for the life of me I can’t understand why anyone would try to portray this as weakness https://t.co/MLwkA1Zhx8
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) March 15, 2022
ICYMI: under President @JoeBiden, White House internships will be paid for the first time in history. An important step that will make the prestigious program more accessible to all.
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) March 15, 2022
Biden administration announces $409 million for transportation projects in 39 states https://t.co/B4Ji73rdtf pic.twitter.com/BLLOnoGzxZ
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 14, 2022
Just another glitch in the matrix…
Efforts have begun to refloat a container vessel that ran aground Sunday in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The Ever Forward is part of the same fleet of cargo ships as the Ever Given, which got stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021 and hindered global shipping. https://t.co/QSO9FZMcJA
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 15, 2022
======
dearest olga, it is week 3 of 72 hour war. we are importing mercenaries from the desert and attempting to sell off bits of the motherland to the chinese in exchange for weapons, as the nazi farmers and tank thieves are proving more resourceful than expected
— kilgore trout, death to putiner (@KT_So_It_Goes) March 13, 2022
(these are for real a perennial standard snack in China, especially for travel!)
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) March 14, 2022
Zelensky wrote a letter to the family of the american documentarian killed in Ukraine. https://t.co/4IOh3uFRki
— Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) March 14, 2022
.@SpeakerPelosi & @SenSchumer announce in letter to all members of the House & Senate that President Zelensky will give a Virtual Address to the United States Congress on Wednesday, March 16th at 9:00 a.m. pic.twitter.com/lvm60z7cW3
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) March 14, 2022
Keith P.
I’m assuming these seeds will be (pre)roasted and not otherwise fertile.
Spanky
Happy Ides of March! (Not you, Julius.)
Marking the 3rd anniversary of my retirement. Date chosen intentionally because, hey, why not? And at that point, the sooner the better.
OzarkHillbilly
Boy, is the Ever Forward ever stuck.
And irony is dead… in the water.
FlyingToaster
@Spanky:
Oh, come on! It was totally happy, well, until it wasn’t…
If only Vova were required to sit in the curule chair among his peers. If only he had to present himself on the steps of the Senate before the mob…
NotMax
Air on a G screen, as it were.
;)
NotMax
There will be at least one U.S. government plane heading off to Russian airspace, landing and (one hopes) permitted to take off again.
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly: This Twitter feed has a few more details. Looks like it missed a turn in a 51 ft deep channel and ended up in mud under 24 ft of water just south of where the Patapsco empties into the Bay.
It has a draught of ~42 ft.
Ouch. Might be there awhile.
(Edited for clarity on the mud.)
lowtechcyclist
Yay! Internships, especially prestigious ones like White House and Congressional internships, shouldn’t be limited to those whose families can afford to support them in DC.
So Congress, get on with it and pay your interns. You can make it happen, just write and pass a fucking bill that sets the minimum pay, and appropriates the funds.
bbleh
So yes he’s a trained performer, but who has been advising Zelensky on the fine details of propaganda?
Putin must be seething.
Daniel
I get what Zelensky was doing, but that was a terrible condolence letter.
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
You lucky bum!
End of next year for me, not that I’m counting or anything…
bbleh
@Daniel: ???
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky: I’d have figured that they’d have sonar or some other system that would make it clear where the channel is, even if there were no channel markers, which I’m sure there are.
SFAW
@Spanky:
So you’re saying the captain/navigator drank something like 10 or 15 yards of ale? Wow. Even when I was young, I couldn’t handle that much.
ETA: And speak ‘Murican, dagnabit! Or are you one of those “my neighbour is wearing bright colours,” pinky-raising-whilst-sipping-your-Earl-Grey dilly-tantes?
Soprano2
@Daniel: Why do you think it’s terrible?
Kay
@lowtechcyclist:
I agree. They’ll get better information and feedback from a more economically diverse group, too.
OzarkHillbilly
@Spanky: Thanx, the report I read was short on details.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Keith P.:
Coated in MSG and chili flakes, they’ll be delicious.
zhena gogolia
@Daniel: Why?
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Extremely off-topic:
Hey, Ozark: how do you “turn over” your garden plot before planting season? Rototiller? Pitchfork? Some other means? Or do you use raised beds? [Sorry, I don’t remember.]
Betty
@lowtechcyclist: I saw some Republicans griping that Pelosi put money in the budget to raise staff salaries. The low pay for those positions has been noted as contributing to reduced expertise among staff who have to counter highly paid lobbyists. Expertise is anathema to Republicans these days.
Jeffro
Thank god that in both the US and UKR, the smart people are in charge. Seriously.
SFAW
@Betty:
Expertise, honesty, patriotism, reality … the list goes on and on.
Kropacetic
@Betty: Well, when expertise always recommends against doing what you feeeeeell needs to be done…
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly: Ironically, the grounding is only a few miles from the Maritime Institute and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) campus.
germy
He has since deleted the tweet and apologized.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@SFAW: Hey, be nice. I’m pure Yankee (born within spitting distance of Coogan’s Bluff) but I still find it helpful to do things like spell checks with a “q” … granted, that’s because I’m doing translations of legal documents where I don’t want even a hint of ambiguity if I can avoid it … which is why I also swear by, not at, the Oxford comma.
Spanky
WaPo headline:
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Rototiller.
trnc
Looked pretty respectful to Renaud and his family. What didn’t you like about it?
Kay
@germy:
His response is terrible but Omar’s attack is terrible too. That is going to be one ugly fight. Boy, can’t dial it back from there.
