Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

T R E 4 5 O N

Tick tock motherfuckers!

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Not all heroes wear capes.

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

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

You are here: Home / 2024 Elections / 2024 Primaries / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Working for the Weekend

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Working for the Weekend

by | 185 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Or the next primary season. Reports by the paper of record in the company town where the monopoly industry is national politics:

PHILADELPHIA — At a messaging retreat this week, House Democratic members were coached on how to better connect with voters.

A sitcom showrunner and a best-selling fiction writer encouraged them to tell stories rather than give voters the usual laundry list of reasons Democrats should remain in the majority. Three marketing executives, including one from Pepsi, urged them to craft their messages like sharp advertisements. And leaders echoed a new slogan unveiled by the national party: They can deliver….

The “renewal of resolve” became the slogan that leaders incidentally decided would define the retreat. Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) noted Friday that Democrats’ resolve was strengthened after hearing Maloney detail their hefty fundraising war chest and project that redistricting won’t hurt the party’s chances in as many states as they had worried. But success in the midterms, many Democrats said, would require reflection on how best to talk with voters.

“We need to address the most urgent needs of the American people. They need to know we’re doing it, and we need to be fighting like hell every day for the things that matter in people’s lives. And we need to talk like real people,” he told reporters after noting that Democrats often sound more “preachy” than “empathetic.”

The caucus’s chairman, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), echoed that sentiment in his “elevator pitch” to voters on the difference between Democrats and Republicans: “We care about everyday Americans. They don’t. We make life better for everyday Americans. They don’t. We’re getting stuff done. They are not.”

Our failed Media Village Idiots:

Reader Interactions

185Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    Wiggle-match dating on first blush sounds tres kinky, doesn’t it?

    In 1626, a ship foundered in stormy seas and wrecked on Cape Cod, where the passengers were aided by the local Indigenous population and the Pilgrims in nearby Plymouth.

    Now the most in-depth scientific analysis of timbers found more than 150 years ago has provided the best evidence yet that they belonged to the ill-fated vessel known as the Sparrow-Hawk.
    [snip]
    They used wiggle-match dating, a form of radiocarbon analysis, and dendrochronology, the study of tree ring growth, to narrow down roughly when the Sparrow-Hawk was built. Source

  5. 5.

    debbie

    I tried listening to Glenn Beck yesterday because I was curious to know if he was a Putin fan boi. He led with Kamala Harris, but was so brutal in his assessment of her, I didn’t even last 30 seconds.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    Because it’s an easy and convenient way to make it seem like Biden isn’t doing enough.

    This is a long-standing well established propaganda tactic against Democrats.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    He led with Kamala Harris, but was so brutal in his assessment of her, I didn’t even last 30 seconds

     
    “She’s still black.”

  12. 12.

    different-church-lady

    When did being a powerful, competent woman stop being a reason to hate someone?

  13. 13.

    Shalimar

    Can we give around half the media exclusive coverage of a nuclear test in the Nevada desert and tell them they’re war correspondents covering WWIiI?

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The VP left with a handful of patches that the service members tore off their uniform and gave to her. pic.twitter.com/TDECHSyf3P

    “sniff sniff… They never ripped patches off for me… sniff sniff”

    -guess who

  18. 18.

    debbie

    Abbott’s order citing transgender-enabling parents as child abusers has been blocked. One small, good sign.

  21. 21.

    cmorenc

    In the alternative universe in which trump won the 2020 election, trump would have declared that the ukraine thing was a purely internal russian matter, and made glowing references to putin’s show of strength in restoring ukraine as a proper part of russia and ousting an illegitimate nazi regime.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    @raven

    In a much more serious vein, any comment?

    Republicans pushed a bill through the Georgia House on Friday that would abolish the requirement for a background check and license to carry a handgun in public — moving a step closer to the “constitutional carry” that Gov. Brian Kemp and other Republicans have promised to deliver in an election year. Source

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    @cmorenc: Yup.  And then floating the idea of invading Mexico most likely.

    So glad the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain was demoted to cult leader.

  27. 27.

    debbie

    @NotMax:

    Same thing happening in Ohio. It’s sitting on the governor’s desk now, and people are waiting to see whether he signs it or lets it sit long enough to be enacted without his signature.

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    Meanwhile, DeSantis appointed a Q-Anon kook to the state’s board of education. JFC, the shit-show never ends.

  32. 32.

    germy

    CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Growing suspicion about the security of voting systems has kindled a back-to-the future moment among conservatives in some parts of the U.S.

    Republican lawmakers in at least six states have introduced legislation that would require all election ballots to be counted by hand instead of electronic tabulators. Similar proposals have been floated within some local governments, including about a dozen New Hampshire towns and Washoe County in the presidential battleground state of Nevada.

    The push for hand-counting ballots comes amid mistrust of elections among many Republicans who believe the false narrative that widespread fraud cost former President Donald Trump reelection in the 2020 presidential contest. Despite no evidence of widespread fraud or major irregularities, conspiracy theories have proliferated among his allies that voting systems were somehow manipulated to favor Democrat Joe Biden. That has prompted calls to ban electronic tabulators used to scan ballots, record votes and compile race tallies.

  34. 34.

    MomSense

    For some reason when I click on a tweet in the posts, it opens a new window on my web browser and no longer takes me directly to Twitter.  Does anyone know why this changed?

