Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

So many bastards, so little time.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Duck, Duck, Crab

Open Thread: Duck, Duck, Crab

by | 60 Comments

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Wait. What?

Now you can all have nightmares like I had after seeing this…

I am heading out of town and won’t be around much to post until I return, so this Pearl update will have to hold you.

She has finally figured out she’s a duck and no longer follows me everywhere (yes, I am both relieved and sad).  And after a few hours behind the pet yard she easily integrated with the other ducks.

Mabel would chase her. Mabel is the brown one and until she started chasing her, I thought she was mild-mannered. Who knew she was the strong silent type. Pearl does not back down, just goes back to try and make friends. And for some reason, she follows Maddie (my grey one) all around, much to Maddie’s annoyance.

She still sleeps inside at night, but once I return I’ll see about moving her to the coop. I assume if there is trouble they will make such ruckus I’ll be able to go out and stop it.

I have to finish up work and packing. So you’re on your own. Open thread

 

Reader Interactions

60Comments

  2. 2.

    TenguPhule

    House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in an interview that Trump is making it “increasingly difficult” to avoid impeachment but that his chamber is probably not headed in that direction.

    Nadler, who would preside over impeachment proceedings in the House, also expressed frustration with Attorney General William P. Barr during the interview with CNBC, at one point calling him “just a liar” and alleging that Barr mischaracterized the special counsel’s findings on coordination between Russia and Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election.

    SMH. Our side sucks at this whole messaging and unity thing.

    Nadler said that in his view, Trump can be impeached for only two things: “misuse of presidential power while president or for cheating in the election that gave him the presidency.”

    “Other than that, if he did something terrible before he was president, he robbed the bank, that’s not impeachable,” Nadler said. “It’s a crime, but it’s not impeachable.”

    Idiots. Fucking idiots.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    We already knew this, now it’s official.

    California fire officials said Wednesday that Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. power lines sparked a Northern California blaze that killed 85 people, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century.

    Cal Fire said transmission lines owned and operated by the San Francisco-based utility started the Nov. 8 fire in the Pulga area that nearly destroyed the town of Paradise in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The fire wiped out nearly 15,000 homes. Many of those killed were elderly or disabled. The oldest was 99.

    The investigation also identified a second nearby ignition site involving PG&E’s electrical distribution lines that had come into contact with vegetation. The second fire was quickly consumed by the initial fire. The disclosure came on the same day the utility’s new chief executive was testifying before a legislative committee in Sacramento. Bill Johnson told the state Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee he had expected the utility would be blamed for the fire.

    “I have made the assumption when I got here that PG&E equipment caused the fire,” he said, noting the utility had said that was probable in recent filings. “It’s a disappointment that this happened. Let’s not do it again.”

    Johnson says he wants to earn back public trust as PG&E navigates bankruptcy proceedings and faces billions of dollars in liability for its alleged role in dozens of wildfires.

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    Dahlia Lithwick tackles the Alabama abortion law and the messy scenario it presents our current SCOTUS. Masks are ripped away and the sight isn’t pretty. A tidbit.

    Why, then, do I feel sorry for John Roberts? Because what keeps the Supreme Court in business is often the polite subterfuge of complex legal doctrine. We don’t so much suppress minority votes as protect the dignity of the states. We don’t so much enable dark money to corrupt elections as invite free speech. And we don’t so much punish women for bearing children as celebrate God and babies. This is all the kind of democracy-suppressive language the justices can get behind. It’s why Americans don’t riot on the streets.

