Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Let me file that under fuck it.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

You cannot shame the shameless.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

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

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

White supremacy is terrorism.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Morning Open Thread: Repubs Got Nuthin’

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Repubs Got Nuthin’

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Sunday Morning Open Thread 3

(John Deering via GoComics.com)

 
… Except, of course, for the unyielding fealty of Our Media Betters, bought and paid for by the oligarchs of our current kakistocracy. Eventually, if we fight hard enough, that will cease to be sufficient!



Since it’s the weekend… for discussion purposes:

… Increasingly, Democratic candidates are embracing the idea of reforming the court because it is popular among Democratic voters. This summer, the New York Times asked 11 of the state’s Democratic candidates for Congress if they supported expanding the court; all but one said yes. Last month, a Marquette Law School poll found that Americans are evenly split on the question of adding justices, with 51 percent in favor and 49 percent opposed. Nearly three-quarters of Democrats now support the idea, as do 51 percent of independents. Term limits are even more popular: A July poll found that more than two thirds of Americans—including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans—support them.

“When the Dobbs decision leaked, that was a watershed moment in letting us all know that the court is no longer an apolitical body,” says Kristine Kippins, deputy legal director for policy at Lambda Legal, which has helped secure major wins for LGBTQ rights at the Supreme Court, including the 2015 case that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. In July, Lambda Legal joined three other LGBTQ legal rights groups in calling for Supreme Court expansion. This is a bold move because, as litigating groups, they risk angering the justices before whom they regularly bring cases. Their support is a signal that they have given up on this court…

And not without good reason…

Reader Interactions

208Comments

  4. 4.

    Bugboy

    BIDEN, eating ice cream: “Our economy is strong as hell”

    I do think there’s a bit of “THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE,  AND SLEEPY JOE IS EATING ICE CREAM?!” sentimentality going on here, that Republican’ts think will resonate with the electorate.  And maybe it will?

    There is an enormous amount of stress out there, particularly with the degree conspiracy thinking has pervaded society.  We have a public mental health emergency here, and we can’t vote our way out of it.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    A slew of recent comments across a variety of threads led me to ferret out a half-remembered long (46 minutes) listen.

    While a reflection of its time (as well as his own entrenched Victorian upbringing), the almost casually patronizing or condescending or culturally dismissive bits landing sourly on the contemporary ear, nonetheless (IMHO) suggest a full listen for the still relevant, still ongoing and still unresolved discussion of power versus glory and of the roles played in the political sphere both by acquisitiveness and by fear.

    Bertrand Russell’s 1950 Nobel acceptance speech, “What desires are politically important?”

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    I do think it’s weird Republicans keep showcasing Biden at his most likeable – expressing love and concern for his son, eating ice cream like a normal person, totally unstressed – while thinking it somehow makes him look bad.

    It’s because they’re monsters, James.

    Hello to everyone’s bones!

  8. 8.

    Baud

    @Bugboy:

    Clinton and Obama produced good economies after inheriting a GOP mess and a transition period that voters didn’t want to wade through.  Biden is on the same track. One hopes voters will learn someday.

  9. 9.

    Amir Khalid

    We shall soon see how far a 21st-century American party can get by appealing to the malice and spite of the worst people in its voter base.

    Did anyone see the Senate candidates’ debate between Ron Johnson and Mandela Barnes? The brief clips I saw showed Johnson getting laughed at by the audience, and then getting booed when he refused to say something nice about Barnes.

    I just had a chicken quesadilla from Taco Bell for dinner — yes, Taco Bell has come to Malaysia. The food was mediocre and the portions scant; I’ve had better Mexican fare in local food courts.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:

    Because it was my very first order, I got a free “dessert”. Who the hell thinks chocolate spread in a tortilla is an actual dessert?

  17. 17.

    WaterGirl

    @Amir Khalid:  In case anyone wants to watch it, there’s a video embed of the WI senate debate in this debate thread from Friday night.

    I don’t recommend watching the Warnock and Walker debate, as I found it very stressful.

    As for the debate between Evers and his opponent, I think his opponent might have a face that is more punchable than Tucker.  Of course, that’s probably because as soon as the guy opens his mouth, it’s clear that he’s as smarmy as fuck.  Ugh.

    How can these people be running even with our great candidates in so many races?  I think polls are borked this year, based on faulty assumptions about who will vote, which in turn are based on conventional wisdom that comes from a world we no longer live in.

  18. 18.

    TriassicSands

    @Bugboy:

    I couldn’t understand the initial question, but is it ever a good idea for an American president to utter the words, “I’m not concerned about the country, I’m concerned about the rest of the world. Does that make sense?”  or anything to that effect? How many Americans can deal with subtlety?

    The problem is the American electorate, not exactly known for its ability to embrace nuance. In short, the American president should always express concern for the US and its people, even when everything is fine. In general, our electorate is poorly informed (yes, even on the left) and easily misled.

    I can hear the endlessly repeated soundbite. “I’m not concerned about the country….” If I had one wish for Biden, it would be that he would become a more careful speaker. However, that doesn’t seem any more likely than the US electorate suddenly becoming well informed and deeply engaged in politics.

  20. 20.

