Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The willow is too close to the house.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

This really is a full service blog.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

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

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

… gradually, and then suddenly.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Evanescent

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Saturday Morning Open Thread 8
From commentor Jeffery:

Philadelphia PA. These only last a day or two.



While back in the political muck…

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    No Bloodroot here yet, but the Spring Beauties are popping up. Soon, swathes of my yard will be waving tiny white flowers at me.

  3. 3.

    JAFD

    “Music of Comfort and Hope”, Saturday playlyst on WQXR.org

    Have a great day !

    Paul Cavalconte – [email protected]

    8AM

    Frederic Chopin
    Preludes Nos. 1, 3, 7, 5, 9-11, Op. 28

    Franz Joseph Haydn
    Symphony No. 94 in G, “Surprise”

    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Cantata BWV 1, “Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern”: Sinfonia

    Ennio Morricone
    Cinema Paradiso: Love theme

    Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
    Swan Lake: Waltz

    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92: III. Presto

    9AM

    George Frideric Handel
    Israel in Egypt: Part III: Moses’s Song: Moses and the Children of Israel

    Maurice Ravel
    String Quartet in F: I. Allegro moderato

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
    Clarinet Concerto in A, K. 622

    James P. Johnson
    Harlem Symphony: Baptist Mission

    Engelbert Humperdinck
    Hansel and Gretel: Abends, will ich schlafen gehn (Evening Hymn)

    10AM

    Edvard Grieg
    Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16

    Johannes Brahms
    German Requiem, Op. 45: Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (How lovely is thy dwelling place)

    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Violin Concerto No. 2 in E Major, BWV 1042

    Jean Sibelius
    Karelia Suite, Op. 11

    11AM

    Scott Joplin
    Bethena

    Claude Debussy
    Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune)

    Elena Kats-Chernin
    Pitter Patter

    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36

    12PM

    Elmer Bernstein
    To Kill A Mockingbird

    Willie “The Lion” Smith
    Echo of Spring

    Amilcare Ponchielli
    Paolo e Virginia, Op. 78

    Robert Schumann
    Piano Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44: III. Scherzo: Molto vivace

    Michael Praetorius
    Galliarde

    Richard Wagner
    Tannhauser: Overture

    1PM

    The Metropolitan Opera Presents: Mozart’s Don Giovanni
    Make an afternoon at the opera part of your Saturday afternoon routine. This week: Mozart’s morality-tale masterpiece, Don Giovanni, in an encore broadcast from 2012. Bass-baritone Gerald Finley stars in the title role as the charismatic and notorious Don Juan. The top-notch cast also features Marina Rebeka, Isabel Leonard, Matthew Polenzani and Bryn Terfel, in a musical masterpiece that balances on a knife-edge between drama and comedy.

     

    Clayelle Dalferes – [email protected]

    4PM

    Franz Schubert
    Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat Major, Op. 90/3, D. 899

    Gustav Mahler
    Symphony No. 3 in D: V. Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck

    Giovanni Paisiello
    Harp Concerto in A

    Gabriel Faure
    Pavane, Op. 50

    5PM

    Ethel Smyth
    String Quintet in E Major, Op. 1: III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace

    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, Preludes and Fugues Nos. 15-17, BWV 860-862

    Giacomo Meyerbeer
    Le Prophete: Coronation March

    Maurice Ravel
    Le tombeau de Couperin

    Giuseppe Verdi
    Nabucco: Va, pensiero (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves)

    George Frideric Handel
    Concerto grosso No. 12 in B Minor, Op. 6, HWV 330

    6PM

    Robert Schumann
    Romance, Op. 28, No. 2 in F-sharp Major

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
    Horn Concerto No. 1 in D, K. 412

    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645

    Sergei Rachmaninoff
    Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18

    Marcel Grandjany
    The Colorado Trail, Op. 28

    7PM

    Ludwig van Beethoven
    String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat Major, Op. 130: V. Cavatina
    Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 “Eroica”

    8PM

    New York Philharmonic This Week
    This week, Alan Gilbert conducts Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Mahler’s fifth Symphony with soloist Augustin Hadelich. Alec Baldwin hosts.

    10PM

    Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
    Tonight, a program of music by Poulenc and Tchaikovsky. Elliott Forrest hosts.

    11PM

    Young Artists Showcase
    Bob Sherman continues the long tradition WQXR tradition of nurturing young talent. This week, This week, we welcome back two Showcase alumni, pianist Reed Tetzloff and violinist Asi Matathias, for music of Liszt, Wagner, Bruch and more.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘I knew they were hungry’: the stimulus feature that lifts millions of US kids out of poverty

    The devastating shift in 1996 away from cash aid to work-related tax credits was founded upon the view that poverty is a moral deficiency, a form of victim blaming that stems back generations in America. It was signed into law by a Democratic president, Bill Clinton, and received strong backing from Biden, then a US senator from Delaware.

    Biden tried to justify the reform’s tough work requirements by arguing at the time that “too many welfare recipients spend far too long on welfare and do far too little in exchange for their benefits”.

    Today, Biden finds himself at the forefront of a movement that is beginning to undo some of the damage wrought by that legislation he supported 25 years ago. But his about-turn hasn’t come without a shove.

