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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)

by Anne Laurie|  October 30, 20218:21 am| 203 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Foreign Affairs, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality

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Italian translator: Trump vs. Biden pic.twitter.com/bpQnSB4uNP

— The Recount (@therecount) October 29, 2021

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

#BREAKING: President Biden tells Pope Francis a story about famous pitcher Satchel Paige. pic.twitter.com/UwJfCrjhUw

— Joanna Preston (@JoPrestonTV) October 29, 2021


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!…

Wages and salaries jumped in the three-month period ending in September by the most on records that date back twenty years, increasing 1.5%. Many companies have been forced to offer higher pay to fill a near-record number of available jobs. https://t.co/yFhgTz9pjA

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 29, 2021

It's how he repealed the ACA. https://t.co/9GrFwewr7b

— Please mess with Texas (@agraybee) October 28, 2021

So every effort that looks like a failure — like yesterday (!) — is just another demonstration to outline the bounds for a future agreement. Those “failures” are how the lines get drawn and they’re necessary. No one can cave without a painful fight first.

— Tony Fratto (@TonyFratto) October 29, 2021

The BBB/BIF negotiations aren't unusually messy, it's just the first major spending bill of the age of hyper-engagement, the age when people get outraged about who Democrats put in charge of bringing the bagels to the weekly meetings.

— Please mess with Texas (@agraybee) October 30, 2021

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.

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Previous Post: « COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday / Saturday, Oct. 29-30
Next Post: UF silences professors »

Reader Interactions

203Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    October 30, 2021 at 8:26 am

    We’re are all Italian translator.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    October 30, 2021 at 8:26 am

    Feel better, AL. You are my window into the outside world.

  3. 3.

    Ken

    October 30, 2021 at 8:29 am

    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”.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    October 30, 2021 at 8:32 am

    @Ken:

    That ship sailed years ago.  Breaking news now means anything that’s not investigative reporting.

  5. 5.

    Ramalama

    October 30, 2021 at 8:36 am

    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)

    October 30, 2021 at 8:38 am

    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

  7. 7.

    Benw

    October 30, 2021 at 8:39 am

    Hope you feel better AL!

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 30, 2021 at 8:40 am

    Sorry these latest posts are running late —

    No apology necessary, Anne.

  9. 9.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    October 30, 2021 at 8:40 am

    @Ramalama:

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

  10. 10.

    Phylllis

    October 30, 2021 at 8:42 am

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 8:42 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 8:44 am

    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.”

  13. 13.

    germy

    October 30, 2021 at 8:44 am

    Told my boss what's up. ? ? ? pic.twitter.com/jdnxTov8Dk

    — shrieking like a benshee flores (@limitlessjest) October 29, 2021

  14. 14.

    germy

    October 30, 2021 at 8:45 am

    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

  15. 15.

    germy

    October 30, 2021 at 8:53 am

    I put my microphone in front of a 7 week old baby red squirrel. pic.twitter.com/JrRRvE9ngN

    — Dani Connor Wild ? (@DaniConnorWild) June 23, 2020

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 30, 2021 at 8:54 am

    @germy: Heh.

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    October 30, 2021 at 8:55 am

    In the spirit of Halloween, a libation with a name fit for the holiday: Corpse Reviver #2.

    ;)

  18. 18.

    debbie

    October 30, 2021 at 8:55 am

    @Phylllis: 

    What’s “WTF” in Italian?

    Hope you’re better soon, AL. Spins really suck.

  19. 19.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 30, 2021 at 8:57 am

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:00 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:01 am

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:01 am

    AL, post when you can and get better soon.

    Labyrinthitis? Wasn’t David Bowie in that film?

  23. 23.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    October 30, 2021 at 9:04 am

    @Immanentize:

    Labyrinthitis? Wasn’t David Bowie in that film?

    I don’t know. Is that the one written by Jorge Luis Borges?

