Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

We still have time to mess this up!

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

He really is that stupid.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

I was promised a recession.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

In my day, never was longer.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

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

You can’t love your country only when you win.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Republicans in disarray!

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Come on, man.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

You are here: Home / Politics / Glibertarianism / Monday Evening Open Thread: You Just Can’t Buy Decent Minions Any More!…

Monday Evening Open Thread: You Just Can’t Buy Decent Minions Any More!…

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These luzers need *constant* hands-on supervision….

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209Comments

  3. 3.

    Howard Beale IV

    Coincidence that both Thiele and Musk are into fascism given they fled South Africa after the fall of apartheid?

  5. 5.

    Mike in NC

    Thiel gave $10M to a PAC trying to elect that putz J. D. Vance to the Senate from Ohio. The movie version of “Hillbilly Elegy” dropped on Netflix last year and you couldn’t pay us to watch it.

    ETA: Autocorrect tried to change Thiel to Thief.

  13. 13.

    sab

    Cats are very wary. My boy cats trust me. My girl pitbull trusts me. My girl cats would sell me too the first buyer, but the first buyer would never trust those girls.

  15. 15.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Baud: It’d be a a shame if anyone were to figger out that water shot from fire hoses at truck cabs freezes solid like all other water…

  16. 16.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    A judge in the southern part of Illinois stayed Governor Pritzker’s mask mandate for schools. I just saw a picture of my DIL’s kindergarteners. Not a single child is wearing a mask.

  17. 17.

    germy

    This afternoon my wife was channel surfing and ended up on the Bounce TV network.  We didn’t recognize the movie, but a young Black man in glasses is yelling at an older woman (his mom?) and then tries to attack her with a hammer while another young Black man holds him back.  Then we cut to a scene outside, where the bespectacled young Black man continues the argument and stabs his opponent, the guy who prevented the hammer attack!

    We’re watching and saying WTF is this?  And then the “stabbee” looks down and sees no blood.  We see a closeup of his belt buckle.  And then the stabber, the hot-tempered young Black man is back in his room and he holds up a bible.

    And then I realized what we were watching.  “That’s the movie they made about Ben Carson,” I told her. She switched to another station.

    https://www.bouncetv.com/movie/Gifted-Hands/53356/

  19. 19.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    CNN hires Jonah Goldberg, NBC hires Stephen Hayes. Two of the most ridiculous political voices of our time keep failing up

    This reminds me of professional sports where owners keep recycling loser coaches among the teams.

    Having a known quantity on board is more important than having someone who has talent or skills.

  22. 22.

    marklar

    @germy: Without knowing the details, if Putin was looking for an off-ramp, using one provided by France would be the way to go.  That way he’d be able to back down somewhat without it looking like he was being forced to by the United States.

  27. 27.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: she has a podcast I hear heavily advertised on Sirius/XM, but I don’t pay enough attention to the ads to know who runs it

  33. 33.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  Im waiting on an update from my friend who works in daycare, regarding how the masking went today. She was expecting bs from parents.  It’s a small town and it went Trump. Should be interesting.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @Brachiator:

    Having a known quantity on board is more important than having someone who has talent or skills.

    Pretty much.  It’s safer to go with a known quantity, even if the quantity is negative.

  37. 37.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud: “Tooting a horn is not an expression of any great thought I’m aware of,” said Justice Hugh McLean during a court hearing in Ottawa Monday.

    It is for these plague rat shit-for-brains morons!

  39. 39.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @germy: Driftglass:

    Shelter Culture ™ is my trademarked antonym for “Cancel Culture” — to describe organizational cultures which actively protect smarmy always-wrong hacks who definitely would have been sacked for incompetence long ago in any other enterprise.  Personally, I prefer “Cultured Pearl Clutching Culture” ™ but it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, or “Cloister Culture” ™ but too many people have no idea what “cloister” means.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    @delk:

    How many 8pt bullet points are in a 98 slide PowerPoint?

    I highly recommend Edward Tufte’s “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint“.  It’s worth buying, though I think you can find it online as a PDF for free.  That said, the cover art (showing a Stalin-era military parade, with speech and thought bubbles about PowerPoint) really conveys the idea pretty well.

  41. 41.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    they are now blocking the Ambassador Bridge.

    These moron’s don’t realize that there will be life long and career long negative consequences from screwing over transportation.

  42. 42.

    lollipopguild

    @Baud: I think part of the idea with Kelly was that once she was away from Fox she might turn out to be a less racist rightwinger…..

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Megyn Kelly
    @megynkelly
    Feb 6
    The Rogan controversy isn’t about whether he said racist things (or pushed covid misinfo). It’s about the Woke Left’s piety. One must adhere to ALL of their world view or be destroyed. The comments are just the excuse – anyone who doesn’t share their zealotry will be targeted.

    As you can see by how all his guests kiss his ass, he welcomes dissenting views.

