Seems like this year has been more like a long absolution than a brief festival of carnality:
The word shrove is a form of the English word shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of Confession and doing penance…
Thoughts & prayers to everyone trapped by side-effects of the current polar vortex, which is all I can really offer at this time. It’s currently raining here north of Boston, because *nothing* is normal any more, so I can’t even trade proper complaints.
That is, relatively affluent people still deal with the precariousness and capricious disempowerment associated with poverty, whether it's fighting with health insurance, lacking employment protections, inadequate leave, childcare provision, etc.
— Nick (@getyrtrouserson) February 16, 2021
Some happier notes:
Gallup: The first measure of job approval for Joe Biden comes in at 57-37, a jump of 48(!) net points from Donald Trump's final job approval (34-62). pic.twitter.com/ewbssk6E2V
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) February 15, 2021
Pretty impressive number given how polarized we are https://t.co/nmoqJkOnls
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) February 15, 2021
Not exactly happy, but… Oh, look, the 2024 marathon’s already beginning!
The Nevada Democratic Party endorses legislation to ditch caucuses and become a primary state — and calls for becoming the FIRST presidential nominating contest. pic.twitter.com/9FXPPfg9Dp
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 16, 2021
Baud
Good on Nevada.
Good opinion piece in the NYT (not by NYT)
Baud
Mitch Mcconnell right now kind of reminds me of Tulsi Gabbard voting present in the first impeachment. Flailing.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
This is epitome of
. ” you messed with the wrong one. ”
???????
https://twitter.com/JaieNoel/status/1361497293837451264?s=19
Baud
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
debbie
@Baud:
I saw something on FB about how he’s backing a bill that would forbid the governor from appointing a Dem if he leaves office early. Yea to leaving early, boo to yet another un-Constitutional maneuver.
Baud
@debbie:
I thought that was already the rule in KY.
Betty Cracker
From the first tweet in the OP:
Great point.
Baud
Apparently, half of Americans have more important things to worry about.
debbie
@Baud:
I can’t get past the local paper’s paywall, but there’s something about a new GOP proposal that makes me think that’s not the current rule.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: “Cancel culture” is the New Coke of Republican scaremongering. They had such a well-established brand in “PC.”
Amir Khalid
I don’t see why any of the 50 states should have the right to insist that it be the first in the US to hold a presidential primary. What if two states try to claim “Frist!1!” bragging rights? Maybe the Federal government should set the primary calendar in, say, the September before the election year, with the order of state primaries decided by random selection.
p.a.
@Betty Cracker: Gotta keep it fresh: liberal bias > fake news; PC > CancelCulture.
snoey
@debbie: Ballotopedia says that Kentucky is straight governor’s appointment good until the next general election. Other states do have same party rules.
rikyrah
I hadn’t looked outside since the storm began. Just checked the local weather blog. Snowfall near me so far: a foot, and the storm doesn’t stop until noon today??
rikyrah
???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Wait, it wasn’t before?
satby
@rikyrah: Yep, it’s high out there. Over my almost knee high snow boots, and drifts make spots much higher*. I just waded across the street to feed my outdoor, maybe feral, cat at the abandoned house. Haven’t seen him in two days even though the food I leave gets eaten. But today I was a bit late and he was sitting where he knew I could see him waiting. Missed stairs going down because I already thought I was ground level but stayed upright. Waiting for plows now, but decided against going anywhere today anyway.
* that’s in areas that were already shoveled, so not on top of old snow.
satby
@Baud: It’s basically snowed every single day for two weeks here in the lake belt. We got 9 inches last night, and there was still 6-8 on the ground from before. Closer to the lake, like Chicago, got it worse.
rikyrah
@Baud:
In the hands of Russians. I say that it still is
rikyrah
This is what Chicago looks like right now.
This isn’t a side street. This is a main street. The storm doesn’t stop until noon.??
https://twitter.com/laurenjiggetts/status/1361658220834656257?s=19
OzarkHillbilly
It’s hard to tell how much snow we got yesterday, light and fluffy with a lot of wind made for considerable drifting. If I had to guess I would say 8″ or so. -4 right now gonna make it all the way up to 16, a regular heat wave.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I have my second shot early tomorrow morning. I hope the snow tapers off.
danielx
So, first decision of the day: breakfast and clear snow after, or vice versa?
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah: Thats impressive. I cleared 8 off my car. Then decided to stay home. 25 miles on side roads is not appealing.
