While we were still in the White House, I began sharing my summer favorites—and now, it’s become a little tradition that I look forward to sharing with you all. So here's this year's offering. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did. pic.twitter.com/29T7CcKiWZ
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 9, 2021
Charlottesville to remove Confederate statue at center of deadly 2017 protest https://t.co/zt6MJv1qcS pic.twitter.com/C7rPZMjqNr
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 10, 2021
Capitol fencing starts to come down six months after Jan. 6 attack https://t.co/bF867c2ssq
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 10, 2021
Speaker's office refers to Donald Trump as "twice-impeached Florida retiree" pic.twitter.com/x1LJlakyZ5
— Lauren Fox (@FoxReports) July 8, 2021
Biden’s federal judicial picks are 77% women and 57% women of color so far — he is on track to shatter his predecessors' records as he remakes the judiciary, aims to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. https://t.co/lLjm3Z6WWS via @19thnews
— Amanda Becker (@AmandaBecker) July 7, 2021
Just a real shame to see this guy lose something he was counting on having, due to what feels like an arbitrary bureaucratic determination https://t.co/eEYYWkcyOF
— Patrick Dillon (@mpdillon) July 10, 2021
Per the Washington Post, where it’s a company-town issue:
… Saul’s firing came after a tumultuous six-month tenure in the Biden administration during which advocates for the elderly and the disabled, and Democrats on Capitol Hill pressured the White House to dismiss him. He had clashed with labor unions that represent his 60,000 employees, who said he used union-busting tactics. Angry advocates say he dawdled while millions of disabled Americans waited for him to turn over files to the Internal Revenue Service to release their stimulus checks — and accused him of an overzealous campaign to make disabled people reestablish their eligibility for benefits.
“Since taking office, Commissioner Saul has undermined and politicized Social Security disability benefits, terminated the agency’s telework policy that was utilized by up to 25 percent of the agency’s workforce, not repaired SSA’s relationships with relevant Federal employee unions including in the context of COVID-19 workplace safety planning, reduced due process protections for benefits appeals hearings, and taken other actions that run contrary to the mission of the agency and the President’s policy agenda,” the White House said in a statement.
Saul, 74, a wealthy, former women’s apparel executive and prominent Republican donor — who served on the board of a conservative think tank that has called for cuts to Social Security benefits — had overseen one of the biggest operations in the federal government since his 2019 Senate confirmation. The Social Security Administration pays out more than $1 trillion a year to about 64 million beneficiaries, which include seniors, the disabled and low-income Americans…
Cherry on top: Firing Saul would’ve been illegal, until the right-wingers on the Supreme Court decided to play politics with the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Hmmm — wonder what my senior Senator might have to say about this…
Good riddance. Andrew Saul and David Black played key roles in Donald Trump’s failed plans to dismantle Social Security. We need @SocialSecurity leaders who will protect and expand Social Security – not destroy it. https://t.co/9OHw78bDr4
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 9, 2021
Baud
Keep on keeping on.
OzarkHillbilly
Good news for a Saturday morn.
p.a.
OMG! A dearth of dead white males on the reading list!? [insert bow tie emoji here]?
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah, @Baud:
Good morning. ?
(Might go back to sleep. ?)
NotMax
For the next time you find yourself with 150 hours free, why not cake?
;)
Dorothy A. Winsor
President Obama has good taste in books.
Also here’s a quote from Politico about whether TFG will endorse Greitens in the R Senate primary. The last sentence is like a twist in a short story. It’s surprises you and yet you say “of course!’ Actually, there’s lot in this quote to which I say “of course!”
NotMax
Something for the sailing aficionados hereabouts.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’s the Missouri GOP. The next close contender probably did even worse things.
debbie
After seeing a few campaign ads from contenders for Rep. Stivers’s seat, I can only say they’re going to need a much larger clown car. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Jay
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Only because Bill Cosby was too busy to run for the GOP nomination.
