Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, man.

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

No Justins, No Peace

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

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

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

A consequence of cucumbers

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

In after Baud. Damn.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

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

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

He really is that stupid.

Cole is on a roll !

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

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

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

You are here: Home / 2024 Elections / 2024 Primaries / Saturday Morning Open Thread: One Step At A Time

Saturday Morning Open Thread: One Step At A Time

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Blessed are those who expect little, for they are seldom disappointed:

… As officials with a proven track-record — who also have considerable experience in communicating with each other — are in charge of setting the scene for the meeting, we can safely assume that there will be no annoying communication failures or emotional outbursts that could get in the way of a level-headed discussion in Geneva…

Even a cursory list of the problems facing the U.S.–Russia relations reveals just how overwhelming and difficult the agenda of the upcoming summit is likely to be. The conversation in Geneva will inevitably be extremely specific. At times, it will be tough and not necessarily pleasant for either side.

Both Biden and Putin knew this coming in and agreed to the meeting anyway, hoping it would be a success — and the two sides need it to be a success, for many reasons. Therefore, despite all the difficulties, there is every reason to wait for news from Geneva with hope and reasonable optimism.

And if you think that was an ugly convo…

Reader Interactions

209Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    The Pulitzer Prizes awarded a special citation to Darnella Frazier

    Almost makes up for them giving a Pulitzer to Maureen Dowd.

  3. 3.

    germy

    We all laughed at his lady a few days ago. Well, she’s laughing, too.

    There’s money in touting conspiracy theories…Ohio Dr. Sherri Tenpenny’s “boot camp” earlier this year on sharing the evils of COVID vaccines saw 400 people sign up…at $623 apiece, that comes to a sweet $249,000-Capital Insiderhttps://t.co/SnD20rUwTy via @DispatchAlerts

    — Darrel Rowland (@darreldrowland) June 11, 2021

  5. 5.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Top U.S. and Chinese diplomats appear to have had another sharply worded exchange, with Beijing saying it told the U.S. to cease interfering in its internal affairs and accusing it of politicizing the search for the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Steve Bannon rubs his hands together, “Good, good.”

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:
    Maybe not so good that they put the me-first provision in the law that requires primaries. I wonder why states are allowed to do that.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: And where has that got me.

    A considerable largish sizeable (?) fandom support group tar and feathering party at an almost top 10,000 blog.

  15. 15.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I read Adam’s post about Putin right before I saw this post at KOS titled “Trump’s Love Letter to Putin.”
    Apparently Trump posted this yesterday. He bragged about his own meeting with Putin, including stuff like this: “”As to who do I trust, they asked, Russia or our ‘Intelligence’ from the Obama era, meaning people like Comey, McCabe, the two lovers, Brennan, Clapper, and numerous other sleezebags, or Russia, the answer, after all that has been found out and written, should be obvious. Our government has rarely had such lowlifes as these working for it.”

    “Lowlifes.” “Sleazebags” or excuse me, “sleezebags.” I’d blessedly forgotten how juvenile his language is.

  17. 17.

    eclare

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  God his reference to Peter and Lisa is disgusting.  He continually brings it up, what a nasty, nasty waste of…something.  I can’t even bring myself to call him human.

  18. 18.

    Amir Khalid

    This may be a controversial opinion, but the Pulitzer Prize people shouldn’t have given Darnella Frazier a mere “special citation”. Their reasoning is based on a bogus distinction between “citizen” journalists and professionals that condescends to the former. Hers was the most consequential news video of 2020. What she deserves is the regular Pulitzer Prize for video journalism.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Amir Khalid: From the AP article:

    Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, said in a column for Nieman Lab last month that Frazier should win a Pulitzer for her video. Clark, who has been a Pulitzer juror five times, told The Associated Press on Friday that Frazier was like the many journalists or artists who have won Pulitzer Prizes for standing up for tolerance, equality and social justice.

    “There she was, at 17, sort of witnessing an injustice and she stood there in the face of threats and captured that video,” he said, adding, “It would be hard to select, even from the work of professional journalists over recent years or decades, a 10-minute video that had as profound an impact as this young woman’s video did.”

    Frazier’s video was “globe shaking,” spoke truth to power and gave a voice to the voiceless, Clark said.

    For my own self, I think lumping her in with all the regular video journalists would have been an insult. YMMV.

