Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Second rate reporter says what?

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

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

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

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Books are my comfort food!

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it’s a trap.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Monday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture ( & Proud of It)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture ( & Proud of It)

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(They didn’t want to get caught up in Monday’s Marathon traffic… )


Much as we regret the necessity of putting him at risk, this dude loves his job (almost as much as he loves cheese… )!

Reader Interactions

177Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    One bit of propaganda I’ve noticed is that, even though gas prices are high, they have stabilized, but the media keeps saying that gas prices are rising.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Today show is also pushing the bogus claim that the relief checks are the prime cause of inflation.

  3. 3.

    satby

    Happy Monday! It’s snowing, again. Managed to get the house warmed up to 51° (from 47° when I woke up). Trying for 55° so I can take a shower ?
    I’m working six days again this week, so getting someone in to fix the thermostat may be a challenge. 70°s by Thursday, so not really a crisis. Good thing I’m a camper, I’ve been prepared.

  7. 7.

    Danielx

    @satby:

    Have to admit that I damn near lost the will to live when I got up and saw an inch of snow with more coming down.

  8. 8.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Baud:

    Today show is also pushing the bogus claim that the relief checks are the prime cause of inflation.

    Yeah, too many undeserving peeps who should have gone hungry and homeless made it too expensive to fill up the gas tank.

  13. 13.

    Jerry

    @Albatrossity: I beg to differ. The correct starting word, so apt these days, is PIETY.

    I will give that one a try today. I like having the S in my starting word, but I guess it’s easier to figure out an S later on in the game than a P. Maybe?

  14. 14.

    satby

    @Danielx: I hear you, though at least it insulates the flowers about to bloom. But no sun, and yesterday’s bright sunshine pulled my inside temps from solar gain almost to 60°. So today I have a sad ?

  17. 17.

    prostratedragon

    Patron! Part of my father’s service in WWII was removing mines and booby traps.  He confirmed that the term “hurt locker” has long been used in such units.  I bet he’d have liked working with a dog like Patron.

  21. 21.

    geg6

    Patron is awesome!

    Got my second booster Saturday.  Was a bit drained of energy, had joint aches and a very sore arm yesterday.  Pretty much fine today.  Since cases are rising around here, it seemed the thing to do.  I’m pretty afraid of long COVID, so I’ll take all the jabs to avoid it.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    Jeremy C. Young
    @jeremycyoung
    Educational gag orders in action: “A history lesson she had about the 3/5ths compromise in the Constitution left most of the class confused, Zhao said, because the teacher was never quite able to explain why it existed.”

    Still no response to these gag orders from the anti cancel culture substack crowd.

    If it isn’t happening at Yale, they’re not interested.

    Meanwhile, students at Iowa public schools are walking out to protest the gag orders. No NYTimes editorials, no panels of public intellectuals bemoaning “wokeness”, just the students who actually attend public schools walking out. Real bravery – a real risk on their part.

  23. 23.

    satby

    Democracy is a moral position. Defending the right of human beings to control their own lives is a moral position. Treating everyone equally before the law is a moral position. Insisting that everyone has a right to have a say in their government is a moral position. Heather Cox Richardson

  24. 24.

    debbie

    Back in Ohio, the Club for Growth is running an interesting ad. It switches back and forth between Joe’s statements about paying your fair share (directed at the wealthy) with Mike Gibbon’s statement about paying your fair share (which was apparently made last week and was directed at the middle class, which he thinks has never paid their fair share). The way it’s edited, it “appears” they’re saying the same thing.

    I wonder how far Gibbons will fall based on this very deceptive ad.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    Right wing religious fundamentalists took over a Texas public library and started pulling books. They banned the public from meetings and ended the ebook service to all adults- including disabled people who rely on it.

    This is the response from the ultra-sophisticated anti-cancel culture free speech warriors:

    Matthew Yglesias
    @mattyglesias
    ·1h
    Guy who wishes Texas Republicans would try to ban his books from libraries because it would boost sales.

    Do we really have to teach people who attended fancy private schools what “public library” means? What the purpose of public libraries is? They understand that the need for “people to buy their own books” is the issue public libraries were invented to solve?

    Free speech issues only make the NYTimes if they occur at Yale or the University of Virginia. The book bannings and the teacher gag rules? Markets will take care of that!

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    You wonder why they give a shit. Gibbons is a far Right Republican. They’ll get 99% of what they want with him and Republicans will reliably come out for anyone with an R after their name in Ohio.

