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Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

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

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The lights are all blinking red.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

When we show up, we win.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Odds and Ends (Open Thread)

Odds and Ends (Open Thread)

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The Washington Post ran a lengthy story on Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland yesterday. I highly recommend it. The author is Caitlin Gibson, and it’s just a beautiful piece.

As you may recall, Raskin had buried his 25-year-old son the day before the January 6th attack on the Capitol Building. He was in the House chamber when the Trump mob violently broke the police lines.

Raskin’s youngest daughter and his older daughter’s husband had accompanied him to the Capitol, and they holed up in Steny Hoyer’s office during the assault, hiding as the Trump thugs ransacked the building.

It was chaos, but Raskin watched it unfold with a strange sense of remove, a clarity of focus; he did not feel the visceral fear that gripped so many others around him. He would come to make sense of this later: What was there to be afraid of when the worst thing imaginable had already happened to him? …

He is still trying to make sense of the intersection of these disparate tragedies — how, at the end of one awful year and the beginning of another, he suddenly found himself reeling from back-to-back calamities, each the outcome of something long-simmering beneath the surface. “The truth is that I see those two terrible, traumatic events as very intertwined in my life,” Raskin says. “In a cosmic sense, they were logically independent of each other. But in my life, they are inextricably bound.”

Raskin is beloved by his colleagues. One of them, Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA), also knows what it’s like to lose a child. Her teenage son was murdered by a bigot in a convenience store parking lot:

So when [McBath] realized Raskin had returned to the Hill only a few days after Tommy’s death, “I went immediately to see him, and he just fell into my arms and just started weeping and weeping,” she remembers, speaking by phone from her home in Marietta, Ga. “And I knew exactly what he was feeling. I know it. I know those emotions, I know the pain and the doubt. I just wanted him to know that, you know, ‘I’m not just offering you sympathy, I’m here. I know exactly what you’re going through.’ … I love Jamie. We all do. I think every one of my colleagues just truly admires him. We admire his intellect and his sense of compassion.”

Anyway, read the whole thing if you get a moment. It’s a really great story about a good and decent man. As I commented on Twitter, it’s amazing that a man like Raskin shares a species classification with guttersnipes like Gaetz, Gosar, Greene, Boebert, et al., let alone has the same job. 

In other news, New York AG Letitia James dropped out of the race for NY governor, just a month and change after announcing that she’d pursue the office. NYT:

Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, announced on Thursday that she was ending her campaign for governor and running instead for re-election, a surprising move that upended the high-profile governor’s race and further solidified Gov. Kathy Hochul’s standing.

Huh. I wonder what that’s all about. I can’t help hoping someone turned up a smoking gun in the Trump Org investigation and James wants to be the one who sends Emperor Tang to the Graybar Hotel. (I realize this is highly unlikely.)

In non-political news of the weird, 43 camels were disqualified from a beauty contest in Saudi Arabia due to Botox use. CNN:

The 40-day King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) northeast of the capital, Riyadh, launched at the beginning of December. In its sixth year, it sees breeders compete for more than $66 million in prize money, according to Saudi state media outlet Saudi Press Agency (SPA), so the stakes are high.

Unscrupulous breeders have been accused of using a number of methods to make their camels more likely to win, such as injecting silicone and fillers, and inflating body parts using rubber bands to enhance their appearance, reports SPA.

This year, organizers have dealt with 147 cases of tampering — the largest number since the festival began. Forty-three contestants were disqualified.

Alrighty then! Open thread.

Reader Interactions

196Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Huh. I wonder what that’s all about. I can’t help hoping someone turned up a smoking gun in the Trump Org investigation and James wants to be the one who sends Emperor Tang to the Graybar Hotel. (I realize this is highly unlikely.)

    Oh please oh please…. My long-distance take: People kind of expected Hochul to be a time-server who would take her pension and the title and go away, and she turns out to be a typical politician with ambition and maybe more chops (and upstate support) than people anticipated?

  4. 4.

    CaseyL

    Re Letitia James – I think she decided to stay with the AG’s office because a run for Gov might raise questions as to why there have been no indictments of Trump despite her saying she had them ready to go the moment he left office.

  5. 5.

    Jerzy Russian

    Today I learned about camel beauty contests. This is a full service blog. After the camel beauty contests, I don’t think there is anything more to learn. In spite of that, I will continue to frequent this fine establishment, because what else is there to do?

  6. 6.

    germy

    https://www.gawker.com/news/camels-disqualified-botox-cosmetic-alterations-beauty-pageant-contest-king-abdulaziz-festival-saudi-arabia
    I’M SO TIRED OF THESE UNREALISTIC BEAUTY STANDARDS FOR CAMELS

    We live in a society governed by sick beauty standards, wherein everything from lips and noses to muscles and curves are alternately thinned or plumped, squeezed or stretched, injected with Botox or fillers in search of some unattainable ideal. The punishing quest for the “perfect” hump has gotten so bad that this month alone, more than 40 camels were disqualified from a Saudi beauty pageant because they had received cosmetic alterations in an effort to appear more attractive before the competition’s jurors.

  9. 9.

    germy

    Judging a camel beauty contest, that would have been a great gig for Joe Camel, if he hadn’t been cancelled.

  10. 10.

    RobertB

    I read an article a while back about the unscrupulous world of state fair beef competitions.  Injections of vegetable oil to plump up parts of the cow that are deemed scrawny, hair dye to make that Black Angus blacker, etc.

  11. 11.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Thank you for highlighting the article on Jamie Raskin, a true mensch. May our country elect a lot more people like him.