  46. 46.

    dr. bloor

    @Roger Moore: It’s not working.  He looks like shit in that picture.

    Thiel going over the edge as the aging process inevitably crashes up against his malignant narcissism is going to be Donald Trump as imagined by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Fascinating and highly entertaining, as long as he doesn’t annihilate all of us.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    One must adhere to ALL of their world view or be destroyed

     

    World views like not being racists and lying about vaccines.

     

    ETA: I nominate the block quote for a rotating tag.

  49. 49.

    Brachiator

    @Baud: 

    Whatever happened to Megyn Kelly?

    Have former Fox News hosts been successful elsewhere when they leave the right wing propaganda bubble?

  53. 53.

    lowtechcyclist

    @germy: Jeez, I was just talking yesterday about Jonah’s Liberal Fascism having not exactly aged well, given especially the events of the last year or so.

  54. 54.

    gene108

    I take for granted the knowledge I’ve banked over my 47 years.

    I walked over to the bagel shop near where I live, early Sunday morning, to buy a bagel. A couple of Girl Scouts were selling cookies out front with their moms (I’m assuming moms here, but could’ve been aunts, family friends, etc.). I bought a box of peanut butter sandwich cookies. They were so excited because it was their first sale.

    They were so earnest and deliberate to make sure they got everything right over a task that’s I’ve done enough for it to be routine.

    One girl told me it’s five dollars. One of the girls took the box and they very deliberately wrote down the box info to record the sale. One girl eagerly made sure I got the box. I then jokingly reminded her to take the $10 dollars, since she was handing me the box of cookies so quickly. The other girl said something I realized as I got home I should have complimented her on.

    She said, “for $10 you could take another box”. Her mom chimed in that maybe I don’t need another box. I agreed with her mom. I don’t know if the girl realized it or not, maybe she surprised that having the money to buy more cookies, I chose not to. Who says no to more cookies? But reminding me I could get two, instead of change, is a pretty smooth sales move to get another sale off of what’s just an impulse buy in the first place. I should’ve told her it was a good sales move, but I was close to home, I was hungry and I felt it’d have been weird to go back just for that.

    What fascinates me is making a sale and giving change is something I’ve done often enough, I don’t think about the steps. For these girls, the whole process was new, like first time new. Just something I didn’t expect to see, early Sunday morning.

  55. 55.

    SpaceUnit

    @Poe Larity:

    So basically just another rent-seeking narcissist shitheel. Dude thinks he’s a titan of the business world, but he could get abducted by aliens and his own family wouldn’t miss him.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @gene108:

    What fascinates me is making a sale and giving change is something I’ve done often enough, I don’t think about the steps. For these girls, the whole process was new, like first time new. Just something I didn’t expect to see, early Sunday morning.

     

    You’re a fool if you think those girls couldn’t teach a master class in closing the deal.

  59. 59.

    Cacti

    @Baud: Did you hear about how the freedom loving, peaceful truck drivers tried to burn down an apartment complex in downtown Ottawa, after the locals told them STFU and go home?

  61. 61.

    Baud

    @Cacti:

    I heard about that.  

    All I can say is that if I were in charge, I would have sent in troops with vaccine guns to shoot all the truckers like wildebeests.

  62. 62.

    Van Buren

    Had a LOL moment in my 4th grade class today. I have a student, she’s always been very sweet and polite. We had a guest speaker, he was choosing kids to play roles in a skit. She very much wanted to be picked, and was not. She said, quite audibly, ” This is bullshit!” I completely lost it.

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    The Rogan controversy isn’t about whether he said racist things (or pushed covid misinfo). It’s about the Woke Left’s piety. One must adhere to ALL of their world view or be destroyed. The comments are just the excuse – anyone who doesn’t share their zealotry will be targeted.

    Yawn. Conservatives are continuing to try to turn scientific consensus into left wing ideology. They actually succeeded to some extent with climate change.

    But there is no scientific authority anywhere on planet earth who agrees that horse medicine and other bullshit Covid remedies work. But right wing idiots try to insist that Evil Dr Fauci is the only health expert in the world, and he is part of the Big Government nanny state.

    This shit is pathetic. It is sad that right wing idiots fall for it.

    As you can see by how all his guests kiss his ass, he welcomes dissenting views.

    Rogan is just meathead entertainment. Most people watch this for entertainment, and dullwitted repetition of their own beliefs.  But I saw some YouTube clip of a show in which Rogan was slack jawed and respectful as Neil deGrasse Tyson demolished various idiot conspiracy beliefs. And I am certain that most of the show’s audience went back to believing nonsense when the show ended.

    This is not much different from when The View would book astrologers and “psychics.” This stuff is not meant to be informative. It just fills space.

  64. 64.

    Cacti

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thiel’s from Germany. Lives in New Zealand now, but also holds US citizenship.

    Thanks to him, the GOP has someone who can state their policies in the original German.

