Fencing around the U.S. Capitol building is being put back up ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address as part of security precautions https://t.co/zIW1ruFiFN
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 27, 2022
Scheduled for Tuesday, which this year is also Mardi Gras, to be followed by Ash Wednesday…
Boston supports Ukraine. ???? pic.twitter.com/EJ4CtRxZuo
— Jonathan Berk (@berkie1) February 27, 2022
BREAKING: Ukrainian delegation arrives for talks with Russia on border of Belarus; unclear whether they’ll lead to breakthrough. https://t.co/O3XWxkmsUK
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 28, 2022
I’m seeing some criticism that Biden is letting the EU “go first” on sanctions.
Well, yeah — this shit is in their back yard. They *should* go first.
Who do you think is advising them on these sanctions and helping coordinate? Leadership doesn’t mean you have to be first.
— Angry Staffer (@Angry_Staffer) February 28, 2022
When Putin put his nuclear forces on a high alert — in response to “aggressive comments” by the West – Biden had a choice. He could have gone to DefCon 3. Instead, his aides chided Putin, and some questioned his state of mind. W/ ?@WilliamJBroad? https://t.co/dvmad6PuPT
— David Sanger (@SangerNYT) February 28, 2022
putin rubbing a monkey’s paw in the kremlin two years ago: I wish for a more multipolar world. And for everyone to pay attention to me. [the fingers curl]
— Seva (@SevaUT) February 27, 2022
OzarkHillbilly
Let me clarify it for all: No.
JPL
Illia Ponomarenko@IAPonomarenkoBREAKING:
It’s official – ?? Snake Island sailors are alive, Navy confirms.
They were taken prisoner by Russia.6:59 AM · Feb 28, 2022 from Ukraine
Baud
@JPL:
?
OzarkHillbilly
A nice piece, not too long:
That’s 49 years he’s been doing it.
eclare
@JPL: Oh what good news! I hope they can be released soon.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Disney’s version of The Shining.
eclare
@OzarkHillbilly: Interesting article, I wish it were longer. And what a photo of Old Faithful at sunset!
Raven Onthill
Reportedly, the wireless controls of over 3,000 German wind turbines have been attacked, probably by Russian hackers.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Meanwhile, on the reflexive pacifist left, people wrung their hands and whimpered “that is far too aggressive and may prompt him into further fighting. We must sing songs of peace and inspire Vova to do right through our non-violence!”
debbie
Good. I’d bet mockery drives him straight up the wall.
debbie
@JPL:
Wow! Second burst of tears this morning!
Raven Onthill
@JPL: That is good to hear because, really, fk martyrdom.
Link: https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1498266613002424325?s=20&t=898LKH0NllCpeJj85MYsjA
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
Immanentize
@JPL: best news from Ukraine in days. Thanks.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Immanentize
La la la
Betty Cracker
@JPL: After this shit-show is over, those guys will never have to pay for a drink again.
Kay
Chief law enforcement officer of the US, paid by the public and employed by the public at the time these events occured, was told to go arrest the President’s political enemies and he said and did nothing, ran away when the insurrection started and is now peddling a book where he reveals these crimes to the public, helped along by the NYTimes political team who are marketing and promoting the book.
Just an ethics-free zone. Corruption so rampant it’s normalized.
You all paid Barr’s salary and he told you nothing about this and did nothing. Now he’s shilling a book to sell this information back to you. Completely normalized.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da.
;)
OzarkHillbilly
IPCC issues ‘bleakest warning yet’ on impacts of climate breakdown
We are so screwed.
matt
The Russian central bank more than doubled interest rates to 20% on Monday, as the ruble plunged following further moves by Western powers to the country over the invasion of Ukraine.
Marking a new all-time low, the ruble USDRUB, +12.26% tumbled 25% in offshore trading to 105.27, according to FactSet. The move took the key lending rate from the already high level of 9.5%.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/russian-central-bank-lifts-interest-rates-to-20-as-ruble-plunges-over-western-sanctions-11646033022
debbie
@Kay:
Agreed about this waiting for my book; however, at least the world will know what a major-league asshole he is. Bit by bit, DJT is slipping into irrelevance.
Kay
If it was revealed that a mayor of a large city told the DA to go arrest his political enemies to help in his reelection effort would that be considered juicy political gossip for a book by the DA or would the FBI start a public corruption investigation including the DA?
How do they prosecute public corruption cases going forward if they let Trump off? How are they at all credible? Why shouldn’t any pol do what Trump did? If the attorney general of the United States has no duty to report any of this and can save it for a book why should any prosecutor anywhere have a duty to report it?
Gin & Tonic
While most of the world cheers the brave Ukrainians, and laughs at tractor-towing-APC guy or carrying-mine-while-smoking guy, Ukrainians die:
Citizen Alan
@OzarkHillbilly: And the evangelicals all cheer because this just means the rapture is coming soon.
Baud
@Kay:
It’s “be best.”
Gin & Tonic
More:
Ozark’s prediction about the outcome of the “negotiations” is correct. Putin’s team will say “surrender” and Zelensky’s team will say “go fuck your mother.”
Kay
@debbie:
Barr’s not credible. He’s a liar. He spent the weeks after to this event insisting the mail in ballot process had been compromised and would not be a reliable count, presumably on Trump’s orders.
The whole book could well be a pack of self serving, ass covering lies. It provides no public benefit at all. No one has any idea what orders he took and what orders he didn’t take. All we have is his account and his public statements. There’s never been an investigation into his actions in the run up and he ran away when it got violent.
Wakeshift
@Gin & Tonic:
We celebrate Ukraine’s victories, honor their bravery, mourn their losses, and condemn their attackers.
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
I hope they can keep the support through what is going to be a long, hard grind. Russia isn’t going to surrender.
germy
Good timing
Immanentize
@NotMax: brah!
Long time no see.
Rob
Does anyone know where the truck convoy heading to DC from California is? Asking for an area resident.
John S.
@Rob:
It’s headed for irrelevance.
