Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

This fight is for everything.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

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

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

T R E 4 5 O N

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

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

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Consistently wrong since 2002

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Pure Joy (and Otherwise)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Pure Joy (and Otherwise)

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I knew what the ‘Satchel Paige story’ was gonna be, even before finding the clip:


These are two old guys who have risen to positions nobody ever expected from them — and who are now doing good things that have surprised their supporters almost as much as their enemies. I for one am glad they’re enjoying themselves!

Elsewhere: The horror, the horror!…

ETA: Sorry these latest posts are running late — I’ve been fighting a mild bout of the spindizzies (labyrinthitis) all week, and reading even slower than usual.

Reader Interactions

203Comments

  3. 3.

    Ken

    I must be old. I remember when “BREAKING NEWS” was reserved for, oh, major earthquakes, war breaking out, death of a head of state. “One old guy tells another old guy a baseball story” doesn’t really qualify as “#BREAKING”.

  5. 5.

    Ramalama

    I loved the Satchel Paige chat between Biden and Populous. I didn’t understand the tweet about the ACA.

    Can anyone explain? I made cookies last night. I am afraid if I drink morning Earl Grey (Russian Earl Grey these days because my Trader Joe’s stash is drunk and done), I’ll eat some cookies for breakfast. But clearly I am in need of caffeine. Go ahead, coffee drinkers. Laugh.

  6. 6.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    When Twitter sums up an entire controversy in one devastating tweet:

    If this CRT stuff feels amazingly fake to you, it’s probably because most kids were learning at home remotely right in front of their parents for a whole year before and nobody mentioned this stuff once during that whole time.
    https://t.co/fjp3EykKcE

    — Behemoth & Leviathan, LP ? (@harkov311) October 30, 2021

  9. 9.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Ramalama:

    McConnell famously did not get all the votes he needed to overturn the ACA.  Mavericky maverick John McCain said no.

  10. 10.

    Phylllis

    The translator lady’s face in the trump clip is clearly communicating ‘someone on my staff is in for a helluva written warning when this is done’.

  11. 11.

    Ken

    @Ramalama: The claim was McConnell gets the votes he needs. The ACA was an example to the contrary; he brought the repeal to a vote and didn’t get it passed.

    Subtext is that the Democrats are usually a bit better at making sure they have the votes before bringing it to the floor.

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    Hope you are on the mend soonest, Anne Laurie.  Get your sleep!

    Labyrinthitis, huh?  You remain consistently interesting, and educational.

    Fact sheet from the UK’s National Health Service.  Inner ear infection that affects one’s balance. Should resolve on its own, but takes time. “Labyrinthitis [inflammation of the labyrinth – a maze of fluid-filled channels in the inner ear] is usually caused by a viral infection, such as a cold or flu, so antibiotics will not help. But a GP may prescribe antibiotics if they think your infection is bacterial.”

  14. 14.

    germy

    just passed a strip club with “VAXXED N’ WAXED, NO PASS NO ASS” signs flashing out front, so needless to say that they are leading the way in keeping our city safe and I salute them

    — Clare Blackwood (@clareblackwood) October 29, 2021

  19. 19.

    Gin & Tonic

    I’m going to be the pedant this morning and say that people like that woman in the first Tweet are called interpreters and not translators. Translators do written text, interpreters do speech in real time.

  20. 20.

    Ken

    @Gin & Tonic: Though whether you are an English/Italian interpreter or translator, there is still the expectation that one of the two parties will be using English

    It does make me ponder whether any of the interpreters said “screw it” and just started chatting with the other head of state.  “Yes, he’s still babbling. Our idiom is ‘salad of words’, I believe yours is ‘donkey song’?  Oh, and thank you for pretending you’re having a conversation.”

  21. 21.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    BREAKING: Betsy DeVos’ family claims they were conned out of $100 million when they invested in a failed health care startup.

    I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?

    — Jon Cooper ?? (@joncoopertweets)

    October 29, 2021

    I guess Elizabeth Holmes can’t be all bad …

  22. 22.

    Immanentize

    AL, post when you can and get better soon.

    Labyrinthitis? Wasn’t David Bowie in that film?

  29. 29.

    Ken

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: Remind me, that’s the family that got their money by founding Amway?  In which case, exactly; I really don’t care if she was conned by a company with a slick sales pitch and nothing behind it.

  32. 32.

    germy

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Yes, that sound brought back memories of 30 years ago when our offspring were still infants.

    The woman who recorded the squirrel, she’s really into recording squirrels.  The producers of the latest dune movie used some of her work to create sound effects for one of their tiny sand creatures.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    @Taniel
    ·13h
    The three scholars that the state of Florida is forbidding to testify on the effects of the state’s new voting restrictions are: Dan Smith (@electionsmith), Michael McDonald (@ElectProject), and Sharon Wright Austin.

  41. 41.

    Kent

    @Ramalama:  it also takes 41 votes to block something and 60 votes to pass something in the Senate. McConnell mostly just blocks shit. They only actually tried to pass two major pieces of legislation during the Trump era.  Tax cuts and ACA repeal and were 1 for 2.  They repealed the filibuster for SCOTUS appointees or would have gotten none of those either.  So McConnell’s supposed genius is way overrated.

