Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

T R E 4 5 O N

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Winter Is Here

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Winter Is Here

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Current status, but with *two* little dogs:


(Normally papillons are snow dogs, but our rescues are now 15 and 13, so they can’t run as fast as they once did. And the latest ‘band’ of this prolonged nor’easter is wet enough that the falling slush balls up in their coats. I’m not looking forward to shoveling the predicted additional 8″ or so once it finally ends this afternoon, myself.)


Reader Interactions

80Comments

  6. 6.

    satby

    After a whirlwind couple of days in San Antonio, I head home this afternoon. It’s been a great visit, just picked up right where we left off when Qunoot left my house four years ago when she was 16. She’s turning 20 years old next week. Hardly seems possible.

  9. 9.

    JWR

    Hey, all! (Haven’t commented since the House intel hearings.) But to Nate Silver and 538 I say, watch last nights rebroadcasts of Stephen Colbert’s interview with Nancy Pelosi on the day of the “official” opening of the impeachment inquiry, followed by Seth Meyers show, (also rebroadcast last night), where he uses his “A Closer Look” segment to define, in terms even a third grader could understand, just what a quid pro quo actually is, and then, if good ‘ol Nate is still searching for a “smoking gun”, I’d suggest he find a new line of work.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JWR:   Maybe it’s just hard to see the smoking gun what with all the smoke and mirrors the GOP is throwing up.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Kay bait:

    For Ingrid, a 15-year-old in La Crosse, Wisconsin, going to high school means being monitored on surveillance cameras in her hallways and classrooms. Students are required to carry their school supplies in clear backpacks, as ordinary backpacks might be used to conceal a weapon, she said. Water bottles must also be clear, so school officials can see the color of the liquid inside. The monitoring continues on the laptops students use in school. Teenagers are warned that the school is tracking what they do, and that they can get in trouble for visiting inappropriate websites.

    This level of surveillance is “not too over-the-top”, Ingrid said, and she feels her classmates are generally “accepting” of it.

    Clear clothing is right around the corner. And I’m only being half sarcastic.

    When it comes to digital surveillance of what they do on school laptops, “I feel like everyone’s adjusted. I don’t think anyone really cares at this point,” Ingrid said. “The subject doesn’t really come up until someone’s gotten in trouble for something. Usually it’s just like, ‘Oh, that person is stupid, looking at what they were doing on a school device. They should have known better.’”

    If the school were monitoring anything on her personal cellphone, that would be a privacy violation, Ingrid said. But on her school-issued laptop? “I have no problem with it, because it’s a school device, you know?”

    For decades, American school shootings have driven a booming school security industry. Last year’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 people dead, has helped expand the market for products that allow schools to monitor what students are doing on their computers for signs of violence or self-harm. Tech companies are now offering a range of products that help schools track the websites kids are visiting and the searches they are making; that monitor everything students are writing in school emails, chats and shared documents; or that even attempt to track what students are posting on their public social media accounts.

    One leading student privacy expert estimated that as many as a third of America’s roughly 15,000 school districts may already be using technology that monitors students’ emails and documents for phrases that might flag suicidal thoughts, plans for a school shooting, or a range of other offenses.

    Because nothing says Freedom like monetizing fear.

    In interviews, students and parents across the United States said they were still grappling with how this new school surveillance works, whether it goes too far in violating student privacy, and what effect it might have on a generation of children.

    Because nothing says Freedom like keeping people in the dark.

    Some believe students are already fully adjusted to the experience of intensive school surveillance.

    “They’re resigned to it,” said Jarrett Dapier, 40, a parent of a middle school student, and a young adult librarian in Skokie, Illinois. “They all know – at least the ones I’ve talked to – that this is going on. It’s sort of like: this is the cost of getting a school device.

    “It’s pretty disturbing,” he said.

    When Dapier talks with other teen librarians about the issue of school surveillance, “we’re very alarmed,” he said. “It sort of trains the next generation that [surveillance] is normal, that it’s not an issue. What is the next generation’s Mark Zuckerberg going to think is normal?