Chyron HR
But how are progressives supposed to win if they can’t threaten the other caucus-goers with physical violence?
satby
@rikyrah: Yeah, but big snows happen in Chicago fairly regularly. So things will get handled in time. If I want to get through the alley from my driveway to my unplowed street, I have to dig out two paths for the wheels of my vehicle myself. And I drive a 4wd SUV.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of “cancel culture,” Sen. Burr (R-NC) on getting censured by the NC GOP:
So far, NC (Burr), LA (Cassidy), AZ (Ducey, Cindy McCain, Flake) and WY (Liz Cheney) have censured prominent Republicans for apostacy, and I may be missing some. Pathetic.
zhena gogolia
We’re having rain right now. I guess the snow comes Thursday.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
Not to mention Kinzinger’s cousins cancelled him from the human race in some crazy handwritten letter I didn’t have the stamina to read.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: They said we got around 3.5″, but I think it was more at my house. Holy fuck, the NOAA weather site says it’s -14 degrees here right now!!!!! That’s the temperature, not the wind chill. Evidently, there is no wind chill because there’s no wind. The last time it got that cold here was before Christmas in 1989. I remember it vividly, because at my job I had to drive a Suburban with no heat across town to get fixed on the day it didn’t get above zero!! Oh, and we’re getting 3-4 more inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. At least I won’t have to listen to any griping next summer about how it didn’t get cold enough for long enough to kill off the bugs!
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: A snowy north side thread.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia:
LOL!
raven
@Soprano2: That’s got to be a total myth. The skeeters in Alaska don’t seem to be impacted nor do the black flies in Maine!
Jerzy Russian
@Baud: On the one hand, she was in the room at the time, was she not? That constitutes being “present”, I would think. On the other hand, fuck her.
My deep philosophical thought for today.
raven
@mrmoshpotato: A bunch of my family is buried in Rosehill!
Argiope
NE Ohio looks like a snow globe except snow globes don’t generally feature covered-up cars. Getting caffeinated before heading out to shovel so I can go out to pick up curbside groceries. My timing on the order could probably have been better, but I have a sense of adventure that will last about 1/4 of the way through the shoveling. Here’s to hubris.
ETA I can’t say enough good things about adult-sized snow pants
MagdaInBlack
@mrmoshpotato: Pretty cool pictures, despite it being..ugh snow.
Ken
Is breakfast and don’t clear snow after an option?
Delk
@mrmoshpotato: Winnemac Park! That’s my ‘hood. Drive by that Mexican place all the time, never tried it though.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: I read it, and it’s as nutty as you’d imagine. At one point the cousin said, “you’ve lost the respect of LOU DOBBS!!!” Made me snort aloud. My guess is Kinzinger is relieved to be shut of those deranged relatives.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Outside the date of national election day for federal offices (for normal end of term elections, not interim/special elections) , the federal government does not have a horse in this race.
Primaries (or caucuses, or any other variation which might crop up) are creatures of the states and of the parties. They are an extra-constitutional exercise (U.S., not state, constitution). Mandating or limiting by way of federalization when (and whether) such take place shifts power from local authority, yanking the process a further step removed from the voters.
Holding a primary in September of the year prior would further extend the already bloated campaign season (candidates would begin running a year or more before that earlier date).
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker: “We’re never speaking to you again, ever!”
” Promise??!”
Chief Oshkosh
@zhena gogolia: It would be HIGH-larious if all these cancelled Republicans went Independent.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud: I like the mental image that seeing the words “McConnell” and “flailing” in the same post give me. Images of deep ocean waters and maybe a shark or two.
But is he? What’s going on with Turtle?
japa21
@Betty Cracker: My favorite line, after excoriating Kinzinger, is “It is not for us to judge or be judged.”
raven
I think I’ll go to Fresh Market and see if they have any ducks for gumbo!
satby
@Betty Cracker: He’s a fundy conservative who’s very concerned that the evangelicals’ hypocritical support of T**** is damaging the appeal of religion to the young. So though he did the right thing re: impeachment, he’s by no means an ally to the Constitution outside of getting rid of T****.
mrmoshpotato
@MagdaInBlack: They’d be run-of-the-mill pictures without the snow! ?
Jerzy Russian
@Baud:
Either that, or the ones who heard about cancel culture previously are one ones getting canceled, The canceled ones naturally do not respond to opinion polls, leading to a lower and lower percentage over time.
Spanky
@raven:
Are they dead?
Delk
Had to cancel a 9:20 doctor appointment.
Sure is pretty looking outside, but not for driving.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
That makes me smile, shake my head and roll my eyes.
PJ
@Amir Khalid: The asshole states (IA, NH, NV) love love love the media attention they get for months every four years. But as we saw in 2020, and in previous elections, these states do not reflect the black electorate at all, which is the base of the party.
Starting in Jan or Feb of each election year, five or six states per month should have their primaries, with the order of states rotating every four years (so if a state was in the first group in year 1, it would be in the last group in year 5). If that’s not workable, every four years the DNC should select a mix of states which reflect the diversity of the electorate to go first.
