Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

The lights are all blinking red.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

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

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

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

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Every Day, Another Step Forward

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Every Day, Another Step Forward

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The kids are all right (insofar as we let them be)…

… [A] study released Wednesday shows 79% of young Americans say they get news daily. The survey of young people ages 16 to 40 — the older of which are known as millennials and the younger Generation Z — was conducted by Media Insight Project, a collaboration between The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute…

An estimated 71% of this age group gets news daily from social media. The social media diet is becoming more varied; Facebook doesn’t dominate the way it used to. About a third or more get news each day from YouTube and Instagram, and about a quarter or more from TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter. Now, 40% say they get news from Facebook daily, compared with 57% of millennials who said that in a 2015 Media Insight Project survey.

Yet 45% also said they get news each day from traditional sources, like television or radio stations, newspapers and news websites.

The poll found that about a quarter of young people say they regularly pay for at least one news product, like print or digital magazines or newspapers, and a similar percentage have donated to at least one nonprofit news organization.

Only 32% say they enjoy following the news. That’s a marked decrease from seven years ago, when 53% of millennials said that. Fewer young people now say they enjoy talking with family and friends about the news…

About 9 in 10 young people say misinformation about issues and events is a problem, including about 6 in 10 who say it’s a major problem. Most say they’ve been exposed to misinformation themselves.

Asked who they consider most responsible for its spread, young people pointed to social media companies and users, politicians and the media in equal measure…

The percentage of people who say “news stories that seem to mostly create conflict rather than help address it” and “media outlets that pass on conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated rumors” are a major problem exceeded the number of people concerned about journalists putting too much opinion in their stories, the survey found…

Also, mark your calendar…

Reader Interactions

159Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    An estimated 71% of this age group gets news daily from social media

    We’re doomed.

    Yet 45% also said they get news each day from traditional sources, like television or radio stations, newspapers and news websites.

    We’re really doomed.

  2. 2.

    mrmoshpotato

    Survey Finds Young People Follow News, But Without Much Joy

    Oh really, NBC4 Los Angeles?

    Give these guys all the awards!  All of them, Katie!

  5. 5.

    Steeplejack

    Damn. BBC News: “The chairman of Russia’s Lukoil oil giant, Ravil Maganov, has died after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, reports say.”

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

     

    ICYMI…

    ALASKA has a DEMOCRATIC Congresswoman.

    The first in over 50 years.

    The first Native Alaskan.
    Congratulations Congresswoman Peltola 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

  11. 11.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    Who knew defenestration would make a comeback? It’s beyond old-school—it’s . . . almost quaint, somehow.

  13. 13.

    JMG

    Who of any age follows or ever has followed the news “with joy”? I’m happy when the Phillies or Eagles win, but beyond that, if you want pleasure, try the funny pages.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Head? Meet desk.

    A bronze plaque commemorating the Ku Klux Klan should be removed from the science centre at West Point, a congressional commission said, even though it falls outside the panel’s remit because the racist terror group was formed after the American civil war.

    The fact that somebody had to tell them they should remove this plaque, tells me the officers in charge of West Point aren’t near as smart as their students are supposed to be.

  16. 16.

    sixthdoctor

    @Steeplejack: And Russian sources said he committed suicide, which is technically correct since he spoke against the Ukraine invasion in Putin’s Russia…

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: It’s a reminder to everybody else that they had better not get out of line. Car bombs too. And poisonings.

  22. 22.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Hopefully pharma can come up with a vaccine to stop the deadly windows virus

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yes, a very blunt message that no one who questions this war is safe, and that wealth is no protection. It could even be a liability if assets can be seized.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    In the body cam footage aired by NBC4, police officers were shown knocking on an apartment door for 8-10min before being met by a man who opened the door. Upon entering the apartment, officers found another man and detained them both.

    The officers then released a police dog which trotted around into the kitchen then barked at a bedroom door. Anderson held the dog back before opening the door and then immediately fired his gun into the bedroom as Lewis sat up in bed.

    In a frame-by-frame breakdown of the video, police chief Elaine Bryant said that Anderson fired the gun when Lewis appeared to raise his hand while holding onto something.

    “There was, like, a vape pen that was found on the bed right next to him,” Bryant said.

    Lewis was transported to a hospital after treatment on the scene and later pronounced dead.

    Who can blame him. I’ve read of several policemen who had to be hospitalized after being assaulted with a vape pen. s//

  31. 31.

