Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

In after Baud. Damn.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Bark louder, little dog.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

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

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy Pi Day!

Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy Pi Day!

by | 220 Comments

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Get your math geek on, or just enjoy a little treat…


Phrasing, it’s everything:

======

Reader Interactions

220Comments

  5. 5.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I love how they all turned on a dime and moved in concert from “Russia objects to Ukraine joining NATO” to “Russia objects to WMD in Ukraine”
    If the “biolabs” were the reason for the invasion wouldn’t Russia have raised it when it they invaded?
    Nothing says “independent thinker” like creating an after the fact justification for war crimes, one that aligns completely with the invaders excuse. Clowns.

  7. 7.

    Mathguy

    Bought pies for the students for Pi Day. I learned that Costco has humungous apple pies (12″ diameter, 113 sq in of pie!) but nothing else. Was hoping for blueberry or some frozen stuff, but had to make another stop for more flavors. Got make the math department look good on our only holiday.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    @Kay:

    @Baud:

    I wonder if the Russians picked up a bad case of moving-the-goalposts from their GOP stooges, in kind of a reverse osmosis or something.  Because frankly, there’s no one better at it.

  9. 9.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I think they’re just happy to have an excuse to start supporting Russia and Putin again. Being on the right side of this was probably starting to make a lot of them uncomfortable.

  11. 11.

    Starfish

    That Don Winslow tweet is gross. What does this nonsense even me?

    Are Ukrainians even going to get to vote next time? What does their vote mean if their country can be invaded, and everyone sits on their hands?

    Propping up this country’s politics on the corpses of Ukrainians shows a great indifference to the plight of Ukrainians. I am sure that nonsense is SEO optimized for engagement, but it is terrible.

  12. 12.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    “Prominent Russian media figures calling for widespread public hangings in the Ukraine after  consolidation, which I do not support, are simply reacting in a justifiable way to Western neoliberal oppression”.

    – by Glenn Greenwald, probably

    By the way, somebody needs to put Snowjob’s face on a milk carton.

  14. 14.

    bjacques

    Many of those who demanded Biden lay sanctions on Russian oil and gas just wanted to call him weak for not doing it, and now they’re blaming him for the predictable rise in prices, which is why Biden saved them for last. So this is consistent, at least for Republicans.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    FYI. From last week, however it is not pressingly time sensitive.

    Linda Navarre moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, from Cleveland in 1978, when the town consisted of people in the timber industry and hippies “and they all got along.”

    Now she barely recognizes the small resort community near the Canadian border that is quickly growing as people disenchanted with big city life move there. Many are conservatives fed up with liberal politics in blue states.

    “The division gets wider and wider,” Navarre said, adding many of the new arrivals are changing the civility of the community. “My concern is there are so many people who are not nice.”
    [snip]
    To capitalize on that trend, a growing number of real estate companies are advertising themselves to people on the right, saying they can take them out of liberal bastions like Seattle and San Francisco and find them homes in places like rural Idaho.

    Sandpoint-based Flee The City is a consortium of four businesses which specialize in selling property to conservatives in northern Idaho and western Montana. The company calls itself “a real estate firm for the vigilant.”

    Flee the City has partnered with a company that provides “sustainable homes design with integrated ballistic and defensive capabilities.”
    [snip]
    Barbara Russell, who lives in nearby Bonners Ferry, Idaho, expressed similar concerns.

    Bonners Ferry feels like it’s been overrun with white nationalists, said Russell, who owns a dance studio in the town of 2,600 residents.

    “What they are doing is preparing for war,” Russell said of new arrivals, who often carry guns when in town.

    “New people are moving in and they go to City Council meetings and tell people who grew up here to go back to California,” Russell said. “They are selling fear is what they are doing.” Source

  22. 22.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    The Russian war crimes that they can no longer deny were making them…uncomfortable so they “found” WMD.

    Tucker will have Glenn up at a whiteboard drawing pictures of the “mobile labs” eventually.

  23. 23.

    Starfish

    @NotMax: That’s really horrible. I feel bad for the people who live there. The politics will get worse and dumber.

    Also, with the empty states, moving 100,000 of your friends there can change the politics of the state.

    There should be a liberal real estate agent selling some eco-village environmental real estate to offset weird right wing compounds.

  24. 24.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Gin & Tonic:

    My shower thought of the morning was “if I ever have the occasion to bump into Carlson in public, will I be able to resist the overwhelming urge to pummel him into a bloody pulp with my bare hands, and what penalties would I realistically face, and would they be worth it?”

    I concluded with “I hope I don’t run into him in public.”

    ETA – I’ve had the same internal dialogue about Greenwald in the past.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    @Starfish: There’s a whole category of blue check Twitter accounts I call “justice grifters” for lack of a better description. They arose during the Trump Error, and I followed a bunch of them at first because they offered what I now recognize as ersatz encouragement in dark times, often by suggesting that a reckoning was at hand. One by one I’ve muted them because they seem more interested in pumping up “engagement” than doing anything constructive. Winslow is one of those accounts.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    What these nonsense answers to “issue polls” should show us is are issue polls are garbage.
    His approval ratings dive wasn’t because of inflation or gas prices – it would be nice if everyone were just completely rational and judging Biden on a set of prices, “I’m good with 4.70 for gas but if it goes to 4.74 I’m bailing!” – but they’re not.

  28. 28.

    Mousebumples

    I’ve got a t shirt with the 3.14 | PIe setup above. Also has the pi symbol and a ? below the respective numbers or words.