  42. 42.

    Tony Gerace

    @Baud: … and there’s very little investigative reporting for the past four decades or so …   It’s almost as though most “news” organizations are useless.

  46. 46.

    Immanentize

    Does anyone know what the heck is going on with this supposed ISIS threat in Northern Virginia this weekend (Malls targeted! — ed.: Malls? Those things still exist?)

    Anyhow, seems like a Q fever dream right before the election?

  48. 48.

    Ohio Mom

    Just happy to see you Anne Laurie — when I logged on a little later than usual this morning and your Covid post was nowhere to be seen, I naturally worried about you. I see that my worry wasn’t entirely misplaced, and hope you are feeling better soon.

  49. 49.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie:

    There’s so much shit going on quietly. ? 

    Yup.  There’s so much Rethuglican shut to keep tabs on.

    BREAKING — Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer VETOES three GOP voter suppression bills.

    Go Big Gretch!

    And thanks again to my fellow Illinoisans who helped give our GOP nightmare the boot.

    Oddly, Rauner hasn’t fucked off for Italy yet.  (He claimed he would if he lost re-election.)

  50. 50.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @Ramalama:

    I am afraid if I drink morning Earl Grey (Russian Earl Grey these days because my Trader Joe’s stash is drunk and done), I’ll eat some cookies for breakfast. But clearly I am in need of caffeine. Go ahead, coffee drinkers. Laugh.

    Maybe try some green or white tea? The light colors and flavor are deceptive – the younger the leaf, the more caffeinated it is.

  52. 52.

    sab

    @Kent: I thought it takes 60 votes to move things forward, so they don’t even need to have 40 votes present to stop that, only 11 to prove xthat there are not enough votes to proceed.

    Norm Ornstein wants that as a minimum for filibuster reform. If they want to block stuff then all of their people need to be present to vote to block. No going back to the home district for long weekends if they wamt to stall everythimg.

  53. 53.

    Betty

    Sorry to hear about your labyrinthitis. Having gone through bouts of vertigo, I know how debilitating they can be. Hope it clears up soon. I love the Pope, and Joe’s a good guy.

  56. 56.

    debbie

    @Leto:

    Google Translate prefers your first one. I like it, too, especially when I imagine a couple of hand gestures reinforcing the words.

  58. 58.

    Percysowner

    @Ken: We also didn’t have the media breathlessly asking “Will the Pope allow Biden to receive communion” back then. The Pope already said he wouldn’t withhold communion from anyone, but that hasn’t stopped the conservative Catholics here in the USA from demanding Biden be excluded. A nice conversation between Biden and the Pope means the Pope doesn’t think Biden should go to hell and THAT apparently is news in today’s world.

  61. 61.

    germy

    So the Lincoln Project arranged a tiki torch prank?

    They should really stick to raising millions to create cheaply-made videos, and airing them on Fox.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Exclusive: Derek Chauvin jurors speak out for the first time, recalling ‘traumatic experience’ and that light-bulb moment

    Watching the video over and over took an emotional toll.

    “Sometimes I went home and just went in my room, shut the door and just went to bed for the rest of the day. It was exhausting,” Christensen said. “To see somebody go through what Mr. Floyd went through when it could have been prevented. I just still can’t wrap my mind around how a $20 counterfeit bill ended up in George Floyd’s death.”

    Doud wanted to shut her eyes the first time she watched the video in its entirety. “It bothered me so much,” she said. “How could somebody do that to someone else? And it was a slow death. It wasn’t just a gunshot and they’re dead.” Doud became withdrawn from family members. “It still, to this day, is having effects on me,” she said.

    Deters also saw the full video for the first time in court. “In the back of my head I’m going, ‘Oh my God, oh my God. Just breathe. Just breathe,” she recalled. “And then I think to myself, ‘George Floyd couldn’t breathe.’ I’m telling myself to breathe so I don’t pass out having to watch this. But I’m watching a man who couldn’t breathe.”

    Mitchell wanted to close his eyes. “I had to force myself to continue looking at it. You want to turn away. You want to look at a wall. You want look anywhere else really,” he said. “But even when you look away you still hear it — him crying and moaning. And it’s just like an ongoing nightmare. It’s just like you keep on seeing the video. I’m just tired of seeing it. I just don’t want to see that video ever again.”

    Belton Hardeman recalled the moment in the video when prosecutors said Floyd was dead.
    “I had a big gasp,” she said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before. I don’t think any of us have. It was very, very traumatic. And it just hurt — just hurt my whole soul, my whole body. And I felt pain for his family.”

    About a week after the trial, Christensen said, she visited the street outside the Cup Foods store where Floyd took his last breaths. “I did pay my respects. For me that was a closure, or at least I thought it was going to be a closure,” she said. “We saw everything in court and on videos, but actually being there and seeing it felt … real to me. It helped me kind of close the door a bit. But it’ll be with me forever.”

    I’ve never seen the whole thing, never will. I watched just enough to see the look of utter indifference on Chauvin’s face (and another cop’s face) and that was enough.