    Until relatively recently, Biden remained agnostic about the idea of addressing child poverty amid the destruction of the pandemic. It took the energetic intervention of a Democratic congresswoman to force the child allowance on to his coronavirus relief package.

    That congresswoman was Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, who has been striving to get subsidies for children on to the statute books for almost two decades. In 2003 she introduced her first “advancement of the child” bill, re-entering it every two years only to see it die repeatedly for lack of political support.

    These were the lonely years in the wilderness when child poverty was considered insignificant. “It wasn’t a question of opposition, it was a question of indifference,” she told the Guardian. “So for a while, yes, I was a lone voice.”

    But she kept her eyes doggedly on the prize, driven by her deep understanding of children in need based on her own personal experiences. When she was nine, her family in New Haven fell on hard times and were evicted from their home. She went to live, like Annie and Howie, with her grandmother. “My family struggled financially for most of my parents’ lives. My own background inspires me to keep pushing,” she said.

    Now all those years of effort have paid dividends. “For the US this is historic,” she said of the new child allowance. “It’s akin to what Franklin Roosevelt did with the New Deal through social security which lifted 90% of seniors out of poverty – President Biden is lifting millions of children out of poverty.”

    I think I’ll send her a “Thankyou” card, and a small contribution.

  5. 5.

    Spanky

    Spring marches on here in Southern MD. After yesterday’s temp hit the low 80s, the daffs are about shot and the apple blossoms are starting to pop.

    Due to hit 70 today, starting a decline back to highs in the 50s by mid-week.

  6. 6.

    Gin & Tonic

    Daffodils have not yet bloomed in my little corner of southern New England, but the crocuses are fading. Been hearing the peepers for a couple of days now. But it’s supposed to get cold again early next week.

    Maybe I’ll get one more day of skiing.

  7. 7.

    Falling Diphthong

    I like Calm Sporting’s point: This is what we elected Joe Biden to do, be boring.

    I remember Jennifer Rubin a week or two back getting giddy about how you could just sleep through a press briefing now. It wasn’t like Biden’s administration was going to announce we were marrying North Korea or going all in on bleach or anything else bizarre.

    Open threadiness: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal explains NFTs: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/nft

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    Democracy Corps did a series of focus groups with Turnip voters and assorted people who call themselves conservatives, and they are exactly who we thought they were. Via TPM:

    Trump’s base saw Biden, as a white man, as not threatening, controlled by others, unlike Obama who represented everything Tea Party-Republicans were determined to fight;

    Even Trump’s base is curious about the extent to which they benefit from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and Biden’s signature program, compared to Obamacare that they viewed as a new entitlement for Blacks and immigrants that must be stopped;

    The Trump loyalists and the Trump aligned are animated about government taking away their freedom and a cancel culture that leaves no place for white Americans and the fear they’re losing “their” country to non-whites;

    They were angered most of all by Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa that were responsible for a full year of violence in Democratic cities that put white people on the defensive – and was ignored by the media;

    Democracy Corps says it had trouble getting Trumpsters to participate because they’re suspicious and mistrustful of the media and butthurt and paranoid. But once they got in a room with likeminded folk, they let it all hang out. Here’s the only part of the findings that gives me hope:

    The Trump loyalists and Trump-aligned were angry, but also despondent, feeling powerless and uncertain they will become more involved in politics;

    The best possible outcome is that these folks crawl back under the nearest rock. We’re stuck with these assholes as fellow citizens, and some of us are also stuck with them as neighbors and relatives. But Turnip did bring people out of the woodwork who weren’t regular voters. Here’s hoping they’re despondent enough to stay on the sidelines in future elections.

  10. 10.

    Spanky

    @Betty Cracker: And after their displays of Trump flags and signs – which are only now beginning to come down – we know which of our neighbors they are.

    And I won’t forget.

     

    Eta for gooder English.

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    I know it’s spring in Maine because I’m sick of wearing coats.  No, I was NOT AT ALL COLD waiting for my dog to find the perfect place to go pee this morning.

  12. 12.

    Nicole

    It’s been so lovely not having to think about what the guy in the White House is doing every single day. And I have gone more than a couple days this week without thinking once about Trump. It’s great.

    I feel like the people out there in the social media world whining that Twitter should give Trump his account back are the same people who would try to persuade a woman getting hit by her ex-husband to go back to him. Doesn’t she understand how HARD things have been for him? ?

  13. 13.

    Baud

    @Nicole:

    Ratings and profit are down, I’m sure.  We need to watch out for the media becoming even more dangerous as they try to regain their former glory.

  15. 15.

    Falling Diphthong

    @Betty Cracker: Man. Back in ’08 I remember a newspaper interview with a longtime Republican. Old white guy. After the W years he and his friends were voting for Obama, ushering their party into the wilderness for four years to excise the crazies. (At the time, this meant the pro-torture nuts.) And in ’12 they would be back with a young, multiracial group of men and women vying for the nomination. And I thought “This is very likely; Dems shouldn’t get complacent and should instead pass everything they can while they have control of the Senate and House.”

    Did not see the rise of the Tea Party coming instead. I think the first widely visible signs of a revanchist Know Nothing party of angry white people were the Sarah Palin fans, but I did not foresee them completely taking the party over the way they did.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    Things go better with Coke conga. Although why they can’t be raised three or four inches so the musician doesn’t have to hunch over I have not a clue.

