Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Everybody saw this coming.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

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

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

This really is a full service blog.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

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Monday Morning Open Thread

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Gotta admit: I can’t even read music, and I *still* kinda want one.

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  5. 5.

    BellyCat

    So glad the lifelong Republican (finally) switched parties. Now he gets to help select the Democratic presidential candidate.
    Lemmeguess… Bloomberg?

    Heartwarming.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Pete Buttigieg is “not going to be lectured on family values from the likes of Rush Limbaugh or anybody who supports Donald J Trump as the moral as well as political leader of the United States”, the Democratic presidential contender said on Sunday.

    Limbaugh, a conservative talk radio host controversially honoured by Trump, caused controversy this week when he questioned whether Americans were ready to vote for a gay candidate for president.

    Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Buttigieg added: “America has moved on and we should have politics of belonging that welcomes everybody. That’s what the American people are for. And I am saddened for what the Republican party has become if they embrace that kind of homophobic rhetoric.”
    ………………………..
    “I love my husband,” he said, of Chasten Buttigieg, who he married in 2018 and who like any politician’s spouse regularly appears at campaign events.

    “I’m faithful to my husband. Onstage we usually just go for the hug. But I love him very much and I’m not going to take lectures on family values from the likes of Rush Limbaugh.”

    Limbaugh has been married four times.

    Well done by Buttigieg and a nice little dig from the Guardian at the end there.

  20. 20.

    Sally

    @Baud: Plus, Voldemort was clever, and determined to endure through considerable suffering to achieve his awful goals. I can’t think of any Potter character who was a stupid and feckless as trump.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Pete Buttigieg is “not going to be lectured on family values from the likes of Rush Limbaugh or anybody who supports Donald J Trump as the moral as well as political leader of the United States”, the Democratic presidential contender said on Sunday.

    Exactly right response.  Good on him.

  23. 23.

    Emma from FL

    @Baud: Yeah. His mom, a product of massive pureblood inbreeding, gave his muggle Dad a love potion. When it wore off Daddy took to his heels and left a very sick and pregnant woman on her own. She promptly gave birth and died, leaving little Tom Riddle in a muggle orphanage where they treated him as people usually treat “weird” kids.

    The geekiness, it shows!

  29. 29.

    Ixnay

    In the days before many chalkboards were dedicated to music writing, we had chalk holders with wires for 5 pieces that you could line the board and put up examples. Never saw the pen version before, awesome. -Mr I.

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    Bloomberg pulled a Koch Bros. style manuever this primary season. While everyone was battling and spending millions to split delegates in IA & NH, Bloomberg was laying foundation in AA rich primary states. Now folks are scratching heads just like the Koch Bros-UNCF alliance. https://t.co/PzqVsyahSN— ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) February 15, 2020

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    One last thing.For those who complain that singling out IA silences the largely rural states.There are plenty other states with not only sizable rural communities, but more racially diverse ones at that. The ones America tends to overlook when discussing rural America. https://t.co/a6Cepf90tL— ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) February 16, 2020

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    Yep.A shorter primary season would indeed shorten the void that the billionaires in the race are exploiting.Some candidates are literally spending more than half of their war chest for two states that award only 41 (IA) and 24 (NH) delegates, only to scramble afterwards. https://t.co/c6lAEtTg0w— ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) February 16, 2020

  40. 40.

    BellyCat

    @Steeplejack (phone): If only!

    I’m more than fine with Klobuchar. Policies and record are stellar. If I could wave a magic wand in her direction, it would be named Charisma.

    Off to work. Carry on Muggles!

  42. 42.

    Amir Khalid

    @Emma from FL:

    It saddens me that Merope Gaunt’s tragic story never made it into the Half-Blood Prince movie. Although Rowling did rework her into The Casual Vacancy‘s Krystal Weedon.

  43. 43.

    satby

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: we didn’t have a problem with that concept when Obama was President. The president serving as an example of our ideals as a country?