  68. 68.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Cacti:

    A former boss of mine, who now lives in downtown Ottawa, decided a few days ago to flee the city to stay with relatives in Quebec along with his husband and dog. The noise was unrelenting and the poor pup was miserable.

    It’s nice that there was someplace not too far away where they could go, but they should never have had to make that decision in the first place.

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    Tangentially on Topic.

    This is another crazy tax season. People think that crypto currency is magic money that does not have to be reported to the IRS. The libertarian wet dream of cash unmoored from the prying eyes of government.

    Hell no. The IRS FAQ on reporting virtual currency is very detailed, and reporting rules are scaring many of these little pukes who imagined that they could live in luxury off the grid with their crytpo-bucks.

  74. 74.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @SpaceUnit: My Girl Scout, Zooey, whom I do not know, left an online order form on my door to set up the purchase and delivery. 5 boxes of thin mints are arriving on Super Bowl Sunday. Now that’s marketing.

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay: ​
     

    That’s some major-league projection on Kelly’s part. How rock-ribbed a right-winger is Liz Cheney? But she takes issue with her party on one thing, and they all but kick her out.

  77. 77.

    Jay

    @Cacti:

    it has not been confirmed that it was the Flu Trux Klan, but it probably was the Flu Trux Clan,

    @Baud:

    a bunch of the Flu Trux Klan claim they are vaxxed,

    their “demands”, displays basically show that it’s a Reich Wing Protest that really has nothing to do with Covid.

  78. 78.

    delk

    . One must adhere to ALL of their world view or be destroyed. The comments are just the excuse – anyone who doesn’t share their zealotry will be targeted.

    Like school board members and medical workers? Or book burnings? Like taking a shit in the hall of the capital?

  79. 79.

    Dan B

    @SpaceUnit: Since Thiel is a member of the Leopards Won’t Eat My Face party who was outed as Gay we have no idea what family he might have.  Reminds me of Roy Cohn in many ways.

  82. 82.

    MagdaInBlack

    @MagdaInBlack: …and In Serena Community Unit District 2,Serena, IL, all hell broke loose. The district was not party to the Illinois masking lawsuit, so the attorney for the district advised to keep masking and the backlash was such that the Superintendent sent her kids home because of threats. Phone calls and emails and threats all day, to the point that she said she’ll go all e-learning if it continues.

    LaSalle County IL used to be a Democratic stronghold.  Ain’t no more.

  83. 83.

    Suzanne

    @Van Buren: LMAO. I like your student.

    My own Spawn came home from school today having swapped her band instrument without telling us. She had been playing trombone. She brought home a euphonium. FSM is a funny douchebag.

  85. 85.

    Roger Moore

    @Brachiator:

    People think that crypto currency is magic money that does not have to be reported to the IRS.

    Of course that belief is not at all random.  The crypto bros have been deliberately cultivating that idea.  Once they’ve sold off their cryptocurrency, they don’t really care what happens to the people who bought it.

  87. 87.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SpaceUnit:

    Peter Thiel needs to quit meddling in politics and go back to doing what he . . . . . 

    Wait, what the fuck did that asshole ever do?

    Trying to get away with it, but there are those meddling kids!

  88. 88.

    Suzanne

    Mr. Suzanne: “You know, the euphonium is only about 5% more annoying than the trombone.”

    Spawn: :::ENORMOUS LOUD FARTING SOUND:::

  89. 89.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Let’s tie the ability to make campaign contributions to whether or not you paid taxes at some agreed upon rate. The Mercers owe millions (billions?j in unpaid taxes which they are somehow allowed to use to demolish democracy.

  90. 90.

    Jay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    @Cacti:

    and their assholeness demonstrates that what they are really protesting about is their perceived loss due to cellphones and greater diversity is their white privilege to be an asshole.

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    Relegated to the circular file, where it belongs.

    The Internal Revenue Service is abandoning its plans to partner with an outside company that would have used facial recognition to verify new accounts, the agency announced Monday.

    The decision, a victory for privacy advocates, comes as tax season begins in the U.S. and should not affect taxpayers’ attempts to file their returns or pay their taxes, the IRS said in a statement.
    [snip]
    Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who had publicly requested Monday morning that the IRS sever ties with ID.me, called the move a “smart decision.”

    “I appreciate that the administration recognizes that privacy and security are not mutually exclusive and no one should be forced to submit to facial recognition to access critical government services,” he said in a statement. Source

  93. 93.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Mike in NC: Re Megyn Kelly:

    She ended up laughing all the way to the bank.

    It was shut the fuck up, no one wants to listen to you money. Should be clawed back.

  94. 94.

    Jackie

    @Danielx: Many years ago my daughter was selling Campfire Mints. We knocked on a door and almost got stoned from the aroma that billowed out when the door opened. Daughter went through her selling spiel, dude said thanks, but no thanks. We only got a few feet down the sidewalk before the door reopened and he called her back. She sold him and his buddies half a case of mints ?