    I’d wear it today, but I’ve got a work presentation over video chat this afternoon, so a t-shirt isn’t really appropriate work wear. Though even that’s tentative, since I’m waiting for Mouse Junior to arrive, lol. Being induced on Saturday, if he doesn’t make his grand arrival before then.

    Happy pi(e) day! Mmmm, might need to see about making a chocolate pudding pie later…

  29. 29.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So I was also thinking of the quisling that stepped up in Melitipol, and wonder what her over/under is on the number of days she has left before someone pops her melon.

  30. 30.

    Steeplejack

    Pi Day! To celebrate, I’m meeting my brother for lunch at the Lost Dog Café in Westover, and I will be having a small personal ?—pepperoni, sausage and black olives. About 64 square inches.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    William Hurt is gone.

    From Body Heat:

    Ned: You can stand here with me if you want but you’ll have to agree not to talk about the heat.

    Matty: I’m a married woman.

    Ned: Meaning what?

    Matty: Meaning I’m not looking for company.

    Ned: Then you should have said I’m a happily married woman.

    Ned: Can I buy you a drink?

    Matty: I told you. I’ve got a husband.

    Ned: I’ll buy him one too.

    Matty: He’s out of town.

    Ned: My favorite kind. We’ll drink to him.

    Matty: Only comes up on weekends.

    Ned: I’m liking him better all the time.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    The Kyiv Independent
    @KyivIndependent
    · 7h
    Apartment block in Kyiv on fire after shelling.
    Firefighters are putting out fire in the 9-story apartment block on 20 Bohatyrska St. in the Obolon neighborhood, according to the State Emergency Service.
    The building was hit at around 5 a.m.

    Probably a mobile “bioweapons” lab in the building. Tough to continue to defend this deliberate slaughter of civilians so the Fox crowd wants you to “look over here, at the biolabs!”

  35. 35.

    Kay

    Anne Applebaum
    @anneapplebaum
    A Russian millionaire-politician’s daughter writes with passion that the “difficulties” Russians now face will make them more patriotic. She posted these comments from…Dubai

    Will have the speaking slot after Tulsi’s at CPAC next year.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I read a while back how the Russians and other bad-faith actors would create seemingly non-political accounts to get followers (“look at these cute puppies!”) who trust them, in order to inject propaganda to a wide audience later.  It always pays to be on guard even with seemingly “friendly” accounts.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Reality is a bitch and when she gets done slapping these dickless fucks around they will run back to civilization a whole lot poorer but none the wiser for it.

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    If the “biolabs” were the reason for the invasion wouldn’t Russia have raised it when it they invaded?

    Reminds me of W’s Big Iraq Adventure, where the “final” (i.e., so far) count of “no, THIS NEW REASON is the reason we’re invading, for realsies this time!” used by his maladministration was well over ten, and I think exceeded 20. They kept thrashing around for one they thought Americans would buy/believe

    ETA: Or what Jeffro said at #8

  41. 41.

    sab

    @NotMax: My aunt, who lived in exurban Ohio, always said that there are two kinds of people who live in the country: those who like the country, and those who don’t have the social skills to live in town.

  42. 42.

    Starfish

    @Baud: I remove the possibility of following Russian accounts by only following bots.

    ?　?
    ?
    ??
    ?　　　 ?
    ??　　　?

    — Emoji Aquarium (@EmojiAquarium) March 14, 2022

    ?: please remember to take a few deep breaths
    — here’s your reminder (@tinycarebot) March 14, 2022

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    She does look like Ivanka. She seems to be admiring her awful, bejeweled shoes in the photograph.

    War is hell, Baud, but the privations she’s enduring in what looks like a luxury hotel will only make her stronger.

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I hope he wakes up every morning thinking “boy, I really fucked this up.”

    Good luck with that. He’s the “pundit” least likely to have a Col. Nicholson moment.

  47. 47.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I’ve heard about that too and can well believe it, though I’ve never personally seen a “hey, look at these funny/cute animals!” account distributing propaganda. I’ll admit there are probably lots of non-grifters I’ve written off as clout-chasers and muted, but I’m suspicious of any account that constantly asks for retweets or responses.

  49. 49.

    oldgold

    Yesterday I wandered out of my natural habitat, while vacationing in the sunny south. I found myself in a redneck bar  watchIng the Iowa Hawkeyes play basketball. They won. I lingered and drank a few a celebratory barley pops. The place was now packed.  A DJ started playing. I got up and danced a bit. Always was fool on the hill for “She Was Just 17.” After a while the DJ plays Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless America.”

    Damn near everyone in the joint jumps up, the men swipe their caps off, many put their right hand on their heart and sing along.

    My wife and I stay  firmly planted on our stools. Not wanting to participate in what seemed to me to be a MAGA anthem. We got more than a few looks. A few decades ago, quite a few, there could have been trouble. Now, I gathered my loose bar cash and we gone.

    Is this sort of thing common?

  53. 53.

    JAFD

    Salutations, jackals of NYC and vicinity !
    OK, am tentatively scheduling the ‘Coming Out From Lockdown Meetup’ for Sunday, the Third of April, at 3 PM EDT
    Planning to meet on the balcony of the Tir Na Nog, across from Penn Station – same place as last time.
    If anybody has issues with place or time, please let me know. Ms. WaterGirl hath my contact info. Will check with the Tir, see if they’ll hold space for us, if no objctions.
    Hope to see yo’ all there!

    [Repeating this from Thursday.]

    Regardless of where on the globe you dwell, have a great week !

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    @oldgold: I’ve haunted many a disreputable Southern honky-tonk and have never seen that. Hope I never do!