    Besides, on reading it again, I think that was a sneaky snark on evangelicals lauding Trump.

  45. 45.

    Barney

    There is even ‘rastrology’: “The study of musical staving. … Careful comparative study of such characteristics as the spacing between the lines and staves, the thickness of the lines, and irregularities in the staving can, under appropriate circumstances, lead to identification of a specific rastrum and to useful conclusions regarding the date and provenance of a manuscript.” – Harvard Dictionary of Music

  46. 46.

    rikyrah

    Stacey Abrams "lost" a gov race w/ a slimmer margin in GEORGIA than some of the most popular progressives won in the own reliably blue districts.Hell, HRC outperformed PBO because AA moving to ATL suburbs are changing the voting demographic of that state right before our eyes. https://t.co/LYKZgGNChX— ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) February 16, 2020

  48. 48.

    rikyrah

    I kept saying over & over, candidates, make voter suppression a major cornerstone of your campaign.In NC, after the election fraud scandal.In GA, after the Kemp shenanigans. Built in message.McAuliffe did it in VA in 2013 & won. Lost overall white vote, but AA was decisive. https://t.co/ySNdtuVmln— ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) February 16, 2020

  50. 50.

    rikyrah

    I was reading about the enormous amount of money candidates spent in Iowa to split 41 delegates in an undemocratic Iowa caucus and 24 in NH. VA has 99 delegates up for grabs, more than both states combined. NC has 110. Some candidates are just now ramping up in those states. https://t.co/LMI069qqSl— ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) February 16, 2020

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    The more I think about it the more it looks like the order of the primaries is producing the worst candidates. Imagine if the Democrats had started in Virginia or South Carolina or any number of diverse states. The people left in this race would be different— Dessalines (@ZumbiTheGreat) February 16, 2020

  53. 53.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    Barty Crouch Junior. Slimy little weasel with humungous Daddy issues who cheated his way into a post of immense authority so that he could sideline traditional defences and elevate his real master back to superpower status. Failed because he couldn’t help but grandstand to the hero even though the cavalry was en route and up for a bit of payback.

    Voldemort was a nasty shit, but he could walk the walk as well as talk the talk (when he had legs)

  56. 56.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @satby: True. I think I’m touchy on the subject of the separation of church and state, but “moral” doesn’t necessarily mean “religious.” I’m areligious and like to think of myself as moral.

  59. 59.

    Steeplejack

    @rikyrah:

    Enjoy it!

    I’m having my favorite morning nosh: a cup of Trader Joe’s artisanally sourced, cage-free instant coffee and a few pieces of their rugelach. The purple label, not the pink; the former is much better. Good crust and just a hint of raspberry sweet/​tart.

  62. 62.

    jonas

    @Ixnay:In the days before many chalkboards were dedicated to music writing, we had chalk holders with wires for 5 pieces that you could line the board and put up examples.

    There’s an old Simpsons episode where Lisa gets detention after school in the music classroom and has to write some rule 100 times on the board or something, and Nelson the bully sees her and advises her to just use the staff liner so she can finish quicker.

  66. 66.

    satby

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: agreed. I’m areligious too and want a wide moat between state and church. And churches taxed.

    Good advice another jackal gave me for meeting new people after I moved here who were likely to be both congenial and politically on the same page was to check out the UU church. It’s been nice after being surrounded by red-state mentalities in MI.

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: No, that’s not what he said:

    or anybody who supports Donald J Trump as the moral as well as political leader of the United States”

    He is speaking to trump supporters who think trump is a paragon of virtue. Took me a couple readings to get it too.

  69. 69.

    satby

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: btw, watch that video I linked to in comment #26. Unrehearsed, thoughtful, and a beautiful statement any spouse would love to hear from their mate. I wish I had had a marriage like those two have.

  70. 70.

    Morzer

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    ‘Prince George, who is described in his party news sheet as “a great moral and spiritual leader of the nation”, but is described by almost everyone else as “a fat, flatulent git”‘ – Blackadder

  71. 71.