Immanentize
@Chief Oshkosh: These cancelled Republicans are more likely to try a takeover of the Democratic party. That’s what old Texas Dixiecrats did to the Republican party in the 80s/90s.
Big tent gonna get a whole lot bigger.
Soprano2
@raven: Probably, but you hear it like clockwork every summer when we have a relatively mild winter. They can’t blame that this year, for sure!
Ken
@NotMax: I think he meant that the order of the states would be announced in September of the year before, not that the primaries would start then. That would be horrible.
I know some people would like the US to have a short election season like many other countries, but I just don’t see it happening. Even if the election officially began in September, would-be candidates would start campaigning two years before the election as they do now.
Immanentize
@raven: mmmmm. Duck! Gumbo!
PST
@satby:
Yea. I just took the dog out. Good thing she’s a big dog. There is a foot of new powder on the sidewalk, by my estimate (using the yikes! it’s over my boots method).
debbie
@snoey:
Thanks.
Immanentize
@mrmoshpotato:
In other words — exercise!
Delk
@Betty Cracker: and the cousin’s name is Karen, lol.
mrmoshpotato
@Delk: I remember it being pretty good from a few years ago. Bunch of us were out for a late night bike ride in the fall I think. There really isn’t a bad hour for a burrito.
Barry
SE Michigan (Ann Arbor):
4″ with some drifting. 60 miles NE, it was more (this corner of MI has substantial variance). Pretty much a normal Jan-mid March morning.
Jeffro
could it be…”Trumpublicans in Disarray!” time? What say you, national snooze media?
OzarkHillbilly
@MagdaInBlack: Our garbage company decided the same last week. Betting they are going to do so again today. I don’t really blame them.
Jerzy Russian
@Delk:
Cancel culture strikes again!
jeffreyw
We have about 10″ on the ground with plenty of deeper drifts. We will get some sunshine today before another snow event Wed-Thurs.
Immanentize
Report from the Immp:
Already setting up a personal day off….
BruceFromOhio
@Immanentize: This cancel culture is getting completely out of hand.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
I think Amir just meant the order of primaries being set then. Extending the general election campaigns by 5+ months… Ugh.
OzarkHillbilly
Wanna bet?
BruceFromOhio
@raven: Solid plan.
MagdaInBlack
@mrmoshpotato: Ok, fine; Because of ugh snow ?
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: It seems to affect the ticks, if not the skeeters.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: Sorry he’s feeling bad. Still, given his health history, it’s great he’s being immunized.
mrmoshpotato
@Delk: Good call.
evodevo
@debbie: Just the usual dirty tricks played routinely by KY Republicans…and that’s been the norm since Bevin left under a cloud…
OzarkHillbilly
@Argiope: Since I stopped working and no longer have to spend the day in sub freezing temps, I don’t wear my bibbies very often. Last winter not at all. The past week? Every time I venture out.
Immanentize
@BruceFromOhio: ?
NotMax
@PJ
All but shuts out candidates who may have appeal but not a massive war chest. One or two states (and not the bigger ones) more realistic. Candidates need to have time to spend in the earliest states to seek and build support on the ground, not flit from one to another to another as having so many crammed into such a short period would necessitate.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I refrained from texting him, “well that proves it’s working!”. I didn’t want to get punched over the phone. A right hook, I guess.
Ken
@Immanentize: Send him https://xkcd.com/2425/, an absolutely brilliant analogy for how mRNA vaccines work.
Jerzy Russian
54 and hazy in San Diego at the moment. Overnight lows will be around 45 the next few days. I think I hear rain, but I am not motivated enough to get out of bed to check.
There is a high wind warning for the mountains east of us. I don’t know if they got snow recently, but several inches are possible for winter storms. If you want an exciting drive, head up San Diego County Highway 1 as all of the yahoos who have never seen snow before are driving down. Many of them have the beds of the huge trucks filled with snow. I have even seen snowmen on the hoods of cars as they are driving.
Immanentize
Report from in-laws west of Houston, power out for 28 hours, temp. In the 20s:
This is gonna end ugly in Texas.
mrmoshpotato
@MagdaInBlack: Hahaha.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Amir Khalid: yes! I hate that two states insist it’s their “right” and Iowa’s is a stupid caucus which is in my opinion inherently undemocratic.
prostratedragon
And just like that, the sun is out and the sky is saying, “What clouds?” Wasn’t sure how much snow my neighborhood got because of all the blowing and drifting (it can vary widely through Chicago), but just now watched a micro riding blower struggle down a sidewalk that had been plowed yesterday evening. Looks like at least 9 or 10 new inches.
