422 Comments
User's avatar
Virgin Monk Boy's avatar

Nothing more pathetic than watching grown adults pretend plain English stopped meaning what it means because Dear Leader typed it in all caps. “Wipe out a civilization” does not magically become “creative negotiation” because a Republican says it with a straight face on Sunday TV. That’s not spin. That’s moral money laundering with studio lighting.

Hhm's avatar

Fuck tapper for equating the gentle and persecuted Mahmoud Khalil w that evil fascist fucks blatant threat of genocide, he defamed that poor man all because a lying, loser mean girl threw the same old “liberal media” bullshit at him-pathetic

Zyxomma's avatar

Ta, MM. Stefanik is not going to keep her seat in Congress.

Thixotropickle's avatar

Kidneys prices are going down, MM, you might want to consider selling your thymus gland or thyroid instead.

eo's avatar

I thought that it was the adrenal glands that the mega rich covet?

Ellie still in the mix in 26's avatar

My State's own personal Ilse would say the same if she saw him personally take whatever the current weapon is that's like a machine gun, and slaughter a room full of babies.

Brian McCurdy's avatar

I read a review of Stefanik's book and I can't imagine who would read it. She mythologizes the moment she confronted the Harvard president about Gaza like it's an immortal World Series play: She was sick but came to work anyway, the "question heard around the world" (whatevs) almost never happened, yap yap yap. Who even remembers that now besides the Harvard president who got fired?

And now Stefanik is fired from the UN before she could get onboarded, and quit Congress. She's a footnote and her book probably won't outsell Chris Christie's.

Warren's avatar

I think we should just bag James Bryant Conant’s dream of a meritocratic university of the best and the brightest from around the nation, regardless of income, and just return Harvard to what it was before 1940: a place for the sons of wealthy gentlemen to acquire a finish of civilized discourse with a gentlemen’s C for all courses, and fine dining in Porcellian Club. A very small quota for admitting Jews and Catholics and maybe Hindus and Muslims, no women (That’s what Radcliffe is for), and football and the junior prom are big events. Conant was a huge booster of the CEEB that became the AP and the SAT. The Army needed a lot of officers in a hurry, and the CEEB’s big selling point was that someone who took the test on October 10 would score about the same (plus or minus 5%) if that someone took the same test on November 20. The standardization was the point. CEEB were not IQ tests. They were not measures of how well educated a student was. The idea was that a student who scored highly was likely to succeed enough to get a gentlemen’s C and graduate college and become a commissioned officer through ROTC.

That is the answer to the scientific racism of the Bell Curve, which tried to argue, using SAT scores differentiated by race and ethnicity, that Jews were smarter than Asians who were smarter than whites who were smarter than Latinos who were smarter than blacks. It was and is scientific racism, so debunk it when you see it as a favor to me.

Nota Bene: all the returning enlisted with 36 months of tuition paid by the Montgomery GI Bill were able to graduate college in 4x9=36 months, attending classes in Quonset Huts that land grant colleges like Purdue and MSU are still using as classrooms to this day. So, the enlisted were just as smart as the officers. Where’s your meritocracy now, Dr Conant? (Tuition has increased by 150%, but the educational experience is the same. The freshman chemistry taught by Conant in 1940 is the same taught today. The book used costs 250% more, but the chemistry is the same. Kind of warms your heart, doesn’t it? The adjunct professors teach out of the trunks of their cars, while the President and Provost fly to DC to beg more grant money from Congress.)

But the big deal is that foreign students from China and the Persian Gulf pay full tuition, Congresswoman Stefanik. The graduates return to their countries to no jobs unless they have family connections. Come to think of it, that’s how it works here in the US. The students, like Mohammed Atta, become radicalized, take flying lessons, hijack jet airliners (back when jet airliners still flew in the sky) and fly them into buildings on 9/11.

