Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Infrastructure week. at last.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

This really is a full service blog.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

This blog will pay for itself.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

We still have time to mess this up!

All your base are belong to Tunch.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

In my day, never was longer.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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Friday Evening Open Thread: Snippets

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127Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Mark your calendars: Speaker Pelosi invites President Biden to give SOTU address on Tuesday, March 1.

    Nice timing, Nancy SMASH! March 1 is the first day of Women’s History Month, and elevated immediately behind the President will be the country’s first woman Vice President and first woman Speaker of the House. The symmetry and symbolism rock!

  2. 2.

    Roger Moore

    I’m not a fan of life without parole sentences. It’s not so much because I don’t believe some people should spend the rest of their lives in prison as it is because I think it displays a lack of faith in the parole system. I don’t think these monsters are going to get parole whether they’re theoretically eligible or not.

  5. 5.

    Mike E

    To think: if those crackers didn’t video their lynching they wouldn’t now be sentenced to life, let alone be in jail at all; also, leave it to the fcuking GOP to “those people” their own base, they so deserve each other; and, March 1st is the latest date for a modern president’s SOTU address.

  8. 8.

    The Dangerman

    If you can afford an airplane, a yacht, or similar extravagance, you can afford to pay your taxes.

  10. 10.

    mrmoshpotato

    David Brooks is still full of shit.  (Yeah, no revelation around here.)

    Apparently, Biden won not because people wanted him to be elected, but because people hate the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain.)

  12. 12.

    Ken

    Didn’t the GOP used to criticize the Soviet Union because people had to stand in line for everything?

  16. 16.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Just learned (on Joy Reid’s show) that Lani Guinier died today (71). Between her and Sidney Poitier, this is a sad day for anyone who care about civil rights.

  20. 20.

    Poe Larity

    Maybe we should move all gun sales to the DMV and see how they feel about rights and lines.

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    @Ken:

    Didn’t the GOP used to criticize the Soviet Union because people had to stand in line for everything?

    Valid criticism. People had to stand in line because of shortages of all kinds of products. This was a reflection of the inefficiency of communism.

  27. 27.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Mike E: 

    To think: if those crackers didn’t video their lynching they wouldn’t now be sentenced to life, let alone be in jail at all;

    Agreed. 1.21 Gigatimes.
    It makes a body wonder how often “principled law-abidin’ conservatives” (i.e., racist white people) literally get away with murder because the justice system is automatically tilted against a person of color who happens to be the victim of a crime.

  28. 28.

    Brachiator

    @mrmoshpotato:

    David Brooks is still full of shit.  (Yeah, no revelation around here.)

    Apparently, Biden won not because people wanted him to be elected, but because people hate the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain.)

    Why would Brooks even be revisiting the election? Slow news day?

    You could see even from the Democratic primaries that there was an enthusiasm for Biden on the part of voters. And this held true in the general election.

    The only way that Brooks could be more stupid would be for him to say “Bernie coulda won.”

     

  29. 29.

    gene108

    I had a prescription screw up. I spent an hour at Walgreens trying to straighten it out.

    One guy came in without a mask. He was there for his COVID booster. My brain just froze in confusion. The dude is aware enough to get his booster, but doesn’t make the connection on the need to mask.

    I don’t understand some people.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    @The Dangerman:

    If you can afford an airplane, a yacht, or similar extravagance, you can afford to pay your taxes.

    How am I supposed to afford the good stuff in life if you make me pay for moochers and looters?

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    @Brachiator:

    The only way that Brooks could be more stupid would be for him to say “Bernie coulda won.”

    “Trump actually won” is several steps dumber, but there are plenty of people saying it.  No matter how far down you go, there are people who will go further.

  34. 34.

    Mike in NC

    I’m about a third of the way through “The Plot to Betray America” by Malcolm Nance. My hatred for the Trump Crime Cartel is incandescent.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    I don’t know. That would really goose turnout for Dems. They just lost two Senate seats.

    I guess I’m dense tonight, but I don’t understand this line at all.

  38. 38.

    Another Scott

    We might start hearing more chatter soon about a “new” variant detected in a person from Cameroon. We need to keep our wits about us.

    DW.com

    (Way down in the story…)

    Yet epidemiologist Didier Raoult — who was behind the preprint study — is controversial, among other reasons because he treats COVID-19 patients with the malaria medication hydroxychloroquine, which has not been proven effective.