    He’s not a celebrity like JD Vance?

  30. 30.

    Salt Creek

    This is a repost from last night, sorry for the dup, but this is a slippery slope, we may not be able to do anything about it, but we should be aware of it nonetheless.

     

    I don’t if this has been commented on but it is a disturbing trend is starting to take root. I get enough of the crap from my republican acquaintances, but when it starts to appear in “mainstream media” I get really annoyed.

    It’s the “Joe Biden is senile” meme, SNL’s Colin Jost’s Weekend Update took a cheap shot at Joe Biden for supposedly trying to shake the hand of someone who wasn’t there, this had been reported by the NY Daily News, a notorious NYC scandal rag.

    Ordinarily I would have just shook it off as a pathetic attempt at humor and moved on. But it brought back memories of Kate McKinnon in 2016, when she did a Hilary Clinton impression that could have been written by the Trump campaign. Gratuitous smears that bore no resemblance to Mrs Clinton.

    Trump on the other hand hosted a show, normalizing the creep.

    Play up the negatives of the Democrats, play down the negatives of the Republicans. They are up to their old tricks again.

    Addendum – You want humor? try this Colin Jost tans his b***s

  31. 31.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Thought of you when I read this piece from a state school professor in Slate: “I’m a Longtime Professor. The Real Campus “Free Speech Crisis” Is Not What You Think. I’ve never seen classrooms like mine in the pages of the Times.”

  32. 32.

    Kay

    Book bans are wildly unpopular. It’s a good political issue for Democrats, but they’re going to have to get around the ridiculous “cancel culture” panic inciters who call themselves liberals to make hay out of it.

    Be on the side of not banning books. Be on the side of the students walking out of public schools and the fired librarians in Texas. That’s the right side. The rest will take care of itself.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    Good to see Pelosi is highlighting the Rick Scott plan to raise taxes, abolish Social Security and Medicare, etc. (tweet in the OP). I think Psaki referenced it last week too. Mitch McConnell feared Scott’s manifesto would be a gift to Democrats. Let’s make his nightmare come true!

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Salt Creek:

    But it brought back memories of Kate McKinnon in 2016, when she did a Hilary Clinton impression that could have been written by the Trump campaign. Gratuitous smears that bore no resemblance to Mrs Clinton.

    Trump on the other hand hosted a show, normalizing the creep.

    I believe history hosted a show too, FWIW.

    Otherwise, I agree that there is a lot of subtle attempts being made to tilt the playing field in the GOP favor.

  36. 36.

    Immanentize

    Just another quick hit +- I’m sorry I have not been a good correspondent as you folks are always so kind and generous regarding our tribulations.

    I don’t even remember what I last wrote. Old Scratch took two swipes at my son — first with his herniated bowel obstruction which was probably a day before killing him when they performed emergency surgery and took out a good section of dead bowel. For one day before, Docs thought things were better, but then, they got worse fast. Complicated surgery because of his prior gastrectomy — they had to rebuild a tricky “Y” in his intestines (search “Roux en Y,” but not for weight loss….) But that seemed to go well until a few days after surgery he developed an unknown infection which proved resistant to Vancomycin. He got very sick, fevers over 103, heartbeats over 130, ice packs, scans, finally received an Interventional Radiology probe that was able to drain one of the abscesses he developed up near his spleen. Sadly, he was so sick and his vitals so low, he had to endure that with local anesthesia only. But that helped. Changed antibiotics. They gave him a transfusion ( which I now know are very hard to come by) and he improved enough to kick him out of hospital just in time for the Easter weekend “everything is closed” period in Houston.

    He is in his apartment, lots of meds, but posts obvious advances every day. Getting out of the hospital after 3 weeks, still feeling bad, afraid, etc. has been very hard. But he is asserting his inner Immp and getting on. The semester is only half a bust for him as he is by school rule allowed to receive “incompletes” in such circumstances and will have to finish things this summer.

    I am tired, I am weary, I could sleep for a thousand years….

    But everyone in my nuclear family, all two of us, are alive to suffer more tomorrow.

    Stay away from surgeons (unless absolutely necessary)!

    Imm

  40. 40.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Immanentize:

    Thank you so much for the update, Imm! You and the Immp have been very much on my mind, and I’m incredibly relieved to know that he’s on the mend. What a lot you and he have been through over the past several years! I hope the universe decides to smile on you both from here on out.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Nonsense. Any D House candidate should be at a student free speech protest or asking to speak to a fired librarian or public school teacher. That goes double for state candidates.

