"And we have a process in place to manage migrants at the border. We're working to make sure it's safe and orderly and humane. Republican officials should not interfere with that process."
He went on to call for comprehensive immigration reform. https://t.co/WVXRt45TdY
— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) September 16, 2022
Yes, there is a ton of information on this week’s big stories that should be shared, and the sheer weight of it is deeply dispiriting, which inspires in me an urge, to — as they say on line — touch grass. Sooo grateful there are fine people, like Joe Biden, who are professionals at this!
"If, in fact, they'd gone on a strike… We would've seen a real economic crisis."
President Joe Biden tells 60 Minutes what went into the deal that stopped a nationwide railroad strike. See the full interview, Sunday. https://t.co/l6qgPfYE2e pic.twitter.com/2tAVcqUrJG
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 16, 2022
they’ve moved onto high fiving human trafficking into new england https://t.co/U9iFl11nAR
— kilgore trout, death to putiner (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 17, 2022
President Joe Biden has met with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American detained in Russia, Paul Whelan. It was the first face-to-face encounter the president has had with the relatives. https://t.co/juv8REeadm
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 17, 2022
'For you, the day Brandon destroyed your candidate was the worst of your life. For me … it was Tuesday.'
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) September 16, 2022
https://t.co/TuvDr2Dzwp pic.twitter.com/30XSupInC1
— Pomodoro (Dad Joke Era) (@ilpomodoro2) September 15, 2022
Dark Brandon is the guy who gets stuff done. A world wherein the mainstream Dems get stuff done is far better than one in which they don’t.
— Malraux (@jed_white) September 15, 2022
War for Ukraine Day 205: Could We Please Just Do One War at a Time?
Princess
Last night, NPR did the same story about the disruption the strike WOULD have caused they were planning to do if it had happened. And no credit to Biden and his team for supporting the successful negotiations. Lots of “well, they still have to vote” and zero reporting on the possible outcome of such a vote. Then they reported the recent summit with Putin and China and India as a success for Putin. Hacks.
OzarkHillbilly
If you have 5 minutes to spare, it’s worth the watching.
arrieve
Good morning all. Today I’m teaching the first classes in the practicum for my master’s in TESOL. And I’m utterly panicked! I know it will be fine, and I’ll do okay, but I can’t help thinking, I wanted to do this because?
I had a dream that I tested positive for Covid and so couldn’t teach. When your brain suggests that coming down with Covid might be a lucky break, you know you’re stressed out!
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly: It was front paged yesterday. But anyone who hasn’t seen it should definitely watch.
SiubhanDuinne
@arrieve:
Breathe. You’ll be terrific!
H.E.Wolf
@arrieve:
Sending best wishes and solidarity! I never lost the stage-fright feeling before the first day of any class series I taught… just part of the package for some of us.
lowtechcyclist
There’s a shitload of progressive things that Biden is unapologetically for, that the Dems up to very recently would be hedging their words every which way.
Damned if I know what the Jacobins want, but I really don’t care. They can go fuck themselves AFAIAC.
Starfish
@OzarkHillbilly: I watched it last night, and the way they were setting these people up to fail, registering them as living in homeless shelters around the country, so they would miss their hearings is so wrong. Also, how were the hearings set up to happen so quickly?
germy shoemangler
A few weeks ago there was a minor scandal at my local sinclair tv news station. They treat their employees (including on-air “talent”) like garbage and force them to work long shifts without days off. One news anchor came in disheveled and drunk. Nobody at the station prevented her from spending a half hour slurring her words.
Sinclair being Sinclair, one of her segments was about Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan. The drunk anchor framed the story as “Biden is giving Griner too much attention and ignoring Whelan. Whelan’s family is mad at Biden” etc. The drunk anchor delivered this “scoop” with one arched eyebrow, something she’d always do when sober and reporting some Sinclair Biden controversy bullshit. Even drunk, she was able to do the arched eyebrow thing.
Sinclair between the lines: “Biden cares more about that Black drug addict than he does about a fine law-abiding White Man! Here’s our inebriated reporter (she’s exhausted because we made her work 11pm and then 6am the next day) to give us all the gossip. Vote Republican!”
germy shoemangler
I’m sure a President DeSantis would have handled the railroad strike just as well.
Fire all the rail employees and replace them with Good Americans. We might have seen some delays, derailments and runaway trains but that’s the price we pay for freedom.
JPL
@Starfish: Awful!
We know what the governor paid the flight school to send the migrants to Martha Vineyard, but we don’t know the cost to the woman who coerced them to go. Some of them also received food and motel rooms while in Texas.
Raoul Paste
@arrieve: Once you get going, you get into the flow. You are there to help the people in that class, and you’re in charge
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: Ah, I haven’t caught up on everything that was posted yesterday, I’m still buried in Adam’s Ukraine post.
Ken
Something I learned this morning: Bill Oakley compared working on his FOX show to working in a bubble.
OK, he was a Simpsons showrunner, and the bubble was because James Brooks has a unique contract forbidding the network from interfering with the Simpsons.
From cracked.com. The same listicle also reports that Columbia University has invented an artificial tree that looks like a giant litter box scooper and soaks up carbon dioxide with “leaves” that are 1000 times more efficient than plant photosynthesis. Hopefully they aren’t self-replicating, because that sounds like the setup for a “future uninhabitable hellscape” dystopia.
OzarkHillbilly
@Starfish: There is no scum quite like Fascist Florida Republican Scum.
As to the timing of the hearings, no idea.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I’m not sure whether to call that magazine Jokebin or Jerkobin.
Magdi Semrau got them good this spring when they published an analysis of working class political views. It was based on polling whose methodogy Ms. Semrau found very deficient. She has a background as an elementary school teacher as well as in social science, and she said of the article:
Later on in her review Semrau tweeted:
WereBear
@lowtechcyclist: Indeed, Fox News tells me Dark Brandon is a progressive firebrand.