Baud
@Rob:
Someone said yesterday that the convoy was no more.
Kay
@debbie:
An active, enthusiastic participant in the big lie- peddled the lies as much as anyone else who was ordered to do it and was happy to serve Donald Trump. Now laundering his reputation thru the hard work of NYTImes reporters, selling his book.
His book itself is premised on a lie- the lie is he didn’t take part in this. We saw him and that’s only what we saw. Based just on his public behavior – where he took orders and lied for Trump- the better bet is he did MORE behind the scenes, not less.
Immanentize
@Baud: i know the trucker and “convoy” from Pennsylvania turned back to PA because there was too much traffic around DC. Which is funny because aren’t they supposed to block traffic?
A message from Rubber Duck
Betty Cracker
OMG, this motherfucker.
danielx
From downstairs: is there a face in the world more punchable than that of Sean Hannity?
Baud
@Immanentize:
Yeah, but someone said the California convoy to DC ran out of gas in Kansas City.
Peale
@Rob: the disbanded yesterday in Kansas City due to lack of interest. So basically the media promoted two loser convoys in the last week.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@danielx: Tucker Carlson.
danielx
@Betty Cracker:
Focus this, mf.
germy
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL: God, I hope that’s true
Baud
@Peale:
Alternative theory.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: i say send him to Belarus. 4ever.
James E Powell
@danielx:
Josh Hawley
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: An American doesn’t need a visa, he can fly to Krakow and hire a driver himself.
eclare
@Kay: I hope the EU/countries got the planes and other defensive weapons into Ukraine…or they are speeding on their way.
Immanentize
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Can confirm
danielx
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
@James E Powell:
Both worthy contenders, but neither has the unctuous quality of Hannity’s smug visage.
Immanentize
@James E Powell: There is also Ted Cruz, because the issue was “more punchable” rather than “most punchable.”
Liminal Owl
@Kay: thank you for all your comments, always appreciated
Ken
@Baud: There was also some speculation about who was paying their fuel bills, since the convoy stopped right after the SWIFT sanctions were put on Russia
EDIT: I see Baud got there first.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@danielx: Tucker Carlson?
satby
@Ken: purely coincidental! ???
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@danielx: Add Ted Cruize and make it a threesome. Put them in a cage with a trained MMU fighter and not open the door until there is one man standing. I would pay to watch that.
Sherparick1
@danielx: Yes, I give you Jesse Watters of Fox News
https://www.bing.com/search?q=watters+fox+news&form=ANNNB1&refig=a1e70f6afcc644f08d0a06a1b4b5c33c&sp=1&qs=LS&pq=watters+fox+&sk=PRES1&sc=8-12&cvid=a1e70f6afcc644f08d0a06a1b4b5c33c
germy
germy
@Liminal Owl:
I agree.
JPL
Putin has nothing to lose at this point, since he knows that he can’t avoid an appearance in Hague. Someone just needs to push him out of a window, before he uses a nuke.
OzarkHillbilly
@John S.: Irrelevance, MO? That’s right near Peculiar.
eclare
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Put them in there with the retired transgender SEAL Team Six member and watch her kick all their asses.
opiejeanne
@Baud: One of the two CA convoys that I know of, the one that was routed through Las Vegas, ran out of steam before they even got that far. One was going through Adelanto, and the other was starting somewhere near LA.
germy
Ken
@germy: I have a vocabulary question. I think the words would be “quisling”, if MacGregor is being paid by the Russians to say these things, but “useful idiot” if he’s doing it for free. Is that correct?
Kay
@eclare:
Me too. It’s great they’re resisting as civilian individuals but that isn’t going to stop Russia bombing an apartment building. I just hope the support sticks as the economic sanctions ripple outward- I agree with putting them in but there’s no telling where they land. We just don’t know.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: I had some cousins from Peculiar, and according to my Ozark grandma, they were.
Baud
@germy:
I actually agree with Snowden. No one should be worrying about his welfare.
Ken
@germy: Clearly a fake. When has Snowden — or anyone on twitter — shown that much self-reflection?
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Oh, yeah, they’ll have the patience for his inane questions. //
Baud
@Ken:
There’s also “agent” vs. “asset.”
Spanky
@danielx:
This guy.
Frank Wilhoit
@Betty Cracker: Definitive proof, if any were still needed, that self-parody is no longer possible.
Baud
@Ken:
Good point. I’d demand proof of life but I don’t care enough.
Baud
@Spanky:
Whew. Not me this time.
opiejeanne
@debbie: When I saw that I had to ask if that was a parody account. I mean, focus groups???
Ken
@opiejeanne: You must admit that Luntz’s idea has some merit. The part about sending him out of the country, I mean.
Spanky
@germy:
Pity, that is.
opiejeanne
@debbie:
Ukrainian woman, filling beer bottles with gasoline: Kind of busy right now.
Ukrainian man on a tractor: No time now, I have to go pick up some equipment, down the road.
opiejeanne
@Ken: That part I liked.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@opiejeanne: I’m trying to imagine anyone focusing on anything except the bombs and tanks
Soprano2
@Rob: One of them stopped at Big Cabin, OK, last night. It’s supposed to be passing by Springfield sometime this morning. That’s what it said in yesterday’s paper, anyway.
opiejeanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Truth. When I consider what it would be like if I were there, he’d probably limp away with his hide scorched if he asked me to join a focus group.
opiejeanne
@Soprano2: There must be several that started in California. More than just two.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Peale: I read that one had sputtered out in Kansas but thought I read that there is another still going. I’ll try to find info.
Kay
They’ll all just Tweet out Bill Barr’s completely unsupported and ass covering anecdotes about how Bill Barr and the other Right wing lawyers “tried to temper” Trump’s sleazy cronies to their millions of followers.
Because that’s what prosecutors do- they “try to temper” lawbreaking at the highest levels. When they fail at their (alleged!) efforts to “temper” criminal activity they run away and write ass covering, reputation laundering books- that’s what you’re paying them for.
Barr lied about election fraud in the run up to the election, on television, over and over. Maybe they could at least add that context? We didn’t need the book to find that out- we saw it.
