Spring Fever
Posted on: April 30, 2022
- In: Breaking News | Government | Insurrection | Politics
- 93 Comments
Happy Weekend Widdershins!
This past week saw some Twitter craziness as the world’s richest man – and one of its biggest social media trolls – Elon Musk announced that he’s buying Twitter. $44 billion was raised – much of it Musk leveraged his holdings in Tesla, which sent its stock plummeting. Whether the deal closes or not remains to be seen, but if it does Musk will turn Twitter into an incel-dominated (even more than it is now!) white supremacist neo-Nazi right-wing MAGA libertarian cesspool. In the past Musk supported Obama and HRC, but MAGA years brought out his libertarianism to the forefront. And all that is expected to happen right before the midterms! Funny that, isn’t it? The latest report is it was Peter Thiel and Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey who convinced Musk to make the bid. Talk about a deep state – billionaire tech-bros ravaging our social media landscape. We will have to wait and see how this all works out.
More Mark Meadows texts were released, including Maria Bartiromo of Faux News, hours before the insurrection, arranging with Meadows what questions she would ask Trump in an upcoming interview and giving Trump advice on how to handle himself. Nobody at Faux thinks this is problematic.
It also seems the January 6th Commission has announced that the first public hearings will be held June 9th. Fasten your seatbelts. Jamie Raskin says it will blow the lid off the House. I like Raskin’s enthusiasm, though I remain skeptical that anybody in the public cares about anything. Everybody knows what happened and none of it changed their minds. Kevin McCarthy has not been removed from his GOP leadership position.
The only Republican being destroyed by his fellow Republicans is Madison Cawthorn. GOP didn’t care that he’s an insurrectionist racist neo-Nazi fascist. But they did get really mad when he said he knows Republican lawmakers having cocaine fueled sex parties. Boy did that unleash a storm of GOP condemnation and leaks of materials embarrassing to Cawthorn. Suggestive (and homoerotic) photos and videos suddenly began leaking. That’s in addition to accusations of potential insider trading and inappropriate use of funds because, it seems, he’s been paying the bills of his staffer (and housemate and, possibly cousin. This is the man in the photos and videos with Cawthorn behaving like Rudy Giuliani with his cousins. In one video Smith is seen briefly grabbing Cawthorn’s crotch). Cawthorn is laughing the images off, but we will see how his election goes. What’s interesting to me about this is that Cawthorn is a new member of the GOP delegation. And GOP had all this stuff on him, ready to go. Imagine what the GOP has on everyone else, that doesn’t leak. How big is their file on Lindsey Graham? Is this how GOP keeps their caucus so on-the-message?
This is an open thread.
93 Responses to "Spring Fever"
April 30, 2022 at 1:32 pm
@2, quixote, yep, the RNC server as well as the DNC’s was hacked back in 2016, but oddly nothing ever leaked out about details for the Republicans info. Yet.
May 1, 2022 at 12:40 am
Great post, MB! Funny about Madison C. Now if only someone would spill some dirt on the rest of dump’s maga crew.
That rabbit is in heaven.
May 1, 2022 at 12:44 am
Hubs and I watched the correspondents dinner. We thought Joe and Trevor Noah did a good job.
I wish we didn’t have to wait until June for the hearings.
May 1, 2022 at 11:50 am
People need to wrap their head around the fact that mean “jokes” are not jokes at all. Not even jokingly. They’re just oneupsmanship, dominance plays, pure crap. Jokes are funny.
May 1, 2022 at 1:39 pm
@7, @9, On the Madame Speaker in Ukraine tweet, a reply said:
We know how much Pootie loves strong American women 😂 😂. Great team she brought with her. Very trustworthy.
May 1, 2022 at 2:19 pm
It will be interesting to see what happens with Cawthorn. What happens to an upper echelon Trump MAGAt when the old guard Repub. Estab. goes after them? Will the debased base rally to his defense? Normally, I would say, “yes”. The base (including the holy roller type) overlooks lying, criminality, immorality, sexual predation of women (even underage women/girls) easily. But suggestions of homosexuality? *Male* homosexuality? That might be a bridge too far.
