Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

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

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Bark louder, little dog.

The words do not have to be perfect.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Nothing worth doing is easy.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Republicans in disarray!

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Saturday Morning Open Thread: A Job for Everyone Who Wants One

Saturday Morning Open Thread: A Job for Everyone Who Wants One

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Of course, for much of Our Most Important Media, that job would seem to be repeating GOP talking points. But the latest job report has been greeted as genuinely good news. Some perspectives:

Jabs in arms, cash in pockets:

Ankle-biters gonna bite — well, gum — ankles:

Reader Interactions

267Comments

  6. 6.

    debbie

    Has the GQP stepped up to claim credit for the jobs report because they were the ones who kicked the lazy MFs off welfare? //

  9. 9.

    artem1s

    @rikyrah:

    You just know the next variation on the question is going to be ‘why won’t you give credit to TFG for being a home body when he went home on the weekends?’.

  10. 10.

    germy

    I will not make a big deal about a monthly jobs report.

    I will not make a big deal about a monthly jobs report.

    But that was pretty impressive. If it had happened under Trump, they'd demand that he be made president for life.

    Oh, wait, they're doing that anyway.

    — Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) August 6, 2021

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    Wages are rising and most everyone wants in on the action; who could possibly have guessed that could be a thing, especially in the country?

    (hint: most everyone to the left of the Randian nutcases)

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Five Universal Laws of Human Stupidity

    Law 1: Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
    Law 2: The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
    Law 3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
    Law 4: Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
    Law 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

    hat tip to OTB commentor Teve

  18. 18.

    Jeffro

    Btw props to Dana Milbank for calling terrorists terrorists: They’re Trying To Sanitize Their Sedition

    “…the losers are trying to rewrite the history of that day. The terrorists were “patriots.” Theirs was a “normal tourist visit.” They weren’t armed. They were “hugging and kissing” the police. A woman, shot as she breached the last barrier keeping elected representatives from the mob, was a martyr shot in cold blood. The Capitol Police were ill-trained. It was Nancy Pelosi’s fault.

    The losers, again, are trying to write the history. They must not be allowed to succeed — for if they do, they will certainly try again to attack democracy.

    President Biden joined the battle against the revisionists on Thursday as he presented the Congressional Gold Medal to the police who saved democracy on Jan. 6. “We cannot allow history to be rewritten,” he said.

    In a speech honoring the heroism of the police, Biden, at one point brushing a tear from his eye, called the attackers what they were. “A mob of extremists and terrorists launched a violent and deadly assault on the People’s House and the sacred ritual to certify a free and fair election,” he said. “It was insurrection … It was unconstitutional. And maybe most important, it was fundamentally un-American.”

    Keep at ’em, Uncle Joe.  Keep talking about this, because the wired-for-Republicans snooze media are surely falling down on the job.

  19. 19.

    Immanentize

    I’m up and going to the store early because the Immp is gonna make me some fresh rye bread!

    We are leaving for a dash from safe(ish) Boston to not so safe Houston through unsafe TN and AR starting next Tuesday! 1900 mile Car trip with 20 y.o. college son? Parent Purple Heart may be awarded…

  22. 22.

    Platonicspoof

    From the AP article:

     

    But the improvement for Black workers didn’t come because many more of them got jobs. Employment numbers for the group were nearly unchanged from June. Instead, much of it was due to Black people dropping out of the workforce. Last month, 60.8% of all Black Americans were in the labor force, down from 61.6% in June.
    Ameriprise’s Price said he was puzzled by the diverging trends and couldn’t immediately think of an explanation.

     

    My bolds.

  23. 23.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: Then there is commuter time! When I take the commuter train into work downtown, door to door it is about 40 minutes. If, however, I have to drive like so many do, it is 1.5 hours plus each way.  Gotta love Boston traffic!

  27. 27.

    germy

    Meanwhile…

    More news on 1/6 investigations:

    ex-acting DAG Richard Donoghue did a closed-door interview w the Senate Judiciary Committee today.

    Jeffrey Rosen, the acting AG at the end of the Trump admin, is set to provide testimony in the coming days.t.co/vR6HsdOqSH

    — Katelyn Polantz (@kpolantz) August 6, 2021

  28. 28.

    debbie

    @Jeffro:

    Yep, why I was so glad Gym was kept off the panel. His longstanding policy of looking the other way would not have served the country at all well. //

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: Way way back when, when dirt was still new, I had an office job in downtown STL. I loved taking the bus. Got to sit and read my paper on the mostly empty bus while drinking my morning coffee. No muss, no fuss. I never understood why anyone would do otherwise unless they had no choice.

  31. 31.

    PST

    I just got back from walking the dog. I realize that economic growth is uneven, and when some places look like they’re booming others remain depressed. That said, I just can’t believe all the change I see in my corner of Chicago these days. There are buildings coming down and new buildings going up everywhere I look. Earlier this summer, a building a block away came down more or less overnight, giving me a view of unused grain elevators farther down the street. Today the grain elevators have simply disappeared. I understand a new Metra station is going up there, so commuters to the West Loop don’t have to go all the way to the Loop. My street was mostly food processing and wholesaling when I moved in. Now it’s tech companies, and all around high-rise apartment buildings are going up. No condos, all rental, seemingly in the expectation that many thousands of young people will soon be looking for places to live where they can walk to work. Three buildings are going up within a few blocks of me designed from the ground up for biology labs to attract life science and pharma companies. (We can be the new Wuhan.) As the owner of an urban dog, I take walks from dawn to dusk, and no matter what time of day there are tons of men and women in hard hats cutting trenches in the streets, pouring sidewalks, going in and out of manholes, and erecting towers. From the narrow perspective of where I sit, the economy looks like a runaway train, with more jobs coming.

  32. 32.

    montanareddog

    Oh, FFS. I was watching the Olympics earlier and some horsey event came on. The commentary mentioned Jessica Springsteen

    Me: “I think that’s Bruce Springsteen’s daughter”

    17yo on the sofa who only stops wearing his headphones when they fall off while he is sleeping: “Who’s Bruce Springsteen”

    Am I really that old?

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @germy:

    I’m upset about this. They had an actionable, specific plan to overturn that election. The entire public commentary at the time was that it was just Trump people coming to terms with their loss and that everything was just fine. We were misled, and we were misled in a way that absolutely benefitted the Republican Party and individual members of the Trump Administration. The public were kept in the dark, for months. The people that didn’t reveal this protected the bad actors by not revealing it. If the public had been told there was an ongoing coup plan inside the Trump Administration and that at least one of the Trump hires in the DOJ was aggressively promoting it- the truth-  the public perception of that period would have been entirely different.

    I am sick and tired of finding out what is going on in my country six months after the events. These people are taking it upon themselves to manage what we find out and when we find out about it. They’re way out of their lane.

  38. 38.

    JMG

    Good morning from downtown Brooklyn! It is my son’s wedding day. My custom fit new suit will come off the hangar for the first and who knows, maybe last, time. Gonna be hot and humid, even in Prospect Park where the wedding will take place. We all nearly melted during the rehearsal. I awoke making minor mental changes to my wedding toast. I am very happy, and he is very lucky to be marrying a wonderful young woman who is already a superb addition to my family. Can’t lie though. Part of me is counting the hours until I’m back on Cape.