    Ken

    @Amir Khalid: Rumor holds that Taco Bell has six huge vats of ingredients in the back, and every item on the menu is built by dumping fixed amounts from each vat onto a flour tortilla or corn shell and shoving the result in the microwave, deep fryer, or hot press for thirty seconds. Franchise genius.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @TriassicSands:

    I think that’s one of those statements that only works against Democrats.  If GWB or TFG had said that, it would be viewed as a sign of confidence.

    Unfortunately, I feel a lot of Dems have internalized the insecurity.

  22. 22.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: There is a very good Mexican kitchen operation in a small store near Crozet, Virginia. The Ridge Mini-Mart. Portions are ample and the food is good. They serve the large local population of migrants.

    Mexicans have worked in the local orchards for decades, and now more are working in the booming construction industry. And in service industries; one of the associates at my automobile insurer is a nice and very efficient Mexican lady.

  24. 24.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Find out what brand of ice cream Biden eats and send a case of it to every asshole pundit​

  25. 25.

    TriassicSands

    @WaterGirl:

    Watching debates is almost always stressful if one stops to consider the bulk of the audience and their extremely limited knowledge and engagement, both of which lead to it being easy for Republicans to mislead voters.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    Lead story in yesterday’s local paper: farmers complaining they don’t have enough immigrant labor (means “Mexican”, here) to harvest.

    OMFG. You could scream. Do they not make the simplest connections? What did they think would happen?

  32. 32.

    Mousebumples

    @Amir Khalid: The laughter, if I recall, was after he accused FBI agents of corruption when they tried to warn him that he was becoming an agent of Russia. 🙄

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I was in northwestern MI recently and they seem to have workers from Mexico picking/processing cherries and apples. Maybe they don’t want to come to Ohio anymore.

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    @Amir Khalid

    Has Jollibee popped up in Malaysia?

    Hint: Their secret ingredient is … sugar. Also serve a cheeseburger topped with a slice of pineapple. Merely looking at the signature spaghetti, sprinkled with slices of frankfurter and slathered in a sweet sauce enough to make it a “Nope” in my book.

  41. 41.

    Starfish

    @Bugboy: Agree, there is a lot of fear and general mental health stuff going on right now.

    A lot of candidates are blaming inflation on whoever is holding political power. Joe Biden is acknowledging the truth, that people are experiencing inflation all over the world right now.

    Pay *does* need to go up. We relied on women working for next to nothing, and now a lot of those jobs we relied on them for are going unfilled because no one wants to be a pre-school teacher exposed to your child’s germs while having no healthcare benefits. Absolutely, no one. Also, a bunch of the lower paid medical jobs are unfilled for the same reason.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    Found this interesting quote in a reddit thread about Russia. (Not verified)

    “The masses don’t care. The masses don’t care if there is peace or war. The masses don’t care, what titles their leaders claim. The masses don’t care, in what castles their dukes house.

     

    The masses care about their friends and families. That they can go to church on sunday and serve a piece of meat at Christmas. That they find spouses for their children and doctors for their parents.

     

    The masses don’t care what you do my lord, as long as you can convince them it is necessary for their mundane lifes to continue.”

     

    • Klemens von Metternich “Inventor of modern authoritarian opression tactics” to his majesty Franz I. Kaiser of Austria.

  44. 44.

    Tony Jay

    @Amir Khalid:

    The Conservative Party has so many faces, each one with so many sides, that it was bound to happen eventually.

    And when even the house-broken BBC are saying it out loud…

  45. 45.

    Anyway

    @Nora:

    Not the popular vote, they didn’t.

    How many senate, House. SCOTUS seats did the popular vote get us? It’s meaningless. I don’t understand the point of bringing up the popular vote.

  46. 46.

    TriassicSands

    @Baud:

    I wouldn’t disagree with that those kinds of statements certainly work better against Democrats.  I just wish there were a way to keep Biden from uttering things that are so easily used against him and Democrats. He’s done it his entire career.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @Starfish:

    IMHO the problem is people want to change the system but don’t want to deal with the transition costs.  You simply aren’t going to reset pay scales without some economic discomfort.

    ETA: The reason Reaganism has had such lasting effects is because people stuck with him despite severe pain early on.

  49. 49.

    Starfish

    @WaterGirl: The Walker/Warnock debate was so stressful! The way Walker was claiming that their heartbeat abortion ban had exceptions and was not extremist. 🙄

    I think the abortion rights movement is working on educating people that what you hear at six weeks is not a heartbeat, and an embryo is not a fetus until ten weeks.

  51. 51.

    Geminid

    @Kay: If the undocumented workers in central Virginia were expelled, the apple industry would gutted and many construction and landscaping companies would be crippled. The poultry industry over in the Shenandoah Valley would lose half its workers, at least.

    There would still be many legal immigrants first and second generation immigrants. I once worked with a young man whose father benefitted from the amnesty under Reagan. The father is retired from the orchards, and the son likes to take him golfing.

    John now works for a local masonry products vendor. He is smart and personable, a natural salesman. He manages their larger accounts.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @Anyway: The popular vote means that it worked on fewer than half of the people who voted.  Even though we sadly still have the electoral college and ridiculously gerrymandered districts, it is still important to note that MORE humans oppose them.

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:

    Jollibee opened their first Malaysian outlet in February, not far from where I am. I just saw their menu online, and I’m not impressed.

  56. 56.

    catclub

    @Amir Khalid: I just had a chicken quesadilla from Taco Bell for dinner

     

    That decision is on you. Have you read anywhere on BJ that somebody likes Taco Bell???? There is a reason you have not.

