97 Comments

Hear, hear. On the bright side, there's nothing like causing a blackout of several days' duration, that impacts thousands of people, as well as laser-focusing on Hunter Biden's laptop, to make the normies come around to the GOP in 2024.

Rightwing fascism: learn nothing, can never fail, can only BE failed.

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I didn't imagine 2024 might turn into a national referendum on whether we should have electricity with the Democrats positioned to be the pro-electricity party, but the Dems have been doing pretty well the last few years as the pro-marriage party, so anything's possible. It's awfully generous of our Friends Across the Aisle to keep handing us opportunities to take a bold stand in favor of things that no decent person can be against.

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Hunter Biden's peen: relevant to our political discourse or not? Let the voters decide.

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We'll be halfway through the Hunter Biden impeachment hearings before they figure out he doesn't actually work for the government.

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Kinda sorta like Kramer on Seinfeld, when he was fired by the company he didn’t even work for.

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The best liberals could do is dick pix of a candidate's -son-? I mean, the GOP had a PRESIDENT who fucked a porn star and paid her off! C'mon guys we have to up our game. We can do better than this.

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Trump did even better than that--you can find video of her masturbating, which certainly beats a dick pic any day of the week.

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Vote Democrat! Our electrons flow the right way!

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It would literally be wild if the only campaign promises Dems needed to make by 2024 were "we'll keep your lights on and keep your nudes off the internet" lmao.

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"Only the Democratic Party can guarantee your lights and heat will be on and your stove will work," remarked spokesman Tom Bodett.

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From positive to negative, like the Founders intended!

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I'm not holding my breath for the regular media to finally start reporting that one of our only two political parties has decided to end the American experiment; to simply discard our entire form of government and install Trump as dictator for life.

No, we'll be treated to endless stories about how Trump might be making extremist-sounding noises, but what about . . . And stories about how surely when Republicans say "do away with the Constitution" they don't mean "do away with the Constitution."

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"I'm not holding my breath for the regular media to finally start reporting" competently and honestly?

As for Donnie's hot take Truth over the weekend, an adherence to facts and stuff requires noting that the idea has had its believers and supporters for awhile. Donnie doesn't have original ideas so much as just echoing conservative media talking points so that.

Which, circling back, is something the MSM won't ever report, at least in any meaningful way.

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I can see the media boosting Trump's chances because he gives them the abuse they love so much. Trump urged his supporters to beat and kill journalists, but Joe Biden did not have a press conference for 4 months!!! So, bothsides. Trump habitually called female reporters ugly, nasty, and out of line, but Joe Biden did not invite the press pool to his granddaughter's wedding!!! So, bothsides. Donald Trump threatened to jail reporters if he ever got the power, but Joe Biden made Steve Doocey look dumb for a minute! So bothsides.

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Donnie attracts an audience and therefore more 💵. And, of course, he’s a Republican. So, you know, how can the MSM resist?

Of course, the coming tsunami of two years of insanity will be stressful for them...

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In addition to the rest of the insufferable inanity, the hothouse orchids and Mean Kidz of the press were mad at Biden not inviting them… when it *wasn’t his place* to invite anyone! It was his granddaughter’s wedding for cripes’ sake. *She* gets to make the guest list, not her grandpa! (Of course the Beltway narcissists don’t care about details like that.)

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Women making their own decisions? Come on, somewhere there must be man who's REALLY the one deciding.

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"Joe Biden made Steve Doocey look dumb for a minute!" As if Doocey needed any help.

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That still left 1439 minutes that day where Doocy had to make himself look dumb. You'd think he'd appreciate the break.

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But... but... Larry Hogan says he may announce for the Presidency, surely that will turn things around and bring back the Republican party we all used to know and love!

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Sorry, Larry, Chris Christie's first in line for the Fat Moderate role. (By the way, they both suck.)

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Mister, we could use a fat moderate like William Howard Taft again.

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Yeah. The recent unpleasantnesses make the Taft administration's look like a tempest in a teapot...

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Well, they're equal in that each can expect about 1% of the primary vote. Idiots, if they didn't keep splitting the moderate Republican vote like this, one of them could get 2%.

