidence to proceed with this case?

No. He’s saying that the state has not sufficiently explained how the evidence relates to an oath. For example, we know Rudy Giuliani went to the Georgia General Assembly with John Eastman and provided false information in order to encourage these state officials to overturn the election. The theory is that violated both the federal and state constitutions.

But a prosecutor could make that claim in a number of different ways. Did they violate the Georgia Constitution’s right to vote; did they violate the equal protection clause in the U.S. Constitution? Is it the right to vote that is spelled out in Georgia’s state Constitution? Or is there some other provision of federal or state law they violated? It’s just not clear.

Could this delay the trial against Trump and his allies in Georgia?

Maybe. We will have to see. Willis can bring a new, more detailed indictment that is more in line with the state oath. I think if Willis brings another indictment on these charges, there probably won’t be a delay.

If she appeals this decision, rather than just seeking a new indictment, that might slow things down a little.

Open thread.

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