Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Bark louder, little dog.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Be a wild strawberry.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

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

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

No one could have predicted…

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

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

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Recapping (Some of) This Week’s Chaos

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Pete Buttigieg is a great communicator… and it’s a shame he so often has to waste his talents rebutting GOP bigots:


 
Meanwhile…

Dana Milbank, at the Washington Post, says “The People’s House is back in business — and crazier than ever” [unpaywalled gift link]:

So you thought the election of a new speaker might calm the chaos and fratricide among House Republicans?

Oh, my sweet summer child…

In the nine days since Republicans pulled Mike Johnson from the back benches, the new speaker has presided over a second failed attempt to expel indicted Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), the introduction of not one but two resolutions to censure Tlaib, and a resolution to censure Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) for pulling a fire alarm during a vote. Johnson managed to turn an area of near-unanimous support into a partisan brouhaha by making funds to help Israel defend itself against Hamas contingent on a provision making it easier for the wealthy to cheat on their taxes. With just two weeks to go until the federal government runs out of funding, Johnson is floating a cockamamie “laddered” approach that would replace the looming shutdown threat with 12 new shutdown threats.

If this is the new speaker’s idea of a functioning House, maybe having the House speakerless and inoperative for 22 days wasn’t so bad after all…

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War For Ukraine Day 618: Russia Once Again Opens Up on Civilian Targets in Ukraine

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Graphic by NEIVANMADE of a Russian bomb with a "Z" symbol on it crashing through the roof of the Ukrainian Postal Service delivery hub. "Everyone Is a Target" and "Stop Russia" are written in the space between the destroyed roof and the fins of the bomb.

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

russia continues its missile terror, especially intensifying it before winter. The main target for the occupiers is civilian infrastructure.

Overnight, nearly 40 “Shahed” UAVs were launched, and our warriors managed to shoot down 24 of them.

We are grateful to 🇺🇦 defenders of the sky.
Strengthening air defense is our priority.

Russia launched 40 Shahed drones across Ukraine tonight, 24 were intercepted. Ten drones hit Kharkiv, making this the largest drone attack on Ukraine in a month.

This highlights the urgent need for increased air defense supplies. Russia is testing new routes and their effectiveness in preparation for larger assaults.

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

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Friday Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: SBF Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!

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Friday Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: SBF Guilty, Guilty, <em>Guilty!</em>

Molly White, at her substack The FTX Files, “Sam Bankman-Fried: guilty on all charges”:

It took almost as long for the judge to read the charges to the jury as it did for the jury to find Sam Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven counts. The verdict was delivered a year to the day from when CoinDesk published the leaked balance sheet that would ultimately lead to the collapse of FTX, exposing the crimes that had been happening just under the surface…

The five charges pertaining to wire fraud and money laundering each carry maximum sentences of twenty years. The securities fraud and commodities fraud charges have maximum sentences of five years. Federal sentencing guidelines also include enhancements pertaining to things like the total amount of monetary losses involved in the crimes, the number of victims, and whether the judge believes the defendant lied on the stand.

The actual sentence, however, remains up to Judge Kaplan.

Friday Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: SBF Guilty, Guilty, <em>Guilty!</em> 2

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How About a Friday Night Music Thread?

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How about a Friday night music thread?

brendancalling made us a Metal playlist to start us off!

It’s the long-promised, long-awaited, perhaps long-dreaded metal playlist!

I’ve been a metal fan pretty much all my life, beginning with when I learned about AC/DC (more hard rock than metal, and not included in this playlist) and, soon thereafter, Ozzy Osbourne. It’s a wide-ranging genre of music, often not taken seriously, perhaps due to the occult fascination of some bands, or the frequent lack of political lyrics. Not to say there aren’t explicitly political metal bands or that apolitical bands don’t occasionally do songs about social issues—those exist and are included herein. But at its heart, metal (to me anyway) has always been a louder version of rock-n-roll. Many of the lyrics are overwhelmingly inspirational—metal is a HUGE part of my running playlist—and the rhythms are driving, to say the least.

