Republicans

[Phoebe]

Every one of these f****** except Romney is FULLY complicit in all the bad things that are happening. None of this crap would be allowed if the Senate pushed back on it. Or even if significant Republican governors or Congress people pushed back on it. And Romney has his own problems, so... I'm not too pleased with the fact that he agrees with so many other bad things that go on, but at least he had the courage of his convictions to vote for impeachment knowing the consequences. It means a lot to have a person who will stand up, even if he almost never does it in other situations.

[Phoebe]

It turns out that one of my doctors appears to have gotten some kind of weird Russian grifter bride who claims to be a doctor, yet is involved in a grifty type of snake oil sales company, and is spreading her mistrust of covid vaccines and testing around my community in a manner far more effective than, for example, I could manage to convey the opposite. She is a full scale trumpeter of Trumpism. Sad, but more importantly, time to get a new doctor. It's unfortunate because he was a good doctor, but luckily there are many other good ones who do just what he does, and there's no way I'm letting this dude earn a dime of money off me anymore. I used to think he was being very flirty with me and then I considered that was my imagination, but now that I know he was seeking out lady friends at that time, resulting in his acquisition of a strange grifter wife, well... glad I ignored him.

[Mike]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... trump.html

In the defamation case brought by Stormy Daniels against Tucker Carlson, Fox News's lawyers argued in federal court that Carlson is not a provider of “the news” as we know it, or “facts” as we commonly understand them, and his audience knows this. They said Carlson is not “stating actual facts” but simply engaging in “non-literal commentary.”

The judge, who is a recent Trump appointee, ruled that "no reasonable viewer" could possibly believe that Tucker Carlson is telling the truth, and she dismissed the suit.

So the GOP's "pack the courts" plan is working exactly as intended. And we hear about this particularly ludicrous case because it's about Tucker and Stormy and Trump. But imagine all the "boring" examples we never hear about that actually impact people's lives.

[poorpete]

One thing I'm absolutely sick of is the "throwing-shit at the wall and seeing what sticks" defense of everything. It's kinda like gaslighting, but maybe should have a different name, though the purposeful disorientation is the same.

Shitlighting?

Trumps taxes: they're fake, they're illegally gotten, it's a nothingburger, they prove how masterful he is as a businessman

Trump's "stand by" comment: he misspoke, he didn't misspeak since "stand by" actually means "stand down", but also those on the far-right... he didn't misspeak the election will be stolen by the minorities and communists so stand by. Update: he just added "I don't know who they are" to the list.

[Phoebe]

I'm not sure how widespread the use of this term is among logicians or others, but informally this sort of thing might be called "kettle logic".

[poorpete]

[Mike]

Gah! In the midst of hopelessness and sadness and fear and resignation, I somehow keep forgetting anger. Anger is so exhausting to maintain, and so it numbs into miserable acceptance over time. But fuck that... I'm mad!

As Trump and his aides and cronies and GOP senators are testing positive for COVID-19, they all have one thing in common: they all knew they had been exposed, they all got tested, and they ALL went on with their normal schedules, attending large events with no precautions while awaiting results. This is the story being repeated over and over. Trump, Conway, Christie, etc. Willfully and horrifyingly irresponsible. All of them.

The American public should be outraged. Our guidelines here say that if you get a test due to potential exposure and/or two or more symptoms, then you have to quarantine at least until you get the results, which for us was three days. These people only had to isolate for mere hours, and they couldn't even do that. It's bullshit.

[FlameBlade]

They wanted to ram through supreme court pick that they are practically willing to infect others. Not a good look at all, and it appears that is currently an uncontrolled spread inside the capitol. It's all the no-name staffers who are also being infected! Capitol police! Janitors! Cafeterias!

Ironically, if GOP senate allowed voting remotely, this would have been a done deal. But to change the rules, you need 50 senators in there, and nobody is gonna show up because....of coronavirus.

[Phoebe]

I dare not wish for anything that relates to Mitch McConnell. Both because by wishing it I might guarantee that it doesn't happen, and also because by wishing I might somehow make it happen. We have not ruled out these potential forms of causation sufficiently for me to wish anything, but if I were a wishing sort of person, there might be some very poetic wishes.

[Kyle]

[Phoebe]

I don't want to fall into the clutches of evil so when a thought arises in the vicinity of Mitch McConnell, not in his role as a political being, but when I think about him as a flesh and blood and mortal human being, I have to put up a steel barrier and envision the thoughts striking against this steel barrier and then falling away harmlessly. It's kind of like the way Jimmy Carter thought it was wrong to think about having sex with people who aren't your wife. I think it's wrong to have the types of thoughts that would inevitably get in there if not for the barrier.

[Phoebe]

These Looney tunes are giving us two responses to the news about the kidnapping plot of the Michigan Governor: The kidnappers were actually leftist anarchists (no), and the kidnappers were at least justified in theory if not in specific practice because that terrible b**** was taking away people's freedoms. How do I get out of here and to Finland maybe?

[akiva]

[Phoebe]

Yes, just like that. Except also the schools, the forest schools. Perhaps these are like the Forest Cities our great Young one mentioned.

[Phoebe]

Have been having some discussions with voters. People do not reason well, and this is why they find themselves willing to continue supporting Trump. For example, they believe things like this:
All politicians lie. Trump is a politician; Trump lies. Biden is a politician; Biden lies. Thus they are identical in all ways relative to Lying and Honesty.

Masks cannot provide complete or even 90% protection against contracting an airborne virus. Therefore, they do not work at all and should be disregarded.

[Mike]

[Phoebe]

The truth of this slaps a person right upside the head like a wet fish. "If we lack total certainty, then we know absolutely nothing of use." HELP MEEEEEEEE