    […]

    The doctor has himself not been vaccinated, as he believes COVID-19 is not deadly. He enjoys a kind of cult status among COVID-19 skeptics — which may have helped contribute to spread of the preprint. Whether scientific standards were followed in this study has not yet been established.

    No matter what the validity of this particular report, it’s good to remember that uncontrolled reproduction means increased opportunity for mutations and variants.

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  42. 42.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us

    @gene108: The pharmacist that gave me my booster wasn’t wearing a mask. Takes all kinds, including imbeciles, apparently.

  44. 44.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @gene108:

    I bet there are lots of people out there like that who just want to be done with the pandemic who took it more seriously in the past

  45. 45.

    Another Scott

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us: Lots of stores around here in NoVA still have signs that say things like, “we recommend our unvaccinated guests wear masks…”.  Too many people aren’t going to change their behavior until it’s required.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  49. 49.

    A Ghost to Most

    Sorry to intrude. A Black person in the WaPo comments for this story asked why white people were celebrating. I said I was because this will make my racist brother nervous. They said it was a good answer. YMMV.

  51. 51.

    stinger

    @SiubhanDuinne: That’s wonderful! I hadn’t thought about that date except to think that a lot of dates are getting pushed back in hopes Covid will ameliorate some. But I’ll bet the symbolism was a big factor!

  52. 52.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I bet there are lots of people out there like that who just want to be done with the pandemic who took it more seriously in the past 

    i still take it seriously and want to be done with it – especially for my too-young-to-be-vaccinated-yet family members.

  54. 54.

    Jay

    One Day off,

    got a call and text from work, “can you come in?”

    Nobody on open, nobody on bridge, Covid.

    Closed the night before, so got home at 10:30pm, then supper, kill brain, in bed by 2am, woke up at 2 pm. Called them back, said I could make it in by 5pm. Closer starts at 5:30pm.

    They know all this, saw all this coming, but were too cheap, ( Corp) to over schedule, over hire, and now they are €ucked.

    they passed on me doubling up on close, so tomorrow will continue the $hitshow.

  55. 55.

    Ken

    I just did grocery shopping, and in the checkout lane is this week’s People:  “Betty White Turns 100”.  Made me a bit sad.

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @opiejeanne:

    I was confused too, but that seems to be my natural state half of the time.

    Well, mine too. But I’m damned if I’m going to admit that to Baud.

  57. 57.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ken:

    I actually bought a copy last Saturday, just a day after she died. I rarely pick up magazines any more — and sheeyit! are they ever expensive?! — but this seemed like a real collector’s item, so I splurged.

  58. 58.

    Ohio Mom

    @Ken: I saw the Betty White issue of People when I was on the checkout line yesterday. I’d thought it would have been a collector’s item and snatched up, but those copies just stood there forlornly.

    ETA: I see SiubhanDuinne thinks the way I do. And yes, magazines are outrageously expensive if you are buying single issues. I think subscriptions are still reasonable.

  59. 59.

    Kent

    @Baud:A lot of Omicron will hopefully have burned through by then.

    I was thinking that.  Probably strategic timing so Biden can hopefully talk about re-opening  and beating Covid.

  63. 63.

    The Dangerman

    After further review, I assume the Texas GOP is complaining about mail in voting. Can someone explain to me the difference between mail in voting and absentee voting?

    If they want to do away with absentee voting, there are some military and Seniors that want to have a talk with them.

  64. 64.

    Kent

    @SiubhanDuinne:I guess I’m dense tonight, but I don’t understand this line at all.

    If the governor of Georgia pardoned Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers it would drive huge turnout by outraged Dems in the upcoming Governor’s election

    At least that’s what I took him to mean.

  66. 66.

    Matt McIrvin

    @The Dangerman: Usually absentee voting requires giving some kind of excuse (from a list of valid excuses) for not showing up in person, whereas mail-in voting is available to anyone.

    Massachusetts actually has separate and parallel absentee-voting and mail voting systems–which sounds absurd, but the absentee system has been around longer and existed for all elections, whereas universal mail voting for its first few years was only available for the really big elections. But in 2020 they extended it to everything–who knows if that will continue.

  68. 68.

    RSA

    Three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison, with a judge denying any chance of parole for the father and son who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man.

    I can’t read minds, but I’m guessing that the convicted killers of Ahmaud Arbery wouldn’t have thought twice on reading “Three Black men who chased and killed a White man were sentenced to life in prison…”

    There’s probably a variation on the Golden Rule that applies here, along the lines of “What you have done unto others, expect to have done unto you.”