Ken
@germy shoemangler: Or perhaps appoint overseers who would take the workers from their homes to the trains, then stand in the locomotive cab with a gun to make sure they did their work.
Sure it looks inefficient because you’ve got twice as many people for the same job, but you can cut the actual worker’s salary to almost nothing. It’s not like they can quit.
Peale
@WereBear: not just a progressive. I’ve heard tell that he’s replaced the portraits of George Washington in the White House with posters of Che Guevara and he’s working in his Great Leap Forward 7 year plan as we speak.
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly: My guess is that they were more in the nature of initial check-ins, where procedures and requirements would be explained. Real hearings are now taking a matter of years.
WereBear
I’ve seen studies which show when the retiree flow shifted from the NE to the Midwest. Florida shifted with it.
Deep South and Midwest is actually a porous border. But winds up inbred culturally. With terrible results.
kalakal
@germy shoemangler: Who needs them pinko trains anyway? Moar pick ups!
Florida: Putting the hick into vehicle
Dorothy A. Winsor
@arrieve: I taught for years, but I was still nervous before each semester. Chances are you’ll enjoy it and be on a high when you come out the room.
Peale
@Barbara: probably. But you’ve got to show up for all of them. The first one, though, apparently is the one that starts the clock ticking on the 150 days after which time if your case isn’t resolved the app,I can’t can get permission to work while waiting for a resolution. It seems like these people were lied to and told that they would immediately be given work permits if they went to a sanctuary like Martha’s Vineyard.
Starfish
Mississippi Free Press just put up a Twitter thread of all the stories they have done on the scandal involving Brett Favre stealing Mississippi welfare money. They have been covering this for a long, long time, even though it is just now getting national news coverage.
kalakal
@arrieve: I always find it’s the first 30 seconds or so. I have my first couple of sentences basically etched in my brain. By the time you’re through that bit you’re in the flow, in your comfort zone and everyone can enjoy it. You’ll walk out at the end feeling high
germy shoemangler
Suzanne
So I got polled yesterday! I feel like such a big deal. Gave Messrs. Biden, Shapiro, and Fetterman high praise. Got to share my opinions on TFG, Mastriano, and Oz.
JPL
@Suzanne:👏👏
germy shoemangler
Geminid
@Peale: The Tampa Bay Times has been on job with the Martha’s Vineyard/migrant story. I counted at least 7 articles so far. I’m not sure if and how the Times paywalls their content, but the one I read was free.
Baud
Expect more cruelty stunts against immigrants in the coming weeks. The Republicans would much rather have people talking about how cruel they are to immigrants than about how cruel they are to women.
kalakal
And it’s the winner of Penguin of the Year!
https://pethelpful.com/pet-news/dora-penguin-of-the-year
an explanation
https://www.nationalaquarium.co.nz/visit/penguin-of-the-year/
Gin & Tonic
@germy shoemangler: Well, like the fat man says, here’s to plain speaking and clear understanding.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
germy shoemangler
WaterGirl
@arrieve: I was beside myself the night before I had to teach a College course for the first time. Up all night listening to music because I was totally wired.
I decided that I would just pretend to be the teacher. I pretended for a day or two, and then, lo and behold, I was the teacher.
I LOVED teaching. you might, too!
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: @Barbara: Yeah, but a recommendation from Ozark goes a long way! :-)
Scout211
Yesterday, Governor Newsom challenged DeSantis to a debate. Link
They are both escalating their “feud” and it’s kind of amusing. I very much doubt that a debate would actually happen but if it does, I would be watching.
Starfish
@Scout211: They are both running for President.
WereBear
@germy shoemangler: i remember a lot of Trump Voters had never gone further than 50 miles from their birthplace. I think they imagine a large number of immigrants and yet can’t help but see them all in their own town.
Because that’s their only point of comparison.
Eunicecycle
I just had to get off Twitter because my blood pressure was rising dangerously when I saw Tweets cheering on DeathSantis’ stunt. I hate people sometimes.
Geminid
@Scout211: DeSantis has been chickening out of debates. He passed on Florida’s longest running debate series, the Before You Vote debate carried statewide. He participated his first election campaign.
DeSantis has agreed to debate Charlie Crist on a south Florida TV station owned by Sinclair Media. I think it will be October 7.
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: I was thinking along those lines but my knowledge of immigration procedures is pretty much zip, and I’m married to an immigrant/naturalized US citizen.
UncleEbeneezer
@lowtechcyclist: DB is yet another reminder that they are incredibly out of touch with the feelings/worldview of the majority of Dems. They live in a fantasyland where everyone on the Left hates Biden and thinks he’s an ineffectual failure and if only we’d nominated Bernie…it’s similar to the the way MAGAts feel, minus the Bernie love. The reality is that the Dem base, most reasonable non-Republicans, anyone who isn’t Dirtbag Left see Biden as a likable guy who’s actually doing a great job. They deeply resent that because it completely contradicts their fantasy. Also, like Trumpsters, they resent the fact that mainstream Dems/normies etc., are having fun with the meme. They (Jacobin-assholes) really want to be the funny ones in the room and have everyone laughing at whatever lame BidenSucks memes they push, so they hate it when way more people actually laugh and have fun with stuff that supports mainstream Dems. You see the same thing with Obama, Hillary etc. They really hate the fact that so many of us love Biden, Obama, Hillary, Pelosi. They’re jealous that their faves (Bernie, AOC, whoever) will never get such broad love, because again, it’s a reminder of how wrong they are about where the average Left voter stands and how things get done in our political system. Simply put, Jacobin’s views/feelings just aren’t that popular and they know it, and it drives them nuts. Biden getting so damn much done, even with such a shitty hand (50-50 Senate) proves that Jim Clyburn, and the Dem base of Black voters know more about US politics than Jacobin and that hurts.
MomSense
@arrieve:
Deep breaths. I used to tell my performing arts students to remember that audiences want to make an emotional connection with the performer/presenter. Audiences will forgive missed notes, mistakes, bad steps, falls if they feel a connection with you. If what you are sharing is important to you or interesting to you, let them feel that from you. Your interest will be contagious!! You’ve got this!!!