    There’s a particularly odious maga-bar not too far from where I live. My husband and I used to go in the Before Times because it’s easily reachable by boat. It has a juke box, and sometimes I play mildly subversive songs using a juke box app, which the patrons are apparently unaware of since they then accuse each other of having played the song. It’s hard to keep a straight face!

  57. 57.

    Ohio Mom

    @Mousebumples: As dark as the world can seem sometimes, I am always heartened by news of new arrivals. Somehow, everything good seems possible again with each new human welcomed.

    Wishing you a smooth labor and please keep us posted when you can.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @oldgold:

    We have a Right-leaning Democrat who plays it at county D events. I hate it just as a song but I like him and he’s really hard working so I just ignore it.

    It can get tricky with Right leaning Dems. I worked a D booth once with his wife and we had this maniac come up, voice shaking, to tell us Obama was a Muslim. It was so bad the sheriff’s deputy at the event moved toward us – he sensed the same threat I did. She shoots back that Romney is a Mormon and Mormons “aren’t Christians” and I was “whoa back up, not the direction we need to go” while keeping my eye on the other religious nut  :)

    Big tent, baby. Not all it’s cracked up to be.

  59. 59.

    JAFD

    @cliosfanboy: Newark, New Jersey, was founded by some Scotch Presbyterians who thought Connecticut was getting too liberal.  In histroical irony, or something, their Old First Church is now quite literally overshadowed by the home of the Devils.

  62. 62.

    Jeffro

    I am picturing Karl Rove or Frank Luntz or Kellyanne Conway leading a goalpost-moving seminar for Russian officials and media spokespeople, and the examples would look just like what Tulsi and Candace and Tucker are doing.

  63. 63.

    Starfish

    @oldgold: Part of this is about access to arts, music and culture.

    I lived in a dinky town in the South. If people wanted to go to a concert, it would be an hour away in New Orleans.

    Lee Greenwood came and played a concert in our high school football stadium for some recruit-people-to-Jesus type nonsense that I was attending with a friend.

    You have to remember that a lot of these places have nothing going on, and a lot of community life is happening either in the Walmart or at a church.

    So EVERYONE would know that Lee Greenwood song.

    With everything being streaming services now, there are some people hypothesizing that the late 1990s and early 2000s were the end of “people in the US having a common culture” where people were watching the same thing or listening to the same thing.

    Now, everything is very fragmented.

    I wouldn’t take a Lee Greenwood song as “This is definitely MAGA nonsense,” but “This is part of common culture that is had in places like this, and it existed before MAGA existed.”

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Not a great song but also not one that has to be associated with the right.  I think Greenwood was a big Reagan guy, so that’s how that came about.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @Starfish:

    For the right, I think the beginning was Bill Clinton’s victory in 92.  The right thought Reagan had established (or reestablished) a common American culture and Clinton’s election and reelection didn’t fit into that vision.  That’s really when you saw the crazy start to exponentially increase.

  67. 67.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Baud:

    Mitt Romney accuses Tulsi Gabbard of ‘treasonous lies’ that ‘may cost lives’ over Russia’s Ukraine invasion
    Former congresswoman pushed falsehoods about ‘US biolabs’ in video

    What say you, Mittens, about Bill Barr’s apology tour? Crickets. Only has a spine to speak the truth about a (so-called) Democrat. Otherwise the same coward.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    He’s an IBEW guy, an electrician, and a Vietnam vet. Obama gave him a challenge coin on a ropeline at a rally I attended with him and he was so touched by it. He’s hard to dislike, Lee Greenwood or not.

    He has this folksy demeanor – poor mouth, right? “You got a Jeep? I wish I could afford one of those” but he owns a LOT of farm ground, which he knows I know. I love that he plays this game :)

  70. 70.

    coin operated

    @Baud:

    Not a great song but also not one that has to be associated with the right.  I think Greenwood was a big Reagan guy, so that’s how that came about.

    He hits the Oregon redneck music festivals on a regular basis and wears his faith on his sleeve. He’s one of them…good luck reclaiming it from the wingers.

  74. 74.

    coin operated

    @oldgold:

    After a while the DJ plays Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless America.”

    Damn near everyone in the joint jumps up, the men swipe their caps off, many put their right hand on their heart and sing along.

    Yes…this is common.  Riding cross country one year and my buddy had a bucket list item to visit the Grand Ole Opry.  Lee Greenwood just happened to be the headliner that night and yes, when that song came on, the entire crowd stood up and sang.  It’s the redneck national anthem.

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I got Wordle in 4 this morning, and came within one letter of getting it in 3.

    There seems to be a slight British tilt in Wardle’s word choices, and every now and then, having that in mind is a help.

  76. 76.

    Geminid

    @Baud: My late friend Chris was a trucker who from the 70’s on listened to a lot of country music. Twenty years ago when Lee Greenwood rode this song to prominence, I remember Chris commenting, ” I wonder what rock they pulled him out from under.”

  83. 83.

    Mousebumples

    @OzarkHillbilly: totally fine. Thanks!

    @Ohio Mom: thanks, and will do!

    @Baud: we’ve been calling him Junior since while we do have a shortlist of names, we haven’t officially picked on yet. The grandmothers are getting antsy about the name, lol. I’ve been reluctant to even share the shortlist because then you get people lobbying for/against certain names. Easier to present it as a fait accompli, and pair it with new baby pictures.

  85. 85.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @NotMax:Flee the City has partnered with a company that provides “sustainable homes design with integrated ballistic and defensive capabilities.”

    Seems like proof even they can’t stand each other.

    What do all these a-holes do for a living? I can’t imagine that kind of aggressive douchbaggery goes over well even in a work from home situation.

  86. 86.

