Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Republicans in disarray!

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Let’s finish the job.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

I really should read my own blog.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: People Having Cash Is Good, Actually…

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So are civil rights!


… and getting rid of Greg Abbott would be a bonus…

Reader Interactions

221Comments

  9. 9.

    Matt McIrvin

    I regard any conservative proposal to “leave something to the states” as bad-faith. They’ll go back on it in an instant if they can get their way nationally with a federal law or a Supreme Court ruling. They don’t let the states ban concealed carry of firearms; they don’t let the states legalize abortion by intact dilation and extraction.

    Liberals have never particularly had strong procedural opinions about the level on which these things ought to be regulated–it’s all results-oriented. This is also true for conservatives, but they pretend otherwise, perhaps to deflect these arguments from talking about the merits.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    Re: Mothers Against Greg Abbott: Texas is gonna Texas, but if Abbott gets bounced out of office, there will be national reverberations regardless of how the rest of the election season goes for Dems. A Texan on Twitter reports that a conservative colleague who “hates Democrats” plans to vote for O’Rourke because he believes “that skinny sumbitch will fix the power grid.” Anecdote and all, but Abbott has been a catastrophe in so many ways.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A judge in West Virginia blocked enforcement of the state’s 150-year-old abortion ban on Monday, opening the door for abortions to resume in the state.
    ………………..
    West Virginia has a state law dating back to the 1800s making performing or obtaining an abortion a felony punishable by up to a decade in prison. It provides an exception for cases in which a pregnant person’s life is at risk.

    Lawyers for the Women’s Health Center – the state’s only abortion clinic – argued that the old law was void because it has not been enforced in more than 50 years and has been superseded by modern laws regulating abortion that acknowledge a woman’s right to the procedure. One example is West Virginia’s 2015 law, which allows abortions until 20 weeks.

    Salango agreed, saying recent laws enacted by the state legislature “hopelessly conflict with the criminal abortion ban” and that it would be “inequitable” to allow conflicting laws to remain on the books. “The code is replete with examples of undeniable conflicts in the law that appear fundamental and irreconcilable, making the law incompatible by any reading,” she said of the criminal abortion ban. “Perhaps when it was drafted, that legislation was sufficient. However, in today’s world, it is simply too vague to be applied.”

    Of course the GOP AG, Patrick Morrisey, felt otherwise.

    He lamented “a dark day for West Virginia”. He said his office will appeal to the state supreme court.

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    @nevsky42:

    Clearly, the only gentlemanly solution for Rand and McConnell is pistols at ten paces. Make it five. 

    I’d prefer those relics just shoot cannons at themselves.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker:

    A Texan on Twitter reports that a conservative colleague who “hates Democrats” plans to vote for O’Rourke because he believes “that skinny sumbitch will fix the power grid.” 

    Sunds like someone doesn’t like brutal cold or brutal heat messing with Texas.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: True, but so far, DeSantis hasn’t had big issues he’s associated with blow up in his face the same way Abbott has. A lot of people needlessly died of COVID on his watch, and contrary to the national media narrative, Floridians disapprove of how he’s handled COVID, but not by a huge margin.

    One thing that has the potential to dent DeSantis’s inevitability as a two-term gov and 2024 GOP presidential candidate: schools. Teachers are fleeing in droves and schools are falling apart under the hard-right assault. The scale of the destruction will become apparent right before election time.

  30. 30.

    different-church-lady

    Welcome to another day of “Everything sucks and nobody knows what to do about it.”

  34. 34.

    Butch

    I have wondered how old Justice Clarence will respond when one of the southern states takes his states rights stuff to mean it’s OK to bring back the antimiscegnation laws.  I predict it will happen.

  35. 35.

    Citizen Alan

    @Butch:

    If it happens, I bet he’ll be in the majority opinion if not the author. He will happily take away the rights of other people to enter into interracial marriages secure in the knowledge that Virginia where he lives will not do so. The son of a bitch wouldn’t be on the court at all if he weren’t a black man who was committed to white supremacy.

  36. 36.

    gvg

    @Baud: That is because of experience and results. We had better “luck” on the federal level so as a result we are conditioned to think the federal level is the “right” level.  It’s a training thing.  It is the exact same thing in reverse for reactionaries.  There are always exceptions like California becoming more liberal than the feds and there were times when the federal government was more conservative than the states.  In fact right now, on marijuana legalization states are leading the federal government, and honestly I don’t actually understand how that is working, because I always understood the federal laws were supreme.  Anyway, we all have opinions on right and wrong and I don’t think there is that much substance to most peoples arguments on which things should be state and which fed. It is mostly trying to pre determine what side wins.

  37. 37.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker:

    A Texan on Twitter reports that a conservative colleague who “hates Democrats” plans to vote for O’Rourke because he believes “that skinny sumbitch will fix the power grid.”

    That’s the enduring appeal of Democrats, isn’t it? So many people temperamentally hate us but see us as competent Mr. Fixits when the guy you’d have a beer with fucks everything up.

  39. 39.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gvg:

    In fact right now, on marijuana legalization states are leading the federal government, and honestly I don’t actually understand how that is working, because I always understood the federal laws were supreme.

    They are, and the federal government could, if they wanted to, send in federal agents and squash pot legalization like a bug at any time. They don’t want to because Democrats are sympathetic and Republicans know this is a big political loser. And Trump didn’t give a shit. But I could see someone like DeSantis going hardcore Just Say No on cannabis as an own-the-libs thing.

  40. 40.

    Ken

    The post title reminded me, has there been any further word on McConnell’s complaint that the labor shortages are caused by people having too much money?  Has he introduced a bill to increase the tax rate for people on hourly wages, or for people who make less than 20% of their income from interest and capital gains?