OzarkHillbilly
@Suzanne: The onetime a pollster called my house, they insisted on talking to the lady of the house. I was all primed to tell them how I felt about shit, but noooooooo… It had to be my wife. And she had better thing to do, like sorting her soda tabs collection.
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly: The answer to that is a frosty “I am the lady of the house!”
Let them deal with that.
Ohio Mom
@WaterGirl: Oh yes, many times when I have to do something difficult, I pick someone to channel. Usually a dearly departed who excelled at such a task.
Have to make my case with an authority? Pretend I’m Aunt C. Listening to someone go on while having to bite my tongue, channel Edna L. Trying to make something new but not sure I can pull it off, be my inner Shirley N.
Turns out that playing make believe is a useful life skill.
kalakal
@MomSense:
This is brilliant advice. You nailed it
artem1s
@OzarkHillbilly:
There were a lot of people involved in this. Some of them government employees – state and federal. Some of them non-profit and private social service agencies with federal government contracts. They should lose their jobs, licenses and contracts. They should lose their 501 c 3 status. That plane crossed state lines. The airline should be investigated for human rights violations. The airport where they took off should be investigated. The FBI, FAA, NTSB, IRS, Commerce, Homeland, Transportation…. can all get involved. DeSantis fucked around and I have a feeling he’s about to find out how little power a governor of FL has. If Transportation Sec Mayor Pete wants to step into the national spotlight, nows the time.
Starfish
@WereBear: You are hitting on a very real thing with this comment.
The pandemic has led to some agoraphobia in folks, and they imagine the outside world to be scarier than it is.
They imagine that places not too far away are being invaded by immigrants and/or the homeless.
There are people who are afraid of the city that they live closest to, like less than an hour away.
The other day, a neighbor came over very upset that there was someone on our porch at midnight charging his phone. We have no clue who it was, and she was very alarmed. After she left, I told my husband, “He didn’t take anything. The only problem for us was that he was talking loudly on his phone and disturbed the neighbors, right?” We did not hear him in the house.
Baud
Jacobin is not entirely wrong. I too would love to have a Green Lantern progressive. Where they fall short is believing that they have people who can successfully be that person.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: And lands like a sack of potatoes dropped from the New River bridge.
Geminid
@UncleEbeneezer: The winning streak Joe Biden and his party have been on since late July has demoralized some lefties. @MichaelPaulauski screenshot some guy calling for a “Left/MAGA alliance.” Someone commented that this was rats fleeing from one sinking ship to another.
New Deal democrat
For those who missed it, because it was very late in the thread yesterday, we have our next two COVID variants: BA.2.75 and BF.7 (which I think is also called BA.5.2.1.7). They each now make up about 1% of all US cases, and apparently outcompete BA.4.6 and original BA.5. Get your Omicron boosters!
Also, I’m a little surprised there has been no mention here of the latest episodes of Judicial Calvinball.
First, Judge Cannon’s orders are apparently *even worse* the more they are understood. The DoJ is forbidden from indicting Trump based on any of the seized records. The DoJ *must* obtain clearances for the special master and Trump’s attorneys to see *all* of the claimed classified records (funny, I didn’t know the Judicial Branch was in charge of granting national security clearances, it must be a secret coda to Article III). And Judge Cannon will perform a “de novo” review (i.e., from scratch) of all decisions made by the special master, whose report is not due until after the November elections. About the only land mine she didn’t step on was forbidding the Executive Branch from briefing Congress (which would have meant that the judiciary could decide how Congress is allowed to function as well).
Lots of delay, lots of opportunities for further dilatory litigation, and lots of opportunity for a national security disaster. (Personally, if I were Biden, and some of the documents are as sensitive as represented, I would step in and defy the Court’s order to allow Trump’s attorneys access to those documents, and dare SCOTUS to hold me in contempt – Andrew Jackson’s actions come to mind).
Second, the 5th Circuit, ever originalist and textualist in their thinking, has decided that “Congress shall make no law” in the First Amendment actually reads “private corporations shall make no rules,” as applied to Google and Twitter.
I don’t even know how law professors can try to teach anything in this era, where every lower court judge feels free to completely rewrite the rules as they like – Calvinball!
MomSense
@kalakal:
Thank you. I loved working with my students. We had a lot of fun in class!
Barbara
@Peale: Yes, the process has become very prescriptive. Missing deadlines can result in dismissal or deportation.
O. Felix Culpa
@H.E.Wolf:
For me, it was more dread than panic, as in “Why the f*ck did I agree to do this?” But then class would start, energy would flow, and it was all good. (The students didn’t seem too miserable either, which, given the subject–accounting–was no small thing.)
I’d go through that dread/fine cycle every. single. time.
UncleEbeneezer
@Geminid: It’s not even fleeing ships, it’s high-fiving Nazis because at least they both hate the same people (Dem Party/voters).
OzarkHillbilly
@Spanky: Yeah, I thought of that after I hung up. A dollar short and a day late. The story of my life.
Lyrebird
Why not both?
From the previous thread, I had not known that Azeri Iranians were a bigger group than Kurdish Iranians, and it’s just by a few percentage points. The latter might not be as well integrated, I don’t know, but they might have some views on the conflict as well. And their territory saw some of the worst of the fighting between Iran and Iraq.
WereBear
@O. Felix Culpa:I get stage fright even when I’m zooming on a cat consultation sometimes. But it’s just that urge to do well that I think we all have.
It’s about making an emotional connection, and we are always going to have feelings about that.
I love that advice.
Ruviana
@WaterGirl: Yep. “Fake it till you make it” really works!
MomSense
@WereBear:
Doing well is soooo subjective and for myself I always feel that it’s never good enough. That’s why it helps me to focus on the feelings and the connection.