NotMax
@a href=”https://balloon-juice.com/2021/07/10/saturday-morning-open-thread-give-the-people-what-they-want/#comment-8222734″>OzarkHillbilly
It’s one way to get Greitens the hell out of the state.
//
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: If they had, they’d be the front runner.
Kay
Chicago, and climate change.
The NYTimes coverage of climate change is wonderful. Really accessible to people who aren’t scientists.
germy
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Leavenworth or Marion sound like more fitting destinations.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
No more fucking malarkey
Jay
Morning all,
OzarkHillbilly
If I said what I feel, especially when it comes to that smug sumbitch Paxton, Cole would have to call the Feds on me, so instead I will just say,
Goddamn Texas, a banana republic if ever there was one.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Jesus Fucking Christ! They never learn.
https://ckarchive.com/b/k0umh6h0wo69
OzarkHillbilly
@Jay: I love the front and center “Blue Lives Matter (until they don’t)” t shirt
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Paxton will probably seek the max. Hell is not harsh enough for folks like Paxton.
germy
NotMax
So when does the audit of voting by the Continental Congress result in reinstatement of the British monarchy as top dogs here?
“Our super sekrit proprietary technology allows us to check for traces of béchamel and tag those votes as French perfidy.”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
“JD Vance is dreamy and I’m going to find a campaign poster to hang over my bed”
– by Glenn Greenwald
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1413523713836961793?s=20
Jay
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
awkward,……
Do you think his login and password, ( Killth3Old$) will still work?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
If that twerp ever rolls by me, I’m thumping over his chair.
NotMax
@Jay
Just add water.
(couldn’t resist)
germy
Twitter isn’t all shit. Here’s a great one, “Cats of Yore”
Old photos from the 19th and 20th century, and artwork going all the way back to antiquity.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Why do you hate America????
JPL
Bye, bye Lee!
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
No one’s liking him in Ohio. ??♀️
prostratedragon
@Kay: That is a great, must-read article.
OzarkHillbilly
Final moment of Scripps National Spelling Bee: Zaila Avant-garde is first African American winner
She’s a hell of a baller too
And what is more…
Watch out for this one.
germy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
You may knock him over, but you can’t stop his brain.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: The MF’er should be sitting behind bars right now.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
And she made a Bill Murray joke for the judges during her win.
Her father changed their name in honor of his favorite jazz musician. She comes from an interesting and wonderful family.
NotMax
@germy
“He’s no fun, he fell right over.”
– Firesign Theater
.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Unlike Greenwald, I read Vance’s book. JD Vance believes that the New Deal destroyed the working class. It took a really long time! There was a 70 year upswing before the decline! But ultimately, in the end, it was FDR who destroyed them.
It just amazes me that there is this incredibly over-hyped book that supposedly defines this guy and launched his political career and none of these people have read it.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: She was on New Day yesterday morning, and John Berman was amazed at her talent. New Day on Twitter:
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I love Rex Chapman. He always puts up a few gems every day.
Trigger warning on that link. Do not open without at least one box of tissues.
Spanky
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Well, what they’re learning is that it’s different under Biden, and they don’t like it. They want their old train wreck back.
The problem (one of many, obvs) is that we see them fabricating train wrecks where there are none. And in so doing, left the path of journalism for … I don’t know what, but they’re still posing as journalists.
Another Scott
Lots of good news.
Some old cultrual news that is new to me this morning. Vulture interview with Kenney Jones:
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@Another Scott:
Moon died in a room he sublet from Harry Nilsson.
It was the same room that Mama Cass Elliot had died in a few years before (heart attack).
Nilsson was so despondent he sold the property.
Kay
@prostratedragon:
I need a clear explanation of what “ice cover” on the Great Lakes actually does. It’s just great work.
I love the idea that the Great Lakes function like a giant, interconnected slow moving river too.