    Hoodie

    @Baud: Funny, not that long ago Idaho had Cecil Andrus as a governor and Frank Church as a senator.  My dad had a war buddy in Idaho Falls who used to run a casino in Leadore, said the Mormons ruined everything when they outlawed gambling.  I think northern Idaho first became a magnet for fascist and fascist-curious retired cops from SoCal in the 70’s ad ’80s and then the Aryan Nation types rolled in.

  88. 88.

    Sanjeevs

    @Betty Cracker: I’ve spoken to some people who run troll farms and the number one most important tactic is to create a Facebook group with a non-political topic (animals, sports club fan group, celebrity fan group  etc).

    Then they slowly introduce political comments and content and weed out any members who are too vocal in their objections.

  89. 89.

    Gin & Tonic

    @lowtechcyclist:  I recall reading that the original version and the NYT one have diverged. I lost contact with the original one about two weeks ago due to an inadvertent finger placement on my phone, and now I’m in the NYT version (which pissed me off badly, since that also reset my statistics to zero.)

  90. 90.

    delk

    The house of the asshole that authored Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill was hit by a tornado. Us gay folks got tired of causing the Ukrainian invasion and went back to controlling the weather.

  93. 93.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Mousebumples: Boy, I remember when you learned the gender of your offspring when they popped out. With our third and last, my dear wife needed an amniocentesis (sp?) at some point, which would also determine gender, so we asked that that aspect of the results be placed in a sealed envelope in her file. We genuinely didn’t want to know.

  94. 94.

    JAFD

    Have finally woken up enough to note that Balloon Juice Events now include the NYC get together.  Thanks, very much, frontpagers responsible.

    Happy Pi Day, everyone !  For resolving confusion over edible classification, you may wish to go to

    https://cuberule.com/

    for your quandries to be resolved

  95. 95.

    geg6

    @SFAW:
    Square pizza is my favorite kind.  Some call it Sicilian style. Some call it Pittsburgh pizza.” Some call it Ohio Valley style.  I’ve been to both DiCarlo’s and, many, many, many, many times, Police Station Pizza.  It’s delicious.  There are many pizzerias around here that serve square pizza.  The Burzese family is legendary in my area (Beaver County) for their pizza.  The many branches of the family businesses include not just Police Station Pizza, but other local legends, Breezy’s, Buzzi’s, D&G’s and Al’s Pizza.  All of them originated, owned or formerly owned by one branch or another of the Burzese family.
    https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/pittsburghs-unique-pizza-styles-and-where-you-can-get-them/​

  96. 96.

    Steeplejack

    @Booger:

    I used to go there for the sandwiches—also great—and it took me a while to catch on to the pizza. Amazing crust!

    Probably will have a draft pilsner or lager with the pizza.

  100. 100.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: That’s the thing, just like American conservatives none of them want to live in the places they say they venerate. All the conservatives talk about the wonderful virtues of “heartland American” from their homes in New York City, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and so on. I sometimes wondered why they didn’t all move to places like Kansas City or Tulsa or Dallas, then I realized that to them those places are way too far from the seat of actual power.

  104. 104.

    Soprano2

    @Betty Cracker: That’s funny. All of our regulars play the jukebox from an app on their phone. One of them told my husband he was upset because the app froze up so he had no way to play the jukebox! Evidently they have all forgotten that they could walk over to the jukebox and actually put money in it.

  108. 108.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Soprano2:

    I think it would be fun to have a bar with an old jukebox and a great collection of 45s that you rotate weekly.

  110. 110.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: I don’t think most conservative pundits would actually socialize with the people they say are “real Americans”.

  111. 111.

    Soprano2

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That would have to be an old jukebox – they do it all with computers and streaming now. We’ve got a restaurant here that has small wall-mounted “jukeboxes” by every booth that’s by the wall in one section. You used to be able to put money in them and get the jukebox to play your selections. I think all but one of them are out of order now.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    Vermont joins NH in rejecting all their critical race theory panic school board candidates. One or two were also “Q”, so double points for Vermonters.

    Two birds, one stone.

  113. 113.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I sincerely hope this happens in my city, too. The election is the first week of April, and the two “anti” candidates are trying hard to fly below the radar. One of them keeps using the word “pragmatic” in his interviews, which to me means he thinks we need to cut a bunch of “unnecessary” things like art and music. If those two get on the school board, I predict we’ll have a major blowup over “CRT” and all that crap in the next year. This place is conservative, but they also support their public schools.

  117. 117.

    Betty Cracker

    @delk: The tornado got Baxley’s house for real?!? It was a scary storm, but aside from turning a canoe over in our yard, we had no damage. Thanks for sparing us! ;-)

  118. 118.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Indiana:The Indiana Senate killed controversial House Bill 1134, which would have banned several “divisive concepts” and given more power over curriculum and classroom activities to parents, Monday night after several hours of closed-door discussions in the Republican caucus. 

    Couldn’t even drag this garbage over the finish line with a GOP supermajority. 

    Democrats shouldn’t be afraid this. It’s not popular.

  119. 119.

    Geminid

        “Democrats running for Senate are holding their fire. Republicans are stuck in the Thunderdome.

    The lead from an article today in Politico contrasting the two parties’ Pennsylvania Senate primaries.

    The article’s title is “GOP Senate candidates thrash each other ahead of fight for majority;” subtitle is “The party has a favorable political environment, but also a slate of brutal primaries before the general election.”

    Besides Pennsylvania the authors reference Senate nomination contests in states including Ohio, Arizona, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and North Carolina.