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    For a little while, pot was somewhat of a bipartisan issue.  From what I’ve seen, it’s increasingly become partisan, with Dems on the right side.  Although it’s not a perfect split yet, like abortion or LGBT issues are.

  43. 43.

    trnc

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     

    Lawyers for the Women’s Health Center – the state’s only abortion clinic – argued that the old law was void because it has not been enforced in more than 50 years and has been superseded by modern laws regulating abortion that acknowledge a woman’s right to the procedure. One example is West Virginia’s 2015 law, which allows abortions until 20 weeks.

    You would think that any group of legislators proposing a law would research older conflicting laws and include their removal in the bill.

    Also surprised to hear that W bygod V passed a pro-choice law in 2015.

  47. 47.

    Ken

    @Citizen Alan: Won’t he and his wife be surprised when some bounty hunter drags them to Talibamastan, which has set up a $10,000 bounty for interracial crimes modeled on the Texas abortion law.

  48. 48.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: I recall some people being down on Biden in 2020 because he’d made some anti-legal-cannabis noises, but I haven’t seen any trace of this with him in office.

    There was a time when I thought the Republicans had an opportunity to outflank the Democrats on the “left” here and get a big chunk of the youth vote, but they didn’t take it.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    @nevsky42:

    From the linked story:

    “Senators are together a lot, there’s no lack of access between any senators, certainly senators of the same party,” the person said. “The conservative base does not care about an inside the Beltway process argument. They would like a Federalist Society rock star in a lifetime judicial seat.”

  52. 52.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    One thing that has the potential to dent DeSantis’s inevitability as a two-term gov and 2024 GOP presidential candidate: schools. Teachers are fleeing in droves and schools are falling apart under the hard-right assault. The scale of the destruction will become apparent right before election time.

    Schools start down there in what, three weeks?  Should be interesting.  Parents are going to be pretty pissed off if their kids’ class sizes blow up, or all the AP classes all go away, because there just aren’t enough teachers.

    And much as the conservatarians have wet dreams about killing off the public school system, something like 87% of school-age kids attend public schools.  There’s no way to replace it in any reasonable time frame.  If they want to turn America into a third-world hellhole, ruining public education is the way to do it.

  55. 55.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Another Scott: I saw a political cartoon somebody had tweeted yesterday classifying each of the PM candidates in terms of pictures on the Bristol stool (yes, poop) classification chart.

    I can’t figure out the right key words to find it now and I’ve probably let myself in for a few very interesting days of Google sidebar ads.

  56. 56.

    lowtechcyclist

    @trnc:

    You would think that any group of legislators proposing a law would research older conflicting laws and include their removal in the bill.

    IANAL, but in event of a conflict, doesn’t the more recent law automatically supersede the older law?

  59. 59.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud:

    Liberals have a strong preference for federal action.

    I think that’s mostly just a memory of the Great Society and the Warren Court and it’s fading rapidly. Whatever works. What we don’t do is make a lot of process arguments about how the other side’s stuff is bad because it’s a state law and should be federal, or whatever.

    (Often the conservative process arguments amount to saying that the proper process by which liberal policies should be enacted just happens to be one where it’s currently impossible.)

  60. 60.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:  A failing power grid is a “kitchen table issue” if there ever was one.

    Yeppers. When your stove, microwave, toaster, etc. don’t work because of a rolling blackout, and dinner is a bowl of cereal or a PB&J, the kitchen table isn’t going to be a cheerful place.

  61. 61.

    Layer8Problem

    Greetings from cloudy Nation’s Capital, where my partner and I are visiting the grandtots and helping out while Mom is away on an overseas business trip.  In spite of years of my intemperate letter-writing to complain to the management no one’s fixed the chronic summer heat and humidity issues here.

  62. 62.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Geminid: Trouble is, we’ve been through this cycle before: voters elect Republicans. Republicans fuck up everything. Voters elect Democrats to fix everything the Republicans fucked up. When everything is unfucked up, voters put Republicans back in office. Same as it ever was.

  63. 63.

    Ken

    @lowtechcyclist: When your stove, microwave, toaster, etc. don’t work because of a rolling blackout, and dinner is a bowl of cereal or a PB&J, the kitchen table isn’t going to be a cheerful place.

    And your thoughts naturally turn to how the three remaining Democrats in Texas state government are to blame for this.

  64. 64.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: Especially when you remember shivering in blankets as your waterpipes burst and neighbors froze to death, like what happened a couple Februaries ago.

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack

    @Layer8Problem:

    Your timing is impeccable. This is the first week with highs all above 90°, going up to 98-99° this coming weekend. And those are my NoVA readings. Probably a little warmer in the city.

  67. 67.

    germy shoemangler

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Monday they have declined to bring charges against nine people associated with CBS’ “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” who were arrested in a building in the U.S. Capitol complex last month.

    The decision, made by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, comes after prosecutors determined they “cannot move forward” with the misdemeanor charges against the nine people arrested June 16 in the Longworth House Office Building. The incident followed the third public hearing by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

    A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said it was not probable a conviction could be obtained and sustained given that the nine arrested had been invited and that their escorts had never asked them to leave the building.

    https://wnyt.com/politics-election/no-charges-for-late-show-crew-arrested-on-capitol-hill/?utm_campaign=thumbnails&utm_medium=onsite&utm_source=zetaglobal

  68. 68.

    Kay

    Clara Jeffery
    @ClaraJeffery
    evidently the #BoycottWalgreens started with this INSANE story of how one pharmacist went to all sorts of schemes to deny this woman her birth control refill.
    Not just *refused to personally do it* but apparently lied about medical records and etc.

