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Oct 25, 2023
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Better than that, nearly half of election-denying Republicans believe "Violence will be needed to save America", the director of the organization that did the survey describes this as “The political temperature in America is rising."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/25/us-political-violence-justified-survey

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Oct 25, 2023
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Identity is a powerful thing, we've seen how a person's MAGA or QAnon identity overpowers anything else, including rational thought, self-interest, even the instinct for self-preservation.

But "I'm a policeman" or "I'm a soldier" are also identities.

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Chluthu would be so proud.

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They could do worse. Give the Great Old One the gavel!

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I am somehow moved by the thought of the Lurker at the Threshold of the Chamber.

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They should change the title from Speaker to Lurker At The Threshold. That way he's closer to the door when they give him the boot.

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I loved when they created the title of "Speaker Designate" for Jim Jordan somewhere between his third and fourth losing votes. What does it mean? As far as I can tell, "Guy who couldn't get enough votes to become actual Speaker."

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The only one there's ever been? Dunno, but we can all agree that

He's gonna put it on his resume´.

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Along with that "You're Special!" sticker they put on his notebook.

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"... they created the title of 'Speaker Designate' for Jim Jordan"

Fifth Alternate at the Miss Congressional drag pageant

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Mr Congeniality!

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Jim Speaker-Adjacent Jordan

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Speaker manqué

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It's a participation trophy. THOSE HYPOCRITES!

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Well, someone has to oversee the Crawling Chaos.

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Oct 25, 2023
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No fair! I'm takin' all my dice and goin' home!

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Proud, hell! He'd be all "Damn, boy! Git off my turf!"

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The Speaker in Yellow

“I wield no gavel.”

“No gavel? *No gavel!*”

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I urge them to delve into the Vaults of Yoh-Vombis beneath the Capitol.

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Apparently – but who can believe these jabronis about anything? – they ARE looking outside the House membership for a potential Speaker now, so the sky's the limit. Tucker Carlson? Roger Stone? Mike Lindell? Rudy Giuliani? When does Jacob Chansley, the Q-Anon shaman, get out of his halfway house? At least he knows his way around the Capitol Building. Go nuts with it, I say.

Of course, the funniest result would be if they defaulted to Kevin McCarthy again.

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This must be some new definition of 'funny' with which I was previously unfamiliar.

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With Matt Gaetz personally handing over the gavel.

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Anyone who knows Gaetz would not grab the gavel (or anything else) from him without first gloving up.

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With Jim Jordan as Assistant Speaker! Whatever the fuck that means!

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"Ah help the stupid guy next to me talk gooder!"

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Chief duty of the Assistant Speaker is to cover up any sexual molestation by the Speaker.

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Sheriff "Bing Bing Bing!" Ricochet Speaker and Deputy Droopalong Speaker

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But only because Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho isn't yet available.

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Cripes, they're gonna be BUSY.

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Proving once again It Ain't the Crime, It's the Coverup

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Kyle Rittenhouse! Nick Fuentes! Alex Jones! Kevin Sorbo! Matt Walsh! David Duke! The shade of G. Gordon Liddy on an Ouija board! The mind croggles!

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The great thing about this list is G. Gordon Liddy was a widely acknowledged lunatic in his day, but would now fit right in to the mainstream of the GOP, he'd probably be regarded as an elder statesman, lol.

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I can't imagine any of the present crowd holding a hand over a candle flame. It'd be like those old racist jungle pictures; all the GOP members would fall on their knees and worship him as a god.

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He was arguing for political executions before it was fashionable!

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He was a man before his time!

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G. Gordon's body lies a moulderin' in the grave

His Truth Social goes marchin' on

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It's the tepidity, stupid.

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The apotheosis of the Republican party —

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More like the "Pumpkinification of the Republican Party"

(with apologies to Seneca the Younger)

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Was he tepid too?

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Have you seen Seneca Falls?

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Ha. Closest i ever got was Binghamton.

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Just ONCE I wish those tut-tutting liberals on MSNBC would trot out that old laugh-line of Ronald Reagan's: Scariest words in the English language? "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you." This shit goes waaaay back. But since half of their hosts are Republicans it's important to pretend it all started with the Bad Orange Man.

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Republicans? On far-left Communist Socialist ChiCom blue hair MSNBC?

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Just the quasi-rehabilitated republicans who are Good Now, Actually and have been welcomed back into the social club.

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Like sometimes the Onion gets beaten to the punch by reality, sad to say Roy’s T*ump is far more lucid than the real thing. Just saying.

Meanwhile, still parsing the Daily Deplorable, still getting a bit of a headache from the headlines trying to get what fact they’re abusing and worse,

Anyway, speaking to reality: is there any RepubliQan capable of getting to 217? And since the Clinically Insane Caucus got what it wants -- a House incapable of functioning, well, I’d go with No but, of course, YMMV.

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“Roy’s T*ump is far more lucid than the real thing.”

That’s been part of his charm all through these closet dramas.

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Hey, I'm supposed to think *you* already knew what the letters U-S spell?

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Just glad to see Donald Trump is being recognized more and more as the discoverer of this remarkable fact.

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It's goddam bigly, innit?

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So, tough choice: is this a stable genius or a fucking moron?

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The problem is that like the Onion the real deal is more out there than a satirist, no matter how good, can imagine let alone match.

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Yeah, I saw how that worked when I read Carl Hiaasen’s novel 𝘚𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘻𝘦 𝘔𝘦 last year. One of the main characters—a US president with a large estate outside of Palm Beach—is very clearly modeled on TFG, and just as obviously a misfire, because the closer one approaches the grotesque original the less room there is for actual satire. It’s precisely this way, by leaving some breathing space between the crude reality of the senescent, gibbering 45 and the more articulate, more self-aware Edroso version, that the latter works better than Hiaasen’s.