  40. 40.

    mrmoshpotato

    @montanareddog:

    17yo on the sofa who only stops wearing his headphones when they fall off while he is sleeping: “Who’s Bruce Springsteen”

    Am I really that old?

    Oof.  So much great music, kiddo!  (And not just The Boss.)

  41. 41.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Immanentize:

    Louisville once had a really nice interurban train system and an efficient set of trolley loops (in fact, my great grandmother was killed by one in 1934, saving one of my great uncles or aunts). Story goes that GM bought up the lines, shut everything down and ripped up the tracks sometime in the 40s or 50s.

    Dumbest decision ever. I’d totally enjoy a short car park trip with train commute.

  42. 42.

    Nicole

    @montanareddog:

    Am I really that old?

    Yes (as are the rest of us).  But in fairness, if he’s 17, he’s a good 35 years away from Bruce at his peak in the mid 80s.  When I was 17, I wasn’t all that familiar with artists who dominated music in the early 1950s.  So it goes.  Those glory days, they pass you by.

  43. 43.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: Your comment made me think of yesterday’s Washington Post obituary of psychologist Albert Bandura. He is known for his theory of social learning. When Bandura was 90, he wrote what sounds like an interesting book: Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm and Live With Themselves (2016).

    Bandura’s parents emigrated to a small town in Saskatchewan from Poland and Ukraine. They saved enough money to buy a small farm where they eked out a poor living. Things got so bad once they had to strip off a layer of their thatched roof to feed their cattle.

    Bandura learned carpentry skills while in high school, and used them to support himself while getting a degree from the University of British Columbia at Vancouver. He got a PhD from the University of Iowa in 1952 and then joined the faculty at Stanford, where he remained the rest of his career.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @PST: I heard on the radio yesterday that commercial construction is lagging while residential is booming. All I could think was, “It’s all booming here.” Almost enough to bring me out of retirement.

    Not.

    @montanareddog: Am I really that old?

    If you have to ask, you have your answer.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It is booming. I have never seen anything like it. They had no “summer slowdown” in manufacturing here at all- there’s usually a slowdown and that’s when they all take their vacations- it just didn’t happen. Kids start school here in two weeks and there was no break for hourly people at all.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @germy:

    We need all the information now. It’s 7 months after when we should have gotten it but now we need all of it. If the play is going to be “throw it to the state legislatures” we need to be prepared for that and look at the specifics of what they planned and which people were willing to go thru with it. We already know there was one Right wing lawyer in the DOJ who was actively working on it- there are others.

  50. 50.

    montanareddog

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I did see “Blinded by the Light” and despite its cheesiness and predictability, I still found it fun. Hell, man cannot live by Tarkovsky and Bela Tarr alone.

  51. 51.

    HinTN

    @Immanentize: If you come by these here parts (near enough to the I-24 / I-59 junction) you can stop for a meal or just a rest in one of the most beautiful locations in my known world. WaterGirl can put you in touch.

  54. 54.

    germy

    @Kay:

    I’d like all hearings televised.  I’d like to see aggressive questioning, and not limited to little 2-minute soundbytes.

  55. 55.

    Spanky

    Woo hoo!

    After a record start to Atlantic hurricane season in May and June, tropical storminess shut down in mid-July. But signs point to a dramatic ramp-up in activity in the next two weeks, with a number of named storms likely to develop in August and an increasing potential for U.S. impacts.

  57. 57.

    Geminid

    @Immanentize: Yesterday you were asking about @Sasha Beauloux’s posture towards John Fetterman. I told you that she had said she was going to lay off Fetterman until Labor Day. This resolution did not last. Yesterday, after Conor Lamb announced he was running for the Pennsylvania Senate seat, war broke out on Twitter. Like a good Napoleonic general, Beauloux marched to the sound of guns and opened fire.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @germy:

    They need a litigator to ask the questions. They can submit their questions ahead of time and a professional litigator can organize them and ask them. They can do their own follow up questions based on the facts that are established in the first portion and the follow up questions those facts raise. The valuable thing in the hearings is time but they need a complete notion of that that- not their individual time- not “your time is up”- the whole thing. They should welcome this. The first part is the grunt work.

  62. 62.

    Skepticat

    @Immanentize:

    We are leaving for a dash from safe(ish) Boston to not so safe Houston through unsafe TN and AR starting next Tuesday! 1900 mile Car trip with 20 y.o. college son?

    As last month I did an 1,900-mile international/East Coast trip with three cats and a very talkative friend who’s become a keto-diet evangelist, you have my profound empathy. I hadn’t yet been able to be vaccinated, so another friend sent me a loooong list of instructions for avoiding problems, including avoiding rest area facilities in favor of trips into the woods. All in all, it was fine (we skipped the woods), and I hope your trek will be as easy and even enjoyable.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Well, yes, but in this instance that’s not their fault. They were operating with what they knew. I actually think they did a great job as far as consistently and constantly rebutting the lie that Trump had won. I wasn’t unhappy with their work at all during that period.

    I’m not blaming anyone who was operating without information. We didn’t know because certain key people made a subjective decision that we shouldn’t be told. I resent that. I don’t think that is any way their job. DOJ lawyers aren’t responsible for the political fall out of events or facts.  It isn’t their job to manage public perception of the government. They will not be able to do that without interfering politically. The minute they’re managing perception they’re interfering politically. Those two things can’t be uncoupled.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @germy:

    It’s just that people know how to do this already. It doesn’t have to be “well, I was a state AG back in 1993 so I know how to ask questions and establish a timeline and facts, sort of, I think”.

    That’s a job. Give it to someone who is really good at it and does it every day. It’s okay! Once that’s done they can do their follow up questions.

  68. 68.

    Nicole

    @Immanentize: Route 40?  Ohhhhh… we had to drive it last year in June on our way to OK and yeah, Arkansas… not only not a mask in sight but angry glares at our masked selves when we stopped for gas.   My thoughts are with you both.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    We saw the same thing with Comey- even worse for him but he’s the worst so that’s not suprising.

    This agonizing is uneccesary. That facts are what they are. Public perception of the facts is not their job.

    The minute they’re down that road, “gosh I wonder if we reveal this if it will be shitstorm” they’re off track and out of their lane. It would have been a shitstorm. That’s okay! They don’t control all subsequent events.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    “But…but people will think there are treasonous insurrectionists in the DOJ!”

    There ARE. That is TRUE.  It’s somehow better for “credibility” that we not be told that in a timely manner? Are they more or less credible now that we have their self-serving narrative of what transpired 7 months after it happened?

  71. 71.

    PST

    @germy:

    WE WERE LITERALLY SAYING IT IN REAL TIME WHILE PEOPLE LIKE YOU CALLED US CRAZY. WTF.

    I think Hayes is absolutely right to say that the draft letter to be sent by the DOJ to Georgia officials adds an important new dimension to our knowledge of the attempted coup. The idea that the insurrectionist mob would somehow succeed by force in overthrowing elected government can sound like a hairbrained scheme that could not possibly succeed. But if it were combined with alternative panels of electors endorsed by the legislatures of key swing states based on DOJ findings of possible or probable fraud, then the mob’s role in terrorizing Pence and wavering Republicans in Congress begins to sound more like a plan that could have worked. That letter really brought home the need for the House committee to dig deep into the plans that preceded January 6. It worries me much more to learn more about the legal strategy outlined in that letter that I already was based on the incitement of a mob and browbeating phone calls from TFG and his henchmen to state officials.