  122. 122.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    This is pretty good – Deripaska’s London manse gets overrun with pro-Ukraine anarchists. Of course, the neighbors are having none of it (guessing they were fine with a pig like Deripaska being on the street), and England’s legendary protection of squatters flies through the window faster than a fruit fly chasing an old banana.

    https://news.sky.com/story/london-mansion-reportedly-owned-by-sanctioned-russian-oligarch-oleg-deripaska-occupied-by-squatters-12565999

  123. 123.

    Kay

    Wyoming:

    JTA — It seemed a slam dunk — the popular conservative cause of banning “critical race theory” in schools, being taken up for a vote in one of the country’s most lopsidedly conservative legislatures.
    Then a Democrat, one of just seven in the 60-member Wyoming legislature, stood up Thursday and said he could not support the bill because he was Jewish.
    “In this bill, page 9, line 19 states, ‘The teaching of history must be neutral, without judgment,’” state Representative Andy Schwartz said during debate.
    “Now, how can that be possible? If I were a Native American, I doubt I could accept the neutral, judgment-free approach about the relocation, the decimation of the Indigenous population. If I were a Black American, I doubt I could accept a neutral, judgment-free approach on the enslavement of millions of Americans,” he said

    Hmmm. Maybe 100 substackers who attended expensive private schools are not actually representative of the parents of 50 million public school students?
    Now there’s a shocker.

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    @delk:

    The house of the asshole that authored Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill was hit by a tornado.

    Wow, god really has this smiting thing down, with a very short backlog!

  125. 125.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Soprano2: Lots of them are retired

    So a bunch of elderly and unlikable Californians in their first real winter of their lives. That sounds like a problem that will solve itself.

  128. 128.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Republican dominance in red state legislatures should be a bigger story than so-called cancel culture in blue areas.  There’s no blue state in which Republicans are that far out of power, and a lot of it is purely a result of gerrymandering.

  129. 129.

    Kropacetic

    @Baud: There’s no blue state in which Republicans are that far out of power, and a lot of it is purely a result of gerrymandering.

    Massachusetts?

    Our Republican governor habit seems to be born of a desire to “check”  the veto-proof D legislative majority.  Unless they know how to work with the Ds , though, it doesn’t play out that way.

  130. 130.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: We have a major “Repubs in disarray” story in Missouri right now. After 8 weeks they only managed to pass one bill, to distribute Covid relief money to schools and fund Medicaid, among other things. They can’t even do redistricting because the “Conservative Caucus” in the state Senate wants a 7-1 map, which would land them in the courts as it would eliminate a majority black district in Kansas City. The other “saner” Repubs, who are still the majority, want the 6-2 map we have now. The courts are probably going to end up doing the 6-2 map. We also have an idiot state representative who thinks ectopic pregnancies can be implanted in a woman’s uterus, so he wants to make it illegal to treat an ectopic pregnancy with any kind of abortion. At least that’s getting some national coverage.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It’s been so, so bad for Ohio. The corruption is out of control. The attorney general is a joke. There’s the blatant law breaking and the only investigations are federal, let alone convictions. Each scandal has a higher money damage number than the last. The line goes straight up. They’re on a crime spree.

  132. 132.

    Craig

    @oldgold: ugh, that song. When I became a US citizen in 2008, after living here since I was 1yr old, the ceremony was held on Nob Hill in SF. They handed out little American flags and showed a video on a huge screen with waving flags and eagles and fighter jets and aircraft carriers while that Greenwood song was blaring on the PA. I was just laughing, saying Are You Fucking Kidding Me?

  133. 133.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The NYTimes had 70 editorials mentioning “cancel culture” in the last year. Seventy.

    They are the loudest and most published “silenced” people in history. It’s clownish and they should all be embarrassed.

  134. 134.

    Geminid

    @Baud:

    “Biden’s presidency has never been so hectic. Here’s why he’s at ease.”

    The title from yesterday’s Politico  article by Laura Barron-Lopez and Christopher Cadelego.

  135. 135.

    Tony Jay

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: 

    And the ever apolitical Metropolitan Police (sarcasm isn’t illegal here – yet) immediately show their priorities by flooding the peaceful protest with seven vans full of Paramilitary Freemasons.

    A vigil honouring the woman kidnapped, raped and murdered by a serving Met officer? Show those bitches who’s boss. House burgled by known criminals? Don’t waste our time, snowflake.

    But smelly hippie Lefties putting their opinions ahead of sacred property rights? Send in the Black and Whites!

    Makes you proud to be Brexitish.

  136. 136.

    Kropacetic

    @Geminid: The title from yesterday’s Politico  article by Laura Barron-Lopez and Christopher Cadelego.

    Constant manufactured crisis, because he handles the real crises effectively.

  137. 137.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Soprano2:

    I remember those!  They were probably ghastly expensive when installed.

    On an amusing note, my paternal grandfather was um, Mediterranean ethnic (Lebanese), and was responsible for servicing /collecting money from those for another Mediterranean-ethnic own local jukebox enterprise, which took him to bars, diners and social clubs all over town.

    Most of the servicing involved collections.

    Did I mention that he’d been a boxer as a young man? Just the guy you need to do “collections” in a city known for heavy drinking and a socially accepted illegal gambling culture.

    I’ll say this as well – his vices got him at age 63. The man smoked four packs of Winstons a day and drank at least a quart of whiskey at home every day and a half (along with drinks on the job).  Of course, had I been married to my grandmother, I’d have been a drunk, too – she had a mean streak like Olivia Soprano, but you always saw her coming at you.

  138. 138.

    catclub

    @Starfish: There should be a liberal real estate agent selling some eco-village environmental real estate to offset weird right wing compounds.

    ummm, …. no.

