Time to reinvent the wheel.
Here’s the Cartwheel Galaxy in a whole new light — as a composite image from 2 instruments on the Webb telescope. Webb uniquely offers not just a snapshot of the galaxy’s current state, but also a peek into its past & future: https://t.co/QdXPwAwwac pic.twitter.com/SJD3wTxwRP
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) August 2, 2022
Thanks to Obamacare, and the improvements we made to it in the American Rescue Plan, the uninsured rate hit its lowest point ever today.
Pretty cool, huh, @BarackObama? https://t.co/rA7qneY23N
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 2, 2022
Just like that, ?@DeptVetAffairs? web site is already updated with info for vets on how to get burn pit benefits under law passed tonight >>> The PACT Act And Your VA Benefits | Veterans Affairs https://t.co/jN9YxaClTr
— Donovan Slack (@DonovanSlack) August 3, 2022
And the worm turns…
the main lesson that republicans should take from this is that they are playing with fire and it's getting out of control, though the one they'll probably take from it is that they can't trust the voters https://t.co/85b0mP8oIQ
— GONELIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) August 3, 2022
Remember that Republicans scheduled the Kansas abortion referendum for the primary rather than the general election because there are many more registered Republicans in the state than Democrats and unaffiliateds can’t vote in primary races. Abortion rights still won handily.
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) August 3, 2022
Perhaps mastery of the countermajoritarian levers of American democracy is not the same as a broad public mandate to create an unprecedented state regime of surveillance, coercion and control in the name of banning abortion.
— Adam Serwer ?? (@AdamSerwer) August 3, 2022
It’s very simple: We can either vote to restore reproductive rights or we can let the party that’s vowing to ban abortion nationwide win. https://t.co/vZGMl5Rze4
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) August 3, 2022
The U.S. sued Idaho to block a state law that it said imposes a 'near-absolute ban' on abortion, marking its first legal challenge to state abortion laws since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling https://t.co/zkbjjy4H3f pic.twitter.com/ZwSKrwBAnW
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 3, 2022
Rubbing it in:
Biden literally just murdered a close friend of Trump’s guests, and he did it while they were trying to enjoy a festive tournament at his new tax shelter, no less.
Guy is heartless.
— Strahan Cadell (@Sartor1836) August 2, 2022
Baud
And I’m still seeing people complain that Dems aren’t messaging on abortion.
Baud
Reposted from the thread below. Fits better here.
Betty Cracker
From ESPN:
Good for him. And fuck Norman, who was complaining about it on the Tucker Carlson White Power Hour.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I saw a tweet claiming the number of votes on the KS abortion amendment was larger than the two governor primaries combined. Voters are awake.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Woke. The term is woke.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: did you say, Woke?
With bonus introduction by Fred Astaire?! I always have loved this song, but I also must say the singer is the Queen of the head tilt.
satby
@Baud: It took all three. But Stewart’s obvious, emotional passion rebutting the Republican nonsense was effective in ways that the Democrats probably couldn’t be. Which is fine. Everyone has a part to play to keep democracy going, and allies can be intemperate and emote in ways that an elected official probably shouldn’t.
SiubhanDuinne
I went to bed last night a septuagenarian. I woke up this morning an octogenarian. This is a situation which strikes me as absurd, ridiculous, ludicrous, and utterly preposterous. EIGHTY!!
Anyhow:
Also, a very happy birthday to beloved commenter Omnes Omnibus, with whom I am annually proud to share this day!!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
rikyrah
@SiubhanDuinne:
Happy Birthday 🥳🎈🎁🎉💐🌄
rikyrah
@SiubhanDuinne:
Happy Birthday to Omnes too🥳🎈🎁🎉💐🌄🤗
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SiubhanDuinne: Your natural language is poetry.
Happy birthday to you and Omnes too.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Also thanks to the GOP for being such lowlife muthaphuckas that they high-fived after taking away healthcare for sick veterans. Without that visual, they wouldn’t have backed down.
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: The happiest of Happy Birthdays my friend! 🎂
And to your astral twin Omnes! 🎉🎉
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 For Tiger
Baud
@satby:
QFT.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Immanentize
@SiubhanDuinne: Its a party! Happy B-Day to all who celebrate.
*”Weighty” just cracked me up
Jeffro
The majority is speaking up, finally, about restoring reproductive rights across this country.
Now let’s hear from the even bigger majority who appreciate their kids’ and grandkids’ local public schools…before it’s too late:
The number of teachers and administrators that I know who are flat-out leaving the field entirely is astounding. Many companies are eager to hire these folks (at significant pay raises and sane working conditions) and they are talking to their friends who are still in the schools.
Public school parents really need to step it up and:
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
You don’t look a day over 50.
Happy birthday!
Ken
Now some group will claim fraud, and demand to go through the ballots and set aside the obviously-fraudulent votes (i.e. the Democratic primary ballots, and any R ballots that voted to keep abortion rights), so the measure passes.
Starfish
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy birthday!
Baud
Happy birthday to Omnes too. He’s probably aged out of a Supreme Court appointment in the Baud! administration, much to his relief.
NeenerNeener
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy Birthday to you and Omnes too!
Ken
“To thine own self be true” — Polonius to Laertes
(Or, in the version with which I am most familiar, the Skipper to Mary Anne.)
Immanentize
My question on the abortion issue in Kansas:
Does this suggest, like legalization of marijuana, the protecting abortion rights is a ballot initiative that can inspire Democratic/independent voters, even in swing states to turn out? If so, should it be a strategy in 2024 in other states?
Ken
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy birthday, and to Omnes too!
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: My most beloved uncle recently turned 80 and was similarly incredulous about the milestone. Felicitations!
Immanentize
@Ken: Totally self-inflicted wound by the forced birthers. Ha! They really live in a bubble in which all agree with them.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Eight-O is great-O. Happy birthday as you start your new decade.
