Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

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Sunday Morning Politics Open Thread

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Pretty sure that’s a service dog vest, and presumably that scrap of paper is a shopping list for the vendor. Gotta love the Excuse me — also one of *these*, please! attitude…

======


(HuffPo reports the Clash is okay with this remix.)

Reader Interactions

146Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike in NC

    Just the other day, America’s worst state (AKA South Carolina) decided to bring back firing squads to execute criminals. They would elect Putin as their governor given the chance. Too big to be an insane asylum and all that.

  2. 2.

    MattF

    I had the same reaction as Jeet Heer to Lukashenko’s assertion that Putin is the healthiest man in the world. However, I still regard the ‘terminal illness’ theory as wishful thinking, if somewhat likelier than I’d thought before. And if Putin is replaced by one of his C-list buddies, that would be bad.

  4. 4.

    Lyrebird

    Thanks for this.

    Did not want to share my mood on the garden thread. Am trying to get work done. Trying not to think about those people in Mariupol, failing.

    Watched “Kyiv calling”. Cried and cried. Glad the remaining Clash musicians have approved, as well they should.

    One of the musicians is also an orthopedic surgeon!!!

  6. 6.

    Kay

    Amanda Smithfield
    @asmithfield
    I’m a school librarian, and I went to a Moms for Liberty meeting in my county. I wanted to explain how librarians select books, how reconsideration works, how I work with parents, etc. Not a single person there had a kid in public schools. Not a single one.

    Public schools belong to the whole community, not just parents and not just students, but I would suggest that if you’re relying on a group of people who didn’t and don’t attend public schools and are ideologically positioned against public schools you’re not getting a good sample of how the public views public schools.
    I think this might explain the fact that the public polling has never, not once, all thru the pandemic shown an increase in disatisfaction with public schools yet we were told over and over by media that it was increasing.

  9. 9.

    Kay

    I would have thought that the latest numbers about parental satisfaction might be lower because of all the pandemic-related chaos. But according to Gallup, which has tracked school satisfaction annually since 1999, in 2021, “73 percent of parents of school-aged children say they are satisfied with the quality of education their oldest child is receiving.” More parents were satisfied in 2021 than they were in 2013 and 2002, when satisfaction dipped into the 60s, and in 2019, we were at a high point in satisfaction — 82 percent — before the Covid pandemic dealt schools a major blow.
    Digging deeper into the Gallup numbers revealed that the people who seem to be driving the negative feelings toward American schools do not have children attending them

    Would we have had a better, more practical and more productive discussion about public schools in the pandemic if it had been driven less by “Moms for Liberty” and professional opinion writers and more by people who actually use public schools?
    Oh, well. Maybe next time we can have a real debate instead of concocting another useless “narrative”.

  10. 10.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    Until I listened to these reassurances I didn’t take seriously the idea that Putin might have a serious illness…

    I know, right? Or they’re getting worried about the Botox reserves running out…

  12. 12.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Kay:

    …yet we were told over and over by media that [dissatisfaction with schools] was increasing.

    unspoken:

    …increasing among our “sources” at the parties and lounges we frequent.

  14. 14.

    different-church-lady

    The more I hear out of The Kremlin, the more convinced I am that they ran Trump’s entire political operation directly.

  15. 15.

    zhena gogolia

    @Lyrebird: Yeah, my 3 am haunting word is no longer Trump but Mariupol.

    The Lukashenka clip is grimly hilarious. But I’m not betting on the disappearance of Putin either.

  16. 16.

    Kay

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:

    For a group of people who go on and on about how “free speech” has ended in the US it’s odd how they keep falling into these narratives that elevate the loudest and most lavishly funded voices.

    How do you miss accurately depicting the views of 72% public school parents in a narrative that is supposedly about public school parents? How does that happen? It’s almost like there’s some kind of “gatekeeping” for viewpoint …..one could even say “cancelling” going on.

  17. 17.

    Raoul Paste

    That is a well-produced  Clash parody.  The graphics, the subtitles, the interspersed footage— A lot of people hooked on that.   And in a war zone

  18. 18.

    trollhattan

    @MattF:

    Tub-o-goo Trump manages to greet each day with a fresh, “Which enemy will I destroy, today?” and Vlad is younger and clearly in better condition. Novachuck underwear seems more probable than a heart attack.