Steeplejack
I’ve been trying to read more on my Kindle (mostly fiction) to avoid getting overwhelmed by toxic Internet news sludge, and I ran across (and immediately bought) a book that I am already enjoying a lot: The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, by Martin Edwards. It’s a huge, detailed volume, with lots of notes for future reading.
Here’s an (un-paywalled) review from the Washington Post, which also includes links to other crime-fiction pieces.
Geminid
@UncleEbeneezer: You might appreciate Michael Paulauski (if you mess with Twitter). Paulauski self-describes as a “DemSoc lean anarchist.” He pushes back fiercely on Putin fans, accelarationists, Red-Brown alliance advocates and others on the Dirtbag Left.
I think Paulauski’s “lean anarchist” describes a belief that democratic socialism is better built from the ground up than imposed from the top down. He feels that the Democratic party is a progressive force in this respect.
zhena gogolia
De Santis’s stunt didn’t even make the front page of the NYT. They needed the space for Wall Street doom.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Probably for the best. The NYT would have spun it as DeSantis dick whipping Biden.
Geminid
@Lyrebird: I believe that Mahsa Amina, the young woman who died yesterday after being detained by Iran’s morality police, was Kurdish.
zhena gogolia
@germy shoemangler: Amen.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@arrieve: You’ll be fine. You’ve prepared. Relax. Roll with anything that pops up because teaching is like that.
Are the students real students or trainers acting the part?
Best of luck! I’ve been teaching EFL for more than 20 years and it has been a wonderful career.
zhena gogolia
@MomSense: Excellent advice! I play the piano in church sometimes, and it is so easy to fixate on mistakes, then you realize the audience didn’t even hear them.
O. Felix Culpa
@WereBear: @MomSense:
Making that human connection is excellent advice. I tried to do that with my community college students, many of whom were women juggling jobs, family, and school. They did not have it easy, and I wanted to do what I could to help equip them with job skills.
MattF
Samuel Beckett used to drive André the Giant to school. No, really. They would talk about cricket.
Jackie
@New Deal democrat:
“Get your Omicron boosters!”
I got mine yesterday morning. Felt fine all day, then early evening started having a little tickle in the back of my throat. Then started coughing now and again. My granddaughter is recouping from bronchitis, so I was blaming her. By 2 a.m. I had a persistent dry hacking cough and slight stuffy head and general achiness. Took ibuprofen and a mucinex – silently cursing my granddaughter. Tossed and turned until around 5, then finally dozed off for an hour or so. Researched side effects of the new covid vaccine side effects, and a dry cough is listed at #3 for most common side effect. I owe my granddaughter an apology – AFTER I get some sleep!
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
I have Martin Edwards’ book on the Golden Age; on your recommendation, and that fine WaPo review, just purchased The Life of Crime. Many thanks.
WereBear
@Steeplejack: Thank you. I am getting it along with a ukulele for my birthday.
Birthday requests are good for one week before and after. 🎉
zhena gogolia
@germy shoemangler: So funny!
zhena gogolia
@Jackie: I had fatigue, joint aches, and very dry mouth in the night. Not as bad as yours!
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
It really is worth the watching.
Republicans seem to be so desperate to prove how insanely desperate they are that they have jumped into a barrel of complete stupid and veniality. At some point it would be nice if reality would come along and steal all their toys and bullshit. But then they wouldn’t be them. SFB is their role model. Typing that sentence just made me want to vomit a bit. They actually think this shit head is a leader, a person of intelligence, poise and adulthood. Boy are their worlds fucked up. And deathsantas is trying to prove that he is even worse, so that they will elect him to be whatever the hell it is that SFB does. Because it sure isn’t good, leadership, normal, mature, healthy, workable, or anything but a really obnoxious toddler’s screaming and throwing his shit. And it isn’t that SFB and his followers are trying to be better humans, they are actively working at being far worse. Almost makes one wonder if humanity is worth saving.
MomSense
@zhena gogolia:
My kids tell me this all the time – oh I fucked up …. and I never hear it.
@O. Felix Culpa:
I’m sure that what comes across to your students is your care and empathy. What a gift for them to feel that they are truly “seen” and that their struggles are recognized. That’s empowering!
ian
@WereBear:
Do you actually believe this or are you pulling a funny?
NotMax
I need a vacation from my vacation.
;)
Tenar Arha
@Jackie: I got mine (&flu shot) Wednesday the 7th. First, definitely the updated booster shot gave me more of a sore arm than the flu shot. Second, by the evening I was a little feverish, while Thursday it was only a generalized fatigue. By Friday I was okay.
😉 For anyone who hasn’t scheduled their updated booster yet, & if you have the time, I’d definitely recommend trying to schedule the booster for just before the weekend. Any of the side effects will be mostly/entirely gone by Monday morning.
ETA NB I doubled up my booster with my flu shot bc Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur gatherings start next weekend. I wanted to insure I had the full 2 week window.
ETA Anyone listening to the new Beyoncé album? I’m enjoying it.
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: I got a giggle.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne, @WereBear:
It’s very dense (in a good way)! One of the things I love about reading it on the Kindle is that the copious footnotes are hyperlinks. Boink! Go to the footnote and read it. Boink! Back to the text. Or just wait and read the notes at the end of the chapter.
When I bought this I was already thinking about getting Lucy Worsley’s new biography of Agatha Christie, but that’s on the back burner for now.
Eunicecycle
My husband and I got our booster Thursday. I was fine but he was a little feverish and achy.
Geminid
@NotMax: Do you visit the beach much? I expect the ocean is not too far in any direction.
I hope to get to the South Carolina shore in a few weeks (if I can get my mess together). There’s a good Beach Music station near Myrtle Beach!
Citizen Alan
@ian: Honestly, if you discount vacations once every year or so to a tourist destination that that MAGAts deem safe and socially acceptable for good Christian white people (like Branson or Disneyland), i imagine it’s true for most of them. Except for a nephew who lives in the town where he went to college thats about an hour away from his parents’ house and a niece who is about to move to that same area, every living relative I have lives within 30 minutes of the county where we were all born.. I am the only family member to have escaped for any length of time.