And to Omnes, too.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: I read that article this morning. What a shit-show. Republicans who stirred up fanatics to disrupt schools (first over masks, then nonsense like CRT, gay/trans panic, etc.) deserve massive blowback, and I hope they get it, good and hard.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: It’s the “unaffiliated” votes that made the difference.
OzarkHillbilly
I don’t know about that but we should still put it on every ballot we can.
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: Someone said earlier that the Republicans put this on a primary ballot because unaffiliated voters can’t vote in those. Is that not the case?
In Illinois primaries, you can get a “non-partisan” ballot for primary elections.
Jinchi
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy Birthday!
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh, have a wonderful day! And Omnes too!
OzarkHillbilly
It’s the same here in Misery and from what I’ve read the same in KS. The abortion amendment was a non partisan issue. I read the same blurb you did and it gave the wrong impression:
No they can’t vote in primary races but that just explains why so many unaffiliateds don’t bother to vote during primaries.
Immanentize
@Ken: in some states, unaffiliated voters cannot vote in primaries (so-called “closed” primaries). But such voters can vote on any non-political primary issue, like a referendum. The play by the Republicans was that if voters thought they couldn’t vote for everything, they would stay home.
This is why the referendum vote numbers exceed the primary vote numbers combined.
Or, what Ozark said!
geg6
@Ken:
From what I’ve read, it’s the same deal in KS.
sdhays
@Ken: I think the idea is that unaffiliated voters can’t vote in the primaries, so under normal circumstances this vote wouldn’t have had anything to do with them. But they of course can vote on a Constitutional amendment, and they turned out exclusively to vote that down.
Kansas Republicans didn’t expect that.
Kay
These are growing fast in Texas. Hundreds of millions in public funding flowing to fundamentalist religious groups to indoctrinate and brainwash women and provide fake, low quality, substandard “medical care” and diapers but ony if they take madatory Bible classes. It’s a fundamentalist Christian employment program and it’s unregulated, has no oversight and is overtly partisan Republican. That’s what Texans are paying for instead of real professional and dignified health care for women. This low quality, dangerous junk is what women get because that’s all they are worth in the “pro life” movement. A baby production vessel. They’ve set women back a hundred years and it will ripple culturally- it already has. They’re now defending the rape of 13 year olds as perhaps consensual. Backwards. The US will be an outlier on womens rights- archaic and backward. I expect them to roll back marriage age laws. They’ll just marry off the 13 year old. They already essentially do in a lot of these sects.
Horrifying. I hope women finally get it, before it’s too late. That career and education and free life you wanted and had before these peope came to power? They can’t allow that. They’ll be so far up your ass and in your business you won’t be able to move. They’re already peering over yur shoulder at the physician’s office. How far can it go? FAR.
A Streeter
@SiubhanDuinne:
You, Omnes, and my niece. (My own was two days ago. Parties every other day these days.) Happy birthday all three of you!
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: Ah, OK, I misread that. So I’ll amend my earlier post: the fraudulent ballots can be recognized by the (D), or by the “no” vote on an (R) or unaffiliated ballot.
And I’m sure after this defeat, the
goodpeople of the Kansas Republican party are looking for ways to keep unaffiliated voters out of elections.Matt McIrvin
@Immanentize: I think so.
Abortion rights was an electoral loser for Democrats for a long time because, even though a majority favored protecting them, there was an intensity difference: Roe meant that Democratic voters didn’t see it as high-stakes (however erroneously), but there was a fanatical Republican constituency that could be relied on to turn out to oppose abortion. Now the shoe is on the other foot.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
“We’re the fanatics now!”
Baud
@Kay:
So say we all.
Immanentize
@Matt McIrvin: I did not ask for or want this other foot to be the one shod, but now that it is, let’s kick some ass with it.
Immanentize
@Kay: Truth
Baud
Klobacher was on MJ this morning and expressed confidence Sinema would sign on to the Schumer-Manchin deal and said Schumer was talking to her. FWIW. Could easily be spin. We’ll find out this week.
SteveinPHX
Happy B’day to the two of you! Great sharing a birthday.
Baud
The other problem with the GOP is that they put so much effort into branding themselves as pro-FREEDOM! We all knew that it was a lie, but they way the acting like kids in a candy shop of oppression as soon as the Supreme Court gave them to the ok must have sent some normies heads spinning.
O. Felix Culpa
Feliz compleaños to Subaru Diane, OO, and SteveinPHX too!
Jeffro
I saw something that suggested that a decent % of KS voters turned out JUST to vote on the abortion question. Dobbs is going to bring folks to the polls in November, no doubt about it.
Meanwhile, in Virginia, Governor Fleece Vest wants to revisit his proposed (and failed) gas tax cut, because he “wants people to think of (VA) Senate Democrats when they fill up at the pump”. That’s all ya got, Gov?
Inflation slowing, gas prices dropping, Dobbs hovering over everything…what’s the GQP to do?? Is it possible for Hunter Biden’s laptop to lead a CARAVAN!!1! to the border or something?
Ken
In the real world, no. But on Fox, sure. They’ll even work in teachers indoctrinating kindergarteners with CRT
(Which is silly — in my experience, kids of that age are very good at spotting things that are unfair, and don’t care one whit about the gender, race, or age of those involved. It takes years of training to change that. I think South Pacific has a song about that…)
Geminid
There still are “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” voters, and many of them are Independents. That may account for Republican governors winning blues states like Maryland, Massachestts, and Vermont..
H.E.Wolf
@SiubhanDuinne: Wishing you and Omnes [ETA: and SteveinPHX) many happy returns of the day!
eclare
Happy birthday, SD!
Matt McIrvin
@Immanentize: Many, many Americans honestly did not believe that conservatives would overturn Roe the moment they got the chance, even though they openly said they were going to 24/7 in every forum other than Supreme Court nomination hearings.