  20. 20.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Ah, Adam was premature last night. He

  24. 24.

    germy

    The Assoc. of American Editorial Cartoonists demands the Pulitzer Board, which threw out the jury’s selection and instead gave out no award, refund every cartoonist’s entry fee. https://t.co/vTs6ieOK58— Derf Backderf (@DerfBackderf) June 12, 2021

    I can tell you EXACTLY what happened. The jury selected three non-traditional finalists, and the stuffy bigshots on the Pulitzer Board simply couldn’t tolerate that work. Where are the easily understood gags? Multiple panels?? Why don’t any of these guys draw like Jeff MacNally?— Derf Backderf (@DerfBackderf) June 12, 2021

  29. 29.

    Kay

    In places such as Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, and Montana, the most restrictive laws approved this year have passed on total or near-complete party-line votes, with almost all state legislative Republicans voting for the bills and nearly all Democrats uniting against them, according to an analysis of state voting records provided exclusively to The Atlantic by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU.
    That pattern of unrelenting partisanship has left many state-level Democrats incredulous at the repeated insistence by Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, that he will support new federal voting-rights legislation only if at least some Republican senators agree to it.

  30. 30.

    germy

    I bought a new chromebook and I’m enjoying it.  I’m enjoying it even more since I figured out how to disable “tap to click”

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    So I joined HBO Max just in order to watch In the Heights, because we’re not ready to go to a theater yet. I was all excited and tuned in last night — and the sound is faint and muted. Not optimal for a musical! Does anyone else have this problem? (watching on my Mac laptop, both Chrome and Firefox have the same problem, sound is turned up to max both on the laptop and on the HBO screen). We tried YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ right afterwards, and they were fine. We also tried Dreamgirls on HBOMax and it was also faint and muffled. I’m pissed!

  32. 32.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    A 17-year-old kid beat the pros at their own game. She definitely deserves a proper Pulitzer. The pros get a lesson, if they care to heed it: anyone can do consequential journalism, not just them.

  33. 33.

    zhena gogolia

    @Amir Khalid:

    I don’t know — it seems to me that calling her a “journalist” at that moment is kind of sacrilegious. She was a participant.

  34. 34.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Ken: Looks pretty standard to me, but overall this announcement will get under Putin’s skin.

    Also, Biden will hold a solo press conference after the meeting. This is a subtler way to meet Adam’s concern about not putting Putin in an equal position. Also breaks any expectation that Trump may have formed.

    A couple of days ago, one of the reporters asked Jen Psaki if Biden would meet alone with Putin. My instant response was “Haha, no!” but Psaki was her usual cool self and said she had no information on that at that time.

  36. 36.

    trnc

    @Amir Khalid: Hers was the most consequential news video of 2020. What she deserves is the regular Pulitzer Prize for video journalism.

    Pulitzers should be reserved for journalists. She was brave and her video was extremely important and I’d be happy to see more recognition, but professional awards should be for professionals who work their asses off.

  38. 38.

    germy

    @trnc:

    She didn’t receive a regular professional Pulitzer award.  She received some recognition.

    And she showed some bravery videoing those cops.  The guy who aimed his phone at the cops who killed Eric Garner was targeted for harassment.

  40. 40.

    Chris Johnson

    @Cheryl Rofer:

     Putin could KILL Biden and still come out the loser, geopolitically. He is not dealing with a rival dictator in Biden, he’s dealing with a public servant who represents the United States of America. The power’s all on Biden’s side at this stage.

  42. 42.

    Amir Khalid

    @zhena gogolia:

    Is there — should there be — a sharp line between participant and reporter at something like the public murder of George Floyd?  I don’t believe so. Darnella Frazier was there, she saw it happen, she shot the video and published it on social media. I’m a journalist, and in my book that’s journalism.

  44. 44.

    trnc

    @Amir Khalid: ​
     

    A 17-year-old kid beat the pros at their own game.

    No. She was in the right place at the right time. In what universe could a journalist have been expected to be on the scene and get the complete video?

    Journalism has become a pretty crappy profession, but there are some great journalists who have worked hard to get where they are and we’ve learned a great many things from the ones who are good. This is exactly why they created the citizen award. Let’s not start just willy nilly handing out professional awards to non-professionals.

  46. 46.

    germy

    Asked about Putin saying discussion of Navalny is not on the agenda in summit with Biden, Psaki tells @jaketapper it may not be on Putin’s agenda but that POTUS “has every intention” of raising human rights abuses and detention of dissidents during their meeting

    — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) June 11, 2021

  49. 49.