    Mimi

    @OzarkHillbilly: Everyone at WP has probably walked right past (or under? I’ve seen a pic that looked like it’s over a doorway) without really looking at it. I’m just glad someone finally noticed.

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    I am not a lawyer, but I think the lawyer in this clip just confirmed her client kept classified documents in an unsecured location that was frequented by guests:

    My God, why are they letting her talk on TV?

    I read yesterday that Trump signed a multimillion dollar agreement to be represented by Christopher Kise, former FL solicitor general. Kise seems sleazy but effective; he led the 2018 pre-election messaging campaign about DeSantis opponent Andrew Gillum, which arguably put DeSantis over the top in that close race.

    Maybe Kise’s contract is effective today and his first order of business will be to keep Habba off TV.

  35. 35.

    PST

    @Steeplejack:

    The amount of land mass represented by House Democrats just went up by 104%.

    This is pointlessly pedantic and I hate myself for commenting on it, but why would someone say “amount of land mass”? First, why would anyone speak of an amount of mass rather than just mass? You wouldn’t say amount of height or amount of weight. (“That tree certainly has a large amount of height.”) And second, why mass? States and other political divisions are areas on a surface. They have no mass. Okay, I got that off my chest. (The words are not those of Steeplejack, who is blameless.)

  45. 45.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @zhena gogolia: That’s the narrative that they’re constructing for the faithful. Those classified documents aren’t “ours”; they belong to “him”. It’s The Divine Right of Kings, except with a brand new paint job.

  46. 46.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Betty Cracker:

    Trump signed a multimillion dollar agreement to be represented by Christopher Kise, former FL solicitor general.

    That won’t last long, and should be hilarious.  Trump’s lawyers do stupid shit because Trump won’t let them do anything else.  What will Kise do the first time Trump tells him to change a filing because the documents belong to Trump, and saying anything else is unacceptable?

    EDIT –

    @Cameron:

    Peter Pan Syndrome

    Gleefully murdering your former friends when they get too old to be in your club?  Or women finding you sexy because you have all your baby teeth?

    Actually, the former seems about right.

  47. 47.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    He’s facing charges of unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents, but even more significant charges of mishandling classified documents (a felony Dump himself signed into law).

    His representative just admitted he did just that by bringing in people without clearances into a room holding top secret material.

  48. 48.

    RSA

    @PST:  The amount of land mass represented by House Democrats just went up by 104%.

    Wow, that number is going up at a high rate of speed. :-)

  49. 49.

    jonas

    @Baud: ​
      It’s often the only visible escape route when two black-clad FSB agents with a silenced pistol enter your room.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: The local dailies down here are reporting that the 18 cases are falling apart due to lack of intent to commit voter fraud. The state failed to flag the voters as ineligible, which is really on the Republican SoS. So, the state is unlikely to get convictions unless people plead guilty because they don’t have the resources to contest the charges.

    Unfortunately, that probably won’t matter. The stunt was well planned. DeSantis traveled to the largest Dem stronghold in the state to announce the arrests and intimidate local voters, so mission accomplished there.

    Charlie Crist probably isn’t going to champion the cause of the 18  people charged since they are excluded from felon voting rights restoration due to homicide or sexual assault convictions. I imagine he’ll keep criticizing the stunt aspect of the announcement and DeSantis’s push to block ballot access more broadly.

  51. 51.

    Sanjeevs

    @Baud:

    https://www.ft.com/content/e87306bd-5fc7-43ad-ae32-4136b4a4cd5b

    A day after the invasion began in February, Alexander Tyulyakov, a deputy head of gas monopoly Gazprom’s treasury, was found dead in the garage of his home in Leninsky, an elite St Petersburg suburb.
    Investigators’ working theory was that Tyulyakov’s death was the second suicide in the same suburb in less than a month, after Leonid Shulman, an executive at Gazprom’s transport subsidiary, was found dead in his bathroom in late January.

    In July, police found Yuri Voronov, the head of a shipping company that contracts for Gazprom, dead in a swimming pool at his home in the same suburb near St Petersburg from a gunshot wound to the head. Russian media linked Voronov’s death to a business dispute and said Shulman was depressed after splitting up with his wife and suffering a serious leg injury.

    In April, former Gazprombank vice-president Vladislav Avayev, his wife, and 13-year-old daughter were found shot dead in their Moscow flat. Police said Avayev probably killed his family in a murder-suicide but have not named a possible motive.