    These religious exceptions for fundamentalist zealots to refuse to do their jobs and shame and humiliate people have been in place since 2015 but I think it’s great that young women who have lots of followers on social media are (understandably) tying them to conservative efforts to monitor and regulate all pregnancies –seeing this as an escalation and a further invasion of their privacy and dignity and autonomy.

    You go. Talk it up. I’m very familiar with the efforts by the religious Right to carve out special rights for themselves and trample all over others rights and I even found the presentation of these stories alarming, purely because of how shocked the women are this is happening. There’s a real sense this is hitting home to them.

    Too, we don’t know but a refusal to dspense birth control (including condoms, incidentally) could be on the rise given how the religious Right are strutting around issuing orders and butting into every facet of peoples lives empowered by their co-religionists on the Supreme Court. But for now we have the stories. Something to watch and see if it’s a real trend or even a plan. The women who are subjected to this are actually missing days taking birth control because they’re arguing with Right wing lunatics manning cash registers in pharmacies so it’s real all right. We just don’t know how widespread or growing.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack

    Spa day for me and the doughty Kia: I’m getting a long overdue haircut (from a new person ), and the K-Whip is getting a long overdue detailing. Lunch afterwards with Bro’ Man and the niece, in town briefly from their idyllic Rehoboth summer for some reason.

  71. 71.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: Especially on a week like this one. Our forecasted highs for the next seven days are 100º, 102º, 102º, 101º, 100º, 102º, and 100º. I have NEVER seen a forecast like this here in the 61 years I’ve lived here. This is going to be worse than 2012, and that was a terrible drought year. It could start to compete with 1980 and 1954, which were historic drought years here. We’ve officially had 2.06″ of rain since June 1st, although some areas have had more.

  72. 72.

    Layer8Problem

    @Geminid:  How does that Remember-the-Alamo-Hook-’em-Horns-Texas-patriotismo stuff work with their conservative crowd when the rolling blackouts take out their all-important air conditioning?  I still remember those “Drive 80 Freeze a Yankee” bumper stickers.

  73. 73.

    Geminid

    @The Thin Black Duke: One thing Texas Democrats have going for them is that the state has been under Republican rule for a couple of decades now. “Throw the rascals out!” can be a potent political dynamic. He has an uphill fight, but if Mr. O’Rourke can slip by Abbott this November he may be able to win a Democratic legislative majority in 2024, despite gerrymandering.

  74. 74.

    Layer8Problem

    @Steeplejack:  . . . going up to 98-99° this coming weekend.

    Oof.  We’ll have scarpered back to our overheated Outer Borough by then.  Dad assures us the family stands ready to withstand it.

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: I remember the 1980 heat wave, mostly because I missed it by being on a cross country hitchhiking trip (got stuck in Las Cruces NM when it hit 114 tho) STL had (iirc) 17 straight days over 100.
    My son and I finally settled on the upper Current river for our float trip this wkend. Highs of 102 predicted for Fri, Sat, and Sunday. Oh boy oh boy.​

  76. 76.

    Eunicecycle

    @germy shoemangler: soooo… Why were they arrested in the first place? It seems it could have all been straightened out pretty easily? Were the Capitol police being dicks?

  78. 78.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay:

    Too, we don’t know but a refusal to dispense birth control (including condoms, incidentally) could be on the rise given how the religious Right are strutting around issuing orders and butting into every facet of peoples lives empowered by their co-religionists on the Supreme Court.

    I’m sure it’s on the rise. The SCOTUS radical clerics have emboldened every malicious busybody on the planet.

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: We’ve been getting your rain, heavy thunderstorms just about every day. Central Virginia farmers should get a good second cut of hay. That’s about the only crop near me. Over in the Shenendoah Valley they’re growing a lot of corn and soybeans and the Harrisonburg radio station tells me that farmers over there are pleased.

  82. 82.

    Steeplejack

    @Layer8Problem:

    Just looked up the D.C. weather out of curiosity. Almost exactly the same as mine in Falls Church. I’m only a few miles west of the Potomac, but I thought there’d be more of a “heat island” effect downtown.

  83. 83.

    Ken

    @Geminid: I’m trying to remember how that Texas redistricting went, back in the 200x’s, I think?  When the legislature redrew the maps in the middle of the decade, and the Democrats left the state to try to deny quorum. I think it went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that legislatures could redistrict any time.

    Anyway it would be fun to see that replayed with the roles reversed.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    @Ken:

    Reverse redistricting in Texas (and elsewhere) would be incredible.  All it takes is one blue wave to get there.

  86. 86.

    Barbara

    @lowtechcyclist: ​They would try to reconcile the two laws, but if irreconcilable for one or more provisions, the more specific law would likely prevail, and if equally specific, the more recent would likely prevail.

  87. 87.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: This doesn’t surprise me at all. For a long time I’ve thought the anti-abortion contingent’s solution to abortion is “don’t have sex unless you want to get pregnant”, including for married couples. I shared that TikTok to Facebook, we need to spread the word that this insanity is happening. I’ve always thought it was wrong to allow people like pharmacists to deny legal medication to people. If you can’t do the job, get a job you can do.

  88. 88.

    Scout211

    @Eunicecycle: Here’s their statement: (They had their “reasons.”)

    https://www.uscp.gov/media-center/press-releases/uscp-s-unlawful-entry-arrest-june-16-2022

    July 18, 2022
    Press Release

    The United States Capitol Police (USCP) has been working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia on the June 16, 2022, Unlawful Entry case that involved a group of nine people associated with The Late Show.

    The USCP arrested nine people for Unlawful Entry charges because members of the group had been told several times before they entered the Congressional buildings that they had to remain with a staff escort inside the buildings and they failed to do so.