    Bruuuuce

    @Kay: If Manchin really wants to test bipartisanship, he’ll move to abolish (or amend to talking status) the filibuster, then when the bills he wants to see Rs vote for come up for an ACTUAL VOTE, he can see how they do. If he thinks the bills should fail, he’s still in a position to torpedo them. But instead of playing games, let him put everything out there and see how wrong he is.

  51. 51.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    If reports are to be believed, he’s covering for for 10 Dem senators who don’t want the filibuster to go/don’t want the FTPA to pass because of the Dark Money stuff. I really don’t know what’s going through these people’s heads. I guess they think their relative wealth and social postion will protect them in the event an illiberal dictatorship arises? I mean, my god, members of Congress were spied on using the DOJ! They can’t honestly believe they’ll be spared.

    I can only hope the phone calls this summer they get will move these people to change their minds

  53. 53.

    germy

    @Amir Khalid:

    There’s lots of professional journalists who I think it’s sacrilegious to refer to as journalists.  Maybe they should be called professional journalamists.

    Ken Vogel, Maggie Haberman… the list is long.

  59. 59.

    trnc

    @Bruuuuce: let him put everything out there and see how wrong he is

    Totally agree with your sentiment, but you see what the problem is here, right?

  60. 60.

    Bruuuuce

    @trnc: I see that he’s too gutless and scared of the Rs in WV (despite all the polling there) ever to do it. But really, if he thinks there are Rs who will cross the line and vote for, say, infrastructure or voting rights, by all means, let him show us in the only definitive way possible. (Of course, that loon Sinema is a whole other problem.)

  61. 61.

    trnc

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): If reports are to be believed, he’s covering for for 10 Dem senators who don’t want the filibuster to go/don’t want the FTPA to pass because of the Dark Money stuff.

    Reports are often not to be believed.

  64. 64.

    Starfish

    @trnc: If we narrow the field to professionals, I need you to think about who gets to be a professional. The videographers and photojournalists are the first to be let go. They may even be contractors so the only professionals you are going to get are people from the New York Times and Washington Post.

    Newsworthy things happen in other places, but the news in other places has absolutely been destroyed by hedge fund ownership. We do need to continue to have journalism that is not on the east coast and have to find a way to acknowledge it.

  66. 66.

    Amir Khalid

    @trnc:

    She was in the right place at the right time.

    And that’s how any journalist gets the story. All that stuff about an editor or a source or a hunch telling you to be at a certain place at a given time is by-the-by. As I said upthread, the distinction between “professional” journalists and “citizens” is bogus.

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    I’m getting on a plane next month and flying to the opposite corner of the country. Haven’t flown in like…seven years or so? Has anything changed? Is it now possible to charge devices at your seat in economy? I assume I’ll need to wear a mask the whole time even though I’m fully vaxxed.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @Bruuuuce:

    I’m just pleased they’re confronting him. The Brennan Center is a treasure though- they collect so much info on voting. One thing they do that no one else does is track PRO voting leg in states. It is possible to make voting easier and more modern and more convenient for voters and some blue states have done it.

    If you approach election administration from the view of “serving voters” you get a completely different set of laws. Republicans see voters as presumptive felons and cheats, so they police voting. Voting is a state recording process. If it’s approached as a state recording process you get laws and rules that are voter focused.  Look at these GOP laws from the voter view- why make people drive 25 miles to drop off a ballot? Because they see voters as presumptively bad people who have to be policed and punished.

  76. 76.

    Ken

    @Amir Khalid: All that stuff about an editor or a source or a hunch telling you to be at a certain place at a given time is by-the-by.

    Are you saying Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen wasn’t an accurate portrayal of journalism?

  80. 80.

    Bruuuuce

    @mrmoshpotato: I know. You were thinking about the Titan the Romans stole (as with all the best supernal beings) from the Greeks. But, as they say, every line is a straight line.

  82. 82.

    Ken

    @Betty Cracker: Check with your airline on masking, but I think most do require them.  (If yours doesn’t, re-book.)  The security theater remains about the same.  You might want to check if you can take hand sanitizer on the plane.

  83. 83.

    Spanky

    @Kay: If you go with the assumption that he’s been bought, things start to make a lot more sense. What he says is just chaff for the rubes.

    I hope somebody is doing some digging there.

  86. 86.

    Bruuuuce

    @Kay: FSVO “presumptively bad people”=”people who won’t vote for us and let us take and do anything we want”, of course.

  88. 88.

    Ken

    @Baud: Someone must have hacked my BJ account.

