Wow Biden's border patrol seizes lethal opioids and not first graders. https://t.co/370BPh53If
— Reinstated Doorknob Licker (@agraybee) July 19, 2021
The mockery is all over twitter, but Biggs’ ‘outrage’ is an exemplar of the current Repub problem: They’ve gotten so increasingly abstruse with their invocations that it’s become difficult for normal people to follow. Biden seizes all the fentanyl is… supposed to be a bad thing, to the GOP Death Cult?
I am glad somebody in our government is standing up to the Biden administration's blatant disregard for fentanyl's Fourth Amendment rights. https://t.co/sHuG4NpBZJ
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) July 19, 2021
is he….mad that people were denied all that fentanyl? https://t.co/PtzDWRy26R
— zeddy (@Zeddary) July 19, 2021
Which reminds me of how Trump raided the Coast Guard budget to pay for his border stunts. A service…that does genuinely important work at stopping high-level, cartel-controlled trafficking…gutted so he could take kids away from parents. https://t.co/JbJktWwpex
— zeddy (@Zeddary) July 19, 2021
Horrors to be followed, come the midterms, by statements like Biden cuts child poverty in half! and Under Biden, new infrastructure in every state!
The Base will be duly horrified, but what about the rest of the voting public?
phdesmond
that’s funny — i was just thinking about fentanyl!
Roger Moore
I assume we’re supposed to be shocked at how much is coming across the border and not think we know about it because it was seized. I also notice they talk about how many people it will kill, not how many doses or what the street value is. I guess that’s the most sensational way to talk about it.
Jerzy Russian
Christ, what a (Bigg) asshole!
Yutsano
The Coast Guard needs to be brought into the DoD yesterday if not sooner. And the DHS needs to be dissolved. And yes Biden could do that with a couple EOs. All that shit is Executive Branch. That shit needs to stop.
Quiltingfool
OT: My cat dragged her fluffy bed from my sewing room (where she conducts her sewing supervision job) into the living room. Okay, guess she wanted to be comfortable while supervising me reading; however, she jumped into my lap and promptly fell asleep. What a silly heart!
Oh, on topic, GQP doesn’t know whether to shit, run or go blind. I swear, if I were a Republican voter, I’d be ashamed. Which is why I’m NOT a Republican voter.
sdhays
@Yutsano: DHS was formed by statute. Can Biden actually completely reorganize the departments or even eliminate one through EO?
James E Powell
I am truly shocked at the number of people pushing back on the “Pelosi made the 1/6 committee into a worthless partisan witch hunt” narrative being promoted by McCarthy and all the Beltway Courtiers.
jl
This story’s confusing and I’m not sure what to think. Stopping good drugs at the border is bad. But fentanyl is too dangerous for my taste, but hey, if Biggs likes it and can wake up the next morning, who am I to judge?
Theoretically, stopping good weed at the border would be bad, but it’s legal where I live now. So, who cares?
I’ll have to think about it some more. Once I get it figured out I’ll write Joe on what drugs to let in and what drugs to stop. And recommend regular welfare checks on Biggs, who’s living way too large.
NotMax
Fox news ticker:
Reports of Biden’s seizures leaked
//
jl
@NotMax: The ones from the aneurysm 30+ years ago? Or something else?
sdhays
@jl: I think he was making a joke about the seizures of fentanyl. Hence the //.
Jay
@jl:
is Biggs the same GQP Moron who complained that Mexican smuggled meth was putting all the domestic meth trailer workers out of work?
LeftCoastYankee
It would explain a lot if these loons were on fentanyl.
Roger Moore
@Yutsano:
They probably belong in either Transportation (if their primary function is assisting navigation) or Treasury (if it’s stopping smuggling). They’ve bounced around between them in peacetime and the military in wartime.
NotMax
@jl
Made up, in the style of how that network rolls. Snark tag was included as an indicator.
sdhays
@Jay: I think that was the representative from Montana. Or the GQP Senator. Definitely from Montana.
L85NJGT
@Roger Moore:
My understanding is law enforcement is what keeps it out of DoD.