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    My long-distance take: People kind of expected Hochul to be a time-server who would take her pension and the title and go away, and she turns out to be a typical politician with ambition and maybe more chops (and upstate support) than people anticipated?

    I assume a huge part of the underestimation of Hochul is her gender; people just assume that a woman will be a pushover and they’re constantly surprised when that turns out not to be the case.  James may have tossed her name in the ring just to get her name out there, and decided to stick with her current position when she realized she has a much better chance that way.  A contested primary is going to tend to favor the incumbent, which gives James all the reason she needs to stay put.

  18. 18.

    Eolirin

    @Roger Moore: Also NYS politics is pretty cutthroat, and Hochul may be a much better knife fighter than people expected. We wouldn’t see effects of this directly, but things like the next most prominent candidate dropping out this quickly certainly suggests some behind the scenes positioning that broke in favor of Hochul

    The real tell will be if the primary ends up being completely cleared of any serious competition. It’s very hard to displace a democratic governor here now. They go down to scandal and just about nothing else. Once she’s elected she’s got a good shot of having the governor’s mansion for as long as she wants it.

  19. 19.

    hueyplong

    Kudos to Cracker for use of the word “guttersnipe” which, if I recall correctly, was one of Churchill’s favorite terms of endearment for Hitler.

  23. 23.

    JMS

    In the article where I read about James’ decision, it seems that her polling was not good against Hochul. Separately I read that James doesn’t enjoy fundraising and her fundraising may be soft. So it sounds like nuts and bolts politics 101 stuff.

  26. 26.

    CaseyL

    @Mike in NC: Yuck, no!  I happen to like camels, and think they’re heads and humps above MTG in every category.  Including beauty.

    Never heard botoxing camels was even a thing.  But where there is a prize to be won, humans will figure out a way to cheat.

  27. 27.

    Yutsano

    (h/t guachi)

    I’m giddy that a Starbucks in Buffalo decided to join the SEIU. it turns out there wasn’t all that much progressive about their store culture.

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: From the linked Times article:

    But recent opinion polls had shown Ms. James trailing Ms. Hochul, the state’s first female governor, among Democratic primary voters by double digits, and she was thought to significantly trail the governor in fund-raising, as well.

    After James threw her hat in the ring, lots of folks assumed that meant Hochul was toast since her power base isn’t NYC. Interesting.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @Major Major Major Major: LOL! I’ve been sort of pretending NFTs don’t exist and avoiding reading anything about them to maintain the illusion. The cranium file space for “stupid things I know about” is already overflowing, and I can’t locate a delete button.

  31. 31.

    Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)

    @CaseyL: Hard to believe, but cheating in a camel beauty contest is not news – it’s happened in years past.

    I worry about myself, for knowing this.

  33. 33.

    lafcolleen

    Open thread so —

    L

    Josh Duggar from the TV Reality Show 19 kids and counting was convicted in federal court of receiving/possessing child sexual abuse materials. case was in fed court – Western District of ARKANSAS.

     

    If you arent familiar – he was the oldest son in a family of Quiverful Evangelicals.  The truth of their beliefs was totally whitewashed by the network.  presented as religious, yes, but all of the dominionist beliefs completely dropped.

     

    Its pretty apparent that the Duggar parents saw this as a way to make their religion attractive – lots of cute, little obdient kids broght up to be modest and godfearing.

     

    Anyway- Josh has been mired in scandals for years.  while still young (early 20s) he was hired as the ED of the Family Research Defense Council. he ended up losing that position when it came out that he had had sexually molested younger girls when he was a teen.

     

    he also was outed as having an account on Ashley Madison – a hookup app specifically for married people.

     

    that was in 2015.

     

    he was arrested earlier this year and his fed case concluded today.

     

    his father Jim Bob Duggar is running for state wide office – so hopefully this puts a dent in that campaign.

     

    there are certainly plenty of hints that some family members are Qanon believers so probably they believe that this conviction is the deep state targeting real Christians rather than going after the REAL child traffickers.

  34. 34.

    Chetan Murthy

    It’s (somewhat) funny (somewhat disgusting when we see it happening to camels or cattle).  When we see it happen to human women, it’s …. what?  “our culture”, you can’t attack it, what are you, a communist ?  A man-hater?  Sigh.

  38. 38.

    There go two miscreants

    It would be amusing to find out if the “augmented” camels are more (or less!) attractive to other camels, rather than simply to the contest judges!

  40. 40.

    Dan B

    My free copy of Midnight in Washington just arrived!  Thank you donor, whoever you are!!

    2/3 the way through Fiona Hill’s book and it’s getting exciting.  The palace intrigue and international behind the scenes intrigue are riveting.

  41. 41.

    NotMax

    @lafcolleen

    Small correction. Not statewide, District 7 special election for Arkansas state Senate. Primaries to be conducted next week (December 14), special election on Feb. 8th.

  42. 42.

    ian

    Saddened to see James drop out, though heartened if it will bring increased results in Trump probe.  She seems real hit or miss, the NRA lawsuit and the Cuomo investigations went real well, but I was under the impression she had indictments lined up for TFG as soon as he left office.  Any NYers (or anyone) have opinions as to why/what is moving/not moving in the AG’s office?

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    This is a great post and has interesting comments, so i don’t want to lure anyone away, but if anyone wants to take a minute and welcome some lurkers in the Hey lurkers thread, maybe they will feel more at home.

    then you could run right back here. :-)

  48. 48.

