Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

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

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I really should read my own blog.

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

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Let me file that under fuck it.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Second rate reporter says what?

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Food / Monday Morning Open Thread: Music & Food, Two Essentials

Monday Morning Open Thread: Music & Food, Two Essentials

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72Comments

  2. 2.

    geg6

    Jose Andres and his crew are angels on earth. If he and WC Kitchen do not win a Nobel Peace Prize, no one should.
    And the Grammy appearance by Zelensky and the beautiful song performed by John Legend and Mika Newton were extremely moving. I really enjoyed the Grammy Awards show last night.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    On Today this morning, the Unofficial Bridgerton Musical won.

    Also, Obama is going to the White House to promote Obamacare.

  4. 4.

    Geminid

    @Baud: And this afternoon President Biden, along with Transportation Secretary Buttegieg, will deliver remarks on supply chain issues.

    Tomorrows ACA anniversary event will be the first time Barack Obama has visited the White House since he left over five years ago.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    the first time Barack Obama has visited the White House since he left over five years ago.

     
    That’ll be a joyous event.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    Good to know he gets it:

    New York (CNN Business) In a forthcoming book, a pair of New York Times reporters and CNN political analysts report that President Joe Biden “assessed” Fox News “as one of the most destructive forces in the United States.”

    The reporters, Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, say that Biden was even more critical of Fox Corp patriarch Rupert Murdoch.

    According to the book, Biden told an unnamed associate in mid-2021 that Murdoch was “the most dangerous man in the world.”

    She really, really gets it:

  12. 12.

    Emma from Miami

    President Zelenskyi was born for this time and place. I remember some of the jokes made in the European press when he was elected. And here we are. Putin must be livid watching “the crass comedian” earn a reputation as a heroic leader while his crashes and burns. Of course, it might be he’s lied to by his subordinates as they seem to do in most things.

  16. 16.

    Nicole

    That’s so cool about Joni Mitchell, and so nice she thanked her physical therapist.  I love that she chose to develop alternate tunings for her guitar because her polio-weakened left hand couldn’t handle some chords (barred F chord, cough cough it’s the devil) and now guitarists study her signature tunings and playing style.

  18. 18.

    Anyway

    @Baud:

    Nah. he is their hero. That’s what scares me – they have all these democracy-denigrating role models from around the globe. It didn’t use to be so overt.

  19. 19.

    sdhays

    @Baud: I don’t know much about Hungary, but it’s shocking and disturbing to see Hungarians so quickly go all in on being pro-Russia considering what Russia did to them a few decades ago.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @sdhays: Apparently, they have the same urban/rural divide that we do.  Part of the problem over there is that the opposition was a multiparty coalition.  I’m not sure how unified they were.  But the bigger problem seems to be Orban’s control over the media.

  22. 22.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: I don’t see how anyone else could win in Hungary since Orban controls 90% of the press. I don’t think anyone else could win in the face of that. Also, I heard a report this morning about their election that said the majority of the population lives in rural areas. That would make it even worse.

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Yep, and in addition to co-opting media outlets and educational institutions, Orbán and his party have rigged the vote to the point that opponents can’t win (3/31 NYT):

    [Orbán] has unleashed a fresh round of election law changes that benefit his party. He put an inflammatory but ultimately symbolic L.G.B.T. referendum up for a vote, a move that is likely to rally his most strident supporters. And he legalized the registration of voters outside of their home districts — a common practice, until now criminal, that is known as “voter tourism.”

    Sounds awfully familiar…

  26. 26.

    bjacques

    @Betty Cracker: Hungary is one of Europe’s (and NATO’s red states; clearly democracy is wasted on them. I wouldn’t be very sorry if Putin wanted to send tanks there, for old times’ sake. Oh well, we go to war and trade with the democracies we have, not the ones we wish we had. Orbán is a turd, but he’s still a more clever politician than the majority of GOP presidential hopefuls.

    I just hope NATO are careful about the intel Hungary get to see—maybe Man Called Intrepid feints to pipeline to Putin.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    @bjacques: I’ve wondered about the intel thing too. Since Hungary is a NATO member, we’d be obligated to defend it if Russia invaded, but that’s unlikely since Hungary is basically acting as a Russian cat’s paw.