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @mrmoshpotato:

    It makes me so happy that my home town of Oak Park honours her children in this way, no matter how far they’ve traveled or what they’ve done. I look forward to my own celebration in due course.

    :-)

  72. 72.

    mrmoshpotato

    Via bluegal

    BREAKING: Jamie Raskin reveals that Melania’s former press secretary Stephanie Grisham has provided the January 6th committee with “a lot of names that will leave America shocked and surprised.”— TheSadTruth? (@ReportsDaNews) January 7, 2022

    Shocked and surprised? Wanna bet?

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kent:

    It was the line I bolded that had me confused, but Baud explained it.

    It was kind of a lame excuse, but I bought it.

    :-)

  75. 75.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mrmoshpotato: I’m trying to think of Republicans, current electeds or not, whose participation in Jan 6 would “shock and surprise” me.

    Five, six years ago, if I knew what a “never trumper” was, I would’ve thought Brit Hume, Byron York and Rich Lowry would be NT. I would’ve thought Jonah Goldberg and Linda Chavez (to the extent I was still thinking about her) would be all in with The Beast and grabbing what ever they could along the ride. Jennifer Rubin and Mona Charen have also surprised me, even if I didn’t necessarily think of them as grifters.

  76. 76.

    Another Scott

    Yet more warnings that we shouldn’t be sanguine about Omicron (if we were tempted to be):

    Where are we with Omicron? All the news from abroad suggests the variant does produce, overall, significantly less severe disease. But the U.S. wave is already diverging from the European pattern. A long thread on what's ahead (1/x). https://t.co/LGqt9XRdE3

    — David Wallace-Wells (@dwallacewells) January 8, 2022

    (Points to his NYMag Intelligencer story)

    (via LOLGOP)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  79. 79.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ohio Mom:

    Well, the one I bought was the last copy, at least in that particular checkout lane. That fact might have subliminally whispered “scarcity” to me and prompted the impulse purchase, now I think about it.

  81. 81.

    schrodingers_cat

    Guys India is hurtling towards a point of no return. Every single day there is a new outrage. There have been open calls for genocide in several different cities. Grotesque cyberbullying of prominent Muslims and Dalits by pro BJP handles.  This includes an app made to “auction” prominent Muslim women who are vocal on social media and IRL. None of this is getting much coverage in the media here.

  82. 82.

    Suzanne

    @Another Scott: That story has the only mention of HAIs (hospital-acquired infections), aka nosocomial infections, that I have seen during this Omicron wave. HAIs are always a terrible problem is hospitals.

    But while Gounder says there are “absolutely” more patients with “incidental” COVID during this wave, the two are not precisely defined categories. Faust has emphasized a third group — those who have other medical issues but have been “tipped over” into hospitalization by the presence of COVID. To me, he also mentions a fourth group — the “hospital onset” cases, where patients admitted for another issue catch COVID while hospitalized. For some of them, the new infection could be not trivial but a catastrophic complication, and, Faust says, hospital onset cases are now at record highs for the pandemic — among the worrying signs he’s watching at the moment.

     

    By some counts, even pre-pandemic, HAIs are one of the top ten causes of death in the country. I have been thinking that Omicron is going to cause a lot of HAIs.

  83. 83.

    patrick II

    @Mike E:

    It may take Garland another month to indict Trump.  Actually, or maybe additionally, I think it will give a little time for Omicron to slow down and give Biden an opportunity to talk about other things.

    Of course, @Baud:  already said that.

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax: It is. Fathom Events have updated their blurb:

    Betty White: A Celebration

    100 Minutes

    Statement from the producers of Betty White: 100 Years Young, Steve Boettcher and Mike Trinklein: Our hearts mourn today with the passing of Betty White. During the many years we worked with her, we developed a great love and admiration for Betty as a person, and as an accomplished entertainer. We are thankful for the many decades of delight she brought to everyone. Betty always said she was the “luckiest broad on two feet” to have had a career as long as she did. And honestly, we were the lucky ones to have had her for so long.

    We will go forward with our plans to show the film on January 17 in hopes our film will provide a way for all who loved her to celebrate her life—and experience what made her such a national treasure.

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    This is terrible. Since it’s not getting much if any coverage here, can you direct us to a reliable English-language news source? And since few if any of us have the resources to amplify the story via media, please suggest what we can do in a concrete way to help.

  88. 88.

    patrick II

    @Brachiator:

    In the real world, things are usually a result of more than one cause.  Both enthusiasm for Biden and disdain for Putin’s bitch were factors in the election.

