Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Found liable for massive fraud, is required to post a massive bond, gets a break, then files a *fraudulent* bond!

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Books are my comfort food!

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

This blog will pay for itself.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The problem people have with Biden’s age is the color of the VPs skin.

T R E 4 5 O N

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Friday Afternoon Odds and Ends

Friday Afternoon Odds and Ends

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From the NYT, least surprising breaking news ever:

WASHINGTON — The National Archives confirmed on Friday that it had found classified information among documents that President Donald J. Trump had taken with him to his home in Florida from the White House and that it had consulted with the Justice Department about the matter.

I’ll assume there will be no negative consequences for Trump so I can be pleasantly surprised if there are and avoid being disappointed if there aren’t.

Also this afternoon, a sentence in the case of the cop who killed a young black man as he tried to flee a traffic stop in Minnesota, after the cop mistakenly fired her gun instead of a taser:

(CNN) Kim Potter, the former Minnesota police officer who mistakenly drew a gun instead of a Taser and fatally shot Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison.

The judge said Potter will actually do just 16 months — the rest of the sentence can be served on supervised release, barring any disciplinary problems. The fine was only $1K.

The judge’s demeanor during the sentencing pissed a lot of people off, and I can understand why. She sounded like a member of the defense team in the clip I saw.

Back over to the NYT — Ottawa cops are clearing out the trucks:

Twenty-two days after a trucker convoy rumbled into the nation’s capital to protest pandemic restrictions, hundreds of police in downtown Ottawa moved in to arrest protesters Friday morning, hoping to end weeks of gridlock that have roiled the city, infuriated local residents and shaken the country.

After a night of unusually heavy snowfall, during which police made several arrests, rows of police officers in fluorescent jackets were seen steadily edging toward protesters on Parliament Hill, backed by at least two armored vehicles, and tactical officers armed with rifles and wearing helmets…

Several heavy tow trucks whose license plates had been removed and company names covered with Ottawa police stickers were beginning to tow protesters’ trucks away.

Here’s my favorite commentary on the so-called trucker protests:

I had no idea there was an asteroid hymn! Brilliant!

And finally, because there may be Monty Python fans here who don’t follow me on Twitter:

The photo was not staged or ‘shopped in any manner — it’s just an amazing coincidental reenactment.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

225Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    “My job is to try to convince my newsroom that they should not be overly influenced by criticism from Twitter,” Baquet told the New Yorker.

    Great job!

    https://t.co/0B6x6mmPev

    — Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) February 18, 2022

    Didn’t he fire the public editor specifically so that the news room would be influenced by criticism from Twitter?

    — srewobauhsoj@ ❄️?? (@joshuabowers) February 18, 2022

    Many editors use “Twitter” almost synonymously with “people who disagree with me,” or worse, “young journalists from backgrounds underrepresented in my newsroom.” https://t.co/cYQlLOQ0X2

    — Gabe Schneider (@gabemschneider) February 18, 2022

  2. 2.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: Great point from the second tweeter. I started reading The New Yorker interview with Baquet and quit in disgust fairly quickly. The title is: “Dean Baquet Never Wanted to Be an Editor.” We’d all be better off if he got his wish.

  5. 5.

    germy

    @Betty Cracker:

    Baquet, by contrast, told the New Yorker “I could care less about the unnuanced voices on Twitter. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about what our readers think, but I don’t pay as much attention to Twitter as Twitter might want me to.”

    Any editor who says “I could care less” should be relieved of his duties.

  7. 7.

    Mike in NC

    Was expecting FOX News to dispatch a crack strike force led by Tucker “Trucker” Carlson to report on the dire situation in Urkaine Ottawa.

  8. 8.

    germy

    As he has in the past, Baquet again defended the Times’s Clinton coverage. “I don’t have regrets about the Hillary Clinton e-mail stories,” he said. “It was a running news story. It was a serious F.B.I. investigation.”

    He applauded the Times’s investigative reporting on Trump, and said: “I don’t buy that we were tougher on Hillary Clinton than we were on Donald Trump.”

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: Here’s the first question in The New Yorker interview:

    You won a Pulitzer in 1988, for investigative reporting, and your brother Terry won one in 2006. What was it about the Baquet household that made it so ripe for the Pulitzer committee?

    Good God, there’s a tough one! When the interviewer finally got around to addressing the Clinton 2016 campaign coverage, it was in an apologetic tone with no follow-up to the self-exculpatory argle-bargle that followed.

  10. 10.

    Salty Sam

    I used to sing bass in the Methodist church choir- I heartily endorse the Asteroid Hymn, and if I was still a member of that choir, would lobby mightily for its inclusion. I think it would go well for Easter service…

  11. 11.

    NorthLeft12

    About the “unusual” amount of snowfall in Ottawa per the NYT, uhhh, it’s winter. I lived near Ottawa for ten years and we always got a shitload of snow THAT DOES NOT MELT UNTIL APRIL!
    Now thirty cm is a lot at one time, I’ll concede that, but the removal of the pro COVID occupiers is proceeding steadily…..despite the horrible conditions.

    I just finished digging out of the same storm that hit here yesterday.

  13. 13.

    mrmoshpotato

    Several heavy tow trucks whose license plates had been removed and company names covered with Ottawa police stickers were beginning to tow protesters’ trucks away.

    Buh bye, fuckos!

  14. 14.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @germy:  Agree, that was one of the things that peeps in the US used to say that got me frothing at the mouth.  I would say through gritted teeth “do you even understand what the hell you just said? You just said the opposite of what you thought you were saying!” Harumph!

  15. 15.

    Kay

    CNN
    @CNN
    · Feb 16
    The Education Department has announced that it has canceled another $415 million in federal student loan debt owed by nearly 16,000 borrowers who were misled by for-profit colleges

    That’s a lot of debt.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    Stuffie looks like the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog!

    I’m surprised Stuffie hasn’t been unstuffed.

  22. 22.

    Another Scott

    @germy:

    final pt: Baquet’s entire defense here is, ‘we treated Trump and Clinton the same!’ which kinda says it all

    he was pathological liar and confirmed sexual predator. she was former SOS, First Lady, US Senator

    so of course NYT treated them the same!

    misogyny is helluva drug

    — Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) February 18, 2022

    Both Sides!!11ONE

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy:

    Baquet’s continued refusal to express any qualms about his paper’s wildly outsized coverage of Hillary Clinton and her relatively minor email problems in 2016… 

    Oh ?????!

  25. 25.

    CaseyL

    The end of a very ugly odd: Pat King, white supremacist and supporter of the Ottawa occupation, has been arrested.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    It’s been going on for a while:

    Today’s actions bring the total amount of approved relief under borrower defense to repayment to approximately $2 billion for more than 107,000 borrowers.
    Including today’s actions, the Department has now approved approximately $16 billion in loan discharges for more than 680,000 borrowers. This includes: Almost $5 billion for 70,000 borrowers through improvements to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. $7.8 billion for more than 400,000 borrowers who have a total and permanent disability. $1.2 billion for borrowers who previously attended ITT Technical Institutes before it closed.