    Chyron HR

    @Baud:

    If Bernie does better in CA than he did in IA/NH, he’ll demand CA go first in his next ransom letter to the DNC.

  72. 72.

    debbie

    @Ixnay:

    Teachers used that in my school for teaching us how to write the alphabet. To this first grader, they were the coolest things ever!

  73. 73.

    debbie

    @satby:

    Storming out is, sadly, not a good sign. It reminds me of that interview early in his administration where Trump stopped speaking, crossed his arms (as best as he was able), and looked away, refusing to make eye contact.

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m an atheist and I know I am at least consistent in my morals. I also like my morals far more than most of the religious people I meet. They all seem to insist that their god is the one true god and that is more important than anything their prophets had to say, where as I don’t care what god one worships as long as one does good things for others.

  76. 76.

    Karen S.

    While out to dinner on Saturday at a fantastic sushi and ramen place, my wife and I noticed that Bloomberg had opened a campaign office across the street from the restaurant. The office (and restaurant) are in a Northside Chicago neighborhood (Edgewater for those who are familiar with Chicago). We strolled over there after dinner and chatted with a campaign worker. My wife asked him about drug price controls (Bloomberg would put a cap on how much drug companies can charge for certain drugs). I asked him about Bloomberg’s (previous) support for NYC’s “Stop and Frisk” policy. The campaign worker, who is black (I’m black, too), said, while looking sort of sheepish, that Bloomberg recognizes that he made a mistake in supporting the policy. Then he started talking about growing up in St. Louis and being able to keep his car unlocked in his neighborhood. It was hard to follow after that. Still wondering why on earth Bloomberg is running (as a Democrat). I can only think that he saw a black guy win the presidency twice and then that malicious orange fart cloud “win” and thought, “Why not me?”

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Karen S.:Still wondering why on earth Bloomberg is running (as a Democrat).

    Because he literally can’t run as a Republican and have any chance of winning. Many state GOPs have decided not to even have primaries.

  82. 82.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Comparatively good climate news:

    Delta announced an ambitious plan on Friday to become the first US airline to go carbon neutral, committing $1bn over the next 10 years to mitigate all emissions from its global business.

    The move by Delta will put pressure on other airlines to follow suit at a time when the UN is warning that airplane emissions of carbon dioxide will triple by 2050.

    Carbon dioxide emitted by airlines increased by 32% from 2013 to 2018, according to a study by the International Council on Clean Transportation. A Guardian analysis found long-haul flights generate more carbon emissions than the average person in dozens of countries around the world produces in a year.

    “There’s no challenge we face that is in greater need of innovation than environmental sustainability, and we know there is no single solution. We are digging deep into the issues, examining every corner of our business, engaging experts, building coalitions, fostering partnerships and driving innovation,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s chief executive.

  83. 83.

    satby

    @Karen S.: I really think he just hates Trump’s guts that much. I also think that like most of us, he assumed that the checks and balances would help and watched each fail. And when Biden didn’t seem to be doing well he decided he’d jump in. I prefer not to have oligarchs running things but as a self made billionaire, Bloomberg saw what he considered a problem and he’s decided on his solution. Lots of us get fed up and just do shit ourselves when the people who should be doing it don’t look like they’ll get it done.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: For candidates like Warren and Clinton, it’s like a bad version of The Three bears where there is no “just right”.  There is always something wrong.  Too prepared, when they talk loud their voice is too harsh… it never ends.

    Even Jon Lovett disappeared Warren from the one-long-sentence lead-in on his show on Friday.  All the leading candidates, including some who were lower than her got an -ing word in the opening.  This candidate was surging, that candidate was purging, etc.  I didn’t hear Elizabeth Warren, so I hit rewind to see if I’d missed it.  Nope.

    Simply erased as if she no longer exists.

  85. 85.