  24. 24.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    October 30, 2021 at 9:05 am

    AL, we appreciate what you post for us. Do it when you can.

    @germy: That baby squirrel sounds a little like human babies do when they eat.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 30, 2021 at 9:05 am

    @debbie: What’s “WTF” in Italian?

    That face.

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 30, 2021 at 9:05 am

    @germy: Haha, well played, but WTF if that’s true.  Definitely harassment.

  27. 27.

    germy

    October 30, 2021 at 9:06 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    No, he’s joking.  He’s doing parodies of all the “FU I quit” texts people have been posting on twitter.

  28. 28.

    Immanentize

    October 30, 2021 at 9:07 am

    @Lacuna Synecdoche:

    No, Jim Henson.

  29. 29.

    Ken

    October 30, 2021 at 9:07 am

    @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.

  30. 30.

    rikyrah

    October 30, 2021 at 9:07 am

    Good Morning, Everyone???

  31. 31.

    debbie

    October 30, 2021 at 9:07 am

    There’s so much shit going on quietly.  ?

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

    The bills would have made it HARDER for Michigan residents to vote.

    RT IF YOU STAND WITH @GovWhitmer! pic.twitter.com/keFHcIshRk
    — CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) October 30, 2021

  32. 32.

    germy

    October 30, 2021 at 9:08 am

    @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.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 30, 2021 at 9:08 am

    @Lacuna Synecdoche:

    I guess Elizabeth Holmes can’t be all bad … 

    Yup.

    Oh, she conned Betsy DeVos out of 100 million bucks?  Good for her!

  34. 34.

    rikyrah

    October 30, 2021 at 9:08 am

    AL ,

    Get better soon????

  35. 35.

    Immanentize

    October 30, 2021 at 9:08 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: and they say Italians use their hands to communicate….

  36. 36.

    debbie

    October 30, 2021 at 9:08 am

    @Ken:

    I’d forgotten about Amway. The universe’s sense of irony just cannot be beat!

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    October 30, 2021 at 9:08 am

    @debbie:

    Go Governor????

  38. 38.

    Kay

    October 30, 2021 at 9:09 am

    @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.

  39. 39.

    Leto

    October 30, 2021 at 9:09 am

    @debbie: Che cosa fanculo!?!?! Che cosa = what/what the and fanculo = fuck. Colloquially it’d be che fanculo?!?!

  40. 40.

    Ramalama

    October 30, 2021 at 9:09 am

    @Steeplejack (phone): Thank you. I thought so.

  41. 41.

    Kent

    October 30, 2021 at 9:10 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:10 am

    @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.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    October 30, 2021 at 9:11 am

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning.

  44. 44.

    Ramalama

    October 30, 2021 at 9:11 am

    @Ken: I made the tea and ate 2 cookies. I’m on a nod right now. Soon to crash.

    Thank you for the brief.

    This is the recipe – total pain in the arse, totally amazing cookies – fyi.

  45. 45.

    germy

    October 30, 2021 at 9:11 am

    Takes guts to con Betsy DeVos out of money, knowing who her brother is.

  46. 46.

    Immanentize

    October 30, 2021 at 9:12 am

    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?

  47. 47.

    Leto

    October 30, 2021 at 9:12 am

    @Immanentize: Italians use everything to communicate. It’s a whole body workout. That’s the true “Mediterranean Diet”.

  48. 48.

    Ohio Mom

    October 30, 2021 at 9:12 am

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:13 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:14 am

    @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.

  51. 51.

    Immanentize

    October 30, 2021 at 9:15 am

    @Kay: I read that and thought — three subpoenas would defeat that ban.

  52. 52.

    sab

    October 30, 2021 at 9:17 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:18 am

    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.

  54. 54.

    James E Powell

    October 30, 2021 at 9:19 am

    @Ramalama:

    But clearly I am in need of caffeine. Go ahead, coffee drinkers. Laugh.