    The disability number is interesting. I didn’t know they were doing that.

  27. 27.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: They’re cancelling a lot of debt like this, but because it’s not debt accumulated by people who went to Ivy League colleges he doesn’t get much credit for it on Twitter. This helps people who really need it – those who were misled by for-profit colleges and probably never even got a degree.

  28. 28.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The imagery of rugged individualists with sad expressions being dragged off to jail is both a soothing balm and an aphrodisiac that comforts me after the events of 1/6/2021. As I told friends:

    ”The Ottawa cops may be learning that it is really a lot of fun to kick the shit out of some whiny-assed RWNJs for a change.”

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The public service loan forgiveness people really celebrate it. You see them on Twitter and Facebook. But you’re right- 99.9 % won’t even know it happened.

  31. 31.

    Cermet

    Taking classified documents (obviously, some are Top Secret) is a major offense – if this isn’t prosecuted then no crime can be. This does not require proof of intent – since removal is the crime.  Possession of said documents is also a crime. He is a private citizen and can’t, after the fact declassifry the material and as someone posted, there had to be a record of it being de-classified before removal.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    but because it’s not debt accumulated by people who went to Ivy League colleges he doesn’t get much credit for it on Twitter

    Well, I don’t really think that’s fair. There’s a lot between “Ivy League” and Corinthian College. For profits are terrible but they’re a small slice. The basis for the forgiveness is they defrauded students. They’re in their own category.

  34. 34.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Another Scott: it was even more basic than that; Hillary was investigated numerous times over the years and no wrong doing was found yet the NYT brushed off all the allegations against Trump in 2016 that turned to be true.  Rape might be difficult to prove, but Trump being so incompetent he went bankrupt 11 times was a matter of public record.  Basket Case, Baquet, or whatever the hell his name is really is useless.

  37. 37.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @CaseyL:

    I am a bit saddened that there weren’t more clubs used.

    Would appreciate seeing three or four of them get beaten like a baby harp seal.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I think it’s good because if you can clear out the for profit debt and the public service debt and the disability debt you get a much clearer picture of the rest of it. It becomes a more manageable problem with solutions that wouldn’t and shouldn’t apply to these categories anyway.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @Kay: Current COVID-based student loan deferral ends on May 1.  I guess that’s when the rubber will hit the road on this issue.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @hueyplong:

    Oh, God that’s been going on forever. Obama started in 2008. If you follow the link in my comment you can see the process for each school laid out. It’s a lawsuit (by students, by a state AG, by the federal government) followed by a finding they defrauded, followed by inclusion in the group of debtors who get the forgiveness. They just added one in Minnesota.

  44. 44.

    hueyplong

    @Baud: Excellent.  Not wholly dissimilar from the Trump U case, though of course as always run-of-the-mill fraudsters appear to be paragons of virtue compared to the pig.

  46. 46.

    hueyplong

    @Kay: Good.  I haven’t had a dog in that hunt so I wasn’t up on the details.  Working to get back from wrongdoers the money forgiven on the loans is something good faith opponents of the program would want to see (if in fact good faith GOPers actually existed).

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @Cermet:

    This does not require proof of intent – since removal is the crime.

    I’m not sure that’s correct.

    18 U.S. Code § 1924 – Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material | U.S. Code | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute (cornell.edu)

    (a)
    Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    The uptick in book bans have affected titles like Art Spiegelmann’s Maus, the graphic novel about the Holocaust, and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. These bans particularly target books relating to race, LGBTQ+ identity, and sexuality, and appear to be the latest tool in an ongoing culture war being waged against curriculums across the country.
    But when polled, likely voters largely reject such actions. Seventy-one percent of likely voters – including 66 percent of Independents and 64 percent of Republicans – believe that local school boards should not have the authority to ban books from school curriculums.

    I looked at the question because I thought maybe they asked “should school boards be able to be ban books?” (bad question) which of course people would object to but it’s a better question than that- they asked from school curriculums and they gave a real life example and it’s still 71 opposed.

    There may be hope for us yet! :)

  49. 49.

    Ohio Mom

    Well, the NYT did do that deep dive into Trump’s taxes. But timing is everything, and there’s no comparison between that article’s publication date, long after Trump became president, and the constant harping on Clinton’s emails just before Election Day.

    Im so old I still remember Whitewater on the front page, again and again.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @hueyplong:

    The for profits really took off during the recession because people couldn’t find jobs and a lot of what people “know” about college is due to them having parents who went to college so the “first generation” students were vulnerable and ripe for the picking. It just broke my heart because they’re everything we’re supposed to value- earnest, trying to better themselves, aspiring.

  53. 53.

    brendancalling

    I’m having a grumper of a day, but it’s been nice to see those morons in Ottawa get arrested. They’re in a world of shit now, a real world of shit.

  55. 55.

    hueyplong

    @Kay: We’ve all seen the ads for the “universities” at issue.  They played on the characteristics mentioned in your post and did so using pretty much the same words.

  56. 56.

    Old School

    @Baud: As I understand it, items found at Mar-a-Lago were marked as classified.  Or are you saying the possible defense is that Trump didn’t know what was in the boxes?

  58. 58.

    Martin

    @Soprano2: Yep. If I were running the show, I’d only relieve debt from public institutions and people with disabilities from privates. And if I felt compelled to relieve debt from for-profits, it would come with instructions that the for-profit be shut down.

    The privates can use their endowments to relive the debt of their alums, and I’d make that publicly clear.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @hueyplong:

    I was like a salesman for the local community college – “nursing? They have that! Not a rip off! Right down the road!” :)

    But you don’t know what you don’t know.

  60. 60.

    Cacti

    @Kay: I was like a salesman for the local community college – “nursing? They have that! Not a rip off! Right down the road!” :)

    Community College nursing programs are a huge bargain…

    And the reason why they have wait lists up to 2 years.

  61. 61.

    Martin

    @Old School: The law is trying to walk a fine line. It’d designed to punish the people who remove the material, not the journalists who might receive and report on it (unless the journalist was a participant in the removal). Basically, once the government loses possession of the material, there’s generally no harm attached to it.

    Seems to me that Trump needs to be held accountable for this. Even if he didn’t pack the boxes, the person who did pack the boxes worked for him at the time with the intent that it be in his possession.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Among the other disappointments related to BBB is that Manchin nixed free community college early on.  I think that would have been pretty popular (and probably helped a lot of people in WV).

