It looks like "spiritual author" (I guess 'self-help guru' is too passe), Marianne Williamson, is planning on announcing her presidential run to challenge Joe Biden.  Running mate?  Fingers crossed it's Russell Brand!  The campaign bus runs on patchouli and ashwagandha.

This bitch: "I just want to do whatever I can to help interrupt the status quo and be part of the solution.  What that means I’m not sure yet."

Hm.  I think I'll save my vote for the person who has a more clear idea of what the solution means.  "Let me break it, and figure out how to put it back together later!"
 

I just want to highlight a quote from Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert's (the brunette Marjorie Taylor–Greene clone, essentially) campaign manager Drew Sexton, as reported in the article:
 GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert caused a 'disturbance' and was escorted out of a performance of 'Beetlejuice' in Denver

"I can confirm the stunning and salacious rumors: in her personal time, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is indeed a supporter of the performing arts (gasp!) and, to the dismay of a select few, enthusiastically enjoyed a weekend performance of 'Beetlejuice,' " Sexton said in a statement to the Post.
Sexton said Boebert did not vape during the show but did use her cell phone, apparently unaware of the theater's policy. 

Well, that makes everything ok, doesn’t it?
Rep. Boebert is  such an avid “supporter of the performing arts (gasp!)” that she even attends shows during phone calls.
"Apparently unaware of the theater's policy." That's supposed to help her cause? Don't worry folks, she's not on drugs; she was just born this way. 
Also we have absolutely no respect for your intelligence. 

It's interesting to see the contrast between the House Republicans, which is heavily tilted toward its far-right 'Freedom Caucus' extreme, and the somewhat more mature Senate Republicans, especially in reaction this newly announced impeachment inquiry into Biden.  The sane conclusion is that it's a waste of time, because there's no conceivable outcome where the necessary 2/3rds of the Senate will convict.  In fact, considering how the Pubs only have a five seat advantage in the House, there's not even a great chance there will be a simple majority vote in the House to impeach.  Romney is a good example as someone shaking his head at this futility, as if these Freedom Caucus people can't understand basic math.  But even given this asininity, the Freedom Caucus folks, like Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, are actually demanding more.  After McCarthy gave the FC what they wanted, this impeachment inquiry, Gaetz immediately threatened to vacate McCarthy's Speakership position anyway.  They are the epitome of bad faith, and Kevin McCarthy is the definition of a nutless gimp.

So sure.  In a hall full of these kinds of people, even a xerox Rockefeller like Romney can look like a paragon of honor.
 

I can't find any info about whether Mitt Romney ever elucidated on his infamous "corporations are people" quote. His Wikipedia page looks like it was written by a PR firm. I wonder if it's AI–generated.

I can't neglect to mention the further development in Boebert's little "Karens' night out" story, it's just too... too noteworthy. 
Apparently, one of the audience members seated directly behind Boebert at Sunday’s show in Denver was a pregnant woman, the Denver Post reports. When the woman asked Boebert to stop vaping, she said the Congresswoman told her “no” point-blank.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Post that at intermission, she went to the usher to see if she and her husband could be moved to different seats. They were told they were “not the first complaint we had” about Boebert’s behavior. Upon returning to their seats, the woman says Boebert, an elected official, called her a “sad and miserable person.” Boebert’s companion—whom she apparently spent much of the evening kissing—then “offered to buy me and my husband cocktails. I’m pregnant!” the woman said.
The woman claimed she didn’t even realize it was Boebert who was seated in front of her until later in the show, only that Boebert and her companion were remarkably rude. “These people in front of us were outrageous. I’ve never seen anyone act like that before,” she said.
Shortly after intermission, Boebert and her companion were removed, though they apparently put up quite a fuss, involving the Congresswoman doling out the tried and true, “do you know who I am?” strategy à la Ted Cruz. At one point the police were called, adding this incident to a long list of Boebert’s varying run-ins with law enforcement. 

I was especially pleased to take that excerpt from a Jezebel article because it refers to a "pregnant woman," three times. Admittedly it then reverts to "pregnant people" a couple times at the end, but I can still get satisfaction wherever I'm lucky enough to find it. The article links to an arguably even more entertaining one about those equally disturbing and hilarious "varying run–ins with law enforcement," which includes revelations of Rep Boebert and her son living separate from husband/father Jayson Boebert in a farm house on the family property, the fact that the couple got married after having each established a track record of domestic violence charges against the other, and my favorite part: Jayson pleading guilty for exposing his penis to a couple of girls at a bowling alley in 2004 (indecent exposure is always a crowd pleaser). That certainly didn't stop Lauryn from marrying him. He would've been 19 or 20 at the time, so at least the girls were close to his age. I'm guessing she goes for that kinda thing.

Farmhouse. 
 

McCarthy out lol


Can't wait to see the trash bag that replaces him.

This week's cunt - Cenk Uygur

This dipshit asshole has been claiming, with all of his stone-skulled certainty, that Joe Biden "cannot" win in 2024.  Well, not with that attitude, I says.  Maybe this kind of divisive fatalism is exactly why progressives can't get anything done around here.  Uygur wrote an op-ed for Newsweek a couple of weeks ago spelling it out - "Mr. President: You're Going to Lose to Trump.  We're Begging You to Step Down".  Even barely acknowledging Biden's record of legislative accomplishments (in a rather back-handed way), Cenk spouts, "Even if you love those bills, no American even knows about them".  Hrm.  I guess I'm one American, so that's all that's needed for a non-zero amount of bullshit right there.  Maybe if people were spending the same amount of press ink writing op-eds to inform Americans about these bills rather than constantly taking the pessimistic route, that wouldn't be the case.