The idea that abortion rights were safe, so it was safe to torpedo Democratic candidates in general elections to punish them for not being progressive enough, was key to left third-party and anti-electoralist movements. These were always marginal but they got their main support among the age demographics who ought to care about these things the most. Now they’ve switched to saying we should punish Democrats for not stopping this, but I don’t think many are buying it.
Geminid
@Baud: David Dayan wrote in The American Prospect that the carried interest taxation provision in the bill did not account for much revenue and that it might be sacrificed to placate Ms. Sinema.
Baud
@Geminid:
At least she’s found her cause in life. Many never do.
JAFD
Happy birthday to my fellow Leos. Unfortunately, we’re not ‘in our prime’ anymore. ;-)
Josie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Happy birthday to you (and Omnes). You are not alone. I’m not far behind you.
ETA: I have decided that in my last year before 80, I will become the strongest 80 year old woman ever – mentally and physically. What else do I have to do at this point?
jonas
I woke up happy to see the outcome of the Kansas vote. Does anyone know whether the abortion measure failed due to a broad swathe of the electorate voting against it (which would be majority Republican) or did we just see phenomenal turnout in the state’s few heavily-D districts? If it was the former, that’s a pretty stunning rout for the anti-choice movement among its own base.
jonas
She’s threatened to blow the whole thing up so a few *billionaires* don’t have to pay higher taxes? How many hedge funds are headquartered in Arizona? I can’t even wrap my head around this. Even large majorities of Republicans (voters, that is, not their well-bribed representatives) want to see the CI loophole go.
delphinium
@Kay: These fundamentalist “Christians” are such anti-life, misogynistic, ghouls. It is beyond rage-inducing that these centers can lie to and manipulate women and children, potentially putting their life in danger, without facing repercussions.
Baud
@jonas:
She sucks, but are we going to blow it up because of the CI loophole? The most important parts of the bill are the ones that deal with climate and the parts that help people, like the ACA subsidies. Until we get more Senators (while keeping the House), we need her vote just like we needed Manchin.
Geminid
@jonas: Well, she hasn’t threatened to blow anything up yet. Dayan seemed suggest that the carried interest provision may have been included as a bone to throw to Sinema. As he pointed out, it did not account for very much revenue.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: She (and Manchin + all Republicans) have been remarkably successful in keeping most of Trump’s massive corporate tax cuts in place — contrary to the wishes of the rest of the party and the majority of voters. She should vote for this damn bill and take a victory lap. It might be her last.
kalakal
@SiubhanDuinne: A very happy birthday to you and Omnes
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I agree she should. I’m just saying we have no effective way of forcing her to do anything. We have brinkmanship, but the downside if that fails is massive. Depending on the scope of what she’s asking for, I wouldn’t pull that trigger yet.
Danielx
@SiubhanDuinne:
A very happy birthday to you!
WereBear
@satby: exactly. Thank you’
SiubhanDuinne
@Josie:
What a great idea! Wish I’d thought of that.
:-)
Thanks to everyone for the nice birthday wishes. And I just had a phone call from a florist wanting to make sure I’d be home for a 💐 delivery today. And I should be getting my new (to me) laptop today or tomorrow!
kalakal
Whether you think of it as the Wheel turning or revenge is a dish best served cold this story about Ellen White is a splendid kick in the teeth to sexist prats
https://metro.co.uk/2022/08/02/lionesses-star-ellen-white-was-banned-from-playing-in-local-league-aged-9-17114019/
CaseyL
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy Birthday to you, and to Omnes, and to anyone else whose natal day is today!
satby
Wandered over to twitter, as is my wont, and saw this gem: the complete interview of my favorite Secretary-Mayor on the Daily Show. Damn, the guy is good.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: A new laptop. Woo hoo.
To a year of finding all manner of wonder, via the laptop, and by getting out and about.
SteveinPHX
@O. Felix Culpa:
I was offering birthday wishes to OO and SD. Not my day to celebrate!
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Happy birthday! 🎉🥂
bjacques
Don’t wanna jinx it, but getting Sinema’s vote this week would cap a damn good week for Democrats.
Meanwhile…
(apologies if done before)
EDIT: NYT Pitchbot: Can reasonable men even now find common ground on abortion limits?
Redshift
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy Birthday! 🎂
The Moar You Know
@Matt McIrvin: It’s not just that they said they would do it, they’ve been saying for FIFTY YEARS that they would do it! What the hell? How could this have been a surprise to anyone?
And yet it was. I despair of my fellow citizens, often.
satby
@The Moar You Know: The same way so many vets voted for Republicans (but now a few less will); and so many SS dependant retirees vote for Republicans (and probably now less will). Because they never believed they would actually accomplish the things they were promising, it was all just campaign talk. Once it became real, calculations had to change. And though political junkies think that’s crazy, an entire news media pushing both sides, horse race bullshit without any policy outcome reporting until it was too late made that delusion possible.
Baud
@The Moar You Know:
It shouldn’t have been, but I have heard many a talking point that overruling Roe was not something the GOP was serious about and they were doing it just to rile up their base and raise money.
satby
@Baud: or what you said.
EriktheRed
Can anyone tell me who is the “close friend of Trump’s guests” being referenced in that last tweet?
Baud
@satby:
Matt McIrvin
@The Moar You Know: You got me. It always struck me as mysterious.
I mean, it did take them a long long time to manage to do it (though there was a lot of gradual erosion leading up to that), so a short-term outlook could be enough.
The Moar You Know
@EriktheRed: al-Zawahiri. Good friend of the Saudi royal family. Now sprayed all over part of downtown Kabul.
sdhays
@Ken: I really wonder if they’re going to keep going hard after teachers the closer we get to the election and the teacher shortage, particularly in places like Florida, gets a lot of coverage. They might want to distract from education altogether, since that looming disaster has the real potential to make their favorite nasty governor a one-termer.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: That’s the Cult of the Savvy, always insisting that a thing is the opposite of what it plainly appears to be, because if you can perceive that it makes you very clever.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Agreed. And it comes from the same place conservatism comes from — the need to feel superior to the general mass of humanity.
