“12 foot skeletons are only for Halloween” pic.twitter.com/JBLfRXqP14
— SPOOKY 1984’s George Whorewell (@EwdatsGROSS) November 16, 2022
A four-day weekend for (many) people is something to anticipate. A day spent celebrating with family and/or loved ones while eating too much is something to… well, officially we all anticipate it, or at least change the topic gently.
We've reached that day where everyone is starting to say "Happy Thanksgiving," meaning "don't fucking bother me next week."
— Brian Tannebaum (@btannebaum) November 17, 2022
Happy 57th birthday to #Björk. pic.twitter.com/uW2SIaRQtT
— Jake 'The '80s Never Ended in My World' Rudh (@JakeRudh) November 21, 2022
“Everything is terrible” is not a defence to endorsing or enabling terrible things, and yet I am seeing it a lot on here in recent days. It’s fascinating to see authoritarian rule being excused and even embraced as the new normal. https://t.co/XEFGXzPSXe
— Musa Okwonga (@Okwonga) November 19, 2022
You will exhaust yourselves if all you do is point out the hypocrisy of the West. That work has value *and* also has its limits. Please spend as much time as you can amplifying the voices of people who are from those autocratic states and are trying to change them for the better.
— Musa Okwonga (@Okwonga) November 19, 2022
This is the correct answer and the way to handle these questions in the future.@jaketapper, you have a legislator on your show – live, in real time. Get information about important legislation or hold their feet to the fire. Ask them about f**king anything other than DC gossip. https://t.co/S1pvY6qwgF
— Schrödinger's Sneetch Belly (@RTodKelly) November 21, 2022
New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the likely incoming House Democratic leader, said that he anticipates his party will be united in a new minority even amid policy disagreements. https://t.co/WyaBQy76J8
— ABC News (@ABC) November 21, 2022
Don’t start none, won’t be none… Rep. Jeffries has learnt well from his predecessor!
… “Well, I have great respect for Rep. [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez and every single member of the House Democratic caucus, from Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to Rep. Josh Gottheimer, my good friend, and all points in between,” Jeffries told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“The thing about us, Jake, is that while we can have some noisy conversations at times about how we can make progress for the American people, what we have seen is that under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn, we have constantly been able to come together, time and time again,” Jeffries added, referring to the outgoing House majority leader and majority whip…
Jeffries, who was first elected in 2012, is currently running unopposed to be leader of the House Democrats after Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn all said last week they wouldn’t seek to reclaim their positions in the conference’s leadership team. (Clyburn is running for the No. 4 spot in the intraparty elections set for Nov. 30.)
In a speech on Thursday, Pelosi, who like her deputies has been in leadership for years, hailed a “new generation.”
Looking to a House GOP majority come January, Jeffries said on CNN that he would be open to working with Republicans but would not hesitate to confront what he labeled as “extremism.”
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy has promised to pursue oversight of the Biden White House while challenging Democrats’ past two years of unified rule. Jeffries told Tapper that while he hadn’t “recently” spoken with McCarthy, “I do have, I think, a much warmer relationship with Steve Scalise,” the minority whip…
Jeffries, for his part, said on CNN: “[I] look forward to working whenever and wherever possible … with the entire House Republican conference and the leadership team to find common ground to get things done for everyday Americans to make progress.”
“But, of course, we will fiercely and vigorously oppose any attempts at Republican overreach and any Republican extremism,” he said. “And I’m hopeful that the Republican leadership will take lessons away from the rejection of extremism by the American people all across the land, and not double- and triple-down on it in the next Congress.”
IIRC, Scalise has been maneuvering to shiv McCarthy at the first opportunity. Were I McCarthy, I’d take Jeffries’ comment as a reminder to watch my back as closely as Kevin watches his own Fox News appearances!
japa21
Good morning
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
rikyrah
@japa21:
Morning 🤗
Mousebumples
Happy Monday. We’re taking Wednesday as a PTO day in this house for a 5 day weekend.
Is it Wednesday yet? 😅
Baud
@rikyrah:
@japa21:
Good morning.
MazeDancer
Last week for PostCards to help re-elecr Senator Warnock.
PostCards have been proven to increase GOTV. And GOTV is what wins a runoff.
Get addresses and download free PostCard designs at PostCardPatriots.com. Or just click my nym.
Chief Oshkosh
Actually, having the Jeffries saying kind words about him probably just sunk any chances Scalise had at toppling McCarthy…which may be Jeffries stirring the majority pot just enough to keep a whiff of taint wafting off that brew of toxic human-like reptiles.
Chief Oshkosh
@Chief Oshkosh: Don’t know where that “the” came from before “Jeffries”. Need second cup of coffee…
Starfish
Saying kind words about Scalise tells me “Hey, looks like we are not doing anything to reign in stochastic terrorism with gun control.”
Scalise got shot at a Congressional sporting event and still supports NRA’s nonsense.
lowtechcyclist
Looks like Jeffries is off to a good start.
Suzanne
If I might suggest, any time we would be inclined to refer to him as “Kevin”, it should be styled as “my Kevin”.
We should never forget to whom Kevin belongs.
Baud
I’m rooting for no drama.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
The Jeffinator!
WaterGirl
@MazeDancer: Whats the last day to get postcards in the mail for Postcard Patriots?
