Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

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

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

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

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Everybody saw this coming.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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Friday Morning Open Thread: Friday Funnies

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Anything for SCIENCE!

Friday Morning Open Thread: Friday Funnies 1

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

Friday Morning Open Thread: Friday Funnies 2

(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)

Friday Morning Open Thread: Friday Funnies

(John Deering via GoComics.com)
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Sarah Cooper is the Vaugh Meader of this current moment:

Reader Interactions

166Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Readership capture.

    Bernie world descends into disarray

    Note: Bernie actually isn’t the bad guy in this story. In fact, there aren’t really any obvious good guys or bad guys, except maybe one or two who suggested they won’t support Biden.

  4. 4.

    Barbara

    I’m seeing some strange ads — “Click here to find out why Jesus didn’t exercise.” Because he had to walk everywhere?

  5. 5.

    debbie

    Sniffing the marker was the perfect touch!

    Listening to NPR reporting Dem plans for their virtual convention, I thought it would be great if someone could shame Trump into insisting that the GOP convention be traditional with wall-to-wall bodies and no masks. If only! ?

  15. 15.

    Barbara

    @Baud: Interesting article, actually. Reading through, the most practical quotes are from Jeff Weaver, though I have no doubt he is also trying to write his own ticket by creating a super PAC to support Biden. Near the end someone laments the lack of infrastructure to continue the mission of the Sanders campaign — like, maybe, a political party would do?

  16. 16.

    Baud

    @Barbara:

    That’s the most frustrating thing. Progressives have and have had the opportunity to exercise outsized influence as a faction within the Democratic Party, but that would require accepting the need to work with moderates to achieve a majority. A bridge too far for some.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Jeff Weaver makes sense here:

    Weaver, for his part, argues that an independent expenditure is needed to raise money quickly in the remaining months of the general election. If Biden won and passed into law, say, a $15 hourly minimum wage, it would show voters that the progressive movement can deliver, he said.

    “You can’t ask people decade in and decade out to make small-dollar contributions, knock on doors, make phone calls, and text their friends without demonstrating that the movement can have positive, real results,” Weaver said. “If it’s just a sort of left debating society, if it’s just the purity Olympics, we are going to fail miserably.”

    This is the post-Sanders realignment. People who are interested in the POLICIES championed by Sanders are working within the two-party context to move forward. People who were in it for the cult of personality are spinning their wheels angrily.

  25. 25.

    Barbara

    @Baud: I went to “real” Mexico when Mexican friends invited us to their daughter’s quinceanera. After the event in Mexico City, we visited some market towns in Michoacan. It was around six months before a significant upswing in violence. I wish I could find a way to go back. It was really special. Many people who heard us made a point of telling us that they had lived in the US or had relatives who did.

  26. 26.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker:

    This is the post-Sanders realignment. People who are interested in the POLICIES championed by Sanders are working within the two-party context to move forward. People who were in it for the cult of personality are spinning their wheels angrily.

    Likewise, my take.

  35. 35.

    Barbara

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t even know whether many who resist party infrastructure are really part of a personality cult so much as they are simply the type of people who resist most kinds of institutional structure.  The example of Occupy Wall Street looms large in my mind — formless by design, and basically inconsequential.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Right, but the subject of the quote is raising the minimum wage to $15, which has now become a mainstream view in the party. It has also become a mainstream view in the party that the ACA needs to be expanded significantly. Progress!

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A senior justice department official said the FBI did not conduct a raid, but paid a visit to Burr’s home to collect his cellphone. Approval of the warrant – a significant development because it was served on a sitting senator – was obtained at the “highest levels” of the justice department, the official said.

    I call bullshit. No way Barr approved this.

  38. 38.

    Betty Cracker

    @Barbara: I think that’s true. One of the worst aspects of Sanders being the face of the progressive wing of the party (not for everyone, but he was for many) was that he defined himself in opposition to the party. Progressive Dems like Warren, Porter, Pressley, AOC, etc., don’t have that enormous baggage.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t think anyone objects to the party moving left.  People like me believe that the rhetoric and tactics used by some of those who try to move the party to the left have damaged our cause (and the country), and we wonder if there is a better way that is less destructive.