  20. 20.

    Geminid

    @Kay: The rural/exurban Virginia county I live in votes 60-40 Republican, and could be called a “red” county. It’s one high school is by far it’s most important civic institution, and a wellspring of local pride. Almost half of the weekly newspaper is devoted to Munroe High School sports. A sizeable portion of the rest covers non sports activities like the debate team, 4H Club etc., and the progress of young Munroe grads in the wider world.

    There was some agitation this winter over Covid mitigation policies, and the Assistant School Board Chairman actually resigned over it, but this was exceptional.

    I haven’t lived here long, but my impression is that most Greene County citizens think that their schools are good and want them to improve even more.

  21. 21.

    jonas

    @Mike in NC: Firing squads? WTF? I thought only Utah was into that because of some Mormon tradition or something. Breaking on the wheel probably came in a close second, though, so we’ll take what we can get from SC I guess.

  22. 22.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Kay: Like with most cultural constructs, “canceling” is contingent on a power dynamic.

    In the case of “canceling”, you can only cancel those who have platforms and/or audiences; i.e. you can only cancel “upward”.

    That’s why the people who currently have media platforms and/or audiences hate it so much. It challenges their status quo.

    The rest of us haven’t been “canceled” – we were never invited to the party to begin with. (Go party crashers!)

    ETA – Not to be a pedantic arsehole about your excellent comment though, Kay. Your comments are required reading.

  23. 23.

    jonas

    @MattF: ​
    I was reading the other day that some speech or interview Putin was giving recently was cut short when he started stuttering or slurring his words or something — Russian speakers said he sounded really out of sorts. I don’t know whether it’s some kind of terminal illness or something, but, yeah he doesn’t look well. Being evil takes its toll, eventually.

  24. 24.

    Gin & Tonic

    Not politics, but open thread: today’s first-world problem/question. I bought an item from a nondescript e-commerce site. A discontinued product, but still in demand, with a narrow range of known prices. Their price was noticeably lower. I figured, what the hell, paying via PayPal using an AmEx card, so two layers of protection. A month goes by, no product and no shipment notice, so I e-mail the not very legit-looking e-mail address. A week goes by with no response, so I open an incident (automated) with PayPal, saying I want my $98.99 back. PayPal’s system is very responsive, gives me status updates, and within a couple of days notifies me that the incident was resolved in my favor, and I am being refunded $98.90. Within two days, a $98.90 credit shows up on my card. Nowhere in any of this is any mention of my missing $0.09, and since this is a refund transaction, there is no obvious way to contest it.

    So, is this just a dumb mistake I should ignore for the sake of my mental health, or is there some scam business model I was heretofore unaware of, and somebody out there in Romania or Singapore or someplace is growing wealthy $0.09 at a time?

  25. 25.

    Steeplejack

    I can’t see any of the goddamn tweets (Android, Brave browser) unless I click on big empty white spaces, so apologies if this has already been posted re Lukashenko on Putin:

    Pretty sure “Nah, he’s fine” would have raised a lot fewer questions.
    https://t.co/BoQ6Dm3Jxt

    — Schooley (@Rschooley) March 19, 2022

  27. 27.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    by far it’s most important civic institution

    Absolutely true in rural areas. The closures were complicated for people. They missed sending kids to school, they worried about them falling behind academically, but they also missed the community center aspects of schools which is very much about adults. I’m not knocking it- it’s one of the functions, but that’s what we missed.
    It’s also harder to demonize a public school in a rural area because they’re big employers and everyone- everyone- knows the people who work there. “Jenna is… a radical Marxist? No she’s not” :)
    I suspect that’s WHY so many of the activists are not public school parents. Public schools are bad and foreign and “liberal” places to them right from the get-go and they have no real experience to contradict that.

  28. 28.

    ian

    @jonas: Many states are in a bind because they cannot import the chemicals necessary to perform lethal injections.  This is resulting in the return of firing squads, hangings, and the electric chair.

    From what I have heard, no one has been executed this way yet, thanks to the slow grind of death penalty cases, but given the recent spate of high profile mishaps and botched executions I am not sure the three chemical lethal injection process is any less cruel and inhumane.