Tenar Arha
@NotMax: Same. A week after I got back from my 2 week Cape Cod vacation, I went to the beach.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: Leo Kottke- My feet are smiling
Listen to the first 30 seconds, “Boy, I blew that.”
MomSense
@Starfish:
When I was visiting my dad in Florida we watched the local news every evening and what struck me was how terrible it was. It was all crime and fraud stories. Fort Myers woman robbed in her apartment building by man pretending to be cable repair guy etc. Lots of scary stories then ads for security systems or politicians who feed the fear. There is a long standing understanding by advertisers about the connection between fear and buying shit.
Steeplejack
@WereBear:
Happy birthday somewhere around now, I guess. 😹 🥂
Ruckus
@Barbara:
My bet is that it was all bullshit and lies. Once you’ve gotten past the concept of kidnapping and moved right into the middle of the act of kidnapping, what is a little bullshit?
Steeplejack
@Citizen Alan:
How did your interview go yesterday?
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
I freaking love that! Then he just crushed the finger picking. But wow is there anything better than spontaneous laughter?!
Brachiator
@germy shoemangler:
I guess after a certain point, you have to be drunk to knowingly sling lies and bullshit.
WereBear
@Steeplejack: Have you read The Anatomy of Story by John Truby? One of the best writing books I have ever encountered.
NotMax
@Geminid
So-o-o not a beach person.
Am firmly of the belief we came out of the ocean eons ago and thus see no reason to go back in.
;)
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: He was great on stage. I must have seen him at least a couple dozen times over the years. A couple times driving 3 or 4 hours. And he always toured with a killer warm up act, never afraid to be upstaged by a new up and coming talent. The first I ever heard of Lyle Lovett was at a Leo Kottke concert, and he killed it. Leo was kind of a let down. I say kind of only because I knew what Leo was bringing to the table, Lyle was just so different and unexpected.
kalakal
@Steeplejack: Oh I’ll definitely go for that
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
I’m actually reading it (ETA: Worsley) right now. It’s very good.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thats awesome!
Old Dan and Little Ann
Republican Jesus TicTik video via Twiter
Whoops. Meant TikTok
WereBear
Repubs in disarray. Never get tired of it.
kalakal
@Steeplejack: I see the review references Symons’ Bloody Murder, another interesting book on the same subject is Colin Watson’s Snobbery with Violence
Ruckus
@O. Felix Culpa:
“I’d go through that dread/fine cycle every. single. time.”
The biggest thing to remember is that if you have the dreads or the nerves of rubber bands it’s because you actually want to do a good job, you want to succeed at teaching something, and you know that you can screw up or forget some word, or be an idiot and you forget that everyone has the jitters when they have to perform. Some hide it better but everyone has them. A live audience is always a risk. But it is a good risk, a worthy risk. I’ve had to stand up in front of a large audience and give a speech, in a tuxedo and I hadn’t been told until just over an hour before. No one threw anything and they all clapped when I was done, so it must have gone OK, but I really have no idea, before, during or after. I just remember every step walking up to the podium.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Citizen Alan:
That’s pretty much correct from my experience living in a pulsating red pustule full of people who work in a very blue city. They’re incurious and don’t generally understand my travels (I’m often met with the noxious phrase “oh, so you were on a mission trip”.
They don’t look at travel as a fun adventure and are afraid to even go downtown. When I talk up positive experiences in China, Vietnam, Africa, Central America, and Europe, their faces glaze over as I attack the veracity of their worldviews.
Steeplejack
@WereBear:
Haven’t seen that. Thanks, will check it out!
One of the best that I’ve read is A Story Is a Promise, by Bill Johnson. I read it years ago and thought it was very good, and now it’s bundled with The Spirit of Storytelling in a $2.99 Kindle edition. I have been meaning to reread it.
ETA: Just bought Truby’s book.
kalakal
@Ruckus: For me the worst bit is when you get someone introducing you. That twangs my nerves because at that point I’m all fired up and ready to go. I’ve gotten better at it but I still find it stressful. I enjoy the rest once I’m past the first 30 seconds or so
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
I’ll add – when I was a kid, nobody in my blue collar neighborhood went anywhere interesting. Every few years they might pack everyone into the family truckster for a visit to some no name hotel three blocks from Daytona or Destin beaches, and might save a lifetime for a milestone Caribbean Cruise, seven day gala tour of 15 European countries, or trip to Hawaii (dads were generally WWII or Korea era veterans).
Geminid
@NotMax: I don’t think I’d swim off of a Hawaiian beach. I like South Carolina’s beaches because the waves are low and the water’s warm.
Lapassionara
@NotMax: I don’t dislike the beach, but I realized long ago that if I was going on a vacation, I wanted to be in an interesting urban area with good public transportation, preferably in a different country. Neither the beach or the mountains meet those requirements.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Cool. I’ll get to it soon.
Steeplejack
@kalakal:
Thanks, will look at the Watson book.
WereBear
@Steeplejack: thanks for tip, just bought the bundle.🎉
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
Thanks for the great recommendation. I have been skimming through the first pages of the book via a Google Books search and it is fun reading. The section on Edgar Allen Poe is fascinating. I didn’t know that one of the theories about his mysterious death involves election fraud.
OzarkHillbilly
‘We don’t know where the rest of the bodies went’: the search for answers in Izium
The whole is worth the reading if you have the stomach for it.
MomSense
@NotMax:
When my dad picked me up at the airport at the start of a 10 day visit just the two of us at his place 2 blocks from the beach he started listing things we could do like go to beach, sit by the pool. When I told him I like walking on the beach but I’m not a spend all day at the beach or pool person he got a big smile and said “OH GOOD!” We had so much fun going on lots of hikes and walks with our cameras. We went to two lecture/discussion groups. We went to the coffee shop and read books. It was honestly the best time.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
Oh my god. Fuck fucking Putin and all his enablers.