  72. 72.

    Central Planning

    @OzarkHillbilly: When I was in college, we brought Meatloaf (singer, not good) to campus for some special weekend.

    The concert was great, but it was painfully loud. I think my ears rang for two days. Anyway, during the show, multiple people asked me to ask the band to turn down the volume a little. So I did.

    The response was “If it’s too loud, they’re too old!” Clearly they needed it louder to hear the band.

    I must admit, I do love loud music that I can feel throughout my body. We saw Springsteen years ago. Brought earplugs and it was still loud but didn’t end up with tinnitus after the show

    Also, too: Years ago I bought a USB chargeable plasma lighter. I thought it would be a great way to not have to buy BiC lighters. The first time I tried it all my kids winced in pain. The transformer frequency was high enough for all the yoots to hear it. My wife and I were blissfully unaware of it. They could hear it when I was at the other end of the house, testing for science.

  74. 74.

    germy

    Rudy Giuliani was making stuff up when he claimed contacts w/ current FBI agents & hinted a surprise on Hillary Clinton in 2016. His claims had an impact on Comey, who days later upended the campaign with letter to Congress. @DevlinBarrett told ya t.co/qUmoRZOIdq— Evan Pérez (@evanperez) August 5, 2021

  76. 76.

    Geminid

    @Kay: One thing I like about the Select Commitee is that there are only nine members. Five of the seven Democrats are fairly senior, and the other two, Raskin of Maryland and Luria of Virginia, are very solid members of the class of 2018. I think they will let pros take the lead in developing testimony.

    Elaine Luria and another commitee member, Stephany Murphy of Florida, face tough reelection campaigns next year. But they both are serious people, and I don’t look for them to grandstand.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @PST:

     based on DOJ findings of possible or probable fraud,

    But it was the same play as Ukraine. They did it not once but twice and both times the target was Joe Biden. Because it wouldn’t have been “findings”. It would have been complete lies presented by a prosecutor to achieve a political objective. “All we need is for you to say Biden (then the election) is under investigation”.
    It was not in anyway unimagineable that they would do this. They had just done it.

  83. 83.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    And this, my friends, is why America can’t have nice things. Our first amendment jurisprudence (like everything else jurisprudentially) sucks.

    Now, do I believe him? Probably not, but either way it’s terrible.

  84. 84.

    Kathleen

    @Immanentize: Have a safe trip! Speaking of which, I remember a Parade article years ago about Ken Griffey Jr’s mom driving him to Arizona from Cincinnati for his first spring training. She said their biggest fight would be about the music but I believe she said her playlist would probably win.

  85. 85.

    sab

    @Kay: And Cable News acts like the acting AG and his deputy were so brave for not signing on and are so brave for speaking up now. Better late than never, but jeez.

  86. 86.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Kay: That’s been my take on all of this since the installation of Shrub. Bottom line is: At best, institutions protect themselves, not the electorate.

  89. 89.

    PST

    @Kay: Yes, of course, these would be “findings” and not findings. The draft letter was bullshit start to finish. And I agree that this conforms to the Trump playbook, so it is not unimaginable by any means. However, I still firmly believe that we have a better, more specific, picture now than we did before of the plot, making disclosure of the letter important both to understand the past and to anticipate future designs. Moreover, there are always people saying that we should not attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. Not this time. This should encourage them to dig deeper, first and foremost to see if there is equally convincing evidence that this Clark character prepared letters for the other states. Who gave him his orders? What exactly did TFG ask Barr to do? If Barr can’t hide behind privilege he may well tell the truth. I doubt he has much stomach for perjuring himself to help his old boss these days.

  90. 90.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @PST:
     

    But if it were combined with alternative panels of electors endorsed by the legislatures of key swing states based on DOJ findings of possible or probable fraud, then the mob’s role in terrorizing Pence and wavering Republicans in Congress begins to sound more like a plan that could have worked.

    Italicized part is exactly what GA, TX, and other states are doing right now.

  92. 92.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @germy: It really is impressive to continue finding out just how incompetent Comey was…unless, of course, Comey was in on all of it.

  93. 93.

    PsiFighter37

    That question about visiting Delaware is stupid beyond belief. How much time did that reporter spend thinking that would be a great question to ask? Dumbass.

  94. 94.

    topclimber

    @Baud: Perhaps you are numerically challenged, but a negative percentage decrease times a negative baseline is a positive.

    In other words, a positive increase in credibility. And libtards think they are so smart!

  97. 97.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @PST:

    “But it was done in accordance with the law. As conservatives, we believe in law and order, and will absolutely crush any unruly mob that tries to get us to act in any way other than Our Sacred Legal Mandate. Whattaya mean we should have to sweep the undersides of our cars every morning and afternoon for IEDs? Everybody knows that protests should be nonviolent – Ghandi! MLK! Giant puppets and drum circles will cause us to change our ways, not using car bombs or general strikes or kidnappings!”

    – Fox and Friends, 2025

  99. 99.

    PST

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    exactly what GA, TX, and other states are doing right now

    Actually, what GA, TX, and other states are doing is worse, at least if I understand correctly. In 2020, I think that all that was possible by the time that letter could have gone out is persuade the legislatures to convene and appoint an alternative panel of electors for each state, giving a basis (however fraudulent) for the VP not to certify and the House to accept the alternatives and declare Trump the winner. What may be planned for 2024 is that the legislatures intervene earlier in the process to ensure that there is only one panel of electors in those states, the Trump panel, regardless of the popular vote. The legal argument will be stronger that way, backed up by the claim that the electors from each state are whoever the legislatures say they are and that the Constitution does not specify how they are to be chosen.

  100. 100.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Asked why Biden goes home to Delaware so often,  

    Do they think anyone cares?

  101. 101.

    germy

    @debbie:

    He’s an official member of the club.  There’s also a “journalist” from newsmax who always asks dumb questions.

    The other reporters (especially the women) who worked their way up the ranks; I wonder what they think when they hear Doocy jr’s and newsmax lady’s questions.

  102. 102.

    Anya

    @Jeffro: I am disappointed that the MSM doesn’t make as big a deal as they made the Benghazi or Hillary’s emails? The images of the insurrectionists rampaging the Capitol should scare anyone who knows how political upheaval can end a democracy. I feel we’re insufficiently outraged or scared as a country.

  103. 103.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: In the early Oughts I was posted to a contract with DoD’s Base Realignment and Closing (BRAC) project in an office building in Rosslyn VA. Since my home in Baltimore was (barely) more than 50 miles from the worksite, the contract would pay my commuting costs, and (after one disastrous r/t by car) I got a monthly combined pass for the MARC commuter train and DC Metro. So:

    • Lunch and reading material stuffed in a backpack,
    • Motor 10 minutes from home to reliably available and relatively safe street parking a few blocks from “Churn City’s” Penn Station
    • Hustle to the rails (missing the departure about half the time)
    • MARC to Union Station
    • Metro to Rosslyn (1 change)
    • Climb 3-story escalators with pack on my back (they moved so slowly you had to climb them), and
    • Walk 3 blocks uphill away from the Potomac to the office

    Half the time when I walked in someone would note my flushed, sweating face & ask if I’d just run a marathon.