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @germy:

    Dogs are short, Sumerian taverns were dark & crowded with men wearing tunics, and this is how they drank beer at the time. That’s a dick joke!

    So these are wiener dogs?

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: mistrust of elections among many Republicans who believe the false narrative that widespread fraud cost former President Donald Trump reelection in the 2020 presidential contest.

    Ummm yeah, spreading the lie by reporting that some elected Republicans actually believe it. None of the elected GOP believe it. They do mistrust elections tho. Sometimes they end with DEMs getting elected.

  39. 39.

    germy

    Whenever I see “Then And Now” photos from the U.S., the difference is always so stark. Beautiful old buildings in 1899, torn down in 1960, replaced with glass towers. The same street corner is often unrecognizable. But “Then And Now” photos in Europe make me appreciate how they preserve their history:

    Kraków, Poland (1939 and 2010s) pic.twitter.com/WGtNjSALQq

    — Old Photos In Real Life (@PastAndPresennt) February 16, 2022

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t know how Democrats in FL can watch the Florida news and still get out of bed in the morning.

    I felt the same way about Maine before they got their Democratic governor.

    It’s just so demoralizing, and they never fucking stop.

  44. 44.

    L85NJGT

    He finally got that engine replaced on the 757, so yes, he’s running. It promptly made an emergency landing on his first flight out of the hanger. He’s now blegging for new plane donations.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “sniff sniff… They never ripped patches off for me… sniff sniff”

    -guess who

    Nah. His style is more: “Those patches are Government Property! Those traitorous service members defiled their uniforms! In the good old days, when America was Great, they would be court-martialled and hung for treason!!”

    MAGA Rally Crowd: “Hang the troops! Hang the troops!”

  46. 46.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    Akrotiri is particularly haunting. We stayed on that side of the Caldera in 2019 in a beautiful property, and our visit to the site was really moving as you look upon the structures and alleyways. The eruption of Thira really gutted the Minoan trade alliance, and made the later conquest by both Mycenaeans and the Sea People inevitable.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Downstairs, H. E. Wolf pointed us to a good response.

    Basically, it’s the old “We must do something. This is something, therefore we must do it!” trap, but click the link for receipts.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  48. 48.

    MomSense

    @germy:

    It doesn’t matter where I click it takes me to Twitter.com and not to the app.  If I then hit open the app it takes me to the App Store.  When I open the app I’m not taken to the tweet I was trying to see.  It’s too many steps now.

  49. 49.

    Ken

    @Baud: If it’s any consolation, one of the oldest examples of alphabetic writing is a rock inscription where someone wrote “Hail Baalat” across a rock, and someone else came along later and wrote “F*ck Baalat” across the original.

  50. 50.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    Our wealthy always throw away buildings due to deferred maintenance.

    Cincinnati is a great example of this.

  52. 52.

    L85NJGT

    Edited for truthiness….

    He finally got that engine replaced on the 757, so yes, he’s running.

    He made an emergency landing in a borrowed plane, so he’s now blegging for new plane donations.

  53. 53.

    Ned F

    @WaterGirl: Meanwhile Dems have to attend conferences and workshops to learn how to reach “real people”. Faced with a similar electorate a few years back, the Repubs simply nixed anty work in that direction and doubled down on the crazy.  And now they’re favored to win? I give up.

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    @NotMax: Stacey Abrams called permitless concealed carry “criminal carry” in a recent interview, and she backed it up with facts.

    It’s a really good, wide ranging interview, in Atlanta.CapitalBnews.org, and it’s titled “Stacey Abrams and her vision for ‘One Georgia’.”

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Another Scott: I always like to say, “Don’t just do something, sit there!”

    Quite often if one leaves a problem be, it will solve itself. All too often, the first thing one does in a crisis situation, is the wrong thing. Much better to take the time to think it thru.

  59. 59.

    MagdaInBlack

    @MomSense: It has done that to me a few times lately. I reload the page and then I see the tweet. They’re trying to make me join and I’m not gonna.

  62. 62.

    germy

    @debbie:

    Their politicians have taken to dressing like Wimpy.*  Blue suit with red tie.  No derby hat, though.  Not yet.

     

    *J. Wellington Wimpy

  64. 64.

    Spanky

    @germy: It’s the wildly changing weather. We’ve just gone from rain through a brief bout of sleet, and now we’re into the snow phase. All in a howling wind.

    And we’re only on the southeastern edge!

  65. 65.

    Geminid

    @debbie: Last year, when Texas was considering it’s permitless concealed carry law, the Texas Tribune published a poll that found 58% of Texans opposed the idea. I don’t know how good an issue this will be for Democrats, but I think Beto O’Rourke is trying to make it one, and your Democratic candidate for Governor may also. A lot of people think these laws go too far, including many who support gun rights generally.

  66. 66.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Geminid:

    Isn’t “criminal carry” easy to demagogue?

    “The Demonrats are calling you criminals for wanting to exercise your God-given right to carry a gun to defend yourself!”