    Dan B

    @WaterGirl: Thanks for the info!  Thanks to Immanentize wherever you are!!!  I bought an extra calendar as a result so the shelter will benefit.

  52. 52.

    CaseyL

    Holy cow.  Just checked cnn to see if anything interesting was happening out in the world, and saw this:

    More than 5 million people should prepare for possible nocturnal tornadoes Friday

    Are nocturnal tornadoes unusual?

    If you live anywhere between Texas and Ohio, you’re screwed in for an adventurous weekend.  Stay safe, y’all.

  53. 53.

    PJ

    @CaseyL: Also, James was polling at half what Hochul was getting (something like 18% to Hochul’s 36%).  That’s not insurmountable, but it would have been a difficult battle, and the odds were not in her favor.  I understand that you do not make it to high elected office without a good deal of ambition, but to jump from AG to Governor without actually having prosecuted Trump, or successfully concluded any major prosecution, was not a smart move.  Plus, it would surely be argued that the main reason she investigated Cuomo was to clear her own path to being Governor.

  54. 54.

    Leto

    We’re laughing at a camel beauty contest, yet we have dedicated threads on the Westminster Eugenics Program. Oh humans, don’t stop being you!

    @Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): I learned about this stuff the first time I deployed to Kuwait, 20+ years ago. Figured it was the same as horses.

  58. 58.

    PJ

    @Betty Cracker: ​
      Nobody north of Westchester much cares what people in NYC think. Having a power base (and I’m not sure that James does) in the city means nothing if you haven’t done the work to reach out to people upstate and get their support. Chuck Schumer, who lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, visits every single county in New York every year to listen to people. He shows up everywhere (fairs, parades, barbecues). That kind of work is what generates his power base.

  59. 59.

    Brachiator

    Unscrupulous breeders have been accused of using a number of methods to make their camels more likely to win, such as injecting silicone and fillers, and inflating body parts using rubber bands to enhance their appearance, reports SPA.

    Pretty much the same as the Miss Universe contest.

  61. 61.

    eclare

    @CaseyL:   I don’t know that they are unusual per se, but they are more dangerous because you’re asleep and even if you are awake, it’s night, so you don’t see them.

    I am in that range and plan to have everything charged and the car full of gas so it can work as a charger.  Lots of trees around me.

  62. 62.

    Brachiator

    In non-political news of the weird, 43 camels were disqualified from a beauty contest in Saudi Arabia due to Botox use.

    Certainly gives the metaphor of “lipstick on a pig” new meaning.

    Hubba hubba. Look at those humps!

  63. 63.

    trollhattan

    @CaseyL: ​
     Suppose a couple weeks out from shortest day there’s a lot more night for tornadoes to show up than six months from now.

    As far as thunderstorms to spawn them, here in the west those are super rare this time of year. Maybe a hotter-than-usual Gulf is keeping Tornado Alley chugging year-round now? Wouldn’t be a big surprise.

  65. 65.

    Brachiator

    @RobertB: ​
     

    I read an article a while back about the unscrupulous world of state fair beef competitions. Injections of vegetable oil to plump up parts of the cow that are deemed scrawny…

    I that …kosher?

  68. 68.

    Brachiator

    @Soprano2:

    Republicans in MO are trying to get local health departments to quit gathering and releasing data about Covid so they can say it’s no longer a problem in Missouri.

    I really don’t understand the Covid denialism coming from right wing politicians. Yeah I get that they seem to be willing to do anything to keep the economy going, fighting lockdowns, etc.

    But I have never, never, ever seen them offer any alternative public health strategy. They typically fall back on empty skepticism about public health measures, or strangely assert that each individual asserting their “personal responsibility” can magically defeat the pandemic.

    But suppressing data is not just stupid, it’s dangerous. Hospitals will get full. People will still die.

    When this thing first hit, I figured that there would be a fair amount of blaming God’s punishment for the pandemic. But I did not foresee the incredible rise of anti-science nonsense or the use of partisan politics to evade hard choices.

  70. 70.

    Juju

    My niece did an internship with then Lieutenant Governor Hochul in 2019. She really enjoyed her time with the Lieutenant Governor and said at the time that Hochul would probably make a better governor than Cuomo.  What I hear from my family in Albany is that Hochul  is doing a really good job so far.  She took her job as Lieutenant Governor and public service seriously and is handling her new job in much the same way. If I had to choose between Hochul and James, it would be a difficult choice, but Hochul has a bit more experience and James is great doing what she’s been doing.  That’s all I know I know about the situation.

  71. 71.

    trollhattan

    The War on The War on Christmas (WOWOC) continues, on Fox!

    @EricBoehlert

    this morning’s tree mentions on Fox:
    5:06 am
    5:29
    5:38
    5:49
    6:01
    6:10
    6:46
    7:01
    7:03
    7:36
    7:55
    8:01
    8:04
    8:09
    …

    Assuming the victim role, surprisingly easy.

  73. 73.

    debbie

    @Brachiator:

    I’m torn. The more of them that die, the better it will be for us. A horrible thought, to be sure, but this is where we are in this country.

  76. 76.

    Matt McIrvin

    @RobertB: All I know is, pumpkins become ineligible for biggest-pumpkin competitions if they become cracked, because of the worry that people might introduce fluid through the cracks to increase the pumpkin’s mass. But it seems to me you could probably do something with hard-to-detect fluid injection regardless.

  78. 78.

    trollhattan

    Knew it was coming; hoped it would take longer.

