Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

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

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

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

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

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

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

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

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

So many bastards, so little time.

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Proud to Be A Democrat

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Happy Solstice!

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Summer solstice, for most Balloon-Juice readers. Today’s Google doodle will strike a chord for all of us who’ve ever resented the extrovert’s Such a lovely day — put down that book and come outside to enjoy it! (Those of you in the Southern Hemisphere get a different version of your own.)

Thoughts & prayers (seriously) to those of you in the Southwest bearing the triple-digit brunt of that “scientific hoax” known as climate change!

Apart from that, what’s on the agenda for the day?

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Couple quick notes on last night’s GA-6 race. Josh Marshall, at TPM:

… This is a big disappointment. But remember, by any objective measure these races show a Democratic party resurgent and a GOP on the ropes. These seats came open because they were vacated by people Trump picked for cabinet appointments. They got those picks because they came from safe seats. They are by no means a cross section of House seats. The thing to do is learn what we can from coming up just short and move on to the next fight. No one should expect any of this to be easy. If you do, bow out of civic questions and just watch movies and TV. We need people with more endurance.

Ed Kilgore, in NYMag:

…Democrats searching for a silver lining in the Georgia race don’t have to look too far. This is the third consecutive special election (the fourth if you count South Carolina) in a historically Republican district where the Democratic percentage of the vote jumped sharply. Democrats will surely retake the House if the swing in their direction is similarly strong in 2018. In retrospect, ironically, tonight’s results may inspire new respect for Hillary Clinton’s performance–when she came within a point of Donald Trump in this district last November — and provide some new data points for doing well in GOP-leaning districts that resemble GA-06 with its highly educated population.

As a long-time Georgian, I would add that in my experience Georgia Democrats don’t much show up to vote in special elections, or runoffs, much less special election runoffs. That so many did in this election was a minor miracle…

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Open Thread: Everybody BREATHE, Godsdammit!

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So, yay Newt Gingrich’s former constituents, Karen Handel gets to sit in Congress… for the next 500 days. We get to piss & moan tonight, and then we start working to ensure she’s another one-abbreviated-term wonder, like Scott ‘Cosmo Boy’ Brown. And while a certain amount of bitterness is understandable, let’s keep the knife fights for when we’re facing down the Repubs, ‘kay?

Open Thread: Everybody BREATHE, Godsdammit!Post + Comments (47)

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: No Pressure, Though, Mr. Ossoff…

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… Here’s the thing, though: Sometimes dumb things matter if everyone agrees that they matter. Congressional Republicans could use a signal of any kind right now to coordinate their strategy around two vexing issues: first, their health care bill, and second, their behavior toward President Trump and the investigations surrounding him. Whatever direction Republicans take on these questions, they will find some degree of strength in numbers. Republicans would probably be less afraid of publicly rebuking Trump, for instance — and becoming the subject of a @realDonaldTrump tweetstorm or Trump-backed primary challenge — if other GOPers were doing the same.

The Georgia 6 outcome might trigger some herd behavior among Republicans, therefore, changing the political environment in the weeks and months ahead. A loss for Handel would probably be interpreted by the GOP as a sign that the status quo wasn’t working. If even a few members of Congress began taking the exit ramp on Trump and the American Health Care Act, a number of others might follow. A win, conversely, would have a morale-boosting effect; Republicans would probably tell themselves that they could preserve their congressional majorities by turning out their base, even if some swing voters had abandoned them…

In either case, the narrative that emerges from the Georgia 6 runoff will lack nuance and will oversimplify complex evidence. While special elections overall are a reasonably useful indicator in forecasting upcoming midterms, their power comes in numbers. A half-dozen special elections taken together are a useful sign; any one of them is less so. But we’re at a moment when Republicans have a lot of decisions to make now, and the story they tell themselves about the political environment matters as much as the reality of it. The narrative will probably be dumb, but it might matter all the same.

Gonna be a long night for the results-watchers, regardless.

Apart from that, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: No <em>Pressure</em>, Though, Mr. Ossoff…Post + Comments (119)

About God Damned Time

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This:

Democrats will grind Senate business to a halt in a protest against Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare.

Beginning Monday night, Democrats will start objecting to all unanimous consent requests in the Senate, according to a Democratic aide. They plan to control the floor of the chamber Monday night and try to force the House-passed health care bill to committee in a bid to further delay it.

Without the votes to block Obamacare repeal, Democrats are turning to procedural moves they believe will underscore their most powerful argument: Republicans are hiding their repeal plan from the public and using Senate procedures to keep it a secret.

Jam this bitch up until they show the bill. Fuck collegiality. Use every damned trick McConnell has used the past decade or more.

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Open Thread: Rising Democratic Star

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I don’t want to make this post any longer, but y’all should definitely go read the Jezebel and Chait links, because they are mood-enhancing.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Suggestive?

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What’s on the agenda as we gear up for another day?

Results are in from the Virginia special primaries…

Per the Washington Post,

…Republican Ed Gillespie held off a surprising challenge from Donald Trump acolyte Corey A. Stewart for that party’s nomination.

… Stewart refus[ed] to concede and [said] he wouldn’t support Gillespie, a man he derided throughout the campaign as “Establishment Ed.”…

Stewart’s strength on the Republican ballot was the biggest surprise of the evening. He had been running as more Trump than Trump, making provocative statements and campaigning on the issue of preserving Confederate monuments. Polls had shown him with a fraction of Gillespie’s support, but a low turnout among Republican voters gave Stewart’s committed base an outsize influence, and Wagner drew significant votes in Hampton Roads that might otherwise have gone to Gillespie.

Overall, Democrats turned out in far greater numbers than Republicans. About 540,000 voters cast ballots in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, while just over 360,000 voters cast ballots on the Republican side, with nearly all precincts reporting…

Gillespie’s narrow win, coming from a small and apparently unenthusiastic electorate, suggests that he faces a major challenge as he tries to both woo Stewart voters and attract moderates and independents while he fights a highly motivated Democratic opposition…

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Late Night Open Thread: “Empowering” Versus “Accomplishing”

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More low-traffic-hours afterthoughts (that I heartily endorse) from last weekends’ BernieCon:

Late Night Open Thread: “Empowering” Versus “Accomplishing”Post + Comments (109)