Geminid
Georgia’s Stacey Abrams kicked her campaign for givernor into higher gear with a rally last night in Atlanta. Her campaign theme is “One Georgia,” a vision of shared progress for all of Georgia’s citizens. Abrams told her listeners:
Abrams spoke of the need to bring first rate health care to all of Georgia’s citizens, and used her father’s recent illness as an example. Mr. Abrams has dealt with prostate cancer for 15 years, and a recent surgery resulted in life-threating sepsis. Because Abrams parents had moved to her Atlanta home due to the pandemic, he had access to that city’s excellent medical resources and his life was saved.
Abrams noted that not every Georgian might have fared as well.
OzarkHillbilly
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Yeah, you’re a pinky-raising-whilst-sipping-your-Earl-Grey dilly-tante. ;-)
Baud
@Geminid:
?
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: Not Russian airspace, Kazakh–and Kazakhstan has already refused to aid Putin’s invasion.
Baud
@germy:
Biden has the correct approach toward Twitter.
germy
@Kay:
Omar didn’t say it, from what I understand. He was replying to this person:
Soprano2
@Kay: Without a doubt this is absolutely true!
Gin & Tonic
@Spanky: And now everyone is talking about that stunt and her whereabouts as opposed to the Russians’ bombing of a maternity hospital.
I know Zelensky issued a message of support, but her stunt is playing *very* poorly amongst most Ukrainians.
Kay
@germy:
Oh, I’m sorry. Briana Rose Lee is terrible. And he’s an idiot for responding to her.
Geminid
@germy: I think Stancil may have also deleted his recent tweet where he called the widely respected Madgdi Semrau a “dumb shill.” That one got a lot of blowback.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@germy:
The original accusatory tweet and Stancil are trash. It’s why I despise Rose Twitter – they baited the guy, and as expected, he responded sharply, which becomes an opportunity for further trashing.
And on another level, going down Stancil’s timeline, I note a lot of mockery and scorn about center left Ds focusing on “kitchen table issues”.
Ignoring those kitchen table issues is how you wind up with ruby red monsters dominating purple districts.
SFAW
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Hey, the Oxford comma is just good sense, even if it originally comes from Pommyland. [“G’day, Bruce!”]
But that other stuff …
germy
@Baud:
He tweets, but only to share important information on his administration’s achievements.
Most likely his staff is doing the tweeting, but he hires good people. That’s an important skill. Bernie Sanders doesn’t have that skill.
OzarkHillbilly
@Spanky: They should check underneath all the windows 3 stories and higher.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Spanky:
So you’re saying that there will be field trips, which are always good deals for students.
Kropacetic
Be that as it may, her stunt was for an audience of Russians.
Kay
@Geminid:
The pile on to Will Stancil is weird. He’s a Democrat who’s active in local politics and makes completely legitimate criticisms of the Democratic Party. You may disagree with them but they are informed and reasoned. In other words, he’s a lot like every other Democrat who is active in local politics. If his critics think they’re going to shut down all criticism in a Party that uses “herding cats” to describe their base they’re kidding themselves.
I hope this isn’t the plan for the midterms. It won’t work. They’re 10 points back on the generic ballot and Biden is below 50. There are 31 retirements. Suggesting a course correction is reasonable and comparing him to Michael Tracey is ridiculous. Stancil is a Democrat (Tracey is not), Stancil supported covid restrictions (Tracey did not) and Stancil is anti-Putin (Tracey is not).
OzarkHillbilly
Touche’.
Geminid
@germy: That Minnesota primary is a contest between two immigrants. Ohmar came here from Somalia, and Samuels came from Jamaica, to study art.
germy
Kropacetic
@germy: So let’s all buy us some TV stations.
Kay
@germy:
They can do better with this. If they can’t, then they don’t need to hire and pay campaign operatives and strategists and media people. If it’s impossible then we shouldn’t spend a 100 million dollars paying people to do it.
“Politics is impossible!” said the political party, over and over. Jesus.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@OzarkHillbilly: I’d much rather be sipping Earl Grey than getting my butt sued off, thank you very much.
And I don’t even like tea.
;)
germy
@Geminid:
Have you seen the Republican who is running against her?
She introduced herself to Republican primary voters, who immediately told her “But you’re not a real American.” So she’s learning some things about the Republican base she’s trying to impress.
OzarkHillbilly
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Earl Grey is certainly cheaper than a good lawyer. And even cheaper still than a bad lawyer.
Geminid
@germy: Abrams knows as much or more about the Georgia’s Republican base than that state’s Republican politicians. She also knows that Republicans have to bring in more than their base voters to win a statewide Georgia election.
mrmoshpotato
“Nevermore!” quoth the sandbar.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Stancil thinks Democrats should engage on culture wars, not because he thinks Democrats are bad but because he thinks Democrats have the better argument and can win it.
He supports “kitchen table issues”. BBB was 90% “kitchen table issues” (he enthusiastically supported) unless your kitchen table excludes women and children. Child care, paid leave, expansion of Obamacare, drug price competition, tax credits for low income families- those are the definition of “kitchen table”.
oldgold
Continuing my southern sojourn, last night, picking up my game considerably, I found myself in an upscale cafe’.
My waiter,Thomas, insisted I would enjoy the medley of olives hors d’oeuvres. “Thomas, does the medley include the ‘ripe’ ones?” He assured me it did. So, I ordered them. Upon delivery, sizing me up for the Rube I am, he announced, “Sir, olives have pits.”
