Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Books are my comfort food!

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

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

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

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

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

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

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

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

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WTF

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Riddle me this? Why the fuck did a mentally unstable 21 year old air national guardsman have access to the fucking crown jewels? Why were phones allowed in an area where this material exists? What kind of opsec did these fuckers practice.

I mean fuck this kid- he will get what he deserves. But the entire god damned chain of command needs to have their asses handed to them for this.

We had more security on a pair of night vision goggles when I was on active duty than they did national security secrets.

WTFPost + Comments (109)

How Is This Even Possible in 2021?

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So apparently if you get drunk in Minnesota, and someone rapes you, they can’t be charged with rape. How can this possibly be the law in the year 2021?  And MN is apparently not the only state where this is the law.

I was enraged when I read about this last night, and I am still enraged this morning.  How can a person possibly give consent if they are drunk?

A Minnesota man can’t be charged with rape, because the woman chose to drink beforehand, court rules.

After a 20-year-old woman took five shots of vodka and a prescription pill, she said she was standing outside a Minneapolis bar in May 2017 when a man invited her and a friend to a party. She agreed but soon found out there was no gathering, she later testified.

She “blacked out” instead, waking up on a couch and found that the man she had just met was allegedly sexually assaulting her, according to court records.

Almost four years later, the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously ruled this week that Francios Momolu Khalil, 24, cannot be found guilty of rape because the woman got drunk voluntarily beforehand. The decision Wednesday overturned Khalil’s prior conviction of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, which had been upheld by an appeals court, and granted him the right to a new trial.

Un-fucking believable.

Under the existing statute, Khalil’s case could be charged as fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a gross misdemeanor, according to the court ruling.

Well, I agree with them on one thing.  That is really fucking gross.

Open thread.

How Is This Even Possible in 2021?Post + Comments (156)

You hate to see it…

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In several ways, this clip of former NSC official Fiona Hill being questioned by House GOP Counsel Stephen Castor is the perfect microcosm of our national political moment:

Castor opens by trying to get Hill to deny that she was upset with Bolton and “the way things were going.” Hill gives a forthright account of her anger at Sondland, owns up to being “a bit rude” to him and talks about how commonly women’s anger is misunderstood in professional situations.

Hill then throws the flaming bag of shit right back at Castor, noting that Sondland’s testimony convinced her she was angry at Sondland for the wrong reason. Sondland was following Trump’s orders on a “domestic political errand,” which put his actions at odds with those of Hill and the rest of the State Department’s Ukraine team, who were executing “national security foreign policy” at the moment its objectives diverged from Trump’s political goals.

It was a remarkable moment, but it won’t matter. As I’ve complained in this space before, having a leering misogynist like Trump in the White House is a daily insult to women, a constant reminder of our second-class citizenship that is made even more painful by the complicity of so many (mostly white) women who elevated that buffoon to the office. But it’s not just Trump.

It’s the brisk, no-nonsense, intelligent competence of Fiona Hill vs. the smirking and mugging of large check-writer Gordon Sondland. It’s the bravery of Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony contrasted with the angry public tantrum thrown by Brett Kavanaugh. It’s Nancy Pelosi’s resolve to follow the Constitution juxtaposed with Mitch McConnell’s bottomless cynicism.

And the worthy, competent, intelligent women might win the battle, but they lose the war because that’s the way the game is rigged. I’m pretty goddamned sick of it. That is all.

Open thread.

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“Foreigner” Policy Open Thread: The Trump/Miller ‘Eff You, John McCain’ Order

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Frankly, I’m taking this as one more data point that Trump doesn’t expect to be around after 2020… or, at least, his loyal minions don’t expect him to be:

… Previously, children born to U.S. citizen parents were considered to be “residing in the United States,” and therefore would be automatically given citizenship under Immigration and Nationality Act 320. Now, children born to U.S. service members and government employees, such as those born in U.S. military hospitals or diplomatic facilities, will not be considered as residing in the U.S., changing the way that they potentially receive citizenship.

The change in policy was first reported by San Francisco Chronicle reporter Tal Kopan.

According to USCIS, previous legislation also explicitly said that spouses of service members who were living outside the U.S. because of their spouses were considered residing in the U.S., but “that no similar provision was included for children of U.S. armed forces members in the acquisition of citizenship context is significant.”

That is one of the reasons why USCIS has now decided that those children are not considered to be residing in the U.S., and therefore will not be automatically given citizenship. Instead, they will fall under INA 322, which considers them to be residing outside the U.S. and requires them to apply for naturalization…

I hope this is quashed with a quickness, because it’s not only cruel and stupid, it’s gonna be a disincentive for recruitment, yes?

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Respite Open Thread: Well, This Probably Won’t End Well

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So…this happened:

Tardigrades on the Moon – great band name.

So…let’s recap. A craft carrying Tardigrades AND human DNA crashes on the moon. Nothing to see here, I’m sure they all perished on impact…right? RIGHT?

Sounds like the logline for a great Scifi movie…or the future invasion of earth.

Respite open thread

 

 

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I Have Many, Many Questions: Cosmetic Surgery Gone Awry Edition

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I realize that mine was done as part of a religious ritual when I was 8 days old, but I would think that if you’re chatting with the nurses and technicians while getting botox and you notice that they’re not giving you any injections in your face, but they are manipulating other tender portions of your anatomy, you might ask what exactly is going on!!!

A pensioner circumcised by mistake after going to a hospital for a procedure involving botox has been handed £20,000 compensation by the NHS.

Terry Brazier was given the procedure after medics at Leicester Royal Infirmary mixed up his notes.

Mr Brazier claims he was so distracted chatting to nurses he didn’t realise he was getting a different procedure until it was too late.

Speaking to the Daily Star he said: “I went in the surgery for some Botox and they ended up circumcising me.

“They didn’t know what to say when they found out they’d done it, they said they can’t send me back to the ward and they needed to talk to me.

“The nurse was at the side of me and we were talking so I didn’t know what was going on.

“It was a real surprise.”

Andrew Furlong, Medical Director at University Hospitals of Leicester, said: “We remain deeply and genuinely sorry that this mistake occurred, and I would like to take this opportunity to once again apologise to Mr Brazier.

“We take events like this very seriously and carried out a thorough investigation at the time to ensure that we learnt from this incident and do all we can to avoid it happening again.

“Whilst money can never undo what happened, we hope this payment provides some compensation.”

“When they found out they’d done it?”

What is that even supposed to mean? He got circumcised because the medical professionals working on him were undertaking sleep surgery? Because they went on break for a cuppa and a mohel just happened to walk by, had his bris kit with him, and decided to undertake an unscheduled bris?

I guess this could have been much, much worse given the area they actually wound up operating on, but really?

Remember to mark your body parts pre-op or risk an unhappy ending!

Open thread!*

* This is, indeed, an open thread. However, we would like you to not attack each other over the correct or incorrect application of insults to politicians, reporters, and/or other commenters. Also, please no correcting the grammar, syntax, and/or spelling in this post or any of the comments. Complaining about the weather is also off limit. In fact, just to be safe, we’d like you to just talk about puppies and kittens. Thanks, the Management

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