PST
@SiubhanDuinne: Also happy birthday to you and OO and everyone else getting promoted today. I’ve been thinking about aging lately and it has led to a decision to join a gym. You hear all the time that resistance training is good, but the claimed benefit was never concrete enough to get me past my laziness and inertia. I didn’t care about big muscles. But I realize now, as I approach 70, that the reason to go beyond aerobic exercise is so I can be the most kick-ass 85-year-old possible. Orthopedic injury can be a terrible set-back then. My back, my joints, my balance, my risk of injury can all be improved by strengthening my core, my ankles, etc. I want to make that my guiding principle: no exercises that will wear out joints, only exercises that help them. I look around me and see that one’s 70s tend often to be a great time of life (this can depend very much on prosperity) but it can take a lot of effort as well as luck to keep that going later. Not trying to be a bummer, of course, but getting ready for my 80s has been on my mind the the birthday comments triggered me.
Edmund Dantes
@rikyrah: I thought it was a terrorist fist jab. But yeah that visual hurt them immensely
Geminid
@The Moar You Know: It was Al Zawahiri, but the “guests” referenced are more likely the Taliban that trump wanted to host at Camp David, and Mike Pompeo met with in Qatar. Al Zawahri was killed on the balcony of a house owned by a senior member of the Haqqani network, a key partner in the Taliban government.
The reference might have been to the Saudis, but I’m not sure it’s applicable. Al Zawahiri was hostile to the conservative Gulf States’ leadership.
Geminid
@PST: Tai chi can be a good form of exercise, and might improve balance and footwork in a way that could prevent future orthopedic injuries.
And if you really apply yourself to this martial art you can send people flying with what looks like a gentle push! If you have a partner, you two can go dancing chi to chi.
Edmund Dantes
@satby: well it was all part of the whole “we presented people with the GOP’s actual policy positions and people didn’t believe anyone could be that cruel”. Now they are no longer policy positions but actual laws and those people are finally realizing denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Amazing how that’s been memory-holed, but that hole is so crowded I guess it’s easy to lose track of the individual items in there
Edmund Dantes
@EriktheRed: the Al Qaeda leader killed. As in Saudi Arabia (LIV Golf owners) sent a lot of money to Al Qaeda through the years and thus friends with the people that executed 9/11.
Feathers
@Matt McIrvin: It’s a reverse conspiracy theory world isn’t it? People are saying terrible things out loud, so it must mean they don’t actually believe it.
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy birthday! I went through a strong Warren Beatty phase. Even had his phone number for a while. Never called it. I had a summer internship on Capitol Hill and it was in my boss’s Rolodex. Robert Redford had stopped by the day before I started. Sigh. Maybe a rewatch of Reds tonight.
stacib
@Jeffro: My granddaughter was in first grade last year. During that one year, four different teachers quit and the vice principal ended up finishing out the year.
Ken
I thought we didn’t have any idea who was behind 9/11? At least, I heard that quite recently, from a source that received Presidential Daily Briefings for four years and would surely know.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Truth. I’m constantly reminded of outrageous things and thinking, oh yeah — that actually happened.
Old School
Happy Birthday to all the August 3rd babies in the comments section!
Feathers
@PST: I’ve been doing this guy’s workout: Hybrid Calisthenics. It’s body weight exercises that actually start gently enough for non fit people to do. His mother died of a stroke and he realized she didn’t do the assigned exercises because she couldn’t – they were above her fitness level. So he started this program where everything has progressions up and down. Push-ups start at wall pushes and go to very fancy advanced one arm push-ups.
It’s been doable for me and highly recommend it. He’s also a total sweetie of a guy.
Link: https://www.hybridcalisthenics.com/
eclare
@PST: My eighty-something healthy and vibrant aunt teaches Silver Sneakers Tai Chi. She is a firm believer in it. She also lives in a two story house where her bedroom is on the second floor, so she has to stay fit.
SiubhanDuinne
@Feathers:
Well, I actually just used him for the rhyme :-)
But he was a very dishy guy back in the day.
J R in WV
@EriktheRed:
Mohammed Bone Saw, putative ruler of Saudi Arabia. And his front man, just killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, al–Zawahiri.
Matt McIrvin
@sdhays: They really want to kill public education through the standard privatization death spiral: starve and hobble public services so that they are shitty, and then get people to punish them and eventually replace them because they are shitty. It works to some degree because the funding of these systems tends to depend on enrollment and parents rationally don’t want their kids to be in a hobbled public system if they can afford to get them out.
I think the one thing that might prevent it from working 100% is that most people are actually sympathetic to teachers in an abstract emotional sense–the people who aren’t tend to be people who don’t have school-age children and are bothered that they still have to fund education.
p.a.
@Geminid:
That’s my take also. I remember aQ as gladly taking Saudi $$$ but being hostile to the ruling family and its lifestyle and connections to the West, at least.
Jeffro
@sdhays: we’ll see, unfortunately. They think they can keep playing with fire there, too.
Jeffro
@stacib: yup. stories like this need to be told.
lowtechcyclist
Happy 80th birthday to SiubhanDuinne from this 68 year old kid, and happy birthday to Omnes as well!
@JAFD:
Speak for yourself! SiubhanDuinne will be in her prime in another three years (83 is a prime). For all I know, Omnes might be in his prime right now. (Is your age a prime? If you’re younger than 121 and your age isn’t divisible by 2, 3, 5, or 7, then it’s a prime.)
sdhays
@satby: Our political system also has a ridiculous number of veto points, some built in, some by choice (like the filibuster), so a lot of the time, nothing seems to happen.
bjacques
@The Moar You Know: *julienned*. Al-Zawahiri was julienned.