L85NJGT
@Baud:
It was a terrible read, to the point of denial, of the current GOP and his place in it going forward.
Immanentize
@Ken: Nice! Thank you.
Jerzy Russian
@OzarkHillbilly: The number of skeeters probably also depends on the availability of puddles from snow melt.
The worst place I have ever been for skeeters was Crater Lake in Oregon over July 4th weekend circa 10 years ago. It was warm but there still was snow in places. Those little fuckers were numerous and aggressive.
LurkerNoLonger
It’s too bad Turnip isn’t on Twitter anymore because it would be fun to taunt him with those numbers. On second thought, it’s better he’s not on Twitter.
mrmoshpotato
@Jerzy Russian:
With eyes? Extra set of eyes on the road is always good.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: Your in-laws house is down to the 20’s, or outside?
Darkrose
@rikyrah: His ride was like, nope, I’m outta here.
Betty Cracker
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Saw an interview with Tom Perez in the NYT the other day. Looks like he’s contemplating a run for MD governor. The interviewer asked about reconfiguring the early primary states, and Perez noted he’s no longer DNC chair but said he thinks it absolutely has to change and seemed to believe it would change.
Caucuses suck and are a deal-breaker, IMO. Also, the current earliest states don’t represent the electorate’s demographics, at least for Democrats. I hope someone thinks of a way to retain the good thing about starting in Iowa, i.e., the retail politicking that can give a relatively unknown pol like 2007 Obama or 1975 Carter a shot, while addressing the diversity issue.
Is there a small, diverse state that would be a good candidate as first in the nation for primaries? Delaware or Rhode Island maybe? (I have no clue what their demographics are — just spit-balling.) Media market has to be taken into account too, I suppose.
satby
@prostratedragon: Sun out here too. Cheerful, and it may melt a bit even in the frigid temps, but clear skies after dark mean even colder temps as the solar gain just radiates back out into the stratosphere, or wherever it goes.
Immanentize
@mrmoshpotato: outside. House is in the mid 50s. My FiL is frail from cancer. It all sucks bad.
NotMax
@Jerzy Russian
“The whole horizon is nothing but mosquitoes.” Alaskan mosquito swarms are legendary.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jerzy Russian: Well, not in the summer. :-) Skeeters don’t bother me much, they much prefer my wife. I have to say they are far far worse in STL than they are here, no doubt due to the plethora of old discarded tires, gutters that never quite drain, forgotten tupperware in the back yard, tossed tin cans, etc etc for water to sit stagnant in.
Matt McIrvin
@satby: After the last foot+ snowfall here a couple of weeks ago, I posted a picture on Facebook and my mother commented “I can tell this is the northeast because your street is already plowed.”
Strangely, as someone commented further up, right now it’s above freezing here and we’re just getting rain.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: I hope greater Houston (and all of Texas for that matter) can get the electrons flowing again soon.
Ken
“Sir, it turns out the citizens want functional government.”
“My God. This is the end of the GOP.”
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, it’s pathetic. Censure is weak sauce; those people should be expelled from the Republican Party. They should expel Mitch McConnell, too, for refusing to whip the impeachment vote. In fact, they should expel anyone unwilling to take an oath of loyalty to Donald Trump.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: LMAO! It’s hilarious because it’s true!
Ken
He knows. He just can’t vent except with those stupid memo-things.
evodevo
@satby:
Yup…weak sun here in KY (hoping it melts the ice off the trees, at least), but it’s only 19, and when it’s clear after dark, we expect 5 or less for tonite…cloud cover means insulation…clear means temps drop via radiation
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
My, my. Positively negative!
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Alternately, negatively positive.
Jerzy Russian
@OzarkHillbilly: Same here: my wife seems to be much more prone to getting bit than I am. Somehow the skeeters target women with questionable taste in men?
LurkerNoLonger
@Ken: It really makes me happy that he’s gone from the most talked about person in the world, with millions of Twitter followers to some memo no one reads or cares about.
Ken
@mrmoshpotato: The choice of signs for current flow and electron charge is one of the greatest errors in the history of technology. I hope that the Baud!20XX campaign pledges to fix this.
Jerzy Russian
@mrmoshpotato: I think you are both correct. In certain semiconductors, you can model the current flow with electron “holes”. It has been 30 years since graduate solid state physics, but that is my recollection.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Betty Cracker: I would like to see my state, Connecticut go first just to see what would happen. We are smaller geographically than Iowa but a bit bigger population wise ours is 3.5 million Iowa about 3.1 million. Iowa is 90% white 3% Black while Connecticut is about 75%white and 10% Black. Connecticut has major problems with income inequality and inequality of educational opportunities which I would like to see politicians and political writers actually address on a national stage.
WaterGirl
This is what it feels like to watch some of the conversations on BJ lately.
