Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A consequence of cucumbers

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

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

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

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

An almost top 10,000 blog!

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

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

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Optimism opens the door to great things.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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Cain Still Unable: The Entire Shoe Warehouse Drops

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This afternoon not only did a fourth woman come forward to accuse Herman Cain of sexual harassment, not only did she hold a public press conference with her lawyer Gloria Allred, but the accusations themselves really were nothing short of sexual assault.

Sharon Bialek alleged at a news conference today that Herman Cain reached under her skirt in 1997 as she sought help in finding a job.

The Chicago-area mother, who is described as a Republican, urged the GOP presidential candidate to “come clean” and admit how he was “inappropriate” with her and other women.

Bialek’s story was immediately denied by the Cain campaign, which sent out a news release as the woman spoke publicly at a New York City news conference with her lawyer, noted defense attorney Gloria Allred, by her side. The stories of three other women have been reported by Politico and the Associated Press.

Oh, it gets worse.

Bialek described an incident in July 1997 where she and Cain were in a car and her offered to show her the trade group’s headquarters.

“Instead of going into the offices, he suddenly reached over and … put his hand on my leg, under my skirt toward my genitals,” Bialek said.

“He also pushed my head toward his crotch,” she said.

Bialek replied that she was married had a boyfriend when Cain allegedly did this, his response was “You want a job, right?”

And if the unremittingly awful context of “You want a job, right?” doesn’t sum up the entire Republican Party over the last several years, then I don’t know what else could.  Cain’s stated policies are disgusting as it is, but this pretty much seals the deal.  Big gorram line between sexual harassment (which is never okay) and sexual assault, and Herman Cain just sailed over it.

Oh, and if that’s not enough to make you try to dent your monitor in with your fist, El Rushbo’s response to the presser will do it.

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This Mess We’re In

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This asinine, silly, childish snit and clusterfuck over scheduling of Obama’s speech on jobs shows that John Boehner is a utter dick, or that the Obama administration is hopelessly naive and John Boehner is an utter dick. I guess I’m pretty sure about the dick part, the rest is kind of grey.

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Elizabeth Warren Is Shrill

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Get some, get some:

Elizabeth Warren is ready to name and shame. After 10 long months spent crafting a brand-new federal agency in her image and likeness, years before that willing the institution into statutory existence, only to be passed over on Sunday in favor of Richard Cordray just as the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving out of beta, Warren, on a press call late yesterday afternoon, was eager to share her clarity on who’s to blame for the especially precarious position the new federal-friend-to-the-American-consumer now finds itself in.

Those enemies of Warren, of the CFPB? Republicans, first and foremost, namely Senate Banking ranking member Richard Shelby (R-AL) and the forty three other Republican senators who signed a letter to Obama in May raising heck over the “unfettered authority” the CFPB had supposedly been granted by the Dodd-Frank Act, passed in the wake of the mortgage meltdown. That’s no surprise. But Warren’s also annoyed with the press for buying the GOP’s story that it’s simply a more efficient consumer advocate they’re eager for, when really what Republicans want is for the CFPB to die an early death. She also blames her own political naiveté. She’s been “too busy busting [her] tail” in starting an agency, she says, and didn’t pay all that much attention to those inside the Beltway sharpening their knives. Some heard those noises over at 1600 Pennsylvania. Perhaps she’s heard the chatter that Obama was more sold in public than in private on her eventual appointment as CFPB’s first-ever director. But Warren gives Obama and fellow Democrats a pass.

“Let me put it this way,” said Warren on yesterday’s call. “I’m saving all the rocks in my pockets for Republicans. And if that’s too partisan for you, then shame on me.”

It is beyond me why anyone would be against her running against Scott Brown (except for the lunatics, who would be upset she wouldn’t attack Democrats enough). You want more and better Democrats, she’s right there. And she’s tough. And if she wins, Harry Reid better make damned sure she is on every committee that Richard Shelby is on.

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A Global Game of Chicken

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The markets and the raters and world sources are being quite clear what would happen should we refuse to raise the debt limit and default:

Moody’s Investors Service warned late on Wednesday that the U.S. could lose its top credit rating in coming weeks if a standoff between the White House and congressional Republicans over raising the statutory borrowing limit is not resolved.

Earlier on Thursday China, the United States’ biggest foreign creditor, urged the U.S. government to adopt responsible policies to protect investor interests after the Moody’s warning.

Another ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s, also privately told U.S. lawmakers and business groups that it might still cut the U.S. government’s rating if the government fails to make any of its expected payments — on debt or other obligations — a congressional aide said on Thursday.

China, who owns a lot of our debt, is not being subtle:

The authorities in Beijing added their voice of concern Thursday, though in more muted terms.

“We hope that the U.S. government adopts responsible policies and measures to guarantee the interests of investors,” Hong Lei, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in response to questions about the Moody’s report.

The comments echoed those made by officials in Beijing in April, when Standard & Poor’s lowered its outlook on the United States from stable to negative because of the country’s high budget deficit and rising government indebtedness.

China holds more than $1 trillion in United States Treasury securities, making it highly sensitive to any developments that could lower the value of those holdings.