  42. 42.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: Trump wants Burr punished for the report of the Senate Intelligence Committee that there was, in fact, Russian interference/collusion in the 2016 campaign aimed at helping Trump.  So, punished he will be.

    First step, removed as Chair from the Intelligence Committee.

    The tell is that no such action is going against Loeffler.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    According to a reddit commenter, Biden said this on MSNBC about Trump.

    We never saw anything like the prostitution of that office like we see today.

  46. 46.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I think there are plenty of Democrats who object to the party moving left, at least on certain issues. It’s fascinating to watch the evolution of policy consensus over time. It’s hard to find an anti-choice elected Democrat outside the former Confederacy these days.

    ETA: The Reddit commenter told the truth. Biden said that on O’Donnell’s show last night. I saw a clip early this morning.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @Immanentize:

    Full story with video.

    Answering questions in a virtual town hall-style event on MSNBC Thursday, the Democratic presidential hopeful was asked by a voter about whether he’d follow the lead of former President Gerald Ford, who pardoned Richard Nixon in large part to help the nation move beyond the Watergate scandal.

     

    Biden, while not speaking to any specific potential charge, committed to ensuring that any prosecutorial decisions would be dictated by the law, in contrast to what he called the “dereliction of duty” by Trump and his attorney general, William Barr.

     

    “It’s hands off completely. The attorney general is not the president’s lawyer. It’s the people’s lawyer,” Biden said. “We never saw anything like the prostitution of that office like we see it today.”

    That makes it seem like he’s talking about the AG office.

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    From the department of DUH!:

    Martin and baby Steven are caught up in a nationwide surrogacy crisis of growing proportions. Commercial surrogacy is legal in some US states, making it a hotspot for parents looking to have children through assisted reproduction. But the coronavirus travel ban has seen President Trump close the country’s borders to almost all international visitors, while a nationwide US passport office shutdown has made it impossible for parents who do manage to get into the country to obtain the necessary documentation to take their children home.

    As a result, babies are being born without their parents present at the birth (immigration authorities will only let parents in once the surrogate has given birth to the child). In at least one case, a mother flew from France to attend the birth of her child, only to be turned back by border control. Some parents aren’t being allowed in the country at all.

    Surrogates and surrogacy agencies are scrambling to look after babies themselves. “It’s unprecedented for a surrogate to be looking after the baby,” says Rich Geisler, a Californian surrogacy lawyer. “We as an industry really try to avoid that. We want to avoid the possibility of the surrogate bonding with the child.”

    Martin is adamant that she’ll be able to give Steven back to his parents when the time is right. “It will be hard to give him back, because I’ll miss him,” Martin says. “But I know he’s not mine, and that I have to give him up, which is totally OK with me.” She pauses. “But there’s definitely a bit of attachment there,” Martin says. “I care for him. When you love on a baby, you love on a baby.”

    I feel for these people.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Democrats like John Bel Edwards matter. I’d vote for him if I lived in Louisiana, just as I voted for Lawton Chiles here in Florida when he ran against Republican douche-canoes. It’s the South, so we’re not going to get a Gavin Newsom.

  57. 57.

    germy

    A commenter here yesterday was advocating for “blue states” splitting from “red states”

    But NY is a blue state, and this happened:

    The level of anger directed at the media from these protestors was alarming. As always, I will tell a fair and unbiased story today. pic.twitter.com/5jCR0YY9VH

    — Kevin Vesey (@KevinVesey) May 14, 2020

    Every blue state is full of red loons, and every red state has progressive people who live there because of family, jobs, etc. so I just don’t get the argument.

    Also, look at the crowd in the above clip. So young! Which is why I get irritated when I see the “Once all the old boomers die out, everything will be fine!” argument.  Idiot racists appear in each new generation.

  58. 58.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    Sarah Cooper’s Tik Toks are the first and only way I’ve ever been able to stand hearing the vile scumbag’s voice. Her “How to Medical” (with the asshole’s “shine a light inside, maybe inject bleach” stunning nonsense) is my favorite, but all of them crack me the hell up and I’m glad for the comic relief in this, this time I have no words for.

