Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

T R E 4 5 O N

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

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

I was promised a recession.

No one could have predicted…

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Consistently wrong since 2002

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

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

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

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Thursday Morning Open Thread: Working on It

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297Comments

  2. 2.

    debbie

    Today’s press conference should be a real demonstration of dissonance in this country.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    Major conservative groups unify behind state GOP efforts to restrict voting

    Georgia House set to pass sweeping bill that would restrict voting access
    …..
    The legislation would limit drop boxes to inside of early voting locations during voting hours, make giving food or drinks to a voter a misdemeanor, allow for unlimited challenges to voter registrations and eligibility, set up a fraud hotline, and require counties to keep counting ballots without a break in between. It would also shorten the runoff cycle from the current nine weeks to just four weeks.

    Voting rights groups have slammed the omnibus bill particularly for its provisions that strip authority from the elected secretary of state and grant state officials broad rights, including the ability to replace local election officials.

  5. 5.

    debbie

    @Albatrossity:

    Idiots are putting themselves in charge of things they know and understand nothing about. My legislature (Ohio) has just made themselves the determiners of public health orders.

  6. 6.

    sab

    So Major got trained to not bite Secret Service guys. How do you even do that?

    My late lamented shepherd never bit young men dressed in camouflage. She hated piercings. She also hated walkers. So I was safe from old ladies crawling through the window, but not from young men. Useful dog she was.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @sab: I once had to free a fawn from a tangle of fencing. I never saw Mama but she was no doubt nearby. Very glad she didn’t interfere.

  21. 21.

    sab

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Someone has used her lockdown year well. I wasted mine, so we are each 15 pounds heavier. Plus the inherited cocker looks like a tiny sheepdog. I could have trimmed him, but instead I baked.

  22. 22.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

     

    @sab:

    A few years ago, I was going to take the dog for a walk. As we came down the steps out the front door, there was a deer with about an 8 point rack munching on some honeysuckle by the corner of the house maybe 40 feet away. We stopped as the dog alerted and froze – it started hissing and pawing at the ground toward us, the dog and I looked at each other and ran back into the house.

    I think it was during the rut – that thing had murderous intent in its eyes.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    These assholes.

    “Oh shit!  A bunch of non-white, non-penised people voted against us!  Let’s rethink our ideas.  HAHA!  Kidding!  Let suppress Democratic turnout!”

    Assholes.

  25. 25.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Vilsack could have done something for Black Farmers in the Obama Admin. He might want to STFU.

    ETA. I know some relief came during that admin., But the underlying racism of the local lending/granting officials was never addressed.

  29. 29.

    sab

    @Immanentize: Give him a chance to clean up his appalling record.

    ETA He is too old to plan on running for anything again, so he can do what he thinks is right. So we can see what happens.

  32. 32.

    Skepticat

    What the heck is wrong with the Associated Press? … where Major received some training after injuring a Secret Service agent. 

  35. 35.

    Another Scott

    @sab: +1. He’s old and has a history, but also with Uncle Joe.  He made lots of good comments at his hearing and in his first speech.  Let’s see if he’s changed and will walk the talk the way his boss has.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  37. 37.

    John S.

    @Baud: Alternative take — Maybe Vilsack is interested in redemption because he formerly didn’t do the right thing and now he wants to right the wrongs he made in the past.

    I realize the verdict is out on how he actually does this time around, but past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future performance.

    Sometimes (though rarely), people do show the capacity for change based on empirical evidence and self-reflection. If (and this is a big if) Viksack has decided this is his chance to fix things and that’s why Biden nominated him, we shouldn’t necessarily begrudge him that.

    Though he was least favorite pick, too as I would have rather seen someone like Marcia Fudge in the role. Happily she found a place at HUD.

  39. 39.

    Jeffro

    “Both parties see the legislation as fundamental to their political futures” – boy, you’ve got that right, AP.

    The article does a good job of explaining what’s in the legislation and how it came to be/why it’s necessary. I also like the continued use of ‘baseless’ when it comes to the GQP’s election fraud claims.

    9/10 would recommend.

  40. 40.

    debbie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I can’t remember the title now, but I remember reading a book by an older gentleman who made a project of teaching himself French. He was amazed (and discouraged) at the difficulty he experienced, did some research, and confirmed it’s far more difficult for the less than young’uns. It was enough to discourage me from even trying (though I hadn’t been).

  41. 41.

    John S.

    @Jeffro: It’s fascinating that Democrats see giving citizens access to voting is seen as the path to their political future whereas Republicans see limiting access to voting as the path to their political future.

    Really speaks volumes.

  43. 43.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @debbie: Could it have been Flirting with French? I read that. It was funny as well discouraging. One of my students recommended it. She and her French husband were living in a tiny French village for a year while on sabbatical. Their two grade school aged sons went to two room village school. It was an experience and a half.

  44. 44.

    only

    The most depressing part of the GOP doing a full-court press on “Chaos at the border!1!! OMG!!111!” is that given that this is their only issue, their only possible presidential candidate in 2024 is going to have to be someone who ramps Trump’s racism and nativism to 11. It’s all they have. And that person may win. Predictable, but depressing

    (Weird. I’m in moderation and my nym is wrong. I’m Princess. I think I must have typed something into the address field without knowing it)

  45. 45.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: One of Senator Warren’s many good climate change proposals was a ten-fold expansion of the Agriculture Departments Soil and Water Conservation program. I’ll be interested to see what Vilsack’s Department does in this area. This will probably not get much attention, though, at least not in national news. Most people are not interested in Ag Department policies, or in Secretary Vilsack’s actual performance.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    In mid-March, Flaten said as he left his house with his girlfriend he noticed the pile at the end of his driveway. He said the coins were covered with some sort of oily substance and an envelope containing his final pay slip and an explicit parting message.

    His nightly routine now consists of cleaning the pennies so he can cash them in. He said it took him about an hour and a half to clean several hundred coins.

    “I think that’s going to be a lot of work for money I’ve already worked for,” he said. “It’s definitely not fair at all.”

    The owner of the shop, Miles Walker, spoke with Atlanta’s WGCL-TV briefly, stating he didn’t know if he did or didn’t drop the pennies off at Flaten’s house. “I don’t really remember,” Walker told the TV station. “It doesn’t matter he got paid, that’s all that matters.”

    Walker went on to call Flaten a “weenie”.

    Fires happen, just terrible when they do.

  49. 49.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’d be tempted to spend the uncleaned pennies back at the owner’s store, maybe using friends as intermediaries.  Though on second thought, why give business to the store?

  50. 50.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @sab:

    My Belgian Tervuren is 7 – he STILL mouths my arm occasionally.

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    A pinpoint of pleasure appears in an otherwise ho-hum life.

    Bluetooth dongle for the PC arrived Wednesday. Now have the option not to be tethered by the cord when using headphones. Not having to either crank up the volume or else pause the media when hieing to the little codger’s room and while occupied therein is alone a source of appreciation.