  17. 17.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I’m sure many of us have heard Nimoy’s story of where that hand gesture came from. It was part of a ritual in temple and he was supposed to keep his eyes shut so as not to see things like the sooper sekrit hand gestures.

    But he peeked.

    So I am amused that now there’s a statue of it.

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    Museum of Science announced as location for Live Long and Prosper statue

    It was deemed the logical site.

  19. 19.

    dr. bloor

    I love Star Trek and Nimoy was a national treasure, but that sculpture is the lost twin of the leg lamp in A Christmas Story.

  20. 20.

    Gin & Tonic

    Some article this morning about the stuck ship quoted an “engineer” from another ship as saying that the number of waiting ships is growing exponentially. That is, of course, impossible, which anyone who has taken the math associated with an engineering degree should know.

    Way to piss me off this morning.

  21. 21.

    MomSense

    @Nicole:

    And TFG was responsible for 38% of the misinformation about COVID.  The media are in this business for money and popularity, save for a minority who are ethical journalists.  I do think we white progressives have not taken responsibility for our failure to take the threat TFG posed to BIPOC seriously long before COVID.  When Harris called for Democrats to join her and demand thatTwitter suspend TFG she was mocked and dismissed by the majority of white liberals/progressives including elected officials and prominent liberal journalists.  We were dead wrong and we need to acknowledge why we repeatedly ignore the harm that is directed at BIPOC.  We need to call those journalists and elected officials out on this as well.

  23. 23.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    How intimidating will it be for Atlanta voters to see slab-headed, barrel-bellied, bellowing, cretinous state troopers patrolling their ridiculously long lines while looking for people handing out chairs, snacks and water bottles?

  24. 24.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Gin & Tonic: Just wait for a few days till there are more ships waiting than there are people on earth, then you’ll be sorry.

    @Nicole: And I have gone more than a couple days this week without thinking once about [redacted]. It’s great.

    I don’t think about him, I don’t say or write that name, and I’m struck by how many people independently also arrived at the practice of not saying That Name. (Hence, the wonderful expression “The Former Guy”)

    For instance, it took me a while to realize that months before the election, Colbert always managed not to speak it or put The Name in captions.

    I’ve heard that part of the Jewish festival of Purim is reading the story of Purim, of which a guy named Haman is the villain (the cookie called Hamantaschen or Haman’s Hats are named after him).

    Every time you hear his name in the story, you’re supposed to wave your noisemaker and make rude noises to blot out the sound of the name.

    I offer that without comment. Just saying.

  25. 25.

    Nicole

    @Baud: Ratings and profit are down, I’m sure.  We need to watch out for the media becoming even more dangerous as they try to regain their former glory.

    I’m sure you’re right, although I’ve turned cable news back on a teeny, tiny bit for the first time in 4 years.  I went cold turkey in 2016.

  26. 26.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    Interesting stuff about the focus groups. I recently ran across a story which suggested that some Trump supporters believe that Republicans voted for the recent stimulus bill. This is crazy, but consistent with their delusion that the Democrats don’t really care about white people.

    But Turnip did bring people out of the woodwork who weren’t regular voters. Here’s hoping they’re despondent enough to stay on the sidelines in future elections.

    I think it’s dangerous to let people stew in resentment, believing that their government is against them. It makes them ripe for picking by future would-be autocrats.

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    @Falling Diphthong: One of the reasons I was an early Obama supporter was something he said shortly after he became a national figure about the need to lay Boomer-era political schisms to rest and move forward. That idea had so much appeal!

    But looking back, it seems so obvious to me now that the current factions in U.S. politics aren’t something that arose in the late 1960s. The labels change, but it’s always been the same fight.

  29. 29.

    Nicole

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Ha!  My favorite was how Charlie Pierce always called him President Asterisk (so as not to forget that Clinton won the popular vote).

    I avoided saying his name as much as I could from 2016-2020, but now it’s lost its power to provoke the reaction it did in me while he had power.

  31. 31.

    Betty Cracker

    @Brachiator: I think events have demonstrated there’s a faction that is ripe for the authoritarian picking regardless of previous levels of political involvement. They don’t have civic impulses that can be channeled in non-destructive directions, so their apathy is preferable to their enthusiasm.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Other than when referring to one of his properties or when directly quoting another person or source, made it a point to never type out Dolt 45’s name here for four long years.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Brachiator: I think it’s dangerous to let people stew in resentment,

    I don’t think anybody is letting them (well, besides me), they are choosing to stew in resentment over the imagined benefits others are getting that they don’t.

  36. 36.

    raven

    A message for all you whiny bitches from a brother in Athens, GA.

    As it should come as no surprise, we know what they’re doing and WHY they’re doing it. So, instead of complaining, let’s help folks get I.D.’s and find the appropriate ways to overcome the “restrictions” they’ve put in place to help complicate and possibly roadblock your right.
    Start now. Get ready for any midterms and toss out the reps who voted for this obvious low blow and attempt to discourage your efforts to exercise your right to vote. They mean you no good.
    3yrs will be over before you know it and the next presidential election will demand your attention. Don’t let these lawmakers convince you that you’re pigeonholed when it comes to voting. It’s 2021. Get them out of office before they try to put Jim Crow laws back in full effect.
    You and I both know what they claim as being “fair”… is slick activity. Look at it for what it’s worth, stay focused and take action.
    They want you to quit. Don’t. ????