  68. 68.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Geminid:

    I don’t know how good an issue this will be for Democrats, but I think Beto O’Rourke is trying to make it one, and your Democratic candidate for Governor may also. A lot of people think these laws go too far, including many who support gun rights generally

    Personally, I don’t think it’s going to matter if inflation keeps getting worse. Rising energy costs are only going to contribute to increasing prices over the next several months. People are tolerating it now because of the Russia-Ukraine war, but 6 mos from now? I’m already seeing stories of people having trouble affording to fill up their cars or heat their homes

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: Mistrust of the 2020 election results may well have cost Republicans two Georgia Senate seats last January. When both elections went to a runoff,* it was thought that Loeffler and Perdue had the better chances since historically the Democratic vote dropped off more in runoffs. In the event, Democrat turnout dropped 100,000 votes from November, Republican turnout dropped 200,000, and Raphel Warnock are now Senators.

    *Perdue barely missed avoiding a runoff. A Libertarian candidate picked up enough votes to keep Perdue below 50% in the November election.

  73. 73.

    Amir Khalid

    @Geminid:

    I remember reading about the Constitutional-carry proposal. It sounded crazy — it still does — and I’m sure that sheriffs and chiefs of police all over the state were less than delighted with the idea. Did it actually become law?

  74. 74.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Geminid:

    There’s going to be a rash of “whocouldaknowed” episodes of low testosterone 50 and 60 somethings drawing on store clerks, baristas, waiters, bartenders and each other because of the arms race among low testosterone 50 and 60 somethings.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    Meet the Press
    @MeetThePress
    · 1h
    ICYMI: “Frustration” inside the Democratic Party as Biden faces increased pressure to send more equipment to Ukraine, but calls such actions “World War III.” #MTPDaily

    They’re so, so bad. “Equipment”. Just dishonest people. I don’t mind that Meet The Press is calling for a US war with Russia – they’re permitted to hold that view- but just say it!

  78. 78.

    prostratedragon

    @Amir Khalid:  Police organizations used to be vocal in opposition to laws like this,  but I haven’t heard much in several years.  Maybe I’ve just missed it.

  79. 79.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @raven:

    Yup. I resent these pieces of shit forcing their bullshit on me. We all have to pay the price of their lunacy. These people are actively making this country less and less secure and safe no matter what BS they spew about “law and order”

    @raven:

    No, but I’m sure it’s stupidly high due to low supply and high demand as well as the usual “A Democrat’s in office, let’s hoard moar gunz!”

  82. 82.

    danielx

    @sab:

    O yes – current sheriff of the county in which I reside testified that he was all in favor, right to self defense, can’t count on law enforcement to defend you, etc. The former sheriff, who is now superintendent of the state police, testified that the proposed law is an extremely bad idea for any of a number of reasons. Go figure.

  83. 83.

    Mike in NC

    We’re getting TV adds for a lowlife named Budd running for US Senate. 100% about how much he loves and has been endorsed by the Fat Orange Clown in Mar-a-Lago.

  85. 85.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @debbie:

    He’s a corrupt coward and it’s an election year so he’ll probably just not sign it and let it become law

  87. 87.

    Geminid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Don’t know. Abrams seemed to back up the claim in the interview. We’ll see if she uses it in this campaign and how it plays.

    One thing to keep in mind is that gun owners who carry concealed or want to are a smaller subset of all gun owners. And some of them don’t like the idea of permitless concealed carry without any requrements of application and instruction. So Abrams may not be directly antagonizing very many people.

    And most of these radical laws remove a previous requirement, emphasized in the classroom instruction, that someone carrying a concealed weapon must notify any law enforcement officer they come in contact with that they are carrying a concealed weapon. Cops especially hate this.

    I would recommend you read that Stacey Abrams interview. She is a shrewd, pragmatic politician with elite communication skills. Abrams discusses many of the topics that people have been talking about here. I won’t try to link it, but it’s easily found by looking up:    Atlanta.CapitalBnews.org. Stacey Abrams.

  88. 88.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @danielx:

    Somebody should ask them If we can’t depend on law enforcement to protect us then why are you being paid to be sheriff by the taxpayers?

  89. 89.

    Betty Cracker

    So my husband saw a monkey run through our yard by the river. A rhesus macaque, if he correctly ID’d it from the photo array. Might as well go back to bed. Nothing that exciting will happen again today.

  90. 90.

    Yarrow

    @MomSense:  Twitter seems to be making code changes, which is why Balloon Juice is so jumpy. Perhaps a code change affected what the click through does. Maybe delete cookies in your browser to see if it resets. Also check permissions on the app and directions on your browser as to what clicking links should do.

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: I specifically limited my comment to elected republicans. Their voters have shown repeatedly that they will believe damned near anything. For example, some of them actually believe trump is a Christian.

  95. 95.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: is it common to see rhesus macaques down there? If they aren’t, Fish and game might want to know about it. Maybe especially, if they are.

  96. 96.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    On the spread of Russian disinformation on Ukrainian “biolabs”, you have a number of vectors, but a number of the main vectors have one common factor:

    https://twitter.com/katestarbird/status/1502046015548903429?s=20&t=qS26h1UBjd96xW8c6YugLQ

    “Hello, Glenn Greenwald”.

    Hopefully, the next time he gets mugged when he steps outside his favela, he won’t survive the event. Hard to say how much death and destruction he’s personally responsible for, but it sure in shit isn’t zero.

  97. 97.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker: I’m partial to the Bruce Campbell approach, à la Army of Darkness: “All right, you primitive screwheads, LISTEN UP! *gestures with shotgun* “This…is my BOOM STICK!”