    “It’s the school as panopticon, and the sweeping searchlight beams into homes, now, and to me, that’s just disastrous to intellectual risk-taking and creativity.”

    Good question.

    But some privacy experts – and students – said they are concerned that surveillance at school might actually be undermining students’ wellbeing.

    “I think it does have an effect on our brains that we’re constantly being surveilled, and there’s cameras where we are most of the day,” said Sara, the 16-year-old private school student from New York City. And not just in school: “A lot of kids have cameras in front of their house, on the subway, in stores.”

    When students are not on school cameras or city cameras or store cameras, they’re on their own phone cameras.

    “Anxiety and depression is the highest that it’s been,” she said. “I do think the constant screen surveillance has affected our anxiety levels and our levels of depression. It’s over-guarding kids, you need to let them make mistakes, you know? That’s kind of how we learn.”

    I wonder if she ever gets tired of being right all the time.

  14. 14.

    Derelict

    It’s amazing to me how entrenched the “There’s no smoking gun!!!” trope has become in the media. I’m wondering just what, exactly, would amount to a smoking gun here.

     

    Apparently Trump’s chief of staff saying he did it during a live press conference isn’t a smoking gun.

     

    Having nearly every direct participant in the quid pro quo testify under oath that Trump did it isn’t a smoking gun.

     

    Having the summary of the call, released by the White House, that clearly shows Trump did it isn’t a smoking gun.

     

    And having President Donald J. Trump himself admit that he did it during a press shout-out isn’t a smoking gun.

     

    So what does it take? Maybe an actual smoking gun?

  19. 19.

    germy

    Winter Is Here

    Yesterday I shoveled 18 inches of snow.  Hard, wet, slushy, packed snow.  Like shoveling cement.

     

    We don’t get the light fluffy stuff anymore.  Upper atmosphere is too warm or something, so snow always mixes with sleet and freezing rain.

     

    And of course, our local snowplow drivers do their part to throw snow onto our sidewalks, and bury the ends of our driveways.

  20. 20.

    germy

    “I feel like everyone’s adjusted. I don’t think anyone really cares at this point”

    And that’s the problem.  Each new generation “adjusts” to less and less freedom.

     

    I was in high school in the ’70s.  If someone had suggested I had to piss into a cup before I could get a summer job, or spend my day under constant video watch, I would have thought it was something out of Orwell.

  21. 21.

    Kay

    Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump
    When Lisa Page, the lover of Peter Strzok, talks about being “crushed”, and how innocent she is, ask her to read Peter’s “Insurance Policy” text, to her, just in case Hillary loses. Also, why were the lovers text messages scrubbed after he left Mueller. Where are they Lisa?

    The President is still stalking and harassing this citizen.

  23. 23.

    Kay

    @Baud:

     

    He’s repulsive but IMO this is different- this is an ordinary government lawyer who doesn’t work there anymore- he’s been stalking and harassing her online and at the hate rallies for months. She’s afraid of him and his sleazy hires and cult members. She has asked to be left alone and left out of whatever gross scheme they’re cooking up. He won’t stop. It should be actionable.

  27. 27.

    WereBear

    @Baud: I was asked on my Way of Cats Twitter feed, in the context of my book, if I was going to vote for Trump 2020?

     

    I knew only a MAGA would ask. My reply:

     

    Not past, not future. Not even for a book sale.

     

    I know, I’m in business and supporting a guy on disability and “need to be neutral” but I can’t, there’s lives at stake.  He was surprisingly polite in return, so I added, “Cat love is non-partisan. I’m in it to make cats and people happy, and the rest is up to you.”

  28. 28.

    Kay

    @Baud:

     

    The regime sends a really strong message to government employees- go along or we’ll destroy you. It will change the pool of prospective employees- narrow it to the worst people. They’re creating a low quality work force.  And we have seen that play out all the way up to the AG.

    Today, they’re going after the prosecutors who investigated the war criminal he pardoned. They’re sending the remaining prosecutors a message.

  31. 31.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    “Helicoptoring schools.” I guess if parents won’t step up, the school will have to do it for them. //

    A smoke alarm in my apartment started chirping at 12:30 am. Bastard Device!