The good news is my fellow patrons did not breakout in a rousing rendition of “God Bless the USA.” The bad news, the the staff did something considerably worse. On three occasions, as I picked through the medley of olives looking for the “ripe” ones, carefully avoiding the pits, the staff joyfully erupted from the kitchen waving sparklers and lustily singing “Happy Birthday!” Each time as a small amount of sparkly confetti rained down on the surprised and blushing birthday diner, most in this olive pushing bistro stood and clapped. Made me proud to be an American.
Geminid
@germy: And yes, I’ve seen Abrams’ Republican opponent. Actually, there are two: cheatin’ Brian Kemp and creepy David Perdue. The current Governor and the Senator that Jon Ossoff beat last year are squaring off in a bitter and expensive primary fight.
Eolirin
@Kay: We probably can’t do better, and that money should be invested in grass roots organization and other ways to get the message out that bypass the traditional news media. Like funding labor organizations and minority outreach. But there’s some risk there of bringing those organizations too close to the party too so we really want the fundraising and donation dollars to go directly to them instead of being routed through the party and that’s not the easiest thing to pull off. Either way we’re going to end up with fractured messaging in the face of a unified set of talking points from the other side that will always be signal boosted even as everything we say is down played.
Dems are generally saying what needs to be said. The media gatekeepers keep ignoring it in favor of running right wing bullshit framings 24/7. Short of dem friendly billionaires (and do those even really exist?) buying the already popular TV stations and news papers and dramatically changing coverage I see no way to improve that. Well I guess we could pass some laws that force the breakup of the large media companies. But not easy and we’d need to have already had a big win.
So we need to figure out how to make things work even in that environment. It’s not an easy problem.
bbleh
@Kay: This. And they say it while crouching under their desks hoping everyone will go away and they can resume plotting to get a better office at HQ and trying to be invited to better dinner parties.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Because NOT engaging on culture wars leaves the whole field to Republicans, who are MORE than happy to engage on them. You’re having a culture war, whether you like it or not. You’re just not fighting it.
Right wing culture wars attack our base- our people– as individuals. Defend them.
germy
@Geminid:
I was talking about Dalia al-Aqidi.
mrmoshpotato
@mrmoshpotato:
Quoth the potato, “Oops. Messed that up.”
Soprano2
@germy: You cannot address this problem without referencing Fox News. That’s how this stuff gets injected into “the mainstream”. Without the credibility people still give to Fox News, it would be a bunch of crazy people talking to each other online and on extremist media and You Tube. I challenge anyone who doesn’t follow politics regularly to understand anything on a right-wing Web site. Most of it is self-referential gibberish that the average person can’t understand. I agree with Kay; Democrats should embrace the culture war issues and fight back on them, because the Republican position is actually unpopular. They’ve been cowed by the framing that whatever white men believe is the actual mainstream belief.
Kropacetic
Facts. Winning shouldn’t require the under-bussing of, say trans people.
Kay
@Eolirin:
You don’t get better performance by telling people they’re doing great and any better performance is impossible. Starting there ends only place, a lower standard. He’s aiming higher. Don’t shut him down.
Eolirin
@Kay: Kay, what makes you think they’re not being defended?
You did see what happened with Hillary right? She got up and made strong arguments not just about policy but about the lack of moral deceny in the racism, xenophobia, antisemetism and anti-queer stances of Trump and the GOP. And what got repeated ad nausem? Trump rally after trump with no commentary and her emails, which basically was a bunch of gossip over risotto recipes and other bullshit, and constant questioning of how trust worthy she was.
They never once engaged with the defense she was making on culture war issues except to yell at her for calling the part of the GOP that are literal Nazis deplorable.
Dems are out there calling out this stuff. It goes no where. No one picks it up, no one repeats it. We’re screaming into a void. We need other ways to talk to people, these ones aren’t working.
Kay
@Kropacetic:
It’s not confident and it doesn’t inspire confidence in others. Just be brave for 9 months. Hold on. Don’t retreat. It’s going to be a tough midterm either way but at least this way it won’t be fucking shameful. Live to fight another day.
Eolirin
@Kay: I’m not interested in shutting him down. And I’m not saying people are doing a good job; I’m saying that we need to completely rethink our tactics here.
We’re not going to get what we need from this approach. It won’t matter if we do it better if we’re fighting in a way that won’t work. We need different approaches.
Kropacetic
@Kay: The criticism needs to be constructive, though. That bit about a kid dying on a field trip Omar’s challenger chaperoned is not that. It’s further normalizing the idea that you can take any Democrat’s worst day and use it to make them unelectable.
Kay
@Eolirin:
It’s funny you mentioned Hillary- I always thought she was brave- because her speaking out a couple of weeks ago is what got me wondering “I wonder where the elected Democrats are?”
Hillary does great on that. Take a page from her on fighting for people.
Kay
@Kropacetic:
Agree. Horrible. I try to see it from the view of the parents of the drowned child. What a horrible thing to do to them, to bring them into this shitty fight. Awful.
Geminid
@germy: Now I get it. Hadn’t heard about Ms. al-Aqidi. I knew that there were other Republicans in the race, including a Black man who was a Democratic state legislator before he hopped on the Trump train.
Speaikng of which, the orange churl himself plans to rally in Georgia two Saturdays from now, if his plane doesn’t lose an engine. He intends to boost Perdue’s campaign against Kemp, as well as Jody Hice’s run against the non-compliant Secretary of State Raffesperger.
That’s Trump with a capital T which rhymes with G that stands for Grievance!
Kay
@Kropacetic:
OTOH, self discipline is really important in this, especially this, which will be ugly, so he might try to not respond to every random Tweet. I thought it came from Omar. It didn’t, so why is he responding at all?
japa21
@Kay: Unlike you, I am very optimistic about November. A lot of people like to harken back to 2010, but there really is no similarity.