  64. 64.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I’m mostly talking about the Twitter “warriors” who talk about how Biden won’t forgive $50,000 worth of student loan debt for everyone. I was being a little too snarky, I guess. It’s kind of a sore spot with me, because I don’t think people should take on debt they have no intention of repaying. I think there need to be reforms to the student loan program – they should be dischargeable in bankruptcy after a certain amount of years, for example – but just waving a magic wand and letting most people completely off the hook for debt they said they were going to repay doesn’t sit well with me.

  66. 66.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I think what they’re doing is great. I think it helps the people who most need it – the ones who were defrauded by those terrible for-profit colleges, for example.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    @Old School:

    5. Is NARA aware of any additional presidential records from the Trump Administration
    that may be missing or not yet in NARA’s possession?

    Answer: NARA has identified certain social media records that were not captured
    and preserved by the Trump Administration. NARA has also learned that some
    White House staff conducted official business using non-official electronic
    messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official
    electronic messaging accounts,     as required by section 2209 of the PRA. NARA
    has already obtained or is in the process of obtaining some of those records.

     

    Read more about it on page A29 of the NYT.

  68. 68.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Martin:

    Basically, once the government loses possession of the material, there’s generally no harm attached to it. 

    No harm attached to what?  What does that “it” represent?

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @Old School:

    What an embarrassment.

    8. Is NARA aware of presidential records that President Trump destroyed or attempted
    to destroy without the approval of NARA? If so, please provide a detailed description of
    such records, the actions taken by President Trump to destroy or attempt to destroy
    them, and any actions NARA has taken to recover or preserve these documents.

    Answer: In June 2018, NARA learned from a press report in Politico that textual
    Presidential records were being torn up by former President Trump and that
    White House staff were attempting to tape them back together.     NARA sent a
    letter to the Deputy Counsel to the President asking for information about the
    extent of the problem and how it is being addressed. The White House Counsel’s
    Office indicated that they would address the matter. After the end of the Trump
    Administration, NARA learned that additional paper records that had been torn
    up by former President Trump were included in the records transferred to us.
    Although White House staff during the Trump Administration recovered and
    taped together some of the torn-up records, a number of other torn-up records
    that were transferred had not been reconstructed by the White House    .

  70. 70.

    germy

    WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge on Friday rejected efforts by former President Donald Trump to toss out conspiracy lawsuits filed by lawmakers and two Capitol police officers, saying in his ruling that the former president’s words “plausibly” may have led to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

    U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta said in his ruling that Trump’s words during a rally before the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol were likely “words of incitement not protected by the First Amendment.”

  72. 72.

    James E Powell

    The National Archives confirmed on Friday that it had found classified information among documents that President Donald J. Trump had taken with him to his home in Florida from the White House and that it had consulted with the Justice Department about the matter.

    No doubt, Former FBI Director Comey will have a tirade or two about this. Right? Right?

  73. 73.

    Another Scott

    @mrmoshpotato: That struck me too.

    Something classified doesn’t suddenly become declassified because it’s published in FTFNYT.  (Recall that one of the things HRC had to finesse when she was SOS was something that was published that hadn’t been declassified that her staff knew she was going to be asked about.  Thus the screaming about classified information in her e-mails.)

    Biden’s speaking now.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  74. 74.

    Geminid

    @Baud: April will be a big month for the student debt relief debate. Some people plan a “Day of Action” to highlight the issue on April 3. There should be some more thorough analysis of who owes how much by then, and legislative proposals as well.

    I will be interested to see good polling on the issue. There are interests of justice and equity here, and some cut both ways. But it’s also a political question that excites strong feelings, and I want to know how debt relief would help Democrats, and how it would hurt them.

  75. 75.

    Cameron

    Well, the degree I wound up with was from Close-Cover-Before-Striking University, but I wasn’t defrauded (it was both cheap and accredited), so I’m glad to see people who got snookered get something back.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    I will be shocked if all student loan debt get cancelled.  So what will be interesting to me will be (1) whether anything gets done and (2) if so, will the action be received positively or negatively by advocates and borrowers.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I like bankruptcy too for a lot of reasons-they’re an expert debt court that already exists and they run really well. But I also like it because the idea behind bankruptcy in the US is you don’t want to scare people into not trying anything. You want them to take some risk. It’s a nice thing about the US right? How you don’t have to do what your father did. I wouldn’t like a program that said “you must check what is the most useable degree, dollar for dollar, and get that one or you’re carrying that debt forever”.

    So they can try. And if they fail they get dinged a little in the bankruptcy but not too much and they get a fresh start so they can try something else.

    There’s a lot of ways to look at it. You could make the first undergrad year free! That’s a 25% reduction right there. That way if they’re not cut out for it they move on to the next thing.

  80. 80.

    gvg

    @Kay: No actually it isn’t. That’s about 1.5 years of loans at a large state college. It really adds up when you have 50,000 enrollment. These flyby night schools are usually much smaller, but there are too many of them. Also DeVos was sitting on years of applications that should have been processed and approved.  So there should be quite a backlog getting cleared.

  81. 81.

    James E Powell

    @germy:

    Neither Baquet nor anyone else at the FTFNYT believes their coverage and hysteria about Hillary emails was an error or wrong in any way. They are happy, ecstatically happy, that their 20+ year smear campaign kept That Woman! out of the White House.

  82. 82.

    Ksmiami

    @Baud: I’ve decided that Manchin is a spineless, vain, stupid, small, dick of a man who will leave behind nothing- no legacy of good; no real friends, no statues… just a rusty Maserati and a defunct houseboat. I hope he departs the world soon

  83. 83.

    Frank Wilhoit

    Cute hymn.  Someone should try doing something with “The Church’s One Salvation”, whose verse meter tends to yield amusing results with nearly any English prose, especially of a semi-formal or bureaucratic variety.

  84. 84.

    Ksmiami

    @Baud: I’d say also just freezing /refinancing the debt at prime plus one would be a huge win. -a lot of students are paying north of 8 percent interest

  86. 86.

    Kay

    @James E Powell:

    He’s already pardoned Trump for all crimes. Still running his mouth after all that damage.

    Comey said that a potential pardon from Biden would help “as part of healing the country and getting us to a place where we can focus on things that are going to matter over the next four years.”

    I always think about this with regular-people criminals. At sentencing : “Judge, I just want us to heal and focus on what matters going forward”. That people say this with a straight face about celebrity criminals! Amazing.

  88. 88.

    prostratedragon

    @germy:  Can’t find it at the moment,  but years ago when online news sites were on the rise, Baquet’s publisher was similarly insouciant about the future of the NYT. He expressly said he didn’t care if the paper could survive.  So Baquet is giving us the don’t give a fuck attitude of the top.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: One modest proposal introduced by Representative Conor Lamb (PA) would create a one-time $10,000 education credit that could be applied by anyone to retire debt or pay for education. It certainly does not go as far as some people want, but it may not be a bad starting point. I think Eric Swallwell has introduced legislation as well but I I haven’t checked into it. The problem is getting legislation through this Congress, which is why the proponents of blanket debt cancellation are so insistent that this can be done by executive action.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @gvg:

    Thanks. I knew about DeVos. She got a really tough California judge who was just not fooling around with her bullshit when 160k students sued her. It was a JOY to watch someone powerful (judge) hold someone else powerful (billionaire) accountable. That’s the thing about it. I think the public would love that if we did more of it and it would “restore trust” more than any number of speeches about restoring trust. Just do it. The “trust” will come as a result of the actions.