This Israelis, like Benjamin Netanyahu take classes at MIT and Harvard (thinking they are really bright, because they aren’t taking the hard calculus based courses, because God forbid they should not graduate and have Israel complain to the deans of foreign students about how antisemitic they are, getting foreign student B+ and A- due to grade inflation), go back to Israel, and get jobs based on family connections, usually in government or with military contractors.

And we wonder why the world is always at war? The only way you can pay the rent is work for the Department of Defense. That was the beginning of Conant’s dream, and that was the middle, and that is the end. If there are no Arabs, no Israelis, no Asians, just academically challenged students from financially gifted families, everyone, Congresswoman Stefanik included, will be much happier. Colleges already have tossed out the SAT and the ACT, and just admitted based on grade point and extracurriculars, like Eagle Scout and piano player for the Sunday School. (Holding a part-time job is a great predictor of the ability to get and hold a full-time job after graduation.)

For those who don’t want to be discriminated against, there are always religious schools, like Brandeis, BYU, Notre Dame, Princeton (Presbyterian), SMU, TCU (Church of Christ), Baylor (Baptists), Howard and Florida A&M (HBCU), Antioch (LGBTQIA+), and the Santa Cruz Banana Slugs (mellow surfer dudes). There are no denominational colleges for Hindu, Buddhists, Islam, and Baha’i, but that can be resolved by on-line colleges such as Purdue and MSU, where there is room for everyone, STEM and foreign and nerds who do RPGs and fraternity guys.

So hey babe, take a walk on Supply Side. (And the Congressmened go do, duh do, duh do, duh duh duh duh do…)

Wookiee Monster's avatar

Elise is a cautionary tale for pick me girls everywhere. NY won’t ever elect her to office again and no future republican regime is going to appoint her to anything ever again.

Maybe she can move to Florida and run for the East Methgatorville school board.

Otherwise, her political career is over.

Angry Young Sellout's avatar

I wasn't in Stefanik's district, but until fairly recently I lived quite close to her in upstate NY. Another cautionary tale of a Republican who once criticized Trump but then became his sycophant in hopes of riding his racist coattails to power, only to be thrown by the wayside later on. I'm honestly confused as to why she continues shill for him. What benefit is it to her now? Is it just to get Republic PACs to buy up those books and artificially boost sales? Nobody, not even MAGAs, actually reads that stuff!

oscarphile's avatar

If she stopped shilling for him, it would be an admission she could have stopped at any time. She could have stopped after 1/6, or after a million people died from his COVID lies, or after the draft-dodger shat on a war hero TEN FUCKING YEARS AGO, or after any one of ten trillion other outrages.

Angry Young Sellout's avatar

Damn, you're very right. It's horrifying when you step back and really look at the misery these people are willing to inflict on others for their own personal gain.

Rags's avatar

the schools in Methgatorville were closed years ago. She would still run.

verne's avatar

perhaps peddle canned hams door to door. isn't bridget ziegler looking for a side piece?

Warren's avatar

Elise, would you like me to sponsor you as my AmWay talent scout? (Or Mary Kay or Avon.) Show customers how they can shop without going shopping, owning your own business, and building your business the American Way, one satisfied customer at a time. You have a nice smile, you stick to the sales pitch, you will take to sales like a duck to water. (Or there is New York Life. Can you think of 100 people you know who need Life Insurance? Every year there is a cash dividend!). Let me take you to a meeting on Thursday night at the Days Inn Ballroom, so that you can get the whole story.

Kid 'n Nipple-Play's avatar

Tapper has far more patience than I could ever muster. I would have given up sooner, called her a liar, and told her to get off my show.

Daniel O'Riordan's avatar

If Jake were to give in to his urges, he soon wouldn't have a show.

Wookiee Monster's avatar

That’s why you’re not a Sunday morning bobblehead show host. You can’t go around calling republicans liars just because they lie right to your face. You’ll lose your precious access.