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    @TriassicSands: With all the talking that presidents (and candidates) do, it’s just not possible to always get it right.

    Hell, even if Biden and every democrat said everything perfectly, in a way that could not even be willfully misunderstood [Narrator: not possible] the other side would simply take comments out of context and splice words together.

    I don’t see any point in worrying about what they will do with what Biden said while eating ice cream.  If that’s going to work on someone, they are already voting R.

  59. 59.

    Cameron

    Re the Supreme Court (and I know I’m pretty tiresome about this), I think every member should be subject to a retention vote by a simple majority of the House of Representatives every five years starting from the date of their confirmation.  I don’t think it would make any of them more conservative or more liberal, but it might make them more honest.

  60. 60.

    catclub

    @Ken: ​
     

    Rumor holds that Taco Bell has six huge vats of ingredients in the back, and every item on the menu is built by dumping fixed amounts from each vat

    I thought there were hoses. Like soda dispensers but for dogfood.

  61. 61.

    Starfish

    @Baud: Yup.

    The in-laws were talking about that. They are in some senior housing with skilled nursing when they need to move there. They said their (few) liberal friends were talking about how people need to get paid more. The in-laws then pointed out that their care and support would cost more, and the guy with the original idea was less enthused.

    Elder care and child care both need some support beyond what the families can provide. Elders and children are more likely than most to live in poverty.

  62. 62.

    sab

    OT My cat Starscream is wasting away. He used to weigh 13 pounds. Now he weighs 9 pounds. We have his hyperthyroidism under control so we don’t know what’s up.

    I am a dog person, but I have never loved an animal as much as I love this cat.

  63. 63.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Baud: Phillie Phanatic was fantastic, using his frenetic energy to fire up the Philly fans  (photo).  The fans, the Phillies, they need him there, they want him up on that wall dugout.

  64. 64.

    catclub

    @sab:

    My cat Starscream is wasting away. He used to weigh 13 pounds. Now he weighs 9 pounds

    .

    We have a 15 y.o cat that has gone from 9.5 to about 5.5lbs  over 5 years, and she is fine.  When our 14 y.o went from 18 to 13 it was at the end.
    So your mileage may vary.​

  67. 67.

    Starfish

    @catclub: I have never seen someone try to go for Amir so hard.

    My fondest memories of Taco Bell involve:
    1. soft tacos when I had braces as a child
    2. the seven layer burrito when I was in my freshman year of college

    —

    1. The soft tacos were a comfort after getting braces adjusted and experiencing dental pain.

    2. The Taco Bell next to my freshman dorm was the place where everyone experienced food poisoning all the time. I never bought anything that had meat in it from the menu and never experienced the food poisoning. The seven layer burrito was safe.

  70. 70.

    SFAW

    @Amir Khalid: ​
     

    when he refused to say something nice about Barnes.

    I heard it was a little beyond that: asked to say something nice about each one’s opponent, Barnes said Johnson is a family man, and Johnson in response said Barnes hates (or similar) America. To which the proper response SHOULD have been “Hey, ‘comrade‘, at least I didn’t go to Moscow on the Fourth of July to suck up to Putin, as YOU did. And what classified info did you give away to him?”

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: I have never eaten Taco Bell, not even once.  But I have the impression that the meat would be like canned dog food, possibly with a few spices, and if I looked in a mirror as I type this, I’m pretty sure that my face would look the same as if I stepped in doggie diarrhea, barefoot.

    Is it like White Castle is for some people?  If you grew up with that gray frozen meat with holes in it, it’s not disgusting?

  73. 73.

    SFAW

    @sab: ​
     
    Sorry to hear about your kitty. Our 18-year-old has a similar problem, she’s lost more than half her weight. But once we started on the correct meds — and were better about getting it in her on-schedule — she stabilized, and she’s really not doing poorly. She sleeps a lot — she is 18, after all — but still tries to go out at least once a day, is relatively alert, etc.
    I’m not a pharmacist, nor a veterinarian, but methimizole (sp?) seems to work well.

  74. 74.

    cmorenc

    Even fairly affluent, progressive folks (like my wife and I)  are feeling stressed about watching the value of our once-very secure retirement accounts melting away, and forced to scale back our once-ambitous notions of what sorts of adventurous things, trips etc we could do in retirement, toward a vision more like simply holding on and modestly staying put.  Point is, if folks like us who are still probably safely ok from falling off from an an economic cliff are feeling anxious and stressed, the pressure and anxiety of folks in less economically secure positions must be through the roof, and the basic American optimism that the future will probably turn out better than the present is in tatters at the moment.  That’s a prime condition for snake-oil political demagogues to take advantage of.

  77. 77.

    sdhays

    @Kay: An enterprising gubernatorial candidate could run on flying in migrant labor and getting Florida to pay for it.

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WaterGirl: ​Believe it or not, I actually like a little Taco Hell every now and again, a Burrito Supreme and hard taco. I prefer Whoppers tho.

    As far as White Castle goes, it is 3 AM and half drunk food of the Gods. Seeing as I don’t go out and get half drunk anymore, it’s been several decades since last I ate a half dozen Sliders.

  80. 80.

    sdhays

    @catclub: I had a colleague in my previous job who literally thought that Taco Bell was the best thing ever. She said she could eat it every day for every meal.