  92. 92.

    Geminid

    @Ksmiami: An interest rate reduction like you speak of would certainly help debtors, and could possibly be done through executive action.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    @gvg:

    It really is expensive, even at public schools. I got sticker shock between paying for one undergrad and then 15 years later paying for another. It had gone up a lot. I myself graduated with 1500 in debt because I came up during “the generous years” :)

    The payments were like 22 dollars a month. It was a nuisance. I paid it off with a tax refund.

  96. 96.

    Ksmiami

    @Kay: and the government could pick up the administrative costs relatively easily- young people will notice a decreased payment amount in their monthly bill

  97. 97.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    Former President Donald Trump’s upcoming social network, called Truth Social, is currently listed on the App Store with an “expected” February 21st launch date (Presidents’ Day), but The New York Times reports that the release has been pushed to March.
    [snip]
    According to Reuters, Trump’s Truth Social account had 317 followers as of late Wednesday. Trump had 88 million followers on Twitter at the time he was banned. Source

  98. 98.

    Edmund Dantes

    Judge in the case was also very insulting with her “no intent to harm Daunte”. How does a taser work?

     

    also huge departure from the sentencing guidelines even for a first time offender.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @Ksmiami:

    It’s not just that. Paying towards the principal makes debtors feel like they’re digging out of the hole. What kills them is being stuck- paying and not getting anywhere. We don’t want them stuck either. We want them to move on and have fabulous lives :)

  103. 103.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Kay: My first academic job was teaching in a so-called non-profit private business college. The president of the college got a bonus for the “overage” they ran. I got out of there as quickly as I coul

    ETA: On a happier topic, I recommend Lianne Moriarty’s NINE PERFECT STRANGERS. Nine people at a woo-woo health resort. Moriarty is really good at getting into characters’ heads.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    Brian Schatz
    @brianschatz
    ·1h
    Banning books is unpopular and wrong and so is being an asshole on an airplane. We are going to have to win some of these culture wars, and these seem downright easy.

  105. 105.

    Another Scott

    @different-church-lady: The Google Machine says:

    Is NYTimes a newspaper?

    The New York Times, morning daily newspaper published in New York City, long the newspaper of record in the United States and one of the world’s great newspapers. Its strength is in its editorial excellence; it has never been the largest newspaper in terms of circulation. Feb 1, 2022

    (Emphasis added.)

    There ya go.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott:

    Genuinely think they’re handling it brilliantly, since Putin’s option is now to either prove that Biden knows his every move or take a more peaceful course. Wish they’d tried this with Manchin

    — Will Stancil (@whstancil) February 18, 2022

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I have a technical degree from a community college and then a bachelors and then a law degree. The technical degree was objectively the most difficult. I never in my life worked harder in school, before or since. It’s basically “start doing this job you have no idea how to do and get judged really harshly, immediately”.

  108. 108.

    prostratedragon

    @Ohio Mom:  Plus, being, you know, New-York-City based-dammit!, they had a duty to warn back in 2016, because the guy had been known for what he was around there for years, odious adulation by gossip columnists notwithstanding.

  109. 109.

    cmorenc

    @Ksmiami:

    @Baud: I’ve decided that Manchin is a spineless, vain, stupid, small, dick of a man who will leave behind nothing- no legacy of good; no real friends, no statues… just a rusty Maserati and a defunct houseboat. I hope he departs the world soon

    But not until the Ds have a secure 50 votes in the US Senate without Manchin.  Or Sinema.  Because if the Rs take the Senate, they will control all legislation as well as the Senate’s committee investigation powers, and approval (i.e. whether votes are even held on) federal bench nominations, etc.

  113. 113.

    Roger Moore

    @mrmoshpotato:

    No harm attached to what? What does that “it” represent?

    I think this means that the legal obligation to keep stuff secret applies only to government employees.  If a government official leaks classified information to the media, that official can be prosecuted for leaking, but the media can’t be prosecuted for publishing.  The only exception is if the media actively helped the leaker get the information they leaked.

  114. 114.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    On a happier topic, I recommend Lianne Moriarty’s NINE PERFECT STRANGERS. Nine people at a woo-woo health resort. Moriarty is really good at getting into characters’ heads.

    Oh, thank you! I’ve read two or three of her books, some years ago now, and remember enjoying them. I’ll give this a try — I’ve been immersing myself in Sayers-Christie-20th-century-England, in preparation for the class I plan to teach (which was approved yesterday, yay me!), but I’m feeling the need for a little break. This might be just the thing!

  118. 118.

    Another Scott

    Gradually, and then suddenly… GovExec:

    There are fresh calls for the federal government to scrutinize its lease with the Trump Organization for its Washington, D.C. hotel following the claims this week about the unreliability of the business’s financial statements.

    Mazars, the accounting firm former President Trump and his company have used for years, said in a Feb. 9 letter, that it was cutting ties with Trump, saying it could no longer vouch for the accuracy of his financial statements. The letter was filed on Monday by New York State Attorney General Letitia James as part of her ongoing civil investigation. This is the latest in the series of perils for the Trump Organization and comes as it is working to sell its government lease for its downtown D.C. hotel, which has had its own slew of controversy.

    “In light of these new revelations, including further evidence that the former president submitted at least one financial statement with possible material misrepresentations to [the General Services Administration], we request that you consider terminating the Old Post Office Building lease to former President Trump and the Trump Organization under the authority provided in Article 27 of the lease,” wrote Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chair of the committee’s Government Operations panel, in a letter to GSA on Thursday. This is the first time this formal request is coming through the committee.

    […]

    Maloney and Connolly said that GSA notified their committee earlier this month that as of Feb. 1, the 45-day period for GSA to review the proposed sale (first reported in November) of the hotel lease and decide if it wants to greenlight it.

    The sale “may appear to address some of those conflicts, commentators have raised concerns that the $375 million sale price is at least $100 million above market value,” they wrote. “This sales price would provide a profit of approximately $100 million for the Trump Organization, even accounting for the Trump Organization’s prior investments into the property.”

    […]

    Excellent. This is what oversight is about. TFG should not be able to profit from this corrupt lease (it should have been terminated before he took office) and sale.