Phylllis
I’m off for the entire week; in the past we’ve been in school for Monday and Tuesday. Had to remind myself about five times yesterday that I did not have to go to work today.
Kay
Chris Rufo, anti-woke influencer hailed (and promoted) by the NYTimes as The Next Big Thing declared victory for Republicans running against wokeness right after the election but it’s mostly bullshit. They won on it in far Right areas where they would have won anyway without it and it drives away suburbanites.
I’m wondering what the next panic will be now that anti-wokeness is now longer profitable/fashionable. I suppose “crime panic” is endlessly recylable.
Matt McIrvin
Musa Okwonga’s explanation reminds me of my objection to a remark I saw someone make back on 90’s Usenet, that he thought getting offended on behalf of other people was always just pointless virtue signaling (or whatever phrase they used back in those days) and worth ignoring. It took me a long time to realize that what he was missing was that those other people might not have the power to speak for themselves safely.
MazeDancer
@WaterGirl: This Friday is last day to mail PostCards.
If you know you will make the Saturday ship out time at your PO, you can get your T-day houseguests writing on Friday.
If you live in GA, you can push it til Monday.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
It has it’s downsides. I do think victimhood appropriation is a thing. But the solution isn’t to ignore bad things happening to other people.
Starfish
@Kay: This happened in numerous places. Apparently, parents like social-emotional learning and do not like discussions of fake kitty litter scandals. There was even some conservative school board somewhere that opposes bankrupting public schools through vouchers.
Kay
Lol. The electorate is apparently “more liberal” than it was in …May of 2022. Excuses, excuses.
The dumb CRT/wokeness panic all these clowns promoted and insisted was profound and world-changing burned out because panics/fads always do. It lasted 24 months. Two election cycles. They should be happy they got two cycles out of it. But I suppose they’ll all need a new grift to keep Substack operating.
Baud
@Kay:
Magnetism. How do they work???!!!
Gin & Tonic
@Matt McIrvin:
Which voices will become much, much harder to hear as Elmu destroys Twitter.
Kay
@Starfish:
The basi problem for comservatives is that they have never been able to admit to themselves that people actually like public education.
The polling of public school parents didn’t even budge during the pandemic. Public schools as a system are really resilient, politically. Conservatives hit them with everything they have every cycle and they always rebound.
Think how desperate the Rufo attack was – public school teachers are pedophiles – still- polling of public school parents didn’t budge. There is no worse thing you can say about a group of people. Nothing they say after this will be as bad. They’re like Social Security and Medicare- Republicans have never been able to get Americans to abandon them.
narya
I had originally thought I’d take off one day this week, but instead I have three days almost solid with meetings, and a big proposal through which to guide my team. I’m having the New Person wrangle it, and it’ll take some doing, just because it takes time to learn how to pick people’s brains, get them to imagine a new thing, and then tell the story, in words and in the budget, in a way that might get funded. I can do it like breathing, but I’ve been doing this for 30 years or so. It’s fascinating, in a way, because now, on the cusp of retirement, I’ve figured out that I really am pretty skilled at it, and I’m trying to teach others how to do it.
Also: spectacular sunrise this morning
ETA: I really do not want to see anyone or go anywhere for Thanksgiving.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: There has been a flurry of attacks on Jeffries from elements of the “left.” The Medhi Hasan/Stancil/Beutler axis has been especially harsh; Stancil did everything but call Jeffries “boy.” And a writer for the American Prospect was very critical a few days before Pelosi announced her plans, when the he considered the prospect of Jeffries as successor.
This was to be expected. A portion of the “progressive” movement has had it in for Jeffries ever since he beat Rep. Barbara Lee in the election for Caucus Chairman, in November 2018. I have great respect for Ms. Lee, but I thought that House members made the right choice. Some people, though have held a grudge agaiinst Jeffries ever since.
To them, Jeffries represents the Democratic “Establishment” that in their eyes has made Democrats “a pathetic, loser party,” as Stancil put it the weekend before the midterms. So they try to erase Jeffries’ merits, and attribute his rise to sinister factors, not his talent and hard work.
But this is hardly the first time that has been done to a Black person, politician or otherwise, in this country.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: What a coincidence.
narya
@Geminid: Oh FFS. I like what I’ve seen of him. And I don’t expect perfection, especially right out of the gate. I would also bet money that he’s been talking to Nancy about how to do it.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
If any of you haven’t seen it, The Menu is fantastic. It’s bitingly sharp about foodie culture, celebrity and wealth. Ralph Fiennes is incredible, and Anya Taylor-Joy is a delight.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: The BS left is as misogynist, racist and xenophobic as the MAGA right. The horseshoe is a circle. Color me unsurprised
ETA: For those who want to @ me for this go and google the Vt senator’s appearances on Lou Dobbs shows and his treatment of minorities on his staff.
Soprano2
I made the mistake of reading some comments on a story about the Colorado Springs nightclub shooting. Many variations of “gay people were totally fine and not harassed at all until they started shoving their lifestyle down our throats” and “what do they expect when they promote drag shows to children?”. Just like what I heard from my mother many years ago, “I don’t have a problem with gay people existing I just wish they’d go back in the closet so I didn’t have to see them all the time”. Lots of people feel so much disgust for gay people that they perceive “seeing openly gay people on TV and at the mall” as “shoving their lifestyle down my throat” and “making me accept their lifestyle”. It’s enraging that some people feel so entitled to police how everyone else lives. One good thing I saw on that thread was a lot of pushback about how many children have been sexually abused in churches and by Boy Scout leaders.