    I don’t hate it, but I haven’t eaten it in years either.

  81. 81.

    brendancalling

    @cmorenc: “the basic American optimism that the future will probably turn out better than the present is in tatters at the moment.”

    Gen Xer here (I hit 52 this coming Friday), and I could tell the future was going to be shit way back when Clinton debated GHWB.

  82. 82.

    RSA

    This is a bold move because, as litigating groups, they risk angering the justices before whom they regularly bring cases.

    This made me laugh/cringe a little.

    “Of course we have an impartial Supreme Court! … as long as they’re not mad at you.”

  84. 84.

    Starfish

    @WaterGirl: In those parts of the country where food options are limited, and people did not believe that vegetarians existed, Taco Bell and the Subway veggie sandwich were basically the two food options that vegetarians had when it came to inexpensive food from chain restaurants.

    Those places seem to be more accommodating of different food needs now, but it was pretty hard when I was growing up in one of them.

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    @brendancalling

    Jollibee’s insistence that their fried chicken tastes best only when dipped into the accompanying gravy kind of serves to lower expectations for how it tastes naked.

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    @Spanky

    It’s the diced fried onions that make White Castle White Castle. The veneer of meat on the bottom bun is almost an afterthought.

  89. 89.

    sab

    I went to the Humane Society thrift store yesterday to donate some stuff, and I came home with a wicker chair, adjustible back and retractible footrest. $20! They said at the register that they want to move furniture same day because they don’t have room for it inside. I thought husband would be furious ( another chair!) but he is sitting in it now.

  90. 90.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    A thousand years ago, I worked at Taco Tico, which was a regional knockoff to Taco Bell. We had a steam table to accept the plastic bags of precooked sauced meat and cans of refried beans. As to any other heat source, we had a microwave with only numbered presets and a hot plate for turning the canned mild sauce into hot sauce utilizing prepared spice bags.

    Oh, and we had an industrial shredder for cheese and iceberg lettuce, and a fuckton of cheap sour cream.

    I used to keep our inventory utilization numbers on the good side by watering down the meat and beans.

    Uniforms were sticky polyester in gross colors.

  92. 92.

    Amir Khalid

    @Spanky:

    Back when I was a reporter, I sat in front of a White Castle marketing guy from America, and listened as he told me why their soggy little things were better than the local-style burgers this guy outside their door was selling from his cart. Mr American Marketing Guy was dead wrong about that, but I’m still proud of myself for keeping a straight face.

  93. 93.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @NotMax:

    The Düsseldorf mustard is a necessary condiment for the chef’s kiss of perfection.

  94. 94.

    sab

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: My stepson worked at a Taco Belll where his new girlfriend hooked him on cocaine because her mom said that was a good way to hook your man. Manager knew about it  and thought it was a good way to retain employees because they needed the job to support their habit.

    I cant even  comment… but I didn’t mind their food and I like their aprons that my drug addled stepson brought home every day

    ETA Stepson survived that phase of his life and now he is a good person with a lovely girlfriend.

  95. 95.

    Cacti

    @brendancalling: Gen Xer here (I hit 52 this coming Friday), and I could tell the future was going to be shit way back when Clinton debated GHWB.

    More than anything, I’d say the broadly unifying experience of Gen X was being born into an America where the best of things was already over. I was born in the rust belt when deindustrialization was in full swing and the empty husks of shuttered factories were a regular part of the landscape.

    And they wondered why our music was dark and gritty.

  96. 96.

    Lyrebird

    @Bugboy: Your reasoning about why RNC would post this is more believable than many.

    I think they would have been more successful to post just a still photo, not the video of him demonstrating that he not only understands more about economics than the reporter probably does and can explain it while eating a ginormous ice cream cone.

  99. 99.

    pat

    @catclub:

    Pablo is a very picky eater and if he doesn’t like the food, he won’t eat it.  He has gone through several kinds of dry food and loses interest when the bag is half gone.  Getting stale?

    Now he is eating Temptations, which are a “treat” but can be fed as a main meal, and one small bag lasts only two days, so maybe it will still taste OK.  We’ll see how long that works.  His long hair makes it difficult to see how thin he is, until you pet him and feel the backbone and hips.

  101. 101.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: My favorite diner food is a Slinger: Eggs, hash browns, sausage/burger, drowning in chilly and sprinkled with onions and cheddar cheese. Dry toast on the side for me. It’s a heart attack on a plate.

  102. 102.

    zhena gogolia

    @sab: It tends to happen with hyperthyroidism even if you have them medicated. I hope Starscream has a good number of years in him.

  104. 104.

    Aziz, light!

    The Repubs got nuthin’ except many millions of Americans who would vote for Adolf Hitler if he had an  R after his name. I don’t know how this ever changes.

  107. 107.

    Alison Rose

    I don’t think the ice cream clips and others are confusing or weird at all–it’s fairly obvious what their point is, which is a very “Nero fiddling while Rome burns” kind of deal. I think it’s very wrong, but it’s no mystery why this is the tactic the right has chosen.

  108. 108.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @sab: It’s like heaven to me. All the diners up in STL have them. Out here it’s more hit and miss. I don’t eat out during these covid days, so if I want one I have to make it. Which I do.