Matt McIrvin
@Ken: Thank Benjamin Franklin. Though I suppose a nuclear physicist would prefer the existing convention, with positively charged protons. In particle physics we would have been fine either way.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Yet another way to conduct viewing current events.
WaterGirl
@Baud: There are certain words or phrases that when I see them, I immediately stop reading. There are more, but here are two:
Glenn Greenwald
Cancel Culture
Ken
@WaterGirl: OK, I know who you mean by the one on the right, but who’s the yappy dog on the left?
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: Hope so too.
Winston
Real Americans remember the winter of 1978. Pansies don’t.
germy
NotMax
@Jerzy Russian
Ken
@germy: That still gives valuable information about their mental state. But I guess this is one of those “man woman person camera TV” tests, not a general psych evaluation.
Matt McIrvin
@Jerzy Russian: Dirac’s model 1.0 of electrons was that positrons (anti-electrons) were “holes” in the vacuum, as it consisted of
turtlesfilled electron states all the way down. Those states had negative mass, so the absence of one would have positive mass and manifest as an antimatter particle.That’s not the way particle physicists think about it any more, but the math is the same.
NotMax
@Winston
“Two score and three years ago…”
:)
Winston
@Matt McIrvin: Which led to the invention of PET scans.
Rileys Enabler
@Immanentize: It was 10 when I woke in my powerless house this am. It’s warmed up to a balmy 19 now though. No power for 30 hours, no water for 12. And no comment from the Powers that be as to when we might expect any. Blessed be my French press and a gas stove. This sucks. Glad Immp is warm if a bit tender.
mrmoshpotato
@Winston: So no real Americans were born after, say, 1973?
japa21
@WaterGirl:
A partial recording of yesterday’s zoom meet-up, I presume.
Winston
@NotMax: I lived in Cincinnati at the time. Three feet of snow and 23 below. One could walk across the Ohio River to Newport, Ky.
raven
The Great Lou Rawls
I was born in a city the called the ‘Windy City’
And they call it the ‘Windy City’ because of the ‘Hawk’. All mighty Hawk
Talking about Mr. Wind kind of mean around winter time
I happen to live on a street that was a dead-end street
There was nothing to block or buffer the wind, the elements
Keep them from knocking my pad down, Jim I mean really socking it to me
And the boiler would bust and the heat was gone
I would have to get fully dressed before I could go the bed
Winston
@mrmoshpotato: Remember, we are in an era of global warming. This is a warming cold spell. Not that bad, but Texas is grievance state.
Woodrow/asim
Maryland isn’t exactly small, but is otherwise perfect for the kind of work you’re talking about. Close enough to DC to make it easy for Congresspeople to start a run, and near to media mass markets w/o being too beholden to them. It’s also well-known for both crushing poverty, thanks to THE WIRE, and also has Prince Georges County as a long-standing bastion of Black wealth.
It also, of course, has a significant rural community that’s oft-ignored in a lot of these kinds of discussions, with Virginia and the rest of the South so nearby.
On top of all that, it’s Southerly enough that retailing in the late Fall/early Winter is manageable without snowshoes, most days :)
So yes, a lot of diverse (in many ways) groups to work with, for a Presidential candidate looking to make their mark.
Betty Cracker
@Winston: I remember it because it snowed in Tampa, and that was the first time I ever saw snow. It snowed enough to cover the ground, and it stuck for a few hours. All the kids went wild! My sister and I took leftover Christmas boxes to the golf course down the street and went sledding off the tee boxes and greens.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: Wait, it wasn’t before?
No, the previous Parlor administers were unmasked as Leftward Conservative Devators for claiming that killing cops is bad. with the obvious lie that Conservatives were castigating Antfa for their clashes with the police all last summer and were purged. Or am I mistaking the Right with the Soviet Union in the ’30s again?
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: “wokedness”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Betty Cracker: Tombs PA too. Apparently the State GOP outright said he wasn’t elected to do the right thing.
zhena gogolia
@LurkerNoLonger:
Is it true that he hasn’t appeared in public since he and Melania jetted away from the White House?
WaterGirl
@Ken: Hahahahaha
I am not naming names. I just thought it captured some recent threads perfectly.
L85NJGT
It’s always a failure chain.
The Texas natural gas grid buckled first – due to demand from residential customers, and freezing on the well and pipeline systems. NG plants can’t get fuel, while coal and nuclear power plants shutdown due to frozen cooling intake pipes. Power imports are limited because the Texas grid isn’t well connected to the national system (regulatory freedumz!), and the overall demand surge in the central US and northern Mexico. The power spot market was at $9000 a megawatt hour, which is something like a 10000% price increase.