Baud
@Soprano2:
Reminds me of the argument of how women need to dress a certain way in order not to tempt men.
twbrandt (formerly tom)
I loved Rep. Jeffries response to the question about Musk and Trump: pause for a couple of beats like he can’t believe he was asked such a stupid question.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Oh, as seen on the Internet (I’m no longer linking Twitter):
Starfish
@Kay: Even liberal Indiana did not buy into the wokeness nonsense.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Jeffries has a tough act to follow. But then, the people pre-criticizing him are the same people who criticized Pelosi.
H.E.Wolf
@WaterGirl: http://PostcardsToVoters.org – the option for writers who prefer a standardized message – is also still going like gangbusters. They too write only to Democrats.
PTV uses a 3-day “window”, counting from the day addresses are assigned, to indicate when postcards need to be in the mail.
Sign-up is easy, and writers can choose as few as 4 addresses, plus 1 “sign-up” card… so there’s still time to talk friends and family into writing a handful of postcards. :)
Text JOIN to Abby The Address Bot at 484-275-2229
or email: [email protected]
NOTE: As the Dec. 6 runoff gets closer, PTV will either shorten the 3-day window to write assigned addresses, or will stop assigning addresses for writers outside GA/adjoining states.
This Tuesday evening, Nov. 22, 8 PM blog time, jackal writers of PostCardPatriots and Postcards To Voters (and who knows, maybe some other groups!) will join forces to GOTV. Music playlist-ers are also welcome!
Soprano2
Can I just say that I’m so tired of the new practice of too many businesses to not actually answer their phone, but instead to expect everyone to leave a message so they can call you back at their convenience? We had a cook at the pub who died of an overdose; it’s so sad, her uncle is our head cook and he got her a job and did everything he could to guide her and keep her out of trouble, but unfortunately addicts have agency and you can’t prevent them from using if they really want to. Anyway, her service is at an event center tonight. I haven’t been able to send flowers before now; I want to talk to the event center to make sure I can send flowers there, but instead of a person I just got a damn answering machine! AAAaarrrrggghhhh……….I’ve found that sometimes people don’t call you back for a couple of days when you leave a message, what use is that to me? Sometimes the older ways were better, businesses should answer their damn phone when you call them!
Soprano2
@twbrandt (formerly tom): Also, he did actually answer the question; he said he didn’t have an opinion about it!
Ken
Quantum mechanical spin and unpaired electrons.
(Not that I understand it, but physicists are fairly confident about this, despite what some youtube and tiktok channels would have you think.)
Dorothy A. Winsor
Question for CA people: I’ve read that there’s a plan for Dianne Feinstein to resign and for Adam Schiff to take her seat in the Senate. How would such a resignation/replacement work in CA? Would there have to be a special election or can Newsome appoint Schiff (and presumably Schiff’s replacement in the House)?
Geminid
@Kay: Glenn Youngkin’s election has generated more than its share of bad takes. Republicans may have mistakenly thought that Youngkin made CRT a winning issue in his campaign. Actually, there was little evidence that CRT had much of an impact on voting, although other public education issues related to the pandemic seem likely to have been impactful.
However, I think Youngkin made clever tactical use of the CRT issue as a base motivator. Virginia Republicans typically pound the issues of abortion and gun rights in order to to motivate their base. But these issues generate an equal or greater reaction from the Democratic base.
Youngkin knew he had to keep the abortion and gun issues in the background. By dangling the bright, shiny object of CRT he was able to excite the radicals anyway.
Starfish
@Soprano2: Given the number of phone calls that are fake now, it is a surprise that anyone answers the phone anymore. My husband asked if I had noticed that the fake car warrantee scams have decreased. I had not, but it seems to be the case.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Fuck those idiots. Anyone on the left who can’t see that the GOP is a much greater threat than whatever their notion of an ‘Establishment Democrat’ is, needs their fucking heads examined.
They can save their grudges for some unlikely future where the authoritarians and outright fascists on the right have ceased to be a threat to our democracy, not to mention the well-being of LGBTQ persons, Jews, and any other group they’d like to marginalize and persecute.
Fortunately, they don’t seem to have had more than a trivial amount of influence on the 2022 elections. And may that lack of influence continue well into the future.
coin operated
@Soprano2:
My go-to is always “I’d rather leave my grandkids with a drag queen than a priest.” It’s been pretty effective, so far…
<edited…spelling>
Betty Cracker
Maybe Jeffries cited a “warmer” relationship with Scalise to sandbag Scalise. If I were Jeffries, I’d rather have a thoroughly compromised idiot like McCarthy as chief of the opposition.
gvg
@Soprano2: I’d like the credit card companies to stop shoving their offers down my throat with endless paper mail and emails…….for decades now, does that count? I have no hope though.
Soprano2
@Starfish: I understand why individuals don’t answer their phone if they don’t know who’s calling, but a business should at least make an effort to answer the phone. Too many of them now expect you to leave a message so they can return the call at a time that’s convenient for them, not for you. I’m encountering this more and more these days.
Starfish
@Soprano2: Once the medical clinics started having impossible phone trees all the time, it was all down hill from there.