Soprano2
Story about the “People’s Convoy” here https://ktul.com/news/local/the-peoples-convoy-arrives-in-big-cabin-on-their-way-to-dc
It’s so funny that a minority of people think they are “the people”.
Kay
@Spanky:
You have to hand it to him though. All the rest of his buddies who were also wrong still make confident predictions hourly not just on Ukraine but on a whole range of geopolitical outcomes of this. With complete certainty. The massive initial mistake and assumptions hasn’t slowed them at all.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Soprano2: Yep. Found OK reporting on the same convoy. So “The People’s Convoy” is still going.
Maybe, unlike the others, they are sending donors money to the actual truckers?
Rob
John S, Baud, Peale, Soprano: thanks for the updates. I hope it has dissipated.
Btw I can’t get the quote feature to work for me this morning.
Soprano2
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: That’s what it sounds like to me. They say they’ve raised about $1.5 million so far to pay for fuel and other expenses. I’m sure a bunch of people will be out at I-44 this morning cheering them on.
germy
We need his valuable analysis now more than ever.
Soprano2
@Kay: This is one thing that is kind of shocking to me, that no matter how many times a pundit is shown to be wrong on all kinds of different matters they are still put on TV when the next issue comes up. I swear it’s that the network has the modern equivalent of a Rolodex with certain people in it, and they haven’t thought to add any names to it since Clinton was president.
Rob
@Rob: Duh, because I didn’t do it right… I clearly need more coffee …
Immanentize
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I have a better idea — as a fundraiser for Biden:
Put each of them: Cruz, Hawley, Carlson, Hannity, (and Cotton) in those old fashion dunking machines and end this dispute by vote of who buys the most tickets to dunk them.
egorelick
@germy: I’m not sure the lawyers can count on being paid.
Baud
@germy:
Publicly funded sex is a core plank of the Baud! 20XX! campaign.
Immanentize
@Ken: Hold onto your hat! Taibbi also issued a written apology about his hot takes that Russia would never invade Ukraine.
The times, they are a-changin.
germy
sdhays
@Kay: Shit’s a lot “realer” for Edward Snowden right now than those people. Crashing economy, mass protests, military flailing in its botched invasion, Putin shit-talking about nuclear weapons – these things help focus you when you’re not safe in your Manhattan apartment.
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Based on past performance, Luntz would manage to find a focus group of people who are undecided about the war. Then later it would turn out they were all members of the Russian psyops agency.
Immanentize
@Spanky: Really, My Dude, that required a big old trigger warning!
I assume that is from his student ID to nursing school.
Immanentize
@Baud: Proof of life? I feel more like the co-conspirators at the beginning of Charade.
Kay
Just a reminder that Glenn Greenwald also promoted the “lab leak theory” as proof that both media and the government were lying to us about covid and a lot of dumb “contrarian” media people picked it up.
No correction or retraction. Just moved on to insisting Putin would never invade (wrong again) and is right now making a ton of claims on how all this will play out with absolute certainty.
The most moronic “contrarian!” claim sets all seem to come from the same group of people who fell for and promoted the “critical race theory panic” and the “cancel culture” panic. That was like the gateway drug for idiotic “contrarianism”.
germy
@Immanentize:
I think he apologized behind a paywall.
I’m not a subscriber so I haven’t seen it.
Twitter would have been a logical place, since he’s all over twitter. But instead:
Immanentize
@germy: People are still having sex? WHA?
George
@Gin & Tonic:
The sort of circus atmosphere that many commenters on Twitter and even here on Balloon Juice have promoted is disgusting. Everything that is “lighthearted”–using that term very loosely–such as a farmer driving off with a tank in tow is against a backdrop of horror, murder, and grief.
Even the comment above about the Snake Island guys never having to buy another drink is insensitive. Sure, as long as they survive and as long as Ukraine is not demolished.
What the hell is it with commenters who are that insensitive? Streetcorner “refreshment stands” in Kyiv with Molotov cocktails at the ready isn’t a cutesy thing. It means that Ukrainians are ready to defend their country to the death. Given the circumstances, Ukrainians are allowed all the black humor they want in order to get through horrible times. Everyone else needs to practice–or simply discover–empathy. I realize that most people do. To the rest, though, try a bit harder.
Baud
@Immanentize:
The funds, they are a-frozen.
Immanentize
@germy: I saw it on the Twit:
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Fuck him. I hope he’s unemployable for the rest of his miserable life.
Immanentize
@George: You would have been an excellent member of the home front during WWII. All news is bad news, eh?
We celebrate honor and bravery. As we should.
Russian Ship, Fuck Yourself
Kay
@sdhays:
I don’t care about Snowden. I saw fundamental problems with the “information wants to be free” crowd- knew that would be used by actors with an agenda- at the outset and nothing that has happened since has changed my mind. It went worse than I anticipated. There’s no fucking transparency or public oversight in their leaking system. It has a fatal flaw. It’s another moronic libertarian idea that collapses in practice. They’re bad thinkers.
Scamp Dog
@Betty Cracker: I’m in, as long as he promises not to come back.
germy
Condoleezza Rice made an appearance on Fox to say “When you invade a sovereign nation, that is a war crime”
Betty Cracker
@Kay: It’s infuriating because Barr “torched his own credibility” to pre-spin the Mueller report, and credibility is supposed to be a precious resource that bald-faced liars lose, but Barr’s is self-renewing with Beltway nitwits like Haberman. Barr showed us he is bald-faced liar when he lied about the Mueller report’s contents, then he repeatedly lied about the election until that became untenable, but the cinders of his credibility are magically reanimated and we’re supposed to believe him now? WTF?
Nope — I’m not going to believe a single syllable from a known liar like Barr, and it’s not even my job to be skeptical of government officials. It’s mind-boggling that he isn’t laughed right the fuck out of the room. The people who are credulously swallowing more lies should find another line of work.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t know how he is employable now? Russian asset, rapist (by his own description), ignorant yet smug SOB shit stirer (By my lights).