  95. 95.

    mrmoshpotato

    @lollipopguild:

    I think part of the idea with Kelly was that once she was away from Fox she might turn out to be a less racist rightwinger….. 

    I have a bridge to sell anyone who’d believe that.

  97. 97.

    Jeffro

    It’s vitally important that we tax the shit out of rich people, so that they can’t keep knifing our democracy this way.

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Let’s tie the ability to make campaign contributions to whether or not you paid taxes at some agreed upon rate.

    I have an even better idea.  Let’s actually enforce our tax laws.  Even better, let’s change tax law so people who cheat on their taxes have to face criminal consequences.  Under current law, the tax code is considered to be so complex that anyone who can come up with a halfway plausible BS reason why they thought their tax avoidance scheme was legitimate can claim ignorance and thus not have mens rea to commit tax fraud.  Let’s change the standard to strict liability, but give people a break by making tax fraud less than $100,000 a strictly civil matter, amounts between $100,000 and $1 million a misdemeanor, and only worry about felony charges for amounts over $1 million.

    ETA: While we’re at it, we should make tax preparers who sign off on a return with that kind of fraud an accessory.

  100. 100.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: I love how every Rogan defender opens with, “It’s not about what Joe Rogan said...”

    Really?  ‘Cancel  consequence culture’ just sorta went after him at random?  That seems kind of odd.

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: also, “destroyed”, oh my.  Yes, verily, Joe Rogan is “destroyed”.  Reduced to his component atoms.  You GO, Megyn Kelly!

  105. 105.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Roger Moore: I’ve never been able to decide if it’s more accurate to refer to the package as PowerlessPoint or PowerPointless. I guess context is everything…

  106. 106.

    Ohio Mom

    @sab: I worry about Jane Timpkin. I could see my suburban mom neighbors voting for her because “she’s a woman!” But I don’t keep up with polling and have no idea how she is doing.

  109. 109.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    I know he’s not a psychic, but Professor Allan Lichtman is something else:

    The professor famous for accurately predicting the winner of every presidential election since 1984 has issued his verdict for 2020: Joe Biden will defeat President Trump.

    American University Professor Allan Lichtman uses a system he created of 13 “keys” that decide who will win the White House. In 2016, Lichtman was one of the few forecasters who said Mr. Trump would be the next president — and he also predicted that Trump would be impeached. Four years after those calls, he foresees a Biden victory in November. (link)

  110. 110.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    RE: People think that crypto currency is magic money that does not have to be reported to the IRS.

    Of course that belief is not at all random.  The crypto bros have been deliberately cultivating that idea.

    Fools and their money…. Especially crypto-bucks.

    The sad thing is that some of these…”investors”…are in over their heads and have no idea of what they got themselves into.

  111. 111.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    Ottawa, Windsor, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, all have their own City Police Forces, which are of varying quality, none of which are exceptional.

    The RCMP, so far, only have the Coute’s Border Blockade on their hands so far, and are really showing their “quality”,

    As I pointed out to co-workers on Friday, ( the opening day of the so called “protests”), if the protests were Indigenous, BLM or Environmentalists, we would have been able to smell the tear gas and the police brutality “from here”.

  112. 112.

    NotMax

    Don’t know how that stray comma sneaked in at #107. Do know how aging eyes failed to spot it.

    Wouldn’t rate it as among his best but Señor Rainbow‘s facility with tempo and rhyme remains super impressive.

    :)

  115. 115.

    Roger Moore

    @Jeffro:

    I think you’re misunderstanding.  When the Rogan defenders say, “It’s not about what he said,” they mean it as a disclaimer that they don’t support what he said; they’re standing up for the abstract principle that he should be allowed to speak his mind.  It’s a complete coincidence that they’re jumping to his defense but not all those other people who have been shut down by boycotts.

  120. 120.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jeffro:

    It’s vitally important that we tax the shit out of rich people, so that they can’t keep knifing our democracy this way. 

    Come sit by me.

  121. 121.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    Under current law, the tax code is considered to be so complex that anyone who can come up with a halfway plausible BS reason why they thought their tax avoidance scheme was legitimate can claim ignorance and thus not have mens rea to commit tax fraud.

    This is not even remotely true. Have you read even something as basic as IRS Circular 230 lately?

    The biggest problem with the IRS is that when the GOP was in charge, they deliberately refused to fund the IRS adequately.

     While we’re at it, we should make tax preparers who sign off on a return with that kind of fraud an accessory.

    Preparation of fraudulent returns…

    It may apply to people who prepare fraudulent returns, statements or other documents. People assessed this penalty are charged with a misdemeanor crime and may be:

    • Fined up to $10,000 ($50,000 in the case of a corporation)
    • Imprisoned up to 1 year
  122. 122.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    @Van Buren: I had a 7 year old ask me today, “Why do you keep saying god help me?”  My under breath mutterings are not so much lately.

  128. 128.