  66. 66.

    germy

    @eclare:

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/lincoln-project-pranksters-pose-as-charlottesville-white-supremacists-at-glenn-yougkin-event

    Five people dressed in the uniform of Charlottesville white supremacists—white button-downs, khakis, and tiki torches—stood by the campaign bus of a candidate for Virginia governor Friday for a photo-op. A reporter on the scene in Charlottesville said they chanted, “We’re all in for Glenn,” referring to Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin. They were not, however, attendees of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally or even real Youngkin supporters. They donned the getups as part of a stunt put on by the Lincoln Project, a controversial group of #NeverTrump Republicans. The Lincoln Project confirmed to Vice that it orchestrated the display in a statement: “Today’s demonstration was our way of reminding Virginians what happened in Charlottesville four years ago, the Republican Party’s embrace of those values, and Glenn Youngkin’s failure to condemn it.”

  67. 67.

    sab

    @germy: The thing we need to remember about the Lincoln Project is that they were all okay with all this stuff right up until Trump got elected

    ETA Actually, a lot of them invented rhis stuff. Brooks Brothers riot, for example.

  69. 69.

    MomSense

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It took months to get new heat pumps installed.

    One of our kayak friends passed away over the summer. He loved kayaking with my youngest son (both guitarists).  Anyway today we are driving over to see his wife.  He left his Betsie Bay wood frame to my son.  They also were Bernese Mountain Dog breeders so we will get a nice visit with the dogs today, too.

  70. 70.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Ken:

    As I recall, interpreters during the Trump administration went through Hell, because the people they were translating him to would not believe he was actually saying shit that stupid, incoherent, and childish in syntax.  A lesser problem was that sometimes Trump would abandon grammar altogether and could not be accurately translated.

  71. 71.

    Geminid

    @germy: The local organizer of the stunt fancies herself a James O’Keefe of the left. There is more on this at the end of the late night thread, comments #57-60.

  73. 73.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’ve just learned that a friend has a “chronic, neurological disease.” That’s it. She’s been getting worse for several years and that’s what they can come up with. For treatment, they told her to slow down. To me, it sounds like what my BIL had, like what my first beta reader had, and what my DIL has. IOW, there’s this family of disorders that doctors don’t know much about. Are these things increasingly common?

  75. 75.

    MomSense

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    At one of the protests I went to they had us all lie down in the street for the full length of time.  It was horrible.  No one was on my chest. Just lying on the road became painful after a few minutes.

  76. 76.

    JWR

    @Ken:

    Subtext is that the Democrats are usually a bit better at making sure they have the votes before bringing it to the floor.

    True, and I have faith in Pelosi and Schumer to drag BBB across the line. Even still, and until it’s really done, the image of Kyrsten Sinema pulling another thumbs down stunt haunts my every waking hour. Dems don’t trust her, and neither do I.

  83. 83.

    Anonymous At Work

    Filibusters weren’t common in LBJ’s time.  They weren’t “holy” and “mythical” “traditions”.  They were understood to be tools to prevent civil rights for blacks and protection for Jim Crow laws.  That’s it.

    If McConnell had come at LBJ, the filibuster would have been gone the next day.  If McConnell had held up a Supreme Court spot, “Republican Senate Minority leader’s traditional holiday fasting and self-flagellation” would have been introduced.

    But then again, LBJ had the votes of Rockefeller Republicans (i.e. Republican because Lincoln had been one) and could wrangle votes from Southern Democrats (i.e. Democrats because Lincoln had been a Republican).

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @sab: She was working with the Lincoln Project. Both say this was an ironic attack on Youngkin’s loyalty to trump. But it looks like they said this only after the flimsy ruse was found out.

  91. 91.

    JWR

    @Geminid:

    The local organizer of the stunt fancies herself a James O’Keefe of the left.

    Lauren Windsor. I recently linked to a podcast interview with her, and while I appreciate her politics, she struck me as a bit, i dunno, immature in her tactics? Sort of a “Jane Hamsher of the left”.

    I just finished that thread. Here’s the link to your comment, if anyone’s interested.

  93. 93.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: If DeSantis wasn’t involved in the decision, I’ll eat my shoe. He and his board of wingnuts have totally cowed the University of Florida admin. As an alum, I’m ashamed of them. Just have to remember to be calm and polite next time a poor student intern calls to beg for money on the university’s behalf. It’s not their fault the university’s leaders have been coopted by a fascist.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    @germy:

    My objection to the Lincoln Party is they’re conducting an inter-Party Republican battle from inside the Democratic Party. I don’t care about the heart and soul of the Republican Party and whether they’ve lost their way and I’d prefer their (losing) battle not be conducted within Democratic campaigns. I get that they have nowhere to go, wah, wah, Party Of Reagan. That doesn’t mean I take them.

  95. 95.

    RandomMonster

    I had to look up ‘labyrinthitis’. I suppose it’s the kind of word you learn and don’t forget once you’ve had it. Anyway, be well AL!

  96. 96.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Good lord, no.  Biology is outrageously complicated.  Every human body works differently.  Problems as subtle as 10% less production of one chemical in a grape-sized area of the body can produce catastrophic results, while being damned near impossible to directly test for.  The only way to make any headway on a topic this complicated is to build generation after generation of knowledge on previous discoveries.  That adds the problem of the prejudices of previous generations leaving mistakes that later have to be rooted out, along with everything built on that knowledge.  Medical diagnosis is hard, and we both know a lot and there are vast amounts left unknown.  Licensing requires doctors to constantly take classes and update their knowledge.