Immanentize
@germy: Condy also stood up for Biden — bigly.
germy
@Immanentize:
That must have pissed off the Fox hosts and mgmt.
But she’s an expert on war crimes, so I’m not surprised they called her.
Karen S.
@Betty Cracker: I know I was wondering where Frank Luntz was in all this. Focus groups? What a clown.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I think journalists like Haberman rely on a kind of “hearsay exception” rule. She would say she’s not offering Barr’s assertions for the truth of the matter asserted but instead as something else – the “news” that he said it.
But that’s not how her 1.7 million Twitter followers will see it. They’ll just see quotes pulled from Barr’s book laundering his reputation, presented as fact. Which is why he wrote the book.
But the election fraud stuff? He went on a lying tour immediately prior to the election. We all saw and heard it. How do you omit that context?
Peale
@germy: One of the things I’d like to examine now that we might have some interest in looking into Russian Oligarch investments around the world, is how many of these Security Consulting firms are in fact financed and kept afloat by Russia.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: Who knew Snowden was a BDSM bottom. People really should suggest more horrible situations for Snowden since he’s into that.
Ken
Just noticed the tweet in the main post:
There’s an alternate universe where exactly the same people are complaining that the US is getting ahead of the EU. They may even be complaining that the US shouldn’t be involved because it’s a European matter.
cmorenc
@danielx: astounding that there actually is a much more punchable face than sean “Palooka” hannity – Tucker Carlson.
Spanky
@Kay: You first have to be a thinker before you can be bad at it.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
My honest opinion on why they’ve all become such overt GOP ass kissers in the past 6 months? Because polling for Democrats is really bad. They’re all assuming the GOP will be in power after November and they want access. Although why they worry about that with Republicans at this point is beyond me- Republicans run to them with everything. That’s why we see it regurgitated immediately, verbatim.
Soprano2
@George: It’s how people cope mentally with the horror. Ask anyone who’s been in combat, they’ll tell you about humor as a coping mechanism.
zhena gogolia
@George: I think the humor is an attempt to deal with the horror. I cut people some slack.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Saw that the other day. Luntz needs to be sent several swift kicks to the dick.
JPL
@germy: They won’t call her again.
Jinchi
Trying is the key word there. Trump and Giuliani were trying to run a protection racket with Zelenskyy as an easy mark, desperate for help against a hostile neighbor.
It’s pretty clear they were hoping to make him complicit in their own corruption, cost him allies and humiliate him publicly, while never quite getting around to sending him the security aid they promised. Once they’d stripped him of his diginity and anything of value, they would have either forced him to sign a capitulation pact with Putin, looked on as he fell victim to polonium poisoning, or watched from the sidelines as Russian tanks rolled on his cities.
Zelenskyy was smart enough not to fall for it, although in comparison with Putin, TFG probably looked childishly transparent.
Kay
@Spanky:
I understand the belief on the far Right and far Left that Ukraine “isn’t a country”. They’ve explained that theory so although I think it’s amazingly arrogant and patronizing and rests on a belief that people in Ukraine are idiots who don’t know anything about their own country, my question is do they extend that to all the other countries who are opposing Putin’s invasion? So they’re all US “client states”? Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Finland- they’re all under the voodoo mind control of Joe Biden and George Soros? They all imagined this threat? I mean, Jesus Christ. Does the arrogance know no bounds? They speak for all these people? The far Right and the far Left in the US will be telling them what they need to do to defend their own countries?
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
I have no questions. I mean, ummmmm……
Betty Cracker
Here’s Taibbi’s half-assed mea culpa:
The “reverse chauvinism” part is interesting because that’s precisely the problem with guys like him. But the chances of that droplet of introspection changing the tenor of his future output is probably nil. He’s made a living on creating narratives to fit his preexisting biases, whether they fit or not. He’d have to learn to do his job all over again if he stopped now.
burnspbesq
@danielx:
Tucker Carlson? Donald Trump? Vladimir Putin? Marjorie Taylor Greene? Madison Cawthorn? Rafael Cruz? Greg Abbott? Ron DeSantis?
I could keep going if you’d like.
mrmoshpotato
@germy:
Is that an exact quote?
cmorenc
@Karen S.: Luntz puts his talents to despicably evil purposes, but he is extremely talented at his craft, which is probing via focus groups for how best to find and push people’s emotional hot-buttons and framing messaging to manipulate them to his client’s dark purposes. Luntz’s work is exactly why, for example, why the media and public discussion is about “climate change” rather than the more ominously apt “global warming”.
Butter Emails!
@Kay:
Only the US has agency for these morons.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: It reminds me very much of the insistence that the Palestinians are not really a people.
Spanky
The stock markets open in a minute. It’ll be interesting to see how much of sanctions were already baked into last week’s price expectations.
The Thin Black Duke
@Gin & Tonic: I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t think anyone here is trivializing what this war is costing the Ukrainians.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I really think the world stopped for them when they were young men and they never learned anything after that. It’s all like this plaintitive cry to me “I’M the radical! No one out radicals ME!”
I think the same of the anti-cancel culture people. “WE’RE the tolerant liberals, not these BLM interlopers! We set the rules for liberalism!”
They’re taking middle age hard. “It’s exactly like Iraq which also just happened to be the formative personal experience I based my world view and career on!”
Kay
@Butter Emails!:
The huge protests and shows of public support in these countries! All just sheeple, working for the war machine. Joe Biden directed them out there. None of them have a history of their own, or a different context.
debit
@George: People deal as best they can and react in the moment. Wagging your finger and telling people that their reactions are inappropriate is not going to change anything except their perception of you.
If these kinds of comments are truly distressing to you, it’s on you to decide if you want to come to threads where they will probably be posted.
trnc
New book proposal: “Maggie Shrugged”
sdhays
@burnspbesq: How has no one brought up the face that has been literally punched – Senator Rand Paul???