    Speaking as a rural Democrat, I think it could be a winning approach.

  98. 98.

    Mike in NC

    Waiting for Republicans to come out with a platform where every fetus is entitled to own a handgun.

  99. 99.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Betty Cracker: Monkeys are highly intelligent and agile. My brother was once attacked by a troupe of monkeys when he was little. We were visiting Matheran (a hill station near Mumbai) and home to many monkeys. He was swinging a stick, there was a large group of monkeys in the tree canopy. The head monkey took that as a threat and swung at him grabbing the stick. Several days later during the same trip one langur grabbed the snacks my brother was eating, plate and all. My brother who is now a tall and strapping guy is still deathly afraid of monkeys.

  100. 100.

    Geminid

    @prostratedragon: I saw that some Ohio law enforcement organizations testified in opposition at legislative hearings. I would not be surprised if that was the case in Texas.

    These permitless concealed carry laws, like other radical laws attacking women’s rights and public education, have been enabled by Republican gerrymandering. One sponsor of the Ohio carry law said as much when he introduced it last spring. This might be the last chance for such legislation, he said, before pending redistricting altered the balance of power in the Ohio legisature.

    Generally, gerrymandering has fueled a race-to-the-bottom among Republican politicians. There is sort of a rachet effect: they can move one way but they can’t move back.

  101. 101.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @schrodingers_cat:

    My wife grew up outside Clark AB in the Philippines, and detests monkeys whenever she sees them while traveling. I think they’re neat, she thinks I’m weird.

  104. 104.

    Kirk Spencer

    If it passes, I can hardly wait for the law suits against police for drawing on drivers because they’re armed. (sarcasm, and bit of sadness for the inevitable deaths.)

  106. 106.

    Miss Bianca

    @schrodingers_cat: He should be deathly afraid of monkeys. All of us should be. Twisted little fuckers.

    Except for pygmy marmosets. They’re so cute I can’t be afraid of them.

  109. 109.

    Starfish

    @MomSense: You are talking about the website on your phone? It started doing this to me a while back. I think I am seeing something that asks if I want to open it in the app instead, but I still have not fixed it.

    It is super annoying because family members send me Twitter links, and it opens the 700+ tabs in the browser instead of deep linking into the app.

  111. 111.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I watched a capuchin looking at a hot girl on a Costa Rican beach once (same as I was), then all of a sudden, he leaped down to her backpack, unzipped it and leaped back into a tree with her bag of chips. he then screamed at everyone to stay away from him and his chips.

  112. 112.

    Skepticat

    @WaterGirl: I felt the same way about Maine before they got their Democratic governor.

    What’s truly frightening is that LeRage was mostly nothing but sound and fury compared to the bizarre mental cases now loose in Floriduh and other states. Very apropos that he moved to Floriduh. I’m not happy it seems I’ll have another chance to vote against him, but I hope our ranked-choice voting will save us from him this time.

     

    @WaterGirl:

  113. 113.

    Brachiator

    Sigh…

    A sitcom showrunner and a best-selling fiction writer encouraged them to tell stories rather than give voters the usual laundry list of reasons Democrats should remain in the majority. Three marketing executives, including one from Pepsi, urged them to craft their messages like sharp advertisements. And leaders echoed a new slogan unveiled by the national party: They can deliver.

    Marketing is a tool of the Devil, and three marketing executives are like having the 3 Witches from Macbeth come talk to you.

    Stories. The narrative bullshit again.

    Yeah, the Democrats have some issues, but their main problem is still the Fox News propaganda machine and the weird but typical Beltway media bias.

    Democrats and populists from Teddy Roosevelt to FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, Bill Clinton, Obama and yeah, even Pappa Joe Biden, found ways to connect to the people.

    And even a crackpot like Ross Perot had a good way of talking to people plain and clearly explaining a problem and suggesting his solution.

    Also, too, Bernie Sanders, hate him or love him, knows how to connect to his base.

    Hell, I would have AOC talk to these clods about communication. And Secretary Mayor Pete.

  115. 115.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    Surprised we haven’t unearthed cuneiform dick pics yet.

    I guarantee you that we have.  Many.  I’m not going to look them up, but trust me, those first cultures were not shy.  The fragments we have suggest that Sumeria was pretty open to womens’ sexuality as well.  A temple prostitute finds Enkidu the wild man, goes, “Gods, he’s hot,” and literally tames him with sex.  Of course, when she brings him to town, Gilgamesh goes, “Gods, he’s hot,” and rushes out to befriend Enkidu.

  116. 116.

    Glidwrith

    @NotMax: Friend that retired out there tells me DeathSantis has a sign-up sheet for retirees of various professions. When he wants “professional” advice, they call up people on the list and bring them in to talk to him.

    She thought that was just great, but between out-of-date information and no vetting of the so-called professionals, no wonder it’s such a shit show of kooks.

  117. 117.

    Brachiator

    I don’t think folks, who hate her for no apparent reason, get that Kamala Harris is respected across the globe.

    People hate her because she is black and a woman, or because she is a black woman (yeah, same thing). I heard a British politician or toff throw in some hatred because she is an Asian woman.  British bigotry is deep and strange.

  119. 119.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: Caucus Chairman Jeffries is as good a communicator as Secretary Buttegieg, probably better all around.