    It’s easiest to swallow when courts pretend to be a bit more human than they are while what are essentially unvarnished religious arguments get dressed up in platitudes about patient care, informed consent, maternal information, and solicitude for mothers in distress. It’s easier to pretend that every fertilized egg is a person if one also pretend-acknowledges that every mother is a person as well. But legislators in Ohio, who insist that an 11-year-old rape victim has no legal autonomy or dignity, and legislators in Georgia, who insist that women can be investigated and charged with murder for their miscarriages, and legislators in Alabama, who bragged that they would disregard the interests of rape victims for now because it would get their legislation before the Supreme Court sooner, have, in their zeal for godliness and exigent court review, accidentally dispensed with these polite pretexts. They are openly saying now the thing that will make it very difficult for John Roberts, institutionalist, and Brett Kavanaugh, girls basketball coach, to embrace: America should end Roe v. Wade not because abortions should be safer or offered alongside better information, but because every woman who suffers an unwanted pregnancy is bad, her baby is good, and such a woman should be punished and made to suffer for her sins. It is the exact sentiment Donald Trump accidentally blurted out during the 2016 campaign, before he was told that preserving the pretext is everything.

    What is interesting is that these pretexts were already falling apart at the high court. This past Monday saw the veneer of comity and civility collapse as the justices swiped at each other in public documents about their respective bad faith. The context was the death penalty, not abortion, but the reason the attacks were so personal and shocking is that the justices recently appeared eager to point to the pretexts and pretenses employed by the other side. In a case last month involving an impending execution, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissent that in denying a hearing, the court’s conservative justices had deviated from “basic principles of fairness.” This week, Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch retaliated against Breyer, in writing, for making that assertion.

  6. 6.

    ruemara

    I may, *may*, have booked my first upscale professional voiceover gig. I’ve nearly booked some, but I couldn’t go to LA at a drop of the hat for recording. Welp, now I can. Any Angelenos for an impromptu meetup?

  7. 7.

    TenguPhule

    @trollhattan:

    They are openly saying now the thing that will make it very difficult for John Roberts, institutionalist, and Brett Kavanaugh, girls basketball coach, to embrace: America should end Roe v. Wade not because abortions should be safer or offered alongside better information, but because every woman who suffers an unwanted pregnancy is bad, her baby is good, and such a woman should be punished and made to suffer for her sins.

    I object. They will not find this hard at all. Its who they are.

  9. 9.

    debbie

    @TenguPhule:

    And what about the man that initiated the pregnancy when he couldn’t keep his fucking pants zipped? Why no mention of his culpability?

  13. 13.

    TenguPhule

    @debbie:

    And what about the man that initiated the pregnancy when he couldn’t keep his fucking pants zipped? Why no mention of his culpability?

    Rapists and pedophiles have no agency, according to Alabama’s Republicans.

  15. 15.

    Dan B

    McConnell and Blount have announced there will be no extra funding for election security.

  16. 16.

    TenguPhule

    @Dan B:

    McConnell and Blount have announced there will be no extra funding for election security.

    I have no confidence in next year’s elections in the battleground states.

  18. 18.

    spudgun

    Hurrah for ducks! As always, critter pix are a welcome respite from the daily crap.

  20. 20.

    Aleta

    @debbie: At least they are coming forward to state that they’ve personally been involved in an abortion and benefitted

  21. 21.

    TenguPhule

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Prior to this announcement, did you have confidence in next year’s elections in the battleground states?

    Not much. I remember we were promised fixes since 2000 and every 4 years ever since. And yet here we are.

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    @debbie:
    I object strongly to this common misuse of the term sharia to apply to despised rightwing-agenda legislation.

  23. 23.

    TenguPhule

    Trump to unveil plan to move immigration toward ‘merit-based’ system

    I’m sure this will end well. After all, Ivanaka certainly showed a lot of ‘merit’. Even if it wasn’t natural. //s

  25. 25.

    TenguPhule

    @Amir Khalid:

    I object strongly to this common misuse of the term sharia to apply to despised rightwing-agenda legislation.

    Agree, call it what it is, a Crusade.

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    Under questioning by lawmakers Wednesday, the outgoing chief of the Federal Aviation Administration said key decisions made by pilots contributed to the crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets in Indonesia and Ethiopia, killing 346 people.

    An automated anti-stall feature on the 737 Max activated when it wasn’t supposed to in the October crash in Indonesia, acting FAA Administrator Daniel K. Elwell said at a House hearing. That sent the plane’s nose down repeatedly. The pilots should have responded by turning off the motors to the part of the airplane that was forcing it downward, but they did not, Elwell said.