Medical practices have taken up the worst behavior of cable companies with automated systems telling you that your call is important to them. If ANYONE should have people answering phones in an emergency, it should be doctors, and yet…
Baud
@Ken:
How do they work???!!!
Raven
Heading to the beach!
Geminid
@narya: I expect that Speaker Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries have talked a lot over the ten years since Jeffries took his House seat in 2012, and not just since he became Caucus Chairman. One thing that struck me when Jeffries won that position was that he had been around only three terms. His peers and leadership must have seen a lot they liked.
I recounted the criticism of Jeffries not so much because I thought it important. It will be continual, though, so I wanted to give people a heads up that it has started. Also, it illustrates a more general proposition, that some people cannot be pleased because they will not be pleased.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Starfish:
My biggest gripe is scratchily irritating hold music. I get that it’s a ploy to make you abandon a call, but damn.
Have a touch of mercy.
Soprano2
@Starfish: I agree, they are horrible now. Plus every 15 seconds or so they interrupt to tell you how to do stuff on their Web site, making it abundantly clear that they don’t want to talk to you on the phone. If I could take care of it online, dammit, I would be doing that! I ended up leaving a message. I want to make sure there is someone there to take deliveries before I order flowers. This is really pissing me off. Sometimes I leave messages with businesses and they NEVER call back!
Ken
Infinite numbers of impossibly tiny angels pushing everything around in obedience to the will of God.
Betty Cracker
The Colorado Springs shooter is the grandson of a deranged MAGA dope from California who served in the state assembly. There’s always been a direct line between GOP scaremongering and hate crimes for anyone who assesses it honestly.
Good for AOC for calling them out, but the GOP already knows this. It’s normies need to connect the fucking dots and stop giving the haters power.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: one benefit of the demise of twitter would be that idiot Stancil losing a platform. It was kind of funny, given Brian Beutler’s descent into Stancilism, and his employment by the O’Bros outfit, to hear Dan Pfeiffer go on a rant that was essentially a long subtweet of Stancil, and Jon Favreau got into an open twitter spat with him in the run-up to the midterms
different-church-lady
Everything is less terrible than it was, say, three weeks ago, but more terrible than it was, say, 25 years ago.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Given the prominence of the World Cup in the majority of the world, this seems like something of a big Biden deal
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin: Really rather depends on (a) how you’re doing it and (b) what the other people think about it, no?
Eunicecycle
@Soprano2: have you talked to the florist? Maybe they have experience at the venue.
CaseyL
Good morning!
I’m up at 6:30 AM even though I’ve taken the whole week off, because my body is used to getting up at 6:30 AM on workdays, so there. My experience with these matters is, it’ll take a couple days for me to be able to sleep in.
Other than a daytrip to my friends’ house at the shore on Thanksgiving Day, I have no concrete plans. Depending on the weather, it would be good to get out for some nice long walks. We shall see. There are also some little projects around the house I can try to finish.
frosty
@Kay: Republicans we’re in front of my polling place handing out flyers for next year’s school board election. One of them said something like “Here our our candidates to get parental control of the School Board”. I just said it would be a huge mistake and kept walking. He didn’t like that.
Now I’m worried that I’ll have to move up to organizing my borough instead of just being a reluctant canvasser. Your comment is a bit of a relief but nevertheless I’m going to contact people.
The Moar You Know
Boycotting this year. Can’t handle family at the moment.
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: I hear you! Very sorry about the young lady.
Soprano2
@Eunicecycle: No, not yet. If I don’t get a call back by 10 o’clock, I’m going to call the florist and see what they recommend. I’ve been so frustrated by this whole thing – there has never been a death notice published for her, I have no idea what funeral home they used, and since it’s not even being held at a funeral home that might not have been useful anyway. I hated to ask our head cook anything much, when we gave him a sympathy card and talked to him a little bit he started crying. He feels so bad and is beating himself up about it even though there was nothing he could have done to prevent it. If addicts want to use, sadly they’ll find a way.
Paul in KY
@Raven: Have fun!
UncleEbeneezer
Cameron
@Starfish: I’ve received mail recently that my car warranty is about to expire and that I need to take immediate action. Only problem is, I don’t now and never have owned a car.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Some people are protective of Will Stancil. I feel concerned for him as a human. I don’t think Stancil is a bad person, and I think he has a decent intellect. He probably does good work in the metropolitan policy field.
Stancil seems addicted to Twitter, though, and to his role as left-liberal Democratic contrarian. The reinforcement he gets from his more successful peers, and from a following of dirtbag lefties whose desire to “improve” the Democratic Party is not as sincere as his, keeps Stancil putting up 8 to 12 grumpy tweets a day. And even though he has half his adult life ahead of him, Stancil is already sounding like a bitter old man.
Paul in KY
@frosty: You are a polite person. I just would have said ‘fuck off’.
James E Powell
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
If Feinstein resigns, Governor Newsom will appoint a successor. That person will be on the ballot to serve out the remaining term at the next election, the for re-election when the seat comes up.
That’s what happened this year as Newsom appointed Alex Padilla to serve the remainder of Kamala Harris’s term. He was on the ballot twice this time.
James E Powell
@Betty Cracker:
It would be nice if the political press would acknowledge this & report on Republican promotion of hatred & bigotry in a straightforward manner.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Just last week on a blog called Balloon Juice I read that House seats are never appointed. There must be a special election.