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Never thought of it quite that way, but your theory sounds about right. Some guys buy a sports car. Others jam every historical event into a concrete framework they built in their 20s. :)
sdhays
@cmorenc: I thought we use “climate change” now because it’s a better descriptor of the problem that people will actually care about and doesn’t run into the “hur hur, winter is still cold, hur hur” talking point, which was pretty effective, in my opinion, at confusing people early on.
Kay
@trnc:
“Juicy political gossip!” It’s not even that. Bill Barr wrote a book to tell us Donald Trump is an erratic nut job with no respect for laws. More than half of us knew that in 2016.
That’s not why he wrote the book. There’s no public value to this book. It’s an ancient, rich wingnut lawyer covering his giant ass and laundering his reputation- as if he had one.
Baud
@Kay:
I am more cynical. I think the “apologies” are because they are hoping to retain some credibility to go after the real enemies: Democrats. Their eyes are set on the prize of the mid-term elections.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I’m so, so sick of the lazy, cheap “this is just like THIS” formulation they use for every question. Do they not know how to analyze anything any other way? Fuck off with your dumb, shoehorned “comparisons”- do some real thinking.
debbie
Kay
@Baud:
The NYTimes should check Haberman. The fact is she’s busy polishing up DeSantis as the heir apparent tp Trump. It’s gross. If she wants to do that fine, but stop presenting this as a “news”. She’d do fine as an independent Right wing news person. God knows there seems to be unlimited money available.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
I’m sorry for what you and your dear wife (and everyone else, of course) are going through, and if I’ve contributed to the circus atmosphere, I’m doubly sorry. I wish I knew people as brave as Ukrainians.
hueyplong
@sdhays: I kind of envy that Rand Paul neighbor. He actually got to punch Rand Paul. Imagine the level of satisfaction.
MisterDancer
@Gin & Tonic: I trust no one thinks I’m disrespecting the dying, when I speak. Esp. since I strive to do so out of admiration for how they have, and are, living.
I’m a dancer; when I see video of someone currently being brave defending their land who’s also a dancer, yes, that too builds empathy and respect.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
Perhaps a little less now with Russian assets frozen.
zhena gogolia
@debbie: It seems to me that the circus atmosphere is on Twitter and TikTok, and around here it’s been mostly pretty sober, although people report tweets and videos occasionally, but that’s not the prevailing tone.
germy
@hueyplong:
But then again he lives next to Rand Paul.
The thing that set off the fight was Rand throwing leaves and other yard waste into his neighbor’s yard.
burnspbesq
The ruble has bounced back somewhat from the earlier lows, but it’s still off dramatically, at around 98 to the dollar.
hueyplong
@germy: And, presumably, it means living in Kentucky.
Thanks for keeping me grounded on this.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Kay: I was kind of hoping for a John Mitchell thing, where we’d see Barr actually prosecuted for obstruction of justice.
I guess I’m still way too naive to function in today’s world.
O. Felix Culpa
On a lighthearted note in the midst of crisis, here’s a tumbling panda. Bears just wanna have fun.
Expletive Deleted
While I am also leery of the memefication of a war, I think it’s imposible to overestimate the value that humour, even dark humour has as a propaganda tool. It’s humanizing and it creates a personal connection with individuals rather than concepts. The links, clips, and admiring jokes have built an image of Ukrainians and their perceived culture in American/British eyes at least, almost overnight.
zhena gogolia
@Expletive Deleted: Excellent point.
Kent
Russian central bank is implementing desperate measures to prop it up. Interest rates on Ruble bonds are up to about 20%. Which is well into junk bond status.
JMG
So this morning in Politico (yeah, I know) there was an article that actually praised Biden for his diplomatic skills. It then went on to say that the usual unnamed advisors know that the one thing Biden cannot ask Americans for is sacrifice of any kind for Ukraine, and inevitable rises in the prices of gas and bread due to the war will hurt him politically. If that’s even close to right, we stand revealed as a fraudulent people whose own selfishness will be our doom. I know this is unlikely, but I’d hope in the State of the Union Biden went “suck it up buttercup” on the topic of how it’s easy to sit on your asses on the old Barcaloungers and yell “freedom” but freedom actually requires an assumption of responsibility.
Kent
Here is the proper exact quote:
“War is essentially an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world. To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”
–International Tribunal at Nuremburg
japa21
@JMG: He’s pretty much already done that, and will do so again, I am sure. He has clearly stated there will be economic repercussions for us, but he will work to minimize them as much as he can. And the message was, quite clearly, as Americans, that is what we do. We help others even if we have to pay a price.
ETA: DOW is down 485 as of right now. That actually is less than I expected.
Kay
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I agree. I just watched a public corruption prosecution in Toledo- city council members- and I don’t know how the justice system survives two sets of standards for “low standards for REALLY powerful pols and high standards for local pols”
You can’t hammer one set of pols and let the other off. It will equalize somehow and they way it will equalize is “no more public corruption prosecutions”.
It discredits the whole thing. Inevitably.
The Moar You Know
@germy: Huh. That’s a new number in her repertoire.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Expletive Deleted: It’s also hard not laugh at the Russian bumbling because it’s so absurd next to the deadly seriousness of war.
Expletive Deleted
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: True, and ridicule serves its own purpose too, as Mel Brooks has always insisted.
rikyrah
@Kay:
That sums it up, Kay.
O. Felix Culpa
Switzerland has announced it will freeze Russian assets. That’s a biggie.
ETA: Yesterday they said they might do this; today they’re doing it for real, per FTFNYT.
ETA2: I think these unprecedented actions against Putin are in part due to the “memefication” of Ukrainian resistance, which has inspired solidarity with a brave and suffering people.
lowtechcyclist
I’m in my late sixties, so I figure I personally am not. (Though it will probably be pretty damn clear where things are headed, before I leave this mortal coil.)
But my son is, and all of our children and grandchildren are.
And while I know the RWNJs are unreachable and believe climate change is a liberal hoax, I wonder about the people running the corporations that have fought any action on climate change, and funded astroturf groups that have been doing the same.
Don’t they have children and grandchildren that will be just as screwed as ours? Or do they figure their money will allow them to avoid the consequences of global warming?