  53. 53.

    germy

    People close to Biden say he's feeling bullish on what he can accomplish, and is fully prepared to support the dashing of the Senate's filibuster rule to allow Democrats to pass voting rights and other legislation for his party. https://t.co/4FJkqrLZe7

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 25, 2021

  54. 54.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    She told me her name was Billie Jean, as she caused a scene
    Then every head turned with eyes that dreamed of being the one
    Who will dance on the floor in the round

  55. 55.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    One of the versions of that story I read said that the dude left because it was a “toxic work environment”.

    I’m shocked….

  56. 56.

    Nicole

    @debbie:

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    The brain actually learns language in a different  section when adult as opposed to when young.  One of the reasons it’s harder to learn language as an adult.   That said, if an adult does achieve fluency in a new language, the brain kind of moves the new language over to where it learns and stores language when younger.  Or so it was explained to me at my son’s school’s Science Fair, by a Columbia U. researcher.   Man, the brain is so cool!

    Dorothy, it’s not free, but I think Babbel may be a slightly better platform for language learning.  I love Duolingo (I’m closing in on 365 days myself on Spanish!),  but Babbel makes  you practice speaking it more.  I have both.  And I’m terrible at learning languages, so it’s a slow process either way, but I like Babbel a lot.

    All that said, I’m getting my kid as much supplemental Spanish as I can outside of what he gets at school, because I can hear firsthand how effortlessly kids pick up a (lack of) accent when they learn additional languages early.  I’m envious.

  57. 57.

    germy

    These photos!

    Coming in April:

    Georges Méliès: Flesh and Phantasmagoria (Dan Modot, 2021)

    In 2019, after 82 years of suppression, the Vatican Secret Archive released five pornographic films created by the world’s first master filmmaker, all of them commissioned by members of French nobility. pic.twitter.com/ALHkVuHuiP

    — Multiversal+ (@MpvStreaming) March 23, 2021

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: I knew people were going to go there, but her full name is Billie Jean King. She is my 2nd blond Lab. The first was Willie Maybe, the Say Hey dog, because that was the way Willie approached the world.

    Will he?
    Maybe.

    Hey, how you doin’?
    Hey, what’s up?
    Hey, where you going?

    Willie > Billie. Billie Jean King was, and still is, one of a kind.

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: That’s the damned truth. Carey’s manic energy was all wrong for Biden, though it did give him (Carey) an opportunity to do his “loo-hoo-hoo-zer” bit at Fake Turnip when Biden won the election. The other SNL Biden impersonator was so forgettable that I’ve forgotten completely.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Nicole:

    Dorothy, it’s not free, but I think Babbel may be a slightly better platform for language learning.

    También, además, no es posible.

  66. 66.

    Soprano2

    @debbie: French *shudder* That’s my least-favorite language to sing (at least so far). It  has so many silent letters in the words, and has sounds that at least for me are unpronounceable.

    I have to get a new phone today, because the charging port on the Galaxy 7 I have is worn out, and I can barely get the cord to charge it anymore because it can’t make contact with the charging port – it’s too loose. ‘ve been told that repairing it is problematic and expensive, so why would I spend a bunch of money on that if I don’t have to. I think I already know what I’m getting – one of my co-workers is a big techie, and when I told him what I was looking for and what phone I had he said “This is the one you need”. It’s a Galazy A21 something. I’ve had this phone for at least 4 years, so I got my money’s worth out of it.

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Many years ago, I think I was pre-teen maybe, I read something which stated that paying off debts of greater than $XX with pennies (or maybe just sub-dollar coins) was against the law. I think it was something like $25. I have no idea if that’s true now, nor even if it was true then (1960s).

    But one thing Flaten could do is bring about $5 of still-oily pennies to the shop, say he was overpaid, then spill them on the floor. Accidentally, of course.

  70. 70.

    NotMax

    @Nicole

    As there are so few irregular verbs in Spanish, once one gets the regular pattern of conjugation down pat the rest flows apace.

    (Personal favorite Spanish verb – although occasions to put it to use are exceedingly rare: zigzaguear.)

  73. 73.

    Soprano2

    So, what’s the over/under on how many useless questions about the border reporters will ask Biden today? How many times will they try to get him to say the word “crisis”? I know he has to do it, and I hope he handles them fine, but I actually kind of dread Biden’s press conference, because you just know there will be some 10-second clip that will be played over and over, while the rest of it is not talked about much. That’s why the press wants him to do it; each of them are hoping to be the one to create that clip.

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: Yeah, I don’t think they can pass such a law. As it says on the face of every dollar bill: “This note is legal tender for all debts public and private.” If it holds for one form of US currency, it should hold for all forms of US currency. Besides I have read numerous stories of people paying off debts with banks/courts/whatever pissed them off with sacks of pennies.

  77. 77.

    Nicole

    @NotMax: I do find learning it a bit easier than French (although that may be  because the conjugation rules are similar and I took French for some years so the groundwork is there) .  No silent letters also helps.  If there’s a “t,” you say the “t.”

  78. 78.

    Nicole

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: My Cambodian stepmom learned English as an adult by watching Sesame Street.  My kid and I have done some episodes of “The Magic Schoolbus” in Spanish together, and  yeah, it helps to be able to follow the plot.

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Personal favorite Spanish verb

    Not a verb, but my personal favorite Spanish phrase comes from a buddy of mine struggling to describe the buxom young lady who ripped him off on a Mexican beach to a couple of local cops: “Bolsas de mantequilla grande”.

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    Drawing has never been numbered among my own meager roster of talents, so am impressed by these little uns’ output.

    In Honouliuli Middle School’s library, colorful comic strips of simple short stories line a wall of windows.

    The sixth-graders’ drawings share their insights on how COVID-19 impacted them and their families.

    “COVID-19 can affect anybody, not just yourself, and you should learn how to see other’s point of view,” a student named Justice said.

    The comics were a key facet of teacher Cecilia Chung’s Social Studies assignment. Source

  84. 84.

    sab

    @debbie: Ta ne-hasi Coates had a struggle learning French, but he wanted his French to be as good as his excellent English. My French is just to read signs. My Spanish, German  and Hebrew aren’t even there yet.

  88. 88.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: I am honored to be the perfect foil and impetus for you giving us all a more complete tale of the tail.

    Meanwhile, love Billie Jean King.  Still the, well, King!  I was a pre teen when she mopped up Bobby Riggs and his vitamin empire.

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    learned English from soap operas

    Fully prepared to deal with any situation involving an evil twin!

    ;)

    True story: Before the advent of PBS, the educational TV channel aired a program teaching elementary Russian. No political content whatsoever, simply language instruction. This was during the 1950s and young NotMax was an avid viewer. When the grade school administration somehow learned of this they sent a letter to my parents warning them about potentially bringing up a little Communist.

  90. 90.

    germy

    Our Publicity Department submits the following items of interest (of interest to our Publicity Department) concerning a few of our authors. In case you do not want to print them, they go awfully well with peanut butter.

    * * * * *

    How does an author work when he has been put in a strait-jacket by relatives? This question is answered by Germer C. Arsh, author of “Brimmer Grows a Goatee and Other Sonnets,” to be published in the Fall by the Aesophagus Press. “I just lie there and think very hard,” he says, “and pretty soon the book is written by my sister.”

    * * * * *

    “Never try to set a thief to catch a thief, or to throw good money after bad,” says Robert Wrist, in the third chapter of “Don’t Open on Christmas!” (Aesophagus Press.) “I am sick and tired of trying.” Mr. Wrist’s book is now in its first edition.