Hopefully someone else can confirm that.
ian
@Starfish: Don’t you think that is a little uncharitable of a take? Jeffries said nice things about Scalise, therefore he (Jefferies) won’t support gun control?
The Dems are in the minority. The upcoming house simply will not pass certain things. Gun control is going to be among the things that will not be touched. This is because 99% of Republicans are unreasonable assholes on the issue, not because Jeffries said nice things about Scalise.
Scout211
@Starfish: In July, the FCC finally cracked down on the phone services for allowing the robocall scam. Link
The calls stopped immediately.
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: WTF?
The Moar You Know
@Soprano2: Most businesses can’t afford a full-time person just to pick up every single call that comes through when 99.5% of them are telemarketers.
My work phone is useless for incoming calls. Yes, I have caller ID, so I can pick up calls from people I already know, but if a new customer is calling in – you’re leaving a message. Which will get listened to the next morning and IF you’re not a crackpot or a telemarketer, we will call you back.
The telemarketing industry has burned the phone industry to the ground. I find it odd that very few people seem to care about that.
If it were not a contractual requirement for most of our business I’d get rid of the phone system here entirely.
different-church-lady
@UncleEbeneezer: Then we need to go ahead and HURT THE FUCK out of recruitment. 😡
Baud
@frosty:
It’s good that they tell you who not to vote for.
Eunicecycle
@Soprano2: yes that’s a tough situation. Of course he is not responsible in any way but his feelings are understandable.
smedley the uncertain
@Soprano2: My Doctors office. Has gotten worse since UPMC took over the practice. UPMC, money first…
@Starfish: Medicare/medicaid scams are up here. 3 or 4 a day now.
The Moar You Know
@Scout211: on what planet? I still get them all the time. Less than before, but stopped? Not hardly.
frosty
@Raven: Have fun! The beach … hard for me to imagine that with a high of 33 yesterday. Going up to 40 today. Leaf raking weather!
Another Scott
@WaterGirl:
You are correct:
Senators can be appointed, but not House members.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
Covie (@covie_93) tweeted at 6:35 AM on Mon, Nov 21, 2022:
kari lake caused this.
Top election official in Maricopa County moved to undisclosed location after death threats. https://t.co/qG2E6ieOxt
(https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1594670801357348864?t=qZeXJgzJpABoSSpncyeaEA&s=03)
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: The answer involves math. Are you ready?
Eunicecycle
@frosty: that reminds me of encountering a guy getting signatures for petition I felt strongly against. I told him in no uncertain terms why the petition was idiotic. It was at a community event where he was wandering around, and later he started to approach me again. Then he turned pale and quickly went another direction!
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) tweeted at 6:19 AM on Mon, Nov 21, 2022:
Multiple Republican counties in AZ appear to be answering Steve Bannon’s call to refuse to certify their election results. Cochise has voted to delay, with Gila and Yavapai reportedly about to do the same. https://t.co/kROm3jwRY8
(https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1594666850058747905?t=e5R9ASkdFxzcRX9sWXznjA&s=03)
Scout211
@The Moar You Know: Oh, sorry. I guess I was using our experience.
We got the car warrantee calls relentlessly on our landline and cell phones (we ditched the landline last year for that very reason). The robocalls stopped immediately for us after July. Maybe our cell provider complied with the order and some have not?
rikyrah
Lindy Li (@lindyli) tweeted at 8:11 PM on Sun, Nov 20, 2022:
A bigot with a gun killed gay people in Colorado Springs & Orlando
A bigot with a gun killed Black people in Buffalo
A bigot with a gun killed Jewish people at Tree of Life
A bigot with a gun killed Asian women in Atlanta
The GOP has empowered racists to commit mass murder
(https://twitter.com/lindyli/status/1594513759011147776?t=UgJB0STI4uRs1CkCHV5vYQ&s=03)
rikyrah
chris evans (@notcapnamerica) tweeted at 10:36 PM on Sun, Nov 20, 2022:
Very weird and unexpected how the two most powerful Black politicians in the nation are being targeted by white progressives. Who could have seen this coming. https://t.co/IEeT1TWEaO
(https://twitter.com/notcapnamerica/status/1594550308826382337?t=EOKOFNb2rwS4J3cr3dFPEA&s=03)
rikyrah
Sons of Killmonger & Disciple of Dark Brandon (@2Strong2Silence) tweeted at 9:41 PM on Sun, Nov 20, 2022:
So White Christian men & women have used rhetoric that has allowed the following to be attacked: Black Churches, Gay Bars & Nightclubs, Abortion clinics, Schools.. question who protects us from you?
(https://twitter.com/2Strong2Silence/status/1594536329324421120?t=pYZzMO0RS5kzHa2oeow7sA&s=03)
rikyrah
Renée Graham (@reneeygraham) tweeted at 9:21 AM on Sun, Nov 20, 2022:
VP Kamala Harris focused on abortion and helped Democrats hold onto the Senate in the midterms. She deserves credit — and respect. My latest @GlobeOpinion column.
https://t.co/KiMDyRHVir
(https://twitter.com/reneeygraham/status/1594350217645940736?t=W4fJR7d3QWB5KCcE2SxDKw&s=03)
JPL
@Gin & Tonic: Musk doesn’t understand that the autocrats invested not only to destroy free speech, but to hurt his reputation so Tesla sales tank. Oil is king!