    They cut off access to all ebooks books for disabled people in their zeal to protect them from dangerous books. It’s a gift.

    Or they could just follow the public intellectuals and joke about how book bans help their book sales. I think there are probably more people who use public libraries than there are people who focus exclusively on disruptive law students at Yale. That’s a tiny fucking group.

  42. 42.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Thank you — you were right to worry, but things are a little brighter now.

    If Immp gets released to travel on Friday from the Docs, we will be back in Medford Monday night…. To our long suffering cat.

  44. 44.

    narya

    @Immanentize: I am soooo glad to hear this; thanks for taking the time to let us all know–I think I can speak for the jackaltariat and say that we were thinking about you and hoping for the best.

  48. 48.

    Geminid

    @Kay: When Republicans flipped the House in 2010, they made a big deal about a public reading of the Constitution early in the new Congress. This could have been problematic; to attract conservative evangelicals, Republicans liked to intimate that the document was a result of divine inspiration. So when they read the Consitition out loud, Republicans simply skipped over the portion stating the 3/5’s formula and also the language giving a basis for fugitive slave acts.

  52. 52.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Immanentize:    Wow, words fail me.  I am glad things are trending up. Those drug-resistant infections are scary, especially those that develop inner abscesses.

    The semester is only half a bust for him as he is by school rule allowed to receive “incompletes” in such circumstances and will have to finish things this summer.

    At our place he would technically have one calendar year to finish. As a practical matter, finishing the courses as soon as he is able is a good idea, since he doesn’t want to be taking a normal load next year along with his load from this term.

  56. 56.

    Starfish

    @Salt Creek: Colin Jost and Michael Che’s Weekend Update has been mean-spirited dudebro bullshit for years. It is kind of you to notice now.

  59. 59.

    JPL

    @Immanentize: We were worried but knew that you would post when you could.   You are in our thoughts and prayers.   It might be time for you to wear a sign saying a need a hug, but only by those who are vaccinated and boosted.

  61. 61.

    The Moar You Know

    It’s the “Joe Biden is senile” meme, SNL’s Colin Jost’s Weekend Update took a cheap shot at Joe Biden for supposedly trying to shake the hand of someone who wasn’t there, this had been reported by the NY Daily News, a notorious NYC scandal rag.

    @Salt Creek: no one under 60 gives a shit what SNL does.

    no one under 50 even knows what it is.

    I wouldn’t worry too much about it.  The Republicans have been saying Biden has been senile and (literally) pissing his pants since he got in the race.  Biden has PR problems but this sort of thing is not one of them.

  62. 62.

    Geminid

    @debbie: Gibbons made his remarks about taxes and the middle class last fall in a Crain’s Business podcast. Someone dug it up, and now it’s come whirling back like a boomerang. What with Trump’s endorsement of Vance, that primary has become an even hotter mess. I’m not sure those candidates will be singing “Koombaya” with much conviction when it’s over.

    I just discovered that 77% of Ohio voters are registered as “non affiliated.” They can still request either party’s primary ballot. The ~9% registered Republicans and the ~11% registered Democrats can only vote in their own party’s primary.

  65. 65.

    Starfish

    @zhena gogolia: And it is lazy. As comedians, the low bar should be above “Is this a joke that has been made a hundred times on Facebook?”

    It is unfunny for the same reason all the misgendering and gay jokes at Lindsey Graham’s expense are unfunny.

  67. 67.

    Jeffro

    @zhena gogolia: if just a quarter of Dems say they disapprove of the job President Biden is doing (whether it’s due to the child tax credit going away, inflation, gas prices, not helping Ukraine enough, etc etc), that plus a majority of “independents” and all Republicans would easily equal 67% disapproval/33% approval rating.

  69. 69.

    satby

    @Immanentize: W’ve all been thinking and worrying about you both. Glad Immp is on the mend, hope you both get some rest and respite from health problems now for a long time.

  70. 70.

    The Moar You Know

    People really hate low unemployment.

    @Baud: New Deal Democrat has a great piece up on his blog explaining this.  Put briefly and without any of the supporting material he posted, low unemployment only affects a very small percentage of the populace, while inflation affects everyone.