    * * * * *

    “Arabian is the easiest language in the world to learn, next to Choctaw,” says the Princess Ludovica von Preepos und Schnurbart, whose novel, Tight Grows the Eel-Grass, is already being considered for rejection by the Aesophagus Press. “All you have to do is remember that all verbs meaning ‘to inhale’ take the dative.”

    (Robert Benchley)

  91. 91.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Classic Maggie Haberman (Apparently, she took extra strength stupid pills prior to this CNN appearance)

    Maggie Haberman Points Out That Press Conferences Are ‘Generally Not Great Formats’ for ‘Thin-Skinned’ Joe Biden

    Haberman said. “He has, at times, certainly during the campaign, gotten irritated with questions he didn’t like.”

    h/t https://www.mediaite.com/news/maggie-haberman-declares-thin-skinned-joe-biden-not-good-at-press-conferences-says-stair-stumbles-will-be-an-issue/

  92. 92.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @sab:

    Never completely, it seems. He can be a real brat – sweet natured and smart, but a brat nonetheless.

    OT – I just discovered the Cinnamon Toast Crunch shrimp tails & rat poop story. I’m enthralled…

  94. 94.

    Geminid

    @rikyrah: Senate Democrats “can keep the filibuster, or they can pass voting rights legislation, but they can’t do both.” They could also pass voting rights legislation under an exception to the filibuster rule, to go with existing exceptions for reconciliation and judicial appointments.

    I’m not saying this should happen, or will happen, but I will not be surprised if it does happen.

  95. 95.

    germy

    @Wyatt Salamanca:  “He has, at times, certainly during the campaign, gotten irritated with questions he didn’t like.”

    And rightly so.

    I don’t think he’s “thin-skinned” at all, though.

    For an example of a thin-skinned president, see the former guy.

  96. 96.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    One may be able to pay with pennies (or with origami folded one dollar bills as a guy in Texas tried) but you can be charged for the hassle associated with doing so. Even just paying in cash — the IRS now imposes a 10% penalty unless you can prove you cannot get a bank account.

  98. 98.

    germy

    just thinking about how if public schools were invented today, they'd be dismissed as a socialist plot

    "why should I pay for someone else's schooling?"
    "not everyone is meant to go to school"
    "what about the private school jobs?"
    "the gov't is too inefficient to do education"

    — Dan Price (@DanPriceSeattle) March 25, 2021

    Same with public libraries. “You mean people would just walk out with books they didn’t pay for?? And then return them?”

  100. 100.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    I like the idea of him saying “that’s a really stupid question, but here’s your answer, and I’ll include just why I think your question is pathetic. I’ll say it slowly so that I won’t have to repeat myself”.

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax:When the grade school administration somehow learned of this they sent a letter to my parents warning them about potentially bringing up a little Communist.

    And now they’d all rather live in Russia than under a DEM.

  107. 107.

    PJ

    @germy: periodically, on the internet or on The NY Times op-ed page, some  right wing idiot proposes closing all the libraries “because no one uses them.”  Unfortunately, similar rich assholes now control the boards of the local libraries where I live, and only see the library system as fund of real estate to sell off to their developer cronies or as places to hold extravagant parties.

  108. 108.

    JMG

    Since my daughter lives in France, I have to keep up a rudimentary ability in the language so as to be able to function when I get to go visit her (haven’t for the last year obviously). I can read it reasonably well, and understand spoken language to a lesser but functional extent, but when speaking French, I struggle mightily. A garrulous old buffer I met in a Bordeaux laundromat told me the cure for that was “watch more television here!” It worked to some extent. Things like weather and sports where I can place vocabulary in context of the pictures was very useful.

  109. 109.

    Another Scott

    @Soprano2: Spoken French is easy – all the final letters are smashed together as “o”:

    Renault

    Peugeot

    Deveraux

    escargot

    bureau

    etc.

    HTH!!

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  110. 110.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: I’d challenge that in court but the lawyer wants 30%.

    ETA the more I think about it the more I I don’t see how that could stand.

  111. 111.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  I’ve been watching French Police procedural son Netflix with just subtitles.  I still can’t respond in a conversation, but I am finding that I look at the subtitles less and less and at times actually follow the French.  It helps that the dialogue is repetitive with the same word used by different characters.

  112. 112.

    germy

    @PJ:

    Out of curiosity I checked the “google reviews” of my local library, and found this:

    All public libraries are becoming less relavant in the digital age. Internet access is avalible to all. Even the homeless have smartphones. Music delivered via streaming services…Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer has conquered music distribution and offers a selection of audiobooks and music that is greater than all the local libraries combined…some with free tiers. Online libraries offer a wide range of pdf with enhanced reading features, paper can not match. Online videos and streaming services offer a broad range of video titles. In short, public libraries are an egregious waste of funds.

    This library has become a place for the homeless, mentally ill and attention starved mothers to congregate. The Police Department is called almost every hour.

    Imagine the money that library would bring in by cutting library funding, selling the property and get that location back on to the tax role again!

    Jesus!

  114. 114.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly: Lots of places refuse to take cash these days (e.g. the bars at the Anthem club in DC).  Paying in vast amounts of change is usually an abusive technique and can be refused (or have a fee as pointed out above) as well.

    Snopes:

    […]

    In other words, U.S. currency and coins can be used for making payments, but merchants do not necessarily have to accept it for all forms of business transactions. If a shoemaker wants to sell his products for 8000 jelly beans per pair, he’s entitled to do so; the buyer cannot demand that he accept the equivalent value in legal tender instead. However, legal tender is the default method of payment assumed in contractual agreements involving debts and payments for goods or services unless otherwise specified.

    So, for example, if an automobile dealer signs a contract agreeing to sell you a car for $8,000, but when you begin making monthly payments he rejects them and insists he wants to be paid in gold instead, you can go to court and have your debt discharged on the grounds that valid payment was offered and refused.

    Up until the late 19th century, pennies and nickels weren’t legal tender at all. The Coinage Acts of 1873 and 1879 made them legal tender for debts up to 25 cents only, while the other fractional coins (dimes, quarters, and half dollars) were legal tender for amounts up to $10. This remained the law until the Coinage Act of 1965 specified that all U.S. coins are legal tender in any amount. However, even in cases where legal tender has been agreed to as a form of payment, private businesses are still free to specify which forms of legal tender they will accept. If a shop doesn’t want to take any currency larger than $20 bills, or they don’t want to take pennies at all, or they want to be paid in nothing but dimes, they’re entitled to do so (but, as mentioned earlier, they should specify their payment policies before entering into transactions with buyers). Businesses are free to accept or reject pennies as they see fit; no law specifies that pennies cease to be considered legal tender when proffered in quantities over a particular amount.

    HTH!! ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  116. 116.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Ah well

  121. 121.

    Immanentize

    @germy: i don’t know if you follow the print trade news, but Aesophagus Press was acquired by Duodenum Press which itself was later swallowed by Jejunum and  Colon Publishers.

  122. 122.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: With schooling, I think it starts with the attitude behind, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

  123. 123.