    And that’s when a doctor is competent and trying to do a good job.

  98. 98.

    Starfish

    @OzarkHillbilly: I couldn’t watch it either. I saw some of the stills but never the video. Darnella Frazier, a teenager, stood there and took that video to prove that this man was being killed by the police. She had more bravery than I think I would have had under those circumstances.

  99. 99.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    The “Republicans are all powerful” meme is designed as an attack on Dems.

    And a justification for the press/media to lean their way.

  100. 100.

    Immanentize

    @Baud:  and everyone!

    I have two pieces of funny (to me) news from my local municipal elections:

    1) this has been a flyer campaign mostly (always look for the union Beatle!) So one candidate named “Nuzzo” put out a funny (nutso?) Flyer which was meant to be serious I’m sure:
    “Committed to continuous incremental improvements”

    2) our revolution endorsed a slate of mostly young lefty candidates. This morning I found a b/w flyer pretending to be from O.R. touting “Our Marxist Agenda” including “raise property taxes,” “defund police,” and the true tell “Critical Race Theory to be taught in Medford Schools.”

    Hoo boy

  101. 101.

    Kent

    @Percysowner:@Ken: We also didn’t have the media breathlessly asking “Will the Pope allow Biden to receive communion” back then. The Pope already said he wouldn’t withhold communion from anyone, but that hasn’t stopped the conservative Catholics here in the USA from demanding Biden be excluded. A nice conversation between Biden and the Pope means the Pope doesn’t think Biden should go to hell and THAT apparently is news in today’s world.

    Strangely the converse argument is no longer ever made, although it should be.  During Kennedy’s time there was a lot of question about whether Catholics could serve the US faithfully or whether they would be beholden to Rome.  If the US Catholic bishops demand that all Catholics in public service violate their oath of office to the Constitution then we should ask if Catholics should be allowed to serve in public office in the first place.  I would argue no.  If you are going to violate your oath of office to the Constitution then you are unfit for office and should be removed.

  104. 104.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: “Committed to continuous incremental improvements”

    Maybe the candidate is a programmer, and is promising to bring agile practices to government?

    (Which will mean 95% of the time things will gradually get better. The other five percent, suddenly the sewers will run backwards and all the municipal government employees will only speak Klingon, requiring the city be rolled back to last week’s version.)

  105. 105.

    Kent

    @sab:

    @Kent: I thought it takes 60 votes to move things forward, so they don’t even need to have 40 votes present to stop that, only 11 to prove that there are not enough votes to proceed.

    Norm Ornstein wants that as a minimum for filibuster reform. If they want to block stuff then all of their people need to be present to vote to block. No going back to the home district for long weekends if they want to stall everything.

    Well yes, it is also too easy to filibuster.  You are right about that.

    The larger point is that McConnell is far from the legislative genius he is made out to be.  All he knows how to do is obstruct.  He didn’t manage to pass a single piece of partisan legislation using regular order during his entire time as majority leader.  They passed lots of stuff but it was all non-partisan things like defense budgets and such.  Their only major partisan legislative accomplishment, Trump’s tax cuts, was passed using reconciliation.  And even their attempt to repeal the ACA was attempted using reconciliation and failed due to GOPers jumping ship

    The real problem and imbalance in the Senate is that the entire GOP agenda can be passed with 50 votes whereas anything the Dems basically want to do requires 60.  Tax cuts, judges, and deregulation all only require 50 votes.  But any new legislation requires 60.

  109. 109.

    Leto

    @debbie: back from dog walkies, and breakfast; yeah, the first one is the literal translation. But live use is the colloquial way. Cosa is implied with it. As always, I remember most of the cursing. I started watching some “basic Italian language” videos via YouTube recently and some of the basics are coming back

    Edit: another example would be “mother f’er”. Common phrase among English speakers. In Italian it’d be fanculo tu madre/mama! F your mother! Which is understood to be “mother f’er”. And while you might not understand “fanculo”, you understand tu madre/mama, and quickly put it together. Again, things you learn on the soccer fields :)

  111. 111.

    mrmoshpotato

    @sab:

    The thing we need to remember about the Lincoln Project is that they were all okay with all this stuff right up until Trump got elected 

    ETA Actually, a lot of them invented this stuff. Brooks Brothers riot, for example.

    Exactly.  Ratfucking what they did for a living.

    Gimme a liberal who spent decades talking about the POS GOP.

  114. 114.

    Leto

    @mrmoshpotato: I scream this all the time. I know Nicole Wallace “saw the light”, but she’d spent decades enabling this shit. A lot of the Republican guests she has on her show, they enabled all this shit. They were the ones pushing this agenda right up until the Russian asset took the nomination. Yeah, you’re making some good points atm but YOU are the reason we’re in this fucking mess. And you’re not taking any responsibility for it. (Because of’ingc they’re not going to take responsibility for the monster they created. Right on brand. Always forward, never back.)