    At times though I think we mistake Republican media for being dumb when they actually are writing to their purpose.  In Bobo’s case, he is giving Republicans who aren’t totally crazy reason to believe in Biden’s weakness and the possible strength of a different Republican candidate.  His purpose isn’t truthful observation but political advancement of the Republican political agenda.

  89. 89.

    dr. bloor

    @RSA:

    I can’t read minds, but I’m guessing that the convicted killers of Ahmaud Arbery wouldn’t have thought twice on reading “Three Black men who chased and killed a White man were sentenced to life in prison…”

    Don’t overlook the potential for outrage because the Black guys avoided the gas chamber.

  91. 91.

    Kent

    @schrodingers_cat: Guys India is hurtling towards a point of no return. Every single day there is a new outrage. There have been open calls for genocide in several different cities. Grotesque cyberbullying of prominent Muslims and Dalits by pro BJP handles.  This includes an app made to “auction” prominent Muslim women who are vocal on social media and IRL. None of this is getting much coverage in the media here.

    No, its not getting coverage here.  Does this have the potential to worsen relations with Pakistan and cause and international conflict/war?  Or is this an internal India matter?

  92. 92.

    Peale

    @Another Scott: Yeah. Its not like Omicron didn’t come ashore without any forewarning that its coming. The divergence in experience between the unvaccinated and vaccinated between Europe and the US can probably be explained that the fully vaccinated in the US are so used to just withdrawing from social commitments at this point because our unvaxxed friends and relatives are so vocal about it that we started shutting down before Christmas. The people who are most likely to be masking up and going back to bubble living are the triple vaxxed.

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    @Suzanne: It would be shocking if it didn’t.  :-(

    CaliforniaHealthline (from December 23):

    Then, about a week into her hospital stay, she tested positive for covid-19. It left the 57-year-old hospitalized for a month, staring down more than $1 million in bills for treatment costs and suffering from debilitating long-haul symptoms, she said.

    Hospitals, like Riverside, with high rates of covid patients who didn’t have the diagnosis when they were admitted have rarely been held accountable due to multiple gaps in government oversight, a KHN investigation has found.

    While a federal reporting system closely tracks hospital-acquired infections for MRSA and other bugs, it doesn’t publicly report covid caught in individual hospitals.

    Medicare officials, tapped by Congress decades ago to ensure quality care in hospitals, also discovered a gaping hole in their authority as covid spread through the nation. They could not force private accreditors — which almost 90% of hospitals pay for oversight — to do targeted infection-control inspections. That means Riverside and nearly 4,200 other hospitals did not receive those specific covid-focused inspections, according to a government watchdog report, even though Medicare asked accreditors to do them in March 2020.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  94. 94.

    Peale

    @mrmoshpotato: Betty White, Dolly Parton and Steve Irwin were in on the plotting. Steve’s not actually dead. Any day now he’s going to reveal himself in Dallas.

  95. 95.

    Kent

    @Peale: I read somewhere that if the United States was divided up into two countries, Blue America (Democrats) and Red America (Republicans) then Blue America would have the second or third highest vaccination rate in the developed world and Red America would be down at the bottom.   No country on the planet has such a partisan divide over public health as the United States.

  97. 97.

    Edmund Dantes

    @Mike E: even worse. Videoed it and the released the video thinking it made them look good. They were going to skate if they didn’t try to fight back against the complaints about their non prosecution.

  99. 99.

    Edmund Dantes

    @mrmoshpotato: if there were Dems on the list I’d be shocked and surprised. Any gop, conservative politician or media type would not shock me one bit.

  100. 100.

    Kalakal

    @schrodingers_cat:  I saw a couple of articles in the Guardian and one on the BBC websites respectively about that vile ‘auction’ app, other than that more or less nothing. I don’t think I’ve seen anything in US media. Even when I do see anything about India it’s context free, any and all outrages, incendiary speeches etc are presented as one off outliers, exceptions to an otherwise benign state of affairs. It’s terrifying for many of my friends back in the UK who are frantic for family in India

  101. 101.

    Benno

    @Kent:

    It’s not getting any press here in Pakistan, either, at least not in the English press. Potential, though? Sure. Local do love hating on India.

  102. 102.

    Ohio Mom

    @schrodingers_cat: If it weren’t for your comments, I’d have no idea about what is happening in India. The few mentions of India I see are Covid-related.

    I appreciate that I have you to keep me a little updated. I have to say, your reports leave me feeling powerless and sad.