    The whole death penalty thing needs to go the way of the dodo.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    Lukashenko says “Putin is more alive than anyone else”, “will survive us all”, “in top shape”, “never been more in his right mind”, “will only catch a cold at our funerals”..

    Lukashenko added, “And one more thing, Putin absolutely does not have genital warts or syphilis. That’s just crazy talk.”

  30. 30.

    Gin & Tonic

    Oh, and now comes Max Blumenthal suggesting that the Mariupol theater bombing was a false flag operation to get NATO involved. I bet Sidney is so very proud of young Max. No, I will not link.

  32. 32.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @ian: No kidding. No criminal justice system devised by humans will ever be capable of fairly dispensing such a final judgement. Let alone our fundamentally unjust system here in GBTFUSA.

    [EFG]

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @Mike in NC:

    Just the other day, America’s worst state (AKA South Carolina) decided to bring back firing squads to execute criminals.

    The really bad thing is the capital punishment, not the method.  Lethal injection, like the electric chair before it, is mostly an attempt to give a sheen of modernity to what is fundamentally a barbaric practice.  I would rather we used a method that lays bare just how nasty execution is rather than one designed to fool people into thinking they’re being humane when they’re actually torturing criminals to death.

  37. 37.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @zhena gogolia:

    Here’s my thing about Mariupol – Vova’s regime has said that it is engaged in humanitarian evacuations. If so, where’s the video of happy people stepping off of buses and being greeted with clothing and medical care?

  40. 40.

    Steeplejack

    @Steeplejack:

    My problem appears to be specific to Brave. The site is working okay with the Samsung browser. I have been using Brave because it works better with Twitter. And it was working fine with BJ until last night.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    “Nazi” in Russia simply means “against Russians.” No other meaning.

    In the same way that “Fake news” to TFG simply mean “critical of me.” No other meaning.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    For a group of people who go on and on about how “free speech” has ended in the US it’s odd how they keep falling into these narratives that elevate the loudest and most lavishly funded voices.

    I think it’s the democratization of speech that they’re really objecting to.  Their complaints about “free speech” are really a demand to be allowed to speak without criticism.  What they really want is the old system, where there were only a handful of big media platforms, and people who managed to wrangle a place on one of those platforms could be sure their voices would dominate as a result.  How dare the proles have a platform where they can complain about what their betters have proclaimed!

  46. 46.

    Steeplejack

    The equinox is coming up at 11:33 EDT, for those who want to go out and salute the sun or something.

  51. 51.

    Carlo Graziani

    @zhena gogolia:

    The Lukashenka clip is grimly hilarious. But I’m not betting on the disappearance of Putin either.

    For natural causes? No, me neither. But for “natural causes”? I would actually take an even-money bet, at affordable middle-class stakes,  and settle it by 1 July. The reason being that by then, I can’t really see either the Russian Army in Ukraine maintaining a semblance of capability or cohesion, or the Russian economy providing consumers with reassuring amounts of goods at reassuring prices.

    I was thinking back to the demonstrations of February 1991, which put half a million people on the streets of Moscow despite the presence of 50,000 MVD and Army troops, and scared the shit out of Gorbachev, making him change his mind about kicking Yeltsin out of the Duma. I wonder whether the Army would trouble to protect those asshole Chekists in the Kremlin from a million or so enraged Moscow citizens, or pass them some weapons instead.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @Roger Moore:

    Agree, but I think it’s in the places that they value. That’s what got them really upset- the NYTimes, which they value and consider one of their “places” went ‘woke’. Elite colleges? Same thing. These places are theirs and so the criticism and change in norms stung even more.

    Because they sure didn’t and don’t care when a Texas high school principal gets fired for following the same “equity” plan that was in place before the CRT panic, and they sure didn’t care when the community college instructor had to cancel her class on diversity. Those aren’t their places. Whatever the fuck the rabble is doing there doesn’t matter. Comedy? Also their place. Younger audiences were doing comedy wrong! They were not laughing at the right things- trans jokes are funny. They needed to swoop in and straighten that out.

    Now that they’ve bullied the NYTimes into compliance with their view of the cancel culture issue we’ll hear a lot less from them. The valuable places have been retaken- order is restored. Safe as houses now.