Immanentize
@japa21: Actually, a very friendly conversation which ended with a spirited exchange about what the world would be like now if there had never been….
Ask NotMax.
WaterGirl
@japa21: Ha!
Those dogs should have thought to turn off their video.
JAFD
@Betty Cracker: Most of the Democrats of Delaware are in New Castle County – ‘north of the Canal’. Proportionally more GOPers are in ‘Lower Slower Delaware’
New Castle Cty is within the Philadelphia TV stations broadcast area – one of top 10 markets, not cheap, and most of viewers are in Pa or NJ (Indeed, though channel 12 WHYY is officially licensed to Wilmington, its transmitter tower is within the Philly city limits)
Jeffro
Make the First State (DE) the First Primary State! =)
Delaware’s a good microcosm of the U.S. in many ways and I think that most of its demographics line up with the U.S. as a whole. Also, let’s see how presidential candidates handle Punkin’ Chunkin’ and the Scrapple Festival!
(on a more serious note, the whole country would do well to figure out how to replicate Return Day, where the winning and losing political candidates parade together and literally bury a hatchet)
different-church-lady
February rain in Boston is normal.
PJ
@Betty Cracker: DE is 20% black (and has a rising Hispanic population). I actually think this was one of the elements in Biden’s ultimate success, as, from the time of his first Senate race, he had to appeal to black voters to get the Democratic nomination and win the general. The state is mostly served by the Philly media market but the lower part of the state also gets some Baltimore media.
I think it would obviously be the appropriate choice for a “first state” primary, but I would also like to see a state with a large Hispanic population (NM?) have their primary in the first month as well.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I think Turtle thought he was being clever by dumping stopping Trump on the Democrats while playing obstructionist and is now realizing thanks to Turtle blocking the conviction, Trump is still as powerful as ever in the GOP to rage wreck 2022 and 2024 while at the time, Turtle pissed off everyone else.
raven
The Delawarean
Years after his father died, Marley moved to Delaware with his mother, Cedella Malcolm Marley Booker, from Kingston, Jamaica, when she remarried.
Outside Jamaica, Wilmington was the first place Bob Marley called home.
His mother owned her house on Tatnall Street and ran the “Roots” Jamaican music shop on Market Street. For a time, Marley and his wife lived nearby.
Accounts vary of when the family came to Delaware and just how long Bob Marley lived here full-time – from a few months to many years. By some reports, Cedella moved here in 1962, after her son had begun recording as a teen with The Wailers, but he moved back in the mid-1960s to resume his music.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
LOL! A day or two ago, I came justthisclose to calling a commenter “You ignorant slut!” only in all caps.
jeffreyw
Rotating regional primary days. Every state in a region holds primary on the same day.
NotMax
@Winston
’77 was no picnic either.
More history trivia (same link).
The cold snap of 1899 is still considered to be the “mother” of all cold snaps. No other cold weather episode yielded lower temperatures (as low as -61 degrees F) over a larger area (the entire nation) for as long (two weeks)!
mrmoshpotato
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Good on ya, Mitch! We’ll take destroying the GOP from here.
mrmoshpotato
@SiubhanDuinne: Points off for not also wanting them to get eaten by a landshark. :)
cain
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
They could have done anonymous voting and then they could have voted to convict. But nope.. Now you’ve given oxygen to a smouldering coals and it is heading back to being a fire.
He’s going to end up on Parler, start a media company and really take charge of his cult. Since the GOP is a helpless, cowardly bunch of assholes – they will capitulate. Too sad for the GOP hopefuls looking to run for President.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Ha!
I have started to bail on threads that turn into bickering. In my mind, BJ is either supposed to be fun/interesting or make me smarter or better informed.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah: In Boston people walk in the street even when it isn’t snowing.
zeecube
Happy Mardi Gras, all/ (Felt good to sleep in late on a Tuesday.}
different-church-lady
@WaterGirl:
Ah, so you’ve given up on BJ altogether.
Betty Cracker
@cain: That might happen, but I think there’s a chance Turnip’s influence fades away or at least is winnowed down to a small rump of kooks. I was sort of dreading the end of the impeachment trial because I wondered if Turnip was keeping his big mouth shut on the advice of counsel and would flood the zone again as soon as the danger was over. Hasn’t happened yet.
There was a Presidents’ Day rally outside Disgraceland in Palm Beach yesterday, and Turnip rode around in an SUV waving at the assembled cultists, but it got minimal press coverage because it was pathetic, and he seems like a much diminished figure already. That’s a good thing.
Winston
@NotMax: Yes. I remember 1977 as well. My daughter was 1 year old and it got to down around 20 below and my NG fired boiler went out. We had hot water heat radiators. I called a dad who was helping me on my son’s soccer team and he came over in the middle of the night and fixed it. We were so grateful. He wouldn’t accept payment. Great community in those days.
different-church-lady
@Betty Cracker: A research psychologist friend once told me, “Loss of status hurts the psyche more than never having status.”