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Human bowling jacket, as Mr Pierce says.

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At the least, if we don't know that some sort of hateful right wing domestic terrorists shot up the stations, one can cop that with what's in the air is in the fair (I think there's a French term but I don't know French), shooting shit up for no better reason than to shoot shit up is in fact connected. Like, the theme is correct even if the details fail.

As for an adherence to accuracy, I dunno, when one's dealing with fabulists and believers in Democrat pizza parlor pedophiles how much accuracy's needed past a point?

Anyway, a PSA. I read this over the weekend and thought it awfully close to being an Edroso satire except it was, you know, like 100% factual instead of a parody in any sense of the term, so with today's serious post, here's some laughs before it brings you to tears:

https://www.thebulwark.com/no-you-do-not-have-a-constitutional-right-to-post-hunter-bidens-dick-pic-on-twitter/

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If nothing else, "Queers are dangerous pedophiles who must be stopped if we have to kill them to do it" plays some decent cover for anyone who wants to shoot up some people for fun. You might even get off and be hailed as a hero.

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I don’t get the connection. Exactly what are you responding to?

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The migraine, probably. My point is what the forced birthers pretend to believe: If you devalue human life, in this case by calling all trans, drag, and queer people kiddie rapers, people who just want to kill some people will find their actions more tolerated by society at large. "He only killed to protect children."

Which I assume they know is happening, because that was always what they used against clinic personnel. They're not mad that we devalue human life. They're mad when they don't get to decide which human lives should be devalued.

Anyway, I was agreeing with you. But poorly. Yes, this kind of rhetoric causes deaths, in lots of ways. It's the point, even when there's no direct link.

If you teach a queer kid that being queer means god hates them, they're a sinner and a pervert, no one will ever love them, and gay people aren't capable of love or being loved, if that queer kid kills his boyfriend, that's still on homophobia. Internalized homophobia. But it's still back to the bigots.

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Oh, wait. I know what I was getting at. Killer Kyle, who is now a hero because one of the guys he killed may have been a bad person, though there is literally no way for Kyle to have known that but gay bars are now a target rich opportunity to kill someone you can say deserved it.

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They’re pro-life, which they practice by supporting the earliest possible death as long as it’s after birth.

And, well, it’s one of those less important things Clinton got right: they’re genuinely deplorable people.

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Knocking out folks power in December is a great way of earning their trust and support!

Our superpower is their stupidity.

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My guess is the gay-hatin' bigots in the area will simply refuse to acknowledge that their gun-totin' pals did this. While also vaguely blaming "the Gays" for the power outage. And yes, those two things contradict one another.

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Been seeing the inevitable "false flag" blather on Twitter, as well as "it was Antifa!"

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Like Jan. 6, it was both a false flag and a heroic act by super-patriots.

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The Sheriff's will pray with any suspects and determine that they are innocent of all but original sin

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To paraphrase Keynes, they can stay stupid longer than we can remain powerful. The right is creeping closer to taking control of government and even the "moderate" among them are still afraid to challenge Trump. He is the strongman the base wants and heaven help us if they get him again.

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On the other hand, it probably kills a few people they don't want voting anyway, you know, those selfish assholes who won't just die of covid like they were supposed to, no matter how many mask-mandate-exempt HCWs we send to their homes to infect them.

Steve's right. Anyone who's mad about this and the queers is assuming this was something the queers did to themselves. It won't change their vote. In three years, they'll be swearing blue in bars that they were in on the op.

Meanwhile, the hate speech will have been cranked up further to catch more unbalanced, susceptible, apparently angrily divorced fucknuts. OKC didn't happen out of the blue. The rhetoric had been growing. The assholes decided they were the heroes and they were just saying and doing what everybody else was too cowed to do.

Anyway, Roy, I've always admired your tendency to be scrupulously fair about your targets, in the same way I admire people who juggle chainsaws. But as I think the NYT Pitchbot can attest, even if they haven't yet said the over the top supervillain bullshit yet, they *will*.

On the other hand, I say this as someone mad the GOP is making me agree with Norm fucking Ornstein and Liz fucking Cheney.