  33. 33.

    WereBear

    @germy: Yesterday I passed a elderly local who gets around on a scooter because he lost his legs to diabetes and on the back was a big sign:

     

    I STAND WITH TRUMP.

     

    It might be the most pathetic and delusional thing I’ve ever seen in person.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    Beto O’Rourke is working on flipping the Texas statehouse. That’s better than a US Senate race. Good for him.

  37. 37.

    germy

    @WereBear:

    It might be the most pathetic and delusional thing I’ve ever seen in person.

    That really is sad.

    I can only imagine the media he consumes, that brought him to that place.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I think he was unfairly labeled a lightweight and my sense is he’s better than that. It would be great if he proved his critics wrong by focusing on something that gets no attention until one succeeds. But, boy if he succeeds or even racks up some wins- Republicans will freak, much more so than they would with a flukey senate race.

  40. 40.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @germy: And of course, our local snowplow drivers do their part to throw snow onto our sidewalks, and bury the ends of our driveways.

    Your really on-the-ball roads departments will time those plows so this move happens right after you finish shoveling.

     

    Where I grew up whole cars would get buried by the plow.

     

    There was a YouTube a few years back with a snowplow going so fast that the wall of snow… knocked down pedestrians? Went through a restaurant window and inundated a table? Can’t remember the details but I think it was the latter.

  41. 41.

    germy

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    There was a YouTube a few years back with a snowplow going so fast that the wall of snow… knocked down pedestrians?

    Our snowplow guys are always in a rush… the speed limit on our street is 30mph.  They fly by much faster.    And then I see them all sitting in our local Stewart’s Shop.  It’s their hangout

     

    Here’s something I’ve complained about again and again until I’ve become a crank on the subject:

    Why do the snowplows speed? And why do they pack walls of snow at the end of our driveways?

    I have a distinct childhood memory (this was about fifty years ago) of looking out my window and seeing a snowplow drive slowly down my street. Just as the driver reached each driveway, he’d lift his plow so as not to push snow into driveways.

    Nowadays these guys fly by at forty mph, throwing snow up onto sidewalks. I saw one snowplow push a bunch of snow off a side street, across the street and into my driveway. Then he sped away.

    Every storm, I’m out there three or four times shoveling. Once, to clear the first snow, and then second, third & forth time clearing the snow the plows have thrown on my property.

    And while I’m here complaining, what’s the deal with the streetcleaners who drive around in the summer kicking up clouds of dust? Again, when I was a kid, I remember seeing little streetcleaning trucks spraying water onto the curb while they cleaned.

    Last summer there were clouds of dust in the air while the streetcleaner made his rounds. I think only one time the driver sprayed water, the way they’re supposed to.

    Do they simply not give a shit?

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @germy: I don’t know that we can assume that he needed to be “brought” anywhere by media. Just as likely he found media he wanted.

     

    @Kay: Texas would be the whole enchilada. It would be like California turning red.

  45. 45.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: @raven: The more insidious thing is that it continually reinforces the “be afraid, the world and other people are dangerous” mindset. Crime rates have been lower than during the 90s for years, but everyone is convinced that crime is higher than ever. Terrorism is rare, and in this country predominantly from right wing white guys, but every public event is treated like a potential mass murder and only the strict security keeps things safe. We give up basic liberties just for gun nuts ability to fantasize about being Dirty Harry.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    Jon Ralston
    @RalstonReports
    Dems continue to out-register GOP in NV — last month, it was by 2-to-1.. Almost up to 80K lead statewide, and the Clark Count firewall is approaching 140K. Non-partisan registration beat GOP #s in NV in Nov. If Dems get a boost from same-day reg at caucus, it’s sayonara GOP.

  52. 52.

    Gin & Tonic

    Hey, remember last week, when Fucker Carlson said he was on Russia’s side, and then later said “ha ha, just kidding”?  To nobody’s surprise, he wasn’t. He is publicly, openly and seriously siding with the aggressor in a war that has cost Ukraine over 13,000 lives.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

     

    I think there’s probably an opening to beat them in states since they all have to spend 24/7 defending their national leader and his sleazy hires.