    That it was inevitable and the direct result of GOP policy failures dating all the way back to the Iraq war, doesn’t matter to those complaining about it, especially the non-political junkie folks who are the majority of Americans.  They just notice that the price of a lot of things are skyrocketing, and they know who the president is – and make no mistake, that’s all they know, but that’s enough to really hurt Biden.

  71. 71.

    Jeffro

    the NYT’s Charles Blow:

    Biden’s presidency is far from a failure, but it has been stymied on some big promises that Biden made during the campaign on issues like voting rights and police reform. Lately it feels like, on domestic policy, Biden has moved from the macro to the micro, taking steps that will indeed benefit many Americans, but are too narrowly focused to transform our society or fix the core problems that plague it — trying to recruit more American truckers, focusing on Black maternal health, announcing an emergency waiver to allow higher ethanol blend gasoline to be sold this summer.
    All the while, two major perennial issues are resurgent: crime and the economy. The fear of crime and the pinch of inflation aren’t abstractions, or complicated foreign policy, or perks for special interests. They creep into every door and lurk under every kitchen table.
    And on the other side, Republicans are playing heavily into culture war issues like challenging the teaching of Black history and the history of white supremacy in schools, as well as restricting discussions of L.G.B.T. issues and campaigning against trans women and girls competing in sports with other women and girls. And they are using parental rights as the Trojan horse to enact their agenda.
    Democrats, for their part, have almost ceded the parental rights argument, instead of fighting back and framing these efforts as oppressive and backward. They do not recognize that oppression by conservatives in this country is like an amoeba: simple, primitive, pervasive and highly adaptable. It simply shifts its shape to fit the environment and argument.
    Republicans are using white parental fear, particularly the fears of white moms, worried about harm coming to their children, to attract suburban white women and get them to the polls. The oppression is a bonus.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    That’s a misreading of the Ohio process and numbers. In Ohio if you pull a primary ballot for a Party you’re then designated as an R or D for the next cycle. The registration form doesn’t state a Party, but the process does. I can vote in a GOP primary. All I have to do is request an R ballot, which is an attestation (a sworn statement) that I will vote for the R in the general. It came to the fore during the Obama v Hillary primary because Republicans were voting in the D primary on orders from Rush Limbaugh. They really were too. I was a pollworker. I saw it. It’s intended to thwart bad faith primary  voters, who hope to influence the other parties primary without voting for that candidate in the general, but conservatives don’t follow the rules.

  74. 74.

    Baud

    @The Moar You Know:

    I’m so old I remember when keeping inflation low was considered a neoliberal plot.

    I’m not sure what there’s left to do.  Inflation is real, but there will always be something real that people are suffering in the economy.  At some point, you can’t fight bias.

  75. 75.

    germy

    April 18 (Reuters) – Far-right wing website InfoWars on Sunday filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in the face of multiple defamation lawsuits.

    Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures put a hold on all civil litigation matters and allow companies to prepare turnaround plans while remaining operational.

     

    More interesting than Jones filing for BK is this lawsuit, filed on April 6, alleging he is hiding millions in assets from the Sandy Hook plaintiffs.

    Jones “paid himself” $18M over three years.

    https://t.co/QqrMCEdDtH https://t.co/MjH2ynDgrN

    — emptywheel (@emptywheel) April 18, 2022

  78. 78.

    Baud

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Sure.  Hopefully, inflation will be lower by then.

    My point is we have big dreams for want we want to accomplish but we can’t ever seem to get look past short term transition costs.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    If you got to voter file, the Ohio public system for voter information, you’ll see R’s and D’s a lot higher than 9 or 11%. That’s because they pulled an R or D ballot in the primary prior. If they never pull a ballot in a primary – not primary voters or just “issue ballot voters” (which is another option)  they’ll remain unaffliated.

  80. 80.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So someone else quit today, as in emailed the managers last Sunday “later dudes”.  Today’s staff meeting should be fun since that’s 30% of the staff left in one quarter. lol

  81. 81.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: That’s fair.  I think that the focus on the day to day poll numbers is simply a terrible idea.  Both Biden and Obama before him ran the campaigns based on sticking to a plan and not trying to winning the daily news cycle.  I think the same idea holds in governing.

  83. 83.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    that’s 30% of the staff left in one quarter.

    This can be read two ways (both of them awful numbers, of course). Do you mean 30% left (quit), or there are only 30% left (remaining)? Hadn’t quite realised before what an ambiguous word “left” is!

  84. 84.