  28. 28.

    jonas

    @Betty Cracker: I was reading recently that other NATO intelligence agencies have realized that Hungary’s intelligence agency has been so thoroughly penetrated/co-opted by the Russians that they can’t deal with it any longer. They may be a member still technically, but they aren’t on our side.

  29. 29.

    bjacques

    @Betty Cracker: Adam did say he’d address it tomorrow, so I’m looking forward. A friend of mine is Hungarian on his father’s side (so went to Young Pioneer camp back in the day) and expected Orbán would win again because of the vote rigging and the opposition not quite holding together.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Rex Chapman??@RexChapman
    Amazing.

    Goodable
    @Goodable
    · 20h
    In Denmark, there are libraries where you can “borrow” a person instead of a book to hear their life story for thirty minutes.

    Each person has a title like Refugee, Unemployed, Monk, etc.

    The goal is to fight prejudice and it’s now in 85+ countries.

  32. 32.

    jonas

    @Soprano2: ​
      Budapest is really the only significant urban center, and many who once made up the more educated, liberal-minded electorate there have simply fled the country. The country’s best university, the CEU, had to relocate to Vienna.

  34. 34.

    jonas

    @debbie: Yep. The EU has put up with waayy too much illiberal shit from Hungary, but Poland, too. The problem is, a lot of the Brussels bureaucracy still views the EU through the lens of a customs union, not a bloc of liberal western democracies. So as long as goods and services are flowing freely, it really doesn’t matter that you, say, criminalize homosexuality.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Just right out there with the anti-gay. Imagine for a moment if this were the spokesperson for a DEMOCRATIC governor and they were this extreme Left. You could hear political media screeching about it from here.

    For some reason “nutjob Right” is perfectly acceptable. It’s a ridiculous double standard.

    Ruth Ben-Ghiat

    @ruthbenghiat

    This is DeSantis’s extremist spokesperson, wishing that the US would have a version of Orban’s anti-LBGTQ referendum.

    Christina Pushaw 
    @ChristinaPushaw

    · 11h

    Replying to @roddreher @josh_hammer and @GovRonDeSantis
    Love the referendum idea. Wish the USA could do something similar

  36. 36.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Cameron: , I don’t feel guilty about promoting Georgism (I’ve been an adherent for over 40 years).

    So forget Republication (you know, Robot Nixon) it’s back to the classics; The Hanoverians like George III of England.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Meanest TA, PhD.@MeanestTA
    Everyone on my team (5 men ages 48-75) texts me to make sure the slang they’re using is correct in context.
    In return they translate my frustrations into professional corporate.

    Me: “How do I say this meeting is a waste of my time I am not paid enough to deal with your bullshit?”
    Boss: “Can you provide me with a meeting agenda so I can ensure my presence adds value? I want to prioritize my schedule to support our most urgent needs.”

    Me: “How do I say there is no way you are this fucking stupid?”
    WorkDad: “I think there was a disconnect, can you restate your definition of this concept so we can ensure there’s no miscommunication?”

    Me: “How do I say you fucked around now you’re finding out?”
    Boss: “I think you’ll find that this outcome is in line with the predictions we made during the (date) meeting.”

    I never would have made it in a corporate environment.

  40. 40.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Emma from Miami: Maybe, the explanation I heard of Putin is he is an associate member of the Russia Thieves in Law gang and they see themselves as shirtless, tattooed heroic Christian rebels fighting The Man (Never mind Putin is The Man, both Hitler and Stalin though they were fighting The Man, that’s why conspiracy theories rot the brain) In that world view comedians turned successful war leader Zelenskyy just supports it’s all just a conspiracy against Putin, like “sleepy Joe” Biden winning an election supports Trump and his supporters crazy ass conspiracy theories.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    I’m old enough to remember when any Democrat who had even a passing connection/statement to any Leftist government had to issue elaborate explanations, yet that doesn’t seem to apply at to the Right who openly admire far Right wing authoritarians in other countries and vow to bring that here, to the US.