  38. 38.

    Betty Cracker

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: If that comes to pass, it might be a good thing for folks who are willing to do so to go hand out that water and get arrested. Lots and lots of folks. Make a spectacle of it. I could do it. I’m self-employed, so my schedule is somewhat flexible, and my boss won’t fire me if I get arrested for civil disobedience. Maybe we could organize a Balloon Juice civil disobedience field trip!

  40. 40.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    THE TRICKSTER is officially out today. It’s on Amazon and the other online sites. Here’s the blurb:

    “When it comes to family, you’re rich… and I’m dirt poor.”

    Amid the intoxicating chaos of Winter Festival, attendant Dilly and Hedge Mage Fitch cross paths.

    After surviving Rin’s wretched streets, Dilly aims to prove herself to Lady Elenia, who brought her back to Lac’s Holding and blessed her with a new life of comfort and luxury. Fitch seeks vengeance for a loved one, killed by a liquor that makes one vulnerable to suggestion.

    But their separate goals are derailed when Dilly discovers Elenia’s secret lover is the head of a too-ambitious kinship, and Fitch finds his own smuggler-family pressuring him into using his unique nudging abilities for mutinous deeds.

    When murmurs of treason break out in Lac’s Holding, it becomes clear that only Dilly and Fitch know the truth.

    The question is how they can save the city when those they’re loyal to stand in their way.

  41. 41.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    Count me in. It’ll be primarily Savannah and Atlanta, although I think Savannah hasn’t had its available precincts and machines throttled back nearly as bad as Atlanta.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @raven:

    I agree to a certain extent but the provisions of the law that can be ovecome by organizing aren’t the worst part of the new law.

    This is:

    Under current law, key issues in election management — including decisions on disqualifying ballots and voter eligibility — are made by county boards of election. The new law allows the State Board of Elections to determine that these county boards are performing poorly, replacing the entire board with an administrator chosen at the state level.
    At the same time, the bill enhances the General Assembly’s control over the state board.
    It removes Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who famously stood up to Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results in Georgia, from his role as both chair and voting member of the board. The new chair would be appointed by the legislature, which already appoints two members of the five-person board — meaning that a full majority of the board will now be appointed by the Republican-dominated body.

    The far Right majority on the US Supreme Court are endorsing and promoting new legal theories that center voting administration power in state leglslatures- exclusively in state legislatures. They’re doing that because they can gerrymander state legislatures. They’re no longer confident they can win statewide elections (governor, sec of state, attorney general) hence the move to center more power in a state assembly.
    There’s a context to this. It’s a national plan.

  45. 45.

    Soprano2

    @Betty Cracker: The findings in that poll track with what I hear from them on FB. They are absolutely convinced that BLM and antifa burned down multiple cities, and the only reason you don’t know about it is because the media hasn’t told you about it,  because they’re protecting them! They also believe that Biden was put in place by Obama and Pelosi, and they’re pulling his strings – or he’s senile and any day Harris is going to replace him, which was the plan all along. I asked one friend who posted stuff like this what she thought “they” were making Biden do that he wouldn’t already do, and I got nothing. They’re convinced it’s a Democratic plot to push one of “them” down their throats. I think a lot of them wish it would happen,  because to them it’s a lot easier to hate Harris than Biden.

  47. 47.

    debbie

    @Spanky:

    You just reminded me: I saw a Trump flag flying from a porch yesterday while running errands. The neighborhood has several BLM yard signs, so it must be an “interesting” place to live at the moment.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: My wife commented yesterday that our magnolia is more glorious this year than it’s even been before. I can’t disagree. We’re supposed to get a big bad ass storm tonight that will probably beat the blooms into a pulp, but we’ll have had a couple days of it anyway.

  50. 50.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think events have demonstrated there’s a faction that is ripe for the authoritarian picking regardless of previous levels of political involvement.

    Well said. And this is a problem that the country must address.

    They don’t have civic impulses that can be channeled in non-destructive directions, so their apathy is preferable to their enthusiasm.

    I think that this reinforces my point. Anger, resentment, feelings of disengagement is not the same thing as apathy. And there appears to be a new, or bold, breed of politician eager to try to harvest these potential voters.

  53. 53.

    Nicole

    From the AP article:

    “The new law makes it a misdemeanor to hand out “any money or gifts, including, but not limited to, food and drink” to anyone standing in line to vote. The prohibition extends 150 feet from a polling place and 25 feet from any person standing in line.”

    So it seems to me we arrange to bring pallets of water bottles and snacks and leave them.  I mean, it’s not “handing out”; it’s sitting there.

    Or set up 150 feet from the polling place and preemptively hand food and water out as people go to line up.

    Or station people 25 feet away from folks standing in line, holding out food.  I have no doubt whatsoever, having spent lots of time standing in lines, that people will respect the queue order while someone else from the line goes to get water or food.

    Fuck these guys.   They want to restrict voting?  Then we work to get around them.

    The day the law was signed (on the anniversary of Viola Liuzzo’s death, to add insult to injury), I visited the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and man, you walk out of that place equal parts sad and fired up.