    Yarrow

    @zhena gogolia: All of them seem to do it. Trevor Noah does it too.

    Seems like there’s an opportunity to shame them for making fun of someone with a speech impediment but I don’t see that happen much.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    I saw a Cleveland news site where the reporter wrote that 77% of Ohio voters are “nonpartisan”

    They’re just really bad at election process reporting :)

    And no wonder! It puts people to sleep. They used to look at registrations and write things like “100,000 dead people are voting in Ohio”. It took like a decade just to get them to the point where they would make a distinction between “registered” and “voting”.

  90. 90.

    Barbara

    @Immanentize: ​Glad to hear a positive update. This is so scary, and I am sending you and little Immp very best wishes for his continuing recovery.

  91. 91.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @SiubhanDuinne: 10 techs 1-2022, down to 7 as of today.

    It’s all because we can get another job for 30% more pay. Management claims they are going to do wage adjustments but they’ve been dragging their feet.  The funny part was one of the techs was inept at his job and they clearly wanted to fire him, and he got a job for 30% more pay lol

  92. 92.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Certainly a partial mistatement of the process. I think the 77% unaffiliated number is correct. At least the News5 article I read stated this.

    If a non-affiliated voter requests a Republican ballot one year, are they barred from voting in a Democratic primary next time?

    Virginia has no party registration and all our primaries are open. Republicans like to use caucuses and conventions to pick nominees. Attendees sign a pledge to vote for the nominee but that pledge is unenforceable. Republicans say they want to keep Democrats from participating, but the real purpose is to limit participation to the most zealous.

    In 2020 Hugh Hewitt urged his Virginia and South Carolina voters to vote for Sanders in their Democratic primaries. “So we have a real choice in November,” he lied. But I don’t think there was much strategic voting.

    Last year the joke was on Hewitt when he tried to vote in the “Disassembled Convention” Virginia’s Republicans cobbled together at the last moment. Hewitt had talked up Glenn Youngkin for months, but when he showed up at an Alexandria voting site Hewitt was turned away because his paperwork was not right.

  93. 93.

    Miss Bianca

    @Immanentize: Thanks for checking in with us, Imm, we were all wondering and waiting for an update. Yow. What an ordeal for the poor Immp. Continued good thoughts for his healing.

  97. 97.

    zhena gogolia

    @Yarrow: There’s been a lot of ageism on this blog, despite the average age of the commenters, but I think that has eased lately.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    This is the WaPo article about how 6 far Right religious are selecting all the reading material available at this public library in Texas– in secret. The public can’t even attend the book ban meetings.

    I credit the WaPo for at least covering the hundreds of book bans and tens of state law public school gag orders along with their blanket coverage of fancy people OPINING on “cancel culture” at Yale and the University of Virginia. They’re the best of the bunch but it’s a pretty low bar. I’m grateful if they cover it at all.

  101. 101.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia:

    True.  But some people are hypocritical.  They criticize Republicans but then are engage in similar asshole behavior.  There’s a sliver of truth to GOP claims of a double standard, although it’s vastly overdone to the point of being effectively a lie.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    You’re not seriously asking the NYT to take reporters off the diner beat to cover book bannings, are you?

  104. 104.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    If a non-affiliated voter requests a Republican ballot one year, are they barred from voting in a Democratic primary next time?

    No. But they are attesting they will vote for the Democrat in the general by pulling the ballot. But they don’t care. The “norm” sort of got busted in 2008 when they all mobbed in to vote for Hillary over Obama when Rush Limbaugh told them to, but they are taking an oath.
    I worked last cycle and poll workers are intimidated by Trump people. They’re tired and they want to avoid getting screamed at and a big scene, so they basically capitulate to demands. Even the GOP pollworkers dislike them, but obviously not enough to actually do something about it. We were told at training not to enforce the bar on campaign swag in the polling place anymore. Conservatives screamed it was free speech, so they can (and do) wear their Lets Go Brandon t shirts now. Rules are for suckers.

  105. 105.

    Salt Creek

    @The Moar You Know: no one under 60 gives a shit what SNL does.

    Maybe so, but a lot of those people don’t vote. I don’t give darn about SNL either, I don’t stay up that late.

    I caught this piece online, a 3 minute snippet, and that is how most people will probably view it. I suspect that the handshake thing is a total fabrication, given the source.

    If you’re not from New York, you may not be aware what the New York Daily News is all about, it’s not as bad as the Murdoch owned NY Post. But it is a full fledged scandal rag in its own right.