May 1, 2022 at 9:57 pm
Love the post, D! I can’t wait for the hearings. While you’re very likely right that the MAGATs won’t change their minds about anything, I hope the treason revealed will motivate apathetic voters to check the “Democrat” boxes in November.I
Quixote – I could not agree more about mean “jokes.” So many of them are just masking hostility towards marginalized people. In fact, I rarely think male comedians are funny because most of them are insanely misogynistic.
That Drumpf rant about dangerous fruits…wow. This was last October. He sounds completely unhinged. How did we make it through four years of his toxic lunacy?!
May 2, 2022 at 1:23 pm
Little goats are so darn cute, especially when they are jumping.
May 2, 2022 at 1:26 pm
I love that Nancy and her friends in Congress went to meet Zelensky and I agree with you Annie @8.
May 2, 2022 at 5:14 pm
Shadowfax, the rating system basically says that all dogs are too cute to receive a score less than 10/10. So the starting point is 10 and then every score is some points above 10 out of 10.
Also
May 2, 2022 at 6:27 pm
Holy shit! Rachel is reporting there is a draft opinion out there that appears to show the Supreme Court has overturned Roe vs. Wade.
May 2, 2022 at 6:43 pm
Here’s a link with more information.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473
May 2, 2022 at 6:47 pm
GAGal I just came here to say the same thing.
Hillary was right about EVERYTHING.
May 2, 2022 at 11:22 pm
I think they are overplaying their hand. I don’t think things are going to go down the way they envisioned it (See Putin).
May 2, 2022 at 11:27 pm
@30 – totally agree.
Some people are saying this was leaked to lessen the impact on the elections. That’s BS. Local and state elections are starting soon; and besides, the longer this ban is in effect the worse things will get and the more pissed off women will be.
They have unleashed the real Kraken.
May 3, 2022 at 1:29 pm
Young women were warned about this BEFORE Dump stole the election from Hillary.
Then the damn Women’s March was scheduled, (too late), AFTER the election. I marched in San Francisco and tried to tell young women that Dump would try to over turn Roe vs Wade…they seemed to think I was exaggerating. The sign I protested with showed Hillary’s photo on one side and, “I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit!”, on the other side.
It’s time for the this generation of women to pick up the fight along with the men that love them.
May 3, 2022 at 2:36 pm
@34 – I agree. I can’t understand the complacency of people who thought the wingnuts wouldn’t do this. Of course they would – they’ve been promising to overturn Roe v. Wade for 40 years. At some point they were going to lose their base if they didn’t deliver.
This is why the evangelicals were so faithful to Drumpf. They knew he’d get this done for them.
May 3, 2022 at 3:12 pm
@26, the picture of Madame Everything — sniff, sniff.
@34, The Women’s March — I was furious that Hillary was, well, overlooked and even scorned by so many people (which included many women). I marched with my sign “Thank You Hillary” on 1 side and “Women’s Rights are Human Rights — HRC” on the other side. In WA DC the speakers included Michael Moore speak (angry face) but not Hillary.
Of course with Trump in power the wingnuts would move in to clamp their laws on the rights of women and POC. I spit on everyone who thought there wasn’t much difference between the two candidates.
Said it over on SD but will repeat here too: Everyone who did not cast a vote for HRC in 2016 — Congrats, you idiot, you made this possible.
May 3, 2022 at 3:43 pm
37 & 38 Luna
I totally agree, if the Supreme’s are able to change the law of the land, other Supreme’s passed before, then the value of the Supreme Court is absolutely worthless, taking another big hit at our Republic.
I know some young women and men that voted for Bernie and later refused to vote for Hillary.
They proved that the promise of free stuff from a loser is more important than women’s rights and many other rights that the born again Dump supporters are against.
May 3, 2022 at 7:26 pm
Why anyone follows Sarandon is beyond me.
I filed her under ‘Crackpot’ and ignored her many moons ago.