  59. 59.

    germy

    Biden says he would not pardon Trump or block investigations

    ATLANTA (AP) – Democratic candidate Joe Biden said that if he wins the presidency he would not use his power to pardon Donald Trump or stop any investigations of Trump and his associates.

    “It is not something the president is entitled to do, to direct a prosecution or decide to drop a case,” Biden said Thursday on MSNBC. “It’s a dereliction of duty.”

    The former vice president made his statement in response to a voter who asked him on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show, “The Last Word,” whether he would “commit to not pulling a Gerald Ford in giving Donald Trump a pardon under the pretense of healing the nation.”

    Biden responded, “I commit,” before offering a more lengthy explanation of his view that the president must allow the Justice Department to operate without interference.

  63. 63.

    zhena gogolia

    @germy:

    That person has no “argument.” They’re just trolling.

    Of course you’re absolutely right. When I saw that yesterday, my first (stereotypical) thought was, oh, that’s in Mississippi or Georgia.

  64. 64.

    Sab

    @Betty Cracker: OT sort of. My dad’s nursing home required our nurse’s aide come through an agency. They pay her $11 per hour and charge me $22. That seems excessive. I pay her the difference to get her up to what I was paying her before.

    $11 an hour to risk her life taking care of an old man with dementia. And the agency gets the same for doing almost nothing.

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Christ on a cracker!! That is an offense to god and all that is holy in this world. I can’t wait to try it.

  66. 66.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Mo MacArbie: I remember when that 45 came out – some of the disk jox were babbling like they’d found the next Elvis. When what they found was the textbook definition of a won-hit oneder.

  68. 68.

    germy

    @zhena gogolia:

    I hadn’t seen this before, the finished story that reporter filed:

    I'll probably never forget what happened today.I was insulted. I was berated. I was practically chased by people who refused to wear masks in the middle of a pandemic.All the while, I was there to tell THEIR story. Here's the finished product. pic.twitter.com/HV2Hrcs7gi

    — Kevin Vesey (@KevinVesey) May 14, 2020

  71. 71.

    debbie

    @germy:

    Yep, count Ohio in that happy bunch. Can’t wait to see how the reopening of public pools works out.

  72. 72.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Baud: That’s part of it for me… but it just seems that they refuse to accept that *black people* are a powerful bloc within the Democratic Party and therefore should be respected- and made common cause with.

    I have not been able to escape the nagging feeling that the Sanderista Brigade are motivated by the fact that the Democratic Party has put itself four-square behind civil and voting rights, and not the “left vs right” economic/class model.

    That is– they’re salty that Negroes have power in the Party.

  73. 73.

    Sab

    @Betty Cracker: Ohio is red as can be, but we still keep voting for Sherrod Brown. I have in-laws in Louisiana and they love John Bel Edwards.

    I think Mike deWine just gave us enough rope to hang ourselves if we behave badly. Then he will shut us down again, while saying “I warned you.” I don’t much like him, but he has become politically deft.

    Our secession sea lion is just silly.

  75. 75.

    Immanentize

    @raven: I like the South a lot in it’s amazing quirkiness.  I haven’t been to Mississippi in probably 20 years now.  I’d love to drive through when dropping the Immp off at college this Fall, but unlikely on both counts it seems.

  76. 76.

    Betty Cracker

    @Sab: That’s nutso! Good for you for making up the difference. Sounds like they won’t just let you hire your own person from an approved agency directly?

  77. 77.

    rp

    @germy: I don’t have a ton of sympathy for that reporter. WHY was he covering these idiots? Why did he feel the need to tell their story? The media shouldn’t be giving these crackpots oxygen.

  79. 79.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: How’s that any worse than sweet pickles? Or “bread & butter” pickles?

    I picked up (on sale, natch) a couple boxes’ worth of Kool-Aid flavor sticks** in sour blue raspberry & sour apple flavors. I might sacrifice a few plus a few packs of artificial sweeteners to adulterate a small bottle of pickles & see what results.  Deep blue raspberry pickles might be fun.

    ** One per half-liter bottle of water makes a disgusting concoction; one per liter is surprisingly refreshing.

  80. 80.

    germy

    @rp:  I had the same thought.  “I’m trying to tell your story!!”  Why?