    CAMPAIGN MANAGER: “Cut!  No, Baud, we need more feeling. The voters need to see outrage if this campaign is going to survive the discovery of your posting history. If you can’t manage that we’ll have to fall back on pleas for understanding and forgiveness, and I didn’t bring the bottle of glycerin tears.”

  89. 89.

    trnc

    @Starfish: There’s already an accepted definition for the word “professional,” and the crappy way that the business is run should not penalize the ones who are doing great work. In fact, that is all the more reason not to diminish the professional award.

    Frazier got recognition by Pulitzer. Take the win.

  90. 90.

    Amir Khalid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Journalists have some special legal protections.

    This is a common belief, even among journalists; but as far as I know, it’s not really true anywhere. The right of free speech is the same for the media as for anybody else, ditto the penalties for defamation. Journalists in professional media get some customary deference in terms of access and such, but they don’t get it by any special legal right.

  91. 91.

    sdhays

    @Baud: Yep. I really, really want to get rid of dark money, but if that’s the sticking point, take it out, get the win, get through 2022 and hopefully take another crack at it with a better Congress.

  93. 93.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    I’ve only met my great niece in person twice in her life, and she’s almost 24 years old. She’s getting married in October, and I’m seriously pondering a road trip to Arizona for the event. It will also be an opportunity for a memorial service for my sister and nephew (Haydyn’s grandmother and uncle) who died in the last few months, so I am leaning toward going.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I think the For The People Act was deliberately ambitious and no one, not one member, ever thought it would pass unchanged. It’s true for a lot of D legislation and Democrats need to understand that. It’s never a floor, always a ceiling. We can’t ask them to make an opening offer that is ambitious and then insist that the opening offer was the anticipated final offer. That’s not how it works. You have to choose- the opening offer is the final – they start low OR the opening offer is higher than what you expect to get and the final will be lower.

  100. 100.

    sdhays

    @Amir Khalid: The US Constitution specifically calls out the right to a free press, not just free speech, so that suggests a special category. Of course, since IANAL, I can’t really speak to how that works out in practice. You may be right that there aren’t actually any special legal protections, at least nowadays.

    But I expect that call out in the Constitution is the basis of at least American reporters’ belief in special protections.

  101. 101.

    trnc

    @Amir Khalid:

    Journalists have some special legal protections.

    …

    This is a common belief, even among journalists

    Probably because freedom of the press is specified in the first amendment, but you’re right – I can’t think of any special right. The FOIA applies to everyone, right?

  102. 102.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ken:
    I wish I were as innocent as you, and still able to take comic books seriously. //
    Seriously, what I’m saying is that in journalism, as in any human endeavour, time and chance happeneth to them all.

  104. 104.

    germy

    @Ken:

    In the new Superman And Lois TV series, Clark Kent has moved back to Smallville after being laid off by the Daily Planet.

  106. 106.

    trnc

    @Amir Khalid: Does your Constitution enumerate any right that is unique to the press?

    There are unenumerated rights.

    Isn’t the access you mentioned before a special right? EG, not just anyone can cross the crime scene tape. Journalists can flash their credentials and get into a crime scene in some cases, right? I know there are probably some exceptions to this.

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    @Amir Khalid: +1

    Someone else made the point that Journalism is an action, not a job title.

    Plus, the First Amendment applies to everyone, not just people with a printing press.

    The Pulitzer people are being elitist in giving her an award with an asterisk.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  108. 108.

    There go two miscreants

    @germy: disable “tap to click”

    How do you click. then? Does it have buttons with the trackpad? If so, what brand and model is it? I hate “tap to click” (and all the gesture stuff) but it is hard to find a laptop with buttons now.

  109. 109.

    germy

    @There go two miscreants:

    No, I can click just fine now.

    “Tap to click” means I accidentally open windows and tabs when my cursor slides across them.   It’s a much better experience when I’m not launching a million ads without meaning to. (Although I’m sure google and the advertisers loved it)

    acer chromebook.

  110. 110.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Amir Khalid: I can think of one right reporters have that every day folks do not and that is the ability to protect their sources. I do not know the exact origins of it or how consistently it is applied/respected.

    eta and it is often challenged in court

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    This year’s Pulitzer Prizes generated a banner headline in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch. Their columnist Michael Paul Williams won a prize for his writing about last summer’s Confederate statue controversy, which was a very big deal in Richmond.

    Williams went to work for the Times-Dispatch as a reporter in 1982 and became the newspaper’s first Black columnist in 1992. A graduate of Virginia Union University with a Masters from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Williams is 62 years old.