    I think I heard a bit of puff piece a few days ago that ARod was part of the investment group that was offering to buy the lease.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  120. 120.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    My student loans piss me off every day.  Paying for years on time.   Deferred a bunch of years.  Coming up on having to pay again.  Nearing 47 with 10 years to go between the 2 of us.  Where is that $500 going every month?  Who is it helping at this point? I’m sure  we would put all that money back into the world and help fuel other people.

  121. 121.

    H-Bob

    Student loan relief should first be targeted at those who haven’t been able to pay them off in 10 years or more.  The 10 year period evidences good faith but unsuccessful attempts at servicing and repaying the loans. For borrowers who used the loans for college, technical or vocational schools, the age range after 10 years would be in the 30-38 age range, which allows time to recover financial health.

  122. 122.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Watching (in a desultory kind of way) Steve Schmidt (Schmitt?) on MSNBC, and am once again struck by what a robotic, Uncanny Valley intonation he has in his speaking voice.

  123. 123.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    Before I start shopping, for such a garment (I don’t know its name either), I first need to master knitting and gardening. Time enough for personal adornment.

  124. 124.

    Another Scott

    @SiubhanDuinne: I assume that either they’re busy or Adam is working on something with 11,000 links.  ;-)

    Yeah, he was very, very blunt.

    He gave the actual timeline as being very short: “week” (no “s”) or “days”.

    I’m having flashbacks to the first Gulf War when the US’s overwhelming superiority was such a surprise to many.  Biden has been very clear about warning of “devastating” consequences if VVP invades.  Maybe not direct US vs Russia confrontation, but certainly economic and, er, I wouldn’t want to be in a truck or tank moving into Ukraine…

    We’ll see.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  125. 125.

    frosty

    @Baud: I kept paying my son’s loan thru the deferral period. The loan is small enough it will be paid off within the 10-year public service period. I probably could have saved some bucks with the COVID deferral but oh well. Too much work to see if that would have extended it into the writeoff range.

  128. 128.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Another Scott: An awful lot of Ukrainians, if given the opportunity to kill the Russian invaders, will not have to be asked twice. Russia may have conventional superiority, but Ukrainians have motivation. This will be a bloodbath.

  129. 129.

    sab

    @debbie: My college roommate was an art major. She worked her ass off! I worked pretty hard too, but she got to sleep only about three nights a week. An all night projects due before every art class.

  130. 130.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Frank Wilhoit:

    Well, now I’ve had that tune as an ear worm for the last hour. Thanks a bunch, Frank. But I love writing in 7.6.7.6 meter, and I’ll see what I can do.

  137. 137.

    Gvg

    @Kay: I have worked in financial aid for 28 years and I got through college doing work study in the financial aid department so I have watched changes for a long time. States don’t subsidize college tuition like they used to so tuition has been rising faster than inflation for more than 30 years. People don’t realize that when they went to college back before, they weren’t paying the real cost of their tuition. States used to pay most of it. With less money, Universities had to raise the price. It’s not happened evenly in all states. Florida and Texas have done better than most others. Michigan was sky high IMO 20 years ago, to the point it was cheaper for them to pay our out of state rate than their own instate. The New England area is mostly really high but so is a lot of the south. We are the exception mostly for that.

    The other problem is minimum wage doesn’t have the buying power it used to and they can’t get by on non college part time work while going to school. They could in my parents time, it was hard in mine and I think it’s impossible now, especially with employers like Walmart that won’t give predictable shifts.

    Next, the grant funding both federal and state haven’t kept up with costs even at a bargain state school so loans have increased and are now necessary for almost everyone. And we are an elite state school  that the well off compete to get into”….

    So I disagree with the people who say they paid their loans and don’t want lots of forgiveness. By not paying more taxes and funding all the people who will in the future be taking care of us, we have crippled a lot of future prosperity.

    The rules also don’t have enough public service debt forgiveness. It used to be teacher got a lot. Now they don’t seem to get approved anymore. Doctors can, but I don’t know about nurses and I think we are going to have to do a lot to keep as many as we can.

  141. 141.

    Don K

    @Salty Sam: I sang bass in the junior-high and high-school choirs at the church where I grew up, and it took me a minute to recognize that as the doxology (“Praise God from whom all blessings flow…”. Well done!,

    BTW, did you know that the words to the doxology can be sung to the tune of “Hernando’s Hideaway”? Little known fact. Also, any Emily Dickinson poem can be sung to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas”.

  142. 142.

    Burnspbesq

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Those whose student loan debt gets canceled will be considerably less happy when it comes time to file their 1040s. Unless an exception applies, COI is included in gross income.

  144. 144.

    Another Scott

    @Burnspbesq: One of the rescue bills passed last year had a provision that any student loan forgiveness would not be counted as income.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  145. 145.

    eachother

    @NotMax:  Butter (62,300) emails.  (But his) 15 boxes of cold hamberders. (“page A29 of the NYT.” Baud)  A high cholesterol political diet.

     

    @Cameron:  Now we’re cooking with grass gas.

  146. 146.

    Miki

    @Gvg: The “have to” tuition inflation tracks perfectly with the “Let’s provide virtually unlimited, 100% non-dischargeable debt” and hang it around the necks of young folk who want to become educated. Sounds like a real winner.

    Land grant colleges did a fabulous job of educating a bunch of peeps. Student loans have wrecked that model.

  147. 147.

    Origuy

    I graduated from the University of Illinois in 1978 with a few thousand dollars of loans. The rest was scholarships, some income from a programming job at the Psych department, and my parent’s money. The terms of the loans were 3% simple interest and I paid about $35 a month for 8 years or so. Compound interest is what kills you.

  149. 149.

    J R in WV

    I married Wife a few days after she graduated from WVU. In the first months of the marriage I learned she had a $500 loan from a bank up in Morgantown,  cosigned by a professor who she studied with.

    She paid it off damned quickly, was the money she subsisted on to finish her senior year.

  151. 151.

    Gin & Tonic

    Speaking of idiots, Twitter tells me that Rod Dreher got himself deported from Hungary.

  152. 152.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Really excellent Twitter thread with a reminder about why we fight — applicable to not just trans issues — amid trans activist burnout from the ever-increasing number of threats against us. Among other things there’s been at least 320 anti-trans bills introduced so far this year.

    In this generation, my generation, the darkness is growing; we’re accustomed to the dark. Keeping the fire alive seems pointless or impossible. But many of these kids get to live in the light of that fire, more than any of us did. And we have to keep it burning, we have to carry it for as many of us as we can, all of us if possible. We have to persist long enough to one day walk in the sun, together.

  153. 153.

    TheOtherHank

    For some reason I keep thinking of this poem:

     

    First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Socialist.

    Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

    Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
    Because I was not a Jew.

    Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

    — Martin Niemöller

  154. 154.

    Eunicecycle

    I saw speculation that the ramp up in anti-gay violence was due to RWNJs need a new issue to get people riled up since abortion will soon be off the table.