  116. 116.

    sab

    @Leto: And her guests are continuing with this. One of her authors (possibly her boyfriend) was on with his book trying to repair Rod Rosenstein’s reputation. And she has Ken Vogel on periodically. Same old rolodex, so same people but with a slightly different spin.

  117. 117.

    Leto

    @sab: So this is off topic, but related. When Texas drafted their Roe killing bill, why didn’t it immediately run afoul of this pervious Supreme Court ruling? (From the article)

    Finally, in 1958, in its ruling in Cooper v. Aaron, the Court held that, under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, federal law “can neither be nullified openly and directly by state legislators or state executive or judicial officers nor nullified indirectly by them through evasive schemes.”

    IANAL and all that, so maybe some of our in-house counsel can explain?

  118. 118.

    Mike in NC

    After the January 6th attack on the Capitol by fascist Republicans and other neo-Confederates, most of the far right-wing pundits who pollute our newspapers (Marc Thiessen, Jonah Goldberg, Cal Thomas, etc.) broke from sucking up to Donald Fucking Trump.

    An exception would be Victor Davis Hanson (AKA Victor Davis Handjob, AKA the Fascist from Fresno) a brain dead asshole who coined the term “Islamofascism” to promote a war against Muslims after 9/11. Even today he puked out a column attacking Dr. Fauci and General Milley for not worshipping the Fat Orange Clown. I think it’s because Trump was a MAGAt who hated Mexicans even more than Handjob.

  119. 119.

    Gin & Tonic

    Saw this on Twitter, but need to verify – maybe after my next cup of coffee. If you grind up every living human on the planet, you could make a meatball 1km in diameter. That seems kind of small to me.

  120. 120.

    Tazj

    @Immanentize: I’m not from Virginia and have no idea what threat ISIS poses there, but I’m very suspicious of that story. I’d say I have to agree with what Victoria Brownworth wrote on Twitter which is that it sounds like a GOTV effort by the police.
    It’s hard to believe the police anymore when you know that so many are in the tank for Trump and Republicans that they won’t even get vaccinated.

  122. 122.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: IOW, there’s this family of disorders that doctors don’t know much about. Are these things increasingly common?

    I think we are just becoming better at seeing them. My mother had blood clots. I have blood clots. My sister has had one and so has my brother. We’ve all tested negative for Factor 5 (the one known genetic cause) but there has to be another they have yet to find.

  123. 123.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I’m glad I looked in dog food bag this morning in garage instead of just reaching in for scooper.  There was a tiny field mouse sitting there.  Saved myself a heart attack.

  124. 124.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Gin & Tonic:

    1. Gross.
    2. Seems way undersized.
    3. Human! – the other white meat! (Don’t get all “well, actually” on me!)

    ETA – Bob’s Burgers was originally going to be a show (still animated) about a family of cannibals who ran a burger joint.

  126. 126.

    sab

    @Leto: Yeah. Originalism means we can ignore anything the Federalist Society doesn’t like?

    I went to law school probably before you were born, and didn’t practice long. Accounting makes more sense and is calmer.

    Funny story. Rehnquist was newish on the S Ct when I was in law school. He wrote us a letter. The law school administration was thrilled. They posted it on the bulletin board (locked under glass.)

    We  students used to visit it and laugh. It was obviously dictated not written. It was a page and a half long, two paragraphs, and only three sentences long. Talk about run-on sentences. Not exactly a paragon of legal writing.

    ETA I believe he was on serious painkillers for his bad back at the time. High as a kite, but that didn’t stop him from issuing opinions.

  129. 129.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: A lot of degenerative diseases may have just been diagnosed as vague “getting old” symptoms at one time. “Senility” used to be thought of as just a normal characteristic of age.

  130. 130.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Leto: Finally, in 1958, in its ruling in Cooper v. Aaron, the Court held that, under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, federal law “can neither be nullified openly and directly by state legislators or state executive or judicial officers nor nullified indirectly by them through evasive schemes.”

    As I understand it, there is no federal law guaranteeing abortion.

  132. 132.

    Another Scott

    @Leto: IANAL either, but our system depends upon people in it actually doing what the law says.  And that includes the lower courts.

    The state legislatures have lawyers that can tell them what the law is and what is forbidden.  Too many legislators don’t care and write whatever laws they want, knowing that some courts will let them get away with it, and who knows, maybe the RWNJs on the SCOTUS will agree.  So, worth a shot!!

    To be clear, that’s one of the ways bad laws are changed, too.  But when one side weaponizes the process when they have power (knowing it will take years to be resolved in the courts even if they lose) and the other side respects and honors the rules and the norms and the process, then it’s not sustainable.

    Here’s hoping that Biden’s SCOTUS reform process, and the Congress, actually make some sensible changes so that 5 RWNJs cannot even further gut our system of government.  If we can’t win a Fight for 15!! at the moment, there’s still things that can be done.

    JustSecurity (from 2020 after RBG’s death):

    There is another, better, way to rein in partisan judges: by stripping the Supreme Court, and also the lower federal courts, of jurisdiction where Congress does not want partisan judges second-guessing particular decisions—especially where, as is so often true, the Constitution does not speak directly to an issue and courts are making political choices rather than legal judgments. That strategy, while perhaps a bit more difficult to reduce to a sound bite or a campaign slogan, gets directly at the problem of partisan judicial activism. It is also a more focused and less overtly politicized approach compared with court packing.