I am not considering it a done deal by any means. But, if we remain focused good things will happen.
Kropacetic
@Kay: That too. And did they ask for this? Do they hold the man responsible?
If the tweet came from the parents, I’d give it some more weight.
Baud
It occurred to me that Dolly Parton is the only common ground Americans share right now.
Eolirin
@Kay: I think she does an amazing job, but I’m deeply skeptical her tweets will ever help us win a single election. It’s all the other things she does that ultimately make a difference.
And I suspect if you go digging a little deeper there are actually a sizeable number of elected officials saying things very similar to what she’s saying that simply don’t have the reach to be noticed at all.
Democrats in the Florida state house made extremely impassioned statements about how horrible the Don’t Say Gay bill is. If you’re not following exactly the right part of Twitter or, possibly, local news in Florida, you’re not going to ever see it. We have no natural allies to signal boost us in traditional media. The Disney CEO having to issue a statement of apology to his employees over donations Disney made to the state GOP is the only thing that’s really bubbled up about that law
And that’s mostly the media assisting Disney in a PR effort to look less awful on this issue.
Gin & Tonic
@Kropacetic: No, it was for Westerners. The top line of her poster was in English, not Russian.
Kropacetic
I’m fairly, cautiously, optimistic myself. We’re fighting for the Senate on mostly friendly turf. Redistricting doesn’t look to bad for the Dems. Republicans are openly abusing their constituents, full mask off*. We’re trying to get help to working families.**
Maybe we could use one of those for ourselves but, like, responsible.
*Patriots!!!
**Communists!!!
Soprano2
@Kropacetic: Yeah, but his flippant comment about it made matters a lot worse. That’s the kind of thing you have to know is going to be used against you, so you have to get out in front of it.
Soprano2
@Kay: Yes, but his response made it a lot worse.
Kropacetic
@Soprano2: Exactly. Kay was right, this will dredge up terrible memories for the parents if they see this. Meanwhile, it’s making the primary fight out-of-bounds ugly.
Betty Cracker
I have no idea what will play in the midterms, but I don’t think we have to choose between kitchen table issues and fighting the culture war. FL’s legislative session just wrapped up, and the mainstream dailies are pointing out that the GOP-dominated statehouse and GOP governor did exactly jack and shit about the homeowners’ insurance crisis while passing laws to address DeSantis’s culture war laundry list.
Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like an opportunity for a Democrat to come forward and say DeSantis is slandering gay teachers with all this “groomer” bullshit, has wasted time and destroyed lives focusing on bullying schools and businesses about masks during the worst public health crisis in a century, etc., all the while ignoring real problems Floridians face, like unaffordable/unavailable insurance and kids falling behind in schools, etc.
Jeffro
@Kay: THIS. We have to engage on all levels and all issues.
And – perhaps even more importantly – WE need to be the ones playing offense. We (as a party) are always reacting. We wake up, wondering each brand new day, “What are Republicans going to be angry about/hit us with today”? (not my original observation btw).
hueyplong
@Baud: “It occurred to me that Dolly Parton is the only common ground Americans share right now.”
And we’re a single FoxNews 24 hour cycle away from her vilification and conversion into a “divisive figure.”
Eolirin
@Jeffro: Stacey Abrams is opening her campaign hitting the GOP on Healthcare, an area where we’re strong and they’re weak. The national players are focusing on using their support for policies that improve people’s lives in contrast with the GOP’s lack of any sort of beneficial agenda.
This is already what’s being done.
jnfr
@NotMax:
I love the Space Station and really hope this astronaut gets home safely. I can’t imagine how disturbing this must be for other astronauts who were waiting to go up.
Betty Cracker
@Betty Cracker: I’m sort of leaning toward Nikki Fried in the gubernatorial primary because that’s what she’s doing — going after DeSantis hard in ways the media will pick up because it’s personal and edgy AND calling the Republican-dominated statehouse out for doing nothing to improve Floridians’ lives. Will it work? I have no idea. But it’s good to see someone trying something different.
Gin & Tonic
Tractors doing actual tractor stuff. Don’t forget, it’s March, and there is planting to be done. Ukraine produces something like 10% of the world’s wheat, f’rinstance. Note the flags on every tractor, in the Russian-occupied Kherson area.
Soprano2
@Jeffro: I’m going to repeat I think one major problem is that Democratic politicians buy into the idea that whatever the majority of white men think is what the majority of Americans think. I believe that’s why they’re somewhat reluctant to engage on the culture issues, because to them it feels like the “average American” believes the things Republicans are saying.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I find this remarkable
Eolirin
@Betty Cracker: Once y’all actually have a gov nominee I certainly hope they take a tact like that.
Geminid
@Kay: Stancil deserved the pile on he got for his discreditable name calling. He picked that fight. All Semrau did was push back on the negativity of what she called the “why vote Democrat” arguments, without naming anybody. She gave the Republican’s barbaric laws regarding women’s health as a sufficient reason to vote. Then Stancil jumped in and pretty quickly was calling Semrau a “dumb shill.” Ms. Semrau (aka Mangy Jay) is widely respected, even admired, for her probity and intellect, so Stancil did not make any friends here.
Stancil had already ticked people off with a tweet belittling the significance of the Emmet Till Anti-Lynching Act passed by Congress last week. But as someone pointed out, people like Stancil never got lynched, and never have ectopic pregnancies.
Kropacetic
We may not, but the media may pick for us. Candidates can give umpteen policy speeches but it still won’t stop our beloved MSM from focusing on the weirdest activist tweets they can find and asking why Dems don’t talk about policy.