Jay
Arclite
Did you know that if you type “wide stance” into Google, the first thing to come up in the results is Larry Craig? ?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@jl:
I think Biggs’ comments were more meant to show that, based on the replies to that zeddy tweet:
At least, that’s what the replies said. Basically, he’s not literally mad that Biden seized a lot of fentanyl. Kinda what Roger was hinting at in comment #2
Biggs is still an asshole though
NotMax
@Jay
Um, Patrick Leahy is third in line.
Just sayin’.
mrmoshpotato
@Quiltingfool:
Very optimistic to think the GQP didn’t drown their shame in a bathtub decades ago. :)
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Gross exaggeration. It was drowned in a thimble. With room to spare.
:)
James E Powell
That’s what I was wondering. I saw a poll today that had Biden’s approval among independents at 52% – and it’s good that it’s positive, but only 52%? What the hell are they looking for?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Also forgot to mention, I’m not really sure what Biggs expected the Biden admin to do differently, honestly, if that’s what his “outrage” comment is referring to.
Edit:
This “Wallie West” explains the outrage bit (bit a raging asshole tho):
So, I guess that’s what Biggs’ “outrage” comment is referring to. Apparently, in his mind, the media is being hypocritical wrt this drug bust vis a vis coverage of Trump vs coverage of Biden
Roger Moore
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
One more example of why it’s a fool’s errand to use Twitter as a forum for nuanced argument. 280 characters is not enough, and it’s too easy to take one tweet from a multi-tweet thread out of context.
quakerinabasement
This is right. Last month, they were carrying on about the shocking increase in arrests at the border. The logic, supposedly is that an increase in arrests means more migrants are emboldened by Biden’s welcoming, open borders policies.
So this clown tried to extend that reasoning (and I choose that word with a laugh) to the seizure of drugs at the border. Apparently he thinks the public will hear about the drug seizure and make the necessary leaps to conclude, “Gosh, that Joe Biden is really asleep at the wheel.”
L85NJGT
@mrmoshpotato:
Well… there is that GOP senator who drowns his shame in bathtub gin.
Roger Moore
@James E Powell:
A lot of those “independents” are still consistent voters for one party; they just don’t want to commit to joining. This is a huge reason to ignore the stuff about Republican registration cratering as proof they’re going to fall apart any day now. There are a lot of people who call themselves independents because they’re ashamed to admit they vote Republican. Every time they lose big, people will temporarily call themselves independents, even though their voting propensity hasn’t changed.
Chetan Murthy
@Roger Moore: Knew some like that early in Obama’s time: they were pretty ashamed of The Shrub. Somehow, paradoxically, they voted for TFG. Paradox, that: I challenge you to explain it. //
Yutsano
@Roger Moore: Independents are embarrassed Republicans. This is known.
Caphilldcne
The US needs to completely reconsider its drug policies. Sadly I guarantee much more fentanyl made it into the country than has been seized. We need to be thinking about safer supply policies, consider overdose prevention centers (aka safe consumption sites), getting way more balo one out to people who use drugs, their friends and families, passing effective Good Samaritan laws and funding syringe access sites throughout the US. Sadly we seem stuck in a mindset of criminalization first when we need a much more public health oriented approach such as in Portugal.
Chetan Murthy
@Caphilldcne: IIUC, people consume fentanyl b/c it’s easier to get ahold of than heroin. But heroin isn’t hard to produce at all, and if it were decrminalized/medicalized, there’d be no reason to import fentanyl at all. Safe injection rooms with clean gear, prescription access to these drugs, freely available treatment for those who want it, and I think most of the harm would go away. As well as the need for addicts to commit crimes to sustain their habits.
All this is known. Nothing gets done about it. Sigh.
jl
@NotMax: Oh, OK. I didn’t notice the //. Biden had some seizures when he had the aneurysm, so I went into alarm mode.
jl
@Jay: @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
If that is Biggs’ logic, then the more fentanyl that is seized at the border, then the more is getting through. Not a very good argument. Sounds more like a jackass intent on making a stink no matter what happens.
I agree Biggs is an a-hole.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@quakerinabasement:
Pretty much this
@Roger Moore:
Exactly. Biggs worded it poorly and made it easy to mock him. He intended to dishonestly link Biden’s policies to the drugs coming into the country and was whining about the media being “unfair” to Trump vs Biden. Attacking Biden and being a Trump sycophant all in one tweet, a twofer!