It’s that “inspirational” part that I want to emphasize here. Back in the day, metal heads were kind of outcasts. Stoners. Kind of threatening in some ways, because they weren’t always perceived as particularly smart. And for real, I drifted away from metal early, because I liked punk rock. Yeah, we were also pariahs in high school, but our songs had meaning. We were singing about politics (the Dead Kennedys, MDC), life on the streets, not taking drugs.

But the thing is, the messages were often the same. “Believe in yourself!” “No one can stop you!” “Keep rocking!” And when metal and punk (and, later, hip hop) crossed over—wow. That was a different beast altogether. HOLY MOLY.

Caveat emptor: there’s a lot of metal I don’t like, and won’t include here. You won’t hear a lot of 1990s metal on this playlist. Like the rest of the music world, metal responded to the introduction of “grunge”, and began taking on the same dour themes and sludgy tempos. You won’t hear a lot of extreme metal on this list either, although there are some great bands out there like Vektor or Iron Reagan. It’s not because I don’t like them—I very much do and they are incredible musicians—but it’s definitely an acquired taste. Start with the California rolls before you go eating the fugu—that’s my way of thinking.

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Balloon Juice Virginia Fundraising & Candidate Update (Open Thread)

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The election is on Tuesday.  I think we made a difference!

The October fundraising numbers have been released in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates races.  So of course we’re using them to read the tea leaves for our candidates and evaluate our contribution.

To recap, we supported two young promising African American candidates in the Hampton Roads metro area.  Our candidates – Michael Feggans and Kimberly Pope Adams – are challenging two first-term white Republican incumbents, Karen Greenhalgh and Kim Taylor.  We focused on Hampton Roads because it’s Virginia’s swingiest major metro (in the political sense), and not as awash in cash as races in the wealthier Northern Virginia DC suburbs.

Under Virginia law, campaign finance reports for (most of) October were submitted on October 26th, the last report before the election.  There are a number of things we’re looking for:

  • Are our candidates spending the money they’ve raised?
  • How are they spending it?
  • Are they sitting on a surplus, rather than using it for last minute GOTV efforts and media outreach?
  • How does their fundraising compare to their opponents?

The results are encouraging.  We obviously can’t know if our candidates will win on Tuesday, but I think we made a difference!

If you’re interested in details, read on!  If not, jump to the comments, it’s an open thread!

🌸

The Battle of the Two Kims – District 82

Republican Kim Taylor started October with a substantial bank balance of $562,086.  She raised $900,000 in October, including in-kind contributions.  She spent down her surplus, leaving her with an ending balance of only $51,039 as of October 26, 2023.

As a reminder, Kim Taylor is horrible on reproductive rights, and has ties to so-called “crisis pregnancy centers.”  I believe she even ran one of those clinics.  Ugh.

Most of her money came from Republican institutional sources and other dark money, including at least $265,000 from Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC.  She spent much of her funding with Medium Buying LLC, whose client list is a who’s who of odious MAGAts (Lauren Boebert, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Jim Jordan, etc).

Democrat Kimberly Pope Adams started the month with a balance of $355,000.  She slightly outraised Crisis Pregnancy Center Kim by bringing in just over $1,000,000 in October, all of which she spent.  Her ending balance was $210, 532.  “Good Kim” got an influx of money from the Virginia House Democratic Caucus and the Clean Virginia Fund, a pro-renewable energy PAC.  Many of her outlays were to Sage Media, which describes itself as providing “winning media buying strategies for progressive candidates and causes.”

Seems like money well spent.

What’s the take-away from these numbers?  The fundraising totals show that the candidates are running neck-and-neck. The optimistic spin on the tiny balance in Republican Kim’s bank is that she blew through all her money on a “Hail Mary” pass, leaving her with a paltry cash bank for last minute GOTV efforts.  Unless Dark Money rescues her at the last minute.