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    Giuliani tweeted this a short while ago:

    Working on an important project with @OANN, intended to bring before the American people information Schiff (recently disclosed investor in Franklin Templton) “Star chamber” proceedings have covered up. Stay tuned.

    I’m of Irish, English and Scandinavian descent, but it gave me the willies to read that a prominent crackpot and powerful media organization — both of whom have the ear of the POTUS — are working together to expose a Jewish man for allegedly controlling money and judicial proceedings.

  55. 55.

    chopper

    @OzarkHillbilly:

     

    between the constant drills and fears of shooters and the massive surveillance/privacy issues we’ve created in it’s name, we’re raising a whole generation of fucked up kids. well, more fucked up.

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: That’s a great point. From what I’ve seen on the ground, Republicans at the local and state level win by nationalizing elections, but most suck at governing, which could leave them vulnerable to local and state level candidates who run on fixing potholes, improving schools, etc.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

     

    The problem, IMO, is the kids don’t care themselves. They’ve completely bought into the idea that they should have no privacy and there are no real boundaries. It’s almost compulsive. They all know police and prosecutors use the video and online exchanges and yet half of it is shit they filmed or posted themselves. They also believe video is a wholly accurate depiction of events that transpire and it really isn’t. Context matters. What happened before and after matters. I have seen school video of what was (allegedly) a “vicious attack” in a school bathroom where every single participant says it wasn’t like that at all. I’ve seen enough of them to try to discern between what is their weird aping of celebrity -type video, where they are playing a role- and the real thing but if you just saw the clip without talking to any of them or knowing their relationships you would put them all in juvie. They have to recognize the power of this stuff- it’s not a game. They’re arrogant about it- they grew up with it and they think they can control it and play with it.

  60. 60.

    delk

    I’ve seen clear backpacks in Chicago for quite some time now. When they enter the workplace, I bet those kids won’t be busted for using their work computers inappropriately.

    I’m off to my annual reclast infusion for my osteoporosis. I’ll be the only guy there.

  61. 61.

    jonas

    The Democrats are still missing perhaps the most essential piece of the puzzle — a smoking gun for whether Trump ordered that military aid and/or a White House meeting be conditioned on the investigations.

    Smh. Well, the people who could confirm (or deny!) it firsthand are Trump, Giuliani, and Mulvaney and they all refuse to testify, so we’ve got to go with all the people around them who have testified — under oath — to the fact that the president was withholding the aid until Zelenskyy announced an investigation of Biden.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

     

    I think they’re undecided on whether they want to nationalize 2020 or hunker down and try to differentiate their down-ticket candidates from Trump, and that’s the opening. It’s in flux. They’re not sure Trump is an asset. As we have seen, he’s not going to let them ignore him anyway. They had to know those Kentucky and Louisiana races were close but yet they allowed the bigmouth moron to go in there and hold hate rallies. They’ll have to decide soon and the decision will be irrevocable. If they put it off that’s a decision too. It means they are going to try to do both- I bet they’ll say that. I don’t think it will work. I think you get the Trump downside with the Trump upside unless you make a decision to push him to the side.

  64. 64.

    jonas

    @Kay: Good for him. There are still quite a few people in the Dem primary who should be doing something similar instead of pursuing a quixotic vanity project like running for president. For example, I really wish Buttigieg were running for the Indiana statehouse or Congress, which certainly could use more Democrats, and where sticking your foot in your mouth constantly is not as costly.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

     

    I love them and I don’t want them to go to kid prison and yet at least once a month I raise my voice with them in sheer frustration at their INABILITY to stop fucking documenting every move they make.  What that means is I have to sit there like a potted plant for 45 minutes of page after page of their own photos and texts and statements.

    When I used to photograph my kids – rare- I can’t both be in something and documenting it- I would notice that they would become kind of extreme versions of themselves. Something happens to them. It makes me a little sad, because little kids have that great lack of awareness of themselves. They’re kind of organically IN the world instead of watching it.