    I loved it:

    • Couldn’t work later than necessary to catch the last MARC home
    • Couldn’t work outside the office at all**, so once departed, free til morning
    • No hassling DC traffic
    • Plenty of transit time to read & write
    • I love European rail and metros, & the routine felt almost Continental

    And, perhaps best of all, in the course of regularly walking (often running) with a loaded pack for long distances, coupled with a new diet, I dropped 50 lbs that I dearly needed to lose in the course of the assignment.

    About the only thing that might tempt me out of nearly a decade of retirement is the offer of a similar gig.

    ** BRAC data and deliberations were completely unclassified, but held far closer than any secret project I’d ever worked. All the Congresscritters with installations in their districts freaked out; even the lowliest of us would get calls from their aides every day (no one knew how they’d gotten the #s, also closely held) trying to worm information out of us so they could prepare attacks on any proposal that might cost business and/or jobs.

  106. 106.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Kaitlan Collins @kaitlancollins · 22h
    Vaccine doses are going to waste in Alabama, where millions remain unvaccinated. A state health official says 7,000 J&J, 11,000 Moderna and about 47,000 Pfizer have expired. “That’s extremely unfortunate when we have such a low vaccination rate,” Dr. Scott Harris says.

    Harris added, “And of course, there’s so many people in the world that still don’t have access to vaccines….That’s really a shame.”

    Are there legal barriers to insurance companies saying they won’t cover Covid treatment in the un-vaccinated? Cause I can’t imagine they want to pay for that. Then again, would that push the bills on to the public?

  109. 109.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I listened to an interview with Jane Mayer (“The Big Money Behind the Big Lie” in The New Yorker) about this and was nauseous after learning how much had been planned for so long and how incestuous the plotters’ relationships were. Sometimes, it felt like Claire Danes’ bulletin board had come to life.

  110. 110.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Kay: In August 2020, a friend sent me a report from a group called the Transition Integrity Project that laid out scenarios for a contested election titled “Preventing a Disrupted Presidential Election and Transition.” (Sorry, tried to link unsuccessfully)

    Also, Thom Hartmann had many rants and guests postulating some of the methods of overturning the election that appear to have been well considered.

    There were warnings…maybe we didn’t trust the sources or COVID occupied our fears, but some were pretty spot on.

    I still believe the tactics did not succeed because of tragic flaws…incompetence and laziness. Like contesting elections in different states with a boilerplate lawsuit.

  111. 111.

    Geminid

    @germy: Guliani claims he lied. Investigators may find out differently. Would Guliani be dumb enough to lie to these investigators about lying on a radio show?  Yes.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Obamacare would bar it :)

    It’s great that Democrats got rid of health insurance exclusions. We don’t want to bring them back.

    It’s going to be a huge hit for Medicaid in states that expanded and a huge hit for providers in states that didn’t. In states that didn’t expand it’s just uncompensated care. A catastrophically bad decision by those GOP governors and the hardest hit will be the “reddest”- rural providers.

  113. 113.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This person was recently invited to the campaign trail by a candidate claiming to be a Democrat.

    Cenk Uygur @cenkuygur
    Social issues are really important and worth fighting over. But maybe the left-wing and right-wing should consider uniting on economic issues against corporate rule. We agree a lot more than people realize on those issues. Then we can go back to kicking each other’s ass.

    Is that the same “but” that comes after “I don’t have a racist bone in my body…” or “I know this isn’t politically correct to say….”

  114. 114.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Story goes that GM bought up the lines, shut everything down and ripped up the tracks sometime in the 40s or 50s.​

    Same story in Baltimore. I’m old enough to remember when trolley tracks ran southeast from the city center, down the median strip on Dundalk Ave about a mile from home.

    IIRC at the time General Motors Coach (GMC) was the only major bus manufacturer, and it made excellent capitalist-robber-baron sense for them to buy and dismantle the trolleys in order to force cities to buy their crappy buses. Bastards.

    Now, almost 70 years later, local metropolitan buses are probably the second most ideal application of regenerative braking EV technology, next to school buses. – (Which was pointed out by someone whose name I’ve forgotten at Netroots Nation as far back as 2008.)

  116. 116.

    raven

    An 18-year-old TikTok star, well-known online as Timbo the Redneck, died over the weekend while performing a truck-driving stunt in his friend’s front yard in Florida.

    The social media celebrity, whose real name was Timothy Hall, died on Sunday after he was tossed from his beloved pickup as he attempted to execute a series of donuts, a maneuver that involves the driver whipping a vehicle in small circles while accelerating. In a YouTube video, Timothy’s future brother-in-law Tony, who appeared in some of his videos, said Timbo fell from the driver’s side window before the truck toppled over.   Hall, who had only just graduated high school this year, amassed more than 200,000 followers and 2.5 million likes with his controversial Confederate comedy videos detailing life in the South or #LivingSouthern. A proud Donald Trump supporter living in Jennings, Florida, the TikToker would often post about fishing, truck stunts, and dipping.

  117. 117.

    Nicole

    Just saw on Twitter: “Jessica Springsteen winning for ‘show jumping’ is like the exact opposite of a Bruce Springsteen song.”  I laughed.

    (I just asked my 11-year-old if he knew who Bruce Springsteen was and he said, “I’ve… heard of him.”  I said, “Do you know what he does?” and he said, “No.”)

  118. 118.

    Kay

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    I actually knew they were going for it. Partly it was because media coverage changed- it became really grave and serious, so my sense was some of them saw the threat.

    I didn’t sleep well and I sleep well, as a general rule.  One of my younger sisters is also a lawyer and she’s smarter than I am. She was a real refuge for me because we could talk – discuss what they might do- without being jeered at. We would text throughout the whole day. Days. For months. I’m the “what if THIS” and she’s the “here’s the statute or case they would use for that” – just back and forth for weeks.

  120. 120.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The Village, and the White House Press Corpse in particular, needs to be nuked from orbit.

    It’s the only way to be sure.

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Spandan @ Reclaim the Fight @reclaimthefight
    OMG. Cornel West really went on Tim Black’s radio show and said Nina Turner was “robbed” because she says she won the election day votes but Brown ran up the margins in the absentee ballots.

    Remind you of anyone?

    terrible things… a disgrace what’s going on….

  124. 124.

    Brachiator

    BREAKING: The economy added 943,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate plunged to 5.4 from 5.9 percent. @jasonfurman and @johnhopebryant respond.

    Going from 5.9 percent to 5.4 percent is not a “plunge,” but it is good.

    There is still a big gap in the labor market, but even with some slowing from this pace of job growth, we will be back to pre-COVID health by the end of 2022—a recovery *five times* as fast as the recovery following the Great Recession, thanks to the vaccine and to the ARP.

    Comparing the Covid economic slowdown to a recession is a continuing error which some economists and many business reporters keep making. It represents a stale conventional wisdom in which it is assumed that any number reported represents something significant.
    Yeah the Democrats should take credit for the recovery and beat the GOP over the head with the data.
    But remember that entire sectors of the economy have yet to recover and many types of jobs may be gone forever.
    And the recovery disguises some fundamental ongoing dilemmas.
    Republicans and their plutocrat masters love low employment, especially if it means that millions of people are forced to work jobs that do not pay a living wage.
    For a good chunk of the population life is good, and this is not just the .01 percent. But for too many people, wages continue to be stagnant. Others cannot afford food and rent, and a $15 minimum wage is not enough to be sustainable.
    The strong recovery is a start. And I tjink that Biden and his economic team understand this. I certainly have heard Treasury Secretary Yellen make comments about deeper economic issues that need to be addressed.