  155. 155.

    citizen dave

    Waiting for a Florida thread.  I was talking (via phone) to my soon to be 90 year dad the other night, a lifelong republican.   I would say he’s not been living in maga land or anything, but guessing that fox news is a primary source.  Kind of out of the blue he says to me “if i had to pick one of them today, for 2024, I’d vote for DeSantis”.  I didn’t address it, but was thinking wtf?  It was the first time I realized that listening to him is like listening to Grandpa Simpson.

  157. 157.

    Mike in NC

    Ron DeSatan wants to be Trump on steroids. If he gets reelected in November, he’ll declare he’s running for president in December. Then the war on LGBTQ people will get turned up to 11 and it’ll be the top story every single day on FOX News.

  158. 158.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @TheOtherHank: Us trans folks been the canaries in the coal mine for years. In the Memories thingie on the Satanic Book of Face,* I keep seeing posts from five or more years ago about the same damn things as today.

    *Let’s not derail on the pros and cons of Facebook, like any mention of it seems to do. Suffice to say, I have reasons for being there—among them, social media being a way of using the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house (Andre Lorde not withstanding). It, including FB, have been instrumental in connecting LGBTQ+ people who could be pretty isolated from each other even a decade ago.

  159. 159.

    eversor

    @Gin & Tonic:

     

    The entire Shengen Zone in Europe.  You can only stay 90 days.  He thought going home for two days reset this.  It does not.  So they locked him in the air port in Vienna until they can armed escort him to a plane and dump him in the UK.

  161. 161.

    debbie

    @Mike in NC:

    I don’t think DeSantis is smart enough. Pull the plug on his teleprompter at a news conference, and he’ll babble unintelligently. Better yet, cut off those accordion hands he keeps doing.

  162. 162.

    eversor

    @Eunicecycle:

    Chris Rufo (of both intelligent design and CRT fame) said the next thing to do is call drag queens “trans strippers” and show people trans strippers and use this to drive them from the public square.  So this is exactly where they will be.   Though why conservatives want to show trans strippers to each other is beyond me.

  164. 164.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Eunicecycle: I’m not so sure. They really had a lot of success riling up the base in the run up to 2016 with all those trans-panic bathroom bills. I think they’ve seen this as a winning issue for years now.

  165. 165.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    “Where do I get my reputation back?” Hosseini said during Thursday’s trustees’ meeting.

    He then referred to UF president Kent Fuchs. “Where do I get his reputation back? Where do I get the reputation of this university back?”

    By being a better person and doing the work to prove it. Even then, it’s not guaranteed. You ruined your own reputation and you need to own it

  166. 166.

    Scout211

    I guess DeSantis decided that Florida being the only state not providing COVID vaccinations for kids was not good look for him.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is now allowing healthcare providers, including pediatricians and children’s hospitals, to order COVID-19 vaccines from a federal program for children between six months and 5 years old, a reversal from earlier this week when providers were prevented from preordering doses, White House officials told McClatchy.

  167. 167.

    Immanentize

    Ooo. Looks like Tuesday’s J6 hearing will include info about Trump’s attempts to “find votes” in Georgia.

  170. 170.

    The Moar You Know

    “Where do I get my reputation back?” Hosseini said during Thursday’s trustees’ meeting.

    My ass. I’ll be serving up some of his “reputation” sooner or later.

  172. 172.

    Immanentize

    And, after the whiny complaint/request by DoJ, the J6 Cmmt will hand over their evidence to the executive branch sooner than they originally planned.

  173. 173.

    Scout211

    @Immanentize:

    Correct. From the same article:

    The decision will expand access to pediatric coronavirus vaccines for parents across the state, which, under DeSantis’ previous position, would have been limited to seeking vaccines at a select number of community health centers and facilities participating in a federal retail pharmacy program.

    The DeSantis administration is pushing back aggressively against the notion that its position has changed, with a spokesperson from the Florida Department of Health telling McClatchy that it never planned on preventing private healthcare providers from ordering doses.

    But those private providers were unable to access orders before a Tuesday deadline from the Centers Disease Control and Prevention to access initial doses over the first two weeks of availability. It could take up to two weeks for deliveries to arrive based on orders placed Friday.

     

  176. 176.

    Hoodie

    Equally coincidentally, conservative operatives appear to have pressured university administrators to censor academic speech that undermines the DeSantis regime’s political objectives. Examples include the university suddenly prohibiting faculty from testifying as experts in voting rights cases or legal action opposing state restrictions on local public health rules on masks and vaccines.

    We went through something similar a few years back at UNC when the GOP gained a supermajority in the legislature and appointed a board of governors that closed down a pro bono clinic program at UNC Law that was representing people like poor folks in Eastern NC that were tired of getting pig shit sprayed on them by CAFOs.  Nothing like having a university system board of governors populated by hog farmers, car dealers, and real estate developers.  There’s always been a strain of anti-intellectualism in the GOP; here it dates back to assholes like Chub Seawell (who used to fill in for Jesse Helms at the local TV station in Raleigh) calling UNC the “University of Negroes and Communists.”

  177. 177.

    Shalimar

    @Gin & Tonic: It was Austria.  He had spent his 90 days in Hungary earlier in the year, came back to the US, and thought the limit applied per country.  Austrian authorities assured him he was wrong.

  178. 178.

    eversor

    @Daoud bin Daoud:

    I can just imagine Rod Dreher, Sorhab Ahmari, and Chris Rufo showing suburban housewives videos of trans strippers “saying this is what they want reading books to your kids in libraries” followed by “why is everyone looking at us funny”.

  180. 180.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    My answer to Hosseini is the same as my answer to where DeSantis can go for his apology.

    He can go to hell.

  181. 181.

    Betty Cracker

    OMFG, have these people ever worked in an office, made polite chit-chat with a stranger, interacted with their own goddamn grandparents, etc.? It’s mind-boggling!

  182. 182.

    Librarian

    The whining is the time honored right wing tradition of working the refs- whine about how you’re oppressed victims, all the time, no matter what. It’s how they get their way.

  183. 183.

    Shalimar

    @debbie: DeSantis appears to be an idiot because he’s channeling what he thinks rightwing trolls want from a leader.  And he’s got a damned good instinct for their hatreds,  unfortunately.  Don’t underestimate him.  He’s a lot smarter than any of the other Trump pretenders.

  185. 185.

    MisterDancer

    @Sister Golden Bear: ​

      Us trans folks been the canaries in the coal mine for years.

    Terrifyingly and aggressively true.

    using the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house (Andre Lorde not withstanding)

    I’ve been thinking on that essay, of late. Not coherent yet; it’s rightly lauded and unfairly misunderstood/misused, so I’m trying to step right on it, myself. :)

  187. 187.