  109. 109.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Nora: They didn’t need the popular vote–they never do. For a variety of structural and malicious reasons, white votes effectively count more in the US so that’s what it pays to play for. That means obscenely bigoted tactics can work even if a solid majority finds them disgusting.

  110. 110.

    sab

    Dobby cat just came into the room batting his fake mouse infused with catnip. He yowls every time he catches one of these mice. Good boy! silly cat.

  111. 111.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: And loads of White people will vote for fear and hate so Republicans have their base.

    Many of the contests are tight so it’s not a forgone conclusion that SCOTUS’ decision re abortion will hurt Republicans.  We will see.

  112. 112.

    Kirk Spencer

    I’m another Taco Bell liker. Used to be lover, but my tastes have shifted a bit. The thing I ask folk to keep in mind is that if they weren’t hitting the taste spot of a lot of people they wouldn’t be in business, and I for one think personal taste is the person’s own d***n business so long as it doesn’t do harm.

    “Oh my retinas” is not harm. On the other hand “oh my god what is that smell” might be.

  113. 113.

    Layer8Problem

    @Alison Rose:  I don’t think they got as much mileage as they thought they would out of Speaker Pelosi’s ice cream stuffed refrigerator.  I agree with David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch Johnson [ :-) ], send a case of their brands of ice cream to all the Democrats.

    And for the record, I miss your emojis.

  115. 115.

    Cacti

    Not sure if this has been covered on the front page, but the State of Alaska has closed the Opilio crab (aka snow crab) commercial fishery in 2023 for the first time ever.

    Annual population surveys by the AK Department of Fish and Game has shown a collapse of 90% in the traditional fisheries since 2018, following 5 years of record high Bering Sea temperatures.

    At present, biologists have hypothesized that it could be a combination of factors, including:  increased predation on young crabs, as Cod are no longer heading south to warmer winter waters; starvation, as warmer water boosts the metabolism of the crab; and/or crab fleeing the traditional fisheries to colder, deeper water.

    Link

  118. 118.

    Dangerman

    @Baud: Sadly, I wasn’t surprised to see the Dodgers lose. They lost Bueller. May and Gonsolin are hurt. I’m not sure Kershaw is 100%. Playoffs are about pitching …

    …and baseball is about timing. 2 of the 4 teams with byes are done. Yankees could make it 3. They might have to work the playoff format a bit.

    Anyway, to the topic; in a sane world (yeah, I know), the Republicans should lose in November. Roe. SS. Medicare. Etc.

    If they do lose, watch out. They’ve been promised impeachments, Hunter Biden investigations, and etc; if they they don’t succeed, they are gonna be even more off their rocker. Kinda scary actually.

  120. 120.

    Layer8Problem

    @NotMax:  Durian-Limburger-hákarl pizza.  You never knew you wanted that, and you still might not.

    And now I find out Greenland shark is a vulnerable species.  Ok, don’t anybody order that.

  121. 121.

    Kirk Spencer

    @NotMax: heh.

    In a certain part of the world, the limburger and onion sandwich was (might still be) a thing. I happened to discover I liked them too, when I spent some time in that area.

    Except it led to one of my favorite but rarely eaten sandwiches – my “guilty pleasure”. I thought I’d mentioned on this site back the day but can’t find. In principle it’s a reuben. Except it’s black rye and limburger and garlic sausage and strong sauerkraut and stronger mustard. And I’ve taken to adding, as an accent, sweetpickle jalapeno slices (aka cowboy candy). I can only eat it when I’m not with my wife, and when there will be a day or more of absence so the air is, well, less pungent.

  123. 123.

    MattF

    An advance— picked up a prescription at my local supermarket and left the cane at home. Still a bit wobbly and I’d really like to go faster.

  128. 128.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    While the slinger as we know it today is undeniably a St. Louis original, its provenance can be traced back to the same gene pool that gave western New York the Garbage Plate, gave heaping mounds of Five-way Cincinnati Chili to the Buckeye State, gave spicy chilaquiles topped with cheese and shredded meat to Mexico, and to Canada, a mass of gravy-soaked potatoes and cheese curds affectionately known as poutine. Each is a member of the same family tree, and each highlights the inherent genius of a simple concept; namely, that the development of delicious delivery systems for copious quantities of filling carbohydrates is a most excellent thing.

    10 Best Slingers in St Louis

    Spent many formative years in St. Louis but never had a slinger.

  129. 129.

    Hamlet of Melnibone

    I just finished some Taco Bell while reading these comments :)

    I eat there a couple times a week.  They have the advantage of serving lunch at 9:00 am, and since I dislike fast food breakfast options, I end up eating there frequently when I get hungry early.

    I worked there in college 30 years ago — the refried beans come dry in bags that they rehydrate, and the meat comes pre-cooked and seasoned in plastic bags that they boil to re-heat.  Not exactly fine dining, but I don’t really have any food safety concerns with them.

  131. 131.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kirk Spencer: That makes it something else in STL. I forget what they call it, I only ordered one once. Decided why have one of them when a Slinger is an option?

  135. 135.

    oatler

    The AV Club’s “The Takeout’ site covers Taco Bell consistently and thoroughly if you want to read impoverished writers describe “mouthfeel” and “umami” in a taco sauce packet article.

  137. 137.

    Kristine

    @NotMax:

    Taco Bell is to food as Muzak is to music.