    And for all her reputation, I don’t think Representative Ocasio-Cortez is in the same league as Jeffries or Buttegieg.

  121. 121.

    Kay

    @Skepticat:

    It’s good but Democrats have successfully done this on some issues- they changed the national view on health care where it went from one of scarcity and denying one group so others get it to broad acceptance of the idea that everyone should get it, that there’s enough to go around.

    They just perodically forget that they’re capable of this and retreat to a more technocratic list-making, always when they’re looking at a bad cycle.

    The one thing that I think doesn’t make any sense in their current approach is the constant repitition of “bipartisan” in front of everything. A non Party aligned person hearing that thinks “okay, good, I can vote for a Republican and still get what I want”.

  122. 122.

    Brachiator

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    RE: Surprised we haven’t unearthed cuneiform dick pics yet.

    I guarantee you that we have.  Many.  I’m not going to look them up, but trust me, those first cultures were not shy.

    Some historians and archaeologists have been and are strangely prudish. My own guess (somewhat backed up by recent approaches) is that they tend to interpret a lot of stuff that has erotic value as belonging to religious cults or innocent objects belonging to elite rulers.  Over focus on Priests and Kings.

    I recall years ago reading about a find that looked pretty much like a dildo being “interpreted” in all kinds of dumb ass ways.

    The fragments we have suggest that Sumeria was pretty open to womens’ sexuality as well.  A temple prostitute finds Enkidu the wild man, goes, “Gods, he’s hot,” and literally tames him with sex.  Of course, when she brings him to town, Gilgamesh goes, “Gods, he’s hot,” and rushes out to befriend Enkidu.

    Good call on referencing the Gilgamesh legend.

    This myth also suggests that the first cities also had bars and taverns with bar maids. In some hunter gatherer societies, women are responsible for making and dispensing beer (and its equivalents) and use it to keep men in the tribe from becoming too destructive.

    ETA: Shout out to the Star Trek episode “Darmok,” which mentions the Epic of Gilgamesh.

  124. 124.

    Kay

    @Skepticat:

    Republicans don’t even argue that a group shouldn’t get health care and they used to. In 2004 George W Bush was arguing that people could always go to the emergency room. Republicans didn’t even attempt to pretend that they supported universal access. Now they do. They have to. The standard was raised.

    Raise the standard. Make the benchmark higher. Get Americans to start asking “why DON’T we have parental leave? Why are we so fucking backward on this?” That’s what they did with healthcare and if they did it there they can do it everywhere else.

  125. 125.

    Hoppie

    @germy: This is really not a bad idea.  Do it the British and Canadian way.  Should be a constitutional amendment.   Be great to get the RWNJs on board; it might actually be passable.

    Also, money is not speech.  Put it in the constitution!

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Skepticat:

    Republicans anticipated Democrats making parental leave a must-have. They saw it coming. That’s why Ivanka and her advisor from Goldman came out with their ridiculous plan to have people borrow it from their Social Security benefits. They weren’t going to be outflanked on that like they were on health care.

    So just keep saying it. Raise the bar. Don’t retreat.

  128. 128.

    Cameron

    @Glidwrith: I guess he really is a believer in that “doing your own research” thing.  Why hire an educated professional when you can get an opinionated ignoramus for free?

  130. 130.

    germy

    @WaterGirl:

    The site itself.

    It’s not a big problem.  Just happens when I’m scrolling up from the last comment on the bottom

    I shouldn’t have even mentioned it.  This site is more user friendly than 90% of what I see on the web.  You’ve all done an excellent job.

  131. 131.

    sdhays

    @Hoppie: It’s what we should have done after 2000, but there was too much money to be lit on fire spent on poorly designed computer systems that weren’t easier to use.

    At this point, though, I think the processes we mostly have now are solid since they have a paper trail. At least the way we do it in my location – marking a paper ballot and feeding it into a scanning machine – works fine. Just get rid of the systems that are glorified computer terminals.

  132. 132.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Kay:

    Rude Pundit agrees with you on subject of abortion.

    From the post:

    This is a visceral way to demonstrate just how fucking insane the GOP has gone. You’re not gonna do that by talking about Trump or January 6 or Russia. For decades, Republicans have made it visceral, with pictures of literal viscera and endless talk about the death of a fetus. It’s always been implicit, but now the anti-choice right is making it explicit: they don’t fucking care about the women. They don’t. They don’t care if women are raped. They don’t care if a doctor says an abortion is necessary for a woman’s mental health. They don’t care about hurting anyone close to the woman.  And they sure don’t fucking care if women die in the process. That’s just an object lesson for other women not to try.

    So get on the fucking field on this, Democrats. Center campaigns around women having freedom. We’ve ceded this rhetorical battle on this issue for far, far too long, relying on Roe to keep some measure of sanity. By the end of June, the guardrails are coming off and we better be in the fight already because Republicans will be.

  134. 134.

    James E Powell

    @sab:

    Ohio police chiefs are outspoken against it. Sheriffs are another matter. The usual urban/rural divide.

    I think it’s more the appointed/elected divide.

  135. 135.

    Soprano2

    I think the people who are pushing for a Ukrainian no-fly zone remember the one we established over northern Iraq in the 1990’s, and think it would be like that. Never mind that it’s a completely different situation when you’re defending against Russia. “It worked for the Kurds, why won’t it work now?” ???