    O. Felix Culpa

    My older gay friends are debating whether to attend Pride or not, given the threats of violence. And people who are not members of a targeted, vulnerable community do not get to say: “but *we* must fight back,” unless you’re putting your body on the line too. In which case, thank you for being an ally!

  188. 188.

    Served

    @Steeplejack: 

    They’re expanding it as we speak. Allies and LGB people with privilege need to be vigilant and stand up for Trans people, but they will not stop there. The shift to bundling drag performers and transgender people into one “outsider” group is their bridge to go after everyone.

  189. 189.

    MisterDancer

    And apparently that asshole Rufo is now trying to tie Drag Queens to Sex Work via, well, lying his ass off and ginning up the overall Movement to do the same.

    And he’s not even hiding that this is a tactic, a ploy, an abuse of words to heap more abuse on people.

    Assholes.

  190. 190.

    rikyrah

    I read this bullshyt in my local newspaper.

    This angers me so much. Libraries are there for everyone.

    Book bullies attempt to hide our diversity
    Libraries, bookstores deal with patrons trying to keep titles on Black and LGBTQ people out of sight.
    By Neil Steinberg Jun 16, 2022, 5:48pm CDT

    When Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville announced June 9 that someone is plucking books from their displays and hiding them in the store, they didn’t specify what sort of books are being taken.

    I assumed the stashed volumes were books about queer youth and trans acceptance and such, the segment of human behavior currently singled out for special harassment by those who feel entitled to establish limits on human nature that maximize their own comfort.

    But that isn’t the kind of book being targeted.

    “Any book with a cover showing a person of color on it gets covered up,” explained Ginny Wehrli-Hemmeter, director of events and marketing at Anderson’s, one of the largest independent bookstores in the Chicago area

    About 50 books have been found tucked behind other books. Police have been notified; a man, caught in the act, was confronted.

    Nor was my next thought — that this must be a freakish anomaly — correct. Can people really be offended by the sight of a children’s book about Jackie Robinson? In 2022? This has to be the handiwork of some lone-wolf, west-suburban hater indulging in repairable acts of racism, I figured.

    Sadly, it is not.

    While other large independent bookstores in and around Chicago — the Book Stall in Winnetka, Powell’s in Hyde Park — do not report similar vigilante mischief, it is endemic at public libraries around the country.

    “The books overwhelmingly being targeted deal with the lives and experiences of LGBTQ persons,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the office for intellectual freedom of the Chicago-based American Library Association.

    But it is by no means limited to them. The lives of Black persons also are a particular focus, she added, “under the false idea that books about Black people are some kind of ‘critical race theory.’ There is a lot of rhetoric that’s being used to vilify these materials. It’s truly tragic.”

    ………………

    Caldwell-Stone said rather than being the acts of isolated vigilantes, these book purges are being organized in plain view. She pointed to the “Hide the Pride,” effort by CatholicVote, encouraging people to check out books involving gender issues en masse from public libraries to avoid the risk that a child might see one.

    “They have a website, a social media presence,” Caldwell-Stone said. “It’s stunning to see they have this idea that public libraries are just for them, and they should take actions to sanitize the library from materials that reflect the lives of gay, queer or transgendered people. It’s a real effort to silence the voices of communities that are finally finding a place on the public stage in our society so that we can understand the experiences of others.”
    ……………….

    “Not everything that calls itself ‘Catholic’ is in fact part of our church,” said Paula Waters chief communications officer for the archdiocese. “CatholicVote is not a Catholic organization, It’s not a part of the church, or sanctioned by the church or has any relationship to the church. It has no standing. It’s a PAC that appears to be well-funded.”

    https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2022/6/16/23170937/books-being-hidden-bookstores-censorship-black-blm-lgbtq-catholic-vote-hide-pride

  193. 193.

    Betty Cracker

    Tangerine Baal is giving a speech in Nashville right now and confessing to crimes on camera, so the Jan. 6 committee video people may have to work over the weekend. (Saw clips on Twitter here.)

  194. 194.

    Tony Jay

    @Gin & Tonic: 

    Twitter tells me that Rod Dreher got himself deported from Hungary.

    Ha! The enormous bellend. Kicked out of the Kingdom of Christofascist Heaven.

    until they can armed escort him to a plane and dump him in the UK.

    Oh for fucks sake. No. Just no.

  195. 195.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Coming soon to a conservative near you. From Christopher Rufo the guy who opening talks about pushing CRT as a slur  unrelated to any reality about what’s actually taught in school in order to incite the wingers and shut down any discussion of racism. (From tweets that I won’t link to, but if you can report it, please do.)

    Conservatives should start using the phrase “trans stripper” in lieu of “drag queen.” It has a more lurid set of connotations and shifts the debate to sexualization.

    The trick is to shift the language in a way that is factually accurate and has a plausible claim to neutrality, but attaches a new set of connotations to the concept that shifts the debate in your favor. The Left is very good at this; time for the Right to start playing.

    Dreading to see how quickly this spreads.

  196. 196.

    Reboot

    @debbie: Bright or not bright, that isn’t the point to the voters who’ll vote for DeSantis. If they don’t already adore him, they will by the time 2024 rolls around. Youngkin got whoops and hollers at fundraisers here in SW Virginia when he pledged to govern like DeSantis.

  197. 197.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: Oy

    Aaron Rupar @atrupar 1h

    Trump’s audience at the Faith & Freedom coalition is sitting silently as Trump recounts the “perfect phone call” with Zelensky that got him impeached. Hard to escape the impression he’s so wrapped up in his own grievances that he’s gotten a bit out of step with the GOP base.

    He can’t not talk about his grievances, but he has an instinct for getting them back. As Tweety Matthews put it in an appropriately gross way, ‘he listens with his tongue’

    Aaron Rupar @atrupar 30m
    “No teacher should ever be allowed to teach transgender to our children” — Trump

  198. 198.

    Betty Cracker

    @Sister Golden Bear: Rufo is like a rattlesnake in that he warns before he strikes. He explained exactly why he picked CRT as a subject to demagogue in a similarly detailed and public way.

    Trump is jumping on the anti-trans bandwagon in a less articulate way. In a speech that’s being delivered right now, he said, “No teacher should ever be allowed to teach transgender to our children.” As if it’s a language or mathematical formula.

  199. 199.

    louc

    @Sister Golden Bear: It already is spreading like wildfire. They found a picture of a 5 yo girl putting dollars bills in the garter of a burlesque performer (apparently this happened in NOLA 3 freaking years ago), so of course that is making the rounds right now. And they’re calling drag queens drag strippers….

  200. 200.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Just saw that clip too! He weirdly over-pronounces “woke gender ideology” as if it were the “woman man camera TV” test. It’s the sincerest form of flattery for DeSantis.

  201. 201.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Betty Cracker: They’re inciting stochastic terrorism and when LGBTQ+ people start getting killed, that’ll be a feature, not a bug.