May 3, 2022 at 11:09 pm
@39 – I like the way she said that. My hubby told me that the guy Alito quotes in his opinion lived in the 17th century, was a witch burner,and laid the legal foundation for the permission of marital rape.
Sounds about right.
May 3, 2022 at 11:44 pm
Sorry about that – can’t find the link now. But I saw that ActBlue raised $10M since the brief was leaked.
May 4, 2022 at 4:47 am
I know I’ve said before that I don’t really care for Tim Ryan and I still don’t.
But if he pulls off a win in Ohio and beats JP, JD Mandel (snort) I mean Hillbilly Jimmy D, I’ll be a fan for life.
May 4, 2022 at 9:57 am
A charging stampede is coming for him and mealy-mouthed Mitch puts up his hands – “Hold on there. Concentrate not on the leaked draft, but the fact that the draft was leaked.”
SPLAT. Pop goes the weasel.
May 4, 2022 at 11:08 am
I don’t really trust the younger generation of women. That’s probably not fair – it’s just the way I feel.
But a strange thing has been happening to me. Like the song goes,
I feel it in my fingers
I feel it in my toes
Love that’s all around me
And so the feeling grows
I feel the presence of all the women that have come before us. Seriously. I do. I trust *them*.
May 4, 2022 at 12:08 pm
This leaked draft is like the intel on Putin. They are lining up their tanks. Everyone can see it coming. Their target is women despite the made-up bullshit about going after NAZIs, I mean “saving babies” in this case. And like with Putin, I’m saying, “that’s really stupid”. This will not end well for YOU. But Alito et al. will pull the trigger, light the fuse, just like Putin. Why? Because they’re scorpions and it’s in their nature. The destruction they cause is worth the destruction to themselves.
May 4, 2022 at 1:45 pm
May be of interest to the Widdershin birdwatchers. The classes are free or by donation.
May 4, 2022 at 2:46 pm
Agree PJ – women are FIRED UP. And, they are coming after a total abortion ban. Right now, women in blue states are safe…but not if they have their way.
Luna – love the tweet and the Audobon classes!
May 4, 2022 at 4:10 pm
@54 Wow. I think McCarthy genuinely wanted off the Trump train (although who knows for sure). It’s turning out not to be a ride you can just get off of because you want to – because it’s not fun anymore. Trump is like a soul-sucking whirlpool. Once you realize what you’re in, it’s too late to get out.
May 4, 2022 at 6:15 pm
@58 OMG. This is starting to have a real Buffalo Bill vibe to it.
“It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.”
“It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.”
May 4, 2022 at 6:56 pm
We’re on baby steps towards Saudi levels of dystopia, and, right on cue, one of those levels is this:
A handful of men in adtech are planning to get rich off selling the data of any woman attempting to secure an abortion directly to law enforcement.
Here are faces of the men behind @SafeGraph
.
Our very own home-grown Mutaween. At that cute smiling toddler stage.
May 4, 2022 at 9:14 pm
@61, every so often the deception is removed and we can see the uncovered hate.
May 5, 2022 at 7:19 am
@61 – the more technically adept version of the tracking spreadsheet ICE used to monitor women’s periods and pregnancies during the Drumpf era.
These people are sociopaths.
Have y’all seen this?
May 5, 2022 at 10:27 am
Yesterday I wrote a post about how women should get over the shock of what the Supremes are planning to do and prepare to f.i.g.h.t.
WP just erased my post, first time in months.
I am pist about what’s happening and every woman should be.
May 5, 2022 at 10:32 am
If the Supremes accomplish this evil deed, instead of women crawling under a rock, wouldn’t it be better if the majority of women declare they are pregnant and planning to have an abortion, in public? Even those of us that are beyond child bearing years…
May 5, 2022 at 11:01 am
LOL – I love it @65!
The most important thing we can do is mobilize women who don’t vote, IMO. There are WAY more of us than there are of Christofascist white supremacists who want to go back to the 1600s. Voting Dem in every election will fix this really damn quick.