    Do they still make Jolt Cola?

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 30, 2021 at 9:20 am

    @Immanentize: She was speechless in more ways than one.

  56. 56.

    debbie

    October 30, 2021 at 9:20 am

    @Leto:

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

  57. 57.

    brantl

    October 30, 2021 at 9:24 am

    @Lacuna Synecdoche: I hope someone takes Betsy DeVos for every con there is. Karma should work.

  58. 58.

    Percysowner

    October 30, 2021 at 9:25 am

    @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.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    October 30, 2021 at 9:26 am

    @Immanentize:

    Yeah, my first thought was scare all the white people.

  60. 60.

    rikyrah

    October 30, 2021 at 9:26 am

    Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) tweeted at 7:08 AM on Sat, Oct 30, 2021:
    Horrible. The University of Florida has banned three professors, including @ElectProject, from working on a lawsuit against a Florida state voter suppression bill, on absurdly specious grounds. We need to know if Ron DeSantis was involved in this decision:
    https://t.co/1seSNlRrjv
    (https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1454419975230431233?s=02)

  61. 61.

    germy

    October 30, 2021 at 9:28 am

    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.

  62. 62.

    eclare

    October 30, 2021 at 9:29 am

    @germy:  What?

  63. 63.

    germy

    October 30, 2021 at 9:29 am

    Billionaire Buying Sandwich Unfairly Targeted With 5% Sales Tax

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 30, 2021 at 9:31 am

    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.

  65. 65.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 30, 2021 at 9:31 am

    The A/C guys are here installing our split minis. Just in time for winter.

  66. 66.

    germy

    October 30, 2021 at 9:31 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:32 am

    @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.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    October 30, 2021 at 9:37 am

    @rikyrah:

    Two of the three experts were involved in uncovering a GOP redistricting scandal in FL in 2012. I’m sure DeSantis would love to get rid of them.

  69. 69.

    MomSense

    October 30, 2021 at 9:38 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:39 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:39 am

    @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.

  72. 72.

    eclare

    October 30, 2021 at 9:42 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:  I’ve seen a few stills.  Like you, I have not watched the video, and I never will.

  73. 73.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    October 30, 2021 at 9:42 am

    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?

  74. 74.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 30, 2021 at 9:44 am

    @MomSense: Sorry to hear about your friend. Those are nice boats, though.

  75. 75.

    MomSense

    October 30, 2021 at 9:44 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:44 am

    @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.

  77. 77.

    Frankensteinbeck

    October 30, 2021 at 9:45 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    They are not increasingly common.  Medical science is increasingly willing to admit a non-diagnosis rather than slap a catch-all label on the problem.

  78. 78.

    brantl

    October 30, 2021 at 9:45 am

    On a lighter note Elizabeth Warren wrote a children’s book, I just heard it on NPR.

  79. 79.

    MomSense

    October 30, 2021 at 9:47 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It’s really nice.  On the group paddles the two of them would always end up together just gabbing and having fun.

  80. 80.

    Ohio Mom

    October 30, 2021 at 9:48 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: You could ask Ruckus, he also has a mystery neurological condition. Maybe he has some insights.

  81. 81.

    debbie

    October 30, 2021 at 9:49 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    As someone who chased a diagnosis for years, I think it’s more like doctors are finally acknowledging they can’t diagnose everything.

  82. 82.

    zhena gogolia

    October 30, 2021 at 9:49 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Same here.

  83. 83.

    Anonymous At Work

    October 30, 2021 at 9:51 am

    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).

  84. 84.

    sab

    October 30, 2021 at 9:51 am

    @Geminid: So was she Lincoln Project at all, or just an idiot organizing a small group of like minded idiots?

  85. 85.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    October 30, 2021 at 9:51 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: @Ohio Mom: @debbie: I think maybe I take it too much for granted that medical science knows how to diagnose and treat what ails us.