    Perhaps the most powerful argument for jurisdiction stripping is that the Constitution clearly permits it. Article III, section 1 of the Constitution gives Congress complete discretion on whether to create the lower federal courts, a power that Congress has used from the founding to limit lower courts’ jurisdiction. And Article III, section 2, clause 2 explicitly empowers Congress to make “exceptions” to the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction—that is, to pick and choose for approximately 99 percent of the Supreme Court’s total docket what cases the Court has the power to hear. As I explain in a law review article, to be published in December in the New York University Law Review, under its Article III authority, Congress can remove the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction over particular cases, or particular issues, largely without constraint.

    Congress also has the power to limit the jurisdiction of state courts to hear federal questions, including constitutional claims. But on a practical level, it would not matter much even if state courts still hear federal constitutional claims. State courts lack both the authority to enjoin federal officials and the practical institutional power to counter a determined federal government.

    The implications of Congress’s Article III power are potentially profound. Congress’s power over courts’ jurisdiction means that it can claim for itself authority to interpret the Constitution in particular cases. In the short term, it is a strategy that Democrats can use to rein in the partisan federal courts that the four-decade-long GOP obsession with appointing right-wing partisans to the federal bench has created. But the ultimate promise of jurisdiction stripping isn’t as a short-term stratagem to restore the courts’ partisan balance. It is a deeper remedy that can help put an end to the unhealthy situation in which Americans look to federal courts to resolve every important political question.

    I don’t know enough to know if that’s the best approach, but all sensible approaches should be considered. Justices and judges are not legislators and they should not be telling legislators that they’re doing it wrong except in outlier cases. They should be ruling within the confines of the law.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  133. 133.

    Immanentize

    @Leto: I think Shelley v. Kraemer, 1948, is even more on point (unanimous decision):

    Private parties may abide by the terms of such a [racially restrictive] covenant, but they may not seek judicial enforcement of such a covenant, as that would be a state action. Thus, the enforcements of the racially restrictive covenants in state court violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

    So making the denial of abortion a private cause of action that was created by the legislature, signed by the governor, and enforceable in state courts is plenty of state action.

  141. 141.

    Another Scott

    @Gin & Tonic: Humans have a mass density of around that of water – 1000 kg/m^3.

    Say, 50 kg average mass, so roughly 0.050 m^3 volume

    7E9 x 0.050 = 3.5E8 m^3 / 1000^3 = 0.35 km^3.

    So, yeah, something smaller than a cubic kilometer (depending on what one assumes for average mass and total population).

    (Assuming I’ve done the math correctly…)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  142. 142.

    sab

    @Matt McIrvin: My family has a hereditary ataxia that can now be traced back at least a hundred and fiftty years. But my mom’s case was the first that we recognized. Her mom we thought was having a bad reaction to her high blood pressire medicine. Her grandfather was always described as a fall-down Irish drunk, although with what he accomplished starting as a sixteen year old Iirsh laborer and ending up with a farm in Wisconsin and a bunch of college  graduated professional sons he couldn’t have been much of a slacker. I think his “drunkeness” was mild drinking with the ataxia.

    Tragic that his undiagnosed illness destroyed his reputation with his wife, his children and among his descendants. My mom seemed drunk because she had difficulty speaking and problems with her balance, fifteen years after her last beer

    ETA Abraham Lincoln’s family has a similar hereditary ataxia that sounds the same as ours. 1/3 of his descendants get it. He probably had it. Balance issues in your fifties. Much more serious coordinatio  issues in sixties and seventies. Pretty much disabled by late seventies.

  143. 143.

    frosty

    I hope you feel better soon, AL. You’re the first thing I read every morning. Thanks so much for all your posts!

  144. 144.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: You are welcome. Of course, no guarantee that the current Supreme Court gives a hoot about such a thing as “well settled precedent”  or even that pesky thing, “logic.”

  146. 146.

    Gin & Tonic

    @mrmoshpotato:

    2. Seems way undersized.

    Actually, it’s about right. A sphere 1km in diameter is a bit over 525 million cubic meters. You get a bit over 1,000 kg of human flesh per cubic meter. If the median human is 150 lb, then you’ll get about 7.8 billion in that meatball.

  147. 147.

    Another Scott

    @Tazj: There’s nothing about a “mall threat” or similar on the Fairfax County Police twitter feed.

    https://twitter.com/fairfaxcountypd

    I assume that the press is blowing whatever they said all out of proportion.  Cops often are more alert around Halloween (small acts of vandalism, etc.) – it strikes me that things along those lines, maybe with some anonymous “threat” rolled in, maybe what they’re talking about.  (Some malls used to have trick or treating around here – don’t know if they still do.)

    Dunno.  FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  148. 148.

    Leto

    @Immanentize: yeah, that seems pretty clear too. But as we’ve seen over the past 10-15 years, conservatives on the court are more than ready to throw away established precedent in order to achieve their goals.

    @Another Scott: that would seem like a tough sell, tougher than filibuster reform. The amount of power Congress has ceded over the past 60 years, idk if they could do something like this.

