We share this state with imbeciles.

Boris seems to be in a lot of trouble, although post-Trump and from this side of the Atlantic it is hard to see why. I mean, has he headed an attempt to overthrow the government and install himself as Lord Protector? No? Whats the big deal then? I guess his act is just wearing thin.

LONDON, Jan 20 (Reuters) – A senior Conservative lawmaker accused the British government on Thursday of intimidating and attempting to “blackmail” those lawmakers they suspect of wanting to force Prime Minister Boris Johnson out of power.

Johnson, who won a large majority in 2019, is facing growing calls to step down over a series of scandals, including admitting he had attended a party at his Downing Street office at a time when Britain was under a strict COVID-19 lockdown.

Some younger lawmakers have spearheaded attempts to unseat Johnson, but it was an attack by one of the party’s longest-serving Conservatives that prompted gasps when he told the prime minister in parliament “In the name of God, go.” read more

Johnson, 57, has vowed to fight on, saying he would lead the Conservative Party into the next election and warning a lawmaker who defected to the main opposition Labour Party on Wednesday that he would win back his seat.

But in yet another blow to his shaky standing, William Wragg, chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee which oversees constitutional issues and standards, accused the government of blackmail.

“In recent days, a number of members of parliament have faced pressures and intimidation from members of the government because of their declared or assumed desire for a vote of confidence in the party leadership of the prime minister,” Wragg said in a statement before a meeting of the committee.

“Moreover, the reports of which I’m aware, would seem to constitute blackmail. As such, it would be my general advice to colleagues to report these matters to the speaker of the House of Commons and the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.”

In response to the allegations, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “We are not aware of any evidence to support what are clearly serious allegations. If there is any evidence to support these claims we would look at it very carefully.”

I don’t know how I missed this.

WASHINGTON—Lambasting the West Virginia senator for his blatant self-interest, Joe Manchin (D-WV) was slammed by critics Monday for stealing the spotlight from other Democratic senators who also oppose progressive legislation. “Joe Manchin would rather appear on TV than help his Democratic colleagues appear on TV,” said Delaware senator Chris Coons, who spoke on behalf of a coalition of moderate Democratic lawmakers in condemning Manchin for the undue attention he had received for obstructionist behavior that they would replicate in a heartbeat. “I’d love to be out there every day making up these nonsensical benchmarks and calling for compromise, but good luck getting oxygen when Joe Manchin is hogging all the attention. I’ve worked hard to block progressive legislation for years, and yet you don’t see my face plastered all over the news. Senator Manchin, we are calling on you to share the phone numbers and email addresses of your contacts at ABC News immediately. It’s time to think of the good of the party and share a bit of that limelight.” At press time, Coons added that it was repeated selfishness like this that made him question whether Manchin was really dedicated to maintaining the status quo. – Via the Onion

Maybe I missed it because it does not read as satire at all.

I’m not optimistic about any case against Trump going anywhere.  Please recall that Chris Coons helped Trump push through record numbers of crony federal judges.

New York’s attorney general said in court papers that Donald Trump’s family business repeatedly engaged in “fraudulent or misleading” practices.

The filing came in response to Mr. Trump’s recent effort to block the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, from questioning him and two of his adult children under oath as part of a civil investigation of his business, the Trump Organization.

New York’s attorney general said in court papers that Donald Trump’s family business repeatedly engaged in “fraudulent or misleading” practices.

The filing came in response to Mr. Trump’s recent effort to block the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, from questioning him and two of his adult children under oath as part of a civil investigation of his business, the Trump Organization.

Some are saying that Stephen Breyer is very seriously considering announcing his retirement before the end of the current SCOTUS term, possibly even in the next few weeks.

I hope we are all prepared for the foundering appointment process Biden will helm:

…anybody that Biden nominates will naturally have highly problematic things in the candidate’s record, such as being a Black woman who once said something mean about a white man or evinced some sort of skepticism about some aspect of Our Glorious Constitution and/or the World’s Best Legal System ™ etc.

Also Sinema will join REGRETTABLY join Republicans because the President didn’t work hard enough to pick someone acceptable to Fox News.

Senator Elizabeth Warren was on TV this morning saying that  if the Dems had any fighting spirt it at all, they’d take the elements of the BBB plan and hold votes on them to make Republicans (plus Chris Coons, Joe Manchin, et al) vote against:

• expanded free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds,
• high-quality care for older Americans and people with disabilities in their homes
• making the wealthy and corporations pay what they owe
• and so on.

It is that or make like John Carney and say that your hands are tied.

I’m not saying I won’t vote for him, but I know know I’m going to have a very tough time voting for him knowing he was either lying or so easily duped by Manchin.

Hmmm… Liar or dupe? Both bad and not what we need leading the party and the country right now.

Unless they are scared off by Trump, the GOP presidential primary is going to be a donnybrook because they all view Biden (or Harris) as incredibly beatable. With the changes they’ve made on the state level regarding how elections are run, they are probably right. Anyway, I guess I hope Liz Cheney runs, but I don’t see that happening.

As usual the country’s assholes will be choosing a “King of the Assholes” to represent them. FWIW, here is the NYT on Trump v DeSantis:

For months, former President Donald J. Trump has been grumbling quietly to friends and visitors to his Palm Beach mansion about a rival Republican power center in another Florida mansion, some 400 miles to the north.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a man Mr. Trump believes he put on the map, has been acting far less like an acolyte and more like a future competitor, Mr. Trump complains. With his stock rising fast in the party, the governor has conspicuously refrained from saying he would stand aside if Mr. Trump runs for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

“The magic words,” Trump has said to several associates and advisers.