  54. 54.

    debbie

    @MomSense:

    We? This white progressive remembers very well his racism which dates back to the mid-70s when he and his dad were cited by the DOJ for housing discrimination. Just the first incident of many such acts, all long before he thought of getting into politics.

  56. 56.

    Lapassionara

    @raven: I think Warnock’s term is up in two years, and he has to run again in 2022. That’s basically tomorrow in election-speak.

    The big issue with this bill to me is the provision allowing the legislature to “take over” certain county boards of elections. This looks to me like a ploy to declare some counties votes invalid during the vote counting stage.

  57. 57.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Kay: I was just reading that elsewhere and fully expected someone here to pick up on it. Thank you.

  58. 58.

    debbie

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Reading the story of Haman is one of the few happy memories related to temple. So noisy! I even have an old photo of little me dressed up as Queen Esther, aluminum foil crown and all.

  60. 60.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Falling Diphthong:

    I like Calm Sporting’s point: This is what we elected Joe Biden to do, be boring. 

    But it’s so unpresidential not to be screaming bullshit on Twitter.

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Excellent point. It wouldn’t surprise me if a state with a gerrymandered wingnut majority statehouse tests the idea the Trumpsters floated while promoting the Big Lie: that statehouses can just throw out votes and pick winners themselves. I sure wouldn’t expect this SCOTUS to stop them. The question is will voters stand for it. Gerrymandered districts usually have thin margins, but there would have to be a currently unimaginable level of sustained outrage and action to foil the plan.

  63. 63.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I heard about that provision this morning. Is that constitutional? Especially since they were so insistent on taking power away from the national government and giving it to localities not so long ago?

  64. 64.

    Kay

    @MagdaInBlack:

    The reason to prepare for it is it would be triggered during the election or in the immediate aftermath. It’s too late to do anything about it then.

    If Trump had had this new law he would have been able to pressure the state leg to remove the exact people who were standing in the way of his coup. The US Supreme Court have already all but announced they’ll go along with it, if they’re given the barest cover of some after the fact legal justification they pulled out of their ass in Bush v Gore.

  65. 65.

    Another Scott

    @Brachiator:
    @Brachiator:

    It’s unfortunate that people want to stew over manufactured resentments. Agreed. But it’s dangerous for such people to be in government and have power over the rest of us.

    It’s much better for them to be shunned than to have a seat at the table.

    If they cannot accept things like Biden won the election, then their political views do not deserve consideration because one cannot have a conversation about legislation or rules if they will not accept reality.

    tl:dr – Betty is right.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  68. 68.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Nicole: I want to see a bunch of nuns in full habit handing out water and being arrested. They can show the biblical text that requires caring for the thirsty. Let’s see how far the right’s so-called “religious freedom” laws extend

  69. 69.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker: But Turnip did bring people out of the woodwork who weren’t regular voters. Here’s hoping they’re despondent enough to stay on the sidelines in future elections.

     
    They are fair-weather voters. They were lured from under their rocks because they wanted to be WINNERS.

    That’s not the case now.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    You know which Boards they’re going to remove- the black board members in urban areas. The state legislator who protested said exactly that- it’ll be used to target Atlanta.

    I figure they use the long lines to JUSTIFY removing them- “long lines! incompetent! out you go, replaced by our hand picked hacks!”

    In the case of Georgia, which has rural black counties, it might be easier to target them. An Atlanta purge would get a lot of press. A rural black county takeover would get less.

  74. 74.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Soprano2:

    I thought that RWNJ body language analysts said that Biden and Hillary had deposed Obama and were running the Bin Laden hit…

  75. 75.

    p.a.

    @Spanky: There’s a ‘Trump For New England’ store nearby having a closing sale.  Signs, flags etc.  I’d buy some to burn except I don’t want any one/any thing associated with the pos getting any $$$, even if they’re getting a big haircut.

  76. 76.

    Betty Cracker

    @Brachiator: That’s the question, in my mind anyway: who’s the next demagogue? We’ve discussed the scary prospect that an evil but competent pol will come along to harvest the MAGAs. It’s certainly a frightening scenario. But I’m not sure someone like Tom Cotton or Ted Cruz could pull it off.

    I don’t get the appeal of Trump at all, so it’s hard for me to analyze. But sometimes I think competence and discipline are antithetical to the qualities that made Trump appealing to the MAGAs.

  77. 77.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That congresswoman was Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, who has been striving to get subsidies for children on to the statute books for almost two decades. In 2003 she introduced her first “advancement of the child” bill, re-entering it every two years only to see it die repeatedly for lack of political support.

    Interesting Guardian story, although it gets some details wrong. But I want to find out more about Congresswoman DeLauro and her work on behalf of children.

    The income threshold for the child tax credit was $3,000. Recently it was reduced to $2,500. Biden has eliminated it for 2021. It doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but probably feels like a million dollar barrier  to some poor people.

    Currently the IRS is overburdened. They don’t know how they will get monthly child credit checks to people. Congress doesn’t know either. The language in the final bill changed the payment cycle from “monthly” to “periodic.”

    And the lack of banking in many poor communities may let payday lenders and check cashing stores nibble away at these benefits. This is another problem that needs addressing. Too many economic parasites that are legally allowed to exploit poor people.