    So this is how it works, a smear generated in the cesspit of journalism is picked up and broadcast out over national TV. This in turn is picked up by various websites looking for clicks.

    So it is not a matter of who watches the show, but who clicks the links. Biden’s age and mental acuity are going to be an issue as you stated, this just reinforces the meme.

  106. 106.

    Jinchi

    @Kay: ​

    All I have to do is request an R ballot, which is an attestation (a sworn statement) that I will vote for the R in the general.

    Wait, is that really a sworn statement? It seems completely unenforceable.
    Personally, I’ve been won over by California’s top two system, despite being initially skeptical.​

  108. 108.

    Anyway

    I see that Biden released his taxes last week (like Obama and both Clintons did every year) — Trump broke that norm and it was conveniently memory-holed by the MSM. One side sticks to norms and tries/does the right thing – the other side doesn’t bother and don’t pay a price.

  109. 109.

    Geminid

    @Kay: That may be the same site I got my information from. Now I can see the slack in the reporting.

    I’m curious. You keep a good eye on your state’s Republican party. Do you think trump’s endorsement of Vance will move many votes, enough to push him past the others? It looks like someone might win with 30% of the vote.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    They’re doing a new thing this cycle. Rabid GOP voters are not voting in the primary so they can submit applications as pollworkers under the “Independent” category. That way instead of 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans at a precinct, or two Republicans and one Independent and one Democrat, there will actually be 4 Republicans. Two of the Republicans are just lying on their application, impersonating “Independents”, so that distinction will be meaningless- fraudulent information.

  112. 112.

    Philbert

    @Kay: . “an attestation (a sworn statement) that I will vote for the R in the general”  wow.  Will the GOP seek to make this binding, somehow?  Just kidding. Sort of.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    Democrats say Mandel is focusing on the Right wing religious vote. That’s how George W Bush won in Ohio. It’s never a bad bet for Republicans. I don’t know who Vance is supposed to appeal to. He’s a phony. Trump has the advantage of being authentically a mean spirited racist douchebag. Game recognizes game, so the mean spirited racist douchebag recognize Vance’s phoniness.

    I would still bet on Mandel.

    I don’t care. I’ll take any of their candidates. They all suck. Tim Ryan got lucky.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    @Philbert:

    It was just understood that you didn’t do it. But conservatives don’t follow norms and rules. Norms and rules are for chumps.

  116. 116.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Baud: According to this Bloomberg opinion writer, inflation’s here to stay and it’s not your momma’s inflation either, suckers.

  117. 117.

    Jinchi

    @zhena gogolia: I’ve suspected Tucker is a deeply repressed closeted homosexual ever since his comments about how often he gets “bothered” in men’s rooms. Especially the part where he leaves the restroom, gets a friend and returns to beat the guy up.

    His latest “End of Men” trailer just reinforces my suspicions.

  123. 123.

    stinger

    @Anyway:

    One side sticks to norms and tries/does the right thing – the other side doesn’t bother and don’t pay a price.

    I don’t know — the melting blob of orange sherbet lost his re-election bid by 7 million popular votes, more than 4 percent of voters, and 74 electoral college votes. I don’t say it was because the blob didn’t payrelease his taxes, but the good guys won decisively.

  125. 125.

    Ohio Mom

    @Immanentize: What a relief to hear from you and to hear that Immp is getting better! Now I will only hold half a breath until I hear Immp is completely past this.

    As for the incomplete schoolwork, there is no law that one must graduate in four years. If it isn’t all done by the end of summer, a lighter course load in the fall to do both sets of work at the same time. But you already know that.

  127. 127.

    Geminid

    @Kay: I read a Jerusalem Post article about how Mandel is campaigning intensively among Ohio’s evangelicals. He’d be better off if he had served in the Iraeli Army instead of the Marines. Evangelicals really like Jewish people who are 4,000 miles away.  I think they are more ambivalent about the Jewish people closer to home.

    Now I’m interested to see who trump endorses in Arizona’s Senate primary. There is another Thiel candidate out there, a guy who was on Thiel’s payroll until recently. Trump has until August 2nd to screw up that primary.

  128. 128.

    laura

     

    @Jinchi: I’ve believed Tucker Carlson has been a deeply closeted homosexual since jump and his high school yearbook fixation with the Dan White killing of Harvey Milk, his natty prep style, his dancing with the stars and his stupid face always asking the question. Waiting for the skeletons to come out of the closet.