  125. 125.

    Kay

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    I get it. I don’t think downplaying threats is neccesarily malicious. They worry about markets and allies and international perceptions but I think there comes a time to just pull the fire alarm and allow repercussions to happen without interference. Because the interference changes public perception and the public is an ALLY. They need us and for us to operate we need real information. They don’t trust us and they have to.

    There would have been broad public opposition to an attempted coup. Trump has never been popular. Obviously I’m a partisan so I want them tagged with it too, but I’m not asking for “spin” or a lie- I’m simply saying reveal and let the chips fall. It was time to do that. They had to let go of control of the outcome and they wouldn’t. That’s not their call.

  126. 126.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Nicole:

    Just saw on Twitter: “Jessica Springsteen winning for ‘show jumping’ is like the exact opposite of a Bruce Springsteen song.”  I laughed.

    In the day we sweat it out in the saddle

    Of a fifty thousand dollar Arabian show jumper

    At night Chef prepares a paleo friendly dinner 

    Of Grilled wild salmon and braised baby boy choi with garlic and lime…

     

    doesn’t quite scan, does it?

  127. 127.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: Two initial thoughts on that:

    If she didn’t they would make the story about how she’s discriminating against FOX “news”.

    It gives her a perfect chance, day after day, to refute the FOX bullshit.

  128. 128.

    Anya

    @germy: I don’t buy it. He is covering for his buddies. Isn’t the FBI office in NYC the one that welcomed Trump like he was a conquering hero? Do we doubt those MAGA assholes leaked to Giuliani?

  131. 131.

    germy

    @Anya:

    He tends to say different things, depending on whether he’s testifying under oath or not

    He’s such a liar I honestly don’t know what to believe anymore.

  133. 133.

    Suzanne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I loved taking the bus. Got to sit and read my paper on the mostly empty bus while drinking my morning coffee. No muss, no fuss. I never understood why anyone would do otherwise unless they had no choice. 

    Sexual harassment is the bad part of public transit.
    Stop talking to me, creepy old men.

  136. 136.

    Miss Bianca

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It would be a “Warmblood”, rather than “Arabian” jumper. Arabians are endurance-riding champs, but warmbloods dominate international show jumping/dressage/eventing.

    What do you mean, I’m “missing the point”?

  138. 138.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly: If the bus is mostly empty, that makes it a lot more pleasant–but also more likely that the route is going to be shut down or reduced in frequency.

  139. 139.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Miss Bianca: I wasn’t sure about that (I googled after the fact), or braising bok choi, but both sounded fancy to my pedestrian brain.

    I also like the sound of a Connemara or a Hanoverian. I can just picture Patty and Bruce, all in denim and biker boots, “We’re sending Smith down to Kentucky next week to bring up a pair of Connemaras for Jessie…” (and I’m a huge fan)

  141. 141.

    Kay

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    I think they could put some guardrails in at the executive level that are better and more consistent than “let’s all resign to signal to the public that there’s a coup underway” or “let’s have all these national security professionals write a cryptic public letter that very bad things might be happening, or not, can’t say exactly!”

    Fucking crazy making. Is this any way to run things?

  142. 142.

    Ken

    @PsiFighter37: That question about visiting Delaware is stupid beyond belief. How much time did that reporter spend thinking that would be a great question to ask?

    I would guess zero, since my belief is that he’s being fed those questions.

  143. 143.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:
    Somewhat related. On July 27 New York Times reporter Katie Benner (@ktbenner) tweeted:

    Today’s #January6thSelectCommittee underscores America’s current, essential natsec dilemma: work to combat legitimate national security threats now entails calling a politician’s supporters enemies of the state.

    A host of right-wing howler monkeys pounced and claimed that Benner was saying that all Trump supporters are “enemies of the state.” Benner deleted the (perhaps infelicitously phrased) tweet. But there is a valid point lurking in there.

  144. 144.

    Ken

    @raven: Shoe-in for the Darwin Awards, unless they decide to switch format this year and award a group prize to COVID deniers.

  145. 145.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Kay:

    “But whatabout my future in case he’s successful?”

    My thing is this – “show” resignations are for losers. You instead announce that you work for the American people, not a would-be tyrant, and you are holding your post as long as possible.

  146. 146.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Uncle Sil has Jessie’s back!

    Stevie Van Zandt @StevieVanZandt
    It’s her first freakin Olympics! Absolutely incredible! She’s put in years of hard work of course, but still!

  147. 147.

    gene108

    @Anya:

    There are two media ecosystems in this country, the MSM and right-wing media.

    When the MSM and right-wing media converge on covering something is when I feel like I hear about it nonstop, which means only attacks on Democrats get this level of saturation

    Republican misdeeds will never get this sort of convergence, so there will never be the attention paid to it that Benghazi or Whitewater or whatever else got.

  151. 151.

    Nicole

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: She made her first Olympics at 29- she’ll have decades to continue competing if she wants.  Equestrian event riders can stay competitive well into middle age.

    That was a nice tweet from SVZ.

  153. 153.

    Immanentize

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, but what has Nils Lofgren said about it?

    By the way, Bruce is not a very tall man… 5’10” is his publicity height. But he certainly likes to be the tallest mountain in the range:
    Steve Van Zandt: 5’7″
    Nils Lofgren: 5’3″

  155. 155.

    trollhattan

    @raven: 18, so qualifies as “Florida Man.”

    Dumb, dumb, dumb.

    TBF my decision-making at 18 was probably a lot worse than I though it was, but I also didn’t have an audience to show off to.

  156. 156.

    trollhattan

    1-6 case pleas. This one contains a kicker.

    A New Jersey gym owner and a Washington state man on Friday became the first people charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol to plead guilty to assaulting a law enforcement officer during the deadly siege.

    The pair of plea deals with federal prosecutors could be a benchmark for dozens of other cases in which Capitol rioters are charged with attacking police as part of an effort to halt the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.

    An attorney for Scott Kevin Fairlamb, a 44-year-old former mixed martial arts fighter who owned Fairlamb Fit gym in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, said prosecutors are seeking a sentencing guideline range of about 31/2 to 41/4 years in prison. But the judge isn’t bound by that recommendation.

    Later on Friday, the same judge in Washington, D.C., ordered Devlyn Thompson to be jailed in Seattle after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon, a baton. Thompson, 28, of Puyallup, Washington, had been free since his participation in the Capitol riot.

    The pleas come less than two weeks after a group of police officers testified at a congressional hearing about their harrowing confrontations with the mob of insurrectionists. Five officers who were at the Capitol that day have died, four of them by suicide. The Justice Department has said that rioters assaulted approximately 140 police officers on Jan. 6. About 80 of them were U.S. Capitol Police officers and about 60 were from the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department.

    Fairlamb, whose brother is a U.S. Secret Service agent, was one of the very first people to breach the Capitol after other rioters smashed windows using riot shields and kicked out a locked door, according to federal prosecutors. After leaving the building, Fairlamb harassed a line of police officers, shouting in their faces and blocking their progress through the mob, prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

    A video showed him holding a collapsible baton and shouting about disarming the police and storming the Capitol.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Tejpal Chawla said Thompson was on the front lines of the most violent clashes that day, in a tunnel at the Capitol.

    Gonna make for some awkward family gatherings, down the road. And by “down the road” I mean after his sentence is served, hopefully a very long sentence.