  103. 103.

    TriassicSands

    @Ruviana:

    There had to be some bad news today. Seventy-one is too young. She had a great mind and some excellent ideas. Ideas that don’t stand a chance in this corrupt society.

  104. 104.

    TriassicSands

    @The Dangerman:

    You must have flunked American Economic Logic 100*. That isn’t the way things work at all. But I give you extra credit for such a novel idea.

    *Somewhere in American Economic Logic 100 there is a proof that clearly demonstrates that the ability to pay for luxury items is unrelated to the ability to pay taxes. Professor Laffer may have worked out the proof. On a napkin.

  106. 106.

    Kalakal

    @TriassicSands: I rather like the idea of using the (false) logic of Morton’s fork. As Henry VII’s Chancellor, Archbishop Morton justified a benevelence (tax) on the grounds that anyone living modestly must be saving money and so could afford to pay tax, while anyone living extravegantly was obviously rich and so could afford to pay tax. Henry was one of the few medieval monarchs that wasn’t in debt

  107. 107.

    TriassicSands

    @The Dangerman:

    Mail-in voting is what Democrats do and it is 100% fraudulent.

    Absentee voting is what elderly Republicans do and it is 100% safe and legitimate.

    Here in Washington State, where we’ve had all mail-in voting for years, Governor Jay Inslee received 0 votes (plus or minus 10) yet the “official” tally gave him 56% in a stolen election over the moderate Republican candidate Loren Culp. Culp, not a tyrant like Inslee, is opposed to masks, vaccines, clean air, clean water, life, etc. All the moderate positions. The 41% of the vote that was fraudulently given to Culp held a certain poetry as it is equal to his IQ.

  109. 109.

    Citizen Alan

    @The Dangerman: It’s almost adorable that you think the GOP would hesitate to ban absentee voting but have an exception for senior citizens, the military, and cops.

  110. 110.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @L85NJGT: yeah, but the fact Kamala Harris doesn’t use blue tooth is so much more important.

    Lani Guinier died of Alzheimers. Ugh. That is just a sad way to die.

  112. 112.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Anybody see this: https://www.bridgemi.com/children-families/sister-law-ex-mi-house-speaker-lee-chatfield-sexually-assaulted-me-teen

    There’s just so much wrong here. The former Speaker of the Michigan House – GOP, of course, was allegedly messing around with a 15-16 year old while he was an adult and a teacher/coach at her so called Christian school run by his daddy.  It allegedly continued even after he got married and even when he became a legislator and cherry on top, this woman became his sister in law. Got to make for  some interesting Thanksgiving family get togethers.

  115. 115.

    Ruckus

    My controversial opinion is that you shouldn’t have to stand in line for either of these things, since they both ought to be available for free via USPS express priority shipping.

    Republicans want this country to revert to what they think it was, over 250 yrs ago, not 20 yrs ago. And they are wrong about either timeline and about what this country stands for. The point is that they do not want a democracy, they want a slave state. They want anyone who doesn’t look like them or stand up to pee, to be slaves, to fill their every want and desire and give them all the money while doing it. And that’s not a democracy, nor is it the way life works. They want to be on top, at all times, and that’s not how a democracy works. They want wars so they figure they can steal all the money, because they sure as hell can’t actually earn it. They want TFG because that’s exactly what he wants – and expects.

    I understand that I don’t get what I didn’t earn. Conservatives have in no way earned anything in this country, not for the last over 6 decades, and often before that. They want to be given everything, and they earn nothing but disrespect. And as this country and every other country become more populated the concept that some are better, should be far wealthier, and have to pay far less for their freedom becomes a far worse concept of humanity. Conservatives want no part of actual democracy, because that makes their selfish philosophy obvious. And that is exactly what they are at the base of their “ideals” – selfish.

  116. 116.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ruckus:

    The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

    John Kenneth Galbraith

  124. 124.

    James E Powell

    @TriassicSands:

    Somewhere in American Economic Logic 100 there is a proof that clearly demonstrates that the ability to pay for luxury items is unrelated to the ability to pay taxes.

    It’s simple. Buying luxury items creates jobs! Whereas paying taxes just leads to waste, fraud, and abuse or, even worse, those people getting free stuff.

  125. 125.

    trnc

    @The Dangerman: If you can afford an airplane, a yacht, or similar extravagance, you can afford to pay your taxes.

    Of course they can. I mean, the tax bill only comes out to about $35 for them.

    Still have to put up a fight for appearances sake.

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