May 5, 2022 at 11:12 am
Too much to put on the back of a t-shirt? 😉
“Hillary Clinton warned us, over and over, about what would happen if the opposition’s demagogue was handed the reins of power. (snip).
She got it right during the 2016 debates when she spoke directly to Trump: “(Putin) would rather have a puppet as president. (We know) that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States of America, that you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do. And that you continue to get help from him, because he has a very clear favorite in this race.”
She got it right in 2016 when she warned about the MAGA movement’s animosity toward people of color: “Trump is reinforcing harmful stereotypes and offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters. It’s a disturbing preview of what kind of president he’d be.”
She got it right in 2016 when she warned that the GOP would target gay people all over again, regardless of “the progress that we fought for, that many of you were on the front lines for. It may not be as secure as we once expected.”
She got it right in a 2016 speech when she warned that “a fringe element has effectively taken over the Republican Party. And this is part of a broader story – the rising tide of hardline, right-wing nationalism around the world…So no one should have any illusions about what’s really going on here.”
She got it right in 2016 when she warned about a fragile future for women’s reproductive rights: “The fact that our next president could appoint as many as three or four justices in the next four years (demonstrates) that we can’t take (those rights) for granted. Just consider Donald Trump, the Republicans’ presumptive nominee…He has pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade…And that’s why this election is so important. The outcome of November’s contests is going to be a deciding factor in whether our elected officials and our courts defend or attack a woman’s right to health care for generations to come.”
She’s still getting it right, by the way. Last year she noted: “There is a plot against the country by people who truly want to turn the clock back. They believe that the progress we’ve made on all kinds of civil rights and human rights, the cultural changes that have taken place, are so deeply threatening that they want to stage a coup.”
If that coup is completed in 2024, don’t say that Hillary didn’t warn us.”
https://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2022/05/04/hillary-clinton-keeps-getting-it-right/
May 5, 2022 at 11:21 am
Great ideas! I think women will fight back in every way they can. I think they’re going to find a power they never knew they had.
The shock is going to be to the small “c” Christofascists when they are not greeted as liberators. (The big “C”s know exactly what they’re doing)
“C”s… double entendre?
May 5, 2022 at 11:51 am
Thank you for posting that, Shadow @67. Like MB said, Hillary was right about EVERYTHING.
MB, I forgot to hat tip your hubby on catching that early @45. Wouldn’t you love to have that guy (Hale – or Alito) as a father, grandfather? {{{{shiver}}}}
May 5, 2022 at 1:49 pm
I think we should put those kids to work. Fuck the Child Labor Laws. Was public education in the original Constitution? No, I don’t think so.
But you know, “total dicks” wasn’t mentioned in the Constitution either. Where does Alito get his rights from?
May 5, 2022 at 2:20 pm
@65, Shadowfax, yes, I think it’s time we really turned up the volume on protests!
The Republican woman-haters are planning this in LA:
“The legislation, which passed through a committee on a 7-to-2 vote, goes one step further than other antiabortion bans that have gained momentum in recent years, which focus on punishing abortion providers and others who help facilitate the procedure. Experts say the bill could also restrict in vitro fertilization and emergency contraception because it would grant constitutional rights to a person “from the moment of fertilization.”
May 5, 2022 at 2:51 pm
I guess it’s time to drag out this old song, ‘Every sperm is sacred’.
Get ready ladies, this may become the National Anthem if the Supremes have their way…
May 5, 2022 at 6:30 pm
Everyone that cares about equal rights needs to be as angry as Gillibrand is in that clip and fight like Hell from this day forward, period!
May 5, 2022 at 11:56 pm
I was so upset when I heard Psaki was leaving. She’s a gem. And now I find out it’ll be Karine Jean-Pierre! Wow. She’s great! I’m so happy to hear that. I’ll still be able to look forward to memorable briefings and clips! W00T!
May 6, 2022 at 9:44 am
@76, Righteous rant from Sen. Gillibrand! She’s on fire! Good that she calls this issue out for the assault on women’s bodily autonomy, and contrasts it with the lack of any government regulation on men’s control of their own bodies.