I hope that man* hurts like hell for the rest of his life.
*(ETA: the former president, not the friend, natch.)
moonbat
The first state to go should be Illinois. It is in the middle of “flyover” country so no one can claim the coastal elites are hogging all the attention. It has big urban areas AND podunk farming areas. It is a microcosm of the nation. Candidates would have to address ALL the issues facing the nation. We do it in honor of Abraham Lincoln. It should be Illinois.
ETA And no, I am not from Illinois.
LurkerNoLonger
@zhena gogolia: I don’t know if it’s true, but the world would be a better place if he became a Howard Hughes style hermit.
SFBayAreaGal
@NotMax: I was in Fairbanks, January 1977. Up there for “Jack Frost” training. It was colder in Florida than it was in Fairbanks.
citizen dave
@L85NJGT: Nerd (job) knowledge. The $9000 Texas power real-time price is an administratively-set price ceiling. In other words this has been set beforehand by ERCOT, approved by the state regulators, etc. As you say–no stinkin’ Feds!
This event is multi-faceted, as you point out. No single point of failure but many things–a chain of events.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: You were still living in NYC for that one, right? (Meaning the 1899 cold snap, natch.)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@zeecube:
Same to you! Re the title of this post, the only time I’ve ever seen the words “Shrove Tuesday” is on church signs or bulletin boards, and tends to go with them also announcing a pancake supper. Apparently “shrove” has something to do with pancakes in the Bible.
So in honor of the holiday, it’s pancakes for supper tonight!
Speaking of partying, my wife just showed me a CNN opinion piece from a doctor / sociologist at Yale who projects that around 2024 we’re going to have a mood like the Roaring Twenties vis a vis the 1918 pandemic, with partying, drinking, massive gatherings and “sexual licentiousness”. I told her I’m ready to do my part.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: I saw a report that the NAACP along with a Dem Rep from Mississippi filed suit against T**** and Rudy for the Jan 6 insurrection, using a Reconstruction-era anti-KKK law. Should be interesting.
Hoppie
I flew back from living in Italy the day before the nor’easter blizzard of 1978. I was staying with friends who raised borzois in East Providence (RI). Starting Monday afternoon, the snow began. Three days and over 50 inches later it slacked off.
After digging access paths, we ran the dogs on the adjacent golf course. They were in heaven! And I understood why borzois have such very thin, tall, deep chested bodies. Ah, winter memories!
Another Scott
First federal lawsuit drops against T**** and Rudy, by the NAACP for Rep Bennie Thompson (MS), for violating the KKK Act of 1871:
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
Mardi Gras!
I found a King Cake and now I’m roasting turkey thighs and drumsticks to make gumbo!
Ken
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The pancakes were to use up all the eggs, butter, and milk before Lent. Same reason it’s “Fat” Tuesday. I don’t keep Lent that strictly, but pancakes for dinner does sound nice.
raven
Mardi Gras Indian suit appears at site of former Jefferson Davis statue in New Orleans
RaflW
I have good friends in Austin, TX, and my brother lives in Houston. Seeing the electric grid mayhem brings me no pleasure.
But, watching Abbot, Cornyn, Cruz etc desperately trying to spin this as some sort of Biden problem is hilariously stupid. Every Texan knows that they are in a giant GOP experiment in deregulated ‘market capitalism’ in which the game is all about margins, and nothing about reliability, backups, or contingencies.
It’s a huge market failure and a clear signal that CATO-ing your utilities is a mistake. But they’ll spin like mad!!
mrmoshpotato
@moonbat:
So I become a hermit from when until February?
Ken
@RaflW: Decades ago Kenneth Arrow showed there is not a “market” as such for healthcare for many reasons, one being that when you’re having a heart attack you do not comparision-shop to find the best bargain on bypasses.
Hearing that spot prices have pegged at $9000 makes me wonder if the same applies to utilities, at least in some edge cases. “I can either pay that rate, or freeze to death. Decisions, decisions….”
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@raven: and now I want a King Cake! Hmm I wonder if my local bakery delivers?
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: “Cancel culture” is the New Coke of Republican scaremongering.
It’s also what Republicans have done to, say, Liz Cheney or Sen Burr. Repeatedly. Of course.
mrmoshpotato
@RaflW: But the free market will blah blah blah.
Ken
The 2024 campaign has already begun. Baud has thrown hit hat in the ring. Actually he didn’t take it out of the ring after the 2020 election.
Jeffro
I know his cult will lap up anything and everything he tells them…but I do wonder how he’s going to explain his situation post March 4th or whatever the latest ‘Q’-related date for the ‘storm’ or whatever is?