    There have been demonstrations by renters protesting rent increases.  There have been demonstrations by nurses protesting lack of PPE.   I haven’t seen them on TV, just online.

  81. 81.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Joe Biden’s answer is good, I think. He sounds self assured and bluster-free.

     

    Asked what he’d say to women who believe Tara Reade and are now struggling with their vote, Biden says: “If they believe Tara Reade, they probably shouldn’t vote for me. I wouldn’t vote for me if I believed Tara Reade.”— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) May 15, 2020

  82. 82.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    My takeaways from that article:

    The grifters in Sanders’ organization are worried the money supply will dry up.

    Sanders is interested in nothing but himself.  If he’s not on the ballot, he only goes through the motions.

    Sanders does not want anybody to find out where his money came from in this election.

  83. 83.

    Sab

    @Betty Cracker: Nope. They have to come through an agency. She has been working for us for 12 years. Originally she was hired to help with my mom who was physically disabled but mentally okay. When Mom died she stayed on to take care of Dad who is physically okay but mentally pretty much gone.

    After the lockdown she was blocked for about a month. Every agency wanted to do a background check that would take 2 to 3 months. She finally found one that would take her on our reference. When she got back in she found that he was being neglected. Wet diapers not changed. Meals ignored. It’s scary.

    I understand why they have the new rules. I think they are right. It just made it hard for those of us who had lucked into an amazing caretaker. But I think everyone is better off and safer under the new rules.

    My siblings will be pissed as hell when they find out I blew their inheritance keeping Dad safe amd comfortable. Thankfully we have an inheritance to blow.

  84. 84.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: Added to the resignation issue:. In North Carolina (by law) the Governor must choose a replacement from the same party.

    Persuade a solid Democrat – or maybe some respected figure who’s on our side of the fence but not seen as overtly political –  to change their registration to Gee-Oh-Pea & then appoint them. Preferably someone with the stones to tell Yertle McTurtle to GTFO of my office! if he ever tries to walk in.  Have the soon-to-be Senator file the change-of-registration papers less than an hour before their appointment to the Senate – just to rub their noses in it. They wanna fuck with us, we oughta fuck with them.

  85. 85.

    snoey

    @Immanentize:

    Polio is an intestinal virus which usually has fecal-oral transmission, so pools were a different situation than with corona virus.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: Fair. I’m not sure what he’s said about the national party. I think southern Dems are more worried about their image than their ideology.

  92. 92.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    @zhena gogolia: That’s what makes her so damn funny. Her expressions and body language capture the dipshit’s staggering stupidity perfectly.

  93. 93.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I liked that answer too, even though Biden occasionally has a disconcerting habit of telling people not to vote for him. :)  But I liked the comment in this instance because it was real and human, i.e., the accusation is monstrous if true, but it’s not true.

    Maybe it’s my media bubble, but it seems like the Reade story is losing steam. Good. It’s bullshit. People took her seriously, looked into it, and the story started falling apart.

    If it becomes a non-factor — if every prominent female Biden voter isn’t hounded by the media for supporting Biden because it’s widely recognized that Reade is lying — that’s the best possible outcome for MeToo, IMO. The point wasn’t to automatically treat accusations as convictions; it was to stop dismissing accusations out of hand.

  99. 99.

    sheila in nc

    @raven:  My husband and I adore the “Somewhere South” shows. She does a great job of showing 1) all the influences on Southern cooking from around the world, and 2) the commonalities of foodways even if the ingredients are different.

  102. 102.

    lamh36

    @Betty Cracker: there are still kernels trying to be dragged out, like this PBS News article our today:

    A former Biden staffer who worked with Tara Reade says on the record she was fired for poor performance. Her attorney dismisses it as “nitpicking”

    https://twitter.com/mikememoli/status/1261279590678507523?s=21

    But the cat is out the bag that this was likely a hit job aimed at getting rid of Biden with this “admission” from one of the collabo:

    There is no sense rallying round Joe Biden as long as there is still technically chance to replace him. In fact, the responsible thing to do if you want to beat Trump is to do everything possible to try to stop the disaster of a Biden nomination.

    https://twitter.com/nathanjrobinson/status/1261134905955803136?s=21

     

    Seriously, read the whole thread and tell me that doesn’t sound like an admission of rarfucqn guilt?