  151. 151.

    Ohio Mom

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: One of my adages is, if you have to be sick, pick something lots and lots of other people have, and for which doctors have well-established protocols.

    For example, Type II diabetes. Doctors don’t even have to think, they read the lab results and then they just start off with a prescription for Metfomin. When that stops working well, they have other meds to add, and they add them in the same sequence as every other doctor would.

    The last thing you want to do is be an “interesting patient.” Save being unique and an original for some other pursuit.

    Look at you. You picked a heart attack. Maybe not boring to you but not at all exciting for the doctors. They knew what they were looking at and how to treat it, and you got through it.

  152. 152.

    Matt

    they can’t pass until everyone gets to prove to their partisans they fought to the very end to get all they could.

    Sure: some folks want to help people, and then Manchin and Sinema want to hurt people. We should obviously treat these two needs as perfectly symmetrical in a no-stakes game.

    We’ll get crucified in the midterms, but at least we showed those hippies what-for!

  154. 154.

    Ken

    @Gin & Tonic: If you grind up every living human on the planet, you could make a meatball 1km in diameter. That seems kind of small to me.

    Maybe if you leave out the bread crumbs, onion, and egg binder?

  155. 155.

    Ramalama

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: It’s the cookies I was avoiding. Was, the operative word. I’m pro-caffeine and I vote. Some in-laws laugh at my use of the word caffeine in relation to the word tea.

    But I did not know the rule of thumb about the younger the whoosie, the stronger the whatsie. I drink a shite ton of tea but don’t really know a lot about it.

  156. 156.

    Subsole

     

     

    @Kent: Mitch McConnell’s supposed genius is sittting in the same (exceedingly small) jar as Paul Ryan’s. And John Boehner’s. And Marco Rubio’s. And Chris Christie’s.

    God, remember when ol’ Saint Pualie Boy was the media’s next darling little blue-eyed wonder that was gonna save conservatism from itself?

  159. 159.

    Ramalama

    @James E Powell: Have you ever tasted Jolt Cola? It’s awful. Like pencil lead.

    Maybe it’s still drunk in some parts unknown. An avocado-colored mobile home served as a diner in the next tiny town to ours. Run by the cutest elderly couple who’d been there forever. They sold Raspberry Shasta sodas. We figured they bought out 20 years of the stuff, and … were still selling off their stock in the early 2000s. Maybe there’s a similar Jolt story.

  160. 160.

    Leto

    @Ohio Mom:

    The last thing you want to do is be an “interesting patient.”

    Similar advice that my last boss had for base level projects: you didn’t want to be the first base where the project would occur, but you also didn’t want to be the last base. I was an “interesting patient” with my motorcycle accident. Majority of people with my type of injuries don’t survive, but they still knew what to do, and here I am. My general surgeon still continues to research ways to help some of my post accident life. But the few paths forward would have me being “the first in the world” to have the procedure done, and he’s extremely adamant (just like my old boss) that I won’t be the first. Let someone else be the first. Let someone else be the 10th.

  161. 161.

    Subsole

    @germy: Eh. Wayne LaPewPewPew conned a bunch of onanistic gun-nuts out of their cash, and he’s still kicking.

    Will never cease to amuse that it was the Feds that punished that little fuckweasel, not the patriotic warriors for free market open carry caucasian Jesus.

    The foolks who can’t buy oreos without an AR 15 in a patrol sling and Never. Shut. Up. about fighting the next civil war got their cornbread took by a slick little creep in a suit. Did they rise up in blood and thunder? Nope. Sat there and took it while the feds they talk about shooting cleaned up the mess.

  162. 162.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: And if you look at the details of the calculation I did, you’ll notice that (4pi)/3 / (2)^2 is not that far from 1/2, so for a rough approximation, you can think of a sphere of some diameter as taking up about half the volume of the enclosing cube.

  167. 167.

    JWR

    @Matt:

    Sure: some folks want to help people, and then Manchin and Sinema want to hurt people.

    No no no! It’s all the Progressives fault! Case in point, Politico:

    … The fraught dynamics between the White House and House Democrats in particular have become more pronounced in the past month. Some Democrats say that’s in part due to Klain’s friendly relationship with progressives, which has given the party’s liberal wing a powerful White House ally — unlike in prior Democratic administrations.

    Klain, multiple sources say, primarily talks to progressive lawmakers and is rarely if ever the person House leadership or centrist Democrats turn to in the White House.

    His coziness with the left has frustrated leaders and moderate Democrats who view it, at times, as an impediment to getting Biden’s agenda passed, though it has won him praise from progressives who believe passing as many of their priorities as possible would be a boon to Democrats. A source familiar added that Klain talks to House leaders, moderate senators and in recent weeks to centrist Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who has advocated for the House to quickly vote on infrastructure…

  169. 169.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: He wasn’t bitten by a plague rat. ;-)

    True story: My father flew on B-29s during WWII. Because of the threat of night time Japanese bombing runs, the crews slept on the planes. One night the old man woke up and found himself eye ball to eye ball with a rat. The rat promptly bit him on his rather prodigious proboscis.

    Had to get the whole series of shots.