    Just a day later, Sergei Protosenya, a former senior executive at gas producer Novatek, was found hanged in his villa in Spain alongside his wife and teenage daughter, who had been stabbed to death.

    Police also concluded Protosenya killed his family before hanging himself, according to Spanish media, despite finding no suicide note or fingerprints on the murder weapons. Protosenya’s son later said he believed his father was murdered.

     

    I always wonder what goes through the minds of Thiel, Koch, Murdoch etc when they read this.

  52. 52.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Trump is so mad about the optics — people may not understand it was the FBI that spread out the files from Box 2A to take a standard evidence photo — that he's ignoring the legal implications of coming very close to acknowledging that he knew he had them in his office.

    — Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) August 31, 2022

    Dump could be the lone person at a crime scene, holding a pistol with smoke coming out the barrel, and the FTFNYT would say it doesn’t prove he pulled the trigger.

  53. 53.

    HinTN

    Maybe someone’s said it above but dayuum, if you go to that clip of that dumb ass reporter getting schooled you will fund below that a clip of Stacey Abrams lighting up Governor Kemp. WOW, she’s good.

  54. 54.

    jonas

    @The Thin Black Duke:  Those classified documents aren’t “ours”; they belong to “him”

    Just like “his” generals belonged to him, etc. For Trump, the courts, military, etc., were simply extensions of his own delusions of grandeur.

  55. 55.

    jonas

    @Sanjeevs: ​
     

    I always wonder what goes through the minds of Thiel, Koch, Murdoch etc when they read this.

    “God it must be awesome to be Putin!”

  58. 58.

    JWR

    Ugh, Nancy Cordes. Maybe sitting so close to Peter Doocy is hazardous to one’s mental health. Either that, or she comes by her stupidity naturally. Another reporter for CBS, Weijia Jiang, once asked Jen Psaki that dumbass “many people are saying” question. Psaki eviscerated her on live TV.

  60. 60.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @Betty Cracker:

    I read yesterday that Trump signed a multimillion dollar agreement to be represented by Christopher Kise, former FL solicitor general. Kise seems sleazy but effective; he led the 2018 pre-election messaging campaign about DeSantis opponent Andrew Gillum, which arguably put DeSantis over the top in that close race.

    Given Trump’s record of stiffing contractors. I hope Kise remembered to demand cash up front and no personal checks.

  61. 61.

    germy shoemangler

    @JWR:

    Remember Ed O’Keefe from CBS?  He asked Biden if he talks to Obama every day.  It seems like a harmless question, but Ed was trying to insinuate that Obama was the puppetmaster pulling Biden’s strings.

  64. 64.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: and @jonas:

    he’s ignoring the legal implications of coming very close to acknowledging that he knew he had them in his office.

    Don’t worry, his lawyers already admitted it in his filings when they expressed anger for the DoJ ‘criminalizing’ a president taking home presidential records.  Seriously, their response filing to the DoJ nuke was an only slightly legalism-translated “How dare you say that Trump doing all that was illegal!  Assign a special master to give Trump his documents back immediately!”

  65. 65.

    Matt McIrvin

    Was the whole purpose of that photo of the documents on the carpet to get people to say incriminating things like “Hey, no fair, the FBI took them out of the cardboard box!”?

    I was worried we were getting hung up on the distraction of discussing whether Trump really kept secret documents strewn about his carpet, but now it looks like a masterstroke.

  66. 66.

    JMG

    @Betty Cracker: The very specialized criminal law practice of representing clients charged in relation to the Espionage Act is not likely to be an area a former solicitor general of Florida has much experience with. Also, will this guy be able to do what any Trump lawyer must do as job one — get the client to STFU.

  67. 67.

    Ken

    @Geminid: It could even be a liability if assets can be seized.

    “Any suicide note?”

    “Just the usual quick note leaving all his property to Putin.”

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Kise’s first job as trump’s lead attorney is to get them all to STFU, especially trump. This will not end well.

  70. 70.

    PST

    @OzarkHillbilly: I totally agree with the sarcasm. I was just pointlessly irked by the wording. It is interesting that the majority of Democrats in the House (by area) are now Native Americans.

