DL Open Thread Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024
The Republican Party had another terrible day Tuesday. Their meritless impeachment of Biden’s Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, failed when a few Republicans failed to vote for it, and their stand-alone bill to aid Israel while ignoring Ukraine also went down in flames. If this keeps up even the media might get the impression that posturing is all Republicans know how to do. They’d be right, of course, but they’ve ignored it this long, why stop now?
Performance Art Queen Marjorie Taylor Greene showed how it’s done by storming out of a hearing when a Democrat interrupted her crime-in-D.C rant to point out that she likes to pal around with convicted seditionists. I think she might be compiling material for an hour-long Netflix special.
Popcorn futures are soaring as MAGAts cope with their Black Mirror-style reality: They’ve hitched their wagon to a psychotic criminal with a deteriorating mind. This leads to frequent cognitive dissonance, as when Diaper Donnie refuses to condemn Bud Light or decides to fulminate against the Indiana GOP for failing to exclude Nikki Haley from its primary. It won’t be long before he’s babbling about Purity Of Essence.
Fish swim, birds fly, Republicans lie. A Senate investigation into Clarence Thomas’ master, Harlan Crow, has turned up evidence that he evaded taxes by lying about his yacht being used for business. More significantly, a flimsy scientific study used to claim that the abortion pill mifepristone was dangerous has been retracted by its publisher, which claimed it was unaware that all but one of its authors works in the forced-birth industry.
This one’s a long read, but worth it if you have the time and you’re confused about the unsettled state of the world. The author suggests that the post-Cold War era can be best understood in terms of neo-medievalism, a situation in which non-state actors have broken the state monopoly on military force. It’s an interesting prism for looking at a number of ongoing conflicts around the globe.
And it’s not just our globe. Scientists are worried because the Moon is shrinking, causing moonquakes around the South Pole site where NASA wants to conduct experiments. Given its age, 4.46 billion years, some shrinkage was probably inevitable.
The floor’s yours.
Lunar Viagra to the rescue?
Plus it’s pretty cold out there in space
LBR voted against stand-alone Israeli funding bill. Good for her:
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202438
Agreed, good for her, and good for Democratic leadership who also voted no.
For this bill, a vote for Israel funding was a vote against Ukraine funding. Biden is rightly holding out to keep them linked.
Maybe Marjorie Taylor Green stormed out to replenish her precious bodily fluids.
Wasn’t Lauren Boebert about to “replenish her precious bodily fluids” in that movie theater.
Pounding that Like button
Old Trump Argument: I need retroactive immunity because I’m being witch-hunted.
Current Trump Argument: Biden needs proactive immunity because when I win I’m going to witch-hunt him so hard.
If he gets the immunity that Trump is working so hard to get him, I hope Biden uses it to good effect.
When will Dems running for office seriously elevate SCOTUS ethics reform as an issue? Are they so afraid of undermining the credibility of a court that seems completely determined to undermine it themselves?
You can say that about almost every issue. Democrats’ failure to go on the offensive on virtually ANY issue other than abortion amounts to political malpractice.
For example, they should now absolutely DESTROY the R’s on immigration. I have little confidence that they will.
Who is their Oppo Research person–Chris Coons?
It’s not a failure to say the things we want them to say, it’s a failure to sound sufficiently aggressive.
Democrats usually sound serious but measured, like a grade-school principal. Republicans sound angry and outraged, like a grade-school brat. Which one plays better on TV? Which one gets more eyeballs?