Chetan Murthy
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Y’know, thinking about this yutz Biggs, it seems like it’s a textbook example of GrOPer bullshit at work.
You can see what I mean, yes? Biggs draws conclusion #2.2, whereas I would draw #2.1.
It’s an example of how the conclusion comes first, and then the evidence for it is adduced.
HumboldtBlue
My right ring finger could use some fentanyl.
Check this finger injury story out.
For the past three weeks or so I’ve been walking the neighbor’s dogs, two beautiful big strong girls, A and M.
Their mamas are small women, so after they asked me to feed and walk them over a three-day weekend while they were away, I kept at it because the dogs and my fat ass need the exercise.
We’ve worked on leash discipline (a big one, particularly when M sees a cat or a bird or A sees a pile of shit she’d like to roll in) and it’s slowly catching on.
Today it’s walking time, 1:15, I walk M, we get back and A is raring to go as always. We finish with her walk and then begin what I can only assume is the single greatest activity ever created on this earth — fetch.
A loves fetch the way I love a bowl and an ice-cold Pabst or the way current GOP members love being traitors.
We get to tossing the ball, and A is happier than if she hadn’t tried her mightiest to roll in the fresh pile of dog shit in the second alley over (and managed to get some shit on her leg and neck, the dumbass) and it’s back and forth, dust kicking up, leaping snatches of the bouncing ball until the time she missed and ran into the fence.
An aside — as I walked her through that alley she alerted to some movement and as I looked down I met the gaze of a homeless woman huddled beneath an overgrown bush, wrapped in a bag and I told myself that it was the need to control A I kept moving without a single second of human acknowledgement.
We get back and it’s ball time. Half a dozen tosses over the rhody in the back yard, half a dozen tosses under the rhody.
On toss 13 A is standing 12 inches from me as I lean down to pick up the ball for another toss. She’s all business, ball covered in spit and happy dog drool, mouth open, panting, excited for the next chase.
I grab the ball feeling it slip and slide in my fingers trying to find a grip on the slime and start my upward underhand motion to toss that sucker back over the rhody.
I come up strong, and my right ring finger meets her canine and slices me open nearly to the bone.
I knew it was bad, I’ve seen wounds as an EMT/firefighter, but that was MY finger and that was MY subcutaneous fat oozing out from the flow of blood.
Long story short.
Five hours later (Urgent Care didn’t wish to address the injury, so I was forced to the local hospital ER) I’ve got six stitches, 10 days of antibiotics and a hurting digit.
All from the toss of a ball.
Jay
@NotMax:
take it up with Liz Cheney, not me.
Caphilldcne
@Chetan Murthy: yes, completely agree. There’s a need for a safe unadulterated and regulated drug supply.
HumboldtBlue
I see Jon Stewart is back at work checking in on the modern space race.
Brachiator
Are conservatives writing Onion headlines again?
Mary G
Capitol Police Officer’s lawyers go off on Tuckums:
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
I think you’re in California and I am sure that this has come up before, so I am a bit surprised that you continue to perpetuate this myth.
In California, as many people register as nonpartisan as register as Republicans.
Other states show a similar trend. And these people are not reluctant to commit to the mainstream parties; they are often dissatisfied with policy or other issues.
But in voting, independents may lean toward one party or another and in most federal and state elections, California independents tend to vote for Democrats.
And yet I guess that despite political reality, some people will cling to the idea that Independents are just Republicans who refuse to fess up. I think this hurts Democrats more, because they are ignoring a voting block that often agrees with them.
Chetan Murthy
@Brachiator: The [embarrassed about Bush, then Trumpist] “Independents” I knew lived in NC (from WI & SC originally).
eclare
@HumboldtBlue: I have no doubt A feels very sorry to have done that! Seriously, glad it wasn’t worse. My uncle’s dog jumped on him, happy to see you!, my uncle fell and tore his ACL.
eclare
@HumboldtBlue: Hahaha
Brachiator
@Chetan Murthy:
I focused on California because I know this state well. But I suspect that other states are more complicated than some want to admit. The political conventional wisdom only allows for an existential battle between Good and Evil, Democrats vs Republicans. And we must choose one side.