    When the same automated feature, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, mistakenly kicked in less than five months later on the 737 Max involved in the Ethiopia crash, the pilots “didn’t adhere to the emergency” directive issued by the FAA in November, Elwell said.

    Its sad that I don’t believe a word out of the FAA chief’s mouth.

  30. 30.

    Sally

    Chambliss is over 50 years old, married and has three daughters. He has shown that he knows nothing about pregnancy, reproduction (despite claiming he has read up on these topics before introducing his bill), or women’s bodies. To be able to maintain that level of ignorance of the world around you, up close and personal, is truly a remarkable achievement.
    I wish that Democrats would change the rhetoric. This is about the government sitting in our doctors’ surgeries, telling us what medical care we are allowed to receive, and when. This is big brother government. This is not even “only” about women, but the families, communities and societies in which women live. Everyone has some relationship with a woman. Denying medical treatment to any woman ultimately affects us all.

  31. 31.

    Bill Arnold

    @TenguPhule:

    Sadly I fear there are more then just white males standing in support of that.

    Yeah, I was being unduly generous to the non-white-christian-males that support such things.

  35. 35.

    Raven

    So we’ve got one clown who dominates every thread? Even with it pied it’s a pain in the ass.

  40. 40.

    germy

    This thread shines a light on these roaches:

    Larry Stutts is straight up evil. He killed a patient in his care because he didn't want to pay for a $5 test. It was so awful, Alabama passed a law mandating that test. When he got the Senate, he wrote a bill to repeal the law named after a woman who died from his negligence pic.twitter.com/KO4NNJ8mda— Opinion Haver (@AsInMarx) May 15, 2019

  41. 41.

    germy

    In 2015, Senator Stutts introduced a bill to repeal two laws. The first relating to notifying patients of dense breast tissue following a mammogram and the second requiring insurance companies to provide mandatory minimum hospitalization time following a woman giving birth, 48 hours for vaginal delivery and 96 hours for cesarean section. This second law, commonly referred to as Rose’s Law, was unanimously passed by the Alabama Legislature following the 1998 death of Rose Church ten days after she had given birth. The attempted appeal of Rose’s Law made national news following disclosure that Rose Church was a patient of Stutts in 1998. Senator Stutts withdrew the bill from consideration stating “neither the bill nor today’s decision is related to any patient case I have had during my medical career.”

    (wikipedia)

  42. 42.

    Skepticat

    I cannot send it to you, as even I, who is totally comfortable with all sorts of blood and guts, got creeped out by and deleted the picture I took of the hermit crab (they call them soldier crabs here in the Bahamas) that had decided to use a glass jar rather than a shell for its home. Those critters ire all claws and them this … seriously disgusting little “body.”

  43. 43.

    TenguPhule

    Trump, frustrated by advisers, is not convinced the time is right to attack Iran

    The Trump administration has been on high alert in response to what military and intelligence officials have deemed specific and credible threats from Iran against U.S. personnel in the Middle East.

    But Trump is frustrated with some of his top advisers, who he thinks could rush the United States into a military confrontation with Iran and shatter his long-standing pledge to withdraw from costly foreign wars, according to several U.S. officials. Trump prefers a diplomatic approach to resolving tensions and wants to speak directly with Iran’s leaders.

    SMH.

  45. 45.

    germy

    @Gvg: I don’t think voters were aware of that at the time of the election. He’s in their tribe, that’s all they knew.

    Stutts, a Republican, campaigned against incumbent Senator Roger Bedford, a Democrat, on a platform to repeal “Obamacare-style” regulations in Alabama. Following a recount, Stutts won by a margin of about 70 votes.

  46. 46.

    JanieM

    @Bill Arnold: Thanks for tracking down the link to Dahlia Lithwick’s piece. Another passage:

    I feel sorry for the chief justice largely because all this is happening just when the court’s reputation matters most. Roe v. Wade is in the news this month not because it’s in the crosshairs (yet), but because amateurs in Alabama and Georgia are drunk on God

    They’re not drunk on God. They’re drunk on hatred of women, hatred of sex, hatred, period.