  71. 71.

    narya

    In completely personal news: the gasket on my two-year-old LG refrigerator has split open, AND the light doesn’t go off reliably (I can see it shining through the floor of the freezer). I actually don’t think these issues are related. Customer service is totally shitty, and I’m contemplating just getting a new fridge. Repairs are likely to cost at least half the cost of a new fridge, even if I do the gasket myself. The gasket itself will be nearly $100. Yes, this IS the fridge I purchased two years ago when I did the kitchen; what a piece of crap.

  74. 74.

    Ken

    @germy shoemangler: Interesting. I once saw a bird’s nest in a tree, built into a cloth face mask. I have no idea if the mask happened to lodge, hammock-like, in the tree and the bird took advantage, or if it found the mask on the ground and moved it to the tree. The latter sounds scarily intelligent.

  77. 77.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    “Of *course* President Trump allowed random passersby into the room with the extraordinarily secret intelligence.” is not the way I’d go with this.

    — billbindc (@BillBindc) September 1, 2022​

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JMG: From Newsweek:

    Kise has won four cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and multiple others before the Florida Supreme Court, according to NBC News.
    …………………………
    “Chris is a 360-degree lawyer: appellate, civil, criminal, state and federal—he can do it all,” former Senator George LeMieux, who was Crist’s chief of staff when he was attorney general, told NBC News.

    Don’t sell him short.

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @PST: It is interesting that the majority of Democrats in the House (by area) are now Native Americans.

    Heh. I did not know that.

  80. 80.

    Soprano2

    @Sanjeevs: That’s so crazy, surely no one in Russia actually believes this crap, they just pretend to believe it. You’d think our billionaires would read this as a cautionary tale that perhaps they don’t want a dictatorship here after all.

  82. 82.

    MattF

    @Betty Cracker: I do wonder how long Kise will last. Media are unanimous that he’s competent. He’s quit the law firm he was in, so one may suspect that his former colleagues disagreed with his choice to represent Trump.

  87. 87.

    Ken

    @Matt McIrvin: As Hillary Clinton observed so long ago, this is a man who can be goaded into a three-day rage fest by a tweet. So I would not be at all surprised if the DOJ has been using that bit of psychology, knowing that TFG would dig himself deeper at each step.

    Actually, there’s a question — of the list of possible crimes in the original warrant application, which ones has he now confessed to? Stealing the documents, check; storing them improperly, check; not returning them when requested, check; lying when asked if all had been returned, check; …

  88. 88.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @narya:

    Suggestion:

    Is there a US branded but built by LG counterpart to your refrigerator?

    In the past the equivalent Kenmore or Craftsman parts from Sears were both cheaper and easier to get than the Whirlpool or Briggs & Stratton parts needed to fix my fridge and lawn mower engine.

  89. 89.

    Soprano2

    I’m getting pissed at listening to news readers on the radio say TFG is claiming “executive privilege” without saying immediately afterward that former presidents don’t have “executive privilege”. IMHO they should only say “attorney-client privilege”, and then somewhere else in their story say that TFG is claiming “executive privilege” but it’s not something ex-presidents have. It’s a quibble, but the way they say it without contesting the idea makes it sound as if TFG might have a legitimate point, when he doesn’t.

  90. 90.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Can he manage a malignant narcissist?  Because that’s the actual job, and every other competent lawyer quit or refused to even try.  Trump isn’t going to accept “You don’t own those documents” or for that matter “You’re not president anymore.”  It’s exactly like the lawsuits challenging the election.  There IS no way to competently fulfill Trump’s demands.

  91. 91.

    Ben Cisco

    About a third or more get news each day from YouTube and Instagram, and about a quarter or more from TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter. Now, 40% say they get news from Facebook daily, compared with 57% of millennials who said that in a 2015 Media Insight Project survey.

    Jesus.

  92. 92.

    JMG

    @OzarkHillbilly: There are maybe five-six lawyers who specialize in this sort of case, all in DC. It’s that much of a niche practice. And my main point remains. It doesn’t matter who skillful Trump’s attorney is if he/she cannot get their client to stop incriminating himself on a daily basis. PS: Who’s paying this guy? We know Trump sure isn’t/

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    I just noticed something… ICYMI:

    The classified docs in Trump’s desk were in the same drawer as his passports, DOJ asserts. pic.twitter.com/J8mfVKuw7g

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) August 31, 2022

    Click on the image.

    There were 3 passports: 1) Expired personal passport. 2) Expired US Government Official passport. 3) Unexpired US Government Official passport (which presumably isn’t valid as he is no longer a US Government Official).