    The omicron variant, a highly mutated version of the virus that causes COVID-19, has been detected in the Sacramento area for the first time, local health officials announced Thursday morning. The UC Davis Genome Center identified and confirmed one case of the B.1.1.529 variant, designated omicron by the World Health Organization, the Healthy Davis Together initiative and Yolo County health officials announced in a news release. The infected person is a West Sacramento adult with a history of recent domestic travel who is fully vaccinated, officials wrote. The person also received a booster dose, and has experienced mild symptoms, Yolo County spokesman John Fout said in response to follow-up questions from The Sacramento Bee. The person tested positive on Dec. 2, and had traveled to New York and Maryland, Fout said.
    The infected person “is currently in isolation and contact tracing began immediately,” officials wrote. “The detection of the potentially highly transmissible omicron variant is concerning, especially with more people traveling and visiting with friends and family for the holidays,” Dr. Aimee Sisson, Yolo County’s public health officer, said in a written statement. “There is still a lot we don’t know about the Omicron variant, but this detection is a reminder that we must remain vigilant in using the tools we have to protect ourselves against Delta and Omicron, including vaccination, boosters, testing and following local guidance on mask wearing.” It marks the first confirmed case of omicron in a resident of the four-county capital region, made up of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties, though researchers earlier this week confirmed the presence of omicron in Sacramento wastewater. The first confirmed omicron case in California, and nationwide, came in a San Francisco resident with a history of recent travel to South Africa. Additional cases have been identified in Alameda and Los Angeles counties.
    https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article256463416.html#storylink=cpy

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    @debbie: 

    I’m torn. The more of them that die, the better it will be for us. A horrible thought, to be sure, but this is where we are in this country.

    The problem is that conservative stupidity about Covid-19 hurts innocent people and makes it harder to deal with the pandemic. I was recently reading about how hospitals in New Mexico are having trouble dealing with increasing numbers of Covid patients. But these are not just locals, but includes people brought in from Texas, where there is vaccine resistance and stupidity on the part of government officials.

  80. 80.

    Peale

    Those camel wrinkles wouldn’t be so pronounced if they had started using moisturizer at a young age. Although, I’m guessing no amount of Neutrogena would offset the dry air of the desert, even if applied 4x per day. Probably best to use Aquaphor.

  81. 81.

    Another Scott

    @Brachiator:  The GQP doesn’t want the government to do anything except run the police and the military. Any social benefit provided by government weakens the argument that “government is the problem”.

    “Wow, the government did a really great job in crushing the pandemic! Maybe we should work on infant and women’s mortality! And figuring out ways to keep people out of hospitals!
    And …” – said no GQPer, ever.

    There are variations on that theme, but that’s basically it.

    I’m not at all surprised that they’re continuing to push this BS – they’re not deep thinkers.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  83. 83.

    debbie

    @Brachiator:

    I think it’s been noted that practically all of the hospitalized are unvaccinated, and as a result, staff are becoming less empathetic.

  84. 84.

    trollhattan

    @debbie: Being homeless conveys automatic antifa membership, invitations to all the secret meetings, and a copy of “Antifa’s Guide to Mayhem, and Lunch.”

  85. 85.

    Betty Cracker

    @Brachiator: I can explain the COVID denialism in right wing politicians in two words: it works. 

    It has so far, anyway. Look at the fawning press Ron DeSantis gets in outfits like Politico. It’s revolting.

    Many voters are like children with divorced parents, and the Democrats are the mom who makes them eat their fruit and vegetables and brush their teeth before bed. Republicans are the dad who lets them have candy corn for dinner and stay up all night. Guess who they like best?

  86. 86.

    Peale

    @Brachiator: Its really hard to have a policy based on both “personal responsibility” and “suppression of information.” Its rather clear that they don’t actually want people to exercise personal responsibility, but instead want people to go out and spend money in bars and ignore those coughing fits.

  87. 87.

    J R in WV

    @ian:

    …Any NYers (or anyone) have opinions as to why/what is moving/not moving in the AG’s office?

    I recall reading that she has recruited some hot prosecutors to continue the investigation, and of course announced today that Mr Trump has an appointment for a deposition on his real estate valuations related to whether the value was intended to raise money or save on tax payments.

    So I think work continues, just that it’s harder than it looks to build an air tight case against an experienced crime family.

    I would like to see federal money laundering indictments handed up ASAP, tying TFG to the Russian mob. That would really hurt, and if it looked like he might squeal on the Russian mob, they would work on him hard, with GRU tools. Imagine finding him dead from Novachuk nerve agent… or fallen from his own tower… ah, what a relief it is ~!!~

  88. 88.

    Anonymous At Work

    Please please please someone tell me that Wonkette covered the camel beauty pageant cheating scandal…

  89. 89.

    Miss Bianca

    @Brachiator:

    But I have never, never, ever seen them offer any alternative public health strategy.

    It’s hard to escape the conclusion that they really, just really, don’t believe in public health, period.

  91. 91.

    Peale

    @Juju: I thought that Paterson was doing a decent job, too. Until the state trooper scandal broke, I would have voted for him. Unfortunately, Cuomo managed to turn the large party donors into his personal donors, and that was that. I will vote for Houchul in any primary because I think that if you have any NY Democrat in office that isn’t weighed down by a scandal after a few months and is doing a decent job, you should keep said governor. James can wait in line.

  93. 93.

    J R in WV

    @Soprano2: ​
     

    Republicans in MO are trying to get local health departments to quit gathering and releasing data about Covid so they can say it’s no longer a problem in Missouri.