Yet still, the wingnut intelligentsia think they can defy reality through the power of ideology, and are doing so by attacking the ratings agencies:

The ratings agencies — all-knowing, all-seeing, omniscient — have weighed in on the U.S. federal debt “crisis,” talking about downgrading U.S. paper in anticipation of a Beltway failure to cut a deal to raise the debt ceiling, thus engendering a “default.”

Oh, please. Can anyone believe that the global capital market cannot distinguish between a Greek-type situation, in which the government literally cannot service its debts, and the U.S. condition, in which a political dispute might delay some interest payments for a few days? The question answers itself. More generally, has there ever — ever– been a case in which Moody’s or Standard & Poor made an announcement in light of information not already known by everyone? The ratings agencies, always closing the doors on empty barns, are virtually worthless, and would be unlikely to survive an elementary market test were it not for some legal requirements that their ratings constrain certain investment decisions.

Moreover, even the underlying premise is incorrect: In the event that the debt ceiling is not increased, federal revenues will be far more than merely sufficient to service the existing debt, roll over maturing debt, etc. Revenues will be sufficient to pay Granny, our servicemen, and other such untouchables. The ethanol producers and myriad other interests might have to extract their snouts from the federal trough for a few days; but so what?

Look, I can not stand the ratings agencies and think they got away with widespread fraud in the financial meltdown. I would love it if we reformed the process. But I realize that this is what I want to change, and not how things work now. This really is not hard to understand. People who run up debt and then either can not or will not pay it back are not credit worthy individuals. Every single person on the street understands this. If you have a bad credit rating, it is harder or impossible to get credit, and should you get credit, you will payer higher interest on your debt. That’s how it works. That is the system we have. So even if you hate the ratings agencies and think they are wrong about everything, if we default and fail to make debt payments or pay any of our obligations, our rating will be downgraded. They ratings agencies and the world won’t buy into the wingnut belief of American Exceptionalism in all things. They aren’t going to say “Oh, well, this is different.” How do I know that? Because if you read above, THEY ARE TELLING US AHEAD OF TIME WHAT WILL HAPPEN. We will then start a death spiral of higher interest rates and higher debt repayment rates and so on. And that is on top of the cataclysmic effects this will have on the markets and the overall global economy.

And no one will be safe. No one. Every single investment will be at risk- pensions, mutual funds, 401k, you name it. Again, this is just not hard to understand.

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Mental Wounds Still Screaming, Driving Me Insane

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Looks like the Iowa GOP is going for a ride on the crazy train:

Rep. Michele Bachmann has been gunning for the support of Iowa voters, the first in the nation to vote for their party’s presidential nominees, and it looks like her efforts may be paying off.

The conservative congresswoman finished first among the GOP presidential candidates in a poll released today by The Iowa Republican, a blog which bill itself as News for Republicans, by Republicans. Bachmann received support from 25 percent of likely Iowa caucus-goers. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney received 21 percent, putting Bachmann’s lead within the poll’s 4.4 percent margin of error.

It’s too god damned early for me to start drinking heavily, so I’m going to go back outside and carry mulch around until hopefully I die of sun stroke and will no longer need to suffer this shit. It’s either that or smash my computer and tv.

(via the GOS)

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Canned Tomatoes Are Looking Better & Better

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Hat tip to commentor dj spellchecka for the link to NPR’s interview transcript on “The Troubled History of the Supermarket Tomato“:

GUY RAZ: I’m speaking with Barry Estabrook. His new book is called “Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit.” Barry, a big part of this book is not just about the taste of tomatoes but about the process of getting them to market. And you describe this world, and I’m using your words, you describe a world where slave labor is employed.
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BARRY ESTABROOK: Let me run down a few little items here: people being bought and sold like animals, people being shackled in chains, people being beaten for either not working hard enough, fast enough or being too weak or sick to work, people actually being shot and killed for trying to escape. That sounds like 1850’s slavery to me. And that, in fact, is going on or has gone on. They were – in the last 15 years, there have been seven successful prosecutions, slavery prosecutions in the State of Florida. Even, you know, the ones that are not being held as slaves probably work at the very, very bottom of the American workforce… They’re paid basically per pound that they pick. If it rains, they don’t make a cent that day.[…] __
RAZ: A few years ago, some of these farm workers in Florida started to organize, actually. And there was a campaign backed by some labor unions and student groups and their conditions apparently improved. What happened?
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ESTABROOK: In the last seven or eight months, there’s just been a sea change in labor relations in the Florida tomato industry. What had happened was this small group of grassroots people called the Coalition of Immokalee Workers had been lobbying since the early ’90s to get a raise and to have some basic primitive workers’ rights put in place.
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What they started concentrating on was the end customers of these farmers. They started with – actually with the Taco Bell restaurant chain. And after four years, Taco Bell said, okay, we’ve had enough. I mean, four years of boycotts, demonstrations, they signed a board. And then gradually, all the other fast food chains in the country, one by one, often kicking and screaming, signed onto this agreement. The sad thing is that not a single supermarket chain in the country, with the exception of Whole Foods, has agreed.
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