  80. 80.

    RandomMonster

    @Soprano2: a Democratic plot to push one of “them” down their throats

    Conservatives really like to use that term. I often wonder what it is about conservative psychology that they’re so obsessed with things being rammed down their throats.

  82. 82.

    WereBear

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I think his being a TV star played a role too

     
    Agreed. That show was on for YEARS selling the idea that he was a business wizard and government should be run like a business…

    and since they never know where their thoughts came from, MAGAt voters fell hard for the con.

  83. 83.

    Butter Emails

    @Soprano2:

    They are absolutely convinced that BLM and antifa burned down multiple cities

    They’re absolutely convinced of this despite knowing people in those same cities who told them the cities were not in fact burned down.

  88. 88.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So I had a travel memory triggered by this from when I went to Cape Town and visited the District 6 Museum.

    The place had been pretty cosmopolitan and multiethnic, but the assholes chiseled it all away.  There’s a decent summation at wiki – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Qualified_Franchise

    They went from nearly universal qualified suffrage in 1853 to Cecil Rhodes chiseling some in the 1880s to the asshole apartheid National Party taking everything away in the 50s and 60s as a precursor for forced relocation and razing structures.

    Interesting part is that that South Africa as a whole was never more than 10-20% white when they did it, and felt justified in doing it.

  89. 89.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Absolutely. If nothing else, that dumb TV show created an apparently indelible image in many minds that the trust fund squandering, serially bankrupt fraud is a “successful businessman.”

  90. 90.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: Them and peonies. Last year my wife went out and bought a big picnic umbrella just to protect the peonies from the spring downpours. I had my doubts but it worked.

  91. 91.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t get the appeal of Trump at all, so it’s hard for me to analyze. But sometimes I think competence and discipline are antithetical to the qualities that made Trump appealing to the MAGAs.

    I saw the rise of Trump appeal early on in Los Angeles and Orange County. Immigration was a key issue. Hardliners wanted immigrants out, even farm workers, and believed that both political parties deliberately did nothing about this. An idiot promising to get tough on immigration had immediate appeal.

    The Orange Beast claimed to be an outsider owned by no one who would only be owned by the people. It was all a lie, but is the standard playbook of populist tyrants.

    I don’t think any current Republicans know how to pull this off. But for a while I didn’t think that the Orange Beast would succeed either.

  92. 92.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    There has to be some iota of a charismatic appeal to make a proper demagogue larger than life. Trump had the whole illusion of wealth thing and is a blustering asshole, thus meeting that requirement. Ted Cruz comes off as a sniveling shithead that would cut a greasy fart next to you and loudly blame you for it, while Cotton has an Adam’s Apple goober mien going – they’re both out.

    Maybe a Greitens?

  95. 95.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JAFD:

    Johannes Brahms
    German Requiem, Op. 45: Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (How lovely is thy dwelling place)

    This is an utterly sublime piece of choral music, and I never can hear it without tearing up.

    Unfortunately, I can also never hear it without remembering a fellow NPR classical music announcer who rephrased “How lovely is thy dwelling place” as “What a nice house you have!”

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Brachiator: Too many economic parasites that are legally allowed to exploit poor people.

    They’re always around, waiting to pounce on the vulnerable.

  101. 101.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    3yrs will be over before you know it

    Warnock comes up for re-election next year. Just sayin’.

    Would also mention that Georgia will have a gubernatorial election in 2022, widely anticipated to be a Brian Kemp-Stacey Abrams rematch.

  104. 104.

    Cameron

    @Brachiator: I’ve read a few people (too few, unfortunately) over the years suggesting a return of post office banking.  I don’t think it’s going anywhere, though.

  105. 105.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’ve been lucky enough to sing the Brahms Requiem twice. It is absolutely my favorite choral music, and “Wie lieblich” is my favorite movement. It has so many great moments for the tenors.

  107. 107.

    J R in WV

    @MagdaInBlack: 

    It’s officially spring, I heard frogs this week

    We have a tiny pond outside the front door, 8×12′ or so, and so far there are 3 species of amphibian eggs in the water. In fact the Wood Frogs (small forest floor frogs, 2″ plus legs) have already hatched a batch of tadpoles, tiny black babies gathered around their egg mass eating the remaining eggy leftovers.

    So swell. Blue bells out, not blooming, but getting ready, ramps are peeking up, will dig a few soon. Spring is sprung 4 sure!

  111. 111.

    MagdaInBlack

    @J R in WV: Not entirely off topic, I’m sure you’re familiar with a Jerry Jeff Walker song ” Very Short Time.”

    ” A tadpole is cuter than a top-waller ever could be”

    ( top-waller = frog, for the non hillbillies)

  112. 112.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kay:

    Although the criminalizing of distributing water and snacks has been (rightfully) garnering outrage, and (rightfully) must be contested by volunteers willing to risk arrest, I’ve thought from the beginning that it’s a red herring. I think the people who drafted this law know perfectly well that the water provision will be challenged in court, amidst a lot of noise, and may quite likely lose — but it distracts media, public, and judiciary attention from other, far more nefarious voter suppression measures.

  113. 113.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: One doesn’t see “yoctillion” very often.

    That’s because all the people who might need to use it, use scientific notation instead.  Or just coin new units, like the “mole”, for really big numbers.