My husband is an environmentalist and we go every year to this Great Lakes water conference that he’s involved in- I’m not involved but I do get continuing legal education credit for attending. Fully 2/3’s of it goes right over my head.
germy
@Jay:
NotMax
@Kay
Can’t help but wonder if a (slight) upside of water level drop will be an aid in offing invasive zebra mussels.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
“You see, if you shoot pool with some employee here, you can come and borrow money. What does that get us? A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty, working class. And all because a few starry-eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey stir them up and fill their heads with a lot of impossible ideas. Now, I say…”
– Old Man Potter
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Now! Comes in creamy and extra-chunky!
Geminid
. The Lee statue has been lifted off it’s plinth and is now on a flatbed truck. Charlottesville antifascist activist Molly Conger, @socialistdogmom, is providing a running commentary on her Twitter feed.
germy
Notice how far Tucker sits from his guests?
(when they’re not appearing via zoom?)
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
He’s basically Paul Ryan with a better backstory. It’s boilerplate Right wing economic theory. They were in the safety net and labor union “hammock” too long so were free to dabble in opiates and meth.
It’s funny to me because he ignores the best part of Chamber of Commerce midwest Republicans. They were progressives. They invested (and some still do invest) in public projects. They were absolutely essential to these smaller places, not because of “markets” but because they had a pride of place and wanted to attract people and industry. The opposite of “go it alone”. HUGE “community boosters”. Republicans don’t need to be working class populists. They had a role. They were progressive capitalists. They could just go back to pre-Reagan.
frosty
@OzarkHillbilly: Wow!! The dribbling and ball work – on a unicycle!!
Plus, the spelling bee. What amazing talent!
Baud
@Geminid:
?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Y’know, I may be just spitballing here, but maybe it’s time to go and root around in the original Snowjob/NSA “revelations” in order to shame the Pulitzer committee into recalling a certain award. As I remember, I was never impressed and felt that the squealing and whimpering was way overblown.
Sure would be nice to have retained those programs so as to ferret out collaboration between foreign actors and their domestic co-conspirators.
Baud
@debbie:
Media loves him though. It’s amazing.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
Yup. Anymore, though, I won’t vote GOP even on a bet. They can’t be trusted, and always fall like lickspittles before power.
Besides, I’m already in a centrist party.
Another Scott
OhPlease OhPlease OhPlease.
Cheers,
Scott.
karen marie
@p.a.: That Andy Weir book is absolutely dreadful. I hope the rest of the list is better.
Baud
@Another Scott:
That would be sweet, but big companies don’t play games with nuisance suits.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Maybe they can take one for the team, and make an exception this one time.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Yup. I voted for the better Republican in local elections for years, until about 2002 when I took various “official” positions in the county D organization. Then I realized the more moderate Republicans were coming to us to ask us to promote them to D’s, but they never reciprocated when we had a candidate. Never- not once.
What nerve.
rikyrah
Our new Spelling Bee Champion???
https://twitter.com/NewDay/status/1413491756679802883?s=19
rikyrah
@Kay:
Absolute nerve?
Anyway
@karen marie:
I always check out Pres Obama’s summer reading lists – he includes contemporary fiction and we usually have some overlap. Intimacies is on my list. I am kinda interested in the Ishiguro but it’s not at the top of my list – I didn’t care for the last Ishiguro I read. The Eric Nguyen book looks good – Vietnamese immigrant experience of displacement and identity though that’s a well-worn trope. I guess Andy Weir made it because of the Martian.
I’m not a big non-fiction reader but am always impressed by Elizabeth Kolbert.
p.a LOL!
rikyrah
@Kay:
Talk that sense
Anyway
I wish the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups would speak up strongly against the Rethugs and point out the positives in the Dems plans, but no they never do or in the most mealy-mouthed fashion. Dems need better press…
germy
@Anyway:
The Chamber wants the lowest possible taxes.
They dance with the devil to keep the rates low.
germy
Has that ever happened? Have they ever recalled a Pulitzer?