  129. 129.

    Ohio Mom

    I wouldn’t mind jokes at Biden’s expense if they were funny. But none of them so far are. They reek of the writer’s desperation to find something, anything, for a punchline.

    I remember chuckling at a Mad Magazine illustration of Obama sneaking smokes. Wonder what they would have come up with for Biden, the original gang of idiots had very good politics.

  130. 130.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Immanentize: Jumping on the best wishes for your son’s recovery bandwagon. Safe travels back home, hoping you and your son will get some rest and renewal.

  131. 131.

    Doug R

    @Jerry:

     

    The correct starting word for Wordle is STEAM

    Considering the frequency of letters in English is ETAONIRSH and every word needs a vowel, that is a good start.

  132. 132.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Like Tim Ryan, Mark Kelly is building up his war chest and watching potential opponents spend their money tearing each other down.

    This is starting to happen in Georgia now. Herschel Walker’s poll numbers have slid some and his Republican rivals are trying to knock him out with negative ads. Walker has two main opponents so he’ll probably get by. He’ll be scuffed up some, though, by the time he faces Raphael Warnock one on one. Warnock has also amassed a sizeable war chest.

  135. 135.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @laura: Don’t want to see Tucker’s skeleton TYVM, but I think that this “men can’t be men” anymore schtick is the same moral panic as “conservatives can’t express their opinions anymore” screamed by those with substacks and 200,000 follower Twitter accounts.

  136. 136.

    CaseyL

    @Immanentize: Dear god, what an ordeal.  Fervent thanks that Immp is on the mend.  I hope you get some good sleep soon, and that everything continues to improve.

  137. 137.

    Old Man Shadow

    Finally finished doing my taxes this weekend.

    It was the latest I’ve done them since I was 16.

    Took me about two months to work up the motivation to do it.

  138. 138.

    Suzanne

    @Doug R: My go-to WORDLE words are TRAIN and LOUSE.

    I thought about changing one to have a Y, but I think those consonants are more valuable. I have missed Wordle words twice, and both times, it has been down to one consonant and there are many choices.

  140. 140.

    Suzanne

    @Jinchi: Maybe I should go with HOUSE instead of LOUSE.

    If I don’t have a good inkling after LOUSE, I typically do a word with a CH pair. Hmmm. I shall have to give this some thought.

  144. 144.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    I had a local Democrat tell me the county R Party where Mandel is from announced that he had entered US air space on his way back from Iraq and they all applauded, so he was an active local R even then .

    Where JD Vance is like “are there Ukranians in Cleveland? Who knew?” :)

    “Where am I? Is this ‘the holler’? What character should I play today?”

  147. 147.

    eclare

    @Starfish:   I don’t watch SNL but I saw Michael Che on one of the late night shows and thought to myself “this guy is funny?”  Plus there is something off with his affect…something with the way he talks or his affect.

    The few clips I’ve seen, not a fan of Kate, either.  Now Tina’s version of Sarah was genius.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    I think the alliance between the US Right and Putin is worthy of much more attention:

    The relationship between the president and the prelate escalated rapidly. Kirill, allegedly a former KGB staffer like Putin, hailed the Russian Federation president’s leadership as a “miracle of God.” Meanwhile, Putin worked to frame Russia as a defender of conservative Christian values, which usually meant opposing abortion, feminism and LGBTQ rights. The pitch proved popular among a broad swath of conservative Christian leaders, including prominent voices within the American religious right: In February 2014, evangelist Franklin Graham offered cautious praise for Putin in an editorial for Decision Magazine, celebrating the Russian president’s decision to back a law barring dissemination of “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” — a statute which, activists argued, effectively banned children from accessing media that presents LGBTQ identities and relationships in a positive or normalizing light. Graham would travel to Russia the following year, where he met with both Kirill and Putin, and told local media that “millions of Americans would like (Putin) to come and run for president of the United States.”
    By 2017, Politico was already describing Russia as “the leader of the global Christian Right.”

    Amazingly poor judges of character. They consistently back terrible human beings. Really you wouldn’t go far wrong just looking at the leaders they admire and rejecting that person. Odds are you’ll be validated.

  149. 149.

    Steeplejack

    @Doug R:

    ATONE. Although I have been using ARISE as my starter word, and it works pretty well. I do think it’s important to get your vowels sorted out early, so my second word, if I don’t get much action from the first, is something with OU in it, e.g., CLOUD, *OUND, PIOUS.