Villago Delenda Est
@Princess: NPR = Nice Polite Republicans. Funded by the billionaire parasite David Koch.
Eolirin
@New Deal democrat: If that 5th circuit ruling is allowed to stand Twitter is going to cease to exist in the near future.
Unmoderated platforms cannot sustain nonextreme audiences, as they rapidly devolve into cesspools that no one wants to be in, and more importantly that no advertiser wants to be seen within a mile of.
If YouTube is forced to that standard and additionally prevented from blocking advertisement on certain content, advertisers will begin to flee there too. We know they’re sensitive to this stuff because they started pulling out of FaceBook when FB wasn’t doing enough to limit their ads being near extreme content on their platforms.
Moderation is necessary for any of these services to survive.
Sister Golden Bear
In Virginia, the Christofascist governor just rolled back protections for trans kids — including allowing teachers to misname/misgender them, forcing teachers to out trans kids to their parents, and of course banning trans kids from bathrooms.
Cruelty is the point, as well as eradicating (a word I don’t use lightly) trans people from public life.
Steeplejack
@Brachiator:
I’m just starting Chapter 2, which is Poe and the first “formal” detective stories.
I vaguely remembr that story about his death, but I haven’t gotten to it in this book yet.
delphinium
@Steeplejack:
Thanks for this-both of his books sound very interesting.
MomSense
@Sister Golden Bear:
But he wears fleece…. I fucking hate that guy. Youngkin was here in Maine campaigning with LePage. They are such vicious assholes.
OzarkHillbilly
Is Truth Social another of Trump’s bungled businesses? leads with this jewel:
No, just a moron.
Sure Lurkalot
@Geminid: There are beautiful coves and sea walled bays in Hawaii…every island is not all big broad surfer beaches. The swimming is lovely and the snorkeling divine. On the big island, there are 7 or 8 beaches like this within a 10 minute drive of our Airbnb.
Uncle Cosmo
Small story in support: For a bit over a decade starting in the early 1980s I was a member of a performing Balkan folk dance troupe. We spent a lot of time and effort to perform the dances as faithfully as possible – it likely would be our audience’s only contact with the culture.
We all considered one of our guys to be our best dancer. Until, late in the troupe’s existence, we found someone with a video camera to record a performance.
Turned out that from a purely technical standpoint he was the worst – frequently off rhythm and sloppy in the steps. But his stage presence was spectacular. He radiated love of the dances and happiness to show them to people who’d never seen them before. And no one ever noticed the slips until we had the videotape – not even those of us who performed with him and knew the dances as well as (or better than) he did.
Another Scott
@Baud: +1
They have nothing positive to run on and, as usual, have to rile up the lizard brain of their voters.
The daily press Q&A at the White House yesterday was repeated questions after questions about what they were doing, how they are going to respond to the “crisis at the border” and on and on. It’s disgusting that so much of the press can be lead around to be a mouthpiece for an insane and dangerous political party.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sister Golden Bear
@OzarkHillbilly: Investing in a Trump business should be an automatic proof of fiduciary irresponsibility.
Geminid
@Geminid: The Guardian reports that Ms. Amini was buried this morning in her hometown of Saqqez, Kurdistan Province. Authorities required the family to hold a private funeral, “to reduce tensions,” but several hundred people turned out in the city:
Amini was transported from the police station to a hospital, in a coma, and succumbed yesterday. Authorities say they are investigating the matter.
The poor woman probably let too much hair show outside her headscarf, and may not have realized how strict enforcement of the hijab law would be in Tehran. Iran’s new hardline President has encouraged a crackdown by Iran’s bullying morality police.
MomSense
@Uncle Cosmo:
He radiated love – what could be better!
Another Scott
@Eunicecycle: I don’t have an account on T or FB for similar reasons, but remember that a lot of traffic on those places is not real and it’s just a small number of accounts driving the rage and anguish. It’s designed to keep you attached and clicking, so T and FB are quite happy with it (until too many people die or their stock price falls too much…).
Supposedly there are ways to block the bot accounts and accounts that like the monsters, but presumably one has to be willing to have an account to use them.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Geminid:
Are their midterms coming up?
Kristine
@Jackie:
Got my booster and flu shot yesterday. Booster arm (Moderna) hurt right away and kept hurting. Throat is a little dry. Head felt stuffy, but I slept okay. Then this morning I got hit with a wave of cold sweats, increased aches, and vague nausea, all of which abated as quickly as they struck.
Booster arm still hurts. Still achy. Not as stuffed. I hope I’m past the worst of it. Don’t think I’ll be hitting my step count today.
Geminid
@Sure Lurkalot: That’s good to know. How warm is the water? I’m a real wimp. I’m hoping the water off Huntington Beach State Park is still 75 degrees when I get there, but I’ll still only be good for a minute or two of swimming.
There’s lots of good birdwatching there, though. And flat walking.
Uncle Cosmo
@Citizen Alan: On forty-odd (some very odd) trips to Europe I quickly recognized how to tell the best tourists from the worst – and it had nothing to do with nationality. The best traveled in ones and twos; they had little choice but to deal with the locals on their own terms – and not only did it not bother them, they generally welcomed the chance to learn how others navigated the common issues of existence in ways different from what they grew up with.
The worst were clumped up in tour groups – bubbles that spoke their language and shared their
prejudicesassumptions. Few had bothered to learn anything about their destinations. Anything that was different from what they were used to was to be avoided if at all possible. (I recall a line from the protagonist in Anne Tyler’s 1986 novel The Accidental Tourist: “I am pleased to report that Kentucky Fried Chicken can now be found in Stockholm.” [NB From memory so consider it a paraphrase.])Kristine
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
When I was still at the day job, one of my conservative coworkers traveled to Paris on business. All he remembered was that the city was dirty and “people pee in the street.” Forget that it’s a very old city and people pee in the streets even in small conservative towns.