But I keep seeing national polls regarding presidential approval where Independents favor Biden. This should tell you something.
Anne Laurie
@HumboldtBlue: Ugh! As someone who ended up in the hospital for an accidental dog bite (smol dog grabbed the towel I was holding, punctured my palm by mistake), I can completely sympathize with your pain.
Suggestion, from that experience: Well-fitting work gloves, for all future dog-walking expeditions. (I love my Bionics, but yes they’re pricey — you can experiment at the local hardware or garden center for gloves that fit you right.)
I also went through a ton of disposable gloves indoors during my recovery, putting a new one on every time I went near water or anything that might be however slightly soiled… the Spousal Unit rolled his eyes, but the hand surgeon was very impressed at how neat I kept my dressings!
eclare
@Brachiator: The “independent” I used to be friends with, who insisted he always considered both parties, voted R every time. Over time, under Obama, he became angrier and angrier and somewhat misogynistic. He considered every group to be a special interest except his, straight, white, Christian man.
The other “independent” that I dated briefly considered himself so because he thought pot should be legal. He refused to ride in my car when I put an “Attack Iraq: No” sticker on it, yet he never wanted to drive. That was the end of that.
Anecdata from TN and GA.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
I’m sure the media will attack Biden for interdicting all these drugs as it reduces supply and leads to higher prices, which is inflationary.
HumboldtBlue
@eclare:
She’s a good girl and I asked the mamas to give her some love, she has no clue what happened.
Other than getting a taste for blood. Human blood. My blood. Oh shit it’s a horror movie. Duh-duh-duh!!!
@Anne Laurie:
I feel like a bootlegger getting away with a handful of rubber gloves and three nonadhesive bandages courtesy of my inside connection, the soon-to-be-RN who cleaned the gash and the PA who stitched me up.
Wait until I report about the bill.
Brachiator
@eclare:
I hear you. The majority of libertarians and Independents I talk to personally are often just angry right wing extremists.
But I have also known a lot of lefties who see the Democrats as too timid. And these are people I knew long before Bernie Sanders became a national figure.
In California, term limits were often pushed by lefty Independents who felt pushed out of the system.
Frankensteinbeck
I can’t believe everyone missed the actual point of Biggs’ tweet: Racism. To him and Republicans in general this is proof that Hispanic immigrants are drug dealing criminals and that only shutting down brown people crossing the Southern border is good policy. Republicans push/believe fanatically that anything else is the same as unrestricted ‘open borders’. And this isn’t Trump’s creation, it’s what catapulted Trump to the front of the pack in the primaries when he said it out loud.
Gvg
@NotMax: McCarthey wants to replace Peloisi which would make him third (unless his caucus then voted for someone else), it’s a remarkable statement because Liz Cheney Republican is saying it would be bad if her party won back the house majority as well as scorning McCarthey.
Gvg
@Brachiator: California is not typical of the rest of the country. Around here, Florida, independents lean Republican. Some are libertarian, some consider the Republican Party to be too soft, some are temporarily embarrassed by republicans but still vote for them….a lot of the not actually lean Republican dislike both parties and tend not to vote.
The temporarily embarrassed though are sometimes gettable votes. Obama and Biden both got some. So did Kerry actually.
It is also a way to vote in the primary that interests them that cycle. Actual candidates seem to have not forgotten independents even if some of us dismiss them.
prostratedragon
Tracking the secret lives of cats (Guardian)
Kay
With conservative justices gutting the Voting Rights Act I think we’ll get more aggressive and creative approaches from voting rights supporters. There’s always a lag between when conservatives knock down another firewall and when the opposition really gears up and starts thinking. This article is a good primer on what’s happened and the tools we have to work with. It’s just the basics, but it’s a jumping off point.
Frankensteinbeck
@Gvg:
Yeah, ‘Republicans who don’t want to admit it’ and lying to pollsters are a major American tradition, but it’s waaaay too broad a brush to paint the complex variety of ‘independents’ with. I’ve never seen figures that support embarrassed Republicans as more than a plurality, although again, ‘lying to voters’. There is a big chunk of winnable voters in there and they swing elections. It can also be hard to tell that chunk from liberals who are hard but not impossible to motivate.