    Joey Maloney

    But is Klobuchar the feckless, bewildered, terrified Sarah Conner of the first movie, or the pumped up, no-fucks-to-give badass Sarah Conner of Judgement Day?

    Enquiring minds want to know.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Karen S.: The absolute gutlessness of that move has burned it into my brain. I am repeatedly amazed at how supposedly tuff guy trump needs to be protected by all who surround him from any challenge at all. All it takes to set me off is to have a trumpkin say “it’s about time we had somebody tough in the WH.”

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    @Karen S.:     Many NYC mayors see themselves as a presidential material. Big job, big ego. Like the saying that the typical Senator looks in the mirror and sees a President.

  94. 94.

    PST

    @Baud:

    Neither were cops.

    I hated the “Kamala is a cop” trope when it was used against her and I don’t like that line any better applied to Klobuchar. It’s been used against our Mayor Lightfoot too. Prosecution is necessary, so we are lucky when good, thoughtful people do it. Any hard job will involve some judgment calls that can be questioned later, but none of these women strike me as having abused their positions.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    @PST:

    Yep. The notion that there are certain critical jobs that only Republicans can do just strengthens them and weakens us.

    But maybe that’s the idea.

  98. 98.

    VOR

    @OzarkHillbilly: Because he literally can’t run as a Republican and have any chance of winning. Many state GOPs have decided not to even have primaries.

    Yes. For example, although Minnesota is having a primary, the only name listed is Trump. There was a lawsuit demanding access but the Minnesota Republican Party won in court. Any non-Trump Republican must be write-in.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    January 23, 2016:

    Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, is exploring an independent run for president, a move that would further complicate a White House race that has been completely upended by insurgent, anti-establishment candidates.
    The founder of the eponymous financial information group who has considered running for president in previous elections is willing to spend $1bn to finance a run as an independent, according to people familiar with the matter.
    His decision to explore a White House bid comes as anti-establishment candidates — Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for the Republicans and Bernie Sanders for the Democrats — have taken the 2016 race on an unexpected course. Mr Trump has dominated the GOP field for months, leaving centrist candidates such as Jeb Bush scrambling to stay relevant and sparking panic in the party, which believes that his anti-immigrant rhetoric would make it hard to win the White House.
    Mr Bloomberg has commissioned polls to assess his presidential chances in the past, but concluded that he would face insurmountable challenges as an independent because most Democratic and Republican voters rarely switch sides.

  101. 101.

    Anya

    Why is a guy who voted for Trump in 2016 and for LaPage twice switching parties because of Trump? What changed now? I can deduce from his LaPage vote that he still supports Trump’s most harmful policies, such as anti immigrant and caging kids. I am just unclear what he finds objectionable. Also, I am not sure if I want that person in my party.

    ETA — he says what changed him and as I’ve suspected it’s non of his most harmful policies:

    It was a long time coming but his Post-impeachment mocking of Jesus words at the prayer breakfast, and his acts of retribution since then, were the last straw.

  102. 102.

    Betty Cracker

    Trump is a moron, but he has a conman’s ability to spot an easy mark, and he saw the 2016 Republican Party as a weak organization ripe for fleecing (though I suspect even he didn’t know the GOP was hollowed out enough to completely surrender to him and his band of grifters).

    Bloomberg is a lot smarter than Trump and truly is obscenely rich rather than a gold-plated fake. But like any successful capitalist, Bloomberg too can spot a weakness and knows how to exploit it to his advantage. He saw Biden floundering and an entire field dependent on feckless media gatekeepers who prioritize generating revenue and/or pushing a conservative agenda over creating an informed citizenry, so he pounced.

  103. 103.

    Bex

    @debbie: Kloubuchar snapped, “no more questions” at the Telemundo interviewer before she left the stage.  Do we really need another pissy president?

  104. 104.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: concluded that he would face insurmountable challenges as an independent because most Democratic and Republican voters rarely switch sides.

     

    Hmmm… Sounds just like Wilmer.