Ruckus
@kalakal:
I worked in professional sports so I was used to the exposure to crowds and competitors and so on. But it’s different standing out front and everyone watching you. You think they are expecting the worst, and that it’s highly likely you’ll give it to them. You learn to shut out that which doesn’t matter at the moment and focus. I’ve been in a situation where I had live TV cameras and crew just 4-5 feet away, live on me and I didn’t even know they were there because 100% of my focus was 2 feet away.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sister Golden Bear: You are not the first I have heard to say that.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: In the late ’70s I helped out with sound and light stuff for a friend’s rock band in HS. He played guitar by ear and was really good. But he would start tuning his guitar in the middle of a song at least a couple of times during a show. Nobody else noticed or cared that maybe it was a little off, but they certainly noticed when he started tuning it!
Maybe it was a nervous tick. I told him to stop it, for the reasons you and everyone else cite. 🤪
Cheers,
Scott.
Albatrossity
This needs to be read, and shared widely. DeSantis needs to be in jail.
cain
@artem1s: The best way to fuck him up is to put all his underlings in jail. Every collaborator federal and state should have their license removed, their jobs taken away and jail time as necessary – federal crimes.
That way, the next time this asshole thinks he can get his people to do this, he won’tbe able to because his people will fear the feds more than they fear us. They should realize they deeply miscalculated. Even airlines should be fined, DeSantis donor should have all contracts iwth the federal govt flushed down the tubes. Make it HURT.
cain
We know who they are – a bunch of racists and purist idealogue assholes who live as much of a fantasy world as MAGA. Someone should point out Latin America for all their leftist govt – there ain’t no freedom nor worker rights.
OzarkHillbilly
@Another Scott: Leo did a lot of tuning during a show, but never in the middle of a song. If you saw how hard he worked those strings you knew why. The number of strings he broke mid song and then finished without a flinch was amazing. I’m not sure I ever saw a show where he didn’t break a string. A guitar playing buddy of mine said he did it on purpose just to show off.
cain
@New Deal democrat:
Yeah, I’m not sure why we didn’t have a post about it. But such as it is. Something is deeply around with that judge – she’s clearly over stepped her purview on what she can cannot do.
Regardless, I suspect that the DOJ has already accounted for this. SOmeone should definitely be spying on her and what she’s doing because when someone is holding up shit and national security is involved – I expect the intelligence community to react.
Ruckus
@Uncle Cosmo:
Ones and twos is always best. Well it is if your concept of visiting a country is to meet people and enjoy life and living, not to look down on them. I’ve had the pleasure of traveling to many parts of the world and often was alone or with one other person. I’ve never regretted meeting people and talking and learning about them and their lives. Buildings and all are nice but it’s really the people that make or break a place.
OldDave
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve seen Leo in concert in an ‘intimate’ club setting. In my case, perhaps too intimate (first row, right in front of him, maybe six feet away). I wasn’t wired for that.
He’s one hell of a musician.
kalakal
@Another Scott: When I used to play live we had the motto that being in time was a must, being in tune was a bonus. People really notice if you scree up timing, you can get away with murder when it comes to tuning.
Cacti
In reading the comments of the MAGA faithful about the human trafficking stunt, it’s really laid bare how just how much of a bubble rural America is. For example, some things I read more than once.
“They should send illegals to blue cities!” Ummm…lots of illegals and foreign nationals of various stripes live in blue cities. But for some reason, they think them thar city folk would have a panic attack at the sight of a brown person.
Or my personal favorite: “They should send illegals to Hollywood.” Yeah, that would totally shut things down because greater Los Angeles definitely has no illegal immigrants living there. And Latinos in general are practically unheard of in southern California. /s
These country mice really have no idea what the world is like outside the town of Bug Tumble, population 3,000.
WaterGirl
@Kristine: Yikes, that seems pretty extreme. Curious whether you had Moderna or Pfizer, and whether you had had the company’s shot before?
kalakal
@Ruckus:
That’s really tough. I’ve not been in the position where, as you put it
my
victimsaudiences have normally been there to be (willingly) educated and/or entertained so it’s much easier.Being a stand up comic is incredibly tough, I’ve see so many of them die on stage.
The best heckle I’ve ever heard was watching some poor sod of a comic who was in a death spiral on stage, he was doing observational stuff and it got to the point that no matter what topic he picked someone yelled “racist/sexist/xxxxist” etc. Desperately seeking a safe subject he started out on the news weatherman, 10 seconds later a voice called out “meteorologist”
realbtl
Leo Kotke played his early stuff using fingerpick and he hit the strings HARD hence the busted strings. Unfortunately this wrecked his right hand. After a long recovery he ditched the fingerpicks and altered his style. Different sound but same outstandig musicianship.
WaterGirl
@Albatrossity: To me, that felt pretty heavy on “these people are christians” and fluffing catholic charities. Maybe they deserve fluffing, but it felt a little like the writer had an agenda beyond describing the way things work for people seeking asylum.
Maybe I woke up cynical today.
Eunicecycle
@Another Scott: it’s not usually the accounts I follow but someone responding to it. I have blocked so many people if Twitter starts limiting how many you can block I will be in trouble!
divF
@OzarkHillbilly: Then the rest of the song we are treated “to geese farts on a muggy day” (Kottke’s own description of his singing voice).
Jackie
@Kristine: Funny thing; after my prior 4 shots my arm hurt like the dickens for about 3 days. This time no sore arm at all. Go figure.
We’ll be right as rain by Monday 😊
Geminid
@Geminid: There are a lot of expatriot Iranians now, and they have a lively media presence. One news service, Iran International Press showed video of demonstrators in Saffiq, the site of Mahsa Amini’s burial. The crowd of several hundred included numerous women shaking scarves in their fists and chanting, “Death to the Dictator!”
Geminid
@cain: There may also be viable civil lawsuits here. These take a while, but the discovery can be far reaching.