Jackie
@Soprano2: Many times I’ve left the message, “Never mind, I’ll call around and use the business that answers their phone.” Because of caller ID, it’s amazing how many actually call me back within minutes!
rikyrah
Jane Bear Votes (@janedare) tweeted at 8:56 PM on Sun, Nov 20, 2022:
#PostcardsToVoters ready for the mail, to GA voters for @SenatorWarnock. If you want to write with us, simply text JOIN to 484-275-2229 and start immediately! It is the “write” thing to do! https://t.co/wsHsvE5EIz
(https://twitter.com/janedare/status/1594525154960625664?t=ZGB0ktttzzqCZFBk4ASykw&s=03)
Jesse
Sometimes I feel that people have lost their basic sense of language. WTF are people even saying when they say that the West is “hypocritical” about western values? It’s entirely legitimate to criticize beliefs, practices, and norms that, in the eyes of a typical western person, are in serious conflict with western values. I’m not talking about stuff like driving on the left of the road vs. the right, or reasonable variation within the overall scope of western values (e.g., different takes on the separation of church & state in the US vs. in Europe). Such criticism isn’t the same as bigotry, mere prejudice, or a kneejerk “it’s different so I don’t like it”
ETA Curiously, I’ve actually grown up in my thinking about these issues. In my 20s, I think I would have been right there with those angry about “western hypocrisy”. But I’ve grown up and come to realize that it’s important to understand western values, to reflect on them, and to consider them (or at least, some of them) universal.
zhena gogolia
@Jackie: Good idea! But I guess it wouldn’t work in this case, because she’s trying to get an answer from a particular venue where a memorial service is to be held.
rikyrah
I have gone out of my way to not view the murder video of Ms. Robinson.
But, I am pleased to hear that the United States is not going to fight extradition to Mexico for her murderers.
When I think about how they lured that poor girl to another country, murdered her, and then left her body there like garbage, I become enraged.
I don’t wanna hear a muthaphuckin’ word from any of the murderers’ families if they are sentenced to Mexican prison. Not one word.
They took her out of the country deliberately. But, they didn’t think this through. Those resorts can’t have it on their record that they let a murder happen -unresolved. They can’t put any blemish on those tourist dollars.
I dare say that Social Media’s interest and amplification of this murder and spotlight on the resort, is what has made Mexican law enforcement stand up and take notice.
Someone has run to tell all, because we all know…first one gets the breaks, and the rest will be in jail for far longer.
Jesse
If there’s anything “hypocritical” about the west that’s getting exposed thanks to the 2022 WC in Qatar, it’s western big business showing that they’re happy to do business as long as it makes big bank. If you thought, say, Budweiser is an American brand and sort of exports American values, think again. All they want is to get paid for their beer. The fact that they’re an American company is beside the point.
schrodingers_cat
@Jesse: I take your point but the west has had a different set of values for itself and for everyone else.
Case in point, the excuses for Europe’s colonial misadventures of 300 plus years. WWII changed that dynamic not the goodness of hearts or adherence to any values.
Geminid
I have a light work schedule this week, and I have the day off. Not so Joe Biden, according to Politico Playbook. Their Biden schedule:
Vice President Harris is in the Philipines, and has finished her day’s work. According to the Playbook item:
Soprano2
@The Moar You Know: At least you return calls. I’ve had some businesses I left messages with never even return my call. I sure hope your message doesn’t tell people you think their call is important! Trust me, if I could get an answer to my question any other way I would, but I can’t. I needed AT&T the other day; I finally started just pounding the “0” key over and over again until their robot got confused enough to transfer me. A company like AT&T can definitely afford to answer incoming phone calls, yet they choose to try not to. It’s infuriating to customers who need help.
Jesse
@schrodingers_cat: What excuses are being given for colonialism? I can’t think of anyone I know who thinks that is OK today, nor that it was OK at the time. I’ll grant that, say, 100 years ago, there were more who genuinely thought that, and definitely more 200 years ago. But now?
Soprano2
@rikyrah: Is that the case where the other people tried to say it was an accident? I didn’t watch it either, but it sounds horrific. Good for the U.S. to not fight extradition.
Soprano2
Speaking of robocalls, does anyone else get calls about Medicare? I’m not even eligible for Medicare yet, but a spambot keeps calling me about my “possible eligibility” for it. Every time they call I block that number.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: So very sad for that poor girl. Also allegedly done by ‘friends’. If guilty, hope they get the book thrown at them, life in Mexican jail, etc.
Lady WereBear
@Soprano2: Forty years of Republican smash and grab in business culture.
Paul in KY
@Jesse: I think Qatar are the real assholes here. All these fans bought expensive tics and are staying in expensive places and were assured they would be able to drink one while in the stadiums.
Just a classless and unhospitable act to pull the rug from them in that manner.
They will be the last Arab Moslem nation to ever host one, IMO.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: All that ‘goodness of heart’ stuff was BS and they knew it. People who believed that were a bit naïve, IMO.
Read ‘The Age of Empire’ by Mr. Hobsbawm for a unsparing view of what happened back then.
Lady WereBear
I put together a cool little presentation for my fans to help them join Mastodon. If it helps someone here, great:
Way of Cats is on Mastodon, and here is what she learned to make it easy
Come on my fellow Jackals!
@Way of [email protected]
Lady WereBear
What is the ethics of continuing to use Twitter, for those of us who make a living via social media?