  68. 68.

    bemused

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

     

    Driving around Duluth MN yesterday on rough, snowpacked streets, we saw a lot of people digging out their driveways, walks and the most interesting displays of roof eave “snow art” with snow hanging down over the roof edges in amazing formations. 35 inches of snow over Thanksgiving with stories of people skiing to their jobs downtown including medical personnel at the clinics/hospitals.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:   It’s a different world and in some ways scarier for that fact. I really can’t imagine what it is like growing up in it anymore than they can imagine growing up in the world I did.

    I keep telling myself it’s not worse*, just different, but I have to admit that sometimes I’m not too sure.

    *some things were definitely worse in the early 70s, drugs, violence, and racism being the 3 big ones in my mind.

  70. 70.

    satby

    @jonas: Indiana outside of the cities is blood red, but I think his original plan was to use the Democratic primary to boost his name recognition for a run for governor. That he’s doing as well as he has in the primaries probably surprises Buttigieg too. Dems do not do well outside the few Indiana cities, and as was pointed out yesterday, we have no real path for good up and coming Democratic politicians in deep red states. We can’t expect all of them to commit career suicide as a politician.

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    I don’t know if Macron of France is a good leader, but he seems to understand toddler psychology:

    President Trump on Tuesday slammed as “very, very nasty” and “very disrespectful” recent comments by his French counterpart about the diminished state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance…

    “You just can’t go around making statements like that about NATO,” Trump said, sitting next to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a one-on-one meeting between the two leaders Tuesday morning.

    LOL!

  73. 73.

    Gin & Tonic

    @satby:

    but I think his original plan was to use the Democratic primary to boost his name recognition for a run for governor

    It’s funny, but one of the occasional commenters here from Down Under mentioned the other day that she had been at Oxford when he was, had intersected with him, and her impression was that he had “intends to be President” tattooed on his forehead.

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    @Gin & Tonic: I definitely get the impression Buttigieg rolled out of the cradle wanting to be president too (that’s true of most serious candidates, IMO — the exceptions stand out). But he probably didn’t think he had a realistic shot to go from mayor of South Bend to the Oval Office. I still don’t think he’ll be the nominee, but he’s done well and has raised his profile no matter what.

  75. 75.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

     

    I think they’re undecided on whether they want to nationalize 2020 or hunker down and try to differentiate their down-ticket candidates from Trump, and that’s the opening. It’s in flux. They’re not sure Trump is an asset. As we have seen, he’s not going to let them ignore him anyway.

     

    They will not have a choice. He won’t let them. His priority isn’t the party. He will never listen to them about doing what’s best for the party.

  77. 77.

    Joey Maloney

    @WereBear:

    Yesterday I passed a elderly local who gets around on a scooter because he lost his legs to diabetes and on the back was a big sign:

    I STAND WITH TRUMP.

    All we have left in this timeline is the blackest of black humor.

  78. 78.

    Miss Bianca

    @satby: I don’t think he’s going to clinch the POTUS nomination, and frankly I wouldn’t want him to, but if he could leverage his run into a successful run for governor of Indiana, I would cheer.

  79. 79.

    The Moar You Know

    Kay bait:

     

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ll bite.  The schools would really rather not be in the business of anyone’s business.  But you can thank an unending stream of lawsuits for why school districts are doing what they’re doing.

     

    And those districts will keep doing more in response to every lawsuit, in an unending cycle, until either the lawsuits stop, or it gets as expensive to educate a child as it is to build a stealth fighter.

     

    Besides, it’ll get the kids prepared for the workplace, where every single last goddamn thing you do is monitored.  Nobody seems to question that.

  80. 80.

    Ella in New Mexico

     

    @WereBear:

    Yesterday I passed a elderly local who gets around on a scooter because he lost his legs to diabetes and on the back was a big sign:

     

    I STAND WITH TRUMP.

    ANY chance he’s just got a warped sense of humor?

    Naaa….

    Maybe a head injury? Alcohol addiction? A mean friend at the homeless shelter?

    :-D

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