  106. 106.

    PST

    @Baud: Right. Ditto for defense. It bugs me when democratic presidents think they need a republican in the DoD for credibility.

  107. 107.

    Anya

    @satby: this primary has exposed a lot of people. I just want it to end before my list of people I thought were sensible who are in reality  morons gets any longer.

  110. 110.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: yep. He got rich as god by spotting a gap and filling it. He’s spotted another one. I wish he’d throw in behind a moderate since that’s what he’d probably want to win, but like a fed up mom, he’s just going to do it himself.

    WaterGirl and I disagree about this, BTW. I suspect that had our Democratic field looked strong enough to knock out Vermont Trump early as well as the real Trump, Bloomberg would have stayed out. He’s old, he’s rich as fuck, and I think he probably doesn’t really want the aggravation of being elected, he just wants to get things back to the relative stability we had prior to 2016. It’s a crazy year. Depending on how hard he goes against McConnell and who he wants as VP if he gets that far will let me know if my guess is accurate.

  111. 111.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Right, sorry, must not question Michael Bloomberg who has been publicly exploring a presidential bid for years without making it about “Wilmer”.

    It isn’t true that he just opposes Trump. In fact, he explored a presidential bid when Clinton was running and several times prior. I don’t care, particularly, but that is what happened.

  113. 113.

    satby

    @Anya: the last four years have certainly been quite the revelation.  Not about the Republicans, that’s been obvious since Reagan. About our supposed citizen allies.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    And with that I’m out. Like Raven, I’ll wish you all the best. This site (now) operates on some alternative reality that I’m not comfortable with.

  115. 115.

    debbie

    @satby:

    I suspect that had our Democratic field looked strong enough to knock out Vermont Trump early as well as the real Trump, Bloomberg would have stayed out.

    He also would have stayed out if Biden hadn’t given more than a few people some concerns about his early performance.

  117. 117.

    satby

    @Kay: explored but didn’t run. And Sanders was running then too, and causing destabilizing problems for Hillary. As we all know.

    Rich powerful men worldwide are always sucked up to by people telling them they should run (for president, prime minister, what have you). Not really surprising that some start to believe and consider it, just surprising most don’t.

  124. 124.

    Dupe1970

    @rikyrah: Yes! Have more states go all at once, same time same day. Get rid of caucuses. Make sure enough diverse states are going first. Then you would have a better narrative.

  125. 125.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    Right, sorry, must not question Michael Bloomberg who has been publicly exploring a presidential bid for years without making it about “Wilmer”.

    Excuuuuuuse me for noting the fact that Bloomberg is following the same track that Wilmer laid down long ago. How dare I.

    Get over yourself Kay. I have been every bit as anti Bloomberg as you and largely for the exact same reasons.

  126. 126.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ian R:

    I disagree with your reading of Merope. Remember what the Gaunts, once a rich and powerful Pureblood family, were reduced to at that point: Marvolo, an impoverished, bitter and misathropic old man, and his only child Merope, whom he kept out of school even though Hogwarts was free to all students. Merope grew up isolated from human contact and starved of love. It was loneliness and desperation, not a desire to mess with Tom Riddle for fun, that led to Merope seeking his love in the wrong way. She wound up paying for that error with her life. That is her tragedy.

  127. 127.

    Geminid

    Rachel Bittecofer’s outfit, the Wason Center, polled Virginia registered voters after the November General Assembly election. One result spoke to partisan identification: Democratic 34%;  Republican 31%; Independent 30%. These are self described, as VA. does not register by party. One thing I took away was that even with a good Democratic turnout it also took independents to flip the General Assembly. Not saying we need to tailor policy and messenging to attract independents. But at least in Virginia we ignore them or disvalue them at our peril, and our successful candidates kept that in mind.

  128. 128.

    evodevo

    @Bex: Yes….one would think that before giving an interview to TELEMUNDO that one would brush up on Hispanic concerns/international issues before going in???  What am I missing here?