I have been able to choose Amazon over Wal-Mart, and haven’t done anything more than accompany friends since my small town successfully fought one off.
That’s one of the places where I self publish, and if I commerce too severely I will have to live in the woods like the famous Adirondack hermits.
But at the same time, I checked my traffic sources. I’m not getting enough traffic from Twitter for that to be a consideration. Plenty of engagement, which can show up in other ways, perhaps, but not enough to dent me too much.
That’s what I mean. I calculated my ethics, I admit it.
Not going back, but if I got a good chunk taken off it would definitely impact Mr WayofCats’ well-being. Not to mention the cats who are serious dependents. (They can’t do warehouse work any more.)
We all have hostages to fortune :)
UncleEbeneezer
Joyce White Vance has a good newsletter that is optimistic and debunks some of the main worries that detractor’s have about the appointing of a Special Counsel. Note: • WORRIES/TALKING POINTS in all-caps, are my words, everything else are hers:
• THIS WILL SLOW EVERYTHING DOWN-
“This is another place where the new special counsel investigation is different from the one Mueller had to stand up. In Mueller’s case, he was hired just eight days after Trump fired his FBI Director, Jim Comey, after asking for his loyalty and being rejected. Mueller had to start a new investigation and hire prosecutors and agents while opening his office. Smith inherits investigations that have been ongoing for at least a year, with a dedicated team of prosecutors and agents he can shift over. And he will be able to call on the advice of respected professionals in DOJ’s National Security Division, who, while not permitted to make day-to-day supervisory decisions, will be able to supplement the team’s experience in national security matters.
Smith has committed to hit the ground running at a sprint, and he has the capacity to act quickly. Garland commented that he was “confident that this appointment will not slow the completion of these investigations” when he made his announcement. This is something I’ll be watching carefully in the early days as Smith’s office gets to work. It won’t be the first time Smith joins an ongoing trial team—he did that with the Kosovo war crimes tribunal in the Hague, where he has worked most recently, coming on board a couple of years into the investigation and before any charges had been filed. There are now over 100 charges.”
• THIS IS JUST GARLAND BEING A COWARD!-
“Appointing a special counsel doesn’t mean that the Attorney General is recused. He will still have the ultimate authority for deciding whether to prosecute Trump or not. If Smith resolves to indict, he must share that decision with Garland, who could interfere if he believed it was not warranted, although he would have to share that move with Congress. So Garland is not separating himself from the ultimate responsibility for these matters by appointing a special counsel. Instead, he’s interposing someone who is not a political appointee in the Biden administration between himself and the day-to-day supervisory decisions that must be made in an investigation, things like what leads to pursue and what witnesses to summon to grand jury. While nothing will persuade Trump and his people that the investigation is meritorious and being conducted appropriately, appointing a special counsel means that career people will do their work and report to someone who is not a political appointee. It’s both productive for the investigation and the right thing to do.”
• GARLAND JUST WANTS TO SLOW-WALK/QUIETLY-KILL INVESTIGATION/PROTECT TRUMP!
“Garland likely didn’t appoint a special counsel just to zero out the investigation. There would be no need to do that, no appearance of a conflict if Garland declined to prosecute. While a preliminary decision regarding whether and who to indict now rests in the hands of special counsel Smith, it seems as unlikely that he left his position in the Hague to slow-walk this investigation to death as it does that former SDNY prosecutors who’ve recently joined the Mar-a-Lago team left their tidy lives behind to decline to prosecute the former president if there was a case to be made. The signs are, DOJ is building a trial team, which means Garland believes there is likely sufficient evidence to merit prosecuting Trump.”
Anyway
@schrodingers_cat:
How does this square with Rep Pramila Jaypal’s role as leader of the Progressive wing? What is their attitude towards her? (I don’t follow the lefty bros as deeply as some of our posters )
Paul in KY
@Lady WereBear: If it is good for you and your blog to continue to use Twitter, then use it.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Baud: Richard Feynman explains why he can’t explain why magnets work to a reporter.
Paul in KY
@UncleEbeneezer: Anyone who came up with that third bullet point has been smoking the bad crack.
Soprano2
I also want to enter a counterpoint to the idea that no one can answer their phone anymore because of telemarketers. Here at the city, our office still answers incoming phone calls 5 days a week during the day. We get very few telemarketers, and you can immediately hang up on those. The vast majority of calls are people calling asking for service of some kind. So it’s certainly possible for a business to answer their damn phone if they aren’t a one- or two-person operation!
schrodingers_cat
@Paul in KY: We are civilizing the heathens was for domestic consumption. And it was eaten with a spoon.
@Jesse: Vestiges of colonialism double standard is alive and well. Do you think Union Carbide could have gotten away with poisoning people in the US like it did in Bhopal.
Talking about human rights and actual behaving like all human beings are equal are two different things.
And I agree with both of you that Qatar sucks.
Paul in KY
@Anyway: I do not think the ‘BS Left’ (not my formulation) is as bad as ‘MAGA Dickwad Right Scumbag Losers’ (my formulation).
Little hyperbole there by Ms. Cat, IMO.
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: Never mind, Another Scott explained it better.
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: Mr. Hobsbawm says it was done mostly as ‘bread & circuses’ for the newly democratized masses that the elites were trying to divert from the masses using their real power at ballot box to effect real change in these reactionary European (plus US) powers.
