Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Naturally gregarious and alpha

Call the National Guard if your insurrection lasts more than four hours.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

I’m going back to the respite thread.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

It was down to kool-aid drinkers and next of kin at the trump White House

The house always wins.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

They are all Michael Cohen now.

Verified, but limited!

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Wetsuit optional.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

I’m only here for the duck photos.

Too inconsequential to be sued

I swear, each month of 2020 will have its own history degree.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Don’t bother to argue with people harriet tubman would have shot.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

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Late Night Open Thread: JD Vance Works Hard for Peter Thiel’s Money

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Vance is no longer running for office; his full-time job is performative outrage against the people Peter Thiel dislikes. (Which, I’m sure some misfortunate Ohio residents would warn me, doesn’t mean he won’t end up in office… )

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Friday Evening Open Thread: Spot the ‘Angry Political Activist’ !

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I’m guessing it’s not Officer Dunn…

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Late Night Open Thread: Little Prince Rand Is DETERMINED To Be Crowned the Worst Person in the Senate

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No matter how stiff the competition, Senator Paul is on it!

Per the Washington Post:

… The argument, which echoed an earlier dust-up, centered on Paul’s claim that the National Institutes of Health awarded a grant that partially funded a project that relied on “gain-of-function” research, a controversial practice that involves enhancing a virus in a lab to try to anticipate future pandemics. This type of experimentation has come under growing scrutiny as U.S. intelligence agencies investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus and the theory that it could have accidentally leaked from a lab.

Officials have repeatedly denied Paul’s allegations, and in a hearing in May, Fauci told the senator that the National Institutes of Health “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research” at the Chinese lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

On Tuesday, Paul suggested that Fauci had lied: “Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11 where you claimed that the NIH never funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan?” Paul asked.

“Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement,” Fauci replied, adding that the research had been “judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain-of-function.”

Paul then accused Fauci of “dancing around this because you are trying to obscure responsibility for four million people dying around the world from a pandemic.”

“I totally resent the lie that you are now propagating, senator,” Fauci shot back…

This is after Sen. Paul’s comments yesterday apparently failed to get him enough traction on social media:

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The Scarlet Letter

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Tom Nichols has a long piece in the Atlantic about what a scumbag that fathead JD Vance has turned out to be. More accurately, chosen to be. At any rate, one bit of the article just made me laugh:

My friend Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, tried to describe Vance recently and came up with “pathetic loser poser fake jerk,” but that is a lot of words. To distill the essence of Vance as a public figure, the word that enters my mind is an anatomical reference beginning with the letter a.

I do not use that word lightly or comfortably. I am, in the formal sense, a man of letters. I have been an officer of instruction at several institutions of higher education (and I remind you here that I do not represent any of them and speak only for myself). I would not advise my students to use the term.

This just cracks me up for several reasons. First off, intellectuals don’t need to tell people they are intellectuals. Anyone who refers to themself as a “man of letters” is more a pretentious douchebag than a, well, “man of letters.” Second, actual intellectuals have no problem using profanity, and if you doubt me go read or listen to Gil Scott Heron or George Carlin or Gore Vidal and on and on.

This faux gentility of our sophist elites, who spend their time getting the vapors if someone says fuck have more to answer for in regards to the decline of America than lead paint, and they can go piss off into the corner and have a wank. Having said that, JD Vance is an asshole, and no one should second guess themself when stating as much.

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Our Failed Plutocracy Open Thread: Where Is John Galt’s ‘Flying Dutchman’ ?

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Were I chosen Empress of Everything, one of my first projects — and not just for personal satisfaction — would be selecting the 39 miscreants most deserving of eternal exile on the ‘World’s first ‘yacht liner’’. Zuckerberg and his bro-pack (along with Peter Thiel, Erik Prince, Rebekah Mercer, et al) would certainly be among the top-ranking contenders…

… Measuring an impressive 728 feet, Somnio is to be the largest yacht in the world “by both length and volume” when it launches in 2024.

Somnio, which means “to dream ” in Latin, was devised by Winch Design and Tillberg Design of Sweden, and is to be built by Norwegian ship designer and builder VARD at a cost of around $600 million.

The gigantic vessel will be fitted with 39 apartments across six floors, as well as restaurants, bars and an onboard beach club.

However, the purchasing process is “by invitation or referral only,” with apartment prices starting at over $11 million. A spokesperson for the project confirms to CNN Travel that some have already been snapped up…

Each of the 39 apartments is to include “bespoke features” based on the buyer’s preferences, but a gym, a library, as well as inside and outside dining spaces are likely to be provided, according to a press release from Winch Design.

The designers behind Somnio believe it will offer those who splash out on one of its luxury properties the same level of service as a “seven-star” hotel, along with the huge benefits of owning a superyacht.

Health concerns have also been taken into consideration, particularly in in light of the pandemic, and the team stress that “world class medical care” will be available onboard, while pointing out that those on board will likely be kept “away from pandemics and other global risks.” …

Dr. Ronny Jackson will lead the healthcare service, and all the best sycophants from the political & media worlds — Chris Cillizza, Maggie Haberman, Jason *and* Stephen Miller, Sarah Huckerbee Sanders — will be assigned to provide the culinary, cleaning, and related services. But since the ship will never be allowed to make landfall, an actual trained crew of sailors & engineers will be rotated to the ship by helicopter, for the sake of the rest of us.

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Easy Targets Open Thread: J.D. Vance

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On the one hand, local primary which Vance may very well not even win. On the other hand: Hillbilly Sniping, Plutocrat Tonguebath author, now wholly owned & operated by Peter ‘Bathory’ Thiel. Schadenfreude!

… Vance is currently running for the Republican nomination in Ohio, a constituency where Never Trump Republicanism plays more poorly than it does in, say, Silicon Valley. Vance appeared on Fox News to confess his sins and plead forgiveness from the voters whose approval he now seeks…

Like any good capitalist, Vance pays careful attention to market signals and is quick to reposition his product when he has misjudged consumer demand. In his current role, he has tried to position himself as the enemy of the business elite (or at least the parts of the business elite not funding his campaign). Vance claimed that “career politicians” are “upset with me because I actually say what’s true — which is many of these people don’t care about their own voters; they think they’re either bigoted or they think they’re stupid.”

It is the other politicians who think Republican voters are stupid. Vance respects their intelligence enough to look them in the eye and beg their forgiveness for ever having suggested they are stupid to support Trump.

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Step 1 Completed In Chuck Schumer’s Strategy

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I agree with Adam’s analysis of Schumer’s strategy. I disagree that if you are going to call your senators, you must have a full understanding of the arcane maneuverings necessary to force Republicans to explicitly come out against voting rights (☑ today) and to convince Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to vote down the filibuster (to come).

So we are one step down the road. Continue to call your senators, particularly the ones who still like the filibuster, and tell them you are in favor of the For the People Act.

Update: Here comes the pressure. Add in your Congressional delegation’s comments! I’ll add tweets as I see them.

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