Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

We will not go back.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

When I was faster i was always behind.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Come on, man.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

“Alexa, change the president.”

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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Archives for 2014

Scotland Will Not (Yet) Be Free

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It’s official, per the Guardian, as of about 1:30am EDT:

Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, is speaking now.

He thanks Scotland for 1.6m votes for independence.

There will be a majority for no, he says…

Scotland has decided “at this stage” not to become an independent country.

He accepts that, he says. And he calls on all people in Scotland to accept that too.

Salmond says the turnout of 86% has been a triumph for democratic politics.

And letting 16 and 17-year-olds vote has been a triumph, he says. No one will every again dispute their right to take part in elections.

He says, in accordance with clause 30 of the Edinburgh agreement, he will accept the result and work with London in the best interests of Scotland and the rest of the UK.

The unionist parties made promise, he says. They promised the second reading of a Scotland bill by 27 March. The Scots will expect that promise to be honoured, he says…

Prime Minister David Cameron is supposed to be speaking shortly, but nothing out of his mouth at this stage is liable to have much relationship to the truth impact over the long term.

(Okay, the final numbers seem to be closer to 86%… but the voting percentage in American presidential elections haven’t broken 60% since 1968.)

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Late Night Open Thread: Popular Enough Culture

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From the Vox article:

On Wednesday night, the reelection campaign of Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) announced that it would hold a fundraising dinner with a local celebrity — the author of Game of Thrones. “You could hang out with George RR Martin” in exchange for a donation, an image advertising the event reads. It adds below in smaller print that Senator Udall will be present as well…

Any other news out there that isn’t depressing or horrible or both?

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Jose Antonio Vargas at Rutgers University

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Last Friday I had the opportunity to go the Newark campus of Rutgers University to see Jose Antonio Vargas speak. Prior to showing his movie Documented, the moderator asked us to keep our cell phones on since the purpose of the movie was to encourage conversation on Twitter or Facebook. Quite honestly, I didn’t think anyone was on social media since there were so many of us brought to tears by the film. Although I have seen this film I cried at the point in the narrative when Jose realizes that he does not quality for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA (which allows those that were brought here as children to legally work) because of his age. I also cried seeing his mother react to him not acknowledging her as his mother on FB. He did this to ensure that nobody would ask too many questions and delve into his history. I have employed such tactics before and understand where he was coming from.  If we are not “out”, we undocumenteds (or formerly undocumenteds) don’t want to talk about the life we had prior to arriving here. Please note that Jose and his mother have not seen each other in approximately 2 decades due to wait times in getting her a visa although she is being sponsored by her mother. Also there is difficulty in obtaining a tourist visa since she is not working in the Philippines (opportunities are far and few over there). She might be viewed as a prime candidate for overstaying her visa without a job to keep her in the Philippines.

During the film Jose was not among us yet. One of his staff was charged with picking him up. Rutgers served some finger foods prior to starting. I had the pleasure of meeting Rev. Ryan M. Eller, Define American’s campaign director over tortilla chips as the room darkened. I told him I was a blogger. Rev. Eller said he would ensure that I could meet Jose later on.

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Everything Wrong with Republican Politics in One Article

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This:

As Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey explores a 2016 presidential campaign, he is under growing pressure from his State Legislature to rejoin a regional cap-and-trade program that would limit New Jersey’s carbon emissions — and likely hurt his chances for the Republican nomination.

Mr. Christie, who withdrew from the program in 2011 as he first considered running for president in 2012, remains adamant that New Jersey not participate in the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, even though the majority of state legislators say it would be in New Jersey’s economic and legal interests. Business groups remain divided on the plan.

“No, I would not think of rejoining it,” Mr. Christie told reporters during a recent trip to Mexico. “I think it’s a completely useless plan.”

The New Jersey Superior Court ruled this year that Mr. Christie failed to follow proper legal procedure when he withdrew his state from the program because his administration did not hold public hearings on the move. To comply with the law, Mr. Christie’s administration held a public hearing last month, but has made it clear that the governor still has no plans to rejoin the program. The New Jersey Legislature has voted twice to rejoin, but Mr. Christie vetoed both bills.

Some political analysts say Mr. Christie‘s motive in staying out of the plan is to placate powerful conservative groups, including Americans for Prosperity, which are highly influential in Republican primaries and consider cap-and-trade programs energy taxes that hurt business and eliminate jobs. Mr. Christie will be the main speaker at an Americans for Prosperity donor meeting in New York on Friday.

This would be good for his citizens, good for their economy, good for the country, and good for the world. Likewise, it is the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives at the state level. But he’s going to nuke it to advance his own political ambitions. Just like he did the the ARC tunnel, which would have been an economic boon and would have helped relieved congested traffic. Just like he threw billions of dollars to Wall Street for the NJ pension fund. And on and on.

These aren’t decisions based on facts and sound advice and with improving his citizenry’s lives. They’re winks and nods and pay-offs to those who might help propel him to higher office.

Just disgusting.

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This Year’s “Genius” MacArthur Fellows

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We’re all gonna have our favorites — which in my case would include the cartoonist who’s “already changed the way we talk about film”. But part of the MacArthur Foundation’s genius is the pure Calvin & Hobbes “There’s treasure everywhere!” reading the awards provides…

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Open Thread: Arcane Entertainments

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Not actually connected, but possibly of interest, the NYTimes on “Dungeons, Dragons, & Documentaries“:

For a certain sort of fan, the crowdfunding pitch was impossible to resist. Here was a chance, it announced, to support a documentary about the immortal saga of the legendary game that all but revolutionized modern life. No pressure.

Three filmmakers promised nothing less than the origin story of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, “a cautionary tale of an empire built by friends and lost through betrayal, enmity, poor management, hubris and litigation,” they wrote on their Kickstarter page in 2012. They planned to chronicle the bitter battle waged by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the game’s creators, over credit and royalties.

In other words, they wrote: “Imagine ‘The Social Network’ ” — the box office hit about the tortuous story of Facebook’s founding — “but no one ends up rich.”

If the filmmakers saw a cautionary tale in the story of their shared passion, they failed to heed its lessons. More than $250,000 in Kickstarter pledges and two years later, there is no documentary, only broken friendships and a lawsuit.

The director of “Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary” has sued his former partners for embarking on another documentary on the same subject. Gaming conventions like GenCon (“The Best Four Days in Gaming”) and GaryCon (“a living memorial to E. Gary Gygax”) are abuzz with rumors of backstabbing and creative theft. Gathering around their tabletop games and in online forums, Dungeons & Dragons fans are distraught…

Mandatory disclaimer: While the Spousal Unit was an early adopter and longterm DM, the one time I tried playing (in 1979, IIRC) ended with me losing my temper, so I’m probably Getting It Rong. (And I’m still waffling on adding an “Insufficiently Popular Culture” category.)
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Apart from that, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

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