Lady WereBear
@Paul in KY: Activist organizations will continue to use it in this time of flux. I was fine until Trump. I can send a message without it hurting too much.
Besides, I like Mastodon better. But I have no qualm with people continuing to use Twitter. We all have different roles to play.
I feel the tides are changing and Twitter’s quality would continue to deteriorate for my niche there. Animal shelters and those who follow them apparently can get singled out for abuse.
I left a pinned tweet as a forwarding address for anyone who needs a better place.
And yes, the first person I worried about wasn’t me… it was our own Anne Laurie!
Geminid
@Anyway: I think the “progressive” wing of the party covers a lot of ground. Different outside groups like the Justice Democrats (and the closely aligned Brand New Congress) want people to see them and “the Squad” as representative of the progressive wing.
But there are 95+ members of the Progressive Caucus, and Caucus Democrats like Ruben Gallego, Joe Neguse, Marcy Kaptur and Veronica Escobar are as representative of this wing as any “Squad” member. Even more so, I think.
And like I’ve said before, the differences between maybe 90% of the Progressive Caucus members and their colleagues in the New Democrat and Blue Dog Caucuses are greatly exagerated by their respective fans in the media, and among some of the rank and file.
karen marie
While I understand it’s much easier to post content by simply posting tweets, I hope it is retired.
I wanted to watch the Jeffries video but it took me to twitter. After watching the video, I took the opportunity while there of deleting my account.
Pointing and laughing is fun, but I am no longer willing to waste my time with that. Maintaining an account is effectively an endorsement and encouragement of assholes. Using the site as a source of firsthand material, doubly so.
Paul in KY
@Lady WereBear: Just best wishes always to you & your blog!
Paul in KY
@Geminid: I always think that at least 25% of the self-described ‘Progressive Left’ are ratfuckers.
Kay
@frosty:
It’s amusing to me that the students are always more sensible than the hysterical, spit-flecked anti-wokesters.
One irritable, middle aged youth-resenting parent complained about one book and 3000 books were banned:
The novel he objected to is about a teenager who rejects his parents fundamentalist religious dogma.
That whole subject is banned. Religion must be promoted and never, ever criticized.
Geminid
@Paul in KY: There are several groups on thre left who resent the Democratic party. Some like David Sirota and Briahna Joy Gray hoped to win power through the Sanders campaign. They failed, and now have a “sour grapes” attitude.
Others believe that only a powerful Left party will ever bring about a just society. But the Democratic party is a coalition of moderates and liberals, a “Center/Left coaltion. The more it succeeds, the less chance of a Left party coming to power. So there are people on the left rooting against the Democratic party, and yes, ratfucking when they can.
rikyrah
@Soprano2:
Yes. Had the nerve to call it an accident.
Left her body in Mexico like it was garbage.
Sister Golden Bear
@Soprano2:
And when we do go into our own spaces where they don’t have to see us — and more importantly for a few hours we don’t have to see them — they attack and kill us there.
Paul in KY
@Kay: I feel for the poor kid or kids who has that Godbotherer as a parent. They must be so embarrassed. Plus, any of the probably lots and lots of kids who enjoyed the graphic novels will now be emboldened to take it out on those kids.
Eyeroller
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): I watched the first few minutes of that interview and it seemed to me that Feynman was deliberately misinterpreting the phrasing. The “feeling” described by the reporter was obviously the sensation of the force (attractive or repulsive) between two magnets, and when he asked “why” he really meant “how” but Feynman took it upon himself to treat it as some philosophical question. Anyway qualitatively speaking, an electric current produces a magnetic field. And vice versa–electric motors generate a current by making a magnet move in an electric field. If that makes it seem like electricity and magnetism are closely related, that’s because they are, as “electromagnetism.” Going down to the level of atomic particles, yes to explain it correctly requires math and quantum mechanics, but we can just say that elementary charged particles have an inherent magnetic property. The net magnetism of say a hydrogen atom (to use Wikipedia’s example) is a type of summation of the electron’s magnetism, the proton’s magnetism, and the electron’s orbital motion around the proton. For a material, do the same kind of sum for the atoms and you get the magnetic properties of the material (plus contributions by any “loose” electrons). In most materials there’s usually no net alignment of the “positives” and “negatives” so no permanent magnetism. In ferromagnetic materials like iron, an external field can induce a long-lasting net alignment so they become magnetized.
If you just want to design electric motors and such all you need to understand is “moving electric charges create a magnetic field and moving magnets in an electric field create currents.”
pieceofpeace
@Raven: Sounds wonderful. Enjoy yourselves…
Origuy
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I saw The Menu last night. I agree, it’s a really good movie.
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: That’s a bug? Looks more like a feature to me.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: What’s the context for that? who are the two most powerful black politicians in the nation, and how are they being targeted?
I clicked the link but didn’t see anything to answer my questions.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I think Kamala Harris and now Hakeem Jeffries are the ones said to be targeted. They certainly are having a lot of brickbats flung at them by lefties
With Harris this has been less intense but steady. In Jeffries’ case, there was a nasty pile on last Friday. I commented on this some at #26 and #52 above.
StringOnAStick
@Jesse: Budweiser is owned by a huge multinational company based in Belgium. They try to keep it associated with an American image and there are still breweries in the US, but the corporate owner is no longer a US firm.
Miss Bianca
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Late to this thread, but that exchange literally had me LOL.