  116. 116.

    marklar

    @Gin & Tonic: Some article this morning about the stuck ship quoted an “engineer” from another ship as saying that the number of waiting ships is growing exponentially. That is, of course, impossible, which anyone who has taken the math associated with an engineering degree should know.

    INAE, but if the exponent is less than one, it could be accurate.

    One of my pet peeves is when people use the phrase “fraction of” to mean something small.  Technically, that’s improper.

  117. 117.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne: Legal challenges should be to the whole law, not just the publicly egregious parts.  OTOH, public protests and civil disobedience should milk the ever-living fuck out of those bits so that the whole law gets tagged with those images in the minds of the public.

  119. 119.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Betty Cracker:

    Incompetence was a crucial element of Trump’s appeal.  He validated a whole lot of bigoted assholes, right?  Part of that validation was his stupidity.  The president was a dumb fuck moron that minorities were forced to listen to and take seriously every venal whim he felt like farting out.  This is their Rightful Place.  This is what they want and are pissed society is slowly cutting them out of.  Double points because facts are also restricting their natural right to be praised for whatever they feel like saying.  Trump was their champion in less-than-mediocre white guys deserving to rule and be praised as gods.

  121. 121.

    Geminid

    @marklar: I am just grateful that people have stopped using “quality” as an adjective. I didn’t mind so much when sportscasters started talking about “quality” ballplayers, “quality” draft picks, etc. But when political journalists picked this misuse up, and started referring to “quality” candidates, and “quality” resumes, they had me reaching for my pitchfork. But I’ve set it down now, as word seems to have gotten out that quality is in fact a noun.

  122. 122.

    J R in WV

    @Brachiator:

    Anger, resentment, feelings of disengagement is not the same thing as apathy. And there appears to be a new, or bold, breed of politician eager to try to harvest these potential voters.

    I have to disagree. I’m old enough to remember the Dixiecrats and KKKers like Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, Lester Maddox running against humanity with pure-D hatred.There were people who cheered the beatings on the Pettis bridge in Selma AL.

    There will always be white supremacists and haters who really want forced subservience back immediately. There are people who will vote for the resumption of slavery tomorrow, as unbelievable as that is.

    And don’t try to talk Christianity with them, they don’t care what that Jesus guy said way back, they only listen to the glossy white guy who tells them what the Bible really means today.

  124. 124.

    Amir Khalid

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (How lovely is thy dwelling place)

    I translated that in my head as “How nice are your apartments”, and Google Translate concurs. In a modern context, of course, Wohnung (literally, dwelling) means apartment/flat. Anyway, the translator missed the plural in deine Wohnungen.

  125. 125.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Good. The parts of the law that are easier to understand are important for organizing against it, but being caught flat footed again because we believe they would “never” do this or that is just dumb at this point. They were dead serious about overturning an election. The guy in the animal skins is fun to point and laugh at but they had five justices who were developing legal theories to overturn elections and they’re just getting started.

    We have an elaborate, wildly expensive federal security apparatus and they missed an incipient insurrection.  Jesus fucking Christ. They’re lucky the guy in the animal skins is fun to look at – i he hadn’t been we might be talking about they were surprised by a violent action to overturn an election in their own backyard.

  129. 129.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Good. The parts of the law that are easier to understand are important for organizing against it, but being caught flat footed again because we believe they would “never” do this or that is just dumb at this point.

    I can’t quote Bible verses, but there has to be something about not offering assistance to others who are suffering would be something good to slime them with.

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    @J R in WV: 

    Anger, resentment, feelings of disengagement is not the same thing as apathy. And there appears to be a new, or bold, breed of politician eager to try to harvest these potential voters.

    I have to disagree. I’m old enough to remember the Dixiecrats and KKKers like Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, Lester Maddox running against humanity with pure-D hatred.There were people who cheered the beatings on the Pettis bridge in Selma AL.

    Where do we disagree?

    The Orange Beast was more brazenly bigoted than any other national leader in a long time. How many presidents, Republican or Democrat, have refused to even denounce Nazis?

  131. 131.

    J R in WV

    @Kay: 

    We have an elaborate, wildly expensive federal security apparatus and they missed an incipient insurrection.

    I don’t think they missed it at all; I believe they were ordered to stand down by the White House and it’s appointees throughout the government.

    I think all of those appointees and the mechanism that appointed them should be lined up and shot on the Mall — they did their best to support the insurrection!

    We were saved by the low-level patriots on site at the Capitol, and the timely release of the National Guard, as people watching that horror were turned away from TFG’s cause. A few generals remembered their oath was to the defense of the Constitution, not the TFG’s reign.

    What a close call~!!~ A true shame most people have no idea how close a call that was!!!

  132. 132.

    J R in WV

    @Brachiator:

    Where do we disagree?

    Not much disagreement, I just don’t think there’s anything new or bold, same old repulsive hatred, still wearing a suit. Otherwise we’re in agreement, completely. Just listing my history remembered, I guess.

    Despicable racists are always with us was my only point. Sad!

  133. 133.

    Nutmeg again

    That’s a lovely place for the Spock statue. I hope it there is signage referencing Nimoy’s connection to the (former) West End neighborhood not far away, over the river.  I worked, briefly, at MOS. A horrible job!  but it was a wonderful place to bring my kiddo. All good, on balance.