Also, many happy returns to Omnes and Subaru Diane!
lowtechcyclist
The real thing that keeps it from working is the logistical impossibility of it all. 87% of school-age children attend public schools. There just isn’t anywhere else for them to go.
You could double the number and capacity of private schools, and you could double the number of parents home-schooling their kids, and you’d still have three out of every four school-age kids attending public schools.
Would be interesting to see which states have the most and least severe teacher shortages.
eachother
Happy Birthday!
For those other 364;
Oh happy day!
oatler
The AZ election is over and the winner was the one who loved T the most and America the least.
Kay
@Ken:
So true. I love how they talk about it, too. It’s a code- rules. There are mitigating and aggravating factors “he said it but his father just died” – she said it and it’s worse because it’s the second offense. Proportional force! “He’s bigger so it’s unfair”. They’re the fairness police.
SiubhanDuinne
@lowtechcyclist:
But it will be nine years before I’m a Fibonacci!
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist:
I’d expect the intended endpoint to be the privatization of the existing public schools, and perhaps a takeover by religion-affiliated entities something like the Catholic hospital system.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
From MI-3, where supermarket heir Peter Meijer went down against trumpy Biggs in a new district that Biden won by 8
Betty Cracker
@Baud & @Matt McIrvin: At the risk of outing myself as a savvy cultist, I will say I think there’s some truth to the notion that the establishment GOP doesn’t really give a shit about abortion. There are definitely true believers, but Republicans like McConnell, Graham, McCarthy, the Bushes, etc., and most big donors and activist organizations like FedSoc, Koch Industries, et al., use culture war issues to rile the rubes and gain power, which they need to deregulate businesses and shield the wealthy from taxes.
Of course, their motivations are immaterial to a woman who’s going septic due to an incomplete miscarriage. But the decades-long fight to reverse our rights is built on fanaticism AND cynicism, IMO.
Kay
Haberman should just come out and identify as a conservative. Her entire Twitter feed is like this- it’s all promoting Republicans. It gets worse and worse. I hate that she’s billed on cable as some kind of independent analyst- I haven’t watched but it’s in her bio. It’s dishonest.
The NYTimes political team is a disgrace. The rest of the paper should be embarrassed.
Elizabelle
@Feathers: Thank you. Checking that out. Hampton seems like one very cool, and generous, dude.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
They’re depending more and more on the religious Right to win in places like Ohio. That’s what Vance is doing- he’s trying to get that group. They backed Mandel. It may work. It worked when Bush did it in 04 by bashing gay people – just gross. You know, Kasich won two terms in Ohio. They didn’t used to have to bring out every religious fundamentalist to win. They do now. DeWine is now far, far Right. He was a moderate. They can’t win without the extremists.
JanieM
@Betty Cracker: Thank you for this. I totally agree, and it’s what a friend of mine whose work takes him into bastions of R cynics has been saying for decades.
OzarkHillbilly
Investigation debunks bogus ‘audit’ claiming 300 dead people voted in Arizona in 2020
The Deep State strikes back!
Elizabelle
@Kay: Agreed. I would be fine if someone dropped a missile on Haberman, Peter Baker, Jeremy Peters and all the other Republican whisperers. They do so much damage, dishonestly.
The FTF NY Times political team is appalling. Because so are their owners, I guess.
Fuck ’em.
jonas
@Baud: No, I’m not saying that the CI loophole is a hill to die on, just observing that, wow, she sucks. And for no discernible reason. I could see a senator from NJ, NY, or CT balking at taking on the hedge fund Olympians, but AZ? Weird.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
She’s constantly tweeting about how powerful Trump is. She should get the book out before he loses steam.
The books ruined them. They’re not political reporters. They’re some kind of weird “recent history” people. How is this useful to anyone? We all lived thru the last 6 years. They could hire any of us to comment. Dave Weigel is the only national POLITICAL reporter. There’s ONE :)
Steeplejack
@A Streeter:
And happy birthday to you! 🎉🎂🥂
Lapassionara
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy birthday! I will join this club at the end of September. I would like the 8th decade of my life to be full of meaning and purpose, but right now it is full of tedium and failing body parts.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
Weigel wrote a book about “prog rock”. Keeps this shit separate, properly. The incentives are all wrong.
jnfr
@SiubhanDuinne:
You have young ASCii. Happy birthday!
Elizabelle
@Kay: She first worked at the New York Post, didn’t she?
It shows. The FTF NY Times is kind of the Kyrsten Sinema of major dailies. They have no respect for their readers/subscribers. It shows. You are just not a good paper if the most popular reader comments are more informative and honest than your vaunted reporting.
I really do wonder about their subscription numbers being up. To who? I wonder about their financing. I really do.
Immanentize
@Kay: what kind of poll asks two questions in one polling question?:
1) Kelly “promis[ed] to be an independent voice,” AND
2) “Kelly has been in lockstep with Biden’s policies and agenda.”
I refuse to take the time to run that crap down, but I call double dog bullshit
Geminid
@jonas: Sinema is weird. I know that people attribute her actions to a desire to serve the wealthy and corporations, and that may be true. I also think she may be conditioned by winning office first in a purple House district and then a red state. But a jackal who saw Sinema’s career at first hand has an explaination of her that sounds true: Sinema is a social climber.
Nicole
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy birthday and congrats on reaching your ninth decade on this good earth! (I did the math correct, yes? Eighty= start of ninth decade?) Wishing you many more years and many more comments on this fine site.
Immanentize
@Nicole: You know that your thinking/math just makes everyone feel older, right?
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy birthday to you and O2, two of my all-time favorite commenters here! 80 years young, woot!
jonas
And as we know, there’s a dwindling number of those, too. Your rhetoric has to get more extreme to reach a smaller number of evangelical nutjobs because the few remaining ones are *really* bugfuck nuts.
