Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How has Obama failed you today?

Wetsuit optional.

Verified, but limited!

Too inconsequential to be sued

Usually wrong but never in doubt.

Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

This Blog Goes to 11…

I showered with Rahm and all I got was this shitty blog.

Nevertheless, she persisted

All your base are belong to Tunch.

This blog is Obama’s Katrina.

Militantly superior in their own minds…

Almost as fun as hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Screw the Judean People’s Front. Splitters.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

An army of rabid, anonymous commenters

Technically true, but collectively nonsense.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Han shot first.

Hot Air and Ill Informed Banter

We still have time to mess this up!

This is how realignments happen…

You are here: Home / Archives for Anne Laurie

Anne Laurie has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2009.

Friday Morning Open Thread: Thank God for the Democrats

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NBC reporter, last night:

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Thursday-Friday, August 6-7

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Lest We Forget: Hiroshima Day

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Thursday Evening Open Thread: Meanwhile, in the Rust Belt…

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Remember yesterday’s Biden tweet?

Car news is to the Michigan press what entertainment news is to LA, or political news to DC:

… GM spokesman Jim Cain,when asked about an electric Corvette,said company policy is to decline to discuss future products.

But GM has said it will have an all-electric lineup across its brands one day, with Cadillac being the lead brand for that technology. Cadillac’s boss has said the brand lineup will be nearly all-electric by 2030.

GM did not plant any tip about an all-electric variant of the Corvette in Biden’s ear, said Jeannine Ginivan, GM spokeswoman.

“I don’t know who ‘they’ are who told him that, but we don’t have any news about any new electric Corvette,” Ginivan said, reiterating that GM does not discuss future product. “We are excited about the line of vehicles we have coming. We have the GMC Hummer electric pickup and tonight the Lyriq (SUV) reveal.”…

Explanation: Yep, Joe Biden actually is interested in classic cars — he doesn’t just play a ‘Vette guy for the pollsters.

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Immediately underneath that, ‘More Tweets’…

Another prominent Repub’s caught the ‘Rona…

(I’m sure Gov. Whitmer actually likes her Ohio counterpart, but all relationships between Michigan & Ohio are… historically fraught.)

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Thursday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

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Compare & contrast:

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Wednesday-Thursday, August 5-6

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It’s worth taking the 20 minutes to listen to this — and it’s worth sharing with those in your social media circles who may be relying on rumors instead of facts, too:

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Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: TrumpGriftWorld Can *Always* Get Weirder

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Last time we talked about Jacob Wohl, he was trying to convince the media that Senator Elizabeth Warren had turned a hunky young Marine into her personal sex slave. That was just risible, even if it lead to unsettling speculation about Wohl’s mindset. This latest stunt sounds like the sort of ‘cry for help’ where a deeply disturbed individual who isn’t put under supervision goes on to… well, you be the judge:

… The setting of the entire mess was the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an agency known largely as a bit of a backwater when it comes to the government’s foreign policy apparatus, but one with a $16.8 billion foreign aid budget. On Monday a political appointee and deputy White House liaison there, Merritt Corrigan, took to Twitter to accuse her employer of “anti-Christian” bias.

Corrigan’s appointment at USAID has been under fire for months over anti-gay tweets she made in 2019 and 2020, including accusing the United States of being a “homo-empire” devoted to a “tyrannical LGBT agenda,” tweeting that “female empowerment is a civilizational calamity,” and advocating for the creation of a “Christian patriarchy.” But on Monday, her targets were both USAID itself and House Foreign Relations Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel (D-NY), whom she accused of soliciting prostitutes. As Corrigan’s initial tweets went up, she claimed USAID gave her a 3 p.m. deadline to resign or be fired. When the deadline passed, Corrigan said she was fired…

Corrigan, who is/was apparently dating Wohl, announced that she’d be appearing Thursday in front of Wohl associate Jack Burkman’s Northern Virginia house—a site that has previously hosted farcical attempts to smear Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) with lurid sexual allegations. There, she would further denounce USAID, accuse a Politico reporter who covered her resignation of stalking her, and demand that Engel debate her and Burkman. In a press release announcing the press conference, Burkman and Wohl claimed that Wohl, who is currently facing two felony charges related to security sales in California, had “been working behind the scenes with Corrigan for months.”…

On Tuesday afternoon, Corrigan deleted her tweets attacking USAID and stopped responding to messages from The Daily Beast. Wohl claimed in an interview Tuesday that a coterie of Trumpworld personalities had convinced Corrigan to backtrack on her claims. And Burkman claimed that Corrigan had “buyer’s remorse” after sending her tweets…

But later in the day, a conduit sent a statement from Corrigan herself that was darker in implication. Corrigan now claimed she’d become the pawn of individuals who had attempted to “ruin” her.

“I would like to apologize,” it read. “Especially to the people who have been affected or hurt by the messages sent from my Twitter account, and the claims made in my name over the past 24 hours. I did NOT send these messages, and while I vehemently protested about them being sent in my name, my devices were not in my control. I see now that I was part of an abusive scheme and I was used to attack people that have nothing to do with me.

“I will not be participating in any press conferences as claimed in my name, and will have nothing to do with individuals who forced me to hand over my devices so they could control me and the output in my name. Due to naivete and inexperience, I became involved with people who abused my trust, conned me, and claimed they were working in my interest. I became powerless in a situation, and I deeply regret not reaching out to people who knew better, or could help me.”…

Thing is… the Trump administration didn’t hire Corrigan because she was ‘involved’ with Jacob Wohl; she was given a no-supervision sinecure because she represented what Trump’s handlers wanted to hear. Sorting out the various crimes for which this cartel can be punished is going to be even more complicated than the usual Truth & Retribution Reconciliation Commission, because it’s gonna require teasing out so many strands of genuine delusion mixed with the general criminality.

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