  86. 86.

    zhena gogolia

    October 30, 2021 at 9:52 am

    @Geminid: Yeah, I don’t like that woman and her tactics.

  87. 87.

    zhena gogolia

    October 30, 2021 at 9:53 am

    @sab: I think she works with LP.

  88. 88.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 30, 2021 at 9:53 am

    @Ramalama: Yummo!

  89. 89.

    topclimber

    October 30, 2021 at 9:54 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Says you.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    October 30, 2021 at 9:57 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 9:57 am

    @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.

  92. 92.

    Baud

    October 30, 2021 at 9:58 am

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

  93. 93.

    Betty Cracker

    October 30, 2021 at 10:00 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:00 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:02 am

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:05 am

    @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.

  97. 97.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 30, 2021 at 10:07 am

    @topclimber: Huh?

  98. 98.

    Starfish

    October 30, 2021 at 10:07 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:07 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:09 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:11 am

    @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.

  102. 102.

    scribbler

    October 30, 2021 at 10:13 am

    @NotMax:   Mmmm.  My favorite drink!

  103. 103.

    Starfish

    October 30, 2021 at 10:13 am

    Thank you for all that you do, Anne Laurie.

  104. 104.

    Ken

    October 30, 2021 at 10:16 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:16 am

    @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.

  106. 106.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    October 30, 2021 at 10:19 am

    I know there are lots of BJ writers. Someone from the Barrington Writers Workshop interviewed several writers, including me, about our experience going to a local author fair. Maybe you’ll find something useful.

  107. 107.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 30, 2021 at 10:22 am

    Totally unsafe but hilarious

  108. 108.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 30, 2021 at 10:25 am

    @germy: Five percent sales tax.  Haha!  Sign me up.

  109. 109.

    Leto

    October 30, 2021 at 10:26 am

    @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 :)

  110. 110.

    sab

    October 30, 2021 at 10:29 am

    @Kent: I agree with your larger comment.

  111. 111.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 30, 2021 at 10:31 am

    @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.

  112. 112.

    Leto

    October 30, 2021 at 10:33 am

    @Kent: @sab: this was posted here about a week ago. I think it was poster JWR that posted this link, but it’s essentially a historical look from John C Calhoun to Trumpov, and how McConnell took the art of obstruction to obscene new levels. It’s a longer read, but pretty informative.

    The Tyranny of the Minority, from Calhoun to Trump

  113. 113.

    sab

    October 30, 2021 at 10:36 am

    @Leto: Thank you. I missed that.

  114. 114.

    Leto

    October 30, 2021 at 10:37 am

    @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.)

  115. 115.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 30, 2021 at 10:40 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Brain isn’t up yet.

    Ratfucking IS what they did for a living.

  116. 116.

    sab

    October 30, 2021 at 10:42 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:45 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:47 am

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:48 am

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:49 am

    @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.

  121. 121.

    NotMax

    October 30, 2021 at 10:49 am

    @mrmoshpotato

    Brain isn’t up yet.

    Been there, done that. Misplaced the T-shirt.

    ;)

  122. 122.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 30, 2021 at 10:51 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:52 am

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 10:54 am

    @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.

  125. 125.

    NotMax

    October 30, 2021 at 10:54 am

    @Old Dan and Little Ann

    “I’ve discovered the motherlode!”

  126. 126.

    sab

    October 30, 2021 at 10:58 am

    @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.

  127. 127.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 30, 2021 at 10:58 am

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: No waking up the neighborhood with an epic scream? :(

  128. 128.

    Ken

    October 30, 2021 at 10:58 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: Medical science is increasingly willing to admit a non-diagnosis rather than slap a catch-all label on the problem.

    “I can strongly recommend a course of leeches.”

  129. 129.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 30, 2021 at 10:59 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:02 am

    @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.

  131. 131.

    zhena gogolia

    October 30, 2021 at 11:02 am

    @mrmoshpotato: See Eating Raoul.

