Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

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

75% of people clapping liked the show!

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

So many bastards, so little time.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

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TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Thank Goddess for Democrats

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Bidenomics!

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Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Jim Jordan, A Bounteous Gift to America’s Snarksters

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Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Jim Jordan, Bounteous Gift to America's Snarksters

(John Deering via GoComics.com)

Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Jim Jordan, Bounteous Gift to America's Snarksters 1
 
Alexandra Petri, at the Washington Post — “This is why I hate elections, by Jim Jordan” [gift link]:

You see! Now you get it! Now you understand why I am so opposed to elections. Now you see why I was working so earnestly to undo the 2020 electoral results. Because voting is my nemesis.

Look what I have to show for my efforts to become speaker of the House of Representatives! Two rounds of voting, and I managed to get fewer votes the second time than the first! I don’t understand. My plan was flawless! Go on Fox News and yell!

I thought I had a clear pitch! “I have never passed any legislation, I want to burn everything down, and I am friends with Sean Hannity. Put me in charge, or someone will send you a series of weird texts!” Yet this has not been working! I also tried tweeting that it was time to put aside our differences and come together, but apparently nobody could read that sentiment from me without bursting into hysterical laughter.

So you understand now what I was doing. Why I have made it my business to undermine our democratic institutions! You thought I was trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election for my health? Just because I love chaos and want to throttle any thriving institution until it perishes? No! I was doing it because voting does not work out for me.

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Late Night Spooks Open Thread: Hall of Crazed Mirrors

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Late Night Spooks Open Thread: Hall of Crazed Mirrors

I hadn’t thought about Chuck ‘Rage Furby’ Johnson since around the time Trump staged that famous escalator ride, and I wouldn’t trust him if he walked in soaking wet and said it was raining. But if more informed individuals are willing to accept those accusations, however provisionally, there’s certainly no reason to doubt that Peter ‘Palantir’ Thiel would be willing to take Big Gubmint Surveillance’s shilling.

So, since I’ve been a Democrat for the last sixty years, the question for me is: Why does the FBI want their sponsorship to be known now?

… In the summer of 2021, Insider has learned, Thiel began providing information as a “confidential human source,” or CHS, to Johnathan Buma, a Los Angeles-based FBI agent who specializes in investigating political corruption and foreign-influence campaigns.

Charles Johnson, a longtime associate of Thiel’s and a notorious figure in the far-right movement that Thiel has subsidized for a decade, told Insider in a statement that he helped recruit the billionaire as an informant by introducing him to Buma.

A source with knowledge of Thiel’s relationship to the FBI, whose identity is known to Insider but who insisted on anonymity, corroborated Johnson’s account, telling Insider that Johnson brokered a relationship between Thiel and Buma. Insider was able to confirm through an additional source that the FBI added Thiel to its formal roster of registered informants…

The FBI maintains a vast network of informants to keep tabs on organized crime, terrorist threats, extremist groups, and other criminal and intelligence targets. These sources, according to the bureau’s Confidential Human Source Policy Guide, are more than casual tipsters.

Confidential human sources enter “into a relationship with the FBI, and that relationship will forever affect the life of that individual,” the guide says. “[They] will be either an ‘FBI source’ or a ‘former FBI source’ and, in turn, his or her conduct or misconduct will reflect upon the FBI.” As such, the process for recruiting and maintaining such sources is highly regulated, requiring multiple layers of approval. Only people who are able to provide “valuable information … on a recurring basis” are granted CHS status, according to the policy…

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News Roundup: Just Another Slow News Day

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Another slow day.  Not just an excuse to put up my favorite photo of Jack Smith, I promise!

DC Indictment News

⭐️

The new interim Senator for California is NOT running for the US Senate. I think that’s a great decision.

⭐️

Chris Kise, Trump’s atty, was forced to apologize to 2 female attorneys after dismissive remarks during an off-the-record sidebar in AG’s fraud trial. Kise told the law clerk he didn’t want to talk to her & questioned an AG atty’s intelligence.

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War for Ukraine Day 603: The Plan Is Subversion Through Chaos

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Art by NEIVANMADE of a Ukrainian painted black and outlined in blood red kneeling in grief with hands covering the face surrounded by the bodies of Ukrainians killed by Russians on a grey background. "Russia Is Committing Genocide Right Now" is across the top center of the image.

(Image by Neivanmade)

Before we fully dive into the update regarding Ukraine, I want to focus on the dysfunction in the US that is going to make things infinitely harder for the Ukrainians because I don’t think it has been properly described anywhere. The dysfunction, of course, is the House GOP caucus’s inability to elect a Speaker of the House since they removed Congressman McCarthy. In order for McCarthy to be elected Speaker in the first place he had to cut deals with everyone. The deals he cut with the Freedom Caucus to remain Speaker including using the debt limit to drive massive budget cuts. He blinked on that and cut a deal with President Biden to raise it. That deal included top lines for the twelve appropriations bills that needed to be passed by the end of September. As you may recall the Freedom Caucus was beside itself, which is at least one, if not two, to many Freedom Caucuses. In the run up to the end of the Federal fiscal year, McCarthy attempted to keep the speakership by cutting a new deal with the Freedom Caucus: to impose those massive budget cuts that he didn’t get during the debt limit negotiations and that he’d foresworn as part of the debt limit raise agreement. The Freedom Caucus desperately wants to shut down the Federal government, as well as to blow up the economy via crashing through the debt limit. So much that the want to use the latter to achieve the former. McCarthy’s agreement with President Biden took that off the table in the late Spring. When he then blinked and agreed to a clean continuing resolution (CR) minus the additional Ukraine funding to keep the Federal government open for 45 days, the Freedom Caucus, via Congressman Gaetz, pulled the pin and removed him.