The one thing Republicans get right that we need to do, distill all our policy and culture-war positions into pithy little phrases.
Baud
@Geminid:
Not on Twitter, so I don’t have a dog in this particular fight. But as a general matter, I prefer thinkers who come up with reasons why people should vote Dem over those who are still asking the question.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@oldgold: So, that’s better. I guess? No, definitely better.
Matt McIrvin
@japa21:
That’s the antimaskers/antivaxxers/Freedom Convoy.
Betty Cracker
@Kropacetic: Yes — and link the two! It’s not a stretch because they are genuinely related. How are schools supposed to help kids make up lost ground when Republican kooks are overrunning meetings to shriek about Dr. Fauci? How will homeowners whose rates have increased 300% in three years get any relief when their statehouse representatives are focused on setting DeSantis up for the 2024 GOP nomination?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Dangerous.
Baud
New heroes, coming soon to Tucker Carlson.
oldgold
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yes, it was a swell evening, until I bit into a pit.
Now, looking for a good dentist.
Kropacetic
Just cut out any parts of the history curriculum that aren’t US American hagiography and don’t take time to teach students respect for classmates who are different and there’s way less to make up right there…
ETA: Almost forgot, history prior to the US should be taught as a parade of white heroes and thinkers making us the inevitable cultural inheritors of the ancient Greek and Roman Empires.
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Kaczynski’s twin brother, if you will recall, was killed in that plane crash that nearly everyone in Poland and Ukraine blames on the Russians.
VOR
@Kropacetic: For people outside Minnesota, you need to understand Ilhan Omar’s district, the Minnesota 5th Congressional District. It consists of the entire city of Minneapolis, the largest city in the state, plus a handful of 1st tier suburbs. As Wikipedia says:
This means the D primary is more important than the general election in determining who sits in Congress.
J R in WV
@Daniel:
I see nothing about that letter to criticize, whatsoever. You need to be specific about what you find disagreeable, or shut up about it. It nearly made me cry, and I don’t know the dude at all.
Z praised Brent Renaud’s bravery, his career and his humanity, and he offered the sympathy of the entire nation of Ukraine to Renaud’s family.
Here are a few random quotes: “heartfelt condolences to you on the tragic loss”… “A talented and brave journalist…” “With all his courage and determination…”
“The people of Ukraine… are mourning with you. We are thankful to Brent for his professionalism and commitment t the values of compassion, ethics and justice.”
The parts I left out are as complementary to the murdered reporter as the parts I included.
What more could he have done or said?! Really!?!
FlyingToaster
@Matt McIrvin: The right-wing crazies are failing because their money source just dried up. And the evening news is ignoring them because “if it bleeds, it leads” and Ukraine is bleeding.
So-called “truckers” (actual truckers are delivering shit; they don’t have time for this nonsense) being flipped off on the Beltway are not bleeding.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: There is a notion that the Tea Party of ten years ago faded away. I think that this may be a misconception. At least from what I saw in Virginia, they stayed around and become a major, perhaps dominant faction in the state’s Republican party. Or rather, they’ve aligned themselves with political evangelicals to make a faction that can be dominant. The establishment, Chamber of Commerce-type Republicans who used to call the shots for the party have been on the defensive ever since Eric Cantor lost the VA-7th primary in 2014. I think I’ve observed a similar evolution in other states.
There has been a rebranding. These folks now call themselves “Constitutional Conservatives” and when they holler about “We the People” they wear khakis and polo shirts intead of tri-corner hats. But it’s the same sorry crew.
Kropacetic
See also the notion that they emerged from nowhere. It’s all just the loudest, angriest Republicans. The same fools listening to Rush Limbaugh through the 90s.
sab
@Geminid: My limited experience with the Tea Party (some clients are active) is that they pretty much started through right wing churches (they truly believe that they are grass roots) and rhey will keep going under different iterations as long as their pastors and most of the congregation members want to.) There is lots of money and organization from above, but that money from above knew exactly where to go.
Jeffro
@Soprano2: yes – so true
Suzanne
@oldgold:
So I went to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville in its opening year. We got our tickets and went to enter the first gallery. A staff member stopped us and waited for a few minutes until there was a group of about 20 visitors. Then they proceeded to tell us in a very stern voice that we could NOT TOUCH THE ART. My mind was totally blown that adults would be talked to in this fashion, until I saw, almost immediately, a woman running her hands up and down the frame of a large painting.
The South, man.
japa21
@Matt McIrvin: As I said, no equivalent.
sixthdoctor
Hope his opponent runs with this.
Kay
@Geminid:
You can’t start with “we will pass BBB” – a kitchen table bill- then pretend none of that happened and point to a list of other things and weirdly flip that to somehow being opposed to “kitchen table” issues. No one is going to buy this. Attacking Stancil – who has zero power and is simply an engaged Democrat with different opinions than yours- doesn’t get you where you want to go. You’re kicking him out for the offense of insulting another Twitter user? Well, I’m a Democrat too and I’m keeping him in. I don’t think we’re in a position to start loyalty tests.
This defensiveness doesn’t project confidence. Will Stancil and Manjy Jay can exist in the same party. There’s room. They simply disagree about an approach. He’s not even a “populist” – calling everyone you disagree with a “populist” as some kind of broad indictment is a tactic.
sab
@Soprano2: Yes. Tim Ryan certainly improved a lot after he got married and started listening to his public school teacher wife with children.
oldgold
@Suzanne: Hard to keep the digits off of the Elvis paintings on velvet.