    Another Scott

    Anyone else watching these insane women skiing down a giant ski jump backwards, doing about 6 flips and cartwheels, and landing backwards and acting like it’s as easy as getting up out of a chair??!

    Nuts!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  131. 131.

    Jay

    @Dave:

    let’s see,

    Reich Wing funding from the US,

    Russian funding and disinfo,

    The Usual Suspects,

    Shutting down Civic Cores,

    yeah, it’s a trial run.

  132. 132.

    Suzanne

    @Old Dan and Little Ann:

    I had a 7 year old ask me today, “Why do you keep saying god help me?” 

    Mr. Suzanne has taken to saying “FFS”. Not the abbreviation, not the actual words. He pronounces it “fuh-FUFFS”. It makes me giggle.

  138. 138.

    Brachiator

    @raven:

    Man I’m hoping SOME of our $70 K we spent on the renovation of our rental is deductible. It looks pretty complicated.

    Major improvements increase the basis of your property. You may be able to depreciate these amounts.

    Repairs are generally deductible

    A good tax person can help you with this.

  139. 139.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I took his two-day seminar many years ago. Completely gripping, fascinating, and informative. Alas, he lost his Manhattan office/studio and lots of materials/inventory in Superstorm Sandy. Never heard a follow up on to what extent he was able to rebuild his business. Need to look that up.

  140. 140.

    raven

    @Brachiator: Yea it’s dicey I guess. She sent me a cheat sheet and it’s not encouraging. I do have photo documentation that the floor was rotting 3 years ago and we had it patched. When we pulled it up this time it turned out the joists and sills were eaten up by powder-post beetles. My hope it that the floor part will be deductible because it had to be done. The rest of it will probably be depreciated, we hope.

  143. 143.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    @Suzanne: I definitely mumble Ferfuck’s sake!  along with Jesus Fucking Christ.  Need to scale it back a tad.  lol…  fuh-FUFFS is pretty good.

  145. 145.

    BruceFromOhio

    Psst! Hey, Petey! I got this snake-oil right, cure ALLLL of your ills! Drop 50 bc on my account by 8 am ET, and it’s ALLLLLL yours!

    /set grift enable

  146. 146.

    different-church-lady

    Uhh… how much ice cream is too much?

    (Asking for an extremely close friend)

  147. 147.

    dmsilev

    Dana Milbank at the Post

    Now, the Republican National Committee, the official leadership of the GOP, has embraced this unspeakable violence as legitimate discourse. It’s an absurd euphemism — and it points to another one.

    To call a person who endorses violence against the duly elected government a “Republican” is itself Orwellian. More accurate words exist for such a person. One of them is “fascist.”

    He’s come a long way since the days of laughing it up with Chris Cilizza.

  148. 148.

    Suzanne

    @mrmoshpotato: Hopefully she’ll be bored of practicing by the time I get back on Thursday!

    When Spawn the Elder said he wanted to give up band (trumpet), this is how the conversation went:

    “Are you sure?”

    “Yeah.”

    “Okay!”

  149. 149.

    Brachiator

    @raven:

    When we pulled it up this time it turned out the joists and sills were eaten up by powder-post beetles. My hope it that the floor part will be deductible because it had to be done. The rest of it will probably be depreciated, we hope.

    Yikes! Sounds like quite a project.

    In general, improvements, betterments and restorations can be depreciated. But again, your tax person can help with this. Good luck.

     

    Betterments.
    Expenses that may result in a betterment to your property include expenses for fixing a pre-existing defect or condition, enlarging or expanding your property, or increasing the capacity, strength, or quality of your property.

    Restoration.
    Expenses that may be for restoration include expenses for replacing a substantial structural part of your property, repairing damage to your property after you properly adjusted the basis of your property as a result of a casualty loss, or rebuilding your property to a like-new condition.

     

  153. 153.

    Ohio Mom

    @Frank Wilhoit:Thank you for this ray of hope! I know very little about her background, just that she comes from a monied, and needless to say Republican, family.

  155. 155.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    dick_nixon has a good summary of the latest with BoJo in a free article on his Patreon.

    Thanks for this.

    The dilemma for the Tories is that potential replacements for BoJo within his cabinet are weak lackeys deliberately chosen because they are dopes. There don’t seem to be many moderates or Tories with half a brain in the party, and the extreme wing still want the hardest BREXIT possible.

    And the truly terrible thing is that if the Conservatives call for a no confidence vote and Johnson survives, he can’t be touched for a year.

    But he really needs to go.

  157. 157.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Obligatory lame joke that always show up during the Winter Olympics:

    Q: How do you stop Canadian bacon from curling in the pan?

    A: Take away their little brooms.

  159. 159.

    Kay

    Far Right Supreme Court hands Republicans another victory:

    Steven Mazie
    @stevenmazie
    4h
    BREAKING AT SCOTUS: in a blow to voting rights, justices vote 5-4 to PERMIT Alabama to use a gerrymandered congressional map that dilutes voting influence of African Americans. A major victory for Republicans.