That long-stewing resentment burst into public view recently in a dispute over a seemingly unrelated topic: Covid policies. After Mr. DeSantis refused to reveal his full Covid vaccination history, the former president publicly acknowledged he had received a booster. Last week, he seemed to swipe at Mr. DeSantis by blasting as “gutless” politicians who dodge the question out of fear of blowback from vaccine skeptics.

Mr. DeSantis shot back on Friday, criticizing Mr. Trump’s early handling of the pandemic and saying he regretted not being more vocal in his complaints.

On this date in 1991 US acknowledged that CIA and US Army paid Manuel Noriega $320,000 over his career.

One year prior to that Noriega surrendered to the U.S. military following the the United States Invasion of Panama, codenamed Operation “Just Cause.” Maybe should have been “Just ‘cuz”. As in why are you invading Panama? Just ‘cuz.

Panama’s flag celebrates the peaceful blessings of smoothly functioning two party political system. The stars and quarters are said to stand for the rival political parties, and the white is said to stand for the peace in which they operate. Blue was the color of the Conservatives and red was the color of the Liberals.

You may be familiar with this flag as so many ships are Panamanian by registry. Why is that? Let’s check wikipedia:

The modern practice of ships being registered in a foreign country began in the 1920s in the United States when shipowners seeking to serve alcohol to passengers during Prohibition registered their ships in Panama. Owners soon began to perceive advantages in terms of avoiding increased regulations and rising labor costs and continued to register their ships in Panama even after Prohibition ended.

The use of open registries steadily increased, and in 1968, Liberia grew to surpass the United Kingdom with the world’s largest ship register. As of 2009, more than half of the world’s merchant ships were registered with open registries, and almost 40% of the entire world fleet, in terms of deadweight tonnage, were registered in Panama, Liberia, and the Marshall Islands.

“I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic. And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high motive, viz, to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most human systems, it falls victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.”

Another very successful weekend of me avoiding all “news” is in the books.  I have no earthly idea what may have happened over the last 48 hours but I can guess that “0MG! InFLaTI0N!!”  “Dems in Disarray and “Biden Presidency in Deep Trouble” stories loomed large.

Fortunately none of that stuff has any real world impact.  It is all just a jolly game for DC cocktail circuit regulars.    So what is on your radar?   While you ponder that question here are some is one “Delaware” headline of note per the google news algorithms.

Somebody was shot by a passing car in Hartly. 

ADT hiker Briana DeSanctis, who set off from Cape Henlopen on Jan 1st passed through DC and is now walking up the C&O canal where she will leave roads behind for a while and be hiking through state parks and on actual trails as she crosses the Appalachian mountains.

This is why Coons’ mania for “Bipartisanship Above the Republic Itself” is so pernicious and so unforgivable.

Using a whiteboard, author and Ohio politician David Pepper posted a video (linked here) on his Twitter account describing “two sides of an epic struggle in America right now.” But each side is fighting for something different, “and that’s why one side is winning.”

Pepper explains the “Elections vs Democracy” battle in simple terms. Basically, the one side (Democrats) “views politics as a battle over elections,” while the other side (Republicans) “is battling democracy itself.” And of course if you “view the battle differently,” you’re going use a different set of strategies.

• The Democratic strategy to win elections: focus on swing states and federal elections.
• The Republicans strategy to demolish democracy: go “far deeper,” and fight on a state level, across the whole dang country.

Pepper —whose book Laboratories of Autocracy calls for those who value democracy to wake up and smell the gunpowder — says that until the Elections side sees the big picture and learns to fight everywhere, “at the roots of democracy,” the battling-Democracy side (as in MAGA fascists) will always win.  – via boinboig

Sinema saying that Dem leadership should’ve worked harder to build GOP support for voting rights is pure Chris Coons Bipartisanship Über Alles.

“I wish there had been a more serious effort on the part of Democratic Party lines to sit down with the other party and genuinely discuss how to reforge common ground on these issues.”

She sorrowfully regrets not being able to support voting rights, which she really supports in her heart, because Dems didn’t do it right. That is very comforting.

I hope some Republican beats her badly in her next election. Of course is it looks like it is going that way, she’ll just take a K Street job.

Look. “Angry liberals” will get blamed for the failure of the radical centrist Democratic Party anyway, so maybe it is time to earn that scorn and reprobation we are going to be getting no matter how badly centrist bomb throwers fuck shit up?

Maybe it is time for all left of center Dems to quit the party or at least provide zero votes (or money) to the party or to any Dem candidate until it reigns in the centrist zealots who are committed to failure?

“Liberals” have been the most loyal but most routinely ignored part of the Dem coalition. It seems to me that it is time for the party to pay a price for being in the thrall of radical centrism.

I can’t say I’m sad about this.  The televised “debates” have become pretty dumb.  It is all just trolling for gotcha moments and elevating the nonsense candidate to the level of the legitimate candidate.

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): The RNC today did something that I’ve been saying they should have done a long time ago, and that is they are — you know, they’ve been conned by this presidential debate commission.

Now the RNC has finally come to their senses, they’ve pulled the plug on any debate participation by a candidate that they support.

And further, they are preparing to change the rules to require that any presidential candidate not participate in any debates run by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Now, why did they do that? Because they always pick liberals to moderate the debates, and then that makes them unfair.

So, good for them. They’re saying, “Nope, we’re not — we’re not going to get suckered by you any more. We’re done.” – VIA media matter