  103. 103.

    Raven

    @Immanentize:  I always laugh at these big pronouncements about “the South”. I never thought I’d live here and, poof, 35 years later I’ve been here half of my life. We sit here and chronicle the fools in “the North” and then get all pissy when it suits the narrative. Maybe I’m kidding myself because I live in a blue island but I like it here.

    Ever read “The“The Bitter Southerner”?

  108. 108.

    Raven

    @sheila in nc: My lucky fishing shirt is from a BBQ joint in Concord from 20 years ago! I don’t eat pork so I was glad when we found one that served chicken. I don’t even want to think about what’s going to happen with the “foodways”. My buddy down the block is on the lucky side because he has a bunch of picnic tables and a window he can serve from. Still, a good share of his business was catering an who knows where that is going. I did talk to a neighbor who’s a tech with Zaxby’s and he said they are doing fine.

  109. 109.

    Gin & Tonic

    @germy: If I’m not mistaken, that clip was from Lawn Guyland, home of Peter King and Al D’Amato, both elected with overwhelming support. There’s lots of dumb rednecks out there.

  110. 110.

    Baud

    @lamh36:

    There is no sense rallying round Joe Biden as long as there is still technically chance to replace him.

    LOL. As if they’re going to rally around Joe Biden after there is no technical chance to replace him.

  111. 111.

    cope

    @Betty Cracker: Thanks, Betty.  My daughter has been working for Bernie since ’16 because of the POLICIES he espouses, not because of his personality.  She continues to work to support those progressive POLICIES because she believes in them even though he no longer has a shot at nomination.  That makes me very proud of her and is the main reason the steady anti-Bernie vitriol in here chaps my hide so much.

    Addendum, Vaughn Meader relevant:  at his first live performance after Kennedy’s assasination, Lenny Bruce looked at the floor, sadly shaking his head and opened with the line, “Poor Vaughn Meader”.

  114. 114.

    sheila in nc

    @Raven: The restaurants around here are surviving via takeout. But a couple of places have decided they can’t serve the kind of food they usually do and have the meals meet their previous standard, so they have closed for the moment. We try to patronize various takeout places a couple of times a week to help provide business.

  115. 115.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rp:

    I don’t have a ton of sympathy for that reporter. WHY was he covering these idiots? Why did he feel the need to tell their story? The media shouldn’t be giving these crackpots oxygen.

    You’re directing your ire at the wrong person. The reporter, for a local TV station, was almost certainly assigned to cover the protests. He refuses enough stories, he’s out of a job. Personally, I’m glad he posted all the raw footage on social media, to show just how unhinged and dangerous these looms are. But you should be angry with his assignment editors/station owners, not the reporter himself.

  117. 117.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    As a result, babies are being born without their parents present at the birth (immigration authorities will only let parents in once the surrogate has given birth to the child). In at least one case, a mother flew from France to attend the birth of her child, only to be turned back by border control. Some parents aren’t being allowed in the country at all.

    I heard about this on a recent BBC News podcast. They interviewed a father from Italy who went to another country to get his newborn child, but who has not been allowed and leave and return to his wife. It is causing a huge amount of distress.

    The lockdown and other reactions to the pandemic is having countless unexpected consequences.

  118. 118.

    Gin & Tonic

    Checking out Ukraine’s Channel 5, as I usually do in the mornings, came across a story about some 9-year-old kid in Tennessee who caught a 36-kilogram sturgeon.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    We had to cancel our Denmark trip – I got a full refund so that’s nice. My son has applied for jobs in Berlin – his Danish company sends him (or sent) him there periodically and he thinks he wants to be in a big city and he likes that one. So I may never see Denmark! Although I will see Berlin so there’s that :)

    He was impressed with the Danish response to the pandemic. They (sensibly) opened schools prior to opening workplaces. If I were running the US response I would have prioritized reopening schools/daycares over workplaces too. Put everyone on opening schools safely THEN move to private sector. Of course, that kind of analysis is impossible in the US, where the national government has decided to just do no planning or work at all.