    I am not a big op-ed reader, but the Times-Dispatch story had some excerpts from Williams’ columns, and they were pretty good.

  113. 113.

    trnc

    @Another Scott: The Pulitzer people are being elitist in giving her an award with an asterisk.

    It’s not elitist to follow standards that they set. From the Pulitzer Board:

    The Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism are awarded in fifteen categories. Entries may be made by any individual based on material coming from a United States newspaper, magazine or news site that publishes regularly during the calendar year and that adheres to the highest journalistic principles.

  114. 114.

    MagdaInBlack

    @germy:  I have the same. Took me awhile to disable that too, its damned annoying. But I do like this little chromebook a lot ?

  116. 116.

    germy

    Rep. Val Demings: "Too many times, Marco Rubio did not show up."

    On Rubio's vote against the American Rescue Plan: "When he had an opportunity to help Floridians during one of the toughest times in their lives, he chose to vote against stimulus checks." https://t.co/Csizx9zRJ7

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 12, 2021

  120. 120.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Baud:  what do bernie supporting nevada caucusees & christian indie rocker damien jurado have in common?

    both are fond of saying, “i break chairs”.

  121. 121.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    You Tube suspended Ron Johnson for a week because of “medical misinformation.” He pushed TFG’s favorite COVID cure

     

    Trump had promoted hydroxychloroquine and said he had taken the drug himself. Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) shared a clip in which he spoke of the supposed benefits of the drug. https://t.co/376NUwsZ5U— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 11, 2021

  123. 123.

    Another Scott

    @trnc: They can of course make their own rules for their awards.  The fact remains that they gave her an award with an asterisk when they wouldn’t if the video had been posted by someone from AP or FTFNYT.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  124. 124.

    Amir Khalid

    @trnc:

    The Pulitzer Prize rules are biased toward institutional journalism, and clearly out of step with much of journalism as it is practised today.

  125. 125.

    PurpleBabied

    @Amir Khalid:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    @trnc:

    So we’re debating whether Darnella Frazer can properly be called a journalist and deserves a Pulitzer.

    She is a material witness to a state abuse of power, made sure it wasn’t swept under the rug, and testified against that agent of the state in open court at great danger to her person and sanity.  Remember, there are all these Ferguson activists who were found dead, mysteriously.  She is probably still in danger.

     

     

    Meanwhile vile people with well funded publishing platforms and vile people who take money from state and local governments to teach young people  debate whether or not she is even brave or even recorded the truth.

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @germy:

    It makes the Balloon-Juice experience very enjoyable.

    Does it automatically pie the trolls and put pants on Baud?

  128. 128.

    Mike in NC

    The Bidens chatting it up with the Queen of course reminded me of that infamous picture of the Fat Orange Clown wearing a tux: what we used to refer to as “ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag”.

  129. 129.

    CCL

    @Amir Khalid:  I have to admit, not sure where I stand on this discussion.  But as a perhaps interesting side note:  my dad – the fourth in a long line of folks who were editors, reporters, columnists etc. – would get all agitated about the news professionals being called “journalists.”  In his book, they were reporters.

    There is an instinct – trained or inherent – that recognizes an event needs to be recorded and reported.  I once heard a story from an editor at one of the wire services about an incident in the early days (2007) of easy consumer access to digital recording devices.   Apparently (cannot confirm) the news desk received a video that some newly weds on their honeymoon had accidentally filmed:  a spectacular airplane crash caught in the background.

    But the couple waited and completed their honeymoon and didn’t send it to the news until so much later that the incident was no longer “news.”

  130. 130.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Exactamundo. News media don’t have a specific legal right to protect their sources. It is a practice that receives customary deference, not one protected by law.

  132. 132.

    ian

    @Amir Khalid: It isn’t so much they are allowed to, as no one here can stop them.  If the US constitution doesnt prohibit it, and it doesnt infringe on the rights of the people in the state (or the SC thinks it doesnt) any state can get away with doing a lot of stupid selfish shit

  139. 139.

    Dahlia

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I got my second Shingrix shot last Friday.  The next day I felt like I had the flu and my shoulder was quite sore.  The following day I felt better but my shoulder was still sore for a couple more days.  Your mileage may vary, of course.

  145. 145.

    debbie

    @Amir Khalid:

    Many times, “amateur videos” are either linked to or embedded in articles in the NYT, WaPo, and regional/local publications. That tells me journalists accept them as journalism. Period!