  157. 157.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Kay: It is fucking crazy. Like all of the so called journalists hiding the results of their access to milk the public. There is no duty to warn.  The opposite of yelling “fire” in a crowded theater…yelling “there is no fire” in order not to scare or to monetize.

  163. 163.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: I heard on the radio yesterday that commercial construction is lagging while residential is booming.​

    Makes perfect sense to me. People need someplace to live; they don’t need someplace to work if they can do it from home. Toss in hesitance by a substantial fraction (if not an absolute minority majority, whoopsie) of the public to congregate in enclosed spaces and support businesses that cannot by their nature operate remotely and….

    We already have malls and strip malls and office buildings half empty here in Bawlmer. I fully expect commercial real estate to trigger the next financial crash. (So do my financial advisors, who’ve done me pretty well for the last quarter-century.)

    IMO someone above my play-grade needs to be thinking right now about which edifices can be repurposed and which will need to be razed once the market goes prayer-shaped and the owners start tumbling like dominoes…​​​

  164. 164.

    gwangung

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, I really liked that this picture got into a bidding war.

    (On a related note, my theatre is running a reading about a Latinx family with deaf family members. All I have to say…holy crap is it tough to do this kind of work….)

  167. 167.

    SFAW

    @montanareddog:

    “Is Peter Doocy the physical incarnation of Charlie Brown or Wile E Coyote? Discuss”

    WTF? Charlie Brown was a fundamentally good person. His biggest “fault” was that he sometimes placed too much trust or faith in others who did not merit it. Peter Doocy is just a RWMF scumbag, a nepotism hire for a Rethuglican propaganda medium. I have yet to see any redeeming traits showing up in his person.

  168. 168.

    Spanky

    @Uncle Cosmo: Around here (exurban Southern MD), most of the construction is remodeling, and a lot that I know of is to create a better at-home workspace.

    Whether employers like it or not, employees are making long-term commitments about their work environments.

  169. 169.

    trollhattan

    @Immanentize:

    I know a now-retired SS agent who did candidate interviews, which include a stint hooked to a polygraph. They work hard to weed out the weirdos and cowboys, especially because most applicants are LEO and military.

    It’s for sure not perfect but they do understand what’s at stake.

  171. 171.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Jeffro: milbank & cillizza not boys anymore?

    @PST:  then again, chris hayes also told us in many ways hillary would govern to the right of trump…

  172. 172.

    trollhattan

    @SFAW: ​
     Suspect they’re alluding to his Charlie Brown-Lucy with football relationship with Psaki. She’s gonna pull that football away, Peter, and yet there you are, kicking at air every time.

  175. 175.

    Immanentize

    @trollhattan: Its one of those worlds where once you pass your candidate tests, there is really no follow up. Ask the SS guys for the Kushners who thought it was funny to foul the Obama’s bathroom and room given to the SS as a staging space. I will never forget that little horror.

  178. 178.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Cameron: no, it’s an allusion to el santo socialista de monteverde collaboraring with haw-haw hawley in december 2020 & january 2021 on proposals to boost the workingclass.

  179. 179.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:

    A lot of them are little children having a pout because they think the world that they think they are helping to build should look like the one in their tiny minds, and the real world doesn’t. They don’t like the real world, they think that their vision of a make believe world is perfect, minorities know their place and money is the most important thing and people with money are smarter than people with less and should be running everything because they are smarter, after all they have money.  They come at the real world with unreal expectations, unreal ideals and have no idea that the world can change and not in a direction that is not the one in their tiny little minds.

    At their core they are exclusionists. They think the world will be better when it is ordered, white, monied and likely religious. All will be right with the world if it would just move right. They are simplistic drones who couldn’t recognize complexity if it smacked them in the head. And there are quite a few of them.

  180. 180.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @trollhattan: maybe his brother was one of el jefe’s praetorian guard cheering the events from the white house with jarvanka, el jefecito, kimberly guilfoyle, & the rest.

  181. 181.

    Steeplejack

    Darwin Award (Posthumous) nominees coming thick and fast.

    Not long before his death, Leslie Lawrenson shared a video saying he trusted his immune system and would not go to hospital.
    t.co/1JU9f1TsQf

    — Metro (@MetroUK) August 5, 2021

  182. 182.

    PST

    @Nicole:

    Although that dinner does sound delicious.

    Absolutely! I was making my grocery list when I saw that, and it now includes everything I need. It made me realize that I’ve never cooked bok choy. I never even knew it existed until I was a law student, like J.D. Vance and fizzy water.

  183. 183.

    PST

    @stinger:

    ( ❤️ urban dog ❤️ )

    You would never know she was born Amish. I live in a third floor apartment on a street with a fair amount of pedestrian traffic these days. Bernie and I often hang out on the balcony for hours, one of us reading, and both of us occasionally shouting out to passing friends. More than once when we were out walking I’ve had someone come up to us and say, “Look, it’s Balcony Dog.”

  184. 184.

    frosty

    @OzarkHillbilly: For 14 years I commuted from Baltimore to Arlington VA via the MARC commuter train and two Metro lines. I told people at my next job that the thing I missed most was my afternoon naps. There were days I’d be asleep before we left Union Station. And with kids and dogs, the only time I could wake up without having to jump up and do something was about 30 minutes later around the BWI station.

  185. 185.

    Ken

    @Steeplejack: Darwin Award (Posthumous) nominees

    I thought it was always posthumous.  Do they have a special category for people who removed themselves from the gene pool but survived?  Say by, oh, castrating themselves while holstering an un-safetied pistol?

  188. 188.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:

    Golf is a manly sport, played by hardcore athletes. The last president rode around a golf course cheating on his score. What could be healthier and more athletic than that?

    OK I just retched a bit typing that.

  191. 191.

    SFAW

    @trollhattan:

     Suspect they’re alluding to his Charlie Brown-Lucy with football relationship with Psaki. She’s gonna pull that football away, Peter, and yet there you are, kicking at air every time.

    I doubt it. The football meme is not applicable. Psaki is not a mean-spirited person the way Lucy was (in the football situation, I don’t mean Lucy’s persona in general), and she’s not leading Douchey on with the equivalent of “I promise I won’t yank the football away at the last second.” Psaki is just responding to a dishonest moron who keeps trying to play “gotcha!”, and she probably lost her patience for that shit six months ago.

  192. 192.

    Ken

    It does occur to me that

    “America can beat the delta variant just as we beat the original.”

    isn’t that encouraging, if you remember that the original wasn’t so much beaten by us, as by delta.

  194. 194.

    frosty

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: (Railfan here). There’s a lot more to the story than the GM/Firestone buyouts. Interurbans were built at the turn of the century, many parallel to steam railroads, to siphon off their passenger traffic, which of course was unprofitable to the railroads. When the Depression hit, many went under. Add in the boom in automobiles and there was no way they could compete.
    There are a couple left which are now commuter rail lines: Chicago, South Shore and South Bend is one of them.​
     
    Losing the right-of-way was a blow to rebuilding rail transit too.

  195. 195.

    Redshift

    @Ruckus: The core of conservatism everywhere is the promise of a return to an idealized past that never existed. And it’s always racist and classist because the real reason “everyone” was happier and better off then is that they never had to listen to the people who weren’t.

  198. 198.