Angry Young Sellout's avatar

Ugh, but yes, you are absolutely correct. If any of those folks were genuine journalists in the classic sense, you know, the kind who think it's their job to hold those in power accountable, you'd wonder why "access" to known liars is so important.

Warren's avatar

Mike Wallace would have wiped that smile off her face and had her mascara running in five minutes. Barbara Walters would have taken seven minutes.

Hank Napkin's avatar

Für Elise or Elise fur?

Resource NW's avatar

Furries?!?/ No Furries, you're the Furrie!

Daniel O'Riordan's avatar

And I don't share litter boxes.

Erisian's avatar

"The United States loses nothing."

Maybe the Fulvous Fuckwad thinks the US has lost, or is losing, nothing unless you count soldiers, materiel, and wasted taxpayer money. As of 1 April at least fifteen servicemembers have died and around 318 have been wounded:

> "U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, appears to be engaged in what a defense official called a “casualty cover-up,” offering The Intercept low-ball and outdated figures and failing to provide clarifications on military deaths and injuries.

[...]

... a statement sent Monday from spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins noting that “Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 303 U.S. service members have been wounded.” The comment was three days old and excluded at least 15 wounded in the Friday attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The command did not reply to repeated requests for updated figures.

CENTCOM also would not provide a count of troops who have died in the region since the start of the war. An Intercept analysis puts the number at no less than 15." https://theintercept.com/2026/04/01/iran-war-us-casualty-numbers-trump-hegseth/

-----

As of 8 Apr, military materiel destroyed or damaged:

> "the United States still suffered significant equipment losses, including four F-15s (three due to friendly fire), an AN-TPY-2 radar system, at least one KC-135 refueling aircraft, an E-3 AWACS, two C-130 military transport planes, an A-10 Thunderbolt, two Black Hawk helicopters, and more than a dozen MQ-9 Reaper drones, totaling more than $2.35 billion in losses alone. In terms of U.S. inventories, the most consequential implication will likely prove to be the depletion of U.S. munitions for systems such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Patriot missile defense batteries, the scale of which is currently unknown. These not only represent financial losses, but also strategic losses that, in some cases, will take years to replace and leave the United States less equipped to deter a near-peer adversary such as China." https://www.americanprogress.org/article/what-america-has-lost-in-the-war-with-iran/

-----

Taxpayer dollars spent:

> "From a budgetary perspective, Operation Epic Fury was enormously expensive. In just 39 days of war, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is likely to have spent more than $33 billion." ibid

-----

Plus, while the US' moral standing in the world has already been heavily damaged under the Corrupt Coral Coward this little excursion has shot our reputation to shit:

> "President Trump [sic] and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth [sic] launched the campaign in Iran with no clearly articulated aims, no clear exit plan, and without the legally required consent of Congress. Throughout the conflict, each regularly made public statements that only could be interpreted as calls to violate the laws of war. Trump [sic] suggested he would destroy the Iranian “civilization” and threatened to bomb civilian infrastructure, while Secretary Hegseth [sic] enjoined the U.S. military to give “no quarter” to its adversaries. In nakedly calling for U.S. servicemembers to commit war crimes, Trump [sic[ and Hegseth [sic] have sullied the reputation of the U.S. armed services and demonstrated that the president and secretary of defense are unfit for positions of high command." ibid

All that's left to be said is: "We’re going to win so much that you’re going to be sick and tired. You’re going to say, ‘Please, please, Mr. President, we’re sick and tired of winning. Please let us have at least one loss. It’s no longer exciting to win.’ And I’m going to say, ‘No way, we’re going to keep winning, and I don’t care if you like it or not.’”

fnord

Warren's avatar

Ty, Erisian. It’s hard to be a Public Affairs Officer. Corporal JD Hamel Vance did it for the USMC. He knows how to lie with a straight face. So does our Secretary of War and Day Drinking, Pete Kegseth. May lethality be with you!