OzarkHillbilly
@germy:And no regs telling them they can’t cheat their customers or piss on their neighbors.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: “No crew were discovered aboard.” ?
germy
He wants to send it to the Supreme Court?
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/biden-fires-trump-appointed-social-security-commissioner.html
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
She’s amazing.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
I love how we’re not supposed to be unionized, but businesses get their “chamber” advocating for them every day.
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: Hey Noel. Guess which city has an absolutely garbage State’s Attorney in Kim Foxx?
Geminid
@Anyway: The national U.S. Chamber of Commerce hasn’t spoken very loudly, but they have been hedging their bets. In the 2020 cycle, the group endorsed 20 Democratic Congressional incumbents, including Sharice Davids (KS) and Abigail Spanberger (VA)..
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Anyway: It’s too bad because the economy usually does better under Democrats
mrmoshpotato
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Looks like a fun, fuck-these-guys read. Bookmarked.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Oh shit! They’re coming for everyone’s Bibles now too?!
LOAssclowns!
germy
@mrmoshpotato:
They figured they’d save gas and combine the gun seizing and bible seizing into one trip.
We’re the sensible party, after all.
Kathleen
Another Scott
@NotMax: Well done and beautifully filmed. I wonder how many dozens of hours were used in editing, how many camera operators were there, etc.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kathleen
mrmoshpotato
@Kathleen:
Haha, nice.
Another Scott
@NotMax: The DoD is doing a lot of work on autonomous vehicles. If one doesn’t have a crew, one doesn’t have to worry about things like hypoxia, etc., etc., any more.
I’m not sure that we’ve come to terms with what crewless warfighting hardware really means, especially given the obvious dangers of bad actors getting on networks…
“I’m sorry to wake you at 3 AM, Madam President, but some teenagers in Azerbaijan hacked the 5th Fleet and ran it aground in Madagascar…”
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato: If they come for my Bibles they’re going to have to bring a box. KJV, NRSV, Oxford Study Bible, Russian Bible, OCS Bible, etc.
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: You really didn’t need to do that.
;-)
Another Scott
@zhena gogolia: Haven’t these geniuses ever heard of the Internet? Any Bible one wants is only about 5 seconds and 10 keyboard clicks away.
It’s all so stupid, and gets stupider every day.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
PSA – Interesting Android Police article on how to set up a “custom search engine” in the Chrome browser. An example is given on how to directly search Amazon without going through Google first. Another is how to search YouTube videos automatically by most views.
Other browsers probably have similar custom search engine functionality.
Rita at AP is very good at explaining things like this, and more.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Man, and I thought gun hoarders were nuts.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I don’t think we’re on the same team.
Another Scott
@Geminid:
Yup. As Adam Serwer pointed out, Lee was a fiction constructed by white supremacists.
Cheers,
Scott.
smith
@Another Scott: The American Civil War is the one case in which the history was written by the losers.
Immanentize
@Another Scott: I have an acquaintance friend who works for a sip off from I-Robot. They are creating (and by now, testing) autonomous tug boats. These things are carried on the super tankers and are deployed as needed when nearing port, shore or locks. Then, when back in the sea lane or ocean, they are recalled and hailed back aboard. Yes the military via DoD R&D is very heavily invested in the project.
Downside? Loss of high paying specialized tug work, much of it unionized. Upside? Cost, efficiency, and maintenance is low. Also too, no real chance of an Evergreen grounding in critical canal locks.
Another Scott
I’m cleaning out some tabs before I start to work in the yard on this beautiful day here in NoVA.
ICYMI, an old great bit of wisdom from Daniel Davies (d-squared) from 2004:
(Emphasis added.)
Click over and read the whole thing. It’s worth it.
(via Brad DeLong’s blog)
Cheers,
Scott.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Christ on a stick, but that “HIPPA” misinformation is causing some stupid, as is seen in a Facebook comment left on a school board member’s feed (he was talking about requiring unvaccinated under-12s having a mask requirement):
Turns out she’d been fed that line of shit from her care coordinator.