  129. 129.

    joel hanes

    I once had a set of “herb scissors”, received as a gift, that had five pairs of blades.  They could cut spinach into uniform 1/16th inch strips, as long as the leaves weren’t too big … I do that when I make eggs Florentine.     It was possible to use them to chop parsley.  Thyme stems defeated them.  They were useless for rosemary.

    With even a tiny bit of skill, a good knife is a better tool for all those jobs.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @opiejeanne:

    It’s fine and I don’t want to make a big deal, I just know you guys follow up when people leave and I want to avoid that. It doesn’t seem like a political site to me anymore. I think you’re not actually following these primaries because Sanders is running one or two- which I get- you’re all vehemently anti-Sanders- but it’s a political site. The fact is he’s leading the D field. We don’t even post polling anymore because it doesn’t back up our preferred narrative. I’m a Warren supporter but unless she pulls a rabbit out of her hat she has an uphill climb. That’s a fact.

    Places change and people change. People leave and other people come in their place. It’s been true as long as I’ve been here and I’ve been here a long time. But I like to talk politics :)

    Raven, who is much classier than I am, said “happy trails” so I’ll say that too :)  I mean it- it’s been a lot of fun.

  132. 132.

    joel hanes

    @Kay:

    I hope it’s au revoir and not adieu.

    I’ve had to largely disconnect too, because watching the ritual Democratic circular firing squad is too depressing in the age of Trump.

    But your comments have been one of the best things about Balloon Juice for a long time, and I hope that in a few months, after Trump is defeated somehow, we’ll see you again.

    Or, inshallah, sooner.

     

    Be well.

  133. 133.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: can’t a guy take a shower without this happening?!
    You cannot leave me like this for many reasons
    1. It’s NotMax’s mother’s birthday today and she’s 92 and it would be impolite to walk out on her like this
    2. Although very frustrating, you will need the occasional good argument when convincing your sons to do the right thing
    3. I need occasional stories of that new individual you dote on
    4. “Low quality hires” to me is like the sound of the bells just before the transubstantiation
    5. I co-opt many of your thoughts because they are so good that they make me a better person
    6. Teachers need you (I am one).
    7. Lawyers need you (I am one).

    So please, Come back and stay?

  135. 135.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: There are more here that agree with you than disagree.  I do not like Sanders, but I get that he might win.  Harris and Castro are out and Warren is fading.  Those things make me sad and worried.  Bloomberg is as scary to me as Trump.  I am not sure where this is going.  But it would be a better ride off the cliff if you were in the car.

  138. 138.

    zhena gogolia

    I don’t understand the idea that this blog is ignoring Sanders. It seems to me as if every other post is pushing him.

    I can’t ignore him because I am terrified he will get the nomination AND HE CANNOT WIN. He simply cannot win the general election, and he will lose us the House as well. If I thought there was a chance in hell he could win, I’d be happy to support him. (Well, not happy, since he’s a [witting or unwitting, not clear] Russian asset mentioned in the Mueller Report who had a recent heart attack and won’t release his health information or his full tax returns, but I’ll grant that he’d be marginally better than Trump IF THERE WERE ANY CHANCE HE COULD WIN.)

  139. 139.

    zhena gogolia

    I very much hope that Kay does not leave. I have almost left because of the constant discussion of Sanders, so it just shows that people perceive things differently.

  140. 140.

    Princess

    @Kay: I’ll be sorry if you go for good. You’re pretty much why I read this site and why I tend to be around more in the morning than the evening. I appreciate your reminders that we are outliers here in our dislike of Bernie and it is something we need to hear because he might be the nominee. But this primary is making everyone pretty crazy including me, so I do understand the desire to move away from social media that feels toxic and unproductive. None of us knows anything and we’re all running around like chickens without heads. I suspect most of us will vote for anyone in November and because of  that, the chore of getting to that anyone is that much greater.

  141. 141.