  53. 53.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Kay: Gotta keep the gen z rabble at bay!

    Watch out – they might cancel you, though.

  57. 57.

    Hungry Joe

    @Sure Lurkalot: Michael Hobbes and (the brilliant and hilarious) Sarah Marshall put out My Favorite Podcast Ever: “You’re Wrong About.” Hobbes moved on to “Maintenance Phase” — also excellent— but Marshall is still doing “You’re Wrong About,” with a series of guest co-hosts.

    “You’re Wrong About” is also My Second Favorite Podcast Ever, with “Heavyweight” third and “You’re Wrong About” fourth and fifth.

  61. 61.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Gin & Tonic:   My wife put in an order for something from suplmartshop.com.  It was an appliance with a price that seemed too low to be true.  The order when in, and no confirming E-mails or the like.    Further research indicated that the above mentioned web site is possibly a scam.  We contested the charge with the credit card company.  The person with the credit card was able to find a contact phone for that web site, but it went to PayPal.     In our case the charge was $79.99, and the refund is pending.

  62. 62.

    mrmoshpotato

    Lukashenko says “Putin is more alive than anyone else”, “will survive us all”, “in top shape”, “never been more in his right mind”, “will only catch a cold at our funerals”…

    Now do Dump!  Try to top 239 pounds; in great shape; will live to be 200; isn’t a fat, orange, Kremlin-humping, fascist shitstain; etc.

    Go!

  63. 63.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Hungry Joe: I loved You’re Wrong About but TBH, because of Hobbes. He’s a very good investigative reporter and brought a lot of depth. I listened to one after he left and it didn’t float my boat as much. But on your ardent recommendation, I will give it another go!

  64. 64.

    Lyrebird

    @Gin & Tonic: re: Blumenthal.  Thanks for not linking, I won’t read.  Despicable.  I did learn from Wikipedia:

    For Blumenthal’s writing concerning Ukraine, Sławomir Sierakowski, the head of the Polish liberal, pro-European group Krytyka Polityczna, included Blumenthal in a New York Times opinion piece entitled “Putin’s Useful Idiots” in 2014.

     

    @zhena gogolia: But I’m not betting on the disappearance of Putin either.

    Not in time for too many.

     

     

    @debbie: Yes, me too!  Did you watch the video with Odessa clergy, btw?  Very inspiring.

  66. 66.

    debbie

    @Jerzy Russian:

    It’s one thing to find something with a price that feels too low to be true at a thrift shop or antique store, but it’s never legit when it’s online. Some of my otherwise brilliant friends have fallen victim to these “deals.” I think it’s just easier to suspect everything, period.

  73. 73.

    Lyrebird

    @Gin & Tonic: WOW.

    I think that the Chinese should step up and say hey P we will  bring food and hospital supplies to Mariupol now, and you will make this all work safely.  No I don’t think they will but.

  74. 74.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I made the mistake of checking Greenwald’s timeline for ht third time today – he’s actually getting worse as the day progresses.

    Apropos of nothing whatsoever, airfare to Rio is running at about $1000, and if you’ve got some accrued miles, I know that airlines would love to have you burn some of ‘em off.

    Wonder if they have sporting goods stores with baseball bats?  ?

  76. 76.

    Dopey-o

    @ian: The whole death penalty thing needs to go the way of the dodo.

    Their opposition to the death penalty is one of the reasons i haven’t given up on the Catholic church.  Celebate men in long black dresses  don’t have much advice to give to married couples / sexually active people.

    But poverty, immigration, healthcare, environmental problems are obvious to them, and they have come to their opinions in good faith. (And dictu mirabili, they agree with me.)

    Now if only Biden would stop going to Sunday Mass and taking Communion, he’d be a better Catholic and we could enjoy a little peace and quiet! /s

  77. 77.

    mrmoshpotato

    @eclare:

    Oh wow, he does, in that aggressive leaning forward pushing out a massive shit manner. 

    Fixed.  And it doubles as saying Dump and his Russky master are both full of shit.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    Several snippets of note from over the past few days, non-COVID edition.

    About three dozen would-be asylum seekers from Russia found themselves blocked from entering the U.S. today while a group of Ukrainians flashed passports and were escorted across the border.