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The base (al qaeda ! ) will always eat that shit up. It's the chamber of commerce types that vote Pub for the tax cuts but otherwise has a lot invested in an orderly society. Start shooting shit up and closing them down for a week or so during the holidays you won't get their vote. " That'll show them queers!" Doesn't work for the" Country Craft " stores and the independent bars and restaurants owners that count on the weeks before Christmas to make their nut for the year. Remember a month ago when we were all " Excuse me while I shit myself but there's a Red Wave coming and we're all gonna die!" Then things turned out OK because the shit that got their base all riled up, after a certain crazy point, turned off all the rest of the people they needed to win.

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I'm hoping so. Just not finding a lot of faith.

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Hearted for the chainsaws. 2 marks!

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All adherents of the MAGAt/Christian Right/neonazi faction of the Republican Party — and yes, I do understand that, to at least a first approximation it’s no longer a mere faction but the heart and soul of that party — should take Owens as their role model.

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I missed that news about Bob Owens… I‘ve been an Alicubi since the Oughts and I swear I have no idea how that one got past me

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I didn't mention it at the time; De mortuis nil nisi bonum and all that.

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The WaPo’s obit certainly followed that dictum. The reporter, Kristine Phillips, didn’t mention anything about his advocacy of terrorist attacks; rather, she described his views in anodyne terms like 2nd Amendment advocacy and conservatism. Like the police in Germany, the MSM doesn’t take right wing terrorism and violence seriously.

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[obligatory Dorothy Parker rejoinder]

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Men seldom make passes at women that wear glasses?

Personally, I generally think glasses make women more attractive, but I almost never make passes at any women.

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You're a class act, Roy.

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Yeah. I'da at least said "I got nuthin'"

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I suggested gun control because next time it might be an actual human dying. I am notoriously unromantic about suicide and ideation, though.

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I believe "Heh, indeed" is the approved right-wing response.

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Along with "Address my points, libs!"

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Is it worth pointing out to the Trumpies -- especially to the It's-A-Constitutional-Republic-Not-A-Democracy types among them -- that "the election was corrupt, therefore I should be installed in office" is, from the perspective of a Constitutional Republic, literally and entirely indistinguishable from "I am so terrific, I should be made King; and not just one of those figurehead cucks like Charles, I mean like Richard III, where I say 'off with his head!' and off goes his head!"?

(I keep finding myself starting comments with the question, "Is it worth pointing out that...?" even though I know deep down that no, it's not worth pointing it out, at least not in the sense that pointing it out could possibly cause anybody in the Moron Trumpernickel Choir to consider the possibility of reconsidering anything they heard on Fox or read on their email stream. But I'm old, and it's a habit.)

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Yes, definitely worth pointing out. Since the midterms I've been all Sally Sunshine with the realization that there are a large number of normies out there who are not just persuadable, but have already been persuaded that Republicans can't be trusted with power. So who cares if the cult-members ignore you? Lots of other people are listening.

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Whenever I hear the "republic not democracy" dodge I like to point out that the dictionary defines the two words pretty much the same. But there is a difference in connotation--a republic is considered not to have a hereditary head of state. For example, the UK could be considered a democracy but not a republic. Now these geniuses are advocating for monarchy/dictatorship because "republic??"

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Republic because "Republican", not democracy because not "Democrat." Really, I don't think there's anything more to it than that.

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'At's what I've been saying for years.

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Just be glad they're no longer called the Whigs, I can't even imagine the contortions they'd go through to justify that.

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I've argued that it's the other way around--there's a big difference between the Athenian idea of a democracy, where conflict is recognized and everybody is supposed to have a voice, and the Roman idea of a republic, where unity is assumed as a norm and the state has its own "general will" (where somebody, usually the lower classes, is always getting suppressed) http://yastreblyansky.blogspot.com/2012/06/republics-and-democracies.html--and the U.S. parties have gradually come to resemble their names.

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Link does not work but appears to be relevant to my interests. I'm probably more a mimeographed newsletter type, but I am still interested in your thoughts.