    If he wants to enter another country legally (and return to the USA legally) he’ll need yet another passport – one that’s valid.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  94. 94.

    RedDirtGirl

    Open thread? Just saw the clip from the Abrams/Kemp debate and have to admit I had no idea this race was happening! I thought the clip was from their last election. How come the race isn’t getting more national coverage? Does Abrams not have a shot?

  97. 97.

    sdhays

    @Sanjeevs: Speaking of Thiel, I saw this report yesterday and just had to laugh:

    Peter Thiel rebuffs Mitch McConnell over Senate rescue in Arizona

    The Senate minority leader and the billionaire venture capitalist each say the other should be subsidizing Blake Masters in the final months of his campaign

    Peter Thiel dumped millions into Senate primary campaigns, helping nominate absolute dud candidates, and then walked away from the burning dumpster fire, telling Mitch McConnell that his job was done and getting those candidates actually elected to Congress was McConnell’s problem.

    I LOL’d.

  98. 98.

    Ken

    @Betty Cracker: My God, why are they letting her talk on TV?

    Choose any or all of:

    1. A consequence of TFG never paying lawyers, so having to scrape the bottom and ending up with people who are more focused on gaining publicity than defending him;
    2. A clever legal strategery to set up a defense of ineffective counsel and taint any possible jury pool;
    3. A demand from TFG that his team publicly defend him from the heinous charge of being messy by explaining how neatly he kept the stolen classified documents.

    On second thought, #2 is incredibly unlikely.

  105. 105.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, that’s my thinking. BBB gives them a very low rating, and I’m prepared to add to it. I hate getting rid of something so new, but I have no confidence that it will be repaired properly, at a reasonable price. A new one (by Frigidaire or Whirlpool) would run me about $800 this weekend–and, as noted, I would expect repairs to the old one to be at least half that.

  109. 109.

    Ken

    @Steeplejack: I saw a response something like, “I made sure the classified documents were all in the carton every night, and specifically told the cleaning service not to look inside it.

    (To which I would reply, if I had a twitter account, “And they all said ‘Da, we will not look’.”)

  110. 110.

    catclub

    @Sanjeevs: ​
     

    Protosenya’s son later said he believed his father was murdered.

    … Then was found on the ground under a ninth storey window.

  111. 111.

    Doug R

    @narya: My standard response when someone has a fridge that’s falling apart is buy a new one because of the efficiency gains, but TWO YEARS? Yikes. Might still be under warranty, sounds like the gasket might have been installed improperly.

    If you suspect that light is staying on, check your temperature and maybe unscrew it until you get that switch fixed.

  112. 112.

    catclub

    @germy shoemangler: ​
     

    TFG has been raking in millions in small donations and using that money for legal defense.

    Which is good if instead those donations would be going to GOP candidates this fall. The GOP is not happy Trump is hoovering up all those donations.

  113. 113.

    catclub

    @narya: ​
     

    A new one (by Frigidaire or Whirlpool) would run me about $800 this weekend

    I am shocked the price for a new one is that low. I think we thought ours was a steal 7 or 8 years ago at that price. A lot were already in the $1400 range.

  114. 114.

    Ken

    @catclub: The GOP is not happy Trump is hoovering up all those donations.

    And somewhere a monkey’s paw, djinn, or perhaps Mephistopheles himself is quietly content with the way they fulfilled the GOP’s wish to win the Presidency in 2016.

  116. 116.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @HinTN:

    Someone shared that clip on a thread last night. It’s a great clip. It’s from 2018, and believe me, Stacey is even better now! Can’t wait to watch this year’s Abrams-Kemp debates.

  117. 117.

    Another Scott

    @narya: I’m sorry that you are going through that.  It’s frustrating.  But if it’s just the gasket and the light switch, those are minor things that should be easy to fix for not much money.

    My dad bought an LG fridge because it was the quietest he could find (had tinnitus that was aggravated by the old fridge noise).  I think that they had to have the ice maker repaired once, but that was it.  Worked well for many years (sold the house).

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  120. 120.

    different-church-lady

    @Betty Cracker: “When he invites the guests look at the top secret documents they are in a perfectly neat row on the table. Should a guest move any of these top secret documents out of alignment while studying their contents he takes great care to put them back in perfect order for the next guest to look at. This photo is completely unfair.”

  121. 121.

    Scout211

    So the hearing before Judge Cannon is at 1:00 et today. CNN has an article up about “what to watch” for the hearing.  But it contains no special or new information.