  146. 146.

    zhena gogolia

    @debbie:

    I’m the one who identified her as a participant, so I’m going to try to explain what I meant. She was involved, emotional, part of the witnessing crowd, not an objective journalist witnessing the scene in a professional capacity. I would say that her bravery surpasses that of a journalist. She had no professional training or sense of obligation to risk her own safety by making a record of the scene. And she no doubt was in as great emotional turmoil as all the other ordinary citizens who were there — they didn’t come to the scene in order to report on it. They were just living their lives. That’s what I meant by “participant.”

  147. 147.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @zhena gogolia:

    I had this problem on an HBO Max movie a while ago, and some Internet research suggests that it’s a problem with the handling of surround-sound encoding (Dolby?) in (some) recent movies.

    I had the problem with a just-released HBO Max “premiere” movie but not with ones a little bit older. I wonder if there’s some tweak they need to apply. Maybe check it again in a few days.

    The only “user” suggestion I saw was to turn off surround sound on your TV and set it to “stereo” instead. But you seem like a low-tech person who might not have set up surround sound in the first place. Maybe this will help Mr. Gogol?

    I will try to find the movie I had the problem with and see if it has been fixed. It has been a month or so since I tried to watch it.

  148. 148.

    Amir Khalid

    Since Superman has been mentioned…
    In Superman Returns, there’s a scene — which rang very true to this retred journo — where Perry White chews out The Daily Planet‘s photographers because a 10-year-old boy with a camera phone (a new thing, in those days) had scooped them all to get the very first picture of Superman back in Metropolis.

  150. 150.

    zhena gogolia

    @Steeplejack (phone): We’re just watching it on my laptop, no surround sound. What strikes me is the huge differential with the sound on sites like Amazon and Youtube and Disney+. I’m not asking for ear-blasting sound, but we are literally straining our ears to hear the dialogue, and of course the main attraction of this film is the music.

    As I said, I tried watching a few minutes of “Dreamgirls” on HBO Max, and it was similarly muffled and faint.

    ETA: Is there some way to contact them? I guess I’ll look at the site again.

  151. 151.

    Blackcatsrule

    @WereBear: I know you’re busy with your new kitten (congratulations!) but can I ask for some quick advice?  Our 14 year old cat suddenly lost most of his vision yesterday.  Vet says it’s due to hypertension.  He’s on anti inflammatory eye drops and meds to lower blood pressure and has an appointment with an ophthalmologist next week.  Anything we can do to help him?  We’re doing the obvious like keeping a close eye on him and he seems to be maneuvering around really well but I feel so bad for him and so helpless!

  152. 152.

    debbie

    @zhena gogolia:

    I apologize, my intent was not to imply you were wrong. I have always thought witnessing isn’t given the credit it deserves. Jacob Riis, Weegee, and others have informed us through their photographs far better than any wordsmith possibly could. They’ve certainly reached wider audiences.

    I do have to acknowledge that, as a fine arts major with a couple of cameras mouldering in some dusty corner somewhere, that I may be biased. ?

  155. 155.

    CaseyL

    Good morning, everyone! We’re supposed to have wild, wild weather here in the PNW this weekend. So far it’s sunny and warm. Predicting the weather in this part of the country is just asking to develop a drinking problem :)

    Tom Nichols’ Great Indian Food Adventure has so far raised $106K for India pandemic relief.

  156. 156.

    sab

    To make our home life a tad more exciting in case two dogs and six indoor cats aren’t enough, the pitbull just went into heat.

  158. 158.

    Mike in NC

    @Dahlia: My pharmacy notified me of a prescription ready for pickup. A bottle of 60 pills for $461.84! I get my meds via mail order and that same bottle costs me $29 with free shipping.

    While I was there I asked for the first Shingles shot and the arm is still tender.

  159. 159.

    sab

    @Blackcatsrule: Our oldest cat has been completely blind for several years. He seems fine with it. We just make sure everything in his little orbit stays the same. We don’t move furniture. No new clutter on the floor. If he seems really lost we pick him up and put him somewhere familiar so that he can reorient himself and start over again.

    He pretty much limits himself to his favorite couch, husband’s lap, the food table behind the couch and the water bucket in the kitchen. We do put wee pads down because finding the litter box is a challenge for him.

  162. 162.

    Dahlia

    @Mike in NC: That’s quite a difference in prices.  You’re smart to get it by mail order.

    After my first Shingrix shot, I just had soreness at the injection site.   I was told that the second shot would elicit a more pronounced reaction and my experience bore that out.  You might want to make sure the day after your second shot is not heavily scheduled.