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Thank you for the link. Read it through a couple times, ruminating. On some level the "republic vs democracy" thing seems like Calvinball for them. But just because they don't have to think about what they're saying doesn't mean we shouldn't.

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I mean like Richard III, where I say 'off with his head!' and off goes his head!"?

More Henry II than Richard III

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Couldn't help but notice that Owen's fantasy is word-for-word Vladimir Putin's plan for Ukraine, right down to "cold, dark winter." Great minds think alike, I guess.

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I was thinking that as soon as I saw the story yesterday, but after Roy's details it looks like Putin learned it from the Americans.

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And it sure works, right? Once you take away people's lights and heat, they just throw up their hands and surrender, just like the Londoners did under the Blitz.

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Given conservatism's proud history of standing athwart history yelling "Stop!" could this just be the first shots fired in the War on Electricity?

I mean, look at what BidenHitler wants to FORCE you to replace your gas-guzzling F150 with, an ELECTRIC F150! And what do those faggoty windmills and solar panels make? Connect the dots, sheeple!

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Yes. OIL LAMPS!!!!!!

They're even in the bible.

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If you REALLY want to own the libs, WHALE OIL.

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Plus lamplighter job creation.

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One of my favorite time-wasters is to read the comments in any news article about electric cars. Always good for a laugh, there are plenty of guys who are the equivalent of a 1910-era smartass yelling "Get a horse!" at the folks driving by in their newfangled Auto-MO-biles.

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Ted Gioia recently posted about the human flashlights of the middle ages – guys with torches for hire, walkin' around showin' patrons where not to step.

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Have torch, will travel.

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Larry Storch, on the porch, with the torch!

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🔥BLOOP🔥

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Although I oppose the death penalty, I have to note that electrocution would be poetic justice for those fuckers.

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Hmm, suspend the Constitution... That means Biden could declare martial law, drop habeas corpus, and jail all seditionists for as long as he wanted. Once more, Trump is the dumbest, most short-sighted Magoo in the room.

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There are people in the US who know about Italy's "years of lead" and the "strategy of tension" the fascists used to try to overwhelm the democratic state. There was even a fair amount of informed discussion 10 years ago about how much of the stochastic violence by the authoritarian left via e.g. the red brigades was funded and directed by the neofascist conspiracy in the Italian army.

We *could* be prepared for that kind of right wing violence here. Instead the corporate media needs to sow some doubt - well it might be ecoterrorists too! And while most of the right wing itself is now openly advocating violence against the state and individuals, we still need to give them the benefit of the doubt because we're liberals...?

The proof you need to send someone to jail is "beyond a reasonable doubt." We don't need that standard to avoid hot stoves, electrical sockets, random snakes or spiders and bearded guys wearing nazi memorabilia and carrying guns.

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Sure, but be careful what you wish for, more media coverage of the right-wing domestic terrorist threat would probably just mean a massive infusion of money and military hardware to your local cops and a crackdown on EarthFirst and anti-pipeline protesters.

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Some of us were tracking the 'false flag' and other misdirection stuff 40 years ago, but yeah...

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South San Jose´ sends our regards...

Pattern Recognition is a harsh but fair master...uh, mistress...er... otherwise indeterminate- gendered superordinate...

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Hey, let's try to get "Mastrix" started, if nothing else as something for right-wingers to freak out about.

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I second.

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As much as I hate to say it, leftists and LBGTQ people need to make sure we are armed in places like the Carolinas and Ohio. We've lost the gun control debate. So let's make sure that we are now armed.

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Weapons are no defense against random acts of terror, unless you intend to go armed all the time, everywhere.

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I still don't like guns, we will still not have one in the home. But I'm no longer suggesting unilateral disarmament. Open carry is still intimidation, though.

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As much as I'd like to agree with you the color of my particular skin would make that a local non-starter, and me a bullet-stopper.

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Just realized that Trump is Cobra Commander from the old G.I. Joe cartoon.

* Like the Commander, Trump is "hatred and evil personified. Corrupt. A man without scruples. Probably the most dangerous man alive!" He also commands an army of violent fanatics.

* Also like the Commander, Trump is simultaneously a pathetic fuckup who is despised by his own subordinates.

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