    Bufflars

    @Dupe1970:  Right??  I thought I was having a stroke when everyone seemed to be reading his (I thought humorous) associations as any type of actual endorsement.  Missed the joke completely.

  142. 142.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: to whatever extent I may have contributed to this decision of yours I can only say, Don’t Go. I am not alone in valuing your comments and most especially your hands on political experience.

  143. 143.

    David Evans

    @OzarkHillbilly: To be carbon neutral with present or near-future aircraft, an airline has to pay for carbon sequestration in some form. The problem there is that we should be doing the carbon sequestration anyway. Who pays for it is irrelevant.

  145. 145.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @David Evans: Yes, as I said tho, comparative good news. In the short article somebody notes that Delta will have a hard time reaching their goals. I’m lauding them for taking the first step and actually trying.

  146. 146.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: Occidental petroleum is planning to produce carbon neutral petroleum, basically by capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and injecting it into oil fields for secondary oil production. They are starting a plant in the Permian Basin projected to remove 500,000 tons of CO2 a year.                            Some climate activists are hostile to the idea. What good is it if you save the planet, but don’t destroy the oil companies?

  147. 147.

    Amir Khalid

    @chopper:

    Uncle Vernon is pretty successful as Muggles go. He runs his own company and lives a comfortable bourgeois life. He and Aunt Petunia just suck as parents.

  148. 148.

    Citizen Alan

    @Baud:  HIs mother used magic to rape his father which, per JKR, had the effect of causing him to be born irredeemably evil.

  149. 149.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: I will take any advancements I can get, but if the end result is just to add more carbon to the atmosphere (I’d have to see their math) than we still end up with an unlivable planet, just takes a little longer to get there.

  150. 150.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Well, they do have to document their sequestration to get the $25/ton tax credit. ($35 if you just store the CO2 in the ground and not just recover more oil). The idea is that we can carry on fuel intensive activities like air transport with carbon neutral fuels. Last year’s IPCC report emphasized the role of carbon capture in limiting temperature increase. Tree planting, but also industrial carbon capture.                                                           An obvious defect of AOC’s GND was the notion that we would replace air travel with high speed rail. The CO2 released in producing the steel and concrete would be huge. Concrete production already accounts for 8% of CO2 emissions world wide. (air travel is 4%).                          I think everybody who is concerned about climate change would do well to research “clean energy” and “carbon capture.” There’s a lot going on, and it is scalable.

  151. 151.

    Tony Jay

    @Amir Khalid:

    Sorry, been called away to do note-taking at a ‘Mediation Meeting’. Why they can’t just give them a knife each and a circle of salt to duel in like back in the day I do not know. It’s PC gone mad, I tells you!

    However, I am back.

    The stunned silence on Sports Radio when the news about City’s ban hit made me partially overseason my Moroccan Mince. Seriously? Ever since those texts and e-mails leaked in the German Press it was undeniable that City’s owner and senior executive figures were utterly full of it and had been lying through their teeth about their FFP shenanigans for years, so hearing the mouthpieces of Sport’s Media pretend that this had come out of the blue and was a big shock was, in retropect, not really that surprising at all. While City were getting away with it they were happy to pretend there wasn’t an issue, but now all that had changed.

    On the one hand I feel sort of bad for the Coach and players, but on the other hand, the hand upon which I have fingers with which to count the millions and millions of pounds each of them has been paid to trample like a herd of elegant and wonderfully skillful hippos across the wide open spaces of the English Premier League, I don’t. Sure, they were all – told- that the Club had done nothing wrong, but I refuse to believe that any of them haven’t had an enforced sit down with their very expensive agents and legal teams and been walked through how guilty Manchester City obviously are and how this will likely affect their own playing careers. They knew, but until this season (It’s looking like our year, maybe) they were simply having too much fun to care.