  164. 164.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @zhena gogolia:

    I was watching on a Chromebook, but I take your point about no surround sound.

    I would try checking something that’s a little older or that’s not a recent blockbuster Hollywood movie, i.e., something not likely to have fancy sound encoding. I had the problem only on a recent “big” movie, not on everything. That would help narrow down the problem.

  169. 169.

    zhena gogolia

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    I tried the “Friends” reunion, and it was a little louder and more distinct.

    I actually talked to somebody on the phone, but she clearly didn’t know anything. She said she “escalated” it and someone would get back to me by e-mail. Mainly she tried to persuade me to watch it on my TV. I don’t know how to do that, and I don’t want to do that.

  170. 170.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us

    @Betty Cracker: The only thing that may have changed (if it has really been seven years and this may have already been in place back then) is that anything with a lithium battery (cell phone, laptop, tablet, even an electric toothbrush or rechargeable electric shaver/razor or small blutooth speaker) has to be in your carry on. If you check a bag you can’t put any of those rechargeable devices in the checked bag.

  171. 171.

    Kay

    I look for this winger house on one of the state routes I drive because it has an ever-changing display of signage. Right now they have “We Have Your Back, President Trump!” alongside a “Beijing Biden” sign. Big signs. The size of a sheet of plywood.

    I mentioned the house to my middle son because I know he sometimes travels the same road and he told me it was initially a dialogue between the Trump house and a Biden house next door, but the Biden house stopped when Biden won. I’m sorry I missed that (covid) but I’m glad the Biden supporters disengaged.

  174. 174.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    I hope you get it fixed. At least you know it’s a general thing and not just you. There are some gnarly discussions in some of the TV-geek forums.

  177. 177.

    zhena gogolia

    @Steeplejack:

    Yeah. It doesn’t make me want to hang onto my HBO Max subscription once I’ve slogged through the movie.

    So far I’m very disappointed in the film, although I don’t know how much to attribute to the sound. I’m sure it would be much better in the theater. But the plot is rather limp.

  179. 179.

    CaseyL

    @zhena gogolia:  The plot looked rather convoluted when I checked a summary of it, when deciding whether or not to watch the movie.  My guess is, like most musicals, the plot exists primarily to string together musical set pieces.

    (I think that’s why movies based on musicals with well-realized plots are considered classic, excellent movies: they’re that rare.)

  180. 180.

    Mary G

    I was deeply offended that the FTFNYT data team got a Pulitzer, when I never saw anyone not employed by the FTFNYT refer to it. Everyone used the volunteer Covid Tracking Project, put together by hundreds of volunteers  calling hospitals and health departments across the country and had the most accurate and detailed info available for most of the pandemic.

  182. 182.

    James E Powell

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s very easy to point & laugh at his tweets. What’s scary is that they make sense to his followers, who will repeat every line.

  183. 183.

    WereBear

    @germy:

    @WereBear:

    How is your new cat?

     

    OMG she is so tiny and adorable. Bounces around with her tail like an exclamation point!

    Mr WereBear is SMITTEN. And it’s mutual. Which was exactly why I chose her.

  184. 184.

    Ken

    @Amir Khalid: And yet, J. Jonah Jamieson yells at Peter Parker all the time, and Parker’s the only one who ever gets any pictures of Spiderman in action.

  185. 185.

    Ken

    @James E Powell: What’s scary is that they make sense to his followers

    You’re talking about the same people who think that a cicada landing on Biden is part of TFG’s plan to come back in August.  (See, they have a 17-year cycle, and the 17th letter is ‘Q’, so…)

  188. 188.

    Capri

    @Blackcatsrule:  The two most common causes of hypertension in cats are kidney failure and hyperthyroidism. You should make sure they are looked for.

     

    My local rag won the Pulitzer for their investigation on the abusive use of K9 – Indianapolis is no1 in police dog bites. The articles resulted in the police changing their policies. It was front page today.

  189. 189.

    Blackcatsrule

    @Capri: Yes, my vet mentioned these conditions, kitty is going back for blood work and more tests to try to find the underlying cause.

  190. 190.

    trnc

    @Another Scott: They can of course make their own rules for their awards. The fact remains that they gave her an award with an asterisk when they wouldn’t if the video had been posted by someone from AP or FTFNYT.

    It’s not an award with an asterisk. It’s an award created for non-journalists. Yes, the AP or FTFNYT employee who took the same video would have been eligible for a “regular” Pulitzer because they publish regularly, per the parameters of the entry qualifications.