  132. 132.

    Another Scott

    October 30, 2021 at 11:02 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:02 am

    @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.

  134. 134.

    germy

    October 30, 2021 at 11:02 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Same with high blood pressure.  Doctors used to tell elderly patients it was a normal part of aging.

  135. 135.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 30, 2021 at 11:03 am

    @zhena gogolia: No thanks.  Not even gonna investigate. :)

  136. 136.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 30, 2021 at 11:04 am

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: Saved myself a heart attack.

    And quite possibly a series of rabies shots.

  137. 137.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 30, 2021 at 11:05 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Volume is (4pi/3) r^3. For r = 500m, that’s about 5*10^8 cubic meters. For 7.7*10^9 people, that sounds about in the right ballpark.

  138. 138.

    NotMax

    October 30, 2021 at 11:05 am

    @Matt McIrvin

    You can fool some of the people all of the the time and all of the the people some of the time, but you can’t fool time.

    //

  139. 139.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 30, 2021 at 11:06 am

    @Immanentize: Thanx.

  140. 140.

    NotMax

    October 30, 2021 at 11:08 am

    @zhena gogolia

    Droll, tongue super-glued in cheek film.

    ;)

  141. 141.

    Another Scott

    October 30, 2021 at 11:09 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:10 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:10 am

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:13 am

    @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.”

  145. 145.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    October 30, 2021 at 11:14 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Peter Parker didn’t need any shots!

  146. 146.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 30, 2021 at 11:15 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:18 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:18 am

    @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.

  149. 149.

    Leto

    October 30, 2021 at 11:20 am

    @Gin & Tonic: that’s a spicy meatball!

     

    I’ll see myself out.

  150. 150.

    Baud

    October 30, 2021 at 11:21 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    “I finally get to use high school algebra in real life.”

  151. 151.

    Ohio Mom

    October 30, 2021 at 11:21 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:23 am

    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!

  153. 153.

    Butter Emails!!!

    October 30, 2021 at 11:23 am

    @Lacuna Synecdoche:

    Too bad she didn’t get manage to take them for everything.

  154. 154.

    Ken

    October 30, 2021 at 11:26 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:28 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:29 am

     

     

    @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?

  157. 157.

    Baud

    October 30, 2021 at 11:30 am

    @Another Scott:

    Humans have a mass density of around that of water

    Ugly bags of mostly water.

  158. 158.

    Gravenstone

    October 30, 2021 at 11:32 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Well, meat shrinks as it cooks …

  159. 159.

    Ramalama

    October 30, 2021 at 11:33 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:34 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:35 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:42 am

    @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.

  163. 163.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    October 30, 2021 at 11:42 am

    @Ohio Mom: You are so right. I feel for my DIL and my friend. They don’t really have a diagnosis. They’re just sick.

  164. 164.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 30, 2021 at 11:42 am

    @Immanentize: It’s good info. I am appreciative of that.

  165. 165.

    Matt McIrvin

    October 30, 2021 at 11:43 am

    @NotMax: And if you grind up all of the people you get a 1-kilometer meatball.

  166. 166.

    debbie

    October 30, 2021 at 11:44 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Wouldn’t all the fat melt off while cooking it?  //

  167. 167.

    JWR

    October 30, 2021 at 11:44 am

    @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…

  168. 168.

    Leto

    October 30, 2021 at 11:47 am

    @debbie:  depends on the grind, how you prep the meat (how much fat you keep in), how much red wine you use during cooking…

  169. 169.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 30, 2021 at 11:48 am

    @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.

  170. 170.

    Ken

    October 30, 2021 at 11:49 am

    @Matt McIrvin: Here’s a handy reference of useful geometry formulas.

    (Be sure to read the mouseover text, it has important instructions for interpreting the diagrams.)

  171. 171.

    debbie

    October 30, 2021 at 11:52 am

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:52 am

     

     

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 11:54 am

    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

  174. 174.