    Looking into my balls of crystal I forsee a conga-line of players doing a quick flit from City’s dressing room. Not immediately, maybe, but definately at the end of the season, and en masse. A lot of these guys are in the prime of their careers or a bit past it and simply will not sit out the next two years without elite Champions League competition. None of them will want to be the first to jump ship, but equally, none of them will want to be the last.

    Is this the end of City as an elite force in English and European football? Maybe, maybe not. Sheikh Mansour has invested a LOT of money into the foundations of the club, and after the ban ends there will be a lot of players willing to sign up to rebuild an elite team, within the rules this time. They’ll be back.

    However we’ll still be there to condemn them to second place, because we are awesome.

    And if the Premier League boots them to the third rung of professional football as punishment (I can’t see it, but you never know) then all bets are off. They could be left with just the youth team and a lot of blue plastic merchandise going unsold.

  152. 152.

    Tony Jay

    @Kay:

    Don’t go! You’re my go to for “How to best explain complicated things in a very simple way”.

    And believe me, I need it simple.

  153. 153.

    Geminid

    There is an electric commuter sea plane about to start commercial air service up in British Columbia. And we hopefully will live to see air travel powered with hydrogen generated by solar powered electrolysis. But we have to get from here to there. Carbon neutral fuels are a means to that end.

  155. 155.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: Probably way late, but from what I have read carbon capture is very feasible, (I have read of a # of different ways) the problem always comes down to cost and who’s going to pay for it.

    Of course there is always the problem of an entire industry with very deep pockets to fund a lobbying campaign to see to it that they don’t become obsolete.

  156. 156.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid:Carbon neutral fuels are a means to that end.

    Yes they are, I just fear that when we finally make the jump it will be too little too late. A lot of people are putting their faith in science to rescue us from this debacle, what they don’t seem to understand is that science is doing the best they can right now. The Science isn’t lacking, it’s the political and cultural will to change the way we live.

  157. 157.

    J R in WV

    @Citizen Alan:

    …per JKR, had the effect of causing him…

    I think you are confusing correlation and causation.

    Because event One precedes event Two in time does not imply that event One actually caused event Two.

    It could have caused event Two, but without serious evidence resulting from research you can’t make the case just on the passage of time and the two disconnected events.

    ETA: Didn’t do any close read of the Potter books, just operating on the comments here today.

  158. 158.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly:                       you are right about the questions of political and cultural will. But Michelle Lujan- Griffen won the 2018 New Mexico governors race with a clean energy platform. Last year she signed a clean power bill. And man, can they use it. Last year I drove from Atlanta to New Mexico. West Texas was chock full of windmills, but nary a one in New Mexico. And the place I camped, near Santa Rosa, was windy as shit. I hope to go back and see some in a year.

  160. 160.

    J R in WV

    @Geminid:

    If the electrical grid is no longer carbon producing, then using electric battery powered cars and trucks will help remedy the personal transportation sector. Trains have commonly run on electric power from the grid, and long haul western cargo trains could transform to electrical grid power relatively easily.

    If time was less important in our daily lives, traveling via train and passenger ship would be a bigger thing. We enjoy traveling via train when we can. Amtrak is only a few % of what it needs to be, tho. When I was a little kid you could travel from village to village in WV on the train. Most of those train tracks were taken up when the timber/coal industry ended.

    In France when we stayed in a tiny hotel in a rural town, they warned us that our rooms faced the train station, and every hour the train would come through. We immediately thought of 150-car unit trains of bulk cargo moving through town at 150 kph.

    Reality was a two-car passenger train, electric, slow, the loudest part was the bell on the crossing blockade for the 2 minutes the train was crossing the street. But my point is that in France you still can get to many tiny rural villages on an electric train, and there is no reason that couldn’t be the case right here in Buckwheat Flats MS.

    And if vacations lasted 6 weeks, anyone could travel to Europe on a liner, travel around via train, return to the US on an ocean liner, and not have a huge carbon footprint, if the liner was fueled with a bio-produced fuel oil rather than bunker / diesel oil…

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