    I am just hoping that the hearing will be open to the press and we can get a report right away from them.

    A big question is who on Trump’s team will argue his case?

  122. 122.

    The Moar You Know

    In completely personal news: the gasket on my two-year-old LG refrigerator has split open, AND the light doesn’t go off reliably (I can see it shining through the floor of the freezer). I actually don’t think these issues are related. Customer service is totally shitty, and I’m contemplating just getting a new fridge. Repairs are likely to cost at least half the cost of a new fridge, even if I do the gasket myself. The gasket itself will be nearly $100. Yes, this IS the fridge I purchased two years ago when I did the kitchen; what a piece of crap.

    @narya: my parents, who still somehow are very much alive and kicking, just finished replacing their final LG household appliance, in this case the dryer.

    Neither the washer, dryer, dishwasher or fridge lasted more than five years.  Oh, and their LG version of the Powerwall had to be disconnected and taken outside because the internal batteries were swelling up and it was an imminent explosion/fire hazard.  Weird to me because their TVs and consumer electronics stuff still seems to be very much topnotch.  But the rest of it seems to be crap.

  123. 123.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Another Scott: 3) Unexpired US Government Official passport (which presumably isn’t valid as he is no longer a US Government Official).

    It occurs to me that a “US Government Official passport” might be a courtesy extended to all ex presidents. Certainly wouldn’t surprise me.

  124. 124.

    kindness

    There is a good reason no one has ever asked me to be their Press Secretary.  If Nancy asked me that question I would have asked her if she was really that #@!* stupid.

  125. 125.

    The Moar You Know

    That’s so crazy, surely no one in Russia actually believes this crap, they just pretend to believe it. You’d think our billionaires would read this as a cautionary tale that perhaps they don’t want a dictatorship here after all.

    @Soprano2:  If our feudal billionaire overlords suddenly started taking swan dives out of windows, I have to admit I would just shrug, say “life’s a bitch” and keep on walking.

    Yeltsin and Putin made these bastards – and they are bastards, make no mistake – what they are.  I am not surprised that Putin feels like he has a right to insist that they get and stay on board with his program.  I’m sure the prevailing view is that supporting his deranged bullshit is the least they can do in return.

    Russia’s been a fucked up country for my entire lifetime, and so far as I can tell, it’s been a fucked up country forever.  It’s not a nation that you want possessing nuclear weapons.  Don’t know how we’re going to fix that problem.

  126. 126.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @RedDirtGirl:

    The clip is from the last election cycle (2018). Abrams is challenging Kemp again this year, so there should be fresh clips for everybody’s delectation once the 2022 debates get under way in the next few weeks.

  127. 127.

    CaseyL

    @narya: LG used to make good stuff.  They don’t anymore: their consumer products get lousy ratings on Consumer Reports.  Maybe you could check out consumer reviews to find a more reliable fridge?

  128. 128.

    linnen

    Ken @67;

    That sounds remarkably like what I’ve read about Rome under the later Caesars and the Medici period of the Papacy.   Also some periods of the Inquisition, but that could just be propaganda.

  131. 131.

    Matt McIrvin

    @catclub: Trump actually has had some losses–I mean, he thought the Supreme Court was his ace in the hole for making the January 2021 coup happen and simply reinstalling him as President (they did it for Bush, right?), and it didn’t go that way for him. So some limits do exist.

    I have this dread that this is all going to amount to nothing because some Trumpist appeals judge will simply rule that he’s effectively above the law. But I’m not taking the maximally cynical position that this WILL happen.

  132. 132.

    lowtechcyclist

    @kindness:

    There is a good reason no one has ever asked me to be their Press Secretary.  If Nancy asked me that question I would have asked her if she was really that #@!* stupid.

    If I could sing without embarrassing myself, I’d have replied with some Dylan:

    Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth
    You’re an idiot, babe, it’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe

  133. 133.

    cain

    @Frankensteinbeck: Dude is not going to get paid either. He’s going to lose all his mental health fighting this case with a shit client.

    Sleazy lawyers get paid back for all his  shit work he’s done over the years.

  136. 136.

    lowtechcyclist

    @indycat32:

    My whirlpool is still going strong at 25 years.

    Our Amana that we bought in 1994 when we first became homeowners is still working just fine.