Central Planning
@Elizabelle: Just to be pedantic (THAT should be a rotating tag), the new decade will start at 81.
@PST: Get a rowing machine. It’s low impact and a full-body workout. Or use one at a gym. Just make sure you get a lesson on proper technique so you don’t hurt yourself. My FIL is 91 and rows 5k/day. And if you want to join a cult, join your local on-the-water rowing club.
Geminid
@jonas: Republicans in many areas are in a bind now: they can’t win without the radicals, but they can’t win with them either.
But Republican elites welcomed the radicals and bible thumpers into the party with the idea that they could be harnessed to the elites’ purposes, so they have no one to blame but themselves.
Miss Bianca
@The Moar You Know:
This has always blown my mind, as well. That people just honestly did not – or would not – see what was so incredibly obvious.
Immanentize
@Central Planning: Disagree — our age is not like a decade. Every age year represents one year lived — so 1 y.o means you have already lived one year. 80 y.o. means you have already lived 80 years. so, your 80th year, is actually your 81st on the planet. Therefore, hocus pocus, presto chango, the beginning of your 9th decade (as long as decades are still 10 years long)
Contra Abbey Road cover: “28 IF”
Miss Bianca
@Baud: I’m still furious about that shit.
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca: Stay frosty! Much work ahead. But it is useful to have such receipts….
C Stars
@Geminid: My mother (who lives in AZ) has a theory that is popular among herself and her friends, which is that Sinema grew up dirt poor, really really poor, and now is simply helpless to resist the money that is being thrown her way by bad actors. I hate to criticize a fellow woman in this way, but it kind of looks like she spends more time shopping for clothes than thinking about what’s best for her constituents.
C Stars
Off topic but I fucking hate this Max Boot/WaPo headline and all that it stands for. This is the worst of political punditry. When are these people going to realize how tiresome and played out their stupid clickbaity pettiness reads to real people?
Biden might be the Democrats’ worst possible nominee (except for all the others)
Central Planning
@Immanentize: I understand what you’re saying, and the non-pedantic part of me agrees. Strangely, the CompSci part of me agrees too because you’re starting counting at 0.
The pedantic part of me is just doing its job.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Sinema is a mystery in that she’s done remarkable things like reinventing herself as a politician and winning a U.S. Senate seat, which makes me suspect she’s no dummy. But then she does things that seem colossally dumb, like making herself odious to her own state party, to the point where she’ll probably get bounced in the primary. I don’t get it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@C Stars: Josh Marshall said that people who know her (so, “sources close to”, FWIW) say she genuinely believes she has a chance at the presidency, and lots of people say (so again, FWIW) that she really thinks she can follow McCain as a model. Hard to believe a grown-ass woman and professional politician, who must have some talent and brains and whatever to have won that seat, could really miss the whole “POW/War hero” thing, to say nothing of McCain’s ability, and eagerness, to win over the media
Steeplejack
If anyone wants to follow today’s session of the train-wreck Alex Jones defamation trial, here’s a link.
frosty
@SiubhanDuinne: LOL! That was greaty!
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I have a better shot at the presidency than she does.
Nicole
@Immanentize: I have decided to single-handedly start an anti-anti-ageism campaign, where the older, the COOLER. We’ll even give out a yearly award, which we’ll call the Betty White Memorial.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Great point about the importance of media relations in the McCain model. In fact, that was the McCain model. Remember the tire-swing days? And when McCain called the press his base?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Marshall thread on “terrible person” Sinema
Baud
@Nicole:
I’d die for that award.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Say what you want about McCain, he was a charismatic guy.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
In my slog through “Reaganland” I recently got to the bit where Reagan, in the 1980 campaign, promises some prominent fundy that he will only appoint anti-abortion judges. And that issue was not anywhere on the Republican RADAR, but Reagan was busy lassoing the whacko faction into the party who; in turn, were hosting gleeful pro-Reagan events.
Yay.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus: Tireswings for Jesus.
Mike E
@Feathers:
@Elizabelle:
I will 2nd the rec for hybrid calisthenics, I’m doing Hampton’s (modified) body weight workouts and cardio on my bike(s). The trick is doing what you can, for however many reps and sets you can safely manage. Having home workouts with limited equipment (bike stand, broom handle) keeps me getting after it while shielding me from exposure to covid, which is never seemingly going to disappear. Sadly.
WereBear
@trollhattan: Nixonland was read in bits because it made me so MAD.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: The Bushes prior to George W.’s generation were literally active in Planned Parenthood, so it was clearly a calculated move there. But I think there’s something going on like the cult dynamic where the founding generation are in on the grift, but eventually, a younger generation of true believers takes over and usually fucks it up.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Matt McIrvin: also the Romneys, from George to Willard to Ronna notRomney
I think there was some talk of one of the Mittlets testing the waters in MA or UT a few years back, but it’s been a while
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: Sinema’s motto might well be: “I prefer to remain a mystery: *even to myself*.”
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Agreed.
Omnes Omnibus
Thanks for the birthday wishes. FWIW I will be a prime next year.
Immanentize
@Nicole: sadly, “memorial” is just too spot on.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
And I will be a square!
My cousin’s guest on his open line radio show this morning was the former police chief of Aurora, Illinois. She wished me a happy birthday, which was awfully kind, considering she’d never hard of me until 30 seconds earlier :-)
SiubhanDuinne
@frosty:
Thanks, Matey!
Nicole
@Immanentize: Well, I can’t very well call it the commemorative. But no shame in a 99-year run. And an internet meme to the very end (and likely beyond)! We should all be so lucky.
Immanentize
And, speaking of pro-Republican Maggie:
Beat sweetening can be HARD!
Immanentize
@Nicole: meme-ification over mummification?
Baud
@Immanentize:
Pathetic.
Immanentize
@Baud: I want Kay to be an official “Maggie is a grifter” ombudsperson for the NYTimes.
ETA but that would require a team of dozens.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: We will have Kay’s back!