    So they suspect no one will notice those refrigerator trucks parked out behind the hospitals? Or the inability to get treatment for your heart attack or breast cancer at the local hospital? Just stop counting the Covid deaths and everything is OK, hunky-dory!??

    I don’t think that will work out for them. Not at all.

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Rose Twitter is declaring that James deciding for another term as AG is a plot against Zephyr Teachout.

    Who was unstoppable!

  96. 96.

    Mike in NC

    @Tony Gerace:  The late actor Charlton Heston appeared on some late night TV talk show when that slogan was popular. He’d made a few historical movies and wasn’t reluctant to tell everybody how much he hated working with camels.

  97. 97.

    PAM Dirac

    Jamie Raskin is my congressman and I have been very impressed by him. He not only has the intellect, compassion, and work ethic for the job but he also understands that all the good ideas and intentions need to be turned into results and anything that makes someone’s life better is worth working for, not matter how small. Two specific things stand out in my personal experience. In 2018 he come to a fundraiser in my state legislative district to support the D candidates. It is quite a red district (~67R-33R in 2012) so it was quite an uphill task. It also wasn’t going to make any real difference to the legislative session as the D’s would have a veto proof majority even if all these candidates lost. Nevertheless, he showed up and was throughly prepared, giving really nice speech with lots of specific praise for all the candidates. It was far beyond what he needed to do and a real boost for the candidates (who made progress, but still lost ~58R-42D). The other thing I remember is when the pandemic was ramping up in early 2020 he organized a series of phone town halls. He got a number of local officials to talk about preparations, plans, knowns and unknowns. You signed up and when it started your phone got called, so you didn’t even need to remember when it was and call in. It was tremendously comforting to hear people who took their job seriously and were working together to serve the public. Anyway, I guess the one plus from Supreme Court punting on gerrymandering is that Raskin is still my representative and I hope he will continue to be.

  100. 100.

    Ksmiami

    @Betty Cracker: except that in this case the Republican dad goes off and takes a second mortgage that he gambles on horses or NFTs and pays for jewels for his mistress and ultimately leaves his kids high and dry…

  106. 106.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Betty Cracker:

    LOL! I’ve been sort of pretending NFTs don’t exist and avoiding reading anything about them to maintain the illusion. The cranium file space for “stupid things I know about” is already overflowing, and I can’t locate a delete button.

    A lot of otherwise intelligent people on my timeline are absolutely obsessed with “web3” (“web 3.0”, don’t ask), and I absolutely despair that we’re wasting engineering talent and enthusiasm on this shit, but I also yeah, don’t have the energy to write a “take-down”.

  109. 109.

    Geminid

    @Juju: I’m glad to see that Tish James will run for another term as Attorney General. That’s an important job, and she seems very good at it.

    I don’t follow New York news very closely, but my impression is that Kathy Hochul is good at her job too. I’ve read enough about her history to believe she is hard working, and a dedicated retail politician like Senator Schumer.

  111. 111.

    Ken

    @Ksmiami: not if we allow hospitals to start turning away the stupidly unvaxxed…

    “Nope, you can’t possibly have COVID, the governor said Missouri beat it. Your pulse oxy must be defective to be reading only 28. Just go home and try to get a good night’s sleep. Also if you have any unvaccinated family, kiss them goodnight.”

  112. 112.

    Winston

    @Ken: Heh. If I die before, I won’t be disappointed, I guess. The next week or so I will be glued to this story

    ETA and then if it makes it to LG2 and unfolds like it is supposed to …. like I said. God porn.

  113. 113.

    Miss Bianca

    @PAM Dirac: Raskin is your rep? Lucky you – mine is Lauren Boebert.

    Altho’ my county is about to get put into a different congressional district, which is Ed Perlmutter’s (CD-7). From everything I can tell so far, he’s a good guy. A Democrat, so with our red counties added into his district he’s got more of an uphill battle this time round – while Boebert could have been redistricted *out* of her district in one of the other iterations of the new electoral map.

    I’m guessing, just based on what I heard at one of the hearings, that the whining from Boulder (which would have been part of that district) was *epic* for that one.

  114. 114.

    Ken

    @NotMax: Despite the obvious danger that it will turn everyone who eats it into a giant blueberry, I was looking for that candy corn around Halloween, and unable to find it. Plenty of empty shelves with the tag for the product, but operative word is “empty”.

  120. 120.

    PAM Dirac

    @Miss Bianca:

     

    Raskin is your rep? Lucky you – mine is Lauren Boebert.

    My condolences, but best of luck in your new district. I’m not sure if Maryland is going to mess around with the districts. Before the Supreme Court ruling (I think the Maryland districts were part of that suit) there were redistricting plans that would have dumped me into a R district, but with the ruling everyone decided to wait until after the census. We will see what happens.

  122. 122.

    Scout211

    The appeals court  has rejected TFG’s appeal to keep his records from the January 6 committee. But the ruling is being paused.

    (CNN)A federal appeals court Thursday ruled against former President Donald Trump in his effort to block his White House records from being released to the House select committee investigating January 6.

    However, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals paused its ruling for two weeks so that Trump could seek a Supreme Court intervention.

  123. 123.

    J R in WV

    I don’t see web 3.0 as a great improvement. I manage to keep Google from knowing where we are to within the continent. It knows we’re in the USA somewhere, but places us from upstate NY to southern CA… so Google doesn’t know where I am at all.

    I did a little math on the Hubble and Anti-gay telescopes, and from my feeble math, Anti=gay telescope is ~33.16 sq meters while Hubble is ~4.52 sq meters, so nearly an order of magnitude more reflector space. Plus years more technical experience. So God Porn may happen.