    Just seems like a really nutty double standard. Perhaps political media could ponder why they have accepted it.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I think the Bush antigay campaign in Ohio in 2004 was determinative. Ohio Republicans told the NYTimes it was so I’ll take their world for it. The while thing has been sanitized and memory holed but it was fucking vicious– they targeted gay people specifically, and it worked. That nice, conventional, blue blood Republican, George W Bush.

    Maybe people will remember it now that it’s back and really on steriods.

    They never change. Only the tactics change.

  43. 43.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @bjacques:  I gather Orbán is and knows he’s on Putin’s enemies list for the crime of not being a Putin puppet.

  45. 45.

    Jeffro

    @jonas: I’m trying to picture this happening in America and I can’t get there.  A whole university relocated?  Wow.

  47. 47.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jeffro: It’s another terrible tragedy, like Russia. You can’t keep skimming off the cream and hope to have anything worthwhile left.

    Unfortunately, it was Soros who first promoted Orban!

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I’ve been telling anyone who will listen that DeSantis is following the Orbán playbook to the letter in FL and would love to take that act nationwide. Most people say “Or-who?” ;-)

    It’s amazing how Joe Biden still has to answer for “defund the police,” which he never said and has explicitly disowned for years, but no one will ask DeSantis about Pushaw’s nutty, taxpayer-funded bullshit.

    Hillary Clinton was on Meet the Press this weekend. She had a lot to say about Putin, Saudi Arabia, etc. She also said Democrats need to do a better job of calling out right-wing extremists, which is basically every elected Republican these days. Maybe she’s right.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    Checking her twitter, Hillary was hoping for an Orban defeat, so that’s disappointing.  But speaking of the gay, she shared this bit of positive news.

    Last year, a historic number of LGBTQ people were elected to office. In 2022, we can set new records.

    Add to the momentum by running yourself, or by encouraging a friend to run. https://t.co/Gy8UiPSeCj #OutToWin
    — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 2, 2022

  52. 52.

    prostratedragon

    Paul Krugman has been watching Orban for years.  He must have many columns and posts detailing how the situation in Hungary arose.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @James E Powell:

    I don’t know if racial issues are a big thing in Hungary.  In all other respects, it sounds worse there than in the U.S. in terms of being further down the fascist road.

  56. 56.

    Anyway

    @jonas:

    Yes, this! EU spent so many years chasing Greece’s “debt” while turning a blind eye to Hungary’s illiberal laws and Orban’s rigging all the laws in his favor.

  58. 58.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I don’t know what the referendum was, but I think the “mainstream” Republican position now is that they should all just go back into the closet so none of us have to see them or hear about them anymore. I think most R’s don’t actually want to kill them (yet), they just don’t want to see or hear about them anymore. Except for transwomen, I think most of them want to kill them. They don’t seem to care as much about transmen.

  59. 59.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    The relentless & determined positive attitude of people like Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama shames me out of my cyclical doom & gloom.

  60. 60.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: They hate the Roma and immigrants, that’s a big factor in his success.

    ETA: This was supposed to be responding to your post about racism.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    Relatively small step to add gays to the Hungarian Unhit Parade which historically includes Roma, Jews and tolerated but not officially recognized minority churches.

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    @Nicole: “Reckless Daughter” is a good biography of Joni, really helped me appreciate her more, since she’s kind of always “been there” and I was in no way ready for her music when I was a kid.

  70. 70.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    [Orbán] has unleashed a fresh round of election law changes that benefit his party. He put an inflammatory but ultimately symbolic L.G.B.T. referendum up for a vote, a move that is likely to rally his most strident supporters. And he legalized the registration of voters outside of their home districts — a common practice, until now criminal, that is known as “voter tourism.”

    Orban today. Republicans tomorrow.

  71. 71.

    jonas

    @Jeffro: DeSantis is trying to Orbanize the University of Florida, so the right here is paying attention. CEU was an American-style institution created and endowed by Soros to promote liberalism and democracy in the former east bloc countries. So of course it had to go. Orban essentially pulled their accreditation and made it impossible for them to operate independently, so they pulled up stakes and moved over the border into Austria.

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