    My wife would like to replace it anyway, but apparently they’re making refrigerators bigger now.  The opening for the fridge in our kitchen is 67 3/4 inches tall, and when we’ve looked at refrigerators in places like Home Depot, it’s hard to find refrigerators shorter than that, except for the really basic models that would be a disappointment compared to the fridge we’ve got.

  137. 137.

    prostratedragon

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Some report I saw somewhere said it’s not automatic, and done only for semiofficial travel as to a state funeral or special diplomacy.

    Struck me recently that he hasn’t been abroad much or maybe at all, not even to his own properties.

  139. 139.

    Kropacetic

    @OzarkHillbilly:  SCIFI becomes reality: NASA will be sending an Atmosphere Processing Plant to Mars. OK, not really, but pretty cool stuff just the same.

    The article wonders if it can be scaled up to make enough breathable oxygen for Mars.  I wonder if it can be used to reduce our CO2 levels here at home.

  140. 140.

    Another Scott

    @prostratedragon: Isn’t his jet still missing an engine?  You don’t expect him to fly with the plebes, do you??

    Aksually, SimpleFlying.com (from 2021):

    There it remained for the duration of his term, spotted with one of its engines missing and in need of repair. Word on the street was that N757AF required a new engine to be found in order to make the trip to Lake Charles for essential maintenance before it could return to active service.

    Now, it seems that engine has been found, as the aircraft was spotted taking off from Stewart earlier this week.

    […]

    Whatever that emergency was, it was clearly not too severe, as the 757 did not remain in Tennessee for very long. Just over an hour later, N757AF took off again, at 14:47 CDT. After an hour and 16 minutes in the air, it touched down at CWF. According to 7KPLC News, airport officials have confirmed that the 757 is there for maintenance, stating,

    “The aircraft is being serviced at Chennault by one of our aviation tenants and is here for an undetermined amount of time.”

    […]

    It’s 31.5 years old. Ancient for a jetliner. He probably can’t afford to keep it running, so is (I assume) having it cosmetically refurbished to put in some museum so that he can charge $50,000 for tours and suchlike.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    prostratedragon

    @Another Scott:  Completely forgotten about the silly jet.  Mind boggles at the thought of him even in the first class lounge.

    ETA it should be more than adequate for his presidential library.  The at some suitable time the whole thing could be remotely flown into a mountain .

  142. 142.

    Kropacetic

    @Ben Cisco: I’m in the age demo from that survey.  I’ll tell you right now I get most of my news following links from Balloon Juice.  I read the NYT front page every day, as I have for 20 years, but refuse to subscribe any more.

    Getting news on Youtube usually amounts to PBS or CNN clips.  The opinion stuff I watch I wouldn’t consider news and is usually heavily linked with art criticism.

    The fact of the matter is there are no news sources I truly trust right now.  All cable news sucks.  The newspapers are getting worse by the day and have been for a long time.  All I want is primary sourcing; contemporaneous video, interviews with people who were there, the text of official documents.  Getting that from official news organizations requires sifting through too much bullshit.

  144. 144.

    Soprano2

    @indycat32: My mother still had the Kenmore dryer that they bought in 1976!!! I was amazed, I thought sure she had bought a new dryer in the past 10 years or so. It still runs just fine.

  145. 145.

    Another Scott

    @Kropacetic: I check 5 news sources every day, mostly quick skimming of headlines and first paragraphs:

    aljazeera.com (Middle-Eastern slant on the news, republishes lots of Reuters and Bloomberg stories along with lots of other things)

    dw.com (German slant on the news)

    kyivindependent.com (Ukraine news)

    propublica.com (long-form news about important, but usually hard to find, stories)

    news.google.com (Careful what you click and what you Google-search for.  While you can exclude sources, you can’t (easily?) exclude topics.)

    And read here every day, of course.

    It’s never been easier to avoid US infotainment “news”, but you still have to work a little.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  148. 148.

    Seanly

    Wait? Are you supposed to have fun watching the news? The actual news in the broadcasts fill me with David Banner levels of rage or drive me to depths of despair.

  152. 152.

    Ruckus

    @zhena gogolia:

    When that’s all he’s got as a defense for some rather crappy and illegal behavior, that’s all he’s got.

    Geez, give him a break, he’s had a few tough years practicing humanity – around 70 I’d reckon, and the fan is looking rather shit stained from his decades of absolutely lame attempts at being human.

  153. 153.

    Whereaway

    @The Moar You Know:Weird to me because their TVs and consumer electronics stuff still seems to be very much topnotch.  But the rest of it seems to be crap.