    The United States Capitol Police was just informed the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is declining to prosecute the case.

    We respect the decision that office has made.

    Any questions about that decision should be referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    The efforts on the far Right to deny best practices medical care to American women are better documented, but I agree – these drugstore clerks are probably the front line soldiers of the next battle.

    In March in Missouri, which now has a post-Roe abortion ban, Gabriela, who asked to be identified by her first name, said she had a blighted ovum, in which a fertilized egg implants in the uterus but doesn’t develop. “My body wouldn’t release it,” she said. Her doctor prescribed misoprostol, but it didn’t work well enough. When she asked for mifepristone, the doctor said it was difficult to obtain there, according to a doctor’s note Gabriela shared with The Times.The doctor ordered a second round of misoprostol, but Gabriela said, “The pharmacist at Walgreens told me she couldn’t give it to me if I was pregnant. I was able to stutter out that I was having a miscarriage, and she gave it to me. I couldn’t help but cry in front of all the people at Walgreens because I felt like I was being treated like a bad person for picking up a medication to prevent an infection.”

    Best practices is a two drug combo which decreases risk of infection (and also limits pain) but the women are being denied the second drug. They are no longer receiving modern, high quality health care. To get best practices care they would have to treat in a free state.

    If you are pregnant in Texas or Ohio or Louisiana you are receiving substandard pregnancy care that does not meet best practices, deliberately, by design, and you may not find that out until you’re flat on your back hooked to an IV bleeding for ten days. Women shouldn’t risk it. Get thee to a free state.

  91. 91.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: At least the water will be cool. I feel for all the lake people, because no one wants to swim in the lake now because it’s too hot, which our temps this week are going to make worse.

    I remember 1980 because I had to drive 20 miles to work in a car with no air conditioning at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. There was a haze from dust in the sky here for weeks. It was a bad, bad year.

  92. 92.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: Some areas to the southeast of us got a lot of rain on Sunday, but we only got a few sprinkles. In a couple of weeks no one will be mowing except the places where they water the grass. If this keeps up a few more weeks I fully expect them to talk about water usage surcharges. They talked about it in 2012 but ended up not having to do it.

  95. 95.

    Spanky

    @Steeplejack:

    Almost exactly the same as mine in Falls Church. I’m only a few miles west of the Potomac, but I thought there’d be more of a “heat island” effect downtown.

    Falls Church is a heat island.

    And you forgot to mention the dew point in the mid-70s. Fun!

  96. 96.

    Layer8Problem

    @Steeplejack:  The kids are away from the neoclassical heat attractors downtown, north of Howard U., convenient to the Old Soldiers’ Home and exciting Rock Creek Cemetery.  They have a Catholic mosque next door!

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: That’s definitely a pattern. I think that happens because for Republicans, being a Republican is much more core to their identity than being a Democrat is to garden-variety Democrats. It makes sense because Republicans are a more homogeneous group — mostly white Christians who share a similar worldview and set of enemies.

    Whereas Democrats are a fragile coalition of people of color, LGBTQ people, college educated white liberals, etc., who may or may not have the same objectives and enemies. Will Rogers had the party pegged decades ago when he said, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.”

  98. 98.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: I love the Current, it’s an easy river to float, it has beautiful scenery, and it always has water in it. The last time we floated we did the Jacks Fork, and ended up walking probably 1/2 mile after our canoe turned over when we got up against a cliff. Lucky for us we got almost everything back, including the custom kayak paddle my husband made from two canoe paddles! We’re good about tying everything into the canoe really tightly. We haven’t been on a float for probably 10 years.

  99. 99.

    mali muso

    @Geminid: ​

    @Steeplejack: ​
     
    Over here in “the valley”, it’s a humid morning with lots more sun on the way. We’ve had a few wild thunderstorms roll through in the past days, so definitely plenty of rain for the grass. My kiddo is happy any day it’s hot enough to go to the pool, so at least there is that.

  100. 100.

    cmorenc

    @Matt McIrvin:

    They are, and the federal government could, if they wanted to, send in federal agents and squash pot legalization like a bug at any time. They don’t want to because Democrats are sympathetic and Republicans know this is a big political loser. And Trump didn’t give a shit. But I could see someone like DeSantis going hardcore Just Say No on cannabis as an own-the-libs thing.

    Surprisingly, the medical marijuana industry in Florida is dominated by some of DeSantis’s biggest supporters, and it is not very difficult at all in Fla to get qualfied as a patient eleigible to buy at Fla dispensaries, though you have to get re-qualified every 8 months.  My good friend who lives in Fla and has qualified says if you have lived to age 60-ish,  your body has picked up enough road wear of some sort to qualify you.  Of course, both the doctors in the business of qualifying people and DeSantis’s supporter/contribuors are making big bucks off the geezers wanting to get high.  We’ll see if money continues to talk and bullshit walks wrt marijuana if the otherwise nightmare of President DeSantis comes true.

    To judge from my friend’s sample stash, they sell some pretty good shit in the Fla dispensaries.

  101. 101.

    different-church-lady

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Parents are going to be pretty pissed off if their kids’ class sizes blow up, or all the AP classes all go away, because there just aren’t enough teachers.

    Yeah, but they’ll just blame Biden for it.

  102. 102.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: I feel for all the lake people, because no one wants to swim in the lake now because it’s too hot

    Imagine how the fish feel. Also, the oxygen content goes down as the temperature increases.

  103. 103.

    Ken

    @cmorenc: it is not very difficult at all in Fla to get qualfied as a patient eleigible to buy at Fla dispensaries

    That seems to be a pattern wherever medical marijuana is legalized, though. Here in Illinois there are radio commercials for a service which will hook you up with a doctor to certify you for the medical card, which sounds incredibly dodgy to me.