Black velvet and that little boy’s smile
Black velvet with that slow southern style
A new religion that’ll bring ya to your knees
Black velvet if you please.
RaflW
NPR is reporting this morning that the meeting between natl security advisor Jake Sullivan and the Chinese yesterday in Rome lasted seven hours.
Apparently this was a meeting that had been in the works since December, but the message appears to be that the US was “intense, candid and direct” about China’s footsie with Russia. (neither NPR nor US diplomats said footsie in the piece.)
Geminid
@Kropacetic: This strain in the Republican party has been around since 1860, when the American Party, dissolved itself and most of the “Know Nothings” joined the new Republican party.
I trace their more recent ascendence to the furor over George W. Bush’s attempt to put through a Comprehensive Immigration bill during his second term. Limbaugh and other radio hosts incited their followers into a firestorm of protest, swamping Republican lawmakers with angry calls. That killed Bush’s proposal dead.
A few years later the reaction to “Obamacare” and Obama energized the radicals again, and they adopted the catch-all “Tea Party” brand. But they have always been as much Republican party insurgents as they’ve been against Democrats.
Suzanne
@oldgold: Nah, there’s some nice art there. It’s the museum built to house the collection of Alice Walton. Sweet sweet Walmart cash.
Daniel
@bbleh: Condolence letters should be truly and completely about acknowledging the sadness and loss of the people who survived the deceased. This is an anthem to the war.
Daniel
@J R in WV: Condolence letters should be about the grief and loss of those who survive the deceased. This letter is an anthem to the war.
Kay
@japa21:
We have different problems than we had in 2010. Biden is less popular than Obama was, and I like Biden, but frankly he’s not as talented a politician. You don’t get a lot of Obamas. You get one, maybe two, every 50 years. We have weaker Senate leadership and Pelosi is essentially a lame duck. The only reason she didn’t retire is it would have looked terrible for Democrats right now but they all know she’s on her way out. We’re in better shape in the states than we were in 2010. There isn’t going to be a giant state sweep.
I would just go head on with “culture war”. We can win it. Do whatever else you want with “kitchen table”, I don’t care, without legislation it isn’t going to be a lot, but there’s no reason they can’t do both.
geg6
@Eolirin:
Totally agree. We and every Democrat in the nation could be standing there screaming at every Republican that we’re not gonna take it any more, damn it. But the media we have will simply not cover it. We can’t make them, no matter what we do. Or if they do, it will only be in a purely negative, othering way. We’ve seen that over and over, from the Women’s March to any and all protests against any sort of racism, over the last four or five years. We need to find another way. I have no idea what that is as I am no communications expert. But that’s the only option as I see it. Screaming that Democrats suck at communication is another of the many ways Democrats get smeared for things they have no control over. I see Democrats all over social media and elsewhere trying to get messages out, even forceful messages, but the media never cover it.
Kropacetic
Biden isn’t on the ballot, just as Obama wasn’t in 2010. A big thing will be educating voters on the importance of state and local elections.
lowtechcyclist
@Kropacetic:
Well, how about billboards? Like ’em or loathe ’em, they’re a way around the MSM. I see Dem messages on billboards basically never.
Take the drive from Tampa airport to Plant City on I-275 and I-4. Central Florida, a place where you’d want to swing some swing voters, and a metric ton of billboards, mostly for personal injury lawyers. And I can’t recall having ever seen a Democratic message on any of those billboards.
And a question about those Sunday political talk shows. I don’t watch them, but asking those who do: do the Dems invited on the various shows ever seem like they’ve coordinated with one another, like they’re all pushing the same message? Obviously they don’t reach a mass audience, but if you’re playing the politics game, you’d still like to see the Dems using these shows as an opportunity to push the party’s message.
laura
@Daniel: Really? He died with the war and not from the war is your argument against this condolence letter? Hard disagree, not that my opinion of your criticism is worth a hill of beans, but man… that’s some position you’ve carved out there. I can smell the umbrage right through my phone.
Kropacetic
We need to learn to put on a show, like the Republicans. Let’s wear funny hats and come wielding banned books, saying it’s about “Constitutional carry.”
Kay
@japa21:
And be flexible. If it starts to look favorable state level, and I think it might, move to that. If they get hurt at the national level it’ll make a huge difference if they can do okay state level. “Culture wars” make more sense state level anyway, with a far Right SCOTUS. Win those there.
Geminid
@Kay: We’re talking about two people on the same side of the Democratic party here. Mangy Jay considers herself a “progressive” and has a deeper understanding of and commitment to the programs of the BBB bill than Stancil, who politically is a dilettante compared to her.
No one is for “kicking Stancil out” of the party for being a soreheaded lightweight. But Stancil is an incessant critic of all but a very few Democratic politicians. If Stancil wants to dish it out, he can take it.
And I did not call Stancil a “populist.” That’s a straw herring argument!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I am sort of the same way; I think various Trump screw ups on things like census really have thrown off the normal political calculations. Plus all those voter suppression laws these Red States keep on passing turn out to be so random it could just as easily hurt the GoP’s turn out as much as much as the Dem’s.
As far as culture wars go, CRT is a dud, who knows, maybe they can whip the Right Base into a lather over transgender pet abortions or something bizarre, but it feels like the same unthinking rage isn’t there like in 2010.
Kropacetic
Who woulda thunk that “let’s not educate our kids” wouldn’t get any traction outside the Republican base?
ETA: I would bet on a brand new culture war issue for October. Enough time for us to form an argument against it, but not enough that most of us won’t be able to explain quickly enough for most attention spans.