    Immanentize

    @Wyatt Salamanca:
    Haberman doesn’t seem to realize that Biden speaks for most Americans when he gets annoyed at stupid press questions. It is not being thin skinned, it is not pretending that having an idiot waste the President’s time is a good thing for the country.

  124. 124.

    germy

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I think if Biden showed irritation with questions, they’d ask him more irritating questions, just to get a rise out of him and give their bosses dramatic soundbytes.

     

    Off topic, I got my first pfizer shot, but they scheduled my next one in four weeks instead of three.  Is this common now?  I thought it was 21 days for pfizer?

  125. 125.

    Tony Jay

    Today is a real Badge of Honour day, in that I’ve finally got myself banned for life from the Guardian’s cesspit of a comment section for “past infractions of the rules”, including, but not limited to the following.

    1) Never reference the Guardian’s own reporting if doing so contradicts the narrative behind one of their coordinated smear campaigns.

    2) Never cast doubt upon the honesty or integrity of anyone the Guardian favourably quotes when it’s conducting a smear campaign, especially when doing so violates rule 1.

    3) Never suggest that the Guardian gets more clicks and sells more subscriptions when Tory Governments are in power and that this might have some impact upon its editorial policy, especially when doing so violates rule 1.

    4) Never suggest that the Guardian’s close working relationship with the shower of loose stoolmatter forming the current Labour Party leadership team was always purely transactional in nature and certainly won’t last until the next Election, especially when doing so violates rule 1.

    5) Definitely don’t ever hint that the Guardian is already building a narrative of anti-Black, Islamophobic bigotry around the ruling Labour right-wing that will come to fruition just in time to kneecap the Party at the next General Election, especially when doing so violates rule 1.

    6) Never, ever, ever mock the Guardian for trying to turn itself into a British version of ‘Even The Liberal’ New York Times while pointing and laughing at the “Comment is Free, but Facts are Sacred” motto it awarded itself.

    So, good day in all. I think I’ll do some work in the Garden as a reward.

  126. 126.

    PJ

    @Kay:  But it looks like so much fun! Why should we pay teachers a living wage when they just get to show up and entertain kids all day?  How hard could it be?

  127. 127.

    NotMax

    @Cheryl from Maryland

    Got Prime>? Spiral is a top notch French police series. Be aware it is sporadically graphic, and the camera does tend to linger languorously over nude dead bodies. Binged the very early seasons back when they were on Netflix, the later ones when all six appeared on Prime.

    Now if only season 7 would become available for streaming….

  128. 128.

    germy

    @Immanentize:

    Benchley once gave a lecture:  “Through The Alimentary Canal With Gun And Camera”

    I think he was still an undergraduate at the time, amusing his classmates.

  129. 129.

    Delk

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I got up to around 200 days of Polish and started over again. It made a massive difference. I then got up to around 400 days and just started hating it. I no longer was doing it to learn but to just keep my day count going. I switched to Busuu and have been learning from a different approach.

  131. 131.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @germy:

     I got my first pfizer shot, but they scheduled my next one in four weeks instead of three.  Is this common now?  I thought it was 21 days for pfizer?

    The development of immunity isn’t a split-second thing. I think the guidance for both Pfizer and Moderna is 3-6 weeks. Should be no problem.

  133. 133.

    Betty Cracker

    @Cheryl Rofer: The “Biden must provide hope and optimism” thing seems dumb, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with reporters asking for a definitive answer on whether he’ll run for a second term. That’s a legit question. (One he’s not obligated to answer definitively, of course.)

  134. 134.

    PJ

    @germy: I got my second Pfizer shot 20 days after the first.  You might want to look in to rescheduling closer.  Also, make sure they know it’s your second shot.

  138. 138.

    germy

    @PJ:

    The call center operator (pharmaceutical employee) probably didn’t know which vaccine I was getting, so just scheduled 28 days automatically.

    (I’ve mentioned in another thread the ordeal I went through trying to get an appointment.  The company should really try training its people.)

  141. 141.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize:

     i don’t know if you follow the print trade news, but Aesophagus Press was acquired by Duodenum Press which itself was later swallowed by Jejunum and  Colon Publishers.

    I bet you had to GERD your loins before writing that one.

  142. 142.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @OzarkHillbilly:  At their homepage:

    “And yes we accept pennies as payment! They are cash you nitwits!”

    Stop digging, nitwit. Your hole’s deep enough.

  143. 143.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @germy: Nope, it is a book by George S. Chappell.  We had a copy up at our family cabin that I remember finding hilarious as a kid.  Unfortunately, it is gone now.

  145. 145.

    Kay

    @PJ:

    About midway thru the school closure my 17 year turned to me and said “we’re not really cut from the same cloth”

    I cherish those moments of homeschooling, I really do. It got so mean.

  147. 147.

    PJ

    @Betty Cracker: 2 months into his first term, he has to give a definitive answer about running for a second term.  I know the press will never stop pushing stupid questions that have no bearing on current politics so that they will have some cause to say “Biden broke his vow/backtracked/betrayed the expectations of voters”,  but it only makes the White House press corps more trivial.  There are hundreds of legit political questions that could ask that have some bearing on what is happening now, but that might require them to do some real journalistic work instead of acting as stenographers.

  149. 149.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: There was a case in the US Tax court about a legal marijuana dispensary that paid tax by cash because it could not bank.  Although settled, the IRS will still impose a 10% penalty for processing on unbanned payments, but you can get out of the requirement:

    After the Allgreens case, the IRS issued favorable guidance for “unbanked” taxpayers in the Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) used by IRS employees. The IRS will not impose a penalty if the taxpayer made reasonable efforts to open a bank account and provides enough documentation of its efforts. The IRS will review penalty relief requests on a case-by-case basis. The taxpayer should make continued efforts to open a bank account regularly to continue to qualify for penalty relief.

    In the case you linked to, that poor fellow is spending about 30 minutes per dollar just to make the pennies usable. He should be paid for that.

  151. 151.

    germy

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    At Harvard, Benchley’s impromptu after dinner speeches amused fellow frat boys with pseudo-serious nonsense, ala Monty Python’s John Cleese.  One night he might be a government official telling Harvard “what we are doing down there in Washington!”  Another saw him a returning explorer ad-libbing “Through the Alimentary Canal with Gun and Camera.”

    Benchley was at Harvard in 1912.  Chappell’s book came out in 1930.

    I haven’t read it, but apparently Benchley wrote the introduction to Chappell’s book.  I hoped I might find it online, but I can’t…

  152. 152.

    Another Scott

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    WGCL spoke to five other people who previously worked for Walker who said they, too, experienced a toxic working environment. One former female employee said that when he was her manager he said, “You think you have a bigger dick than any of the boys and we’re gonna prove that right now.” She said he proceeded to pull down her pants in the lobby of the store.

    Twitter lawyers should be doing their thing to put this Mr. Walker out of business (and make sure he doesn’t get another business license in the state). For a start.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  154. 154.

    Tony Jay

    @SFAW:

    Personally, I think that revered cultural philosopher efgoldman provided the most apposite quotation where the Guardian is concerned. it certainly ticks all my boxes.

  155. 155.

    NotMax

    Referencing #31 above, here’s some more info for any to reticent to click there.

    Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden [Wednesday] named 25 recordings as audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.
    [snip]
    Edison’s “St. Louis tinfoil” recording (1878)
    “Nikolina” — Hjalmar Peterson (1917) (single)
    “Smyrneikos Balos” — Marika Papagika (1928) (single)
    “When the Saints Go Marching In” — Louis Armstrong & his Orchestra (1938) (single)
    Christmas Eve Broadcast–Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill (December 24, 1941)
    “The Guiding Light” — Nov. 22, 1945
    “Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues” — Odetta (1957) (album)
    “Lord, Keep Me Day by Day” — Albertina Walker and the Caravans (1959) (single)
    Roger Maris hits his 61st homerun (October 1, 1961)
    “Aida” — Leontyne Price, et.al. (1962) (album)
    “Once a Day” — Connie Smith (1964) (single)
    “Born Under a Bad Sign” — Albert King (1967) (album)
    “Free to Be…You & Me” — Marlo Thomas and Friends (1972) (album)
    “The Harder They Come” — Jimmy Cliff (1972) (album)
    “Lady Marmalade” — Labelle (1974) (single)
    “Late for the Sky” — Jackson Browne (1974) (album)
    “Bright Size Life” — Pat Metheny (1976) (album)
    “The Rainbow Connection” — Kermit the Frog (1979) (single)
    “Celebration” — Kool & the Gang (1980) (single)
    “Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs” — Jessye Norman (1983) (album)
    “Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814” — Janet Jackson (1989) (album)
    “Partners” — Flaco Jiménez (1992) (album)
    “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”/”What A Wonderful World” — Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (1993) (single)
    “Illmatic” — Nas (1994) (album)
    “This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money” (May 9, 2008)
    .

  158. 158.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: How about, “I certainly intend to run for a second term, but I am not going to spend my time in office, running for office.  I am here to help the American people.”

  159. 159.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Betty Cracker: It is a legit question to ask a some point.  At this point, it is a dumb question.  At this point, it can only be meant to set up a gotcha moment later if Biden changes his mind.

  162. 162.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax: Part of a longer story, but I was once at a non profit who called in consultants who had worked extensively with teachers.  One of the guys said the best observation about education institutions was: “Why is it the further away you get from students, the more you are paid?”

  165. 165.

    germy

    @Another Scott:

    Thanks.  So it looks like Benchley came up with the title first, according to his introduction.

    (I like the illustrations, also.   It was certainly a golden age for humorous illustrated books)

  166. 166.

    Just One More Canuck

    @germy: That was certainly the case when I was in high school back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  Our teachers would just assign teams for floor hockey or soccer and as long as there wasn’t any broken bones or teeth, would just sit on the sidelines and smoke. Occasionally they would take part, especially when the goons in the class would go after the little guys. They would slam them into the walls a couple of time to make a point

  167. 167.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly:  “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

    “Those who can’t even teach, get paid for writing opinion pieces complaining about teachers’ unions.”

  170. 170.

    Immanentize

    @germy: How do I know this so definitively?  I just got my first pfizer yesterday and grilled them on timing.  Here they were presuming 21, but I couldn’t that day, so I’m at 26.  Pas de problem!

  171. 171.

    Steve in the ATL

    @germy:

     

    Presidential historian Michael Beschloss told Axios FDR and LBJ may turn out to be the past century’s closest analogues for the Biden era, “in terms of transforming the country in important ways in a short time.”

    It’s about time we finished what we started in Vietnam!

  172. 172.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: There was a short science-fiction story like that once, where a guy started out getting elected to the school board, worked his way up to an administrator, then a principal, and finally after years of dedicated work actually got to teach.

    I guess it was more of a fantasy.

  178. 178.

    NotMax

    @germy

    Now a forgotten scribe (unlike Benchley), Stephen Potter‘s parodies of self-help books (published in the 40s and 50s) are deft wryness personified on the printed page.

    On wine: “A good general rule is to state that the bouquet is better than the taste, and vice versa.”

  179. 179.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott: 

    Up until the late 19th century, pennies and nickels weren’t legal tender at all. The Coinage Acts of 1873 and 1879 made them legal tender for debts up to 25 cents only, while the other fractional coins (dimes, quarters, and half dollars) were legal tender for amounts up to $10.

    This is a weirdly interesting historical tidbit.

  180. 180.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @germy: @NotMax: @Immanentize:

    Haberman and her colleagues have always played this stupid game of pretending to be high minded, serious individuals only seeking to provide essential facts to voters through their questioning of the President and his aides.  In reality, all they want to do is create gotcha moments that get endlessly dissected by panels of overpaid, clueless cable news pundits.

  181. 181.

    Tony Jay

    @SFAW:

    Gawd, but I am slow today, I only just got your excellent reference. Time for a bike ride to clear the cobwebs away, I think.

  182. 182.

    germy

    @Wyatt Salamanca:  …all they want to do is create gotcha moments that get endlessly dissected by panels of overpaid, clueless cable news pundits.

    Yes.  She wants to impress her colleagues.  That’s Maggie’s main motivation.  The pundits are a small, tight circle  (somewhat like a cat’s asshole).

  183. 183.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Now a forgotten scribe (unlike Benchley), Stephen Potter‘s parodies of self-help books (published in the 40s and 50s) are deft wryness personified on the printed page.

    Potter is great. When I was a kid, I would go to the library and look up books categorized as Humor. Loved Potter’s Gamesmanship and One-Upsmanship.

  184. 184.

    germy

    @NotMax:

    Do books like that get published anymore?  It seems nowadays people turn to Colbert on TV for humor.

    There are many young people still writing droll stuff  (Kate Hahn is one) but they’re online.

  185. 185.

    Kay

    @sab:

    First I was like a cheerleader. That lasted a coupla weeks. By the time he had been sent home from school for the second time, quarantined, he was “I give up- I’m staying online” and I was “you should, it’s impossible” :)

  186. 186.

    germy

    @Brachiator:  When I was a kid, I would go to the library and look up books categorized as Humor.

    That’s how I discovered Thurber and Benchley.

    But then many years later, I’d check the Humor section of bookstores, and find stuff like “100 Uses For A Dead Cat” or “A Calendar Of Farts” or whatever, and the literary humor was nowhere to be found.

  187. 187.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @sab: Growing up, we had a Standard Poodle. Nobody had any inclination to give him any of those silly poodle cuts, so he had natural fur. Everyone he met assumed he was a sheepdog.

  188. 188.

    Miss Bianca

    @germy: You think that this *didn’t* happen? I seem to recall that the Southern states were the last to get on board with free public education, while the New England states were the first. Hmm…what would have been the difference between those two populations…

  190. 190.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    Pace A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum:

    The situation’s fraught
    Fraughter than I thought
    It’s … impossible
    .

  192. 192.

    Another Scott

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: There’s a black standard poodle in our neighborhood that I see occasionally.  Just a normal haircut (no shaving and jelly donuts on his hips).  Goodness he’s a proud dog – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog with such upright posture.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  193. 193.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Miss Bianca: Whatever else you can say about the Puritans, the idea of individual salvation led them to have decent schools so everyone could read and understand the Bible and other religious texts.