  121. 121.

    lamh36

    @Baud: Lol.  heck haven’t changed or in 7 years I ain’t changing…

     

    besides too many dang letters …LOL

  123. 123.

    germy

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    If I had been assigned to cover that protest, I would have done it from the other side of the street, using a zoom lens.  I would have shown their signs, and made the focus of the story the RW group that organized it, by reading some of the crazier comments it posts online.

    No need to walk in the middle of the protest looking for quotes.  They’re gonna scream fake news and give him the finger.

    In the final story, he mentioned the organizing group very briefly, but didn’t go into any longer detail about what they stand for, what they’ve stood for in the past, and what they’ve said about Democratic politicians.

    Rather than asking cockroaches what their favorite food scrap is, shine a powerful flashlight instead, while mentioning the diseases they spread.

    Now THERE’S a story!

  124. 124.

    Brachiator

    @sheila in nc:

    The restaurants around here are surviving via takeout. But a couple of places have decided they can’t serve the kind of food they usually do and have the meals meet their previous standard, so they have closed for the moment.

    Restaurants have been one of the few essential businesses remaining open during the lockdown and I have found it fascinating to read or listen to stories about how they are trying to adapt and survive. I also get to chat with a local coffee shop owner when I go by to pick up takeout.

    A recent NPR Planet Money episode talked to a Chinese restaurant owner who is actually trying to expand his business. During the interview he talked about shifting from serving diners small meals to preparing takeout meals to feed a family for a day, or a single person for 3 days. He also talked about removing items from the menu that took a longer time to prepare or which used expensive cuts of meat.

  125. 125.

    Kay

    Ben Casselman
    @bencasselman
    21m
    Something that came up repeatedly in interviews for this story: The extra $600 in UI benefits is REALLY helping workers. There’s been (appropriately) lots of attention on the system’s failures. But for ppl able to get the help, it’s made a huge difference.

    My anecdotal impression too. People are sort of stunned and hugely grateful that something they heard about actually got to them- was real.

  126. 126.

    Betty Cracker

    @lamh36: That PBS article is a net positive, IMO — they interviewed a ton of people who worked for Biden, and none corroborated Reade’s account. Robinson really let the mask slip there, didn’t he? IIRC, he’s the “journalist” who coached Reade’s brother? To hell with that guy.

  127. 127.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: My poor kiddo is still waiting for her UI — the state system here is so screwed up that tens of thousands of people are still waiting for their crappy state check PLUS the extra $600, which would definitely be a godsend…if they ever get it.

  128. 128.

    Bruce K

    @Uncle Cosmo: I read somewhere that it wouldn’t work – the governor apparently has to choose from among a group of candidates proposed by the party of the departing Senator, and the NC GOP would probably not cooperate.

  129. 129.

    Jeffro

    @germy:

    Rather than asking cockroaches what their favorite food scrap is, shine a powerful flashlight instead, while mentioning the diseases they spread.

    Now THERE’S a story

     

    Great framing, love it!

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Oh, that’s too bad. People were frantic which gets me all worried and worked up so I was relieved when it started to flow. Such a relief. I’m permanently scarred from the 2007-8 financial crash. I will never forget it. They’re just now getting notices that they qualify for the expanded eligibility- 1099’s, solos and part timers so that’s Phase Two. The “gig worker” UI thing has been on Pelosi’s radar forever, so hopefully states will retain the expansion.

    I think we learned some from the financial crash. 600 a week really will help them avoid what I think of as “the cascade”, where their financial problems get bigger and bigger. It really doesn’t have to be a generational, profound catastrophe financially for them. We can halt it an give them a chance to get back up.

  132. 132.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    My newest fretting is over kids. They have to go back to school. Our school is approaching it as “we have to open, so how to do that?” which I think is the right approach. Essential. Not negotiable. They have to go back, soonest. This is harming them.

  133. 133.

    Miss Bianca

    @lamh36: Woot! Oh, my – so fancy!