These are the people I don’t understand.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@danielx: Ted Cruz, but Hawley is a close 2nd.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kent: War just isn’t evil in the sense it’s cruelty, it’s also an evil in the sense of natural disaster, it just breaks things and people.
I think people have watched to much bullshit like Star Wars and forgot war is just random violence were people just die. It’s like Putin managed to convince himself he is really Darth Vader and ignored there is no magical force.
germy
@The Moar You Know:
My mistake. Ms. Rice nodded along solemnly while her host said it.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Everyone who was backing Putin up to a few days ago has now flipped to explaining that they’re far superior to liberals at opposing Putin. On the right, the consistent through-line is the belief that tyranny and toxic masculinity are what make you a nation of super-fighters; on the left, it’s that liberals are hypocrites.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@lowtechcyclist:
Its a combination of two things. Yes, they think the money will help them avoid the worst. But also, executives are almost always ridiculously optimistic people. I suspect they believe it won’t be as bad as predicted or that a technological solution will magically appear at the last minute that fixes things.
LadySuzy
@George: While there’s absolutely no comparison here with what Ukrainians are going through, we are still dealing with a roller-coster of emotions. Humor is a way to cope, to reassure ourselves. And a way to take a break from the horror we see on our tv screens and on our computer and cell screens. Granted, some of this humor may cross the line.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I love the election interference too. Do these new rules apply to every election? So if I’m running for mayor can I call my friends on the city council and ask them to “find me” 11,000 votes?
The lawlessness exception applies ONLY to the most powerful elected officials!
Fucking ridiculous. This isn’t a legal standard. What is this? It’s a laughing stock.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@lowtechcyclist:
According to my wife (a number of her customers are in that class, or at least think they’re approaching it), they’re setting up mountain enclaves in convenient spots like Asheville.
Kay
@LadySuzy:
Honestly, too, not to be a cynic but the positive public reception of the Ukraine struggle is valuable to them. If they had to pick “massive public support due to social media dissemination of an inspiring story or…not” I think I’d pick the first. It helps. It pushes elected leaders in these countries. It already has.
Miss Bianca
@Wakeshift: What you said.
cmorenc
@sdhays:
Thus demonstrating the effectiveness of Luntz’s reframing of the issue during George W. Bush’s Administration. “Climate change” may indeed be a more technically descriptive term, but the reason the framing changed in early 2000s in media and public framing from “global warming” to “climate change” was NOT because of any deliberate campaign by the objective science community to frame the issue as “climate change” in the public mind rather than “global warming”. Luntz pushed the reframing because “climate change” superficially sounds like a natural cyclical change completely aside from anthropromorphic factors like fossil fuel carbon emissions.
Kathleen
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Dick Cheney and Steve Bannon have both explicitly cited Darth Vader as a model. But Darth Vader lost, repeatedly. The most effective thing he ever did was to turn face at the last minute. They’re not even extracting the message that was intended from the made-up fantasy.
Spaceballs isn’t a great movie on the whole, but Mel Brooks sticks it to fascists there like he always does. They’re really acting like Rick Moranis’s Darth Vader parody, Dark Helmet, explaining that evil will always defeat good because GOOD is DUMB. But Dark Helmet is an idiot.
Another Scott
(via Popehat)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
Like in John Barnes’ novel Mother of Storms, where the technological solution was to move a comet into Earth orbit. Or Larry Niven’s A World Out of Time, where the technological solution was to move Earth into orbit around Jupiter. Easy-peasy.
Miss Bianca
@germy: Is that for fucking real? *reads tweet* Apparently it is.
Is it bad that I find myself a little disappointed to hear that he’s NOT suspended above a vat of acid?
Kathleen
@germy: Snowald finally got something right. ETA Though he’s never had anything to contribute either.
Kay
I’m sad about this Ohio senate poll because it has Gibbons pulling ahead of Mandel but it’s also funny because it has JD Vance at 7. Seven.
Republicans hate him too.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca: No. :)
Another Scott
Condolences to her. Death of a spouse is very hard.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@germy:
Cool. If the price of getting Putin and his gang tried for war crimes is the same happening to Bush, Cheney, Wolfie, Feith, Condi, etc., I’d be good with that. I’d even be willing to toss in Henry Kissinger since he’s still alive.
Another Scott
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Add to that, executives (like most people) really really don’t like change. They understand the existing system and environment and know how to make money in it, so unknowns and change are scary and risky and hard.
Unfortunately for them, life is change. And the science tells us that change is happening rapidly so they need to address it whether they want to or not…
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
This will be a full week. Iran’s chief negotiator is expected to return to Geneva today and resume talks to revive the JCPOA intended to restrict Iran’s nuclear program.
This is thought to be a make-or-break week for these negotiations. From last Wednesday:
Many observers have predicted that an agreement will be reached, and Russia’s attack on Ukraine hasn’t changed that prognosis. This weekend Russia’s chief negotiator, Mikhail Ulyanof, posted a picture of himself meeting with his counterparts from the U.S., China, and Europe. A U.S. State Department spokesperson has emphasized that the U.S. will continue to work with Russia on important matters like the JCPOA.
From the Jerusalem Post Feb.27 2022
Gin & Tonic
I guess my earlier comment wasn’t clear. I’m not calling out anyone here – this community, as I’ve come to know over the years, is thoughtful and supportive of many worthy causes, and its support of Ukraine has been really moving. People who have no skin in the game searching out ways they can help is really something, and I appreciate it more than words can express.
What I was trying to point out, perhaps clumsily, is that while it’s great to have this degree of public support, from a half-million people marching in Berlin, to Twitter randos cheering on a dude clearing a mine with his bare hands, war is an awful business, and this is a long way from over. People are dying there today, will die there tomorrow, and will die there the day after. Ukrainians are resilient and united, and will resist the enemy forever, but I’m afraid it will come at great cost.
Soprano2
@Kent: I can’t believe someone who was so involved with the Iran War and Occupation could say that without immediately catching on fire.