  136. 136.

    Brachiator

    @Geminid:

    Caucus Chairman Jeffries is as good a communicator as Secretary Buttegieg, probably better all around.

    Good call on Jeffries.

    And for all her reputation, I don’t think Representative Ocasio-Cortez is in the same league as Jeffries or Buttegieg.

    AOC has been fast and tremendously effective in slapping down attacks on her and on progressive policies, and knows how to use social media.  Knows it better than a lot of other Democrats.

    Someone like Pelosi, on the other hand, knows how to get her message across to traditional mainstream Beltway sources.

    I am not interested in ranking or dismissing anyone who knows how to get the message out. I want to use all the best resources.

  137. 137.

    dww44

    @raven: have a gun nut friend, who is otherwise sane and reasonable, who’s just posted this news on his FB page.  We have a  very high murder rate here in this minority majority small city, almost wholly among young Black males.  I just can’t comprehend how anyone would support this, but they do.   It’s their “god given right that they shouldn’t have to pay a fee to exercise,” according to the GOP legislator who sponsored the bill.

    The right wing has lost its sense, its sanity and any ability to moderate its views.  Of course, Kemp will sign.  He wants to beat David Perdue in the primary.

  138. 138.

    Kay

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    I would like them to try an experiment. Faced with a bad cycle, don’t retreat to list making. Instead stick with what works in a good cycle, which is “Democrats believe X and they will try to advance that”. Just try it. Resist the impulse to operate from fear. They think it’s a bad cycle anyway- 31 of them don’t retire if they think it’s going to be super- so it’s a good time to try it.

    Democrats believe in reasonable gun regulation. That’s a constant. It doesn’t just exist in Presidential years. Be consistent, cycle over cycle. That’s how you build a brand. 

  142. 142.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: You’d think the experience of the past two years could be used to sell some of these ideas.  “Why is it so hard to find good childcare? Maybe the free market alone can’t fix that.”, for example.

  143. 143.

    debbie

    @germy:

    It’s been suggested it’s something with Twitter. I deleted their cookies and permissions, but not much of a change. I just hold off until the page is done twitching.

  144. 144.

    Kay

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Democrats believe women should make their own decisions on pregnancy. That’s the standard. Defend it. Democrats are more trusted on health care because everyone knows where they stand and most people agree with them. Trust people back and extend the trust and brand they’ve built on health care to the rest of their core agenda cycle after cycle. Ideally we shoudn’t be able to tell the difference between a Democrats campaign in a good cycle and a bad cycle. It should be basically the same.

  147. 147.

    Ksmiami

    @Kay: Democrats believe in freedom- freedom from fear of losing healthcare , freedom to vote, freedom from persecution for your sexuality or beliefs. Freedom from the religious right imposing their beliefs on the rest of us.

  149. 149.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    Republicans didn’t even attempt to pretend that they supported universal access. Now they do. They have to. The standard was raised.

    I am not sure that this is what happened. Trump and the Republicans talked about “repeal and replace” with respect to Obamacare. But they never, never, ever offered an alternative.

    They have outright lied about pre-existing conditions.

    The standard Republican position is that only people who work deserve health insurance, or any kind of health care. At best, the GOP would throw a voucher at people, to be used to get cut rate health insurance, or none at all. And Republicans would praise this as a tax cut.

    The Republicans have absolutely no problem in promising health care reform of some kind and then snatching it all away as soon as they are elected. And this includes Medicare and Medicaid. They will simply cite these programs as being too costly to maintain.

  151. 151.

    sab

    @Sure Lurkalot: My nieces are all good Catholic girls educated in parochial schools and go to mass every Sunday. Several of them went to women’s rights marches after Texas passed their vile law. One of them had an ectopic pregnancy a few years back.

    The new Missouri bill banning ectopic pregancy abortions will enrage all of them. Ohio legislature has already given a similar bill some thought. Nieces are all pretty much on my side of the issue now. Leave the damn men out of the decision making process on this.

  152. 152.

    Yarrow

    @WaterGirl:  Thad has always been the case but it has got a lot worse in the last week or so. It jumps really quickly back and forth, back and forth. You just have to wait for it to settle and then figure out where you left off with the comments.

  153. 153.

    Brachiator

    @Ksmiami:

    No – marketing execs are much better than the political consultants that have led the poor party messaging thus far.

    Fuck marketing executives, political consultants and political strategists, in whatever fucking order you might like.

    And yes, I acknowledge that some are better than others.

    But I see them insist that their shit works, and when it fails, they just claim that the candidate did not do it hard enough.

    These people may have their uses, but not in a serious leadership role with respect to a political campaign.

  154. 154.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    Agree about the brand building. But I also think Democratic campaigns need to attack Republicans. “Democrats tried to X, but Republicans were against it.”

    And especially this cycle. We need a series of ads on all media with “Joe Biden & the Democrats worked hard to end the pandemic; Republicans worked hard to make it worse.”

    It is insane that “voters frustrations with COVID” are not a negative for Republicans.

  155. 155.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Up until the middle of the last decade, Democrats in Virginia were afraid to run on gun safety measures. Then they made gun safety a key part of their platform in the 2017 and 2019 state races. It was a winning issue, especially in contested suburban districts, and in 2020 Democrats were able to enact six good gun safety laws. Polling showed 70+% support for these measures among the public. I’ve seen no indications since then that public opinion has shifted backwards on gun safety. I think it is still a winning issue in purple states and districts.