  171. 171.

    debbie

    @Leto:

    Slightly off-topic, but is it possible to make meatballs out of ground chicken without them becoming little rocks? I came across a recipe for General Tso’s meatballs which used ground beef. The sauce was great, but I think chicken would be a better choice.

  172. 172.

    Subsole

     

     

    @Kent: And even on the tax scam they had to drag the country along kicking, cussing, and gouging.

    For god’s sake, their own bill was a fustercluck scribbled in pencil. It actually contradicted itself in places. It was an abject mess they had to go back and rewrite just so it functioned the way they intended it to. Just sloppy, junior-replacement grade work.

    And that was them being successful.

    Which makes sense. Why train up functioning senators and legislators when you want neither law nor democracy? They want a king. A theocratic lityle tyrant who rules by imperial decree.

    The GOP cannot produce functioning representatives because it does not believe in representative government.

  173. 173.

    Geminid

    Magdi Semrau seems to have an academic as well as a practical background in childhood education. As @Mangy Jay, she tweeted about the Build Back Better bill:

         Universal Pre-K will be a game changer for lower & middle income families. At the lower end of income distribution, Pre-K is one of the biggest indicators of academic success. It mitigates the “rich get richer; poor get poorer” effects we see in K-12 education.

    @Mangy Jay, Oct.28

    Ms. Jay goes on to describe the lesser word exposure lower income kids have entering K-12 education. This has real and broad effects:

           And it doesn’t end there. Education researchers have recently started studying the connection between language and math. And guess what? Word knowledge +literacy correlate w/math performance. And not just in word problems. “All” math

  178. 178.

    Barbara

    @debbie: Pork dumplings are typically made with ground pork and minced cabbage.  Adding shredded carrots could also work to keep the meatballs tender if compatible with other flavors in the dish. I use a combination of carrots and onions for beef meatballs.

  183. 183.

    Kay

    @JWR:

    That article makes me even more confident that they if they had passed the infrastucture bill first, there would be no BBB bill.

    The Right wing Democrats do this repeatedly- they characterize the infrastructure bill as Biden’s complete agenda. It isn’t true. It isn’t even true in terms of what they’re representing to the public, outside of insidery Politico articles. Are they supporting Biden’s BBB agenda or not? Who can trust these people when they continue to engage in these slippery tactics? Enough. Show your cards.

  184. 184.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The joint photos of Biden and Francis are much more cordial than the joint photos of TFG and his Slovenian escort.

  186. 186.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @debbie: I’m making a turkey meatball recipe tonight…baked, then put in a hoisin soy ginger sauce. I’m hoping for the best!

    Like Barbara, I put grated carrots and onions in my meatloaf mixture, which is almost always ground turkey based. I’m not sure why I don’t like beef meatloaf.

  187. 187.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @JWR: ​
     Tiger Beat on the Potomac is of Villagers, for Villagers, and is as a result pure Rethuglican bullshit.

  188. 188.

    debbie

    @Leto:

    Yes, they cook in the sauce. The recipe didn’t specify the size, but I kept them small, like a comfortable mouthful

  191. 191.

    Leto

    @debbie: this video might help:
    Chicken Meatballs in Cream Sauce. I think Barbara and Sure Lurkalot’s suggestion about putting carrot, onion, cabbage in the meatballs is a good way to add more moisture. I typically do it like the woman in the video. Fry both sides, then drop them in the sauce to slow cook.

  193. 193.

    sab

    Wow, this thread dehenerated. We started about rule of law. Now we worry how to keep human meatballs moist and edible. Did I miss something.

  195. 195.

    leeleeFL

    Joe Biden and Pope Francis are my reason for smiling as well as ugly crying a bit just now. I knew the Satchel Paige story as well. But the joy of hearing Joe tell it with his animation and belief and Francis getting it so easily! It was great and I am totally there for it!

    Have a great weekend all!

  196. 196.

    EntroPi

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m in Providence, and we had the AC guys doing installation a week ago.

    15 years ago I thought that just getting air for the bedrooms would be sufficient to get through the worst of the summer days. This summer proved me wrong.

  198. 198.

    something fabulous

    My brother is an interpreter. At that level it is a very small world– so funny to see her have this big internet moment! The point is to be as unobtrusive as possible, so it’s neat to see behind the curtain a bit like this.

  199. 199.

    dnfree

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: we had a friend who at first wasn’t diagnosed, then was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and finally turned out to have MS, over a time period of seven years or more. And apparently Lewy Body can’t be diagnosed until an autopsy.

  202. 202.

    Jim Appleton

    @sab:

    Wow, this thread dehenerated

    You missed the part about the chickens.  It brought the whole thread together.

  203. 203.

    WayneL140

    Dear Anne,

    I don’t know if you will read this–I read BJ in the morning, first thing, then the rest of my day is more enlightened. You are a true national treasure. I read everything, but it is amazing how often I learn something from your posts that get past people who have a lot of experience and are paid a lot of money. I have proposed you be given a Pulitizer for your Covid coverage. If I were a praying person, you would be very high on my list. I have to settle for tonglen and sending you peace and good health. Best wishes, Ms. Laurie, and don’t worry. I’ll always wait for you, like a dog at the back door.

    :)

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