    I think the real estate agents catering to right wingers is the same grift that rightwingers are suckers for MyPillow and other scams.

     

    It has been shown that moving to the country is generally anti-environmental, compared with staying in a high density city.

  140. 140.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Tony Jay:

    I’ve always looked a bit askance at the English view of squatters’ rights, but could get behind an organized effort regarding palatial dwellings owned by the .01%, all the way up to Her Nibs….

  148. 148.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Apparently Putin is the Russian Donald Trump

    American Prospect Russia is heading for an outright defeat in Ukraine. Russian planning was incompetent, based on a flawed assumption that Ukrainians were favorable to Russia and that their military would collapse immediately following an invasion. Russian soldiers were evidently carrying dress uniforms for their victory parade in Kyiv rather than extra ammo and ration.

    This whole thing makes my head hurt because it’s like some weird real life version of the TV show Jackass except whole cities and their populations are getting wrecked. At lest the fucking Nazis didn’t treat war like trolling.

    What’s next, Putin issuing blue colored afro wigs to his troops?

  149. 149.

    Kropacetic

    @Kay: Indiana:The Indiana Senate killed controversial House Bill 1134, which would have banned several “divisive concepts” and given more power over curriculum and classroom activities to parents, Monday night after several hours of closed-door discussions in the Republican caucus. 

    The fight over CRT is really a fight to keep our children ignorant.  I can’t imagine why any right-minded parent who really knew what was as stake would support Republicans on this.

  150. 150.

    Kropacetic

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: American Prospect Russia is heading for an outright defeat in Ukraine. Russian planning was incompetent, based on a flawed assumption that Ukrainians were favorable to Russia and that their military would collapse immediately following an invasion.

    They’ll greet us as liberators…

  151. 151.

    Another Scott

    @catclub: Relatedly, …

    This is a financialised asset class's way of telling you that you've paid too much for your asset https://t.co/3VmUBm4LcT— Dan Davies (@dsquareddigest) March 13, 2022

    (Pointer to a story in NZ that some landlords can’t cover their expenses in their rented properties because of changes in the tax laws, rising interest rates, etc.)

    ? ? ?

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  152. 152.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Plus, as you’ve observed none of them actually comment on the ongoing effort in state legislatures to “cancel” the teaching of real history, because it hurts white people’s feelings. (I think it’s funny how fast the “fuck your feelings” crowd was able to pivot to “don’t you dare hurt my feelings”!) Complete silence on that issue from all the “free speech warriors” on the right.

  155. 155.

    different-church-lady

    @Kropacetic:

    Our Republican governor habit seems to be born of a desire to “check”  the veto-proof D legislative majority.

    I think it has more to do with the Dem primaries always rewarding party hacks over appealing candidates.

  156. 156.

    Geminid

    @Kropacetic: Well, Biden’s presidency is hectic right now, at least so far as the various tasks at hand. I thought the article’s authors played it straight. Their general focus was on how Biden was comfortable because of his experience. One quote was from Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz:

        “President Biden was built for this moment, because of his long experience with foreign policy and specifically his relationship with NATO and his understanding of these countries.”

    Besides the war in Ukraine, the articles discusses Judge Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination, a process which Biden is familiar with from his service as Senator on the Judiciary Committee

  158. 158.

    ian

    @Soprano2:

    That’s not a surprise.  F* your feelings didn’t mean they did not care about feelings, it meant they didn’t care about you.  Their feelings are precious and need to be coddled.

  159. 159.

    Kropacetic

    @different-church-lady: A little column A, a little column B.  That “check” argument is trotted out every four years.  Personally, I loved our last candidate but he got smoked. Baker is really popular, though.  Good name for the local accent and, despite being a Republican, actually not a monster.

    @Geminid: Sorry, I should have been clearer.  I was referring to the prior parade of manufactured crises.  People seem to be taking note, now that a real crisis has emerged, that he’s handling it quite well.

  160. 160.

    Splitting Image

    On a positive note, MAD Magazine stalwart Al Jaffee turned 101 yesterday. Paul Coker is also hanging in there, and turned 93 on March 5.

    Long may MADness reign.

  162. 162.

    Tony Jay

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Oh yeah. There’s thousands of unoccupied properties doing laundry duty in London alone, plus the hundreds of bedrooms going empty in Lizzie’s city centre office. I’m sure Ukrainian refugees would turn a blind eye to the gauche furnishings and make the best of the temporary accommodation.

    Sweeten the pot for England’s Gracious Owner. I hear virtually all of them are of fine Gothic stock, so she wouldn’t even have to change her policy on house guests.

  166. 166.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

      How do you say Ivanka Trump in Russian?

    “Ivanka Trump”

    “Who?”

    “The one Irina and Svetlana dressed up as.”

    “Oh! Princess Pissy-Kissy?”

    “Da!”

  167. 167.

    JanieM

    @Kropacetic:

    The fight over CRT is really a fight to keep our children ignorant.  I can’t imagine why any right-minded parent who really knew what was as stake would support Republicans on this.

    A big part of the problem is that the parents have already been kept ignorant, even if not by means of such an overt campaign to make them so. It’s not like schools have been teaching honest history all these years.

  168. 168.