    Just Chuck

    October 30, 2021 at 11:54 am

    @Baud: A more honest description would be “#BROKEN”

  175. 175.

    Subsole

    October 30, 2021 at 11:56 am

    @Gin & Tonic: The human body is mostly water. We’d lose a lot of volume in the preparation.

    Also? That’d be one bony meatball.

  176. 176.

    Ken

    October 30, 2021 at 11:56 am

    @debbie: I have had some luck with baking turkey meatballs rather than frying them.  Also you may need to add fat.

  177. 177.

    Subsole

    October 30, 2021 at 11:57 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Two words:

    Long.

    Pork.

  178. 178.

    Barbara

    October 30, 2021 at 11:57 am

    @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.

  179. 179.

    Baud

    October 30, 2021 at 12:02 pm

    Now that TaMara is back, maybe we can have a “To Serve Man” thread.

  180. 180.

    jnfr

    October 30, 2021 at 12:03 pm

    I too have ear issues that lead to dizzy imbalances, AL, and you have all my sympathy and best wishes.

  181. 181.

    Subsole

    October 30, 2021 at 12:05 pm

    @Gravenstone:

    Stupid meat. Shrinks when it’s cold. Shrinks when it’s hot…

     

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “Careful, Willy. They charge when wounded.”

  182. 182.

    Leto

    October 30, 2021 at 12:13 pm

    @debbie: definitely! How are you making them? Are you using the sauce to cook the meatballs? How big are they?

  183. 183.

    Kay

    October 30, 2021 at 12:13 pm

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 12:16 pm

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

  185. 185.

    Villago Delenda Est

    October 30, 2021 at 12:18 pm

    @Subsole: ​
     They want a return to feudalism. I mean, crazy-eyes Bachmann said it: “The Renaissance was a mistake.”

  186. 186.

    Sure Lurkalot

    October 30, 2021 at 12:20 pm

    @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

    October 30, 2021 at 12:20 pm

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

  188. 188.

    debbie

    October 30, 2021 at 12:22 pm

    @Leto:

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

  189. 189.

    debbie

    October 30, 2021 at 12:24 pm

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Let me know how that works out and if you add the sauce during or after baking. Would turkey be a better choice than chicken?

  190. 190.

    Just Chuck

    October 30, 2021 at 12:24 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I believe she said the Enlightenment, which is about 300 years later, and even more apropos as a metaphor.

  191. 191.

    Leto

    October 30, 2021 at 12:27 pm

    @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.

  192. 192.

    Another Scott

    October 30, 2021 at 12:29 pm

    @Subsole:

    Obligatory, They plump when you cook ’em (0:15)

    Makes you wonder what they’re made of… ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  193. 193.

    sab

    October 30, 2021 at 12:45 pm

    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.

  194. 194.

    debbie

    October 30, 2021 at 12:46 pm

    @Leto:

    Thanks, I’ll take a look.

  195. 195.

    leeleeFL

    October 30, 2021 at 12:48 pm

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 1:17 pm

    @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.

  197. 197.

    Tdjr

    October 30, 2021 at 1:39 pm

    @sab: Lol. I noticed the same thing!

  198. 198.

    something fabulous

    October 30, 2021 at 3:07 pm

    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

    October 30, 2021 at 4:04 pm

    @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.

  200. 200.

    Subsole

    October 30, 2021 at 4:52 pm

    @sab: This is Balloon Juice.

    We contain multitudes.

     

     

    Just like the soylentball.

  201. 201.

    trollhattan

    October 30, 2021 at 6:20 pm

    @Subsole: ​
     I contain artificial preservatives and xanthan gum.

  202. 202.

    Jim Appleton

    October 30, 2021 at 7:24 pm

    @sab:

    Wow, this thread dehenerated

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

  203. 203.

    WayneL140

    October 31, 2021 at 8:33 am

    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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