James E Powell
@Baud:
With the headline “How DeSantis Won the Crisis at the Border”
James E Powell
@Citizen Alan:
There was analysis post 2016 that counties with a majority who never left were hugely pro Trump.
lowtechcyclist
@MattF:
OK, my head just exploded. Come over here, willya, and help me find the pieces?
delphinium
@Cacti:
Not to mention, how long has Abbott been governor? Funny how during the Trump years (with his big beautiful wall) that this ‘border crisis’ still hasn’t been solved. Maybe Abbott should actually do something besides mouth off but that would mean taking some responsibility which Republicans never do.
WereBear
@Eunicecycle: I do that too.
Kristine
@WaterGirl: Moderna this time, and a Moderna booster back in April.
My reaction could’ve been due to getting both at once. I have a strong reaction to the flu shot every other year or so
Chills and nausea can be side effects of the bivalent booster. They’re just not common.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Kristine:
Whats weird is that I’ve been there a few times but never thought it “dirty” and didn’t see people peeing in the streets.
mwing
Hello, Quite aside from everything else, DeSantis and crew have got Martha’s Vineyard wrong.
It’s after Labor Day! the rich people are mostly summer people, and the year-round population is not especially wealthy, not all white by any means, and not, so far as I know, especially liberal or even interested in politics at all.
They’re less Democratic donor and more building trades.
Also- Among the well-off summer types in New England, and even down as far as DC, the Vineyard is known for being the place upper-class Black people in particular went! This goes back generations!
I mean the summer population has always been majority white,, but Black summer people were not just a few, they were a significant minority.
The Obamas having their summer house there is not a co-incidence.
The thing is, DeSantis may not know that, but Tucker Carlson certainly ought to, he’s not from MA so far as I know but is absolutely from the social circle that would know exactly this sort of thing- including who goes where for the summer- up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
Soprano2
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I’ve read on Facebook that the city I live in is a “crime ridden hellhole”. It’s not that bad, the worst problem is property crime. They say that because we have *gasp* black and Latin people, and there are homeless people here (it’s 85% white, though). In my police CamP class this week the chief was asked about crime and the homeless. You could tell he’s been asked this a lot, because he immediately said “Being homeless is not a crime. Walking down the sidewalk is not a crime. ” Gives you an idea of people here.
Kristine
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I’ve been once, way back in 1973. I thought it was beautiful.
Missed the trip to the Louvre, but got to have lunch at American Legion Post #1 with my uncle, who was a TWA captain. Then we went shopping for a few things for my mom. Little tiny shops with perfect small purses and gloves and a perfume that at the time was hard to find in the States but was a fave of my Mom’s (Robert Piguet’s Bandit).
Geminid
@mwing: If Tucker Carlson knows, he doesn’t care because few of his watchers know. Lying is Carlson’s second nature now.
J R in WV
@Geminid:
I prefer a more active description of what happened to Amina, who was murdered by having her head beaten in by religious zealots operating outside all the law.
“…who died…” is way too passive for me.
Ruckus
@Geminid:
Now?
Geminid
@J R in WV: I try to make my comments concise, knowing that readers can form their own conclusions.
J R in WV
@Geminid:
And I’m not attacking you, I’m attacking the Iranian “Morality” Police who are operating outside the law if they’re killing women for not wearing the veil according to the “Morality” police.
Geminid
@J R in WV: Got it. I was testy because that was the 4th of six comments I’ve posted on Ms. Amini’s death, and the three I posted yesterday already went into the circumstances and injuries
The other commenter was talking about Iran’s Kurdish minority and that’s why I pointed out that Amini was Kurdish. I figured that if someone didn’t already know how she died and asked, I could tell them.
mwing
@Geminid: I agree. And he does know.
I feel like it’s another instance of the right-wing media just choosing to, like, completely misrepresent what a particular place is like, and assuming their audience will buy it, because they do.
Like the whole ‘cities burned” thing in 2020, or the “no-go-zone” thing, it’s wild.
I don’t know if that’s new thing on the right. I know there’s a traditional fear of cities among some hardcore Christians.
Citizen Alan
@Steeplejack: Reasonably well. Though the committee seemed overly obsessed with “publications,” which is problematic since I don’t have any.
Dan B
@Starfish: I grew up in a small town in Ohio where most of the residents had never been to Akron,ten miles of straight road east, or Cleveland, 35 miles north. When there were race riots in Akron they were sure the “negro” rioters were going to attack. Why would they want to attack Wadsworth? Fear was strong and logic absent. They were nice people because their emotional intelligence was good but logical intelligence was held in little regard by the community.
Matt McIrvin
@Uncle Cosmo: To be honest I have eaten at American fast food joints in other countries. It often happens toward the end of the trip when I’m exhausted, my brain is fried and for whatever reason I need to eat something on a time crunch. I remember going to a KFC in Barcelona for that reason.
(On our most recent trip to London we went to the nearby Jollibee a couple of times–that’s actually a Filipino fast-food joint; there are locations in the US but for whatever reason I’ve only gone there in other countries.)
I am not a very social person but I do like puttering around a distant city solo, figuring out the transit system and seeing what things I stumble across. Even when I travel with my family, we often end up splitting up for a day or two, because there are different things we’re interested in seeing.
Dan B
@mwing: My partner’s sister who lives near Bellingham, 90 miles north of us, watches FOX, listens to FOX, called in a panic that our neighborhood, five miles south of the BLM protests was on fire. I recall that someone, probably a black clad radical, set some debris on fire outside a police precinct and a store. Did FOX show tape of the firebombing of Dresden or the riots in Newark? Our 85% minority neighborhood has so many races and nationalities that it would be tough to organize a crowd and they are very quiet, lower middle class people. It’s telling that she lives in 95% white Bellingham.
Matt McIrvin
@Dan B: I recall how the guy who really got the property damage kicked off in Minneapolis turned out to be a white, far-right “Boogaloo Boi”.
Steeplejack
@Citizen Alan:
What is the (potential) job?
StringOnAStick
@WereBear: What size ukulele are you getting? I play a tenor with a low G string; going low G gives you a lot more depth to work with, and if you have any hearing loss like most over 50 have, the low G is a lot easier to hear.