    Soprano2

    It really is true here that there is a job for anyone who wants one. It might not be your dream job, but there are jobs. Almost every employer is looking for people, at all salary levels. The end of the pandemic unemployment in June made a little difference at the margins, but there are still “help wanted” and “text to apply” signs everywhere. The temp agency Penmac is advertising rides to work and getting paid daily. If you don’t have a job here it’s either because you can’t work or don’t want to.

  199. 199.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    I am sick and tired of finding out what is going on in my country six months after the events.

    Same here. And then finding out that no one will ever be held responsible. That those who would destroy our democracy have high paid jobs and are given free access to the mass media, book contracts, etc

    The reason for it is that they protect the rich. The keep tax rates & wages low, make regulations insignificant, and keep it all hidden behind a wall of culture war bullshit.

  200. 200.

    Miss Bianca

    @Nicole: Arabians are *the* endurance breed. If you want to be competitive at the 100-mile endurance race level, which is the elite level, it’s pretty much de rigueur to have an Arab or an Arab cross.

    (I don’t know this from experience in endurance riding, although the little Arab gelding I used to ride was a hella trail horse. Too bad he was hella everything else, too, including reactive, or I’d have bought him. It’s just that I happened to interview an endurance rider for a magazine article, so that’s how I know what little I know about the sport.)

  201. 201.

    burnspbesq

    @NotMax:

    Rice has the advantage of being a private school and therefore outside the scope of Abbott’s bullshit executive orders.

  202. 202.

    Miss Bianca

    @trollhattan: I gotta wonder if his brother the Secret Service agent was aiding and abetting, to be honest. Does that sound paranoid?

     

    ETA: Or, you know, what Imm said.

  205. 205.

    James E Powell

    @germy:

    @Kay:

    I am also really sick of “behind closed doors” interviews rather than public testimony, under oath. Like Hillary Clinton did for a whole day.

  206. 206.

    Matt McIrvin

    @SFAW: There’s always the other Charlie Brown, who is a clown, that Charlie Brown.

    You’re gonna get caught, just you wait and see. “Now why is everybody always pickin’ on me?”

  207. 207.

    Mike in NC

    Spotted a copy of the National Enquirer at Publix, with the cover story “Is Biden Senile?”. Of course the sleazy tabloid is owned by dirtbag Trump buddy David Pecker, who probably should be investigated by the Attorney General of New York just on principle.

  209. 209.

    Nicole

    @Miss Bianca:

    Too bad he was hella everything else, too, including reactive, or I’d have bought him.

    An Arabian, reactive?  You don’t say!  They’re so gorgeous to look at, but man, talk about a breed I have no desire to ever own.

  210. 210.

    trollhattan

    @dnfree: I mostly hear him spout nonsense, and that’s nothing new. Deciding Obama is a traitor or what have you was when it became too obvious to ignore.

  211. 211.

    dmsilev

    @dnfree: I,think it was a long drawn out process. One signpost was when he turned hard against Obama because he thought he had been slighted by not getting an invitation to Obama’s second inauguration (or maybe it was that his invite wasn’t good enough, I don’t remember).

  212. 212.

    burnspbesq

    @Nicole:

    Jessica Springsteen hit the parental lottery: she had parents who were stinking rich and extremely supportive. But she actually did all the hard work to get where she is in her chosen profession. Props to her.

  213. 213.

    Miss Bianca

    @Nicole: Yeah, that little stinker dismounted me more often than any other horse I’ve ever ridden. Would just start corkscrewing when he freaked out about something till he’d screw me right out of the saddle and dump me on my ass (and it was *always* on my ass. Ow, my tailbone!).

    The day he did it twice in 20 minutes was the day I said, “forget it, I’m never getting on this horse again.” And I haven’t.

  214. 214.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Miss Bianca: In my  late teens I worked for a woman who raised Arabians. After chores we would go riding. My choice was an Arab-Quarter cross named Scheherazade, but Puppy to her friends. Puppy had been a jumper, and lord she loved to jump. I could feel her bunching up for a stick in the path. A simple “psst” took her out of that mode, but we allowed logs and small streams. I still miss that horse. ?

    • I didnt wish to ride the fancy pricey ones she had.
  215. 215.

    TheflipPsyd

    @PsiFighter37:  Does Peter Doocy have family in Northern Delaware? Biden’s visits homecoming rile a certain portion of the Delaware population due to the traffic jams or as they call them “Joe jams.” I get tired of the complaint. One of the very first things I noticed when I first moved here 16 years ago were how much people complained about the traffic. Coming from Philadelphia and having had to commute on the Schuylkill Expressway twice a day, I actually  thought traffic was so much better.

  217. 217.

    dopey-o

    @OzarkHillbilly:, I had an office job in downtown STL. I loved taking the bus. Got to sit and read my paper on the mostly empty bus while drinking my morning coffee.

    Back when STL had a morning paper, and a rather good one, the Globe Democrat. Which unfortunately ran opinion pieces by one Pat Buchanan. The Globe’s editorial policy was “write stuff to scare the olds, Union thugs! Scary black people!”

  218. 218.

    Miss Bianca

    @MagdaInBlack: Actually, if I were going to get into endurance riding myself, I’d look for a cross rather than a full-blood Arab – a Quarter/Arab or Anglo- Arab would be what I’d want.

  219. 219.

    L85NJGT

    @Nicole:

    I’ve seen them raced on the offtrack TV, I suppose as a novelty. They’re really slow compared to thoroughbreds, or even quarter horses.

  220. 220.

    Ken

    @dopey-o: They also ran pieces by Phyllis Schlafly, one of which I remember as particularly irking. Voyager had discovered the “braided” rings of Saturn, and astronomy expert Schlafly leapt in to proclaim “braiding means a Braider”. In case the capital letter didn’t make it obvious, she name-dropped God repeatedly in the rest of the column.

    Apparently her version of God had nothing better to do than to diddle the laws of physics to make pretty patterns that (at the time) were not visible from Earth. Astronomers have since figured out that the braids are no such thing, instead being an illusion caused by the varying density of a couple of the smaller rings, in turn caused by the quite non-miraculous Newtonian gravity of a couple of nearby moonlets.

  222. 222.

    Nicole

    @burnspbesq:  Oh, yeah, I’m certainly not rolling my eyes because riding is hard (god knows it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever learned to do), but also yeah, to pursue it at that level definitely requires a certain amount of hereditary wealth (see also Bloomberg’s daughter).  The only equestrian athletes I can think of who generally come from more blue collar backgrounds are jockeys.  And most of them spend their careers financially struggling.

  224. 224.

    Montanareddog

    @SFAW: I was absolutely referring to the football meme. Both Charlie Brown and Wile E Coyote make the same dumb mistake over and over again, like Doocy. I was not at all linking Jen Psaki to Lucy (nor to Roadrunner for that matter)

  225. 225.

    Kay

    @James E Powell:

    I am also really sick of “behind closed doors” interviews rather than public testimony, under oath. Like Hillary Clinton did for a whole day.

    It’s time to tell people what happened. Just that- what happened. January 6th was the end of this coup attempt, and is probably the least important part. It had been going on for months.
    We learned some things- impeachment is “an empty revolver hung on a wall” – it’s a mechanism and process that is completely useless when it’s most needed. The only time you really need impeachment is when one faction abandons all norms, but that also means it won’t work at all, see: abandons all norms.