So let's be clear.  It isn't as if Cenk truly believes that Biden can't win.  "We need a new candidate", and who might that be?  Oh, wait, what?  Cenk Uygur is now running for president of the United States in 2024.  How about that?  Look at this selfless little prick: "It should not have been me, it should have been somebody else, but unfortunately it was not anyone else."  "I actually think democracy is on the line, and so if it takes me running, that’s what I’m gonna do."  Guys, Cenk doesn't want this.  He's willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the country.  That's why he spent months writing his new book, Justice is Coming, and prepping the media with a messaging tour following that op-ed.  Can't you see?  Those were just last minute attempts to stave off the necessity, not some kind of cheap publicity grounding for his announcement to run.  I mean, are we supposed to be as cynical about Cenk as he is about Biden?


(Cenk Uygur - Constipated Schmuck)


So this guy is such an expert of electoral politics that we should take his word and wisdom about Biden's chances of winning 13 months out from the election as stone-cold gospel?  (Didn't he also say that Trump could never win in 2016? Ah, shh shh shh)  What evidence do we have of his electoral prognosticating genius?  He was able to garner 6% of the vote in a bright blue California congressional district in 2020 in his only previous run for public office.  But it doesn't mean that he's not a genius just because he couldn't get 94% of his neighbors to vote for him.

Oh, and another sticky thing.  Cenk Uygur was born in Turkey, and constitutionally is ineligible to be president.  As in  he literally cannot win.  Never mind all of that, Cenk's got it, baby: "I have lawyered up", "And my guess is I’m going to have some strong allies in this. Arnold Schwarzenegger. I’m going to the Supreme Court. Either I’m going to win or I’m going to lose. Now this case is on our side. The precedent is definitely on our side. So, what are you going to do, brother?"  Vote for Cornel West maybe?  Does Schwarzenegger even know who you are, brother?  You know he's a Repulican, right?  And if he thought, like had the vaguest suspicion, that someone could overcome the "natural born" provision of the Constitution, then you don't think he'd be running instead?  And what is this "precedent"?  Obama?  Are you this fucking stupid or are you betting that we are?

But hey.  Sell some books, raise some suckers' money, inflate your little media empire.  Left is Shibboleth.

Vice is reporting the prosecution has discovered motive in the Trump documents case.

I honestly just always figured Trump was just enough of a weirdo that he would endanger himself by retaining all of these exciting boxes as mementos from his days in the Whitehouse. Yes, I think he would risk jail time for things to brag over, simply because I feel he simply assumed he'll never be held accountable for anything.

But if they are saying they've got a potentially proveable motive, what else could it be other than extortion, potential bargaining chips for exoneration or profit? All of which would seem to be monumentally bad for him.

Of course his asslickers will still vote for him anyways, but if they can get this thing to trial quick enough, and they can convict him...all probably big ifs...he's potentially monumentally fucked.

"We're going to smoke the terrorists."

"We're absolutely going to frack."

"Dick Cheney in three-inch heels."

I wasn't expecting this Republican debate to have so much homoerotic tension.
 

At a certain point, the fact that the leading candidate, according to current polls, for the presidency is a convicted fraudster currently in court trying to prevent his businesses from getting kicked out of the New York - in addition to two federal indictments, a state racketeering conspiracy and two cases involving sex scandals (is anyone going to apologize to Gary Hart, if they can even remember him?) - has to reflect more on our country's voting citizens than the politicians themselves.  And it most certainly should reflect poorly on our news media, reaping the crops of 25 years of turning our politics into a non-stop reality show.

And I continue to ask, what's so bad about Biden again?  "He's old."  There's definitely a terminal illness involved here.  And it seems like all, or at least most, of those Dems calling for Biden to step down, for the sake of the country, even readily admit that he's done an excellent job, arguably more accomplishments in one term than either Clinton or Obama, maybe combined.  It's surreal.  One party is all in on a criminal who's proudly admitting to the crimes he intends to commit when he wins, while the other party can't even reward their own success.  One party openly admits that they can no longer win electoral victories based on unpopular policies, so they double down on nativist exclusion and voter disenfranchisement, while the other party isn't even trying to win so much as fundraise off of being perpetual underdogs.

I'm still not sure how worried I should be, a year out from the election.  Trump's votes are locked in.  Those who will absolutely vote for him will not be voting for anyone else.  If Trump doesn't win the nomination of his party, those supporters are less likely to even turn out.  Additionally, those voters who will never vote for Trump are similarly locked in.  There's nothing Trump can do to win them over.  Outside of certain weasel Republicans (who I do not underestimate, btw), there's not a lot of new voters that Trump can add to his roster.  What I see with prospective Biden voters is that, yes, they are not enthusiastic about him, and they're restless to see someone newer or more exciting, but there aren't a lot of "never-Bidens" out there.  Push comes to shove, when it comes down to Biden v. Trump, Biden will have voters who may not be willing to commit to him in a poll this far out.  And Republicans understand this as well, which is why they're trying to push a more centrist candidate like Nikki Haley or Chris Christie instead, someone who more moderates and independents can be more comfortable seeing as an alternative.

It is interesting, and telling, how both parties are in this groove of disaster fundraising.  Most of both sides' calls for financial support hinge on these existential threats from the other side.  The problem is that whenever a party gets in power, rather than take the win and push an agenda, their like the dog who caught the car, they have no idea what to do now that their donors actually expect them to work for a living.

And there are some elements on the left who seem to have given up on the American experiment, who want to burn it all down, weaponize hypocrisy against their opponents and start to curb civil liberties which stand in the way of their utopian vision.  The crucial difference is that the dogmatic, authoritarian leftists don't appear to be capable of winning very many elections.  The Republican side is more all-in on the prospect of destroying the nation in order to save itself.