James E Powell
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Saw that yesterday. They do learned. They learned that their careers are what matters, not truth, not the public good, not democracy. And they learned that no matter how bad the president is, they do not suffer from it.
They all love Trump. And they resent Biden and his administration for being a competent & focused on their jobs instead of providing them with hot content every day.
Tazj
@germy: I really wish there was a plot to confiscate guns. More people are being killed in these crazy road rage incidents and a 3 year old got shot in my area watching fireworks with his dad and grandparents.
Meanwhile Republicans are actively campaigning for people to not get vaccinated. Ted Cruz is happy to tell you that he’ll do everything he can to protect your right to an early death. Mo Brooks just gave a speech encouraging Americans to sacrifice themselves like our ancestors at Valley Forge. He thinks Americans should be willing to die for what? The freedom of not getting a vaccine or bringing Biden down? Of course he leaves out the inconvenient fact that Washington had troops inoculated against smallpox.
They’re not pro-life, they’re pro-death.
James E Powell
@Baud:
Press/media love Vance because he serves their never-ending project to portray America’s ignorant, hateful bigots as RealAmericans® who are misunderstood paragons of virtue.
Did you see last week’s “Trump voters needed stimulus checks to pay for rent & medical care, but still hate Democrats” article in the WaPo? They’re just decent, god-fearing people, you see.
Soprano2
@Baud: Actually, of the MO GQP running for the open Senate seat, Greitens is the worst candidate. He was a Trump-in-training when he was governor. That’s why he has a 40 point lead in the primary race.
trollhattan
Vacuous bag of flesh says what?
Thank you for your service. Now go home. Let somebody else drive.
CaseyL
@karen marie: Why did you not like it? I was fascinated. As with all things Weir, there’s a lot to unpack.
**SPOILERS**
I loved the strong subplot, how ingenious Rocky was in overcoming their incompatible environments in order to come aboard Ryland’s ship.
dnfree
I consider this to be strange. Is anyone familiar with Babylon Bee? I have considered it just another humor site. A social media friend who is both evangelical Christian and free-market capitalism advocate posted this link. The list of signs your child might be a libertarian seems like typical content, but at the bottom there’s an actual request to send money to distribute something called “The Tuttle Twins” to young people to teach them about freedom and libertarianism. Is this just an ad, or is it what the Babylon Bee us actually promoting under the guise of humor?
https://babylonbee.com/news/is-your-teenager-secretly-a-libertarian-9-signs-to-look-for
MagdaInBlack
@dnfree: It says ” sponsored” at the top, in a little gray box you can sorta see. So, advertisement.
JustRuss
*sigh* I was so hoping Trump would carry on the new POTUS tradition of posting his reading list…..
opiejeanne
@CaseyL: You liked it? I’ll read it. I loved “The Martian”, the book, scientific flaws and all.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Dear Mr. or Ms Whisperer,
“By” or “with,” not “on.” A petard is a grenade-like bomb intended, once placed in position, to blow a hole in a wall, gate or other barrier.
/pet peeve
WhatsMyNym
@Immanentize:
Do they really think the autonomous tugs will be allowed in most ports? Or even in crowded water ways?
I can see them being used in areas that don’t use tugs already. though I doubt they would have stopped Evergreen being blown off-course. Use by the Navy make sense.
Brachiator
Coming late to the thread and catching up on the news.
77 percent women! That is an amazing number in itself. It seems as though Biden is quietly determined to make the most of his presidency in a positive way.
Shakti
@dnfree: Per Wikipedia they branched out into a news website.
AFAIK, The Onion hasn’t branched out into actual news.’ McSweeney’s Internet Tendency main site isn’t parody news and it did have a list of all the shit DJT did up until his last day in office but that was clearly marked and you have to look for it now.
Make of that what you will.