  198. 198.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I remember how much you wanted to get schools reopened — for all the right reasons!  It’s a shame the schools didn’t have/deploy the tools to make it work.

    Here in Mass., The Governor is allowing desks to be 3′ apart.  Hell, that was the distance between pupils when I went to school.  Believe me, close enough to punch or be punched by a kid around you.

  200. 200.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    He works at Wal Mart and they have a “points” system for infractions. He gets points. But he tells me you can ERASE the points by working thru your break. Which, I don’t know, sounds illegal. To me. I suggested he retain counsel. Texted him that.

  201. 201.

    PJ

    @Immanentize: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/info-by-product/clinical-considerations.html

    There’s obviously a lot they don’t know and they are trying to be in the safe side about everything.  I got my shots through  the hospital system my PCP is affiliated with, and at the time I got my first shot, the nurse said that the wait for the second shot wasn’t a hard and fast 21 days, that a few days before then was fine, and, sure enough, when I went online to schedule the second shot, the appointments started 20 days after my first shot.

  202. 202.

    Brachiator

    @Immanentize:

    i don’t know if you follow the print trade news, but Aesophagus Press was acquired by Duodenum Press which itself was later swallowed by Jejunum and Colon Publishers.

    Are you shitting me?

  203. 203.

    Immanentize

    @germy: I recently told friends in their 40s about the great Thurber story about his dog and thunder.  Because my friends have a border collie that will nip people — including me.

    Neither he nor his wife (programmer and child specialty nurse) had ever read the story.  Nor had they heard of Thurber.

    I had a sad.

  204. 204.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: ‘zackly my point.

    Plus, whatever else bad you could say about the Puritans, they definitely had a sense of the commonwealth. If you were *in* the in group, you were in like Flynn. The flip side of that was, Too bad for you if you weren’t, of course, but that’s the same with pretty much any intensely devout religious group.

  208. 208.

    Origuy

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  I’m over 800 days, although those weren’t all Spanish and I used the streak freeze a few times. I took Spanish in school so some of that came back. Verbs can be tricky, but it just takes practice. Prepositions are my weakness. I’m close to finishing level 6; there are seven levels in Duolingo.

  209. 209.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    Wouldn’t class it as illegal so long as one is not required to work through a scheduled break. So long as it is optional they can (not should – can) get away with it.

    Mandatory IANAL.

  210. 210.

    Immanentize

    @PJ: ok, I read this as slightly different from what you originally said:

    The second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines should be administered as close to the recommended interval as possible, but not earlier than recommended (i.e., 3 weeks [Pfizer-BioNTech] or 1 month [Moderna]). However, second doses administered within a grace period of 4 days earlier than the recommended date for the second dose are still considered valid. If it is not feasible to adhere to the recommended interval and a delay in vaccination is unavoidable, the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines may be administered up to 6 weeks (42 days) after the first dose. Currently, only limited data are available on efficacy of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines administered beyond this window.

    So 21 days is the first recommended time for second pfizer, which my dudes were following.

  211. 211.

    germy

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    Before Benchley and Thurber, writers like George Ade and Stephen Leacock wrote humorous essays collected in books.  Some really funny stuff, but Benchley and Thurber were the best IMHO

    (I live near an antiquarian bookstore)

  214. 214.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Miss Bianca: The other thing is, despite our condemnation of them as intolerant religious pricks (which they were), the vast majority of others in Europe were also intolerant religious pricks.  The Reformation and Counter-Reformation era was not a time of religious tolerance and comity.

  216. 216.

    Brooklyn Dodger

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Sounds like you have the discipline thing down though. My downfall is sticking with it. One of my first Spanish teachers told us that the great thing about Spanish verbs was they mostly followed “regular” patterns of conjugation, that even the irregular verbs were regular in their irregularity. The exercises I make for myself lately are pretending I’m trying to tell someone a personal story (taking my dog to the vet, etc.)

    Verbs are like having a set of inherited power tools – it’s scary but exhilarating when you get the knack of using them.

  217. 217.

    Another Scott

    Zooks! A hawk (?) just landed on our deck railing. White chest with light brown-ish red speckles, long yellow feet, on the topside 3 broad horizontal light brown bands on the tail with almost white between them, the end of the tail being whiteish.

    Google Lens thinks it’s a Eurasian sparrowhawk, which seems unlikely though there is a strong resemblance.

    According to the Albatrossity rule it’s a red-tailed hawk, so I’m going with that.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  219. 219.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @debbie:

    I still can’t believe they actually did it. All of these organizations spoke out against the veto override:

    • Ohio State Medical Association, Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Ohio Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, Ohio Hospital Association, Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, and Ohio Osteopathic Association
    • Association of Ohio Health Commissioners
    • Ohio Nurses Association
    • Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies
    • Ohio Mayors Alliance
    • Inter-University Council of Ohio
    • Ohio Association of Community Colleges
    • Franklin County Commissioners
    • Montgomery County Commissioners and Commissioner of Dayton-Montgomery County Public Health
    • Columbus Public Health
    • Dayton-Montgomery County Public Health
    • Cuyahoga County Board of Health
    • Franklin County Public Health
    • Hamilton County Public Health
    • Lucas County Health Department
    • Dayton Children’s Hospital
    • Greater Dayton Hospital Association
    • Kettering Health Network
    • Mercy Health
    • Mount Carmel Health
    • Nationwide Children’s Hospital
    • Ohio Health
    • Premier Health
    • ProMedica
    • St. Vincent Charity Medical Center
    • Summa Health
    • University Hospitals

    And they didn’t give one flying fuck. Unbelievable. I have to know whether my asswipe R Reps voted for this so I can call up their offices to complain.

  221. 221.

    Brachiator

    @germy: 

    When I was a kid, I would go to the library and look up books categorized as Humor.

    That’s how I discovered Thurber and Benchley.

    I remember coming across Shepherd Mead’s How To Succeed At Business Without Really Trying. Loved it.

    Years later, when my family had moved to California, my new junior high school put on a musical production of How To Succeed.… It was really a blast.

  224. 224.

    scav

    Another possible source for language practice.  Check for any French/Spanish/Klingon dubbing options under the hood of familiar movies or shows.  That plus subtitling can provide at least moments of mild amusement over and above mere instruction. The voices don’t match the actors anymore. Or, that translation was odd. One day, I even had a run at Pride & Prejudice in Spanish (not one of mine) for the sheer telenovela-ish of it all.

  228. 228.

    cain

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    @Cheryl Rofer: “Maybe. Maybe not. Time will tell.”

    ? You’re leavin now / it’s in your eyes / there’s no disguising it / it really comes as no suprise / to find that you planned it all along / I see it now / Becoms so clear / your insincerity / and me all starry-eyed / you think that I would have known by now ?

  229. 229.

    cain

    @NotMax: ​
     
    oh man, I never finished that.. I think I only got a few episodes in. But wanted to watch more. Thanks for reminding me – is it not still on Netflix?

  230. 230.

    Brooklyn Dodger

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes! Context and subtlety is so taken for granted in our first language. Don’t know if I’ll ever feel comfortable expressing myself. Feels like going through an alley at night. Adjectives get me too – once told someone my dog was big but friendly and used the word for smooth instead of friendly. The listener was very polite.