  226. 226.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ken: Reminds me of the Jack Chick tract in which the clean-cut Christian youth reduces his sneering atheist science professor to speechlessness by asking him how, if there is no God, protons stick together in the atomic nucleus even though like charges repel. You can’t explain that without Jesus!

  227. 227.

    Nicole

    @L85NJGT: Yeah, which is funny as every Thoroughbred alive today traces its lineage back to one of three foundation Arabian stallions.  But your average TB is now much faster than your average Arabian.  I think QH were originally a mix of a Thoroughbred foundation sires and local horse breeds (which were likely descended from horses brought over from Spain).

    I like Quarter Horses; I find them (generally) relatively chill and they can do a lot of things.

  229. 229.

    Another Scott

    ObOpenThread – More on Tuckems.

    “Mr. Carlson himself has a family connection with the Hungarian leader — his father, Richard Carlson, is listed as a director of a Washington-based firm that has lobbied for Mr. Orban in the United States." t.co/H6pwV8wX6L

    — Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) August 7, 2021

    “There’s a club, and you’re not in it.”

    (via nycsouthpaw)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  230. 230.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Nicole: One of my favorite books as a kid was ” King of the Wind” by Marguerite Henry, which is a fictionalized version of the Godolphin Arabian.

  232. 232.

    WaterGirl

    @trollhattan:

    Gonna make for some awkward family gatherings, down the road.

    Interesting take.  My first thought was to wonder if the Secret Service brother shares this guy’s sentiments.

  239. 239.

    Another Scott

    ObOpenThread – Meanwhile, in South Korea…

    China clamps down on cram schools — but South Korea is a different story
    p.dw.com/p/3yYP8

    […]

    Though Appenzeller set up his Paichai school as a cover for missionary work, which at the time was not allowed, Koreans soon started using it to learn English. 

    A century later, President Chun Doo-hwan, the last authoritarian ruler before direct presidential elections were introduced in 1987 and civil rights were restored, declared war on the private tutoring sector. One of his first official moves in 1980 was to ban all extracurricular private lessons. His motivation was similar to that of the Chinese government today: The idea was that access to education should be fairer and there should be less financial burden on parents. The low birth rate is partly attributed to the fact that prospective parents worry about how to educate their offspring.

    […]

    Obvious parallels (and dangers) in the USA. Will we stop them before the inequality situation gets even worse?

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  240. 240.

    Baud

    Artistic Swimming (formerly Synchronized Swimming) is visually striking but I feel I should be watching it on Broadway rather than the Olympics.

  242. 242.

    Yutsano

    @dnfree: I think it started happening when Obama didn’t invite him to the Inauguration. Before then I recall West being enthusiastic about a Black President finally. But there was a massive heel turn right after inauguration. There were suggestions West took that as a huge snub, but something tells me we’ll never really know for sure.

  243. 243.

    WhatsMyNym

    @Nicole:

    Oh, yeah, I’m certainly not rolling my eyes because riding is hard (god knows it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever learned to do), but also yeah, to pursue it at that level definitely requires a certain amount of hereditary wealth

    Growing up on horse farm (as she did) is probably the biggest help to a future equestrian. Scholarships are offered at certain colleges. There is plenty of money in the business.

    ETA:  my sister loved riding and my parents couldn’t afford to keep a horse.  So we lived near enough to places that she could work at for riding time/lessons.

  244. 244.

    Nicole

    @MagdaInBlack: I loved that book, too!  I was such a Marguerite Henry fan.  My family vacationed on Chincoteague several years in a row due to my obsession with Misty  (only one year for Pony Penning, though, as we found it was a nicer vacation without the crowds).  I had my picture taken with (a very elderly) Stormy!

  245. 245.

    JAFD

    @frosty: Lived, a while back, in Media, Pa – for a while the only town in the US to have a trolley running up and down the main street.

  246. 246.

    Montanareddog

    @Baud: I had a similar thought when I came across the Rhythmic Gymnastics this morning, where a heavily made-up young lady in a sequinned leotard was throwing a hula hoop in the air. Brilliantly done, but it felt more like a circus or vaudeville act, than a sport.

  249. 249.

    Miss Bianca

    @Nicole: 

    Another cool thing about Marguerite Henry was that, besides being a prolific author of horsey tales that I loved to devour, she was a really nice person who valued her young readers and took the time to write personal responses to their letters. (Ask me how I know!)

  250. 250.

    Immanentize

    @PAM Dirac: Everybody is a critic.

    Listening to White Lies today (haven’t for a while!) I realized how much the backup vocals sound almost identical to those of “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”

    My mind is an odd place in which to hang out. But I have to go hang out there every day.

  251. 251.

    Yutsano

    @The Thin Black Duke: ​ No lie told. Cornel jumping to Bernie humping after Obama pretty much confirmed that. Lord knows where his brain is now that Biden is in office. No I’m not going to research it.

  252. 252.

    Yutsano

    Okay so…DeJoy gotta go. Like now. This is blatant corruption.

    DeJoy maintains some financial ties to former company as USPS awards it new $120 million contract t.co/por95FUA4v— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 6, 2021

  254. 254.

    Immanentize

    @The Thin Black Duke: I was so damn supportive of the good Doctor when he left Harvard for Princeton (the first time). And his writing was so good — clear and accurate.

    He has been staring into the mirror too long, I fear.

  255. 255.

    debbie

    @Miss Bianca:

    I had never heard of her, but I ended up selling her books into accounts back in the early 1990s. Her sales were as strong as Hemingway’s.

  256. 256.

    Quinerly

    @Another Scott: I had no idea. Just read Tucker’s father’s wiki page. (Dick Carlson) Must read, imo. I only knew the Swanson Foods connection re second wife.

  260. 260.

    PAM Dirac

    @Immanentize: I was going to listen to all those songs to confirm my memory. I didn’t have my music on the computer I was on, so I thought I’d just go to amazon and steam. I couldn’t find any Grin on Amazon to stream! What is the country coming to. I blame Obama. Wait, am I supposed to blame Biden now? I guess I have to ask  Cornel West.

  261. 261.

    J R in WV

    @germy: 

    The other reporters (especially the women) who worked their way up the ranks; I wonder what they think when they hear Doocy jr’s and newsmax lady’s questions.

    While I have no respect for Dpoocy (sic) nor any stupid RWNJ reporters, there is a great possibility that the most stupid questions are given to these Newsmax and Faux reporters by their management, which may be more stupid than Doocy.

    After all, those reporters were presumably interviewed and hired for those jobs!

  262. 262.

    Nicole

    @Miss Bianca: Oh, that’s amazing!

    @stinger: If I can find the photo.  I fear it may have been lost in one of the floods of my parents’ basement, but at least I have the memory.   She was in her 20s by then.

  263. 263.

    James E Powell

    @Nicole:

    Slate did a whole (pretty funny) article about how Springsteen’s use of “speedball” in “Glory Days” is incorrect

    It is also well-established that you don’t put fuelie heads on a 396.

  265. 265.

    evodevo

    @Miss Bianca: Yeah…you want something to dilute all that hot blood…you don’t want a trail horse who’s gonna swap ends and bolt back down the road at 90 mph every time a squirrel jumps out or a twig falls out of a tree…

  267. 267.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SFAW: I think of him as Whine E. CryOhTea. Them balloon concoctions are as close to fambly jewels as Li’l Doocy is ever gonna boyhandle…

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