Fifth Dentist's avatar

A lot of the retired military types are reporting that three multi-billion dollar THAAD systems have been destroyed, hence why the US repossessed one it had in S. Korea and requested that Poland hand over the one stationed there, to which the Poles said no. Three of the only 11 that were in existence before Stupid War started and that would take years replace.

A number of other systems that only cost about a half a billion also are being reported as blown up.

A half billion here, a few billion there and you eventually start running into real money.

But the biggest thing is that the war has made the US military appear weak. With as much money as the US has spent on buying war toys for 80 years, you'd think a war with Iran would be easy peasy.

And PAB's Dr. Jesus, Mr. Hyde routine of one day threatening to blow up the entire country and the next promising best DEAL! makes the country a laughingstock.

Warren's avatar

Credibility is part of Lethality!

Skunk Formerly Known As Stoner's avatar

What “missing scientists and people who have turned up dead”?

Sherry's avatar

Yeah that was my question. This deserves a little attention.

Skunk Formerly Known As Stoner's avatar

It is asserted like common knowledge without citing a story. Maybe there is one; would kinda like to know if so.

I did see something like that in substack but did not deem it to be credible. Dunno if that’s what is being alluded to.

Fifth Dentist's avatar

I saw a video about this. There are reported disappearances, a murder and coincidental deaths. One general left his house one day with a pistol and walked away from his house, leaving his cell phone, never to be seen again. Another disappeared while hiking with a friend and extensive searches turned up no traces.

There have been about 11 in all.

"The White House and FBI have launched a 'holistic review' nto 11 scientists tied to sensitive aerospace and nuclear research who have died or vanished since 2024.

Four notable cases are tied to LA County, including Caltech’s Carl Grillmair and three JPL experts—Michael David Hicks, Frank Maiwald, and Monica Jacinto Reza.

Despite a 2025 search in the Angeles National Forest, no trace of Reza has been found, and officials have not confirmed a connection between the 11 nationwide cases." -- https://www.foxla.com/news/white-house-fbi-investigation-la-county-scientists-missing-reza

Skunk Formerly Known As Stoner's avatar

Yep, that’s the one I saw. I know one of the dead persons. It is entirely a coincidental death, so I am inclined to suspect the rest of it is also conspiracy nonsense.

Warren's avatar

Oh, you’re no fun. Maybe they were all “called away” like in the movie Weapons. Maybe Weapons was a movie warning us about the UFO abductions. Maybe Trump is a Lizard Person with a bizarre sense of humor, like that Star Trek episode where the bad guy turned out to be a child from an advanced civilization and his parents are going to call him in for bed, bath, and whatever passes for a book in advanced civilizations. Maybe this is all just a dream in Pam Ewing’s head.

TalentNotAutotune's avatar

What happens if you call a "creative negotiator's" bluff?

Tecolote's avatar

It's cute when Jake Tapper tries to be a real journalist. Too bad he chose a performance clown like Stefanik to do it with. But that's why she's on his show.

Erika's avatar

I thought Stefanik had finally crawled under her rock for good, but I guess grifters gotta grift!

Trux Mint In Box's avatar

Stefanik was there to hawk her shitty book criticizing Ivy League universities

Ah. I was wondering why her pathetic ass was back haunting my news feed.

Bitter Scribe's avatar

Elise Stefanik can eat shit. She's an obnoxious demagogue and bully whose big deal is preening about forcing Ivy League college presidents out of their jobs over "antisemitism." Meanwhile, her BFF Trump keeps dangerously incompetent dipshits like Patel and Hegseth in their important, consequential jobs because he refuses to "give the media a scalp."

We need to stiffen our spines and start pushing back. Those colleges should have told Stefanik to fuck herself and if she tried to screw with their funding, they'd see her in court.

devourerofpancakes's avatar

Speaking of, some genius is bringing Chris Rufo to my town to talk about the future of higher Ed. Does anyone have access to rotten tomatoes?

Sherry's avatar

Put them in the oven for a bit.