  233. 233.

    Origuy

    @scav: There’s a new website called Lingopie that provides short videos with subtitles in the same language. You can click on a word in the subtitles and it will stop the video, show you the meaning in English, and remember the word for later review. It only has Spanish and French right now. You can do the same thing on your own, of course, but this speeds up the process.

  234. 234.

    grandmaBear

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m on my third year of Chinese. Originally at the local college 2 days a week, converted to zoom classes at the lockdown and now doing once a week zooms with a private tutor. Coming from a European language background the first impression was Chinese has no grammar! No declensions, no conjugations, no irregular verbs, no tenses per se. The characters and pronunciation have certainly been an issue though. I am gaining skill at reading, the easiest, writing and speaking are much more difficult but understanding and conversing with a native speaker are really the hardest for me. Of course my failing hearing is not helping. Still, even being able to read is rewarding. I highly recommend listening to tv, especially soaps- lots of Spanish ones I understand.

  235. 235.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    Wal Mart has a 410k plan for part-timers now. They sent him the packet. They all raised wages because the labor market is so tight- it’s the big unmentioned part of the minimum wage “debate”- wages went up already because they couldn’t get people to work for minimum. What’s really happening here is big employer versus small employer. Small businesses have a wage problem just in the market, without a mandated federal raise. They can’t compete on wages with large employers. No one is allowed to say it but it’s what’s happening. Bernie Sanders, to his credit, put what is essentially a wage subsidy for small businesses in his bill. They may need that with or without a federal increase. The two groups of employers are diverging on wages- bigger pays more.

  236. 236.

    NotMax

    @grandmaBear

    While my Spanish comprehension is passable, albeit rustier than a Yugo in a West Virginia cornfield after a squall, do encounter problems with series/movies in Castilian.

    Italian, however, I can sort of make out but that’s mostly discernible from the tone of voice as opposed to the words. Can put on an Italian series and follow it mostly fine with the back turned, solely from the tone.

  237. 237.

    laura

    @Tony Jay: you best had never written a criticism of Felicity Cloakes’ series of “how to make the perfect…” or I’d be forced to believe that the Guardian made the right call.

  239. 239.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    Small businesses can say “we can’t pay a 15 dollar minimum” but they have to do something, because if Amazon is paying 15 and Costco is paying 15 and Wal Mart is paying 12 they’re not going to get decent people for 8 or 9 with 4% unemployment. They don’t have a “minimum wage problem”. They have a wage problem.

  240. 240.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:The “Biden must provide hope and optimism” thing seems dumb, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with reporters asking for a definitive answer on whether he’ll run for a second term. That’s a legit question. (One he’s not obligated to answer definitively, of course.)

    Biden: “Maaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyybe” + wink…”next question!”

  242. 242.

    germy

    @Amir Khalid:
    I’ve been seeing her lately in TV commercials. I can’t remember the product, but she wears angel wings. She appears in some guy’s kitchen and uses her magic to help him prepare a snack

    I’ve noticed more comedians doing TV commercials.  This is probably because all the standup comedy venues were closed for the pandemic, and they need the income stream…

  243. 243.

    Gravenstone

    @sab:  I knew a couple of women who got beaten up pretty badly when they struck a deer with their car. In the accident, the deer ended up coming over the hood and through the windshield. In its panicked and injured state, it then literally kicked the hell out of them trying to escape.

  244. 244.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Kay: Long haul trucking companies have the same complaints of a labor shortage, yet they adamantly refuse to raise wages.  So much for the market working.

  245. 245.

    dww44

    @germy: I got my 2nd one in 18 days.  The dispenser (Walgreen’s) called us to come in and that one could safely take the 2nd dose up to 4 days earlier than the 3 weeks recommended.

  246. 246.

    NotMax

    @Germy

    Thanks. Now (aside from the his being dead thing) imaginary tampon ads featuring Sam Kinison stuck inside the head.

    :)

  247. 247.

    Old School

    @germy: @Amir Khalid:

    I’ve been seeing her lately in TV commercials. I can’t remember the product, but she wears angel wings.

    Hellmann’s Mayo.

    Amy Schumer has also been doing a cooking show on the Food Network.

  248. 248.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: Biden: “Maaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyybe” + wink…”next question!”

    Much better than “That’s a stupid question and you’re a stupid person for asking it.”

  255. 255.

    Anyway

    Did the senate committee confirm Vanita Gupta for the DOJ post? Did the TX senator get his way? Anyone know? (My Google is broken…)

  261. 261.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud:

    Jeremy Herb @jeremyherb 34m
    Senate Judiciary deadlocks on Gupta nomination 11-11, meaning Schumer will have to take procedural steps to advance the Asst. AG nomination on the floor. But her nomination is still on track as Manchin signaled last week he’s likely to support her

    The Senate Judiciary Committee just advanced Lisa Monaco’s nomination to be deputy AG by voice vote. Republicans are opposed to Vanita Gupta’s nom to be associate AG, and so they are talking now before that vote

    how ’bout that?
    I don’t know who’s in charge of left twitter, but they should make VanitaGupta a hash tag and link to Maddow’s segment last night, one of the best she’s done in a while, IMHO, with her whole deep dive schtick that’s gotten a little rusty in the last couple years.

  263. 263.

    smedley the uncertain

    Those who can, do.  Those who can’t do, teach.  Those who can’t teach, become critics.

  265. 265.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I see Biden plans to announce a new goal of 200M shots by his 100th day. On twitter, folks are gleeful at how that will defang whatever bullshit question the press corps plans to ask

  270. 270.

    Jackie

    Could we have a fresh post for President Biden’s FIRST OFFICIAL press conference, PRETTY PLEASE?!?

  271. 271.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: …my personal favorite Spanish phrase… ​

    Well, my personal favorite is –

    Me cago en los ventiquatros cojones de los apostoles de Jesus Christo!

    which IIUC correctly is a somewhat more strident version of what my French I teacher would have characterized as Darn it!​

    Blasphemy, scatology, coprology – what’s not to like?? :^D

    (ETA: Sorry no upsidown bang at the front – only Text mode works & no way to know how to make one of those.)​​​

  273. 273.

    dopey-o

    @OzarkHillbilly: 

    I seem to recall from my long-forgotten youth that there is a limit to how many pennies can be used in such a situation…. otherwise, stories such as the obnoxious shop owner would be far more common.

  277. 277.

    cckids

    @Another Scott: I’m reminded of something that ALWAYS happens at the grocery store when one of the self-check-out machines has a bill problem. Instead of shutting it down, there is a mode that won’t accept cash; we put up a sign, there is a banner across the opening screen that informs customers, etc.

    And always, there is that guy (and its always a guy) who doesn’t pay attention, and treats me to a screed about how this is america, you have to accept american money, yadda, yadda. It’s just broken, jackass, it’s not a political statement.

  278. 278.

    Tony Jay

    @Frank Wilhoit:

    It’s not either or. I’m under no obligation to cut the Guardian any slack for sometimes being slightly less of a shitheap propaganda rag than the Daily Heil or the Torygraph. When it makes a proactive decision to misinform its readership by acting as a funnel for right-wing bullshit, and then censors anyone who has a problem with it, they lose whatever credibility past reporters earned for it and are actually damaging the country just as much as their sister publications.