  134. 134.

    Kay

    My youngest just got the Pfizer. I’m thrilled.

    He showed me what “the kids” are doing on Tic toc with the vaccines. So funny. They have this whole nutty “competition” going, where they insist one vaccine is better than they other- so it’ll be a photo of a Moderna person all worked out and tan, shirtless, next to a picture of the 98 pound weakling Pfizer person, or the lonely J and J person.

    They’ve had SUCH a sucky year I’m pleased they’re having fun with it.

  139. 139.

    Kathleen

    @Baud:  You are right Baud. I will go so far as to say they pose an existential threat to democracy though I’m sure I would be lambasted for that.

  141. 141.

    StringOnAStick

    @Kay: Judging from how strongly people are reacting to the “no food or water” provision, I suspect that was tacked on so it would get the post press and outrage, but the real vote killer is the ability to take over the election boards.  It’s a good outrage magnet to take the focus off the most effective of their so-called “reforms”

  142. 142.

    Geminid

     

     

    @J R in WV: There were failings regarding the disastrous Unite the Right in Charlottesville, August 11, 2017 comparable to those of the January 6 insurrection. Local and state officials had notice that this could be destructive event, but stayed behind the curve in preparation.

    Some Charlottesville residents were taken by surprise. The Thursday before the Saturday event, local radio journalist Dorie Zook reported on a State Police briefing, stating that this would be the largest gathering of white nationalists “in decades.” This was well reported on local radio and television, but many people are beyond “old media,” and since this news was not provided them by national newsfeeds or podcasts, the event was a shock.

    It did not help that three days before the rally a federal judge ruled that the organizer had a right under the 1st Amendment to hold his rally in the crowded downtown area that contained the statue the organizer purportedly was defending. The city thought it had moved the rally to a spacious park a mile away. Neither the ACLU, which pressed the organizer’s case, nor the judge commented on the result.

    After street combat had broken out, the State Police declared the downtown rally an illegal demonstration, and the militias marched away to the second rally, leaving dozens of more loosely organized fascists to attack counterdemonstraters.

    Then, a demonstrator from Ohio launched a car attack that killed Heather Heyer and injured a dozen more counterdemstrators, some grievously. The street the attacker drove down had been blocked by a police car until shortly before, when it were withdrawn due to concerns for the safety of the officer. But there were enough National Guard personel staged a mile away to have taken over that roadblock and put up twenty more.

    I think many of the reasons for law enforcement failings are unique to these two events. But one thing they had in common was they both could have been worse, as you say about January 6. There was a fraught moment as the downtown demonstrators dispersed when a Maryland klansman fired a shot at a counterdemonstrator. Well over two hundred demonstrators carried assault type rifles, and a leftie from North Carolina brought a dozen  or so similarly armed people, ostensibly to protect counterdemonstrators. Had that one shot ignited a firefight, there would have been a bloodbath.

    Besides the man who murdered Heather Heyer, only five of the violent fascists were prosecuted after the event. Three who beat on the young Black man in the parking garage, and a fourth, who was filmed in the street choking two different woman, were given three year sentences by Charlottesville Judge Moore. Judge Moore sentenced the trigger-happy klansman to eight years penitentiary time.

  143. 143.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    This is why the Post Office should be the bank in low-income communities.

    Post offices and cheap Internet banking.

  144. 144.

    Mo MacArbie

    @Amir Khalid: I was tagging a big set of Bach cantatas, and eventually it dawned on me that all the references to “Herr” weren’t just “Hey, mister”.

  146. 146.

    Soprano2

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I’ve sung it twice too, once as a soprano and once as an alto. I agree it’s a beautiful work,  but hard on the soprano voice. I much preferred singing it as an alto. My favorite work to sing is “Carmina Burana”, that work is like singing joy. I would have sung it for the 4th time in spring 2020, but then COVID happened, so…..

  147. 147.

    artem1s

    @Falling Diphthong:

    the first widely visible signs of a revanchist Know Nothing party of angry white people were the Sarah Palin fans

    sorry, I gotta go with Ronnie Raygun here.  his whole schtick was that solutions are simple if you just look at this graph the right way and deregulate everything!  Our enemies are all EVIL and dressed in black and we wear the right kind of clothes and have good hair!  If we come up with the right slogan, we will defeat thousands of years of feudalism and fascism in the Soviet Union!  Women don’t really want to work, they only have to because their men are poor and have been morally bankrupted by being in unions and having gotten liberal arts degrees!  Everyone knows the gheys are infecting us with all the diseases and you should follow your feelings and not pay attention to those (atheist) scientists!

    It was all there to be weaponized by Turdblossom under Poppy and W.  Honestly Dan Potatoe Quayle was every bit as vapid as Caribou Barbie – only he wasn’t inflicted with a vagina so it didn’t matter too much that he was an idiot just like the rest of the upward failing white guys down at the country club.

    We were victims of the first rule of stupidity…

    “Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.”

    We thought over and over again, they can’t possibly find anyone dumber than THAT guy to run for office.  Hopefully we won’t fall victim to that thinking again because it’s evident from Boebert and Green that they can and will find someone stupider than TFG. Maybe not as soon as 2024, but certainly by 2028.

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