Democratic Kim was criticized earlier this year for lackluster fundraising, but she has obviously corrected course.  The delightfully named Virginia election forecaster Chaz Nuttycombe continues to rate this as a “toss up.”

What about Balloon Juice’s contribution?  Kim Adams received just over $50,000 in cash contributions of $100 or less in October.  Conservatively estimated (and angel contributions would not be included in the small donor figures), BJ raised at least 20% of that total.

Let’s talk about grass roots support for Forced Birth Kim.  She raised $896 (!!) in cash contributions of $100 or less, from a whopping 16 people!  

🌸

Michael Feggans (D) v. Karen Greenhalgh (R) – District 97

We’ll spend a little less time deep-diving into the numbers of this race for a couple of reasons.  First, Nuttycombe has moved this race from toss up to “tilts Dem” based in part – we presume – on early voting turn out.  Second, the fundraising trends described below seem favorable for flipping this seat.

Greenhalgh is another “crisis pregnancy center” aficionado.  (God, I hate those people!)

Karen Greenhalgh started October with a healthy balance of $865,000 as a result of an influx of dark money in late September.  Michael Feggans had just over 1/3 of that amount, weighing in at $300,000.

But Feggans brought in an impressive $1,450,000 in cash and in-kind contributions in October vs. Greenhalgh’s $945,000.  And much of Greenhalgh’s dark money (including Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia) came in early in the month, before trickling off as the month progressed.  She made a small-ish last-minute media buy in late October, but was still sitting on $500,000 at the end of reporting period.  This could be interpreted as a loss of confidence by donors and the candidate (who wants to hoard her cash for other purposes)?  These numbers may be part of the reason why Nuttycombe upgraded this race for the Democrats.

Like Kim Pope Adams, Michael Feggans received significant donations from the Democratic Caucus and Clean Virginia.  He also got in-kind assistance from Workers Vote.  This organization is affiliated in some manner with Worker Power, which BJ supported last year in Arizona and Georgia.  He also made some major media buys with Sage Media, spending almost all of the money he brought in in October.  He retained a reasonable cushion for last minute GOTV efforts.  All of this looks good!

The October money really tipped the balance for Feggans.  The small donor numbers for these candidates are nearly the same as the Kims.  Feggans also brought in $50,000 in cash contributions of $100,000 or less, meaning BJ accounted for roughly 20% of that (all our donations were split equally).  Karen Greenhalgh has a few more friends in her book club than her Republican counterpart Kim Taylor:  She raised $1,389 in small donations from 29 people.

The election is on Tuesday.  I do think we made a difference!

So… this is a fairly deep-dive into fundraising and the numbers, but we wanted you to know where your money went and how it was spent (to the extent we can determine it from campaign reports).

Let us know in the comments if you found this interesting.  It may be that you guys are not as wonky about this stuff, so it may not be of much interest?

TOTALLY OPEN THREAD.

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Banana Republican Beatdown

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The pestilent swarm of locusts plaguing Iowa and New Hampshire is migrating to Florida. The GOP’s 2024 presidential candidates and loads of local hangers-on will descend on the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee tomorrow for the Florida Freedom Summit.

All-access VIP tickets are still available for just $15K a pop! And on Wednesday, the 3rd GOP candidates debate will take place in Miami, with Trump holding a counterprogramming rally in nearby Hialeah.

With any luck, the flailing Ron DeSantis campaign will experience further humiliation right here in his home state. The bully has been knocked on his ass for the entire playground to see, and former toadies are lining up to kick him in the slats.

Remember the Defector investigation of Ron’s “stupid, ugly boots” that I highlighted for y’all a while back? The boots question has subsequently exploded across the media landscape, drawing scrutiny from late night hosts and outlets like Forbes and Politico.

DeSantis was asked about it on a podcast the other day and gave an unconvincing denial. He plumbed new depths of cringe last night during a Newsmax interview when asked about Trump’s online #BOOTGATE taunts: (Daily Beast)

“I know Donald Trump and a lot of his people have been focusing on things like footwear,” DeSantis said. “I’ll tell you this: If Donald Trump can summon the balls to show up to the debate, I’ll wear a boot on my head.”