  107. 107.

    Edmund Dantes

    People forget. Interracial marriage didn’t become popularly accepted until around the time of Bill Clinton’s second term. (Gallup tracking poll). Everyone assumes it goes back a lot farther than that.

  109. 109.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Matt McIrvin: That is the core identity of the populist left which is predominantly white. Many of them seem uncomfortable with the fact that a lot of the party’s leadership no longer looks like them.

    That’s why the roses primary members of the Black Caucus.

    ETA: Check out the vitriol against VP Kamala Harris and  Congressman Clyburn from these self anointed progressives.

  110. 110.

    Betty Cracker

    @cmorenc: LOL, so true! An elderly snowbird couple who live down the road clued me in on that — I had no idea they were finding it so easy to get high-grade legal pot. At parties, they’d swap stories about dispensaries as if talking about where to get the best bargains at area flea markets.

    Another thing they told me that I had no idea about: you can buy hemp products over the counter with no Rx that will absolutely get you high. Vape cartridges, gummies, etc. If it’s made from hemp, it’s legal — that’s the loophole.

  111. 111.

    zhena gogolia

    I read a great passage in Mary McCarthy’s The Group last night:

    There was a side of Sloan, she had decided, that she mistrusted, a side that could be summed up by saying that he was a Republican. Up to now this had not mattered; most men she knew were Republicans—it was almost a part of being a man. But she did not like the thought of a Republican controlling the destiny of a helpless baby.

  114. 114.

    Betty Cracker

    @Matt McIrvin: Some of the party’s factions seem to hate each other for sure and claim ownership of the agenda, which isn’t exactly conducive to coalition politics.

  115. 115.

    Ken

    @schrodingers_cat: Maybe it’s the first in a series.  The 21st century whines about having clean water, while the 19th century brags about cholera deaths. The 21st century whines about the price of fresh vegetables in winter, while the 19th century brags about the potato famine.

  119. 119.

    Layer8Problem

    @sab:  I wonder what the hell did happen to Tom Delay?  I despised him with the heat of a thousand angry suns when he was ascendant.  Justice demands he’s killing the last of his liver cells in a rusty second-hand double-wide screaming “I am the government!”

    I do not care to find out.

  121. 121.

    different-church-lady

    I mean, if I were running a news organization my first rule would be, “None of you get to be cute on Twitter. Just don’t do it!”

  122. 122.

    Baud

    @Ken:

    The 21st century whines about cancel culture, while the 19th century brags about imperialism.

    For MattY

  128. 128.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Matt McIrvin: It’s this: from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement, the Feds (granted, in fits and starts) have been the ONLY defenders of the rights of Black people.

    It’s also why conservatives constantly whine about “big gubmint-“ they want a federal government too small to interfere in their little Jim Crow fiefdoms.

  131. 131.

    Soprano2

    @schrodingers_cat: People here have no idea how bad it can be in places where most buildings don’t have air conditioning. We were in England in 2006 in September, when they were having temps in the high 70’s and low 80’s. The British Museum is pretty unpleasant when you get back in the galleries and there’s no air conditioning. Heat like that is dangerous, it kills people!

  136. 136.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     
    AR-15s are not pistols. Do I need to mansplain the “magazine not clip” thing for you as well?

    Besides, I think it should be hand grenades, or maybe very-small nucular devices, to make sure.

  138. 138.

    schrodingers_cat

    Also a friendly advice by your  Indian/SouthAsian American blog friend who was born in India. Do not compare the hypothetical partition of the United States to the very human and political catastrophe of the Partition of British India.

    And no watching Ms. Marvel and Dr. Who doesn’t make you an expert on the subject. I have seen so many hot takes on Partition these past few days.

    *slow sad headshake

  139. 139.

    SFAW

    Off topic, but I saw this line from Max Boot (his op-ed was about TFG’s “crime” speech a few days ago):

    “If Trump really wanted to fight crime, he would simply turn himself in.”

    The runner-up for best line:
    “This is going to be the ‘don’t lock me up’ campaign”

  140. 140.

    Another Scott

    @Soprano2: I remember being in Cincinnati in the mid-late ’80s in a 100 year old 3rd story brick apartment in a heat wave.  My recollection is that it was 100F at midnight, but maybe it was only 90F by then.

    No AC.

    It was brutal.

    Yeah, MattY, people wore different clothes and didn’t have AC 150 years ago.  I guess MattY wears 5 layers of wool, fetches water from the river, and turns his AC off in solidarity.

    Or something.

    (groucho-roll-eyes.gif).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: ​The upper Jack’s Fork is a favorite of mine, especially mid summer thru fall when the outfitters aren’t putting any body in the river. Yeah, one has to get out of the canoe and drag it a time or 4, but one also has the river to oneself. Getting a shuttle can be a pain in the rear because nobody wants to drive all the way to Buck Hollow bridge, but I’ve always been able to find somebody in Eminence with nothing better to do, and can use a few extra bucks in their pocket.

  143. 143.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ken:  At the end of the day, Clarence Thomas will always get a pass from the republicans because hes “one of the good ones.” No democratic nominee to any office could have survived the pubic hair on the Coke can incident.

  144. 144.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Steeplejack: Your timing is impeccable. This is the first week with highs all above 90°, going up to 98-99° this coming weekend. And those are my NoVA readings. Probably a little warmer in the city.

    Out here in beautiful Calvert County, the 10-day forecast is showing highs over 90° only Thursday through Sunday, maxing out at 95°.  Of course, we have the moderating influence of the Chesapeake Bay here.