    I’ve had a mental block against Taco Bell ever since college because whenever someone came down with food poisoning, sure enough they’d eaten at the local Taco Bell. Granted this was the mid/late 70s and I assume food handling has improved since then, but still. Mental block.

  138. 138.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kirk Spencer: ​There’s a tavern up in Dutzow that makes a grilled braunschweiger with swiss cheese and sauerkraut sandwich. I get one every time I pass through.

  141. 141.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The modern GQp must go the way of the NSDAP and the CPSU. Furthermore, their finanical backers, the billionaire parasites, need tumbrel rides. Or a 90% marginal tax rate. Their choice.

  144. 144.

    Geminid

    Because Israeli law prohibits campaigning on the day before elections, that country’s parliamentary election race has entered its final two weeks. Election Day is November1. The Times of  Israel just put up a good article about the election, titled “Will weeks of consistent polling suddenly shift in the campaign’s chaotic last two weeks?”

    Polls keep showing the four party bloc led by Benjamin Netanyahu hovering between 58 and 61 Knesset seats. The difference is crucial; the bloc must reach 61 of 120 MKs for Netanyahu to form a government.

    The anti-Netanyahu 6 party bloc has polled at 55-57 projected MKs, and the non-aligned but very anti-Netanyahu Arab Joint List polls at 4-5 MKs. Mansour Abbas’s Arab party, Ra’am polls at four MKs and is part of the current government.

    These polls have been fairly accurate in recent elections as to the larger blocs, within which the various party totals have varied more or less. One feature the authors discuss is how consistent polling by different outfits has been this year.

  145. 145.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Kirk Spencer: ​
     Here in Tracktown, USA, we’ve been having a smell problem off and on over the last two months, due to the Cedar Creek fire to our ESE near Oakridge. But it’s fully identifiable.

  146. 146.

    James E Powell

    @Dangerman:

    Anyway, to the topic; in a sane world (yeah, I know), the Republicans should lose in November. Roe. SS. Medicare. Etc.

    It’s not popular to say this, but none of those things are moving the needle. Most of the problem is the imbalance in the political media. Compare how every Democrat had to deal with “defund the police” with how almost no one is aware of Rick Scott’s plans & no Republicans really have to defend it or respond to it.

    If ending Roe had the impact people think it does, Laxalt, Johnson, Vance, and Rubio would all be down in the polls. Warnock & Fetterman would not be struggling to stay ahead.

    I think where the issue is an up or down on the ballot, like Kansas, it can win. But when it is one of many issues involved in a senate or congressional race, it falls down the list & isn’t that important. It ranks below gas prices, inflation, immigration, crime, etc. It ranks way below “he’s someone I’d like to have a beer with” & “I don’t like her laugh.”

    I do not know but I would wager that the dullards who determine outcomes in elections do not even know the candidates positions on abortion rights & have not bothered to find out.

  148. 148.

    Soprano2

    @WaterGirl: How can these people be running even with our great candidates in so many races?

    I was listening to the “On The Media” podcast yesterday when I heard a chilling statistic – one in 5 people in the U.S. now believe that all mass shootings are faked false flag operations staged to promote gun control.  The one in five thing drew me up short – that’s 20%! It’s the powerful effect of fear, propoganda, and social media. When you wonder how so many bad candidates can be doing so well, remember that.  Even 10% believing such an obvious untruth would be shocking.

  149. 149.

    Tony G

    @Baud: Hatred and fear are a great party platform!  This has largely been the case at least since Nixon was elected 54 years ago.  Trump (and his imitators) have introduced the innovation by using a bullhorn rather than a dog-whistle for the racism and hatred.

  150. 150.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Sure Lurkalot: ​You’ll have to come back just so you can “pay homage to one another: blissfully winding down a Friday night, laughing as friends barely hold onto worn diner counters, sunglassed and sipping on strong coffee the morning after, returning to St. Louis after time away, or as a last meal before passing the Arch and moving on to other places. The slinger is the humble, everyday story of us, adorned with an unapologetic smattering of yellow mustard and extra jalapeños, if you please.”

    I’ve eaten at most of those diners, tho Eat-Rite is where the purists go, just seedy enough. “Eat-Rite, or don’t eat at all.”

  152. 152.

    Tony G

    @James E Powell: Most men don’t give a damn about the rights of women, in the same way that most white people don’t give a damn about non-white people.  There, I said it.  I wish that this was not true.

  154. 154.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: That’s because there was already severe pain. He’s a Republican president who inherited a shitty economy, so it can happen.

  157. 157.

    WaterGirl

    @Alison Rose: Apparently you cannot pie someone with an emoji.  As far as I know, this has mostly been a problem in principle because most of the people who are pied do not have emojis in their nyms.

    The pie filter also has an issue with say, WaterGIrl and watergirl, so once you pie one of those, the other one no long shows up in the list as available to be pied.

    The next time we pay for changes from the developers, it has been my intention to ask for that issue to be addressed.

  159. 159.

    Citizen Alan

    @Cameron:   No offense, but I honestly don’t want to hear a single word about reforming SCOTUS (or the electoral college for that matter) that requires a constitutional amendment.  That’s just an absurd fantasy.. We have legislative tools right now that would allow for some reforms to both. If we are unwilling or unable to make use of those, we’re certainly not going to get over 2/3 of the States to agree to a constitutional amendment.

  164. 164.