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Kill, Kill, Kill? Reminds me of a verse from Full Metal Jacket:

- Do we love our beloved Corps, ladies?

- Semper fi, do or die. Gung ho. Gung ho. Gung ho.

- What makes the grass grow?

- Blood, blood, blood.

- What do we do for a living, ladies?

- Kill, kill, kill.

- I can't hear you.

- Kill, kill, kill.

- Bullshit. I still can't hear you.

- Kill, kill, kill. (2)

- Do any of you people know who Charles Whitman was?

- None of you dumb-asses knows?

- Private Cowboy.

And remember You goddamn communist heathen, you had best sound off that you love the Virgin Mary, or I'm gonna stomp your guts out! Now you DO love the Virgin Mary, don't you?"

---the words of any future GQP House Speaker

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Maybe they should pick Russ Meyer. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

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Kill, Kill, Kill reminds me of the great power pop band Martin Luther Lennon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzFPUH-P8I0

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These Halloween wishes brought to you courtesy of....

... The Aristocrats!

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Smart guy, that Trump. After Jim Jordan's face-plant, he's figured out he doesn't have quite enough power over the Republicans to MAKE someone speaker, but he sure as shit has enough power to STOP someone from being speaker. So let's just do that, OK? Over and over for another year, why not?

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I'm gonna take the next couple hours off and just go seethe.

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This is really where they're heading isn't it

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Like a shambling old mortician or a zombie without brain

Or a useless politician or a tardy Amtrak train

It’s a mob without a mission that ascends beyond inane

They’ve established no position that’s not crim’nally insane

And the obvious suspicion is they’re choking on their chain

They can’t deal with all their pain

They can’t swim thru all the rain

They’re just circling ‘round the drain

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Walk down lane

With happy refrain

Just zombie

Zombie with no brain

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Clingon in the rain

I'm Clingon in the rain

What a glorious feeling inflicting more pain...

[back to you]

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Who's gonna stop them?

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I saw WaPo’s editorial board called for Democrats to bail out the Insane Clown Caucus. The ensuing comments were brutal. Meanwhile, Portland is too wet right now to burn down. The rain must have also washed all the homeless encampments away. Powells Books is still the only bookstore I’ve known that shelves new and used copies of a book together. Got one with a nice inscription inside from last Christmas - didn’t seem to have been read. One way to support your kids: give ‘em books they can sell.

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Which election-denier are the Democrats supposed to vote for?

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Remembering the days of yesteryear, when Republicans were the "law and order" party. Then laughing.

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crime 'n chaos

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McHenry, if you can believe it!

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But why would any Democrats be required? We all know how this ends, when Republican "moderates" knuckle under like they've done a thousand times before and agree to whatever Donald Trump wants. This might even happen today with election denier Mike Johnson.

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Which is why the WaPo EB rushing to Murc’s Law is so revealing of their true attitude about how Dems are responsible for making government work while MAGAs have no responsibility to act in the country’s best interest.

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Right-wingers are always saying the librul media is biased against them, and in this case I have to agree. Because what does this reveal about their opinion of Republicans? That Republican are incompetent children who always need to be saved by the "adults in the room", the Democrats.

It's the kind of opinion that's guaranteed to infuriate everyone: Democrats because they're being blamed for not fixing a problem they didn't create, and Republicans because they're being patronized and they know it.

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The one who wants to brutally murder them, or the polite moderate who just wants to lightly, gently kill them?

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Every polite moderate gets a Crunchy Frog!

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Jeez, some people appear to be unfamiliar w/ the Hindu Fiend from Gunga Din! Kill for Kali! I suppose some would complain of its insensitive portrayal of the original thug life, but don’t hate the playa, hate the game. Death is sweet!

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Yeah, I’m feeling more like this:

https://youtu.be/r5AZwkz8zLU?si=p7ni6iOXwt_j9wki

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He really is getting crazier, isn't he? I mean, what Roy has here isn't really that far from where he is in his standard 90 minute Trump Rally speech, right? Which seems like an under-reported thing, like the media and everyone else has just done a collected shoulder-shrug and "Eh, it's Trump, what do you expect?" In about a year he should have reached the stage of "All must die in a cleansing fire." And then be handed the nuclear codes. Oops.

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You saw his "Hey--U.S. spells 'us'!" moment yesterday? It's hard to know whether that's evidence of extreme stupidity or actual mental deterioration. Maybe both! For the one, he didn't know that until now. For the other, it never occurs to him that everybody else DOES know it.

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Um... thanks? For letting me know about that?

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Many people have said it but it beats repeating: a major feature of this particular mental illness is the joy of saying nonsense and getting everyone to act like it's genius.

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If you say sensible things and people agree with you, what the hell does that prove? But if you say nonsense and people agree with you, it either means they're afraid of you or they worship you, that's what Donald Trump really wants to know.

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It’s the final scene of the Day of the Locust multiplied by the tearing out of the heart scene of Temple of Doom crossed with Peter Finch in Network times DeNiro in King of Comedy ending with Klaus Kinski as Aguirre on a raft on the Amazon, swarming with monkeys over a dead girl.

Except much, much worse.

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I dunno, there's some It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World about the whole thing.

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Director: "That's good, but can you turn it all up to 11?"

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I KNEW you musta got SUMTHIN' outta film class!

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White Republicans Thinking Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen To Them, A Continuing Series

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Definitely some light bulbs going on as Republican Congressmen figure out that Donald Trump doesn't really give a shit if they EVER elect a speaker, because they still haven't figured out that "doesn't give a shit" is the essence of his character.

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I was ready to be offended because I was told there would be no math here, but I'll make an exception in this case.

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High praise indeed

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