NotMax
@dnfree
All teenagers* are libertarians. Not all libertarians are teenagers.
;)
*to varying degree, at one time or another
S. Cerevisiae
@Kay: Dr. Jay Austin with the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth has done some great research on ice cover and albedo changes and warming.
karen marie
@Another Scott: I had no idea. All I remember hearing at the time was he’d died of a drug overdose. That’s really too bad.
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
The general right wing principle is that as long as you criticize Democrats and bash big government, you can take all the government money you want, including welfare and stimulus payments.
ETA. I recall some hard core anti government California home owners bragging about how they didn’t carry fire insurance on their homes to save money and how they would depend on state and federal disaster relief to rebuild if their homes were lost in a brush fire. Their twisted logic was since they hated the government it was okay to take money from it, even by cheating or fraud.
karen marie
@Another Scott: Is that just typing in the address bar?
Kay
Another Scott
@karen marie: Kinda-sorta.
It tells the browser what to do if you don’t type a fully-qualified URL (“https://www.example.com”) in the address bar. So, if one set one up for Amazon and typed “amazon hats” then it would go directly to Amazon’s relevant page (“https://www.amazon.com/hats/s?k=hats”) rather than showing a Google-curated page of links that it thinks you want. (Of course, one would make it more general unless one really liked hats. ;-) Lots of other trickery can be done, also too.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
karen marie
@CaseyL: The guy is a high school science teacher, yet he alone can save mankind, and he’s a fucking drama queen. The reader (Ray Porter) probably didn’t help.
karen marie
@Another Scott: I routinely search that way. Who goes to a google page first? That’s ridiculous! ?
WhatsMyNym
@Another Scott: @karen marie:
You also just save the searches as links for future use (checking for sales, narrowing down your choices, etc..).
WhatsMyNym
@karen marie:
It’s just a better search engine. Amazon’s still needs a lot of work and has biases included in it.
ETA:
trollhattan
@Kay:
112 predicted here. Yay, us! [waves foam finger, keels over]
Another Scott
@karen marie: I’m probably not explaining it well. :-) Click on over.
Cheers,
Scott.
Cameron
@dnfree: Babylon Bee is what my RW friends on FB quote frequently.
smith
@Another Scott: Duck Duck Go makes this really simple, using “bangs”. it’s just an exclamation point before an identifier for the site you want, followed by the search terms. So to search for blue hats on Amazon, you’d type !amazon blue hat in the address bar and it opens Amazon with the search results for blue hats. They have, I think, a couple thousand common sites programmed this way.
Cameron
@NotMax: Hey, you stick one of those puppies up your ass, then you’ll understand.
NotMax
@karen marie
Anyone who in the past has ever used Bing.
:)
@Another Scott
A minor entertainment/time sink for me (YMMV) is peeking into rabbit holes while idling around Amazon; strictly window shopping with no intent to buy, randomly seeing stuff which falls into one of four categories.
1) Wow, didn’t know such a thing existed.
2) Wow, why in the name of FSM does such a thing exist?
3) Wow, that ups the ante on “ugly.”
4) Wow, you’ve gotta be sh*tting me.
;)
mrmoshpotato
@Cameron:
When they aren’t quoting The Onion? ?
Tazj
@NotMax: It’s certainly true of my teenager, who declared to me that no one was taking one dollar out of his grocery store paycheck for union dues.?
I don’t really think he is one, but he’s definitely laser focused on buying his first car.
Citizen Alan
@James E Powell:
Is this a surprise to anyone? Obama saved entire towns in the Midwest from financial ruin, and the filthy ingrates still bitched about everything he did and were eager to vote for TFG.
