Open Thread

DL Open Thread: Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on November 2, 2023 15 Comments

Bleep Bobby Knight.  This Guy Deserves To Be Remembered: Ady Barkan, a progressive activist and attorney who used his years-long struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to call for the protection and expansion of public health care coverage, died on Wednesday. He was 39. Over the course of a career cut tragically short by illness, Barkan […]

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DL Open Thread Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023

Filed in National, Open Thread by on October 31, 2023 24 Comments

Replacing soft-MAGA Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House with hard-MAGA Mike Johnson is somehow Bad News for Progressives among those who see everything as bad news for progressives, but I don’t think it’s that cut and dried. This guy is a true Christofascist freak – Amanda Marcotte writes about his Satanic panic over a […]

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DL Open Thread Monday, Oct. 30, 2023

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on October 30, 2023 36 Comments

Israel’s assault on Gaza has entered the there’s-no-excuse-for-this stage. One indication of how bad it is: Desperate Gazans broke into UN aid centers and looted their already insufficient food supplies. Calls for a cease-fire continue to come from everywhere but the Biden administration. And it’s not just in Gaza. As Lucian Truscott IV notes, armed […]

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DL Open Thread: Sunday, October 29, 2023

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on October 29, 2023 3 Comments

The Man Who Saved Democracy Bows Out Of Presidential Race.  Largely because he saved democracy.  The story, of course, is more complicated: His decision to align himself with Mr. Trump came in June 2016, when a mutual associate of the two men, an Indiana insurance industry executive named Steve Hilbert, called Mr. Pence to see […]

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DL Open Thread: Saturday, October 28, 2023

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on October 28, 2023 18 Comments

Lest You Thought That Dean Phillips Was A Legit Democratic Challenger To Biden…: Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips received financial support in his run for Congress from Harlan Crow – the same controversial GOP megadonor who lavished Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with expensive gifts. DailyMail.com can reveal that Crow gave the maximum $2,800 contribution to Phillips’ congressional […]

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DL Open Thread: Friday, October 27, 2023

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on October 27, 2023 9 Comments
DL Open Thread: Friday, October 27, 2023

Justice Thomas’ $267 K Motor Home.  Not a single dollar of principal was ever repaid to the wealthy lender: The US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas failed to repay much – or possibly all – of a “sweetheart deal” to borrow more than $267,000 to buy a luxury motor home, a Senate committee found. The […]

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DL Open Thread: Thursday, October 26, 2023

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on October 26, 2023 21 Comments

They Still Haven’t Found The Mass Shooter? No mask. Apparently no body armor.  Figured when I went to sleep that he wasn’t long for this world. Figured wrong.  Reportedly a trained military armed instructor who’s been having mental health issues.  Why shouldn’t he have a weapon of mass destruction?  Or, more likely, weapons? The Speaker […]

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DL Open Thread Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023

Filed in National, Open Thread by on October 25, 2023 19 Comments

Another day, another failed attempt to elect a Speaker of the House. Contestant No. 3 lasted just four hours, not even long enough to be doxxed by MAGA World, so Republicans are going to try again today with Mike Johnson – if that’s his real name – of Louisiana. Given their proclivities, I expect them […]

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DL Open Thread Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023

Filed in National, Open Thread by on October 24, 2023 14 Comments

Handicapping the Speaker Stakes? Now there are only eight entrants as Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania has scratched himself from the race. Meuser, who represents a big slice of the state’s northern hinterlands west of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, begged off due to other commitments, namely leading the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania. Meuser said he spoke […]

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DL Open Thread Monday, Oct. 23, 2023

Filed in International, National, Open Thread by on October 23, 2023 21 Comments

Anyone who’s raised children recognizes Donald Trump as an overgrown toddler. The lies he tells are the sort of incompetent falsehoods even small children outgrow. After his attorney Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to election mopery, Trump claimed – and apparently expects people to believe – “Ms. Powell was not my attorney, and never was.” I […]

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DL Open Thread: Sunday, October 22,2023

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on October 22, 2023 3 Comments

Pharoah And DeSantis: Separated At Birth?  What do they have in common?–plagues.  Hurricanes, floods, seaweed encrusted beaches, pythons who like to feast on elderly Palm Beach matrons, collapsing buildings, epidemics. And now, flesh-eating bacteria: A study published this week found that Hurricane Ian led to a spike in cases of vibriosis, a life-threatening illness caused […]

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DL Open Thread: Saturday, October 21, 2023

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on October 21, 2023 24 Comments

FINALLY, Aid Trucks Make Their Way Into Gaza.  Not nearly enough, though…: A convoy of 20 trucks carrying aid moved through the Rafah border crossing into Gaza from Egypt on Saturday, according to the United Nations, after days of diplomatic wrangling to get food, water and medicine into the blockaded enclave where supplies were running […]

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DL Open Thread: Friday, October 20, 2023

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on October 20, 2023 10 Comments

How Jim Jordan Broke The Mold And Broke The Rethuglican Caucus.  Interesting analysis from Josh Marshall: The congressional party is controlled and run by the hard right minority variously called the Tea Party or Freedom Caucus. But they are a bit too hot for national public consumption. They also rely on the idea that their […]

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