    What does MLS(ACSP) stand for? Where I come from, MLS referred to a Masters in Library Science. : )

  134. 134.

    lamh36

    @Miss Bianca: Medical Laboratory Scientist (American Society of Clinical Pathology)

    Its the national certification board for ALL Med Lab techs

  135. 135.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lamh36: Isn’t Robinson the one whose family moved from the UK to Florida when he was five, and he still speaks with a British accent and (as somebody pointed out) dresses like the early 80s version of Dr Who? I suspect he’s not wrapped much tighter than Reade. This sage has introduced me to whole new cast of characters on the twitter fringe of politics

    I’m still pissed at Chris Hayes, who doubled down on his condescension to those of us who saw through this farce from get-go (or the tic-toc) in his Chotiner interview. And I’m not holding my breath waiting for Rebecca Traister to walk back anything from that shockingly bad column that most of the people I follow on twitter felt compelled to signal-boost lest they be seen as complicit in… something.

  136. 136.

    germy

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    dresses like the early 80s version of Dr Who?

    I’ve seen photos.  And I’m suspicious.  Because usually the guys who dress in that “retro dandy” style are alt-right dudes.  The dapper nazis.

    He identifies as a progressive?

  137. 137.

    Kathleen

    @Betty Cracker: Expanding/improving ACA was always the intent , in the tradition of SS and Medicare improvements thru the years. Unfortunately Dems had to expend all their energy to save ACA from Rethuglican efforts to destroy it (see court ruling on Medicaid expansion). Not fair to imply that Dem centrists caused block to improvements.

  138. 138.

    Brachiator

    @lamh36:

    Again, congratulations.

    Even though I knew that there could not be any connection, when I read MLS(ACSP), I kept thinking about ASCAP, the music publishing organization.

    Maybe when all this is over, someone will come up with a musical set in a laboratory, featuring the number “Doing the Pipette Slide.”

  141. 141.

    Kathleen

    @Betty Cracker: Expanding/improving ACA was always the intent , in the tradition of SS and Medicare improvements thru the years. Unfortunately Dems had to expend all their energy to save ACA from Rethuglican efforts to destroy it (see court ruling on Medicaid expansion). Not fair to imply that Dem centrists caused block to improvements.

     

    @lamh36: Congratulations!

  142. 142.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Professor Bigfoot:  @Kathleen: the day after the South Carolina primary, Himself lamented the influence of the corporate wing of the Democratic Party. The usual suspects (Moore, Ocasio-Cortez) followed suit. It was telling, more than irritating (if a less than infuriating) and I’m still surprised it didn’t get more of a pushback.

  145. 145.

    germy

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Gee, now I’m ashamed for pointing out that the “progressive” who dresses like a mid-20th century country club capitalist might be full of shit and putting everyone on.

  146. 146.

    Kathleen

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I really don’t think many Liberals get it. BTW I think it’s one of the reasons many in the broadcast media hate Democrats and Hillary. Come for the misogyny and stay for the racism.

  148. 148.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lamh36: They still think that if something happens to Biden, Bernie Sanders will just naturally be his replacement. I can only imagine the shitstorm if it happened and they found out otherwise.

  149. 149.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Uncle Cosmo: Persuade a solid Democrat – or maybe some respected figure who’s on our side of the fence but not seen as overtly political – to change their registration to Gee-Oh-Pea & then appoint them.

    Alas, the law in NC mandates that the Governor choose from a list of 3 Republicans chosen by the state Republican Party. (Since the hypothetically departing Senator is a Republican.)

    ETA: Thank you to Bruce K for saying it more clearly, earlier in the thread!

  150. 150.

    mali muso

    @Kay: I’m feeling this big time right now.  My three year old is longing for her friends and for more stimulation than my husband and I can provide.  She has almost daily bouts of tears and sadness in which she laments how much she misses her friends.  BUT I am pretty terrified at the prospect of her going back to daycare which is a hothouse of transmittable diseases during the most regular of times.  I don’t see how you keep three year olds from being all up in one another’s faces and I have no control over each of those kids at-home bubbles (or lack thereof).  Just…ugh.

  152. 152.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    My poor kiddo is still waiting for her UI — the state system here is so screwed up that tens of thousands of people are still waiting for their crappy state check PLUS the extra $600, which would definitely be a godsend…if they ever get it.