Insinuating that Trump lacks balls was a promising start for a candidate in a party that spars over dick size in national debates, but “I’ll wear a boot on my head”? Good gourd, how can anyone be so bad at this?

Meanwhile, Trump has more humiliations in store, according to an NBC News article that’s titled “Trump is aiming to take over Ron DeSantis’ base of power in the Florida GOP.”

The Republican Party of Florida that Ron DeSantis built is now turning Donald Trump’s way.

Pardon the interruption, but that framing is all kinds of wrong. It’s true that DeSantis harnessed the GOP supermajority in the statehouse to pass lots of lib-owning legislation that doesn’t withstand court scrutiny. He’s put lots of cronies in place to co-opt state institutions like the departments of health and education, etc. He’s turned the state into an authoritarian banana republic, and that sucks.

But DeSantis didn’t build the state’s Repub Party, which has monopolized power here since the turn of the century. One of the few true claims Donald Trump ever uttered was that he made DeSantis, who was a backbench nobody. And now Trump intends to unmake him:

Trump allies in the state are organizing an effort to flip Republican lawmakers from DeSantis endorsers to Trump. Two sources familiar with the effort said as many as six could come out for Trump as early as next week.

The move is scheduled to coincide with this Saturday’s Florida Freedom Summit, which will feature all of the major Republican presidential candidates and shine a national spotlight on the state.

The sources said that details are still being finalized but that they’re aiming for an announcement about Florida state-level elected Republicans’ moving away from DeSantis for next week. In addition to the summit, the third Republican presidential debate (hosted by NBC News) is being held in Miami next Wednesday.

“It’s coming,” the source familiar with the changes said. “Exact number not yet said, but it will be close to 10.”

Trump is keynoting the Florida Freedom Summit event, whereas DeSantis is relegated to an afternoon speaking slot like a common Doug Burgum. Trump is also throwing a post-debate “Republican leadership” shindig at his South Florida dump, where he will likely crow about how he got Repubs who head up the Green Swamp District book banning consortium, Okeechobee alligator mitigation office and Crabby Key mosquito control to un-endorse DeSantis in favor of Trump.

With any luck, the state-level fallout from the DeSantis implosion will inspire blood feuds and backstabbing for generations of Repubs to come. But honestly, I’m not sure DeSantis won’t simply sink without a ripple.

Open thread.

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Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: When Death Is Too Profitable To Regulate

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One Nation Under the Guns- STOCKPILE

(Matt Davies via GoComics.com)

 

This might be considered a hopeful sign… Robert Maguire, at CREW, “NRA revenue in freefall as member dues plummet”:

The National Rifle Association is bleeding money and members, according to a financial audit obtained by CREW. Last year, the organization saw its worst fundraising totals in more than a decade, fueled by member dues that have fallen to lows not seen since the early 2000s. The fall has been so swift that the gun organization’s income from its members has been halved in just six years, while its legal fees have remained stratospheric…

According to the audit, which was filed with the Secretary of State’s office in North Carolina, the NRA raised more than $213 million in 2022, with more than $83 million coming from dues-paying members. The totals mark a 52 percent drop in overall revenue and a nearly 59 percent drop in membership dues since 2016, adjusting for inflation. A CREW analysis of NRA dues going back to 2004 could not find a single year where dues ever went below $100 million, in inflation-adjusted terms…

All of this takes place against a backdrop of intense internal turmoil at the organization. Some of the highest-ranking officials have resigned or been suspended, and some faced legal action. Meanwhile, staff has dwindled and core programs have been slashed. Yet, ironically, as the organization flounders, a conservative super-majority on the Supreme Court is handing the NRA more victories, thanks to three justices installed by the president the NRA helped elect, back when it was flush with cash.

Pivot to video!

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