The truth needs to learn to get its shoes on faster. Lies are already up and running.
Kay
@japa21:
It’s a different way of thinking. It’s a whole map, it’s not a federal map. We lost the SCOTUS, it’s far Right, which makes state law much more important. We can’t pass federal pro-choice laws but we can defend D governors and try to get some more and we can use those issues to do that. Schools are a state issue. Anti-trans and anti-gay are right now, in reality, state issues. Win them there.
lowtechcyclist
@japa21:
I agree with you on 2, 3, and 4. But this year, the whole damn GQP is the Tea Party, so they don’t need one this year. And while there are some intra-GQP fights, they’re not going to amount to a circular firing squad. They may be in more disarray than usual this year, but I’m not sure how much it will matter: their voters know they’re on Team R and will vote for their nominees
ETA: That /blockquote is staying up top, no matter how often I move it to after #5. Weird.
Soprano2
@sab: They all need to quit being afraid to say that things the majority of white men believe are wrong. I think that’s what holds a lot of them back on the culture war issues; they honestly think things like book banning and not teaching about our racial history are popular because so many of the white dudes they know and read agree with those things. They’re only paying attention to people who are somewhat like them. I hope our society eventually gets past the idea that whatever white people think is what everyone thinks.
Ruckus
@Betty:
Expertise is anathema to Republicans these days.
Which they constantly work extremely hard to prove every day.
Kay
@Geminid:
Well, that’s a completely fair minded analysis. The plan is to scold them into voting for Democrats? That’ll work. A political Party who thinks “the problem” is their voters is a political Party that is doomed. Because it’s not just this one person on Twitter. Biden will need to be above 80/90 with Democrats. He needs to figure out how to get there. The way to get there is not to start reducing the ranks of people we call “Democrats”.
Kay
@Geminid:
You compared him to Michael Tracey and then said all populists don’t like people. I don’t even know what this is. If you vanquish or discredit him what gets better?
Kropacetic
@Kay: I am glad that, unlike Stancil, the two of you are making actual substantive arguments here and not resorting to ad hominem invective
And there’s nothing wrong with asking our side to be better. That’s why most of us are on this side, Bill Maher’s condemnation be damned.
Soprano2
Oil is down $8.50/barrel this morning. I’ve noticed the price of gas here has already dropped from $3.79/gal to $3.67 in just a couple of days. Evidently “the market” is noticing that there hasn’t been any real disruption in the supply of oil. I’m sure Biden will get zero credit for this from any of the people who have been screaming about high gas prices for the past few months.
The Moar You Know
@Soprano2: I not only can’t understand any of it (and I follow politics, just not theirs) but I can’t understand what my own right-wing co-workers say to me half the time. They’re speaking in code. I have yelled “speak English!” more than a few times at them, which does nothing but seriously piss them off. But I have no fucking idea what they’re talking about. The words might be English but we damn sure are not speaking the same language.
Steve in the ATL
@Geminid:
Reminder from Georgia that all four of these people are horrible. Hice is one of my least favorite people in the state, but Raffesperger is not a good guy in any way.
Kropacetic
Of course, those who would benefit politically from the argument in theory know that the President has little to do with the price of gas and wouldn’t sully themselves to make this bad argument.
Kay
@Kropacetic:
Stancil is definitely cranky. I like that in a person. He’s upset because he supports Democrats and he thinks they are a losing. A lot of Democrats think they are losing. The cure for that, IMO, is not “no we are NOT and if we are it’s because of YOU”. Me? A very loyal Democratic voter? I’m the problem?
It’s a horrible approach. We do it every bad cycle and it never fucking works but it seems to be all we have. Can we think of something else? Anything really. Just not that again.
Geminid
@Kay: I did compare Stancil to Tracey yesterday, but only as two objects of widespread twitter dunks. It was Tracey alone that I classified as being on the anti-establishment side of an axis, and that was in response to another commenter who said it was wrong of Ms. Laurie to identify Tracey as “left.”
But still, Stancil accusing Magdi Semrau of being a “dumb shill” was uncalled for and discreditable.
Ancient Atheist
I am having difficulty recalling who convinced us that allowing certain nations to possess nuclear weapons is a good idea. Is MAD a political decision designed by scientist? Where in the formula is the !!! factor? !!! as in the leader of the nuclear armed nation is fucking nuts factor! Will humans be forever held in bondage because of nuclear weapons?
lowtechcyclist
@Kropacetic:
Maybe we need our own. Like “standing up for our teachers against intrusive state laws.”
Kropacetic
The best I got is to be determinedly constructive in any criticism we make of one another and to engage good-faith criticism from any source honestly.
Kay
@Kropacetic:
Everyone will hate this but if it were me? If I were ruler of the Democratic Party. I’d move almost everything to states, which can include Senate races which are kind of a weird fed/state hybrid in terms of elections because they’re statewide. That’s a good bet. It’s where they’re overreaching. That way you don’t have to tell them if they pick up 7 Senate seats (pipedream) they can defend against anti gay anti trans anti choice – they just need a D governor. That’s the reality too, with this SCOTUS, so that’s nice. It’s true.
Daniel
@laura: I don’t think that the survivors of this man, who know his duty as a journalist was to go anywhere that was dangerous, not just Ukraine, care as much about Ukraine as they do about him.
Condolence letters should be centered on the survivors. I’m not trying to make this a thing, just pointing out that this is propaganda, not a condolence letter.
Not sure why that makes you mad. It’s not the letter I would have wanted to get if my son had died.
The Moar You Know
@Ancient Atheist: nobody did. Once one country got them everyone wanted them and proceeded to develop them.