    The scene reflected a quiet but unmistakable shift in the differing treatment of Russians and Ukrainians who enter Mexico as tourists and fly to Tijuana, hoping to enter the U.S. for a chance at asylum.
    [snip]
    A Homeland Security Department memo dated March 11 but not publicly released until Thursday told border officials that Ukrainians may be exempt from sweeping asylum limits designed to prevent spread of COVID-19. It says decisions are to be made case-by-case for Ukrainians but makes no mention of Russians. Source

    Hoocuddanode.

    Texas threw out mail votes at an abnormally high rate during the nation’s first primary of 2022, rejecting nearly 23,000 ballots outright under tougher voting rules that are part of a broad campaign by Republicans to reshape American elections, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

    Roughly 13% of mail ballots returned in the March 1 primary were discarded and uncounted across 187 counties in Texas. While historical primary comparisons are lacking, the double-digit rejection rate would be far beyond what is typical in a general election, when experts say anything above 2% is usually cause for attention.
    [snip]
    The most rejections were around Houston, a Democratic stronghold, where Harris County elections officials reported that nearly 7,000 mail ballots — about 19% — were discarded. During the last midterm elections in 2018, Texas’ largest county only rejected 135 mail ballots. Harris County elections officials said they received more than 8,000 calls since January from voters seeking help, which they attributed to “confusion and frustration” over the new requirements. Source

    Know there’s some Tater Staters here who can chime in with more tart gusto. The lady is, to put it mildly, a piece of work.

    Idaho Republican Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin on Thursday outlined her plans for her first 100 days if elected governor, laying out a far-right agenda in her bid to defeat first-term Republican Gov. Brad Little.

    Speaking to reporters and about 50 supporters and onlookers on the Statehouse steps, McGeachin spelled out her 10-point plan that includes banning vaccine and mask mandates, protecting 2nd Amendment rights and reducing Idaho’s dependence on federal money.
    [snip]
    McGeachin said she would “bring integrity to Idaho’s elections,” without citing any inconsistencies. She also said as governor she’d push for a 50-state forensic audit of the 2020 election that former President Donald Trump Lost.

    Trump has endorsed McGeachin, and her supporters carried signs proclaiming the endorsement that included a photo of McGeachin standing next to Trump.

    McGeachin said that as part of her 2nd Amendment plans, she would offer incentives for increased production of firearms and ammunition in Idaho. Source

    How do you say “Hot enough for ya?” in Penguin?

    Earth’s poles are undergoing simultaneous freakish extreme heat with parts of Antarctica more than 70 degrees (40 degrees Celsius) warmer than average and areas of the Arctic more than 50 degrees (30 degrees Celsius) warmer than average.

    Weather stations in Antarctica shattered records Friday as the region neared autumn. The two-mile high (3,234 meters) Concordia station was at 10 degrees (-12.2 degrees Celsius),which is about 70 degrees warmer than average, while the even higher Vostok station hit a shade above 0 degrees (-17.7 degrees Celsius), beating its all-time record by about 27 degrees (15 degrees Celsius), according to a tweet from extreme weather record tracker Maximiliano Herrera.
    [snip]
    The coastal Terra Nova Base was far above freezing at 44.6 degrees (7 degrees Celsius).

    It caught officials at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, by surprise because they were paying attention to the Arctic where it was 50 degrees warmer than average and areas around the North Pole were nearing or at the melting point, which is really unusual for mid-March, said center ice scientist Walt Meier. Source

    Hasn’t been a banner month for The House of Mouse, has it.

    Officials at Walt Disney World said today that a performance by a visiting Texas high school drill team that used American Indian stereotypes, including chants of “scalp them,” doesn’t reflect the Florida resort’s values.

    The performance this week in the Magic Kingdom by the “Indianettes” drill team from Port Neches-Grove High School “did not reflect our core values, and we regret it took place,” Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said in an emailed statement. Source

  80. 80.

    germy

    What we learned in 2020? That oil is worthless in a society without consumption. That healthcare has to be public because health is public. That 50% of jobs can be done from home while the other 50% deserve more than they’re being paid. That we live in a society, not an economy.

    — mohamad safa (@mhdksafa) March 20, 2022

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    Officials at Walt Disney World said today that a performance by a visiting Texas high school drill team that used American Indian stereotypes, including chants of “scalp them,” doesn’t reflect the Florida resort’s values.