Anyway
@Kay:
This is where the Dems “hack gap” kicks us in the ass. Pundits need the dots connected for them and they will not read Maggie’s tweets or Barr’s book and make the analysis Kay just did- that he was the bloody attorney general not a bystander when all this was going down.
People here hate “messaging” and the like but Dems expect institutions/media to do this — we need amplifiers to broadcast Rethug villainy.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: Kay, with your permission I’d like to steal that! That sums the grossness of it up so well.
Brachiator
@George:
It is not light-hearted, nor is it insensitivity.
I note that there are some people who insist that an optimistic tone should be adopted. Anything less is gloom-mongering. And so heroism and bravado is noted often and celebrated.
And I am sure that if they could, the Russians would prefer that all observation and social media be cut off while they attend to their grim business.
However, it is not often that there can be hour by hour, day by day observation and commentary on an invasion, especially by people who are far away from it.
There is no proper etiquette for this. Perhaps some people hope that mockery of the Russians and cheering the people of Ukraine might send positive thoughts that will help.
Otherwise, people bring a myriad of viewpoints to this. That is inevitable with social media.
ETA: in times past, people would come out and sit on hills observing a battlefield. Sometimes they would have lunch and watch and cheer. Newspapers would prematurely print stories about great victories for the side they favored.
Miss Bianca
@Gin & Tonic: I understand you have strong feelings about this, but forgive me if I say that I fail to understand how you could think for a second that we might be forgetting that Ukrainians are likely to die, and keep dying, as their country gets invaded.
That simple fact has been haunting me for days, to the point where I am well-nigh distracted, and I don’t even have the excuse of friends, relatives, or acquaintances on the ground over there for my preoccupation.
Russian soldiers – most of them, apparently, conscripted teenagers who had no idea what the hell they were being sent into – are also dying as well. I may not feel as sorry for them as I do for the people they’re trying to kill, but I try to keep it in the back of my mind as the “Russian losses” figures go up and up.
Even victory for Ukraine is going to result in a lot of death and suffering. I think I’m pretty clear on that fact, even as I cheer and pray for that victory to occur.
debbie
@The Moar You Know:
Yeah, but big picture: She’s acknowledging it. Say the same about those other assholes.
Geminid
@Geminid: Cheryl Rofer has been following the JCPOA talks throughout, and links and retweets other knowledgeable people. With Iran’s negotiator spending last week in Teheran, consulting with his superiors, the talks have been quiet, but they will make news this week.
Sasha
And now , thanks to Brexit, the UK has virtually no voice in the current crisis besides hemming and hawing about oligarch wealth in their country.
Mike in NC
USA Today is claiming that the ruble is currently about the value of a US penny.
RaflW
Bill Barr wants to be a delayed-action hero. It’s like a kids plastic action figure, but it does nothing but publish self-congratulatory rubbish far too late.
And @Kay’s searing critique is spot on. Layers of sycophantic corruption in the access journalism and publishing world.
Another Scott
@Mike in NC: Yup.
XE.com – 99.7 rubles per dollar.
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@JMG:
This is a possibility.
We may have crossed that Rubicon when the conventional wisdom among many conservatives insisted that it was acceptable to let Americans die from Covid-19 in order to keep the economy going.
The vile right wing want to insist that a God Emperor Trump would be so strong that Putin would never dare do anything that threatened world peace. Or, it’s not our business and we should let Russia have whatever it wants so that life for the rest of us can go on.
Or that Biden is weak or some other bullshit.
It is not that doom is inevitable, but that so many foolish people believe the Fox News bullshit and make it harder for sane people to get on with what needs to be done.
It’s like trying to put out a fire while your idiot cousin keeps playing with matches.
Steve in the ATL
@Geminid: I assume that whatever deal is reached will not obligate the Mossad to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists? Chief nuclear scientist in Iran has a mortality rate comparable to that of Spinal Tap drummer.
RaflW
@Brachiator: “Newspapers would prematurely print stories about great victories for the side they favored.”
A completely amazing thread here about RIA Novosti News Agency accidentally publishing a hagiography of the ‘two day’ battle resulting in the taking of Ukraine. So well worth checking out.
Uncle Cosmo
@Soprano2, @zhena gogolia: Laughter relieves/releases stress.
Some of the funniest things I ever heard were Romanian jokes mocking Ceaușescu, and they circulated through that nation while the “Conducatore” was still in power and every third person there was an informer for the Securitate secret police. (NB they were related to me by my late friend Mile Stoyadinovic**, who escaped Romania and came to the US in the mid-1980s.)
** NB this is the Serbian form of his name, which he infinitely preferred to the Romanian version he and other non-Romanian ethnics were compelled to adopt by the Ceaușescu regime. RIP, Mile.
RaflW
May already have been noted, but: “Zelensky has now signed an application for Ukraine‘s membership in the European Union.”
I know the war is far from over. But Putin’s miscalculation is beyond epic.
Another Scott
@RaflW: Thanks for the pointer.
It’s good that enough people (including the Kenyan UN ambassador) saw this as a battle to maintain the post-war order, and all that entails, and not just a minor dustup in a far-away place.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Part of my family came to this country fleeing the Mexican Revolution. I was shocked when I first read about this kind of sightseeing in connection with that war.
For my part, when I cheer on the Molotov-cocktail manufacturing parties, babushkas confronting soldiers, etc, I am not taking the war lightheartedly. What I’m mostly thinking of is the Resistance movements in Nazi-occupied countries. I feel like I’m seeing in real-time what the Resistance was like.
I know a lot of good Ukrainians are going to die and it isn’t fun and games. It’s deadly serious. I know that the poor Russian slobs they’re killing, for the most part, don’t want to be there. They’re caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. But I’m still going to cheer for the Ukrainians, military and civilian resistance. They’re doing what needs to be done.
(Are they still babushkas if they’re Ukrainian?)
taumaturgo
@OzarkHillbilly: “Don’t Look Up.”
trollhattan
@Another Scott: Blum was a very influential Californian for a long time and not just “Mr. Senator Feinstein.” Perhaps not well known outside the state, though.