    The sad truth is that Britain has just as ‘Liberal’ a Media as the US, and it’s getting worse.

  279. 279.

    Kay

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    That’s a little different though, right? If they’re all refusing to raise wages then they’re acting in concert and truckers can’t move to the new employer with the higher wage. That isn’t what’s going on with low wage workers- they’re going to the higher wage giant companies.

    I don’t mind that we’re having a minimum wage debate. I think it’s great. But there’s a whole subtext to it that has nothing to do with “the minimum wage” and is instead about large v small. The huge retailers moved AHEAD of the minimum wage. They’re already there. That’s why it became so much easier politically.

    It’s not that smaller entities won’t “be able” to pay higher. They’ll trade. The owner will pull out a smaller share of the profits. That’s the only thing that can happen. There’s nowhere else to get it. Whatever happens with the federal minimum, they were going to encounter difficulty competing on wages. That’s already happened.

    I just appreciated Sanders injecting some reality into it. He values small businesses for reasons other than their ability to pay a living wage, so suggests subsidizing them.

  281. 281.

    StringOnAStick

    @Tony Jay: Bravo, Tony Jay!  I suspect that such an outcome arises only when the target has taken a serious number of direct bullseye delivered with unfailing precision.

  282. 282.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    Out of curiosity I checked the “google reviews” of my local library, and found this:

    I won’t repeat the stupidity of the “review” you quote, but do want to point out that it is illiterate in the extreme, with simple words misspelled or misused in nearly every sentence.

    Perhaps this individual should spend time in the Library getting instruction in proper English? Not really qualified to hold an opinion on libraries with that level of (non-)education!

    Must reveal Wife worked as a reference librarian for a couple of years, so may be prejudiced here… I grew up in the town library, and spent most of my time in the non-fiction area, mom told them to treat me as an adult for the purpose of reading. Maybe 5th grade?

  283. 283.

    Kay

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Small businesses are really saying something different- which is okay, and I understand why they don’t phrase it like this. They’re saying ” I can’t continue to pay myself as much as I do and pay employees a higher wage”. They’re workers too! It’s a valid concern. They’re looking at a pay cut and for a lot of them it won’t be a pay cut for “rich people”. It will be a pay cut for the middle class income of the owner, which is a bad thing, hence the handwringing.

  285. 285.

    J R in WV

    @Tony Jay: ​
     

    Today is a real Badge of Honour day, in that I’ve finally got myself banned for life from the Guardian’s cesspit of a comment section for “past infractions of the rules”, including, but not limited to the following.

    Well, congratulations Tony J, I guess. They can be irritating, but of course I don’t read their political stuff. Like the FTNYT here in the colonies, they do a fair job with cultural interest stuff, historical things, etc. And I suppose like the FTNYT they appear to have a rigid political view quite unlike the rest of their stuff.

    While the FTNYT looks quite liberal, even progessive, in their coverage of non-political news, their political coverage is like that of a rigid fascist editorial policy. I hope you can use the Balloon-Juice comments to relieve your inability to comment at the Guardian. We appear to appreciate your commentary on virtually everything.

    Keep up the good work.

    And if you need to seek asylum from Great Britain, you can crash out in my shop for a little while, to get your feet under yourself in the New World.

  286. 286.

    J R in WV

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​
     

    And they didn’t give one flying fuck. Unbelievable. I have to know whether my asswipe R Reps voted for this so I can call up their offices to complain.

    Oh, come on… You know all the Republicans voted for the override.

    Take all the power for themselves, who are totally unqualified to weigh in on medical/health decisions past their own care. Really, not qualified to weigh in on their own care, except that’s how it works.

  287. 287.

    Dan B

    @Alison Rose: No!!!  She’s Seattle’s goddess!!

     

    I always wonder if she’d have done as well in another city.  Seattle was welcoming, electing, and celebrating LGBT people when they weren’t being bored with how “they” weren’t intersectional or queer.

    And it was a long time coming.

  288. 288.

    Tony Jay

    @StringOnAStick:

    When it comes to prissy, nose-in-the-air distain for the complaints of the proles, those self-reverential brainfarts over at Guardian Central have few challengers. They’re just too damned savvy for us mere mortals to stand in judgement of them. Fuckem.

    @J R in WV:

    Comparing them to the FTFNYT (with examples of why that’s a bad thing) really gets their goat, but there’s barely a day goes by when the comment section there doesn’t look like a bad day on the Somme with all the innocent young comments mowed down in their prime by the sociopathic wankers they hire as moderators.

    Tell you what though, I’ve never really considered getting the hell out of this necrotic eggsack of a country before, but with the way things are going over here…… if only I had a more transferable skillset.

    Much call for semi-professional cloud beraters over there in West Colonialburg?

  290. 290.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Brooklyn Dodger: ​One of my first Spanish teachers told us that the great thing about Spanish verbs was they mostly followed “regular” patterns of conjugation, that even the irregular verbs were regular in their irregularity.

    Many years ago I took a summer “enrichment” course in Russian. Didn’t learn a lot, but one comment from the instructor (a government employee who claimed he debriefed numerous defectors) was more than worth the price of admission:

    Only words in common, everyday use (and those constructed from words in common, everyday use) are irregular

    His point was that only if an irregularly conjugated or declined word is commonly used will speakers of the language remember its irregularity (or the irregularity of the word it’s derived from). Even if a word starts out irregular, if it isn’t used very often, those who use it will tend not to remember the irregularity, and conjugate or decline it according to the regular rule(s) – and eventually the force of usage would “regularize” it.

    This seems to hold for pretty much any language I have any feel for.​

  291. 291.

    Brachiator

    @cckids:

    And always, there is that guy (and its always a guy) who doesn’t pay attention, and treats me to a screed about how this is america, you have to accept american money, yadda, yadda. It’s just broken, jackass, it’s not a political statement.

    I would love it if a check-out machine were labeled “Pesos Only!”

  292. 292.

    Miss Bianca

    @Tony Jay:

    Much call for semi-professional cloud beraters over there in West Colonialburg?

    Hell, yes, Tony Jay, we could set you up on a one-man-show tour where all you have to do is freewheel in your inimitable style on Life, the Universe, the UK, and Everything. I think we could set you up in some serious style!

  293. 293.

    evodevo

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: ​
      Yep..you don’t screw around with a buck in mating season…they will charge you in a heartbeat…had a fatality a couple years ago up north of here in KY when some redneck idiot jumped into a deer pen and tried to bulldog the fully equipped buck – ended up with antlers through his innards and didn’t survive…

  295. 295.

    Tony Jay

    @Miss Bianca:

    Awesome-sauce! Now, all I have to do is convince a Trustee to leave the cell door unlocked one dark and stormy night and I’m just a trip down a turd-clogged tunnel from Freedom!

  297. 297.

    J R in WV

    @Tony Jay:

    Much call for semi-professional cloud beraters over there in West Colonialburg?

    Nope. I’ve been after that for years, but I’m retired from a real job in software… never made a dime from the cloud beration.

    Unfortunately Miss Bianca is located out just west of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, some 1,500 miles west of West Va. But maybe she would be a better host than I?

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