    My cousin and I are interested in mineralogy, and share data and photos of what we call geo-porn — high end photos of rocks worth 6 or 8 figures, with multiple crystals of gemstone protruding from a crystal matrix. Aquamarine crystals, like a dozen, or tourmalines, like a dozen, standing up like candles on a birthday cake.

  124. 124.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Miss Bianca: Perlmutter is a good rep. Of course , dirt would be an improvement over Mama Done Got The Guns.

    As for the Colorado maps, boo hiss.  The commission knelt to the god of both sides. It’s not even a case of following rules the other side ignores. They are not representative of the current state of play here.

  125. 125.

    Miss Bianca

    @Scout211: Son of a bitch, sometimes I just wish the courts would just say, “denied, sucker”.

    You know, when it’s a *white guy* criming, just for a change.

  126. 126.

    cain

    @Brachiator:

    The problem is that conservative stupidity about Covid-19 hurts innocent people and makes it harder to deal with the pandemic. I was recently reading about how hospitals in New Mexico are having trouble dealing with increasing numbers of Covid patients. But these are not just locals, but includes people brought in from Texas, where there is vaccine resistance and stupidity on the part of government officials.

    At some point, you need to send them back. State resources should be focused on residents. If your hospitals are filled with out of staters who should have known better and gotten a vaccine – well there is a consequence for that. I don’t feel that the state of new mexico should punish its own people. (eg not just covid, but cancer or any other thing that might require emergency services)

     

  128. 128.

    trollhattan

    @divF: Zoikes, actually have that LP from back in the day.

    Criminally underappreciated band.

    “Coke, Suede and Waterbeds
    “They all got bodies but we call them heads.”

  130. 130.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, in Virginia, …

    I'm still digesting and will be for a while, but the easiest way to understand the new Virginia congressional district map is that the winners are the 8 male incumbents and the losers are the 3 female incumbents

    — Aaron Fritschner (@Fritschner) December 8, 2021

    Reminder: had VA Dems retained the power to redraw lines, we'd probably looking at an 8D-3R gerrymander (e.g. below) that would've shored up Spanberger/Luria/Wexton *and* created a new safe seat for a Prince William Co. Dem.

    Instead, Rs have a good shot at 5 (maybe 6?) seats. pic.twitter.com/kiZq1HWL38— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) December 9, 2021

    (Presently VA has 11 seats – 7D : 4R)

    The new redistricting commission system is revealing itself to be the (insert derogatory term of your choice) that many predicted.

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  132. 132.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @zhena gogolia:

    Not quite dead yet. I have been sleeping—a lot. When I’m sleeping I’m not hurting. When I’m not sleeping . . .

    I have found resting positions that are not too uncomfortable, and my pain level is going down somewhat. Progress. But still traversing the “Ow! my balls!” zone.

    Nice to know that people are thinking of me. Thanks, all.

  135. 135.

    debbie

    @debbie:

    America isn’t some shitty casino in Atlantic City. This isn’t another failed business venture. We’re not settling out of court. America doesn’t work for this asshole.

    Trump is entitled to exactly fuck all confidentiality when it comes to treason, sedition, and insurrection. https://t.co/SGgW2GxY55
    — Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) December 9, 2021

  139. 139.

    Another Scott

    @cain: I think the rationalization there is:

    • We’ll give our supporters breaks and,
    • In the process we’ll make the government unsustainable (by reducing revenue and increasing tax expenditures) which
    • Will force future cuts to services

    They won’t say these things out loud, of course, but many of them believe that ending government programs and taxes (except for the military and police) will enable a Free Market Paradise where they will rise to the top.  They can’t campaign on that though, because only a tiny fraction of voters believe that the path to prosperity is via ending Social Security and Medicare, making every road a toll road, letting anyone sell anything with no health and safety standards (get your Fentanyl Chewing Gum!!1), etc., etc.

    Like Burundi.

    It’s a cult.

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  140. 140.

    cain

    @debbie: They are going to appeal to the right wing supreme court – you know that’s what all this is going to lead to. Christ.

  142. 142.

    cain

    @Another Scott:

    They are a cult. It doesn’t take into account any kind of chaos that could happen to any of them. Accidents, healthcare, natural disasters – they gonna ask their neighbors for help?

    I have no idea how you wake these people up – given that some of these hold on to even their covid conspiracy even as they die.. I don’t think any will.

  143. 143.

    CaseyL

    Open thread, right?

    YouTube offers video transcripts of Reddit threads where people who have been done wrong (or did wrong themselves) tell their tales of woe.  The videos are posted with clickbait titles like, “We have two kids but my wife says she now wants to be child-free.”  Soap opera stuff, but RL soap opera stuff.

    I never watched that kind of thing on TV, or read newspaper stories about it, but for some reason have gotten into the habit of reading the more interesting ones that pop up on YouTube.

    Maybe it’s because I never used to pay attention to this kind of thing before, but the one reaction I have to most of these stories is “My *god* how can people BE like this?”  How obliviously entitled, spoiled, narcissistic can someone be??  And their poor friends, relatives, and partners who get caught in the shit, who still wonder what the hell happened to them.

    It’s giving me what I earnestly hope is a skewed view of humanity. But after the last few years, seeing too goddamn many of my fellow Americans go happily down the Trumpist/Q-Anon rabbit hole…

    Well.

    I really wonder if the number of human beings who are NOT gold-plated assholes are actually way, way outnumbered by those who ARE.  I mean, like it’s not even close.

