Liar's Polka

 

Host: At the end of the book you say, the very first thing you would do if you got to the WH that was different from Biden, is you would make sure Biden's dog was nowhere on the grounds. Commander say hello to cricket. Are you trying to look tough? pic.twitter.com/oAlQBHDCmd

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 5, 2024

"Liar's Polka", not "Liar's Poker" because this woman is moving her feet all over the place but doesn't have a lick of an idea how to play a game. She doesn't just kill her own dogs, but wants to kill Biden's dog? (Hint: A potential Trump VP candidate?)

That is not a Biden problem, that is very much a Kristi Noem problem. She is very tough on livestock and her imagined conversations with world leaders, but she is as dumb as her foot and a half of natural hair extensions and her prime-time makeover. 

So here is how dumb Noem wants to be--she supposedly read the galleys of her ghostwritten political memoir, and even voiced the audio book, but is only just now realizing she never met Kim Jong Un and that's a problem. Somehow someone else's problem. She says she met other world leaders, but she isn't talking about that because...I dunno. 

An Uncomfortable Win

 

Fox: About a quarter of Republicans are saying they will never vote for Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/ssxqi3Lsov

— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) February 25, 2024

I said a few weeks ago that what would be more interesting to me than the Democratic SC results would be how the GOP open primary turned out. South Carolina is pretty Trumpy, but a 40% showing for his opponent says something--and not because it's her home state.  She was always going to lose this primary, the question was:

By how much and what does it say about the electorate? 

Trump should have romped if we were just going by high-school educated, evangelical white voters. Women voters didn't elevate Haley. She's at 40%, not like, 15%, because of Independent voters (not really, appreciably, crossover-voting Democrats). 

The Water's Edge and the High Road

There's an idea about foreign policy regarding presenting a unified face. What President Joe Biden did today was give full support to Israel, denounced the actions of Hamas as evil, and pledged support to our regional friend. His statements were a profound statement on the ties of the US and our ally, Israel, against terror and a straightforward denouncement of terrorism. It was well-received by our allies. It was a clear message about our support of our ally and as with his great support of Ukraine in their resistance against Russia, he has made clear: we will support the ability of democratic nations to endure. 

I know we don't talk about that water's edge so much. Vietnam. Iraq. Afghanistan. There is a time to stay silent, and also a time when one must speak. 

But when human lives are at stake, the idea of being the guy who lays culpability for others' actions at one's opponents' doorstep just because is profoundly shitty, because it means you want something solved not today, but when it benefits you best.  And here's Tim Scott:

  

The Hamas Assault and the Great Opportunity

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel says the deadly attack on Israel is a “great opportunity” for Republicans pic.twitter.com/hfcZhHG4Mu

— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) October 7, 2023

There is nothing, nothing, like a tragedy to awaken the urge in Republicans to blame Democrats for it. I don't need to go further back than Benghazi. But I don't want to dwell on that--I will. I don't want to.

The missile strikes on Israeli citizens by Hamas is an unpardonable and wretched provocation that does nothing to liberate a single soul in Gaza. You can empathize with the cause of everyday Palestinians, and still nothing should come more naturally to you than to condemn this appalling and coordinated, obviously long-planned attack on Israeli civilians. They have slaughtered and terrorized families and kidnapped children. Whatever good will I have for Palestinian people and their plight, this is no answer for that. And long history shows the response will only be more misery for the Palestinian people. Hamas is a bad actor, and backed by Hezbollah. The competence of the attack and its failure to be caught ahead of time is owing to materiel support from outside and systemic intelligence failure within Israel's borders.

What does that mean?  It means this wasn't planned in a minute or on the fly, and yeah, I think Iran had something to do with it. I also think it's likely that strategic intelligence and military attention was directed elsewhere (the settlements) instead of expecting intifada. And while I deplore what is happening and the terror Israeli people are facing, that the retaliation will be on Palestinian people as a whole and will not just likely decimate Hamas is tragic. 

The problems of the ME are tragic. I can support the human problem without wanting to see genocide as an answer. For many Americans, however, the troubles in Israel's borders are abstractions. And that is what uncanny valley-faced RNC chair Ronna McDaniel is talking about--abstracting the conflict to be somehow the fault of the Biden Administration. 

You hear that? The deaths of hundreds of people in the nation of our ally was "a great opportunity". And all the little pischers jumped to lying about what happened and blamed the recent hostage deal for what happened just to smear Joe Biden. 

Take J. D. Vance:

Vance already has horrific takes on Ukraine, so why not be fucked up about Israel? Actually, is he going to finish up by sucking Bashar al-Assad off, because that's the usual trajectory for people with this much Putin-enabled shit-opinions. Israel has every right to defend itself (does Ukraine?) But didn't Vance KNOW the unfreezing of $6B assets of Iran oil money located in Doha banks and being watched over by the US Treasury, can only be spent on food and medicine and not a penny has even been touched yet? 

And are a whole mess of other Republicans also repeating the same lie Vance is?