  156. 156.

    James E Powell

    @Brachiator:

    Trump and the Republicans talked about “repeal and replace” with respect to Obamacare. But they never, never, ever offered an alternative.

    During the Obama administration, Repeal Obamacare thing was code for “We hate the black president!” and nothing more. People in diners actually supported the provisions of the ACA. Recall that people in Kentucky preferred their state’s plans to Obamacare solely because they did not know that their state’s plans were in fact Obamacare.

    This morphed a bit and continued through the first half of the Trump years and became the “Eradicate Obama” movement. It had the appearance of owning the libs, so it had broad support among Republicans.

    When it came down to actually doing it, John McCain saved their asses. Then the whole matter was dropped.

  157. 157.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: When it comes to messaging, think Congressional Democrats could learn something Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. He won his 2018 reelection by over 250,000 votes, in a state where Republicans have dominated recently. Of course, Brown is a singular person. But still I think Democratic politicians, especially those in purple states and districts would do well to study what Brown says to voters and how he says it.

  158. 158.

    WaterGirl

    @Yarrow: Maybe you or someone else could capture that on video with your phone, because I don’t really know what is being described.

    A picture is worth a thousand words.

    I know it happens on the covid threads and ukraine threads for sure. If it happens elsewhere, then a video would be really helpful.

    Because maybe we are talking about different things.

  159. 159.

    Repatriated

    @sdhays:

    At this point, though, I think the processes we mostly have now are solid since they have a paper trail. At least the way we do it in my location – marking a paper ballot and feeding it into a scanning machine – works fine. Just get rid of the systems that are glorified computer terminals. 

    This. The older (Inkavote?) system with booklets in a frame, and holes to mark through for candidates, onto a Scantron-like card, were close to ideal. The voter can cross-reference the bubble numbers against the numbers on the ballot itself to verify that their ballot accurately reflects their selections.

    The issue I have with the newer system (Los Angeles County at least and possibly statewide) is that while the machine prints the chosen candidates on the ballot, it also prints a 2D barcode — and the barcode is what’s scanned for tabulation. The barcode is not human-readable, so there is no way for a voter to be certain that it matches their list of candidate names.

    I think that one could do a real-time audit though, by checking the barcode with a generic off-the-shelf reader and a chart showing which numbers went with each candidate. Roll dice to pick which ones to check…

  160. 160.

    Brachiator

    @Soprano2:

    You’d think the experience of the past two years could be used to sell some of these ideas. “Why is it so hard to find good childcare? Maybe the free market alone can’t fix that.”, for example.

    I understand the conservative position, even though I don’t agree with it.

    It is a fundamental difference of ideology. A conservative might say that the government is not responsible for fixing all failures of the market. If you cannot afford child care, don’t have children, or marry someone with enough bucks to let you afford child care. Or work part time or make whatever arrangements you can.

    A liberal would say that it benefits society and the economy to provide good childcare for working parents.

    Just fundamentally different ways of looking at society.

  161. 161.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    Sherrod Brown is consistent. Cycle after cycle, year after year, he espouses the same basic platform. Not once have I seen him dump a stand because it’s tricky in Ohio, on the advice of consultants or anyone else.

    Brown is a strong environmentalist. That’s supposed to kill him in Ohio. It doesn’t.

  162. 162.

    Brachiator

    @Geminid:

    But still I think Democratic politicians, especially those in purple states and districts would do well to study what Brown says to voters and how he says it.

    Makes sense to me. And obviously, this is not saying that other candidates just have to mimic what Brown did.

  163. 163.

    Hoppie

    @sdhays: We shouldn’t focus on making elections secure; they overwhelmingly are.  We should focus on removing the lie machine’s ability to claim fraud.

    What’s going to happen if their leaders backpedal:  Oops, we didn’t really mean paper ballots counted in public.    Or, we take away the election fraud issue and force them to say what they mean, that certain people should not be allowed to vote.

    They will always claim fraud if a machine has anything to do with it.

  164. 164.

    Steeplejack

    Re Frank Chowmorbidity’s Twitter trolls (re Kamala Harris):

    Nascaron1 gets a 74% rating (“disruptive”) on BotSentinel. “Problematic,” the worst category, starts at 75%.

    Oh, look, PanicBama is at 78%.

  166. 166.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    “She’s still black.”

    For conservatives (who are trying, with great ease) to keep their hate going, this is nothing new. They have no policies other than “The world was good before we formed this country and are not supposed to hate people for no bullshit reasons any longer. And what do you mean we can’t steal from everyone else?”

  167. 167.

    Brachiator

    @James E Powell:

    RE:  Trump and the Republicans talked about “repeal and replace” with respect to Obamacare. But they never, never, ever offered an alternative.

    During the Obama administration, Repeal Obamacare thing was code for “We hate the black president!” and nothing more. People in diners actually supported the provisions of the ACA. Recall that people in Kentucky preferred their state’s plans to Obamacare solely because they did not know that their state’s plans were in fact Obamacare.

    Totally agree with you.

    My point, though, is that the Republicans don’t care what people want. Their plutocrat bosses don’t believe in universal health care.