Since then the House GOP Caucus first voted internally that Congressman Scalise would become Speaker. These caucus votes are not to gauge who has what support. Rather, they are intended to choose who the majority caucus will nominate and then once nominated, the majority caucus all votes for their internal nominee. Except the Freedom Caucus just decided that those rules, like so many others, do not apply to them. So the House GOP Caucus met again and nominated Congressman Jordan. This rewarded the Freedom Caucus, teaching them that their behavior works. Unfortunately for them enough non-Freedom Caucus members learned the same lesson and despite the fact that the internal nomination is supposed to be binding, enough refused to vote for Congressman Jordan that he too failed to be elected Speaker.

While all of this is going on the legislative branch of the US government is functionally shut down. The Senate can handle nominations and do committee work, but the House is functionally closed for business. It shouldn’t be, but it is. Why shouldn’t it be? Because we have a Speaker Pro Tem: Patrick McHenry. The Speaker Pro Tim position was created as a continuity of government position and solution for the House in the aftermath of 9-11. Should the Speaker become incapacitated or die – whether from natural causes, an accident, or a deliberate attack – there is a designated member of the House majority who can immediately take over and insure that the government, in this case the legislative branch, continues to operate and function. That’s the whole point of continuity of government positions and solution. Not to create a caretaker who can only oversee the election of the new person who will continue the government function, but to ensure the government function is ongoing until the replacement is in place.

Remember three paragraphs ago when I wrote that the House Freedom Caucus desperately want a government shutdown? They want it to force the President, as well as the Senate to agree to massive budgetary cuts that dismantle most of the Federal governments programs and functions. As is the case with the debt ceiling limit, they want a shutdown to use as a legislative hostage to get what they cannot achieve through regular order. The House GOP Caucus’s decision that the Speaker Pro Tem position, which was created solely to ensure that the House could continue to function and do its business until a new Speaker could be elected, is merely a caretaker who cannot ensure the continuation of the government function gives them what they want. Right now, other than the Senate handling nominations, the US Congress is closed because the House of Representatives is closed for any and all business other than electing a Speaker. And that includes either passing all twelve appropriations bills separately, an omnibus appropriation bill that covers all of them in one package, or a short, medium, or long term (year on year through the end of the Federal fiscal year) continuing resolution. As long as the House GOP Caucus cannot and/or will not elect a Speaker, the legislative branch is shut down and, soon, the Federal government will follow. This may look like Republicans in disarray. It is not! What this is the House GOP Caucus, being led by the House Freedom Caucus, which is controlled by Congressman Jordan, breaking the House of Representatives to get what they want: a Federal government shutdown that can be leveraged to achieve the massive budgetary and program cuts they otherwise do not have the ways and means to achieve. The tell is not a single member of the House GOP Caucus has asked for the House Parliamentarian to issue a ruling clarifying the role of the Speaker Pro Tem. They won’t do that because they can’t take the risk that the ruling won’t state clearly that the whole point of having a Speaker Pro Tem to ensure the House can continue to function until a new Speaker is elected, which would mean that the House would and could have to get back to actual business. It is also why there will never actually be an “empowered” Speaker Pro Tem McHenry, even with Congressman Jordan actually in charge with this new bullshit title of Speaker-Designate.

The effect on Ukraine from all of this is that it ensures that there will not be an Ukraine supplemental. At this point, despite their dispensational pre-millennialist doctrinal support for Israel, the House GOP Caucus would rather shut down the government because they think that will allow them to gut the Federal budget than actual fund Israel, despite their need for Israel to fulfill its role in their apocalyptic theology.

No Speaker, no functioning House of Representatives. No functioning House of Representatives, no Federal appropriations bills – the individual twelve, an omnibus, or any form of CR – and therefore no government funding past the middle of November. No government funding past the middle of November, no Federal government after the middle of November. And that is exactly what the House Freedom Caucus, as well as its enablers among the rest of the House GOP want. Ukraine, as well as Israel, Palestinian refugees trying to flee Gaza, Taiwan, etc will all be just additional and incidental casualties of Congressman Jordan’s and his Freedom Caucus colleagues’ monomaniacal desire to gut the Federal budget based on their insane understanding of the role of Congress and the Federal government. Point and laugh all you want. The House GOP Caucus is not in disarray. It is doing exactly what the House Freedom Caucus wants: setting the conditions for a US government shutdown in mid-November.

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

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President Biden Addresses the Nation 8 pm (LIVE)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMRs97QZY48

Come on, Joe.

Open thread.

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Thursday Evening Open Thread: Repub-on-Repub (Emotional) Violence

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Apparently, a cunning plan was hammered out to let McHenry keep the gavel (and his personal tiny chair) until the next Congress convenes in January — with the understanding that Jim Jordan would be the ‘speaker designee’ once that happened. For some reason, this attempt to placate Jordan by giving him everything he wants did not appeal to the Republicans who have made it very clear that they don’t want Jim Jordan as Speaker!

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