Booger
@Roger Moore: I think that’s one of the features unique to fentanyl…the LD is absolutely tiny compared to other opioids and opiates. It’s truly pretty scary stuff from what I’ve read. When users mistake it for anything else, it’s an error that will last them the rest of their life.
SFAW
@James E Powell:
“Yes,
shehe got the COVID vaccine distributed quickly to as many persons as wanted it, and yes,herhis first relief bill kept millions of people from being evicted, and yes,herhis American Relief Plan will help keep millions of people out of poverty and set things on the right path for the future; but thatHillaryBiden — well, I JUST DON’T KNOW …”Geminid
@Brachiator: When Arizona voting rolls closed before last year’s Presidential election, Arizona public media reported that for the first time registered Democrats outnumbered non-affiliated voters, 32% to 31.7%. Republicans. Republicans still were ahead at 35%. That was a high turnout election, and it’s hard to see how Joe Biden and Mark Kelly could have won without carrying a majority of independent voters. In Colorado, the non-affiliated voters outnumber those of either party, but the state has two Democratic Senators who almost certainly were elected with a majority among independents.
Some political scientists looking into independent voting patterns find that 2/5ths consistently vote Republican, 2/5ths, and 1/5th are true “swing” voters.
I suspect the last group are mostly centrists who don’t like it if Republican office holders get too conservative, or Democratic ones are too liberal. My brother-in-law thinks this way. But he has voted Democratic the last few elections because the Republicans have, in fact, become too conservative, while Democrats like Senators Warner and Kaine, and Governors McAuliffe and Northam are liberal moderates or moderate liberals.
My brother-in-law would fit into that much derided category, “fiscally conservative, socially liberal.” Some people consider this type of voter a myth. But there is nothing mythical about Republican Governors in Vermont, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden carried these states by large majorities. Even allowing for a somewhat different set of voters in Presidential and off-year elections, I think these governors show that “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” swing voters can be a real factor.
SFAW
@Chetan Murthy:
Nah, his “conclusion(s)” is/are:
Illegals with calves the size of cantaloupes are dragging metric shit-tonnes of fentanyl across the border, so
A) We need the border wall ASAP
B) Biden!!!! Aieeeee!!!! BIDEN!!!!!!!!!! ARGHHHH!!!!!!
Benghazi!!!1!2!!ILLEGALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SFAW
Apropos of nothing in particular: I was skimming Collinson’s op-ed at CNN.com, wherein he quotes Treasonous Trump as saying the 1/6 insurrectionists were “loving,” and I found myself wishing he would just stroke out and die, so that I don’t have to read his insane, evil, disgusting utterings.
I ain’t there yet, but I can sense involuntary puking in my future, when reading TFG’s disgusting shit.
opiejeanne
@Gvg: No, she’s saying if the Rs get control of the House, McCarthy should not be the choice for Speaker.
I think she wants to be Speaker of the House.
Geminid
@Frankensteinbeck: The number of true swing voters is still significant, but it seems to have shrunk in the past decades. That is why shrewd political analysts now discount “conversion” strategies, and emphasize base motivation and GOTV tactics.
There are still a lot of unregistered, and non-voting registered voters out there. I’m not sure what forms of outreach to these people are effective. Some people are just not civically engaged and never will be. But Arizona Latino civic groups have made progress increasing voting in their community. And young people generally are an obvious target for outreach.
Barry
@James E Powell: “That’s what I was wondering. I saw a poll today that had Biden’s approval among independents at 52% – and it’s good that it’s positive, but only 52%? What the hell are they looking for?”
i have seen a poli sci guy discuss ‘independents’.
tl;dr: most are lying, and the ones who are not are pig ignorant.
Geminid
@Barry: Fotunately, successul Democratic politicians in purple states don’t dismiss independents as “pig ignorant liars.” Instead, they view at least some independents as “persuadable voters.”
NotMax
@Gvg
Fully aware she’s talking about McCarthy. Point is that (since 1947) the Speaker is second in the line of succession, not third.
quakerinabasement
If Republicans regain control of the House, it will be all investigation and no legislation.