    Just wanted to clarify that.

    I don’t feel the least bit sorry for John Roberts.

  47. 47.

    something fabulous

    @ruemara: you bet! we met at one at the story tavern years back would be nice to have another get-together! and: break a– microphone!

  48. 48.

    J R in WV

    @Amir Khalid:

    @debbie:
    I object strongly to this common misuse of the term sharia to apply to despised rightwing-agenda legislation.

    Explain please. What do we not understand about the term sharia that leads you to object to its use in this situation? We’re comparing right-wing xtianist BS to right-wing muslim BS — is this not accurate?

    Thanks!

  49. 49.

    J R in WV

    @Sally:

    This is about the government sitting in our doctors’ surgeries, telling us what medical care we are allowed to receive, and when.

    In my experience, a “surgery” is an operating room which you enter on a gurney, escorted by a bevy of nurses who helped prep you for the upcoming procedure. If it’s a doctor’s office, here in America, we call it a doctor’s office.

    Where are you from that you call these facilities “our doctors’ surgeries”?

    No offense, just have never heard that usage anywhere, and I suspect it’s a British/Canadian/Australian usage…

  51. 51.

    JanieM

    @J R in WV: From Wikipedia:

    Doctor’s surgery, British term for a doctor’s office, a facility in which a general practitioner sees patients

    You clearly haven’t spent half your life reading English novels.

    ETA: Having said that, I’d love it if Sally could shed some light on the social distinctions between the medical men (Dr. and Mr.) in Middlemarch, which I have just been re-reading.

  52. 52.

    chris

    @J R in WV: Surgery is British, possibly Australian but not Canadian. I’ll let Amir tell us about sharia cuz I don’t presume to know enough. I do know that it is not what most westerners think it is.

  53. 53.

    debbie

    @Amir Khalid:

    It wasn’t said to offend. I remember listening (on my local NPR station) to a panel of Muslim scholars. The subject was about Sharia and one of them defined it as the law of man imposed in place of, or instead of, the law of God.

  56. 56.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jay:
    Hah. The youtube link from the article gives “This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s policy on hate speech. Learn more about combating hate speech in your country.” (non-US VPN endpoint if that matters.)

  58. 58.

    Jay

    @Bill Arnold:
    @mrmoshpotato:

    Years too late, 800,000 followers and how many kids has she radicalized with hate?

    How many more mass shooters?

    And there’s a bunch of social media platforms she is still on.

  59. 59.

    Bill Arnold

    Years too late, 800,000 followers and how many kids has she radicalized with hate?

    Just saying whack-a-mole does have an effect; these companies are getting nervous and are much more responsive than they used to be. They have mechanisms in place already for copyright takedowns, that can be adapted.

  60. 60.

    Jay

    @Bill Arnold:

    Talk to Yellow Vests Canada Exposed. Facebook won’t do a thing about the pages they expose, but did ban Yellow Vests Canada Exposed from Facebook for a logo of Ralph Wiggum in a MAGA hat.

    When a bunch of these social media companies designed algorythms to autoban hate, they used the Nazi’s input in the design.

    https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.propublica.org/article/facebook-hate-speech-censorship-internal-documents-algorithms/amp

    https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/radical-ideas-social-media-algorithms

    https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/interface/2019/5/3/18527590/facebook-alex-jones-laura-loomer-ban-evasion

    https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/05/10/analysis/how-far-right-extremists-rebrand-evade-facebooks-ban

    Funny thing is, if somebody reposted her banned posts to their you tube channel, they are still out there on you tube.

    And the people manually hunting hate online:

    https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/2/25/18229714/cognizant-facebook-content-moderator-interviews-trauma-working-conditions-arizona

    Horse is out of the barn, the barns burned down, and only now, are the Social Media Companies looking to close the barn door, 36 years after the first hate sites popped up online,

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