Citizen Alan
@The Moar You Know:
To be fair, most people thought that the republicans were just talking tough on abortion but that they would never sacrifice such an important wedge and fundraising point. They really are the dog that caught the car at this point.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle: It would be fun, wouldn’t it?
I propose the title “OMBUDSING” for her work.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sinema will land on her feet if she is turned out of office. A Senator has a very high prestige job that can be leveraged into a highly paid, high prestige private sector job. I’ve never seen an ex-Senator who wanted to make good money not make it.
Steeplejack
@lowtechcyclist:
This is an even-numbered birthday for Omnes, according to the files.
JAFD
@lowtechcyclist: I turned 72 last week :-)
Immanentize
@Citizen Alan: When you say “most people” I think you should put the ever silent “white” in front of that. I don’t think black people — especially BWC were ever fooled. Ask Toni Morrison.
Citizen Alan
@sdhays: Why would the teacher’s shortage in Florida get any media attention? Nothing else that Deathsantis does it’s santa’s does to that state does.
phdesmond
i didn’t understand this at all:
Ksmiami
@Matt McIrvin: Ain’t nobody got time for that- esp Andrew Yang. When it’s your ass (rights) on the line, people do their research
Steeplejack
@lowtechcyclist:
I think the nutters want their (private, Christian, right-wing) schools to be publicly funded. They don’t care about anyone else. It’s all about “choice.”
lowtechcyclist
@C Stars:
Me too! The only reason Biden isn’t kicking ass as a potential 2024 nominee is the shit that the MSM has been throwing around ever since Afghanistan. And even that was a major success; just the first couple days were really screwed up. But they’ve basically decided to report as if Biden’s not done a thing right since those first days.
Immanentize
@Citizen Alan:
Crist or Fried could run as an education governor. It would be a powerful message for the Democrats.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Oddly, I was born in Aurora, IL. Just trying to keep with the theme. BTW happy b-day.
Immanentize
And in other shit show files (under Alex Jones):
Old School
@phdesmond:
al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by a drone strike while the Saudi-funded golf tournament was being hosted by Trump at the resort where Ivana was buried (possibly for tax benefits).
James E Powell
@EriktheRed:
I think it refers to the Saudi LIV tour at one of Trump’s golf courses.
zhena gogolia
@phdesmond: he killed zawahiri while trump was hosting Saudi golf tournament
SiubhanDuinne
@phdesmond:
Refers to Biden/US taking out Al-Zawahiri, who — like many of TFG’s Saudi guests at his not-the-PGA tournament — was a murderer and a terrorist.
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: Any special B-Day plans, my brother at the bar?
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I wonder if Sinema drew wrong coclusions from her 2018 Senate win. She was the first Democrat to win an Arizona Senate seat since Dennis DeConcini did in 1988. That’s a real accomplishment. But she was aided by one of the best GOTV forces Democrats have ever had: Donald Trump. Sinema was helped by a lot of the Democratic voters who turned out not because they liked her so much as they hated the Orange Churl. Sinema may have gotten an inflated impression of her own personal political prowess.
Another Scott
@Immanentize: HaHa.
But seriously, that probably should have happened in discovery, right? (The discovery that Jones has fought tooth and nail.) IANAL.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
@Geminid: Also, Arizona, based on a LOT of hard work by Dems had been trending Dem for years. Now, all state wide Federal elections have gone for the Democrats. She just happened to be first. And I think she also got votes because of Gabby Gifford’s getting shot.
Omnes Omnibus
@Immanentize: No plans. Something good for dinner, maybe?
Ken
JUDGE: “This is literally unprecedented, but I think I’m going to have to declare a mistrial after defendant’s counsel attacked and strangled defendant in an attempt to get him to shut up…”
(Just kidding, Jones’ lawyer did not assault him. I also have absolutely no idea whether any lawyer has ever assaulted their client in court, but I would not be surprised to learn there have been many cases.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: as I recall, Martha McSally was not a great candidate, either. As I recall she couldn’t decide where to land on trump, at least early in the cycle, and tried to make up for it by running against the media
Immanentize
@Another Scott: you are right — but Jones and his lawyer said there were no such texts or emails. Ooopsie! Sanctions coming!
There is one little ethics detail. I don’t know about where the trial is taking place, but when a lawyer is sent something which is privileged (or even sent by mistake) digitally, the lawyer receiving the info. Is generally under an obligation to return it without reviewing or copying. At least that is what the model rule now says.
But this might be a very different circumstance in which the things mistakenly sent should have been revealed in discovery.
Geminid
@Immanentize: Had Ms. Giffords not been shot by that lunatic, she might have been the one who won that Senate seat.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: McSally! I
had hoped toalmost forgot about her. She was such a wooden candidate. I can think of other words, but they sound sexist in this context (shrill being the nicest). Also, didn’t she lose every other contest before she was appointed when McCain finally gave up his ghost?Immanentize
@Geminid: That is true! And I personally would have preferred her to either Sinema or Kelly. She is still a mensch.
ETA Kelly is great, but I get a bit of the Pa and Ma Ferguson feel about why he won his election — but in reverse!
Citizen Alan
@Immanentize: That’s kind of my point. I suspect most black people in America who considered the issue assumed that that republicans were just using abortion as a stalking horse to get racist legislation passed and undermine on civil rights.
Geminid
@Immanentize: McSally won two Congressional elections in Gabby Gifford’ purple, Tucson-based House district before she lost to Sinema in 2018.
McSally’s race with Mark Kelly in 2020 was distinctive in that it featured two former fighter pilots, both from Tucson.
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: Hap Day of Birth!!!
Immanentize
@Citizen Alan: i think people of color believed Republicans in their communities when they said they wanted to ban abortions, birth control, gay marriage, child labor laws, public education, voting AND civil rights. I don’t think they thought it was a cynical stand in, like we think about it maybe. They believed them because they said it.