  146. 146.

    Betty Cracker

    @SFAW: I like the “don’t lock me up” campaign line. Who knows, maybe this Thursday’s 1/6 hearing will spook Trump into announcing a 2024 run. It would probably help Democrats if the media focuses on Tangerine Baal’s antics instead of inflation, fuel costs, blah blah blah. Also, a Trump run would cock-block DeSantis, and any tussle between those two authoritarian creeps may help FL Dems, who need all the help they can get!

  147. 147.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kay:  What really gets me is that the very first time a devout Muslim refuses to sell something that’s against their faith, these same taliban christians will go to berserk.

  150. 150.

    SFBayAreaGal

    Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yes Clarence Thomas is awful. However, we have a Roberts, Alito, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett, that are more than happy to be just as bad.

  151. 151.

    Geminid

    @SFAW: “Socialist Dog Mom” Molly Conger says that these assault rifles got their name “because every time I mention them there ARe15 guys jumping into my replies to explain them to me.”

  152. 152.

    Kay

    @Citizen Alan:

    No, that has happened.

    MINNEAPOLIS — The ban on carrying liquids on commercial airliners has had an unintended consequence in Minneapolis: It has made catching a cab easier.Over the past few years, a growing number of Somali taxi drivers in the Twin Cities have been interpreting Koranic prohibitions on carrying alcohol to include ferrying passengers with alcohol in their bags.

    I don’t agree with that either. I’m not religious so my objections to religious people imposing their religion – any of them- on others is very consistent.

  154. 154.

    SFBayAreaGal

    Right now it’s a cool 52° foggy morning with 97% humidity (you don’t feel the humidity). Unfortunately the rain spigot is turned off and won’t turn on until at least late October early November (fingers crossed).

  156. 156.

    Kay

    @Citizen Alan:

    The airport slot is obviously lucrative, so the airport made them go to the back of the line if they refused a fare for any reason – except safety of course- but it got ridiculous because it would be four refusals in a row or something and then you’re just standing there watching these people who won’t pick you circle around and around. There were enough of them that back of the line didn’t matter – line is moving right along and they’re all refusing the same people.

  161. 161.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    Also, a Trump run would cock-block DeSantis, and any tussle between those two authoritarian creeps may help FL Dems Americans, who need all the help they can get!

    Fixed, I think

  162. 162.

    Fair Economist

    GDP shrank the first quarter and there’s at least a good chance it will fall this quarter as well. That is, officially, a recession. I think we may well be there, but it’s a complete unprecedented kind of recession. It’s a labor shortage recession. Too many people are disabled by COVID, or avoiding certain kinds of work because they don’t want to get it, or having to do things like elder or child care because they can’t find or trust people to do it for them.

    So an inflationary recession (because it’s being driven by shortages and genuine cost increases) but with extremely low unemployment because workers are the shortage. Think the 70’s, except that now workers – especially lower wage service workers – are taking the role of oil companies.

    Of course there are complication with the fossil fuel shortage Russia has created, plus the food shortage initially created by Russia but now exacerbated by climate change. Plus corporate greed squeezing the consumer with monopoly power. But I think in the longer run the worker shortage will end up being far more important.

  165. 165.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    meanwhile….

    Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney 43s
    The morning portion of the Bannon trial has been a mess. The parties don’t seem clear what they’re allowed to argue, they’re fighting over redactions to various letters, defense has asked for a month-long delay (denied) and a 3-5 day delay (still possible). Jurors still waiting..

    Glenn Kirschner, FormerFederalProsecutor and current MSNBC talking head, sat in on the jury selection and said on the O’Donnell program that the number of (potential) jurors who knew nothing about 1/6, or the current investigation, was depressing.

  167. 167.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Right. They would have to see it or hear you say you had it. It was happening a lot- the airport got 77 complaints in a month. There’s another prohibition against carrying dogs which obviously ran into service animals so the drivers dropped that demand but the (pet) dog refusal is also common. I bet the dog refusal riles up a lot more people than the other. Hoisting the crate around can’t be a fun and so many people consider their dogs part of their family.

  169. 169.

    Subsole

    @Soprano2:

    Our weekly forecast here in the DFW had a low of 100. The average was 103 to 105. High at 107.

    I have seen temps where it was 108 in the shade before, but that was out in the honest to God desert, on the hardpan.

    This is something else.

  170. 170.

    Subsole

    @Layer8Problem:

    Mostly they mumble something about how electric vehicle charging stations will make it worse. So, y’know, checkmate lib, I guess…

    They don’t really seem to have a good answer for how blanketing everything in 8 layers of exhaust smog will improve the situation…

    ETA: also, as noted, they grudgingly bring us in to fix their mess then turn around and go right back to voting GOP.

  171. 171.

    Sister Golden Bear

    While the House vote on marriage equality is symbolic — since there’s no chance it’ll pass in the Senate — it’s still important for putting Republicans on record about being against. Make them own it.

    BTW, just a reminder: people who say it’s “too divisive” to fight for people’s rights are never the ones at risk of losing them (or who are trying to gain them).

  177. 177.

    Soprano2

    @schrodingers_cat: Yeah I saw it, it was atrocious. I addressed the part I’ve actually had experience with. People here don’t seem to understand how much of Europe doesn’t need cooling for their buildings most of the time, so they make fun of the concern over it.

  178. 178.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: There’s probably hardly any water in it now unless they’ve had a lot more rain lately than we’ve had. My experiences with the Jacks Fork make me want to stay on the Current.

  179. 179.

    lowtechcyclist

    @different-church-lady: Wait, that’s not supposed to be dinner?