    After having excellent results with their electronics,  we bought new LG washer and dryer about 7 years ago.   We’ve already had to replace the washer, and I expect we’ll be replacing the dryer soon.

    I’ll still look at their electronics, but I won’t touch their appliances

  154. 154.

    Bill Arnold

    @Another Scott:

    N757AF

    While that aircraft (Trump Force One) was parked at Stewart, I’d go check it out with binoculars every couple of months, to confirm that it was still there and missing an engine. Am a little annoyed that I missed the flight it took south to Louisiana.

     
    A recent article:
    https://bestofswla.com/2022/08/04/the-trump-n757af/

    In the course of painting the Trump 757, LandLocked used 15 linear miles of tape. The company also provided lunch from Lake Charles restaurants every day during the project for 60 people. The Trump 757 job itself provided full-time employment for an entire month for 40 people.

  155. 155.

    Ruckus

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    “None of this reads like Putin feels secure on his throne.”

    Why would he feel secure? He’s supposedly the richest man in the world, with a job that pays $140K/yr, in a country who’s average wage is $20K/yr and all of his top business owners/advisors are several times over billionaires. Sure the standard of living is higher than it was 30-40 yrs ago but it still sucks and he’s a major impediment of it getting any better for his citizens, because he’s gotten them in a war that he’s likely going to lose because of all of his posturing is just that, posturing and ripping off the citizens and the country. He started a war that he is likely to lose, against a smaller country that is making him look like the putz he actually is. People dying, his country going down rapidly, his standing in the world being ruined, and it was so good before…, the uber wealthy of his country are very likely thinking of ways to eliminate him because he’s screwing them. He’s a man from another time and place and seemingly has no idea how far out of reality he is.

  156. 156.

    Geminid

    @RedDirtGirl: Most governpr races do not get more than sporadic mention on “national” news outlets. If you look individual candidates up, though you’ll find plenty of coverage by state and local mewspapers. And TV stations typically put out text versions of their on-the-air stories.

    It’s the same with Senate and Congressional races.

  157. 157.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: I would add that besides being more  plentiful, the state and local media coverage of these races is better than most national media coverage.

  158. 158.

    Geminid

    @Kropacetic: Direct Air Capture technologies that pull CO2 from the air are being developed and a few are online with more to come. Their effects on atmospheric CO2 will be minimal until they are deployed in great numbers.

    In the meantime they are being incentivised in this country by the Q45 tax credit which awards companies so much per ton for carbon removed and sequestered underground. The Q45 credit has been laxly monitered, and it’s easy to cheat on it without IRS auditing. The “Inflation Reduction Act” puts a lot of money into the IRS, so now they can audit this growing  program effectively.

    The Q45 tax credit applies if the CO2 is used to recover oil. When pumped into an oil deposit, the gas dissolves into the oil and makes it flow more easily. There is a rich deposit of CO2 in New Mexico that for decades has supplied CO2 by pipeline to oil fields to the south. Now, Direct Air Capture plants will be set up on top of oil fields. Hopefully they will have their own solar and wind electrical generation.

    Oil produced by this method is considered “carbon neutral” and its use for air transport will probably be mandated by Congress before too long, increasing from lower to high levels. Right now these fuels cost ~3 times more than conventional fuel.

    This type of “carbon negative” technology is briefly discussed by British climate scientist Myles Allen in his article in the Feb. 1019 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, titled “The Green New Deal: a view from across the Atlantic.” Allen served on the UN’s IPCC panel that called for a carbon neutral world economy by 2050. The challenge, Allen explains, is to reduce current global CO2 emissions from the the ~44 gigaton level at present by 2 gigatons a year, year over year.

    Allen expressed the opinion that this might not be achieved without investment by more developed nations in direct air capture technologies. It seems to me that if we achieve a carbon neutral economy by 2050 the plants could keep operating and help trees and other vegetation start reducing CO2 levels to less destructive levels. Maybe there will be a news story in 2100 when the last of these plants goes offline.

  159. 159.

    dnfree

    @narya: The house we bought three years ago had an LG refrigerator now 12 years old.  It developed a problem and we couldn’t find anyone who would work on it—specifically LG.  The receptionist one place went on a whole rant telling me not to buy an LG because they’re terrible to work on.  Yet they’re still highly rated at Consumer Reports.  We got a GE and so far so good.  Good luck with your refrigerator!

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