    The performance this week in the Magic Kingdom by the “Indianettes” drill team from Port Neches-Grove High School “did not reflect our core values, and we regret it took place,” Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said in an emailed statement.

    The name didn’t give them a clue?

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    I think we’re saying more or less the same thing, but I think the thing that angers them the most is that they’re losing their status as cultural arbiters.  They see themselves not just as culturally liberal but as having the power to decide what it means to be culturally liberal.  To have some kid tell them they’re behind the times and it’s now essential to call everyone according to their preferred pronouns is a double blow.  Not only are they learning they aren’t the cutting edge of social liberalism, they’re also stripped of their power to decide where that cutting edge is.  Talking about “the woke mob” gets at both those issues.

  86. 86.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Roger Moore: When was the last time we really had a generational transfer of cultural dominance? 50 years ago? They’re uncomfortable for the incumbents.

  88. 88.

    Ken

    @debbie: They’re being repatriated to remote villages in Russia.

    As long as it’s not a farm, upstate, where they can run and play with the other kulaks.

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @Mike in NC:

    Stationed in that lovely garden spot for 2 yrs. There were a couple of good fish restaurants in town. I got shot at walking back from downtown. Once. Other than that I’m out. Oh wait, it was nicer than the weekend the ship was tied up in Baltimore. Now that was first class…….

  91. 91.

    Anyway

    @Roger Moore:

    There’s also an undercurrent of their identity as  anti-Establishment Democrats – coupled with reflexive contrarianism. That speaks to a lot of MSM/pundit political reporting and analysis. Democrats are so uncool — how could they be doing anything right?  Just keep giving Rethugs benefit of the doubt even when they break the law or  their hypocrisy cannot be denied.

  92. 92.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Roger Moore: “I used to be with it. Then they changed what “it” was. Now what I’m with isn’t “it”, and what’s “it” seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you!” – Grandpa Simpson

  95. 95.

    Ken

    @NotMax: McGeachin[‘s plan for] reducing Idaho’s dependence on federal money.

    Definitely getting into “your offer is acceptable” territory there. Maybe a demonstration could be arranged? Send no Federal checks to Idaho for, oh, six months?

  96. 96.

    Brachiator

    @Hungry Joe:

    Hobbes moved on to “Maintenance Phase” — also excellent— but Marshall is still doing “You’re Wrong About,” with a series of guest co-hosts.

    “You’re Wrong About” is one of my favorite podcasts. I especially recommend the December episode on Reconstruction.

    Didn’t know about Hobbes’ new show and will definitely check it out.

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I’d say it’s $.09 for each of those that contest the non shipment.

    If you didn’t check/forgot you’d ordered it’s $98.99. You know there are those that forgot they ordered, I’d say likely about 10-15%.

  100. 100.

    smith

    @Anyway:  I think a lot of the pathology that we see among the pundit/journalist class stems from the fact that many of them came of age after the Republicans had abandoned any attempt at governing in good faith. That was about 30 years ago (thanks, Newt!), and any of these people under the age of about 50 have only ever seen a political world in which Democrats alone have agency, so are responsible for everything that happens, where “objectivity” means forced bothsiderism, and Republicans only exist for ratfucking and performance art.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @Roger Moore:

    but as having the power to decide what it means to be culturally liberal.

    Exactly. To me it seems like the definition of “gatekeeping” – not expansive at all. Freddie de Boer drops that he’s an “antique Marxist” (no idea what that means) into his cancel culture commentary but he never talks about Marxism or what that would look like in the US. He just talks about how he thinks liberals restrict speech. On that one subject they’ll allow a “Marxist” (and I don’t know if he is one) but only to prove that it’s not Right wing.
    I feel like saying these things are part of it- one of the people the NYTimes got a quote from describes herself as “to the Left of Lenin” but she too wants the kids off her lawn. It has to include these kind of over the top claims of “I am NOT a conservative” – why?

  102. 102.

    eclare

    @germy:   That really says it all.  I once worked in an office where everything was brown.  The desk, chair, cabinets, walls, carpet.  It was as if someone went out of their way to design the most depressing place to work ever.