    The conservative justices whine about being criticized for relying on the “shadow docket” but they had to- they need the GOP map in place for the next election.

  160. 160.

    Kirk Spencer

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    Rhetorical question, I know, but why isn’t it “President Biden will defeat Donald Trump”?

    … pausing, thinking about it, and realized that on the “have a beer with” metric, the guy you habitually call Joe is better than “respect my titles” guy.

  161. 161.

    NotMax

    February generally the month with the chilliest nights (low 50s or even high 40s) at my elevation here. So in the process of preparing a hearty stew in the Instant Pot.

    If my luck runs true to form, won’t drop much below 70 for the nights the stew will last.

    ;)

  163. 163.

    Kay

    So, Section Two the Voting Rights Act still exists– the far Right justices just sort of “suspended” it, by decree.

    Lawless. They do whatever they want, whenever they want. Alabama violates federal law for an election cycle or two? That’s okay with them. It’s the Republican Party position, so they advance it.

  166. 166.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Kay: At what point do we reach a critical mass of reporters just pointing out the hypocrisy and right wing entanglements of these justices? I think we need that to move from “packing the court” type language, which rubs unobservant voters the wrong way, to a discussion of “restoring objectivity,” by expanding the number of justices, since none of the six can be shamed into resigning. Not even if we find that they are actively providing political strategy suggestions for the DeSantises of this world or there is a Federalist equivalent of ALEC, writing their opinions for them. The Atlantic expose of Ginny Thomas was a good start.

  167. 167.

    Jeffro

    @dmsilev: I could have sworn he was going to go with “terrorist”

    Both terms fit, though.

    So exciting!  We used to argue about the size of tax cuts/increases and this government program or that one.  Now thanks to trumpov’s example and tribal signaling – that nothing matters, lying constantly is a-ok, and it’s awesome to stomp all over every last standard of decency and the rule of law – the world’s oldest democracy is dissolving in front of our eyes.

    I’m just saying, I don’t remember this all happening after Carter lost in 1980 or Bush Sr lost in 1992.  Why is that?  What makes 2020 different?  Let us know, MAGA people.  I’m sure your responses will be coherent, backed up by evidence, and don’t have anything to do with y’all being incapable of admitting you got wound up by a skilled racist con man who gives not ONE shit about this country.

  168. 168.

    Kay

    Josh Douglas
    @JoshuaADouglas
    5h
    Kavanaugh: “If the District Court’s judgment is eventually affirmed after appellate review, the injunction can take effect for congressional elections that occur after 2022.”
    Translation: it’s perfectly ok to harm minority voting rights for at least one election cycle!

    Like Roe v Wade- they’ll leave existing law in place but no one has to follow it.

    These are the same people who give speeches at GOP events whining about how the court has no credibility left. Gosh, I wonder why. Why should any state follow any part of the voting rights act? They can just petition for an individual grant to violate it from the US Supreme Court on a case by case basis.

  169. 169.

    Urza

    @SpaceUnit:

    Peter Thiel needs to quit meddling in politics and go back to doing what he . . . . .

     

    Wait, what the fuck did that asshole ever do?

    Bit late in the thread I know but.  Thiel was a founding partner of Paypal.  After that he invested in quite a few other tech ventures increasing his net worth.

    He may not be the only reason for the douchebro libertarian tech culture, but he certainly made a point to try and force it into other companies he invested in.

  171. 171.

    Ghost of Joe Liebling*s Dog

    @Frank Wilhoit:

    When I was a little kid, we had a male cat my dad wanted to  name Timken.

    I asked him what Timken meant, and he said it was the name of a ball-bearing factory, and I asked what that had to do with anything, and my mom gave him The Look, and we named the cat Pinknose.

    I had to get a lot older before I could work out what all that meant.

  172. 172.

    Steeplejack

    WTF?!

    Leslie Jones reveals NBC, which owns broadcast rights, has asked her to stop live-tweeting the Olympic Games, something she’s done for the past several Olympics. This is outrageous. Her commentary is the most attention these Olympics are getting. TV ratings are in the dumpster.
    pic.twitter.com/Oi8cWxu8AZ

    — Mike Sington (@MikeSington) February 7, 2022

    I’m not watching the Olympics, but if I had remembered Leslie Jones that would be the one way that I would do it.

  174. 174.

    Kay

    @Felanius Kootea:

    Any state can violate any part of the Voting Rights Act and as long as they petition the far Right supreme court for a shadow docket hall pass on a case by case basis they can continue to violate it for one or two or three election cycles. There’s no remedy for AA voters after the election is over. Their rights were taken away and there won’t be any way to compensate them or cure that after the 2022 election is over.

    They’re all such cowards. Too chickenshit to overturn Roe v Wade, too chickenshit to throw out the tattered remains of the Voting Rights Act, so they hide behind this shadow docket and sneakily just suspend” rights and stop following existing law.