    Nah, that’s supposed to be breakfast and lunch.  Dinner’s supposed to be one of those frozen dinners you nuke for five minutes. ;)

  180. 180.

    Kay

    @sab:

    Ha! I loved Minneapolis. We lived there for a time when my oldest child was little. It was completely affordable on two rather modest incomes and the libraries and parks and public events are great.

    I have a photo of him that still makes me laugh where I dragged him to a chain saw ice sculpture competition – he’s in his stroller like “fuck you, idiot- I’m freezing”. That’s his adult face too when he’s with me.

    I am a competent ice skater and my neighborhood had a public skate rink and if I avoided hocky times it was like my personal rink. It felt abundant to me, although we had no money to speak of.

  181. 181.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I don’t agree with it either, but I think it’s funny that so many conservative religious Christians don’t seem to understand that being able to force your religious beliefs on everyone won’t be confined to just them. What’s going to happen in schools when the Baptist teacher tries to make all of the students pray with her, including Catholics and all the other religions? Nothing good, but the Clerical 6 have said it’s A-Ok for the teacher to do that, no violation of religious liberty at all!

  185. 185.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker: Some of the party’s factions seem to hate each other for sure and claim ownership of the agenda, which isn’t exactly conducive to coalition politics.

    For me, it’s never so much been about the agenda as it’s been about the Scared Rabbit Party aspect of the Dems.  It just seems that whenever a Dem takes a stand, and anyone clutches their pearls over it, they get all apologetic and retreat.  From ACORN to Shirley Sherrod, if someone on our side of things is under fire, the Dems have been all too quick to toss them under the bus.

    Lately, they’ve finally been showing more spine than, say, a jellyfish or Marco Rubio.  But it’s frustrated me ever since I gave up my centrist ways and started identifying as a Democrat back in the late 1990s.

  186. 186.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid: I’m thinking Manchin, Sinema, the legislators who are constantly threatening to bolt on important bills. Black and brown Democrats may have a lot of culturally conservative views but they’re not usually the obstruction to doing anything.

  188. 188.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Soprano2:

    People here don’t seem to understand how much of Europe doesn’t need cooling for their buildings most of the time, so they make fun of the concern over it.

    The same people who made fun of SF — where the vast majority of older buildings don’t have AC — during 90+ degree heat waves in recent years.

  189. 189.

    Spanky

    @Layer8Problem:

    How’s the crab situation?  I haven’t heard good things.

    Nah, I got an ointment and it cleared it right up.

    Serious answer: $69/dozen for males. Not a good harvest.

  190. 190.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: Now I see what you mean. I regard Manchin and Sinema as outliers who might have represented a wing of the party a decade or so ago but do not now.

  191. 191.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: People here don’t seem to understand how much of Europe doesn’t need cooling for their buildings most of the time

    Perhaps a comparison with much of Texas not bothering to provide heating for gas lines, pumps, and other critical infrastructure?

  193. 193.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid: There are several Democratic House members who are actually in the same camp, but as the House caucus is currently constructed, they’re not a significant problem, whereas in the Senate, they basically have a veto over anything happening.

  194. 194.

    gvg

    @Edmund Dantes: that seems hard for me to believe because one of the specific reasons I came to think Obama could win was the previous 10 years in the grocery stores how many white grandparents I saw with black grandbabies which I took to mean acceptance of interracial marriage at least enough to be polite and love the grand kids. They were everywhere and still are. It is one thing to see parents and children, but I see the inlaws and multigenerations hanging together too, and that means a lot more IMO.

  195. 195.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: What’s going to happen in schools when the Baptist teacher tries to make all of the students pray with her, including Catholics and all the other religions?

    “Yes, I had to flunk little Johnny because he refused to join in our prayer condemning the antichrist in Rome, and all other Papist heretics.”

  196. 196.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid:

    I regard Manchin and Sinema as outliers who might have represented a wing of the party a decade or so ago

    Very much so. IIRC among “Obama’s” sixty Senators for those six weeks were five “deficit hawks” from the upper Great Plains– Conrad, Dorgan, Johnson, Baucus and Tester– young earth Bible thumper Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, and extraction industry lobbyist with a Senate vote, Mary Landrieu. To say nothing of ex-Republicans Jim Webb and Arlen Specter, and the spite-monster Joe Lieberman.

    Cole was threatening to mentioned bringing on some younger blood for the front page. Please, for the love of god, make it someone who is at least familiar with the above not-too-distant history, not someone who thinks politics began when the birdie landed on Bernie’s podium, and that picture of LBJ looming over Abe Fortas is how civil rights and Medicare got passed.

  197. 197.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: Maybe more than several but not many. There were the 9 members who signed the notorious Gottheimer letter asking that the Infrastructure bill be moved on without regards to the BBB bill, but that was a process matter . Ultimately all the signers voted for both bills, unless Jared Golden (ME-2) was a signer. He was the only Democrat voting against the BBB bill, his stated reason being that the raise of the SALT deduction was too great.

    All nine signers of Gottheimer’s letter were members of the Blue Dog Caucus. Ten Blue Dogs did not sign the letter, including Abigail Spanberger, (hopefully) my next Representative. Overall, that caucus has given Speaker Pelosi few problems during this Congress and the last one.

  199. 199.

    Jinchi

    @nevsky42: Republicans in disarray.

    The fact that Biden pulled the nomination of an anti-abortion activist judge because Rand Paul refused to turn in his blue slip, and not because the Democratic governor of Kentucku objected is a really bad look for Biden.

  201. 201.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Ken: @Soprano2:

    Well, there consistently have been teachers who defy the prayer-in-school ban. It just typically happens in small towns where the folks are confident no one will rat them out. I had one of those at one point, and I’m Gen X.