J R in WV
So, on twitter I saw this AFP story:
Phillip Morris murdered my mom first by hiring fellow students to pass out free smokes at football games at the U she attended, then by promoting false claims that smoking was good for you, and by lastly by making their cigs more addictive by adding addictive poisons to the tobacco in them…
I would rather die peacefully at home than use a “health care” product manufactured by Phillip Morris. Those executives should be in jail for the milliions of murders they committed for money. They shouldn’t be walking around free dreaming up ways to make more money.
opiejeanne
@Kay: There is a point where it doesn’t matter if it’s a dry heat or not, it just hurts. About 105 used to be the number where it became intolerable to me, but I’ve lived near Seattle for over 10 years now and have lost the ability to tolerate for long being in the sun at temps of 75 and above.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
“Hoist on” is an accepted variant.
E. Cobham Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898):
(One scholar says that petar (fart) was likely Shakespeare’s pun to amuse the groundlings, not a variant spelling.)
Brewer again:
There is even a 1912 short film comedy called Hoist on His Own Petard.
opiejeanne
@J R in WV: Agreed.
Side story, Chateau Ste Michelle (just down the hill from my house) was just sold by the tobacco company that has owned it for the past 40 years, to a private equity firm. $1.2 billion. There’s a strong suspcion that they’re really after the land, although the site of the chateau is in a potential flood plain.
They also own 14 Hands, Stag’s Leap, Columbia Crest, Erath, Intrinsic and Patz & Hall, and more.
J R in WV
Big tobacco firms should be confiscated and broken up. All the wealth is/was gained by murder and addictive drug dealing, and they shouldn’t be allowed to keep their ill-gotten gains. We could reduce the national debt and punish the drug dealers.
While I despise the Sackler family companies for their drug dealing, at least their drugs have benefit for those suffering from chronic or acute pain, like cancer victims etc. And if you’re going to need the narcotic pain relief for the rest of your life, the addiction doesn’t really matter,
But tobacco provided nothing to the users but disease down the road. COPD and cancer of the everything. I have lost my mom, aunt, dear cousins, etc all to tobacco poison. Parents of close friends, etc.
Another Scott
@smith: Interesting. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Said it was a pet peeve. Shall stand solo by my punctilious artillery, though, that it makes no sense; replicating a mistake makes it common usage, not correct usage.
/old petar
:)
trollhattan
@J R in WV:
Yup. How many servicemen did they kill proving “free” ciggies in their rations? Dad acquired the habit in the Navy–the IJN didn’t get him but tobacco did.
Another Scott
True…
Cheers,
Scott.
Yutsano
I did some math. $1 trillion divided by 64 million is $15,525*. If that’s true then why the hell are we not increasing Social Security again? I’m sure businesses could handle the extra 2% increase in the payroll tax.
Elizabelle
Could we please have an afternoon open thread? Pretty please? Or even a politics-themed blogpost? We have a morning thread from over 8 hours ago, a sports thread, quilts, and a voting protection project thread that’s pretty specific.
I find this fascinating. Mercenaries hired out of Florida. We have seen Republicans trying to hire mercenaries to be involved in Election Day activities (foiled). I feel like stories like this get studied as “what not to do; how to do better with this next time” case studies.
James E Powell
@mrmoshpotato:
My Trumpster brother quotes it. Some of it’s just the usual stupid, Limbaugh style stuff. But some of it is just awful. I’m embarrassed for him.
James E Powell
@NotMax:
As a high school English teacher, I’ve done what I can to stand against usage obliterating meaning. I cannot say I have succeeded.
I get better results if I don’t say right or correct, but instead say more effective, more precise, clearer, or more easily understood.
Another Scott
@Yutsano: Before Times Atrios agrees.
USAToday (from 2013):
Biden-Harris, Pelosi, and Schumer are showing that Democrats can work on making things better, but there’s a huge amount of stuff that needs to be done. We need to keep it up.
Cheers,
Scott.
2liberal
we here in the phx-burbs are at 110 now.
stinger
@Another Scott: A three-legged stool is the same metaphor used to describe the PPACA before it was passed, then after a few years Republicans in Congress took away one of the legs (individual mandate). From now on, I’m going to demand four-legged stools.