    Where does this end, exactly? Roe v Wade is suspended, the Voting Rights Act is suspended, what other laws are they putting on hiatus?

  175. 175.

    Cacti

    @Jeffro: I’m just saying, I don’t remember this all happening after Carter lost in 1980 or Bush Sr lost in 1992.

    I’d say Clinton defeating Bush was the start of Republicans believing that Dems had no legitimate right to govern.

    Now it’s metastasized into Dems having no legitimate right to vote in Republican eyes.

  176. 176.

    The Pale Scot

    @Jay:

    The cans or bottles with the N2 chargers are the items. There were 2 6packs of extra stout, but I like the keg flavor. Preferably at Reilly’s on 28th street in Manhattan. But needs must when the devil drives.

    The “Irish pub” here in Punta Gorda had a drive by shooting a bit ago. NYC has always been the place I feel safest. Go figure?

  182. 182.

    Jay

    @The Pale Scot:

    I go with Faxe Extra Strong, Cariboo Red when they don’t have it, fall back is Killkenny ( with the co2 cartridges, a Guinness product),

    But, during Covid, I have learned to ask.

    Sadly they often have stock in the back, with nobody able to restock the shelves. If I ask, they will take the time to pull the stock out, because they have the “cover” of a Cu$$tomer at the counter.

  184. 184.

    Jay

    @Kay:

    it ends, either when their ranks are gutted and they lose power,

    or when people get fed up and resort to self protection.

  186. 186.

    Another Scott

    In other news, … Phys.org:

    A college degree has long been touted as the great equalizer in our country, but a new Portland State University study suggests that the rising tuition and subsequent debt burdens that families shoulder limit the power of higher education to reduce socioeconomic disparities between children from different family backgrounds.

    Using data from the National Survey of College Graduates, sociology postdoctoral fellow Byeongdon “Don” Oh examined whether parents’ socioeconomic status is related to their children’s student loan repayment after graduation.

    The study found that college graduates from lower-income families are more likely to hold a large amount of educational debt in adulthood compared to their counterparts from higher-income families, holding the amount borrowed, educational outcomes, occupation, earnings, and other socioeconomic attainment constant. This can then have negative ripple effects on a graduate’s financial investment, savings, home ownership and wealth accumulation.

    While Oh’s findings support the idea that universal student debt forgiveness—something the Biden administration is considering—would alleviate the educational debt burdens for college graduates from lower-income families, he cautions that it’s only a temporary fix.

    “Even though we may have one-time student loan forgiveness, new generations will still go to college and considering rising college tuition, they’ll have to borrow more than previous generations and the inequalities will be reproduced over and over again,” Oh said. “The fundamental solution would be to provide more accessible financial aid for college students from lower-income families.”

    Portland State is addressing financial aid accessibility through programs such as Four Years Free.

    There are two sides to the ongoing debate on student debt cancelation programs: Opponents argue that these programs are regressive because they would help an already privileged group, while others have found evidence that universal student loan forgiveness would provide more benefits to the disadvantaged groups. Oh’s study supports the latter by showing that the same amount of debt could be more burdensome for college graduates from lower-income families.

    As rising college tuition increases the amount college students borrow, parents’ background and socioeconomic status plays an increasingly important role in a college graduate’s ability to pay off their loans, Oh said. During hard times like a pandemic, children from higher-income families can alleviate their economic distress to some extent by relying on their families’ affluence, a resource that may not be available to their peers from lower-income families.

    Oh said that while it’s still true that higher education can increase the chance of upward mobility for children from lower-income families and provide them paths toward a high-paying job, their life chances will remain relatively restricted if they hold more education debt than their peers from higher-income families after graduation.

    Makes sense. A one-time wiping-out of education debt held by the federal government (none of these debt forgiveness proposals cover private debt, AFAIK) will not solve the problem.

    The obvious and fairest answer is to do both:

    1) Some substantial level of debt forgiveness for education, especially for those in the bottom half.

    2) Increase state and federal aid for education so that current and future students do not have to take on so much debt.

    My father went to college with scholarships and money he saved from summer jobs. He got his master’s via attending night school via a program with his employer. Nobody should have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in education debt now – it’s criminal.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  188. 188.

    Dopey-o

    @danielx: Yes, I need a new computer. Fuck!

    Considering the cost of a new computer in the days of shortages, there are alternatives.

    Repair / re-install Windows

    Add RAM, install Solid State Drive.

    Turn it off, then turn it back on.

    80 y.o. sibling went to a small local Mac shop who did this for less than $300, still writes his novels, etc on his 10 y.o. MacBook. His lovely and talented wife illustrates  her children’s books on a similar vintage Mac. I am writing this and my novel on a $50 iPad Air. There are very few tasks that require up-to-date hardware.

    (I started using AutoCAD, ArcGIS, and graphic design software 30 years ago. I can’t tell you how much money i churned thru, keeping up. No longer necessary.)