  151. 151.

    debbie

    @Geminid:

    And she’s already back at work:

    New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking a deposition from former president Donald Trump early next year as part of her investigation into potential fraud inside the Trump Organization, according to people familiar with the matter.

    James has requested to take his testimony on Jan. 7 at her New York office as part of a civil investigation into whether Trump’s company committed financial fraud in the valuations of properties to different entities, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is ongoing.

    One of the people familiar with the investigation said James is examining whether widespread fraud “permeated the Trump Organization.”

  154. 154.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Miss Bianca: That’s pretty much what they did. They called it “wholly without merit” and then said “You have 14 days to appeal it to the Supreme Court” with an implied “go fuck yourself”. :)

  159. 159.

    Soprano2

    @J R in WV: I think he’s trying to emulate what DeSantis did. If there are no numbers you can say “What Covid, that’s not a problem here anymore”. They know people don’t like having to isolate after an exposure, so they just get rid of the requirement and they think they solved the problem.  If course, our city and school district told them to pound sand when the state government tried to tell them how to run things.

    I had a jackhole co-worker come back yesterday after 3 months off for heart bypass surgery. He admitted he had confirmed Covid 1 1/2 months before the surgery, but he never took off from work as far as I know! Guess who he thinks is just great…..

  161. 161.

    opiejeanne

    @Matt McIrvin: They increase the weight of pumpkins  by nicking the stem and placing a bowl of milk so that the pumpkin will drink it through the nick. There’s a somewhat entertaining book about people who are obsessed with winning the title of largest pumpkin, Backyard Giants. One guy bought a piece of land next to his garden just so he could grown the biggest one, another guy had to mount an armed guard to keep his monsters from being vandalized, possibly by other competitors.

  162. 162.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    The GQP doesn’t want the government to do anything except run the police and the military. Any social benefit provided by government weakens the argument that “government is the problem”.

    In the past, even Republican governors and federal officials dealt with pandemics. I don’t recall any GOP leaders saying “we don’t want that polio vaccine.”

    Something has changed. If this is current GOP policy, the Democrats should make the Republicans admit it, since the press don’t seem to be willing to ask hard questions.

  165. 165.

    Brachiator

    @cain: ​
     

    RE: I was recently reading about how hospitals in New Mexico are having trouble dealing with increasing numbers of Covid patients. But these are not just locals, but includes people brought in from Texas, where there is vaccine resistance and stupidity on the part of government officials.

    At some point, you need to send them back. State resources should be focused on residents. If your hospitals are filled with out of staters who should have known better and gotten a vaccine – well there is a consequence for that. I don’t feel that the state of new mexico should punish its own people. (eg not just covid, but cancer or any other thing that might require emergency services)

    Nope. The federal government would have to help provide additional funding and personnel for hospitals.

  169. 169.

    NotMax

    The tentacles reach far and wide, don’t they?

    Former Sen. Elizabeth Dole dismissed a volunteer event planner helping organize memorials for her late husband, former Sen. Bob Dole, after she was made aware of his alleged ties to a rally that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
    [snip]
    Dole’s decision to cut ties with Unes was first reported by The New York Times, which said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, had raised the issue with a Dole family contact. McConnell’s office confirmed the reporting in The Times, per a source familiar with the matter. Source

  171. 171.

    NotMax

    On its face, approving taxpayer funding of discriminatory practices as defined in statute ought to be a slam dunk “no.” Given the current tenor of the court, though….

    The Supreme Court has considered a handful of religious-liberty cases of late, but as Vox’s Ian Millhiser noted last week, they’ve generally involved religious conservatives seeking exemptions from laws and policies. The justices have heard cases in recent years, for example, about faith-based organizations arguing that Covid-19 restrictions and contraception policies shouldn’t apply to them.

    Carson v. Makin, which the high court considered yesterday, is a very different kind of case. At issue in the case is a seemingly dry subject — education subsidies in Maine — which gets a lot more interesting upon further inspection. Source

  175. 175.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Ohio Mom:

    Thanks. I have been eating all right. Just finished two bowls of hearty soup with the niece and nephew.

    They’re running a little late tonight. They have gone upstairs to brush their teeth and go to bed. Just heard my niece yell, “I hate everybody!” Dunno what that’s about, but it seems to be normal?

  181. 181.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Ohio Mom:

    Yes, I’m convalescing at the sanitarium on the grounds of Sighthound Hall. The staff has been very attentive. Next milestone tomorrow: taking a shower!

  182. 182.

    Patricia Kayden

    If the NY AG wants to depose Trump it’s because they’ve already assembled their case — Trump’s testimony would just be the icing. You don’t go after the CEO until you’ve already gotten all the other evidence. The case is 90%+ built.— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) December 9, 2021

  183. 183.

    Procopius

    I’m not familiar with New York state politics, but the thought that immediately occurred to me is she may be worried that she could be accused of persecuting/prosecuting [family blog] Cuomo to create a path for herself. I’m pretty sure Hochul’s campaign would beat that drum, even if Hochul didn’t.  I think Cuomo is still popular with a lot of upstate New Yorkers, but I don’t know how much resonance that charge would get. She seems to be a very in-touch lady, so maybe she has polling data that show she doesn’t have enough of a lead.

  184. 184.

    Procopius

    But suppressing data is not just stupid, it’s dangerous. Hospitals will get full. People will still die.

    Which is why I didn’t understand why the CDC did it after the vaccines became available. There are a lot of reasons to suspect corruption going on, although some of them are obviously conspiracy theories.

