Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

“woke” is the new caravan.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Republicans in disarray!

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

In after Baud. Damn.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Books are my comfort food!

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On The Road – Emma – Spain (Barcelona, Valencia, and Granada), 2018-2019, part 2

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Good morning all,

As we begin seriously hurtling towards Spring – for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.

 

I know I’ve been pretty down on Spain so far. I would say that’s just me, but let’s face it, that’s also Spain. Anyway, off we go.

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On The Road - Emma - Spain (Barcelona, Valencia, and Granada), 2018-2019, part 2 7
Valencia

What would Spanish culture be without creepy dolls? There were these clown ones, but also the ones of the Virgin Mary that would scare the Catholicism out of toddlers. I will say, the museums at Valencia are pretty decent. Small, but decent. Unlike those I visited at Barcelona, which were medium-to-big and mediocre.

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Monday / Tuesday, 2/24-2/25

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Of immediate interest to some Balloon Juice readers:

Smart advice for us ‘worried well’ (by all means read the whole article!)

show full post on front page

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About Today’s ‘Pandemic’ Panic

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Every night for the past month, I’ve been posting a ‘Coronavirus Update’, usually between 4am-5am. (I know it’s easy to overlook at that hour, but it’s when I have the time to pay attention, and I think predictability has its advantages given the current firehose of breaking news.)

I am in no way an expert, but if you’re curious about where this mess is coming from, my earlier posts should give you an idea of what the actual experts have been saying, as well as some twitter feeds to follow — Helen Branswell, Dr. Tara C. Smith, ɪᴀɴ ᴍ ᴍᴀᴄᴋᴀʏ, ᴘʜᴅ, et al. And I’m always grateful for leads to new, trustworthy sources!

Remember the mantra: KEEP CALM & CARRY ON. (Also, never forget your towel. Seriously — individual towel usage, highly recommended for slowing the spread of viruses… )

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Election Year Open Thread: Harry Reid Now Wants to End Caucuses

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And he’s not alone…

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Election Year Open Thread: The Vast Mystery of Elizabeth Warren

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I clicked the link, so you don’t have to. She’s picking on Mike Bloomberg! Doesn’t she know how much money he has?!?

… Beginning five days ago at the ninth presidential debate — this one in Las Vegas ahead of the state’s caucuses last Saturday — Warren has made it her mission to savage the billionaire businessman (and former mayor of New York City) at every turn.

“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against,” she said in that debate. “A billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians, and no I’m not talking about Donald Trump, I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”

Which is a sick burn! And made some sense for Warren to do, because Bloomberg was surging in national polling and there was a concerted effort at that debate to slow him down! Except that Warren has kept it up, even in the wake of Sanders’ crushing victory in Nevada, a win that has made plain that he is now the favorite be the Democratic standard-bearer against President Donald Trump this fall.

Asked directly by reporters Sunday night whether Sanders is a risky nominee for the Democratic Party, Warren said this: “I think Michael Bloomberg is the riskiest candidate.” Interrupted by another reporter to note that the question was about Sanders, not Bloomberg, Warren replied “I heard you,” before continuing on in her attack against the former New York City mayor…

Why ignore a chance to attack the front-runner in favor of hitting someone who won’t even appear on the ballot until March 3? Especially what that front-runner is harvesting the very voting bloc — liberals — that Warren needs to start reclaiming if she wants to have a chance at relevance after finishing third, fourth and fourth in the first three votes of 2020?…

Because Cillizza is a sexist as well as a professional moron, he has two possible answers: Either Warren’s just out to destroy Bloomberg personally, because she hates rich people, like the nutty elitist Harvard professor lady-person she is; or else she’s “angling” to be Bernie Sanders’ vice president, because it’s her only chance of getting on the ballot. Hey, it’s not like she’s running a real campaign, is it?

Watching Chris ‘Mad Bitcher’ Cillizza swallow his own tongue, live & on camera, would absolutely make the celebration of Warren’s nomination even more joyful.

Another heartwarmer (from a virology-related twitter feed, in case you’re wondering who science people stan):

Extremely entertaining, but NSFW:

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Representation Matters

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I’m not a Pete person,* but the effect of his candidacy on this kid (and millions of other kids we don’t see) is a wonderful thing:

It’s a big fucking deal that an openly gay person won a statewide contest for one of the two major party’s presidential nomination. That’s never happened before.

Sometimes I think we (Americans who aren’t homophobic assholes, I mean) should pay more attention to that. For all the dismissive talk about “identity politics” in some quarters, what it really comes down to is that people need to know their country values them as equal human beings who have as much right to participate in their democracy as anyone else. There is no default setting for “American,” or at least there shouldn’t be. Representation matters.

Open thread.

*If Buttigieg wins the nomination, I’ll become a Pete person so damned fast it’ll make my head spin.

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Justice Sotomayor Calls Out SCOTUS Bias

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The Trump administration has been a Category 5 shit-storm for three years and change, so if you didn’t notice its abnormally frequent reliance on “emergency” SCOTUS relief to enforce its shitty policies, it’s no wonder, what with the galloping authoritarianism and all. But Trump’s flunkies have run to their stacked court more than the Obama and Bush administrations COMBINED. Justice Sotomayor noticed. Here’s her dissent in the recent “can’t we just restrict immigration to white Europeans” case:

The Supreme Court unveiled a 5-4 decision on Friday to allow the Trump administration to deny entry or green cards to immigrants based on a “wealth test,” claiming that low-income immigrants were likely to become a “public charge” and use social programs such as food stamps or Medicaid. All four justices nominated by Democrats voted against the case. Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored the blistering dissent and accused the court’s conservatives of bias in favor of Trump.

Sotomayor said the administration has too quickly gone to the Supreme Court to appeal unfavorable decisions made by lower courts, and that by taking the cases, the Supreme Court is “putting a thumb on the scale in favor of” the president.

“Claiming one emergency after another, the government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases, demanding immediate attention and consuming limited court resources in each,” Sotomayor wrote. “And with each successive application, of course, its cries of urgency ring increasingly hollow.”

“It is hard to say what is more troubling,” she added. “That the government would seek this extraordinary relief seemingly as a matter of course, or that the Court would grant it.”

I suspect Chief Justice Roberts has no issue with Trump administration policies, but he cares very much about maintaining the fiction that the SCOTUS is above the political fray. Kudos to Justice Sotomayor for declining to participate in that ruse.

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