By the time any serious effort was made to try and restrict the technology it was WAY too late.
The fundamental tech behind it is pretty simple. Actually making one is not, but if you keep in mind how many nations have them it’s obviously not that hard
MAD was political, no scientific input.
There is no way to deal with a lunatic who has nukes without running the risk of annihilating human life. That’s part of the deal.
Yes, we will be dealing with this forever. Like I said, the fundamentals of nuclear weaponry are just not that complicated.
Kropacetic
@Kay: The states have been our weakness my entire adult life. I’m all for firing up the 50 state strategy again. Even more direct community involvement would be good, too. Maybe coalition building with smaller parties to get them engaged in D politicians instead of 3rd party bids siphoning off votes?
Geminid
@Kay: And this is a small thing, but you misrepresent what I said about populists and their regard for people as opposed to “The People.” I wouldn’t care except that I don’t want people who did not read yesterday’s comment to think that I said something I did not.
Kay
@Geminid:
You hear worse at any county Democratic meeting. Monthly. They’re at their absolute worst when they think they’re losing- both the critics and the defenders. That’s just people.
scav
Someone else has got to have already come up with the term Ever Grounded. It seems far too low-hanging to me.
Kay
@Geminid:
Well, explain it again, because I don’t think there’s any difference between saying they have high regard for “The People but not people”, but be my guest.
Kay
@Geminid:
I don’t think it’s fair to say to someone who regrets that Democrats didn’t pass BBB “don’t you care about lynching?!” or “so, you SUPPORT violence against women?”
I mean, come on. It’s designed to shut him up. He’s a huge pain in the ass, so it won’t, but that is what it is designed to do. Play fair. Engage him on what he’s bitching about, which is BBB.
Geminid
@Kay: I suggest you reread yesterday’s comment so I don’t have to explain it. I don’t have time right now to look it up and restate it here so other people can see what I said in full context.
I will if you want me to but it will have to be later.
Geminid
@Kay: I don’t think anybody thinks they can shut Will Stancil up. They’re going to push back on him, though.
lowtechcyclist
FWIW, I’ve totally lost track of what you and Kay are arguing about, and I was at least semi-trying to follow it. So I don’t think worse of either of you as a result.
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: “Do you want your local school to have to waste thousands of dollars defending itself against a frivolous lawsuit because the state government decided to forbid school teachers from even saying certain common words?” Because in some states that’s what they’re doing, and I don’t think most people understand that.
gvg
@lowtechcyclist:
I think it reads better to declare that the republicans are passing LIAR laws and mandating that teachers LIE to students. That republicans have delicate feelings which can’t withstand even a little critique of people who lived in the past. They are CHOOSING to empathize with slaveholders for instance. They have no right to order teachers to lie to students. They are picking a side. The side that is the bad guys. Can you imagine if your boss told you to lie over and over? Students wouldn’t be able to trust teacher. I am calling it a LIAR law when I talk to people.
gvg
@Daniel:
What if they would be insulted if you ignored the reason he died and what he thought was important? I would not appreciate the letter you want written. Now people are different, so we actually can’t guess what his unknown to us relatives would like, but for most people, their work is a huge important part of their life, and journalist seem to take it very seriously.
Amir Khalid
@Daniel:
I’m sorry, but I see nothing propagandistic about the letter. Zelenskyy is writing about a man he didn’t know personally, to the man’s family whom he also doesn’t know personally. So there’s a lot of big-picture generalities that you wouldn’t see if Zelenskyy were a close personal friend. But for all that, there’s also genuine graciousness and sympathy.
Uncle Cosmo
I feel for ya. Flying back to the US from Madrid via Paris on Air France in 1994, was served a salad with two medium olives. Bit cautiously into the first one; no pit. Oh, those clever French, I thought, and chomped lustily on the other. Pit. Big. Hard. Mortar. Forking. Pit. Cracked the molar down the middle; had to be extracted. Aaah, those fucking Frogs, I thought….
OGLiberal
@jnfr: Looks like the next crew will be going there on a SpaceX and it’s three Americans and one Italian. After the crew that is set to return soon and this new crew is up there I think the station will be cosmonaut-less until the Fall.
Daniel
@gvg: He spent a lot of time talking about the suffering of Ukraine. That’s what he is doing right now. It’s his right. It’s not the point of condolence in my opinion.
I think we’ve explored this at length. I hope none of us ever have to get a letter like this, regardless of how it’s written.
Daniel
@Amir Khalid: A letter can have graciousness and sympathy and also propagandistic. I think this letter has both.
In any case I hope none of us has to receive a condolence letter, be it well written or not.
satby
@Daniel: People who critique unexpected kindness tend to be jerks, are you? I’m pretty sure the journalist’s family didn’t expect a condolence letter from Zelinskyy at all, as he’s pretty preoccupied with a war and staying alive. But he took time to note the loss of their son. And we don’t see reports of them complaining.
We will, however, take note of you and your preferences in wording should the need arise to send you condolences.
J R in WV
@Daniel:
Funny peculiar — to me it seemed like an anthem about the deceased person, full of condolences to his family.
The writer is, after all, the leader of the nation in which the reporter died… it seemed to me that Z was suffering the loss of every Ukrainian person who died, fled into refugee camps, lost their family. All of them.
…but you do you, Daniel. I’ll not follow on.
Daniel
@J R in WV: you guys sure are getting ramped up about me discussing the etiquette of condolence letters. I’m not sure why.
Daniel
@satby: I made a simple comment about the way that condolence letters are usually written and you got personal. So no I don’t think I’m the jerk here.