    Doc Sardonic

    Funny story about Taco Bell. In the early ‘90s, when my gallbladder went south and the conventional wisdom among the medical professionals was “men don’t have gall bladder issues, especially those that eat a healthy diet.” It took nearly a year before I got a doctor to do an ultrasound of the gallbladder, and when the ultrasound came back showed a gallbladder so full of stones it was about to rupture did that get fixed. Now, Taco Bell enters the picture. During that entire 10-11 month period of my gallbladder slowly poisoning me, the only things that I could reliably eat without  vomiting within half an hour was boiled chicken, potatoes and Taco Bell.

  166. 166.

    oldgold

    The highly respected and unusually accurate Des Moines Register Poll published this morning has the Iowa Senate race at Grassley 46 – Franken 43, with Franken having the Mo!

  169. 169.

    Bugboy

    @TriassicSands: It goes to that thing were the economy is actually doing pretty damned good, but the voters, when asked, say it’s in the crapper.  And even though they admit that their own economic situation is pretty damned good, they feel like everything else is in the crapper.

    Perception is reality, and all that.

  170. 170.

    Steeplejack

    @catclub:

    ✋ I like Taco Bell once in a while. Part of my program of occasional homeopathic doses of junk food. I’ll be going there next month when they bring back the beloved enchirito for a week or two.

  171. 171.

    sdhays

    @oldgold: That would be a stunning upset. And richly deserved. Any idea what in particular is driving this, supposing it’s not a bad poll?

  172. 172.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Steeplejack: ​
    Speaking of fast-food Mexican, one of the replies to the Biden ice cream tweet was some bozo saying that he’d paid $18 for a burrito at Chipotle the day before, so we’ve got terrible inflation and the economy really sucks.
    I pointed out that he’d just freely chosen to pay $18 for a freakin’ burrito, so he must be doing pretty damn well. Not to mention, Chipotle wouldn’t even have a $18 burrito on its menu if there weren’t plenty of other people with enough cash burning holes in their pockets that they were willing to shell out $18 for a burrito, so the economy must be working out pretty well for a lot of people.​
     

    And I told him this Democrat thanked him for providing such a good example of our prosperity.

  173. 173.

    oldgold

    @sdhays:

    It is not a bad poll. Has been damn accurate for decades. Got 2020 exactly right., unlike most polls.

    The main thing is Grassley’s age. The old fool is 89. And, running a bad campaign. One add has him doing push-ups and running – both verrry badly. Only drawing attention to his age.

    Also, Franken being a retired Admiral and from the heart of ruby red Dutch country, has throw.n a wrench in the GOP’s Iowa political playbook.

    it is damn shame the Democratic powers that be passed on Franken in 2020. He would have trounced Ernst.

  174. 174.

    Steeplejack

    @lowtechcyclist:

    That’s part of the latest fake-news ragegasm going around GQP circles. Some guy on a business show said he paid $28 for lunch at Taco Bell—inflation run amok!—and he got dragged up and down the Internet. Someone even posted a picture of a receipt to show how much stuff you would have to buy to hit $28.

    Same for Chipotle. You can look at the goddamn menu on line and not find an $18 burrito anywhere. But that’s their current “talking point.”

    ETA: Maybe you can run your order up to $18 by piling on the extras—guac, sour cream, etc.—but the most expensive burrito I see is $12-13.

  175. 175.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @OzarkHillbilly: My sister lives in St. Louis as well as adorbs great nephew and niece and a visit there is long overdue. I’m going to ask her if she’s ever had a slinger.

    I guess my closest version here in Colorado with its decent Mexican restaurant scene is huevos rancheros.

  178. 178.

    Geminid

    @oldgold: The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee’s decision in 2020 to back Franken’s competitor chafed a lot of Iowa Democrats and they were very vocal about it, especially after Greenfield(?) lost. The DSCC seems to have stayed more neutral in primaries this year.

  179. 179.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kristine:  I’m miss braunschweiger.   I got addicted to it in New York, and it’s impossible to find.  And I can’t even imagine finding blood sausages down here.

  180. 180.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: That was one of the specs for the new site, and I tested for it before rollout.  BillinGlendale has the two paw prints, and I think he was the only emoji nym at the time.

    But there is something funky about some of the emojis that Alison Rose used, because they would show up as GIANT in some places on the back end, and I do think they were sometimes throwing her into moderation.

    But you are right.  There has been no ruling of any kind about emojis.  People are still free to use them unless it causes some sort of site issue.

  181. 181.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: There is also the “Koch” guy with the rainbow emojis. He’s the one I remember.

    I don’t use the pie filter, but I know it is an important feature for some here. Hopefully the matter can be straightened out before “trolls” start taking advantage.

  182. 182.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid:

    Hopefully the matter can be straightened out before “trolls” start taking advantage.

    If that happened, those people could be asked to remove emojis from their nyms and put on a time-out until they did so

    edit: yes, I had forgotten about the rainbows!

  183. 183.

    prostratedragon

    Oh darn! Now I’m going to have to get some braunschweiger, which I like but haven’t had in maybe a year. I mix my budget paté with small dollops of mustard and mayo, and spread it on toast.

  184. 184.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    “One hopes voters will learn someday.”

    Some will, most will not. Normal humanity.

    Normal humanity effects change and that change takes time.