Although for me she rather spoils it at the end by saying unplanned pregnancy could happen to trans persons. Uh, no. Trans-identified men cannot get pregnant. . Trans-identified women are or have been taking high levels of testosterone and often have hysterectomies, so they can’t get pregnant. If they still have a uterus and manage to conceive or get IVF implanted, they’re carrying with an atrophied reproductive system. And without breasts they can’t breastfeed. Although why someone who wants to be male also wants to be pregnant and birth a child — a uniquely female activity — makes no sense to me.
@80, glad to hear that Jean-Pierre will be a good press secretary. But ABC News — she’s not gay. She’s lesbian. (grumble grumble something about accurate language…)
May 6, 2022 at 9:47 am
The Obama’s dog Bo has died. They still have a younger dog, Sunny.
“[Bo] tolerated all the fuss that came with being in the White House, had a big bark but no bite, loved to jump in the pool in the summer, was unflappable with children, lived for scraps around the dinner table, and had great hair.”
May 6, 2022 at 1:24 pm
While the credibility of the Supreme Court is going up in flames… Whoosh. Gone in 60 seconds.
In other news, today was the deadline for states to submit their applications to be “first in the nation” for the 2024 Dem primary for president. They will later have to give oral arguments of why they should go first, or near first. No more of this divine right shit or because we’ve always done it that way crap. The final decision will be made in July. I’m disappointed that it sounds like they’re going with only one state first. It’s too much pressure and too much power for one state (and DYB agrees with me). 🙂
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/06/democratic-primary-2024-dnc-early-states-00030560
May 6, 2022 at 1:59 pm
@83, The first primary should have at least two states in different regions of the US. In fact all of the primary sessions should be like that. We need to see how candidates do in disparate areas.
May 6, 2022 at 3:24 pm
I like where some people are going in their efforts to fight back. Like,
“Bullets stop a beating heart”
Dumb-billies only think in short phrases like that. You have to push back in their language. And repetition really works with them. And signs. Lots and lots of signs with the same message on them. Call it “counter-brainwashing”.
May 7, 2022 at 9:28 am
I’m thrilled about KJP being Biden’s press secretary. She is phenomenal. I will miss Jen Psaki but she is going to be on MSNBC sometimes. We haven’t seen the last of her!
I agree we should have more than one state go first in the primaries. This idea of Super Tuesday is silly. We should have even groups of states that are selected for their ability to mirror the results of the general. So super red states can be grouped together and go later, while key states like Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Texas and Wisconsin can be moved up in the rotation.
Big blue states can be sprinkled in the mix so we don’t get ignored. New York, California, Illinois, etc.
Love Gillibrand’s speech!! It didn’t bother me what she said at the end
I heard from my trans mentee that some trans men don’t have surgery on the top, which makes me think they aren’t necessarily taking hormones either. Some in the community think this is “passing” and call it transphobic. I think both statements are gross, as “passing” is appropriation of a term used by Black people, and “transphobic” is massively judgemental.
Sorry to hear about Bo!
May 8, 2022 at 12:14 am
I keep thinking of the bad faith acts it took to get the current make-up of the Supreme Court. There’s a verse in the bible that says something about that:
“Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.”
And I’m sure McConnell missed this…
“His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.”
I’m visualizing Alito, gleefully rubbing his little hands together watching the pit being dug for women. But he too should have read his bible.
“He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.”
But since I’m not a bible thumper, I’ll just go with Celie from The Color Purple: “The jail you plan for me is the one you’re gonna rot in. Everything you done to me, already done to you.”
Comments are closed.
The Widdershins 
April 30, 2022 at 11:41 am
I’ve been sure for years that blackmail is the secret sauce among Repubs. I’m also convinced most of it is information about how they “won”/stole/jimmied their elections to get into and stay in power. And that significant bits of that info are in Putin’s hands.
It explains so much of their bizarre behavior, but that doesn’t make it so, of course. We may never get proof.