CaseyL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@Immanentize:
McSally was a nasty piece of work, parroting Trumpist talking points and having (SFAIK) no thoughts beyond those. Sinema is an improvement over her, but like eating pink slime is an improvement over eating tire rims.
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: saw you havering again yesterday about the alleged farmhouse and have concluded:
Immanentize=Bernice
buying farmhouse=bobbing her hair
Is it ever going to happen?!
Immanentize
@Geminid: you would know!
Shit! McSally was born in Warwick, RI. Harvard education. She’s like Stefanik!!
trollhattan
@WereBear: Right? The degree and level of malevolence astonishes these many decades later, and the Trump era is just a loud, messy rerun brought by less-competent folks.
trollhattan
@Immanentize: Wow, her MAGA panties are showing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Huh, Bulwark writers, of all people, push back against the idea that Dems betrayed Democracy for not saving Peter Meijer’s ass. Jonathan Last to start with:
Leto
@Immanentize: should’ve taken a page from the Trumpov admin.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL: my response to you:
Talk about movin’
I have made an offer. USAA has (foolishly?) Pre-approved a loan. You could visit next year and be SteveinSYR for a while? I will have a good sound system.
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: That is always the right plan.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Party time. Excellent.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Only Democrats have agency.
Immanentize
@Leto: They call them “burners” for a friggin reason!!
Mike in NC
Somehow the media will spin this as ‘good news for Moscow Mitch’.
sdhays
@Citizen Alan: The thing is, this is the type of thing that parents are going to fully aware of regardless of how hard the media hits them. If right-wing media keep attacking teachers while teachers are just quitting in droves, particularly in Florida where they’re going to “fix” the issue by just shoving people off the street in front of classrooms, those parents might link those two things all on their own,
I would think it would be better to try to pretend it’s all COVID and nothing to do with the right wingers – parents and especially those in office – making teaching a living hell.
RaflW
BTW I did the math, if we assume (though we shouldn’t, I’d wager a couple percent of Dems voted yes in KS), but if we say that every voter who picked a Dem ballot voted NO, then 257,751 Republican primary voters voted No.
There were just shy of 451,000 GOP primary votes. So that would mean at a minimum, 57% of Kansas Republican voters were pro-choice! Wow.
lowtechcyclist
@Steeplejack:
I’ve long been intrigued by the notion that their God is so small and helpless that they believe he needs a government handout.
No argument there.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
And to you!
I’ll let my cousin know about the Aurora connection — he loves shit like that.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Amen, amen, amen!
phdesmond
@SiubhanDuinne: oh, now i get it. thanks!
Steeplejack
@Feathers:
Thanks, this site looks interesting. And lately I have been smacked with the realization that in my identity as “former athlete” the key word is former—as in shrinking rapidly in the rear-view mirror.
Old School
@RaflW: No idea of the numbers involved, but there would be independent voters as well who could vote on the constitutional amendment but not in the Democratic or Republican primaries.
trollhattan
@Baud: Is Garth’s mom still hawt?
phdesmond
@Old School:
thanks for the clarification.
Jackie
@RaflW: I’m not surprised at all. It’s one thing to be anti abortion. It’s another thing to be 100% against women’s health care, and support zealots who don’t care about protecting a woman’s life when she’s having a miscarriage and hemorrhaging. Or, expects a child to deliver another child after being raped.
James E Powell
@Immanentize:
And here I thought it was liberals fleeing the socialist hellhole of California. Or illegal immigrants drawn into the country by America-hating Democrats.
phdesmond
heh heh!
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Well, you’ve been campaigning longer.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
🎉🎂🥂
James E Powell
So, how do we feel about Kelly v Masters & Hobbs v Lake?
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
Happy Birthday! What’s an example of a nice dinner for you? Also, it’s your birthday, are you cooking it yourself?
Geminid
@James E Powell: Independent voters will probably decide those races. I don’t know the numbers now, but in 2020 party registration was 35% R, 32% D, and 31.7% Unaffiliated. And some Republicans may defect. Overall, I like Kelly’s and Hobbs’s chances.
phdesmond
@zhena gogolia: sometimes i’m slow.
PST
@Geminid: If I could have a couple of dances with Michelle Yeoh I wouldn’t care how badly I got hurt. By the way, loved Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Central Planning
@Immanentize: You’re in SYR? Practically down the street from ROC
Steve in the ATL
@Central Planning: not yet–he still has to bob his hair!
PST
@Central Planning:
It really is the fullest full body workout there is. My college roommate was a championship rower and was without a doubt the most fit person I ever met. He’s doing ultramarathons in his 60s. But he also has some serious heart arrhythmias, and when a bunch of his old crew buddies came to his wedding a few years ago, half of them do as well. Obviously I’m not worried about that at my age, but there may be something about extreme cardiovascular fitness in youth that might over-condition the heart.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell: I am not sure what I want, but someone else will cook it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: F. Scott FTW!
Immanentize
@RaflW: There were also independent voters who voted on the amendment question, but voted in neither primary (because, as I understand, Kansas has closed primaries — which I support).
RaflW
@Matt McIrvin: Worth noting that what you (accurately) describe wits well with the several BJ threads on how Russians fund and support leftists in the US to sow chaos.
Soprano2
@Kay: What I can’t get over is how much these people have to lie about things. If what they were doing was so righteous and great, they wouldn’t have to lie about it would they? The advocates to roll back abortion rights in KS just lied and lied and lied about what they were doing and about what the amendment would do, because they knew that was the only way they could get people to vote for it. Same thing at “crisis pregnancy centers”, they can’t just tell the truth that they want to help you have your baby, no they have to lie about things in order to make women think they will be harmed if they have an abortion. What they want isn’t good enough by itself.
Miss Bianca
@Steve in the ATL: Y’know, Bernice *did* eventually get around to bobbing her hair, as I recall.