    Kay

    @Kropacetic:

    Weird which people get NYTimes real estate to talk about being “silenced” and which people don’t: 

    Those are a few of the ideas Adovor and two other high school students included in a presentation they crafted last spring. Called “What We Need Our Teachers to Know About Race,” it was to be part of a conference put on by Iowa’s state education department in April 2021 focused on equity in education. More than 650 educators had registered to attend. But a few weeks before it was scheduled to take place, the conference was postponed. A bill that would limit how teachers can talk about racism was making its way through the state legislature, and state education officials said they were “mindful” that the bill could affect the conference. “I was pretty mad,” said Adovor, who’s now 18 and a freshman at the University of Iowa. “It just felt like our voices were being silenced.” The bill became law in June. It bans state agencies and schools from teaching “divisive concepts” at mandatory training sessions, including the idea that the U.S. or the state of Iowa is systemically racist or sexist, though it doesn’t apply to optional events like the state conference.
    Still, the department hasn’t rescheduled the event, and officials have removed more than a dozen related videos posted in the run-up to the conference. One was a workshop about how schools could better listen to student voices. (The conference “is one option that we continue to consider,” department spokesperson Heather Doe said in an email.) The deferred conference stands as just one illustration of the nation’s about-face on centering race and equity in teachers’ work over the last year. For the students, though, the fallout has been both local and personal. After state officials asked them to share their time and experiences as students of color, the apparently open-ended postponement has left some feeling doubly dismissed.

  169. 169.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Tony Jay:

    Quit disparaging the efforts Her Nibs! I hear she performed the vital and irreplaceable national service of washing and moving  a jeep a couple of times and rolled some bandages a few afternoons 75 years ago!

  171. 171.

    Kropacetic

    @Kay: Loosely D-affiliated activists getting angry and deciding not to buy your product, cancel culture.

    Elected R officials banning books and honest classroom discussions, patriotism.

  172. 172.

    Geminid

    @Kropacetic: Now I see. I thought you were expressing the general distrust of anything whatsoever that comes out of Politico. Shooting the message on account of the messenger, so to speak.

  173. 173.

    Brachiator

    @Tony Jay:

    Don’t know if you have an opinion on this, and my knowledge of this is very sketchy, but I noted some recent stories about former Speaker Bercow being branded as a big bully in some official report.

    He may well be a nasty man, but I see Tory incompetents and worse receiving praise and peerages and knighthoods, while anyone who ever displeased the government in power gets slapped down hard, early and often, to make sure that they never can cause any trouble or be listened to. Bercow can’t criticize the government because he has to use any media time to defend himself.

  174. 174.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay: And the irony is, that in these expensive private schools, no principal would *dream* of subjecting their teachers to the sort of draconian anti-CRT curriculum that these jokers want to foist on public schools.

  176. 176.

    Kay

    Jon Cooper
    @joncoopertweets
    · 12h
    BREAKING: A Republican lawmaker in Texas has introduced a bill that would allow the DEATH PENALTY for women who have abortions.

    The far Right Supreme Court thought they were ultra-savvy and smart with just ignoring the law instead of overturning it, but I had faith far Right religious would go completely insane with draconian laws in the absence and they have not disappointed.
    Will Texas immediately start executing women for this? No. But they’re thinking about it!

  177. 177.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SFAW: In the immortal amoral words of that towering intellect Junior Sample:

    Pi r square???

    NOOO!

    Pi are round.

    Corn pone are square!

    ;^D

  178. 178.

    Kay

    @Miss Bianca:

    Public schools are risk averse. They’re inherently traditional entitities and they always move toward the center because they have a duty to serve most families. It’s what people don’t like about them- that they’re always shooting for the broad middle. It’s baked in.

    Equity efforts would have leveled out, but elites lost their fucking minds over “critical race theory” and started a panic. They don’t have to butt in everywhere. It would have self corrected.

  180. 180.

    Kay

    Emily Cochrane
    @ESCochrane
    · 20m
    woah, inbox — MANCHIN: I AM UNABLE TO SUPPORT NOMINATION OF SARAH BLOOM RASKIN TO FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD

    That there are still people who believe Joe Manchin will make a deal on climate change legislation is truly amazing. I don’t know what else he has to do to convince them he’s a liar.

  181. 181.

    Old School

    @Kay:

    Adding context:

    “I have carefully reviewed Sarah Bloom Raskin’s qualifications and previous public statements. Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs,” Manchin said in a statement.

  183. 183.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    The summary is she is well qualified, has been confirmed on a bipartisan basis before, and thinks climate change is a serious economic issue. And because of that last thing, the extractive industry interests who pamper Rs and Manchin have sought to blackball her.

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) March 14, 2022

  184. 184.

    montanareddog

    @Kay:

     

    BREAKING: A Republican lawmaker in Texas has introduced a bill that would allow the DEATH PENALTY for women who have abortions.

    Is the execution method specified in the bill? Stoning, perhaps, as their personal saviour Jesus Christ would have wanted?

  185. 185.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Will Texas immediately start executing women for this? No.

     
    Well then you’re just being shrill, aren’t you?

  186. 186.

    Mo Salad

    Wordle in 3.
    Dordle in 7.
    Quordle in 7.
    Octordle in 13.
    Sedecordle in 20.

    This maybe part of the reason I haven’t posted much lately.

  188. 188.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: Oopsie, looks like the mask done slipped…don’t they know they’re not supposed to mention blame the woman?

  189. 189.

    billcinsd

    @Starfish:  Maybe you could break out of your literal mindset and think about metaphors. Ukrainians are literally fighting for their democracy. Americans need to vote as if their democracy is on the line

  190. 190.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Betty Cracker: Last week even Putin’s own pet pundits on Russian TV were basically saying this is another Afghanistan and Russia needs to bail sooner than later so Fukuyama isn’t going out on a limb.  It really feels like the only unresolved part of Putin’s war is how many people have die, how many cities have to wrecked before he gives up.