    Normal humanity doesn’t under stand why something as big and complicated as a government the size of ours can not change with the raising of a hand and taking of an oath. So they get pissed that change hasn’t happened and they hire someone on the other side to effect change. And many of normal humanity have zero idea of how doing that every 4 to 8 yrs doesn’t work, because they get told by the other side how they screwed the pouch when they selected the other side. In this (and many other countries) one side is more for humanity and the other side is far more for their bank accounts. We have to change expectations for both sides about how fast things can be accomplished, why they need to be accomplished and who suffers when that is done by the side that is trying to steal everything not tied down and a lot that is.

    How we do that in a country so divided by goals I have no real, valid idea.

  187. 187.

    SFAW

    @sab: ​
     
    OK, not surprised to hear that. Our girl was down to 5 pounds, maybe lost a little more, but she seems more-or-less OK for now. [She was (almost) literally skin-and-bones until we started giving her methimazole daily. I’m wondering if increasing the dosage will help her gain back some of her weight (she was around nine or 10 or 11 pounds until this started), but I’ll have to ask the vet.]
    Good luck with your good boy.

  188. 188.

    SFAW

    @NotMax: ​
     

    is there a coin-operated sphygmomanometer?

    What would be the point of that? To tell patrons what they already know? “Hey, honey! I just hit 300/180! Woo-hoo!! New record!!!” Better to have a coin-operated AED.

  189. 189.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    Not a fan of slingers, but then I’m not much into breakfast food. There is a local restaurant in St. Louis that makes its own braunschweiger. Its good too!

  190. 190.

    Soprano2

    @Bugboy: NPR news programs do a story every damn day about how bad inflation is, just in case people might forget. Lots of other news organizations do the same, thus people believe everything is bad even if their life is good.

  191. 191.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @pat: It’s expensive but you could try offering him Gerber’s baby food (chicken, turkey, and beef), which is basically pureed meat. I’ve never met a cat or kitten who didn’t adore it. It’s good for weaning kittens and getting sick or elderly cats to eat.  You can also mix it with canned pate wet food to make it more enticing. Or just actually cooking chicken thighs and offering pieces of that.

    For dry food, our cats love Fancy Feast.  We refer to it as “kitty crack” because it obviously isn’t as high quality as Science Diet, but we add it to dried food mixtures, like chocolate chips in trail mix.

  193. 193.

    Tony G

    @Soprano2: The fact that 20% of Americans believe that toxic lie is appalling but, unfortunately, not very surprising.  On most topics, once you get to around 20% of the American population (maybe 20% of any country) you’re looking at some of the most stupid, hateful people on the face of the earth.  The trick, I guess, is to try to avoid having the percentage go up to 30% or 40%.

  194. 194.

    Tony G

    @Soprano2: I was a teenager and young man during the very high inflation of the 1970’s.  That inflation was an annoyance but not a catastrophe, because my father was not laid off from his union job and I was able to be get a not-too-bad job right after college.  Inflation (as long as it’s not Weimer-Germany-style hyperinflation) is an annoyance.  What’s catastrophic is people having no income because they’re laid off from their jobs and can’t easily get another one.  NPR and the rest of the mainstream media should really STFU with the scare-mongering about inflation.

  200. 200.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: It sounds like Iowa Republicans were not that confident in their brand.

    Or maybe the older Grassley is stubborn and prideful about winning one more election.

    I really wonder when I look at pols like Grassley and Mike DeWine, who won’t retire. If I was their age I’d just want to go to Myrtle Beach, walk the beach every morning and then play miniature golf. They’ve got something like thirty courses. Plus 50 pancake houses!

  201. 201.

    Matt

    This is a bold move because, as litigating groups, they risk angering the justices before whom they regularly bring cases.

    One sentence that neatly sums up how fucked we are as a country: it’s simply taken as a given that a wingnut judge would put his thumb on the scale against anybody who tried to rein in his power.

    The only way we can fix the courts in this country is to officially recognize the Federalist Society as the seditious conspiracy it’s always been and liquidate its members and funders.

  202. 202.

    jayne

    @Starfish: When I was in college (late 90s/early aughts), you could get a bean burrito, a soft taco and a drink for less than $3. Even these days, that will probably only run you about $5.

    I think a lot of people underestimate the appeal of cheap, filling food and nigh-unlimited hot sauce to hungry people living off the change at the bottom of their backpacks.

  207. 207.

    Ruckus

    @Kristine:

    I used to eat at Taco Bell every once in a while but haven’t in some time. The only take out I eat now is In and Out Burger. And that is rare. Not how it’s cooked, how often I eat there.

    My fast food no way place is McDs. I got food poisoning there. Twice. In 2 different states. I used to work in pro sports and was on the road, about 8-9 months a year. You eat out a lot that way and usually only have a limited time for lunch. So I got food poisoning, out 3 days with a 104-105 temp and really enjoying life. The second time same symptoms but only out about 2 days. My co-worker ate there at the same time and was fine. I thought that the first time was likely a fluke but the second time 2 weeks later, in a different state made me swear off ever setting foot in a McDs every again. Hunger is far better.

  208. 208.

    LiminalOwl

    @Citizen Alan: A fellow lover of blood sausages! Even in Boston, they’ve become hard to find; Irish groceries were the best bet (and while I like black pudding, it’s Blutwurst I really crave).  Haven’t searched in Western Mass yet.

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