    In Southern California, the UI, SDI (disability insurance) and DMV systems were severely overloaded. I think for a time, unemployed people could not log on to officially certify work searches. And of course offices were closed.

    I think it has gotten better and people are getting their benefits.

    It has been infuriating to listen to talk show hosts talk about people not bothering to return to work because they are making more in UI than they were in wages. There is also a misconception that the $600 boost is permanent. Currently, I think it expires July 31.

    ETA:  I received a notice to renew my DMV identification. I thought about mailing it in, but then worried that there might be a pile of mail-in renewals, and nobody to process them. It took 3 tries over a number of days before I could successfully go online and do the renewal.

  153. 153.

    catclub

    @Immanentize: The tell is that no such action is going against Loeffler.

     

    Loeffler is a non-case,  She sold 0.6% of her holdings in the sales in question.  And actually, it was her money manager who sold.

    Who has inside information that the market will crash … and sells 0.6%

    of their holdings?

  155. 155.

    Kay

    @mali muso:

    She has almost daily bouts of tears and sadness

    I think it’s huge for a lot of them- all ages. My youngest (high school) has just lost all interest in the schoolwork. The big draw of school for him was always “other people”. He’s a completely social animal.

    His (former) gf, they are still friends, is the opposite- SHE had some struggles adjusting to her first year at college, she’s reserved and a little shy although REALLY bright, and she had JUST settled in when this hit. I am genuinely worried about her. She seems so lost.

    Ohio is participating in a “best practices” study of child care practices in a pandemic. The goal is to have the highest quality practices in the country. I was pleased to see they’re shooting high.

    We can do this. We don’t have a President but we can do it without the administrative branch of the federal government. We have to, so we will.

  156. 156.

    Kay

    @mali muso:

    Mine had an absolute meltdown about my forcing him to take an online english class this summer. Ohio has “College Plus” so they can take free college courses in high school which he has been doing and always liked. He’s usually easy going. It was full blown defiance- “no, I’m not doing it, I don’t care”

    His high school guidance counselor, who he likes, intervened and she got him in but he’s struggling with this. I don’t think we should discount the price they’re paying.

  157. 157.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @catclub: as I recall, there are similar excuses for Feinstein and Inhofe (wasn’t it?), but like I said yesterday, a good Dem party in GA will figure out how to make Loeffler say “Do you plebs really think I would bother cheating for a couple of million? it’s a rounding error?”

    Hell, Collins may do it for them.

  159. 159.

    artem1s

    @Baud:

    Even Our Revolution, the group started by Sanders in 2016, lacks access to his new email list that made him the best Democratic fundraiser this year.

    it was always a grift.  and now they are pissed they are being cut out of the grift.

  160. 160.

    Another Scott

    @germy: +1

    The BBC News TV channel has been very bad about showing “both sides” of the US reaction to the pandemic.  TV loves, loves, loves cosplay übermenchen with their (sometimes wooden) bang-sticks.

    Lefties should have protests with, I dunno, SuperSoakers loaded with Slime or something.  If TV will only cover over-the-top theatre, then maybe some sensible groups on the left should give it to them and maybe shame them to actually do their jobs and cover news to inform the public.

    Or, maybe ACT UP! should get the band together, also too.

    Grrr…

    Seriously, TV is all about the spectacle.  “Social Media” is even worse.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  161. 161.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    He identifies as a progressive?

    He identifies as currently needs to claim to be  a progressive?

    Fix’d that for ya’~!!~

  162. 162.

    SWMBO

    @Brachiator:  I had to renew my handicap tag and get the doctor to sign off on it. I dropped off everything just before lockdown and the doc got mine mailed in for me. I had stamped the return envelope and filled out my part. I got my replacement in about 10 days. I think it helped a lot to get it in ahead of the avalanche.

  166. 166.

    VFX Lurker

    @lamh36:

    Good morning BJ.

    Time to change my resume and professional email signature.

    Ahem! Y’all can now address me as LAMH, M.S., MLS(ASCP).

    CONGRATS, LAMH, M.S., MLS(ASCP)!!!!!!!!!!!! Sending all the kudos your way. ❤️❤️❤️

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