  192. 192.

    artem1s

    @Jeffro: ​

    I wonder if the Russians picked up a bad case of moving-the-goalposts from their GOP stooges, in kind of a reverse osmosis or something. Because frankly, there’s no one better at it.

    I think the jury is still out on the whole chicken/egg thing. But every time I see this catastrophic message blundering and failed shock and awe invasion on the part of Putin, I can’t help but think of something we have all noted at one time or another over the last 6-7 years – TFG ruins and corrupts everything he touches.

  193. 193.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    NPR has a story about a Texas woman who had to take a commercial flight to Colorado to end a life threatening pregnancy. She would have died if the whole country had Texas law. She had thousands at hand to get her out of there in time. The next won’t be that lucky. The docs in Texas were looking up state laws in neighboring states- they needed a state without a 3 day waiting period, hence, she had to go all that way. I don’t think it’s safe to get pregnant in these states, which will include mine. You can’t get emergency, life saving medical care.

  195. 195.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    So sort of a death sentence in place in Texas already- not for getting one, but for needing one or you’ll die. They chose “she dies”.

  196. 196.

    Jeffro

    Still trying to find any mention in the Post or Times about trumpov asking his mob to “lay down their very lives” to oppose CRT in schools.  Nope.  Nada!

  197. 197.

    Kropacetic

    @zhena gogolia: Putin didn’t need much corrupting from anyone else.

    C’mon; can’t you picture a naive young Vladdy, earnestly trying to make Russia more just and equitable?

  199. 199.

    trollhattan

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    As noir revival “Body Heat” was top-notch. Not to mention my intro to Kathleen Turner. The Danson role was a terrific counterpoint to Sam Malone.

  200. 200.

    dmsilev

    @Kay: So, if you have an ectopic pregnancy, your options are to risk death from the pregnancy or risk the death penalty from the abortion? With the embryo dying either way.

    Party of Life.

  204. 204.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    NPR has been really good. They have what amounts to a really lengthy series on just Texas at this point.

    There’s plenty of people to talk to and Texas is easy to get to. Not sure why more outlets don’t cover it. I think the Supreme Court tactic was to allow the laws to go into place so the public would become accustomed to it as a done deal, limiting the chances of political damage to Republicans with an abrupt reversal. I’ll be delighted if this way-too-clever political strategy fails.

  206. 206.

    NotMax

    @geg6

    Nobody wiling to pipe up that…

    …Sicilian pizza pie are squared?

    Nobody? Bueller?

    ;)

    BTW, if anyone finds themselves close to there, the Sicilian-style “Grandma’s Pizza” pizza at Umberto’s in New Hyde Park on Long Island is scrumptious.

  207. 207.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: At least they’re finally being honest about what they think, rather than the weaselly crap that the woman is just a victim of the “abortion doctor profit complex” or whatever crap they can come up with.

  210. 210.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: I’m afraid it will take the death of a woman that would have been easily preventable under Roe but happened because of draconian abortion laws in a particular state or states. She has to be white, married, middle-class and preferably already have children so that she leaves behind not just a husband but orphaned children also. That might wake a lot of people up. That’s what it took in Ireland.

  211. 211.

    Kay

    PatriotTakes ??
    @patriottakes
    · 3h
    Unearthed: Madison Cawthorn called into the Charlie Kirk show during the January 6th attack and said he used his wheelchair to transport “multiple weapons” ahead of the Capitol riot and armed those around him.

    He lies constantly so this may be a lie too, but if it isn’t it’s a confession.

  214. 214.

    bluefoot

    @oatler: ​
      Back in my youth, I used to use that quote a lot for weird coincidences….when it got to the point I had to explain it one too many times, I stopped using it. But it still makes me laugh.

  216. 216.

    Tony Jay

    @Brachiator:

    Yeeeeeeeaaaaahhhh. This is one if those occassions where I have serious doubts about the British Establishment’s ‘independence’ when it comes to figures who they consider to have ‘stepped out of their lane’ and caused well-earned embarrassment to the right people.

    Bercow made himself popular and famous by enforcing Parliament’s sovereign authority in the face of the Brexit behemoth, and he never made any bones about the fact that a lot of the people working under him were (Speaker’s are, after all, MPs who don’t usually get to choose the civil-servants staffing their office) were posh placemen and women who got their jobs for knowing what their properly deferential was. That made him very, very unpopular with some quarters, and thus could well be their revenge.

    The UK has recent history of ‘independent’ appointees twisting ‘facts’ in order to punish those deemed to have threatened the status-quo, while carefully abstaining from expressing any kind of disapproval towards people with the right backgrounds and circle of friends.

    Plus, I find it very hard to take the pearl-clutching seriously when that odious creature Priti Patel is still in high office after being found guilty of… bullying.

  217. 217.

    Dopey-o

    Missouri has hit the trifeca in abortion legislation. Ectopic pregnancies must be carried to term, don’t go to Kansas or Illinois (or help a pregnant woman go there) for an abortion, and some R magat floated an amendment to enable the death penalty for doctors and nurses who facilitate an abortion.

    Despair. Cruelty is the point.

  218. 218.

    Geminid

     

    @Tony Jay: Bercow made a fan out of me when I heard him tell some Tory MP who was griping about one his rulings that “you can LIKE it…OR YOU CAN LUMP IT!”

  220. 220.

    Original Lee

    @Mousebumples: Best wishes and thinking of you over the next few days. With my oldest, we had picked the name early, and after the amnio let it be known we were having a girl child. However, to avoid argument, we always said we were naming her Xena. When my sister was expecting her first, she told everyone that they were naming the kid after the national park where the child was conceived – Yosemite. Both false names were real conversation stoppers.

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