    The Republicans and Trump promised all kinds of stuff. Their actions have been consistently to try to kill Obamacare and to block universal health care.

    I recall when Republicans would run away from town hall meetings to avoid talking about health insurance.

    There is a reason that the Republicans have never submitted any legislation regarding health insurance despite all their promises.

  169. 169.

    Ruckus

    @germy:

    I have this problem on a Mac with the latest version of Safari. It sucks. I tried on the Brave browser and all is well. I think it’s twitter, possibly the way it reacts to having a tweet copied someplace else makes Safari have to take extra steps. If so, is it twitter or Safari that is the problem? Or both?

  170. 170.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @NotMax:

    Republicans pushed a bill through the Georgia House on Friday that would abolish the requirement for a background check and license to carry a handgun in public — moving a step closer to the “constitutional carry” that Gov. Brian Kemp and other Republicans have promised to deliver in an election year

    Drug dealers and human traffickers are gonna LURVE LURVE LURVE Georgia now

  171. 171.

    smith

    Back on the subject of monkeys: Macaques are actually extremely dangerous to humans. The majority of adult monkeys carry a virus that is harmless to them, but deadly to humans. Human infections are rare (mostly because we don’t interact closely with them much), but the fatality rate for humans when infected is 79%. If you see one of these guys running around, you really should call animal control.

  172. 172.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: Senators Tammy Baldwin and Bob Casey Jr. are two other purple state politicians worth looking at. Like Brown, they both won reelection in 2018 by comfortable margins, Baldwin by almost 300,000 votes in Wisconsin, and Casey by over 600,000 in Pennsylvania.

    Again, I’d look at what they said about the issues they thought would have traction, and how they said it. Connecting with voters is a real craft, maybe an art.

  173. 173.

    Soprano2

    @Brachiator: Yes, so we use the experience of the last two years to sell the idea that our way would be better for families. It was a problem before Covid, but the pandemic made it more stark.

    Same way with regulations about what teachers can say in the classroom. “Do you want the state government to dictate to teachers what words they can say in the classroom? Do you want to ban hundreds of books from schools? That’s what my opponent supports.”

  174. 174.

    James E Powell

    @Brachiator:

    My point, though, is that the Republicans don’t care what people want. Their plutocrat bosses don’t believe in universal health care.

    Completely agree. The truth is that we could raise their taxes to fully fund things like universal health care, public universities, and child care, and they would still be the most powerful people in the world and still be rich beyond the wildest dreams of ordinary people. But they just hate the idea of it. Hard to figure what fucked up their brains or twisted their souls to get them to think like that.

    And couple that with the way nearly all of them call themselves Christian.

  175. 175.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @schrodingers_cat: When we visited a safari lodge in the Ruaha National Park in Tanzania, the manager there, an Italian woman, had to get a native male Tanzanian to drive the monkeys out of the open to the air dining room.  The monkeys, being very patriarchial, didn’t pay any attention to a woman saying “go away”

    ETA: can’t remember what kind of monkeys they were, but pretty small.  Definitely not baboons.

  176. 176.

    evodevo

    @Brachiator: ​
      yeah…when I was on a dig in Caesarea Maritima in 2000, one girl found what was obviously a ceramic penis…(I think I still have a pic of her waving it around) – the dig foreman tried to say it was an amphora “toe”, but WE knew better lol

  177. 177.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Splitting Image:  I find it fascinating that most of the women are drinking beer while having sex.  Also, doggy style seems to have been very popular!

  180. 180.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: Speaking of messaging, from Hakeem Jeffries today:

       President Biden cut the deficit by $350 billion his first year.

    The other guy exploded the deficit.

    @RepJeffries

  181. 181.

    Soprano2

    @James E Powell: This is not a mystery. They think if people can easily access healthcare without having a job, then they’ll never work and everyone who does work will have to pay taxes to support them forever. To them no one would have a job if they didn’t have to – especially “those people”. *wink wink

  183. 183.

    Ogliberal

    I want to make a very general observation.  The Trumpers I know – he says A…it’s A.  He says A is now B.  It’s B.  Swap out “Trump” with “Epoch Times” – same thing.  But these same people will tell you they are the most free-thinking independent folks on the planet.

    Forget about respect…I just hate them.

  184. 184.

    sab

    Jolly moment with my pitmixbull. She was leaning into me (a pitbull thing.)

    She felt neglected. because i had been very  busy,

    I said no, I am busy. She said no I am lonely. I said no, I am busy.  She said grrr.

    She has big teeth and jaws, and she was right. I have been neglecting her.

    She wasn’t threatening, just expressive, and very determined.

    Best dog breed ever if you want a dog that lets you know what it ( she)  thinks about anything.

  185. 185.

    neldob

    I’m currently seething about an article in the nyt  “High Speed Rail at the crossroads”. “The train was always going to have to pass through the Central Valley. So while some local leaders have over the years vocally opposed the project, many believe the region should grab the opportunities the train could bring.”  The train was not always going to have to pass through the CV. Some Republicans in the Central Valley decided to “grab the opportunities” and somehow force the train through the central valley.I don’t know that anyone has followed the money, land owners there in the CV, Jerry Brown wanting a memorial. Who knows. Not the nyt. I suppose they wouldn’t want to blame the do nothing and do it wrong Republicans. I wrote a comment there, but they seem to have lost it.

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