  185. 185.

    rekoob

    @Steeplejack (phone): Glad to hear you’re convalescing peacefully. I’d like to readdress an interaction from a couple of months ago, namely, life in Sussex County, Delaware. I’ve been giving more thought to that area, and perhaps you and others at Sighthound Hall have some perspective. I’m leaning more towards inland (Georgetown), but happy to consider areas around Lewes, Rehoboth, Dewey, and beyond. I’m currently in Central Virginia, which means that I could put on tactical gear (pants!) and meet for a beer and sandwich as appropriate.

  186. 186.

    trollhattan

    File under “H” for Holy fucking shit, these people!”

    El Dorado County prosecutors filed felony charges Thursday against the father and son accused of starting the devastating Caldor Fire, including counts charging the son with converting a firearm into a machine gun and possessing a silencer. Travis Shane Smith, 32, and his father, David Scott Smith, 66, were arrested Wednesday and booked into the El Dorado County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail each. The pair are scheduled to make their first court appearance Friday via a video hookup from the jail. Sources have told The Sacramento Bee investigators were looking into whether the fire may have been sparked during target practice on Aug. 14, the day the blaze erupted near Grizzly Flat, and one source has said they were driving through the Northern California forest area in a dune buggy. Several search warrants have been executed in recent months in the case. The criminal complaint does not directly tie possession of the machine gun to the fire, but alleges that between Aug. 9 and Aug. 14 Travis Smith converted a firearm into a machine gun and that between Aug. 11 and Sept. 23 he and his father possessed a silencer.

    …The blaze burned more than 220,000 acres in El Dorado, Amador and Alpine counties and forced the evacuations of thousands of residents from South Lake Tahoe, Pollock Pines and communities along Highway 50 into the Sierra.
    https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article256475691.html#storylink=cpy

    Do not anticipate these douches cutting a sweet deal because a lot of rich folks had their places burned to the ground on this fire and Lake Tahoe basin was essentially closed for the duration.

  187. 187.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @rekoob:

    I can respond at greater length when I’m on my computer. I’ll make it a point to hit the morning thread and the early evening open thread tomorrow.

    The short version about Sussex County is that you have to think about how close you want to be to the water and how much you’re willing to pay for that. You also need to realize that Highway 1 is a madhouse all summer and on a lot of non-summer weekends. It’s the only major north-south artery. Georgetown is a bit inland, so you’re somewhat isolated from that, but you have to consider how much stuff that you want to do is on Highway 1.

  189. 189.

    Ken

    @debbie: One of the people familiar with the investigation said James is examining whether widespread fraud “permeated the Trump Organization.”

    I’m going to have to say no, but only because “permeate” generally connotes that the substance is less than half of the whole.

  190. 190.

    Scout211

    @trollhattan:

    In one news story I read (I think it was KCRA) their attorney claims that they are not guilty (of course) because they were the first people to call 911 and then drove around in their dune buggy warning homeowners nearby.

    Apparently the attorney wants us to believe that they didn’t do it because they were the ones who saw it first. Call in a fire, therefore, not guilty!

    edited for clarity.

  191. 191.

    Ken

    @opiejeanne: They increase the weight of pumpkins  by nicking the stem and placing a bowl of milk so that the pumpkin will drink it through the nick.

    Have they tried blood?

    No, silly question, of course someone has. Did they live long enough to report the results?

  193. 193.

    Ken

    @Patricia Kayden: If the NY AG wants to depose Trump it’s because they’ve already assembled their case — Trump’s testimony would just be the icing.

    Perjury-flavored icing.  And he’s dumb and/or arrogant enough to not understand that they’ll only be asking questions where they already know the answer.

  194. 194.

    James E Powell

    @Brachiator:

    Something has changed. If this is current GOP policy, the Democrats should make the Republicans admit it, since the press don’t seem to be willing to ask hard questions.

    What’s changed is that the majority of White Americans have been encouraged & supported in letting their ignorant, racist flags fly. Their political philosophy comes down to people they hate must be scorned & humiliated and not much more.

  195. 195.

    rekoob

    @Steeplejack (phone): Many thanks for your response, and we can catch up in later threads. This isn’t urgent for me, but I’m trying to think through the best approach. Ideally, I’d like to be within a 200-mile radius of New York City, which means Coastal Delaware to roughly Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts. I’m with you on proximity to the actual shore, but I’m also sensitive to how the shoreline may change. I’m aware of the congestion, which is one of the reasons I’m thinking about Georgetown, with its airport and potential for passenger drones at some point. Lewes offers a couple of driving options to NYC, and if drones add to it, so much the better. Perhaps we’ll trade thoughts soon.

  196. 196.

    Frankensteinbeck

    There is nothing weird about cheating in camel beauty contests except our knee-jerk ‘camels are weird and ugly’ cultural reaction.  Dogs get beauty contests.  Horses get beauty contests.  All livestock get beauty contests.  Camels are important livestock.  Cheating in contests isn’t weird, and there is passion, big money, and prestige in animal beauty contests.

    As for Missouri and Republican reactions to Covid in general, they’re assholes.  Fuck the other guy.  A black man became president.  They’re being publicly shamed for bigotries that were culturally safe and normal ten years ago.  They are absolutely raging, frothing-at-the-mouth determined to keep their right to be assholes, so fuck the other guy even if they are in the crosshairs too.  Even if they hurt themselves more.  Nothing is more important than giving people who restrict assholery the middle finger.  Nothing.

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