  192. 192.

    J R in WV

    @NotMax:

    I have to confess that my sweet Austrian lady who does our taxes is who deals with the IRS, or her  boss, the real  CPA…

    He’s a nice guy too, but doesn’t have a cute middle European accent!!!

  193. 193.

    Amir Khalid

    Thiel … is backing candidates who support the agenda of former President [TFG].

    TFG’s agenda can be summed up in three words: me me me. I suppose that’s the appeal to a guy like Thiel, whose own political agenda is not that different.

  197. 197.

    J R in WV

    @J R in WV:

    Sorry, there should be Cherry Garcia  my bad. Its late..

    Eta.  Also,  Tiriamisu,  which misspell fixed up for us.

    Plus I’m using a tablet,  which  is hard!

  201. 201.

    J R in WV

    @Jay: well, today she was  moved from bed 11 in the ER to a double room with only 1bed, a covid precaution.

    Then a doc and her P/A showed up, and the PA did a neuro exam, hold still while he pushed and pulled rapped to test reflexes etc.  The doc watched carefully,  asked both wife and I and her PA questions about when an issue began or changed. Etc

    She is a  neurosurgeon, and told us that the second MRI of her neck showed the disk between C5 and  C6 was impinging on the spinal cord, and causing a lack of spinal fluid for the cord to float in,  that can cause its own problems.

    She knows our family doc,  l  hope we can get the surgeon and  her PA together with our doc Bill in Wife’s room for a short conference.  Over rbe next few days they’ll do  cardiology exams, pulmonary workup, etc to be sure she’s a good candidate for the work.

    Neurosurgeon says “Just whatever you decide Don’t Fall Down!”! She was real serious  — the lack of fluid to cushion the cord makes things really fragile!

    I would really prefer for her to complete her pre-op testing and. Move right along to the surgery –/ with minimal exposure to the world, outside the hospital.

    It was quite erie being there right now — visitors were real sparce, the halls were silent, it was  very different from every other time I’ve been in this large teaching hospital. Lots of rooms empty, low staff is their big problem.

    That’s the medical report from Easr Rabgo tonight…

  202. 202.

    CaseyL

    Not sure if this has already been noted in another thread, but: Y’all remember the saga of Jorts & Jean? Two office kitties, one of whom is smart and the other is a lovable ball of Klutz, who keeps falling into trash bins?

    Jorts has a Twitter account, and in the last few weeks has come out as a full-throated pro-union organizer.  He’s been posting encouragements and exhortations to any group of employees wanting to unionize, and focusing most recently on the Starbucks employees who’ve been voting to form unions from one end of the Coffee Empire to the other.

    There have been a number of wonderful tweets about Jorts becoming a poster boi for unionizing:

    “Attended my first union planning meeting today and got to use the sentence “I was radicalized by a cat on Twitter”…

    “Fifty years from now, when history textbooks describe the Great Union Resurgence that began in 2022, they’ll have to start with an orange cat named Jorts.“

    …and, now, this:

    “There were several highly qualified applicants, but we are pleased to announce that the official mascot of SBWorkersUnited is … @JortsTheCat”

    Jorts the Cat, who became famous because a human buttered his butt, is now the official mascot of the Starbucks union organizers.

    It’s sweet, and silly, and gives me hope that workers really are rediscovering unions.

  203. 203.

    sab

    @J R in WV: Yikes. My husband has spinal issues, three collapsed vertebrae, etc. It can really create problems, so my heart goes out to you.

    One thing we have learned is that neurosurgeons are not anxious to operate unless they are really sure it will help with no downside. That is a good thing. And there are always physical therapists who can be really helpful even if you hate them at the time.

    ETA My heart arrythmia made me fall down because I wasn’t getting enough oxygen to function and I didn’t realize it because I wasn’t getting enough oxygen to think.

    Bodies are so complicated, and doctors are specialists. Sounds like you have a full medical crew on board checking every possibility.

  204. 204.

    Chris T.

    @prostratedragon:

    ETA: I think the euphonium is a marching band alternative to the French horn.

    It’s a baritone horn. (Some euphonia have a fourth key / valve but otherwise it’s basically the same.) Because it has a straight horn, instead of the curved projecting one, it works well for marching bands.

    (And I can make loud farting noises with any brass instrument ?)

  205. 205.

    Geminid

    @Ohio Mom: Re: Jane Timkin’s polling. A recent poll showed Ohio Senate candidates at Mandel 15%, Gibbons 14%, Timkin 13%, Moreno (dropped out) 11%, and Vance 9%. A Politico article reported these numbers, taken from the Vance campaign’s own polling.

  208. 208.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: But according to Vance’s political consultant all is not lost. The consultant says that an endorsement from Trump would boost Vance to 35%!

    In the meantime, Vance will try to turn his numbers around with twenty town halls. He has ready won the coveted endorsement of Representative M.T. Greene (GA-14).

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