  150. 150.

    MisterForkbeard

    @The Moar You Know: I’ve seen Colin Jost do similar jokes about Biden for a couple of years now.

    The problem isn’t that SNL is particularly influential – it’s that the Rightwing “Biden is Senile” propaganda has seeped into ‘common’ culture. Making the joke is okay and everyone is just supposed to understand that Biden is kinda senile or maybe just a slow dude.

    It’s the same thing about jokes about “Hillary’s Corruption”. It’s not that the comics were particularly influential, is that it’s infected the fucking national discourse now and it’s incredibly difficult to push back on.

  153. 153.

    Kay

    Matthew Yglesias
    @mattyglesias
    ·9m
    The idea that kids are learning enough in school to be brainwashed en masse by their woke teachers always strikes me as fundamentally optimistic.

    “Cancel culture” at Yale and Oberlin merited an entire cottage industry of well-compensated cancel culture warriors but 15 state laws gagging speech in public schools is brushed off with sarcasm and middle aged people jokes about how stupid kids are.
    They are just so, so smart. Only dopes pay attention to state laws. The super sophisticates know the real threat to speech is in the Oberlin dining hall.

  155. 155.

    frosty

    @geg6: I’m right there with you. Second jab last week, Moderna #4. Sore arm, nothing else. Still masking and taking some precautions to try to avoid Long COVID which scares the shit out of me. It would end my Road Trips and ruin retirement.

  156. 156.

    Calouste

    @Doug R: What you really need is the frequency of letters in English 5-letter word. The general frequency is skewed by words like “an” and “the”. (Although it probably won’t be that different.)

  158. 158.

    eclare

    @Ohio Mom:   I thought the image of Joe washing his Camaro in the White House driveway was pretty funny.  Everyone knows Joe is a car guy, so non-offensive.  I think the Onion came up with that.

  159. 159.

    Steeplejack

    @Calouste:

    This is a good point, and I have mentally “downgraded” some letters in Wordle that I think occur more often in longer words.

  160. 160.

    Chris T.

    @Jinchi: [“NEATO”]

    Yes, though if you allow plurals, the frequency of S jumps up. Is NEATS allowed? ?

    (HAIRY is another good one after NOTES or STONE.)

  163. 163.

    Steeplejack

    @Miss Bianca:

    That gets you a lot of vowels, but you’re hurting for consonants. And D is one of the letters that I have downgraded, because I think it shows up a lot in *ED endings for past-tense verbs—not so common in Wordle.

  165. 165.

    FelonyGovt

    @Immanentize: Very late to this but let me add my voice to those who are so relieved to hear that your son is slowly on the mend. Wishing him, and you, the very best. Please try to take care of yourself as well.

  166. 166.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: But Kay, you know the truth is that the “cancel culture warriors” only care about cancellations of conservative speech that happen at universities, on TV and on social media. Any other type of censorship they don’t care much about, in fact they probably agree with it. I bet this will merit zero mention by Bill Maher, while he yet again decries liberal “wokeness” as being one of the worst problems in society right now.

  167. 167.

    StringOnAStick

    @Immanentize: Such a trial!  I’ve been thinking about how he was doing and very glad to hear of significant and consistent improvement!

  168. 168.

    Another Scott

    @Old Man Shadow: Heh.

    I just finished our federal taxes (have until May 1 for the Virginia taxes).  And I finally found an error in my master spreadsheet that has been causing me to do it wrong for ages.  (The IRS always caught the error, but I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong.)  Yay!

    (I was subtracting some numbers when I shouldn’t have.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  171. 171.

    Starfish

    @Kay: You’re right that what Yglesias is doing is de-valuing school, but I don’t think that the joke is necessarily about kids being dumb.

    A lot of “the learning gap” happens over the summer. Families are HUGELY influential on their children. A child is not going to go to school and go against their own family values because of the influence of their teachers.

    They are going to test family values due to the influence of their peers.

  174. 174.

    grandmaBear

    @schrodingers_cat: that’s why I start with RAISE. Multiple vowels, common consonants and the vowels are in common positions. If nothing registers, my second word is CLOUD.

  176. 176.

    Miss Bee

    @Danielx:

    Are you in Iowa?  That’s how I’m feeling here.  This drawn out winter thing happens every couple of years lately.  The wind is blowing so hard today I couldn’t hold the car door open.

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