    At least one political and several mega-church pastors have openly talked about killing every single last one of us. “Bullet to the back of the head” sayeth one of God’s gentle loving people.

  202. 202.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @louc: As someone who’s an actual burlesque performer, it’s probably only a matter of time before one my show photos ends in their hands.

    I hate the idea of having guns in my house, but if I doxxed, it may be prudent.

  203. 203.

    Reboot

    @Sister Golden Bear: Those types like Rufo seem to be really adept at these ‘language shifts.’ For a while now (and I’m guessing lawyers here could explain why this isn’t my most practical notion, aside from the expense and mental turmoil), I’ve been thinking private citizens could be suing these creeps for libel or slander. But here you’d be re-victimizing strippers. I wonder if bullying or harassment could be grounds for a suit, maybe even a class action suit, because plenty of people are going to be affected.

  207. 207.

    J R in WV

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    I hate the idea of having guns in my house, but if I doxxed, it may be prudent.

    There is more to it than just acquiring a weapon.

    You may know all this, but you will need training  in breaking down, cleaning, and reassembling your selected weapon after cleaning it. Youtube can help with cleaning procedures.

    You should also connect with a good shooting range where you can learn safety, targeting, etc. Shoot regularly, perhaps with friends who also have decided they need to protect themselves and their families. Practice won’t make perfect, but it gets you closer and closer.

  208. 208.

    eversor

    @Reboot: 

    Rufo just chases the latest crazy. The Christian intelligista has been ranting about trans for some time now. It was Rod Dreher who dug up drag queen story hour and Desmond (child trans dancer) and blew it into a huge thing. This was well over a year ago. Then Sorhab Ahmari picked up and beat David French over the head with it as to why freedoms must go away and government must instate Christian law or it’s evil.

    Just like CRT and Intelligent Design Rufo showed up late to a religious fight and is now grifting by lying his ass off and creating a huge scene to convince the bible bangers they have a winning tactic. People will get hurt and he’ll flee the wreckage and move onto the next thing.

    Notice how NOBODY talks about intelligent design anymore? Notice how CRT dropped off the radar and now it’s all trans all the time?

    Rod Dreher and co are out their demanding people give Rufo money because “he fights” and Rufo is laughing all the way to the bank from his cushy think tank job.

  209. 209.

    eversor

    @J R in WV:

    The difficulty also depends on the weapon, former military here.  For home defense you want to keep it simple and you don’t need tactical porn.   Go get a break loading double barreled shotgun and a 38 revolver.   The shotgun is all the blam you need, impossible to miss with for home defense, and doesn’t fly through the damn wall.  And it will blow someone in half.  It, along with the revolver, will not jam or malfunction unless the round is just bad.  Very easy to clean, and very very very safe because you can see the rounds so there is no question if the stupid thing is loaded or not.  Also both of these guns are fun as hell to shoot and do not make you look like a right winger, these are guns with class!

    If you decide you like shooting, you will, then get a bolt action rilfe and do some distance shooting.

    If you must get an automatic pistol (and for home defense this makes no sense) get something like a 1911, aka a 45 with an actual safety and not the trigger dingus.  The stupid safe triggers are why idiots are forever shooting themselves with things like Glocks but you almost never hear of that with something like a 45 (outside of cleaning) and probably will never hear of it with a revolver.

    Don’t be squeamish about it.  Here in NOVA it’s full of liberals with guns because of the military and intel around here and nobody goes on rampages or causes as mess.  It’s also fun when conservative people say “liberals hate guns” and you can say “I’m liberal and I own three guns, and I support gun control”.

  212. 212.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @J R in WV: 

    There is more to it than just acquiring a weapon.

    Oh I know. (As well as having done the self-examination of whether I’m capable of shooting/killing another human being.) Having to do the maintenance, and more importantly regular training, are definitely among of the reason I’d rather not. I’ve got other things I’d much rather be doing with my time.

  214. 214.

    eversor

    @Sister Golden Bear: 

    To be horrific there is killing and then there is killing. It’s one thing when you are tasked with carrying out a mission and it’s a deliberate thing, it’s a whole nother ball game when you or someone you love’s life is at risk. People do all sorts of crazy shit when they are backed into a corner and have to.

    The point of getting the gun is not to use it, it’s so you don’t screw it up if you have to use it. And if you are already questioning if you can kill someone, rather just blindly assuming can, you’re responsible enough to own one.

  216. 216.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s all his speeches ever are, just a rambling whine of all his grievances. I’m listening to it now.

    “If I were president blah blah blah….

    Well, you’re not, thank the gods

    ( and I’m in moderation. what did i doooo?)

  217. 217.

    2liberal

    @debbie:I don’t think DeSantis is smart enough.

     

    He cant be stupider or more ignorant than Trump  i think.  not a disqualifier in today’s environment

  218. 218.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Hosseini can fuck right off. Parasites like him are destroying this country.

  220. 220.

    Geminid

    @2liberal: The problem with ruling out potential Republican nominees is that they all are more or less deficient in character, charisma etc., but one of them will still win the nomination in 2024. With that party’s current mood, the question isn’t, is he too big an asshole? but rather, is he a big enough asshole?

  221. 221.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Librarian: 

    If I had to deal with people like that regularly, I’d have the Dennis the Peasant scene from MP&HG perpetually cued up and ready to play. “Help, help, I’m being repressed, come see the violence inherent in the system!”

  222. 222.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Sister Golden Bear:  I stumbled across this Trans-Advocacy/Anti-Racism video yesterday. Would love to hear longer talks on this subject as I think it is going to become increasingly important for those of us on the Left to help people make this connection between Transphobia and White Supremacy and understand why it’s so important to stand up for Trans Rights.

    PS- to the Front-Pagers: would love to see you let SGB or other commenters from the LGBTQ (especially T) communities be allowed to write some posts (assuming they are interested) on this terrain above the comments/fold. I feel like it would not only be good for greater diversity of voices at this blog, but it would just be the right thing to do in a time when their community is being so horrifically targeted by the GOP/Nazis in this country.

  223. 223.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @NotMax:

    Call me old-fashioned but I prefer to think of everybody as “people,” with no antecedent qualifiers necessary.

    While I appreciate the sentiment, it comes across as kind of the equivalent of saying “I don’t see color.” Just as being a Black woman (or man) usually involves certain experiences that are integral to who they are, same thing with trans folks. So ignoring the adjective — they’re not qualifiers, at least when we use them — is a bit of an erasure.

    A better way to put it is “trans woman are women; trans men are men.” I.e. while we may have experiences that differs from other women and men — just as there’s a wide variety of experience among women and men in general — we’re still part of the larger whole.

  225. 225.

    Jazzman

    Hahaha, “U-Heil”! Betty, you are a treasure. Keep having fun–the spirit of Molly Ivins shines upon you.

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