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: Baud 2024! Oh the spam you will get!
RaflW
@Ken: Yeah, if I pay 1 or 2 cents more per kW than my Texan brother, but our power works throughout -17 and +101, ice storms and near-derechos, I’m clear that I prefer the regulated market. Value for money!
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Power to the people!
;)
Ken
@Jeffro: The date will be rescheduled as often as necessary. It’s worked for several apocalyptic Christian sects for decades or centuries. In this case, we might even be able to find the planned dates by checking prices at the Trump hotel in Washington.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro:
He finally admits that the past 5 years were all a grift and calls his trash supporters every word for “dumbass racist white trash morons” in the book and bellows “Thanks for the millions, SUCKERS!” and fucks off?
different-church-lady
@Ken: Hey, when is this year’s Rapture?
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: *If you didn’t cut yourself off from the national grid
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Mayish. Nation’s gotta thaw out a bit for that foolishness.
L85NJGT
@citizen dave:
There are tradeoffs to capacity, redundancy and cost. Even Abbott was circumspect on root causes. FOX is blaming the windmills ?
Benw
It’s funny how new habits accrete. I just went out to move my truck over in my driveway for some deliveries, and when I got my keys I grabbed my wallet (old habit) and my mask (new habit) without even thinking about either!
L85NJGT
@moonbat:
The problem with any single fixed state is the primary becomes a cottage industry of oddly specific early primary behaviors.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Baud! 2024!: Extend your auto warranty now!
Winston
Isn’t it ironic that the self described energy capital of the USA, has no energy? And Rafael Cruz, the anti socialist is begging for socialist help? Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you got till it’s gone?
Anonymous At Work
Little known fact:
Shrove also translates as “Fully-loaded tater tots of [Cardiac] Death” locally. Can’t repent until you sin.
NotMax
@different-church-lady
October 24.
:)
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: Ha!
There are discussions/arguements/disagreements on substance, and then there is bickering and quibbling.
I’m all for the former, not so much on the latter.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: I got a voice mail about that the other day. I also get auto insurance junk mail. Amusing for someone who’s never had a car title.
Kathleen
@Immanentize: So sorry too hear that. Prayers for him and his family.
Immanentize
For everyone in Texas and other places too!
You got to give more power….
WaterGirl
@moonbat: I am from Illinois but I never would have thought of that. But what you say makes a lot of sense.
Ken
You’ll want to subscribe to my newsletter, “What Christians Must Know for Salvation”. Be sure to get the platinum subscription; it’s a little more, but
I’ve got a private jet to pay offtells you the full Gospel truth.James E Powell
What do you suppose the NYT, WaPo, and cable shows would be doing if several state Democratic parties were censuring & rebuking their Democratic senators?
Ken
@L85NJGT: So what would be the Delaware equivalent of eating deep-fried butter on a stick?
mrmoshpotato
@Anonymous At Work:
Got details in recipe form?
Soprano2
@NotMax: Our city’s record low temp is -29°, which happened on February 12th in 1899.
Kathleen
@WaterGirl: Or use a human filter
Betty Cracker
@SFBayAreaGal: Now that I think about it, I believe THAT was the year it snowed in Florida, not 1978. Been waiting for it to happen again ever since!
MrSnrub
@Betty Cracker:
Pat Toomey has been censured by York County GQP.
mrmoshpotato
@James E Powell: Suggesting more wrong doings for more censure?
Ken
That is the recipe.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: Seven search results down before I see a recipe. The preceding six results are all about heart attacks.
Mini Loaded Tater Tots
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: It snowed at the ?BillinGlendaleCA family homestead in Thousand Oaks, CA in 1977 as well.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: This “Cancel Culture” crap is reminiscent of the “Participation Trophies are Turning Us into a Nation of Wimps” bullshit of the last decade. For a while, talk show hosts would attribute the genesis of any and all liberal ideas, especially among the young, to the participation trophies given in youth sports. That trope has faded. Too many people, including youth sports parents, knew it was a stupid idea.
PJ
@Ken: cheesesteak with everything
Kathleen
@James E Powell: Saame thing they do now. Gin up phony Dem “scandals” and flail them merciessly. Bonus points for signal boosting Bannon/Breitbart unvetted “scoops” (“Clinton Cash y’all”). H/T Axis Maggie.
Chris T.
Many are (at various times) trying just that.
None of them get the trick right, which is to declare that “our state’s primary shall be on the Tuesday the week before the earliest other primary”. Of course, as soon as two states pull this trick, the country implodes. ?
brantl
@Jerzy Russian: You can look at it any way you want, but electrons flow, and are negatively charged, end of story.