  104. 104.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    In the US version of “What We Do In the Shadows”, one of the characters is an energy vampire. The guy goes out by day, but is a cubicle drone who is basically gray, boring and sucks the fun out of everything (even the other vampires).

    In a Season 2 episode, he gets a promotion that he didn’t initially want. As a manager, he feeds constantly, becoming immensely powerful and a genuine monster – his main methods? Long PowerPoint presentations and inconvenient requests to “pop by my office”.

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    @ian:

    The whole death penalty thing needs to go the way of the dodo.

    That would be good.

    Maybe just a tad worse:

    Those in rabid agreement with the whole death penalty thing need to go the way of the dodo firing squad. See how they feel about it then. Maybe a tad bit harsh but it does solve the problem. Likely several problems…… Just a suggestion, I mean they do get to see how it works up close and personal which they seem to want, the thrill of it all.

  107. 107.

    germy

    @eclare:

    I remember an  ugly office I worked in.  I described the hallway color scheme as “the last thing you see while you’re being wheeled to your lethal injection.”

  108. 108.

    Sloane Ranger

    In foreign news, Boris Johnson is being widely criticised for a speech he made to the Tory Party Conference where he compared Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion to Brexit. Apparently they’re the same because they’re both about wanting “freedom”. This despite Ukraine wanting to join the EU and the only person murdered during the Brexit Referendum campaign being Jo Cox (who supported staying in the EU).

    So, totally the same!

  110. 110.

    Quiltingfool

    @Kay: Absolutely right, Kay.  School is the center of any rural community.  Big fight in my district (taught there) over the closing of a small school within the county – that county is so rural there is only one school district.  The school was K-4, maybe 40-50 kids total, and per pupil expenditure was much higher than the main elementary school.  Yet, the folks in that small area served by the school were in hysterics over losing the school. It was a community resource.  It was a part of them.

    Also, you are spot on about rural school districts being the biggest employer – teachers, aides, secretaries, bus drivers, lunch ladies, maintenance – lots of jobs there.  And everybody KNOWS everybody.  Shit, in my former district, those folks don’t even know what the hell a Marxist is!

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It’s never “as a centrist well-off Democrat I too am vitally concerned with how Yale Law School has rude students” – it always has to include some kind of weird signal that the person is ultra Left, but no actual political opinions come along with that – it’s “I am”. What? How so? Can you give an example?

  114. 114.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    Back during our Most Excellent Adventure in Iraq, I had a client/friend who was an active duty major. She was complaining to me one day about being in a Green Zone PowerPoint presentation where a Lieutenant Colonel and a Brigadier General got into a 45 minute argument over whether the background color of one slide was real or green.

    The fucking things make me want to stab people.

  115. 115.

    Ken

    @germy: The part not visible in the picture, except by what’s not visible, are the corporate rules forbidding plants, posters, photos, and other personal items in the cubicles.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @Quiltingfool:

    We had a “reformer” come in about 20 years ago to consolidate schools and what he said made a lot of sense on a practical resources level but they are REALLY attached to these schools and to ignore that is to not understand it at all. They basically ran him out of town. I felt sorry for him but maybe learn something about them before you propose taking away their school?

    We knocked down a hundred year old grammar school – it was old enough to have a “boys” entrance and a “girls” entrance inscribed above two entry doors and people took the bricks as mementos. Also high schools are more important to people who don’t go to college, not less important. It’s their entire school experience. That’s it. The End.

  119. 119.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Kay: Come on. These people would never self-identify as Democrats. Democrats have cooties.

  120. 120.

    Bill Arnold

    Nazi” in Russia simply means “against Russians.”

    Their symbol is a Zwastika.

  124. 124.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Ken:

    “Professionalism in the appearance of our workspace is more important that comfort or individuality.”

  127. 127.

    eclare

    @zhena gogolia:   I watched some.  In the past couple of years I have become very violence averse, I don’t know if it’s the pandemic or what.  And that is across all news and other media.

  128. 128.

    debbie

    @Ken:

    I will not be going back to work, period. Once they realize that and terminate me, I can’t decide if I want to go back and claim all my desk and wall treasures. I’m thinking I’ll just let them go and think about them wistfully from time to time.

  129. 129.