My condolences as well. A cruel blow to Senator Feinstein.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
Has it rebounded? This morning (early) BBC Bidnez Report was pegging it at over 120/dollar. Volatility, it’s what’s for lunch.
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
Eh, yesterday another commenter-nobody-heard-from-before was testing out “How can you constantly wish for a comet and now be concerned about nuclear weapons?” which I found equal parts hilarious and unhinged.
lowtechcyclist
The fucker is trying to belatedly whitewash his reputation. Our lazy-ass Fourth Estate might fall for that, but I don’t think many others will be fooled.
sdhays
@lowtechcyclist: That’s the problem. Our “elite” failed to see how his actions as H. W. Bush’s Attorney General revealed a right-wing hack and how his audition letter begging to be appointed Dumpy’s AG further revealed that he was a right-wing fascist hack. He’s “part of the elite”, and fascist hacks don’t get dropped from “the elite” rolodex.
Geminid
@trollhattan: I thought it was a straw herring argument.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Shiny objects. I worry that for for the Snake Island soldiers, capture might be a fate worse than death. the humiliation of russia with “russian warship, go fuck yourself” cannot have endeared them to russia.
Three positive pieces of information at the page you linked:
Is it possible for NATO to wave some of the rules and expedite the application at crazy speed, or is that totally just wishful thinking?
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: No idea why your comment was in moderation. Was there a typo in your nym or email that you have already fixed?
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: I think Zelensky told Putin “go fuck your mother” by signing the application to join the EU today.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
EU, not NATO.
Mo MacArbie
@trollhattan: Hey, I post here. Not often, but I do. That was attempted snark on my part. We regret the confusion.
Ken
@WaterGirl: Does EU membership require that Finland have no border disputes? If so, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Putin suddenly finds one. Assuming one doesn’t already exist, of course — he said a couple weeks ago that Russia has over 100 border disputes.
In an oblique way that reminded me of the early USENET days, where you’d find a person claiming that their posts were being misread by everyone in the newsgroup (plus ça change…), which suggested that the source of the problem wasn’t with the readers. Likewise, if you have a border dispute with every one of your neighbors…
Calouste
@trollhattan: The rouble has rebounded because the Russian central bank raised the interest rate to 20% (from an already high 9.5%), and kept the stock market closed all day. They can’t keep doing that forever. What could happen (but I’m not an international finance expert) is that speculators think that Russia is going to prop up the rouble and they can basically drain it of its hard cash reserves. Kind of similar to what happened to the British pound in the 90’s (Black Wednesday), which cost the UK billions of pounds.
trollhattan
@Geminid:
Straw herring is best herring!
trollhattan
@Mo MacArbie: Okay, my bad. Too much drinking from the firehose I suspect, has broken most of my sensor array.
Cleaned out the plumbing, though!
RaflW
Googlepay and Applepay no longer work on the Moscow Metro.
“Due to unforeseen blowback from fellow Russians shooting cluster munitions at Ukrainian civilians, your cashapps no longer work. Please fumble in your purses and pockets for nearly worthless rubles. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
Ceci n est pas mon nym
But you could be. Someone yesterday (I think) posted excerpts from this 1922 Robert Benchley essay on international finance.
Ken
Huh. I guess sometimes the vampire squid of finance is a force for good.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Barr is certainly trying to make himself look good. But I think he also means to put a few more holes in the Trump hull, around the waterline.
My theory of Bill Barr is that he took the AG job in order to serve the interests of his true masters, who are the conservative fat cats behind the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. Barr delivered a lot for them, especially when it came to new judges.
Barr and his masters understood all along that Trump was trash. They got their use out of Trump, and now it’s time to help double bag him for disposal.
Mo MacArbie
@trollhattan: No worries. I’ve stocked up on refills for my slack dispenser. Besides, I used to live by East Portal Park, so I have a soft spot for my old townies.
Jimmm
Has everyone forgotten about Martin Shkreli so soon?!?
RaflW
Shell now joining BP in pulling out of Russian petro-state investments.
The one worry I have, though not to the level of wanting these divestments and sanctions to stop: The Russian people will be propagandized to blame the west. They’re already receiving state-TV lies that the sanctions are “on working Russians not the oligarchs”. Obvious bullshit, but propaganda doesn’t need to be credible, just soothe the butthurt.
Is there a 21st century digital equivalent to samizdat that those outside the RF can be supporting?
SamIAm
That’s not true, see Snopes article:
https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/03/12/no-evidence-global-warming-was-rebranded-as-climate-change/
NotMax
@Immanentize
And a hearty aloha right back at’cha!
Geminid
@Steve in the ATL: Israel is not a party to the JCPOA. They might not assassinate any more scientists, now that they’ve gotten the big one. They may keep trying to sneak bombs into centrifuge halls, like they did last year at the Natanz facility. Evidently, Iranian resistance have been helping in these projects.
So long as it is properly monitored, the JCPOA can effectively limit Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons. It’s reinstatement serves Israel’s critical interests, and I think this government’s leaders accept that. So I don’t think they will go out of their way to undermine it.
Citizen Alan
@germy: And now, I’m suddenly in the mood to write some fanfic.
Citizen Alan
@Kay:
Back before Cokie Roberts died, there was an Internet meme about the vacuous witch called “Cokie’s Law” which said that “It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not so long as it’s ‘out there.'” Nothing’s changed,
Chief Oshkosh
@RaflW: That is an amazing thread. I hope the MSM picks up on it.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Yeah, I caught that after I wrote it. I knew that but typed the wrong thing.
sab
@Another Scott: My extremely RWNJ brother worked for him quite a while and hated him passionately. I could never figure out if it was the politics or something else. Having seen said brother in action for the last 10 years I think it was the politics.
sab
@Kay: Gibbons scares me. I think he is just a bland generic business know’nothing, but Ohioans love that type. Hopefully he keeps on sucking up to Trump as Trump implodes so he won’t seem so blandly generic.