  191. 191.

    Another Scott

    Today’s fun facts, courtesy Mrs. Betty Bowers.

    FUN NRA MEMBERSHIP FACTS:

    1. Their *real* membership is a secret.

    2. They also claimed 5 million *7* years ago.

    3. So, even if true, it's shockingly stagnated & less than 2% of Americans.

    4. When Delta offered NRA discounts, only 13 people ever availed themselves to them. https://t.co/2OApa2JHCc

    — Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) June 12, 2021

    Maybe their power wasn’t actually from their membership. Hmmm…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  192. 192.

    mrmoshpotato

    If this past year sparked an interest in ancient squeezebox repair…

    If anyone in Chicago is looking for a broken accordion, there are a ton in the alley north of W North Ave between N Newcastle & N New England. pic.twitter.com/AoqZ5IWnDO— Owen Ashworth (@AdvanceBase) June 12, 2021

  193. 193.

    J R in WV

    @Amir Khalid: ​

     

    Darnella Frazier was there, she saw it happen, she shot the video and published it on social media. I’m a journalist, and in my book that’s journalism.

    I grew up in a small town newsroom, worked in the family business off and on, married to a correspondent with The AP. I agree with you 100% — Ms Frazier deserved a pain old prize, not a “special” award.

    My respect for the Pulitzer Prize structure dropped several meters when I realized that commercial new organs must submit ornate applications for the prizes, the more ornate (leather-bound, etc) the more likely to win. I always had thought the committee sought out the cream of the crop, but nope. Plus it doesn’t come with any cash prize, like the Nobels or the MacArthur Awards do. It does probably affect one’s ability to find paying work in the profession.

  194. 194.

    James E Powell

    @Another Scott:

    I think their power went far beyond their membership. They pounded the single message, “Democrats are coming to take your guns!” while others – gun stores, hunt clubs, local news, etc., repeated & spread the message.

    And guns are a culture signal that (apparently) means a lot to right-wingers who do not own guns. Boebert’s message wasn’t just “more guns!” it was “fuck liberals!”

  195. 195.

    J R in WV

    @trnc: ​
     

    EG, not just anyone can cross the crime scene tape. Journalists can flash their credentials and get into a crime scene in some cases, right?

    Nope, not how it works at all. Reporters don’t get any special access to “crime scenes” at all, which is how the cops have gotten away with murder for generations. I’m glad this is slowly changing.

  196. 196.

    Another Scott

    One for Betty Cracker (and all of us)…

    Speaking of steps…

    Trump's "Backward Pants" explained pic.twitter.com/Ecke2G54Cw

    — HappyToast ★ (@IamHappyToast) June 6, 2021

    [ rofl ]

    (HappyToast is the person behind the BoJo fashion at the G7 image earlier.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  197. 197.

    Steeplejack

    @debbie:

    [Ron] Johnson spokeswoman Alexa Henning said the video in question was a virtual event hosted by the Milwaukee Press Club. A full video of the event posted by the press club remained on YouTube until Friday evening, when it was also removed with a message saying it had violated YouTube’s community guidelines.

    At one point during the interview, Johnson mentioned his support for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug that some have touted on social media as something that could end the pandemic despite insufficient evidence that it works as a treatment for covid-19—as well as the sometimes dangerous consequences when people take the animal version.

    It’s not clear when the Milwaukee Press Club event occurred—it’s not even clear when Johnson posted the offending video to his account—but the removal of the video and the suspension happened this week.

  198. 198.

    zhena gogolia

    @CaseyL:

    I know the musical from the CD, which is great, but I guess it cuts out a lot of fairly drab plot machinations. The music is wonderful, which is why I’m dismayed not to be able to really hear it.

  199. 199.

    J R in WV

    @zhena gogolia:

    …We’re just watching it on my laptop, no surround sound…

    We have found that a very inexpensive set of Logitech USB speakers provides a huge improvement in sound quality from out laptops. These speakers are around $25 and can be had at Best Buy or Amazon…

  208. 208.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Kay: Well said.  I feel more and more that what is lacking is an “assumption of good intentions.”  As in policing (one of BLM’s concerns is the assumption by the police and others that a black person is automatically questionable) and with my recent work with my Home Owners’ Association.  So many on the HOA Board assume those with issues are “violators” and deserved to be treated as such.

  209. 209.

    Amir Khalid

    @J R in WV: 
    My understanding is that cops don’t get access to a cordoned-off crime scene either, until the forensic technicians are done with it.

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