    S. Cerevisiae

    @Kay:  There was a huge uproar in Duluth MN about 20 years ago when they went from 3 high schools to 2, some people there are still bitter about it.

  130. 130.

    Ken

    @debbie: Is it possible to be any more insensitive than Boris Johnson?

    Yes. He’s not compared wearing a paper mask to the Holocaust.

    Er, not that I know of.

  134. 134.

    eclare

    @debbie:   I believe what I read, that will have to be enough.  I have to do what I can to preserve my mental health.

  135. 135.

    Ken

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: In fairness, it may be a “hot desk” environment where employees aren’t even assigned a cubicle, so can’t leave personal items in them.

    (I’ve not worked in one of those. I wonder if in practice it works like classrooms or school buses with no assigned seating, where everyone sits in the same place every day anyway.)

  136. 136.

    Betty Cracker

    @Sloane Ranger: Are you surprised he’s still there? As an observer from afar, I thought he’d be forced out after the pandemic party revelations.

  138. 138.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Looks like they’re still trying to make their dumb, pathetic knock-off protest of a dumb, pathetic protest happen, so they’ll probably get around to killing someone eventually.

  139. 139.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve noticed how it does not seem to occur to these folks that the driver ( or any driver they harass ) might be carrying a weapon.  Sooner or later they’re going to come across one who is

    Eta: as Betty C says.

  141. 141.

    debbie

    Tick, tick, tick, Mattie!

    BREAKING: Florida Man about to be indicted for sex trafficking with a minor and other crimes unless he cooperates with the feds.
    — Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) March 20, 2022

  142. 142.

    JML

    @S. Cerevisiae: didn’t help that the consultant brought in to design the plan was also a group bidding on the construction contracts to come. Even if it wasn’t, it looked dirty AF. Also didn’t help that the high school being closed in Duluth was the oldest one in the city, even if it was in a newer building. (I still think the dumbest move they made was when they had the middle school and high school in the east end swap buildings and didn’t make it abundantly clear that they weren’t going to force the schools to change names…)

    It’s really hard to handle school reform when it involves consolidation. Those neighborhood schools are really embedded in the community even if the population has shifted and made them less viable.

  143. 143.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I’m sure that you’ve noticed that the majority of these activists are mostly concerned about other schools, not the one their kids attend. It’s like the school choice debate – ask them how to handle problems in rural schools that are “failing” and they’ve got nothing. All their emphasis is on turning inner city schools (we know who goes there!) into shells of themselves by siphoning all the government education money into for profit charters and religious schools. They don’t care about the quality of the education these kids get – they just want to profit from trying to provide it.

  144. 144.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay: ​
     

    it always has to include some kind of weird signal that the person is ultra Left, but no actual political opinions come along with that – it’s “I am”. What? How so? Can you give an example?

    I think this is closely related to what you’re always saying about some people acting as if being a criminal or law abiding person is just innate to that person rather than a result of their behavior. They see political persuasion the same way. They became liberal by attending liberal universities and joining important liberal institutions. That’s much more important in terms of defining whether they’re liberal or not than their positions on the issues.

  145. 145.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Betty Cracker: For a brief time it looked like he would be. Then he bought himself time by arranging for the Met Police to investigate the allegations (we can’t sack him while an investigation is underway, that wouldn’t be cricket) and ingratiated himself with enough Tory backbenchers by ending all COVID restrictions to keep his job. The Ukrainian crisis has firmed up his position and his popularity, as measured by opinion polls, has started to rise

  146. 146.

    Ogliberal

    Talking college hoops here.  My alma mater, Hofstra, is in a 1 team conference so they almost never make it.  So, as an NJ dude, I root for Rutgers…and that’s only recently because they sucked for so long.  Second team is Seton Hall, who got cheated in the 1989 final.  Always love watching Princeton give teams fits in the first round.  But this year, it’s St. Peter’s. With Pitino at Iona it was assumed they roll to the conference championship.  But another NJ team – Rider – beat them in the quarter-finals, which resulted in an all Jersey final, Monmouth (My home county so my fave) v. St. Peter’s.  St. Peter’s won, ran through Kentucky’s best on two teams and is now in the Sweet 16.  And those kids proudly sport Black Lives Matter t-shirts on the bench.  I love them. Bad ass emmer effers.

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