  203. 203.

    Bill Arnold

    That first tweet has replies by “Yt [email protected]: with this in their bio: “ Christian Nationalist” . The twitter account seems more than a bit anti-black racist though I only scanned the last few days.
    Sigh. That’s a frog emoj. Bragging about being a Christian Nationalist. Anyone with time, feel free to engage these psychopathic twerps by calling them e.g. Nazis paid by Russia. (Or White Christian Supremacist, perhaps Russian Orthodox Church and/or paid by Russia.)

  204. 204.

    sab

    @Geminid: It is very weird but normal for this timeline that my most trusted political reporter is a landscape guy on a 10,000 blog, who is not getting six or seven figures like the major newspaper guys who “report” drivel.

  205. 205.

    Ken

    @sab: Yeah, but the landscape guy doesn’t have the access to Washington insiders like the major newspaper guys. Though the only thing that access provides is canned press-release drivel…

  206. 206.

    MinuteMan

    @gvg: ​
     

    The federal marijuana law is supreme but must be enforced by the feds as they remind you when you visit the national parks.

  207. 207.

    sab

    @Ken: Yet without that special access he still seems to be able to follow things, just by diligently plugging away.

  209. 209.

    Citizen Alan

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    people who say it’s “too divisive” to fight for people’s rights are never the ones at risk of losing them (or who are trying to gain them).

    Not necessarily true. I had a lot of gay friends who would have preferred civil partnerships to marriage if the former conveyed all the benefits of the latter because the thought the insistence on the word  “marriage” needlessly riled the fundies without providing any additional benefit. ymmv.

  210. 210.

    Citizen Alan

    @Geminid:

    I  stand by my belief that Sinema is still a Green at heart and wants to hurt the Democratic party for its own sake. Her career doesn’t make any sense otherwise.

  211. 211.

    Geminid

    @Citizen Alan: When Sinema ran for a newly created Arizona House seat in 2012 her Republican opponent described her as a “pagan hippy.” She won, and then became a pagan hippy Blue Dog.

    I think Sinema may be conditioned by having to win a Senate seat in a red state. She was the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Arizona since Dennis DeConcini in the 1980s. But both Biden and Kelly won narrowly in 2020 so it could be that a Democrat doesn’t have to take a “centrist” path now in Arizona. The results of Mark Kelly’s and Katie Hobbs’ races this year will tell us something about political trends in that state.

    But I think a commenter who observed Sinema’s career up close while living in Arizona may have the correct appraisal of her character and motivation. Sinema, the commenter says, is a social climber.

  212. 212.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Steeplejack: Greetings!  My maternal grandmother was born in Falls Church, VA in 1887.  I always imagined it as a one-horse town, but apparently, it was something of a bedroom community to nearby DC, and not all that sleepy.  Her father worked for the railroad.

  213. 213.

    Matt McIrvin

    Also, the average Democrat is alarmed that the average Democrat is completely blind to the fascist threat. Which suggests a coordination problem.

  214. 214.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Citizen Alan: There was a subset of especially older gay people who saw marriage as a part of the whole complex of oppressive ideas they thought ought to be destroyed. I’m sure Andrew Sullivan insisting that same-sex marriage was an essentially conservative measure didn’t help.

  215. 215.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Soprano2: For quite a few years now I have, for one reason or another, travelled in Europe in April or May and I highly recommend it. The weather is fine (coolish, maybe some rain, but also beautiful days generally), with reasonable numbers of people in airports and cities.  I read travel horror stories right now and am so glad I went (got back April 21) when I did.

  216. 216.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Soprano2: My grandmother was a Southern Baptist, and according to her, Catholics are just WRONG, so praying over them would be a good thing.  It would/will be interesting for all the Catholics on the SC to get a good hit of Southern Baptist religious prejudice, what with all the “religious freedom” lawsuits that will be coming their way.

  217. 217.

    trnc

    @lowtechcyclist: ​
     

    IANAL, but in event of a conflict, doesn’t the more recent law automatically supersede the older law?

    I would have thought so, but needing a judge to rule on it implies otherwise.

  218. 218.

    Miss Bianca

    @Matt McIrvin:

    @Citizen Alan:

    I guess “older” would include me now, whose introduction to LGBTQ politics started in the 80s at the University of Michigan with the radical queer youth in my student co-op housing. They loudly and firmly expressed the opinion that marriage was part of the bourgie breeder infrastructure that queerness was supposed to be undermining.

    To be honest, that’s probably why I was…not *against* marriage equality…but thought that civil partnerships ought to be cool enough for everyone, to the extent that I thought about it at all. My thinking about the whole issue didn’t really change until…well…Joe Biden made it a BFD. One of the reasons I love Joe.

    That said, I think Sister Golden Bear’s point:

    BTW, just a reminder: people who say it’s “too divisive” to fight for people’s rights are never the ones at risk of losing them (or who are trying to gain them).

    is right on.

  220. 220.

    Steeplejack

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):

    Falls Church might have been a one-horse town back in 1887. It’s still pretty small—population about 15,000—but everything runs together around here. Just to the east is Arlington, which is like a Renaissance city-state, and to the west is Fairfax County, which is Virginia’s (and the DMV’s) most populous county. Oddly, Falls Church is an independent city in Virginia “with county-level governance status”; dunno what that’s about.

    I actually live in Seven Corners, which is a snippet of Fairfax County just south of Falls Church, although my mailing address is Falls Church. I’m about seven miles west of the Potomac off Highway 50 (Arlington Boulevard).

    Falls Church is a bedroom community for Washington, I guess, but there’s a lot of stuff going on here so that you don’t necessarily have to go downtown. Lots of moving parts in the DMV.

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