Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Republicans in disarray!

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Black Friday Morning Open Thread

Black Friday Morning Open Thread

by | 188 Comments

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Almost as disturbing:

The Marquis de Carabas is real!


(Maybe President Joe should take Elon aside?… )

Reader Interactions

188Comments

  3. 3.

    stacib

    Admittedly, I’m feeling kinda grumpy this morning, but

    When did we get to the place where everybody that requests time with the president is entitled to it?

  5. 5.

    Anyway

    Black Friday/commerce OT – Need a new phone. My refurb LG is past its prime. Any thoughts on Pixel?

  15. 15.

    Layer8Problem

    Are people still rooting and installing custom firmware on Androids?  I haven’t done that since the Obama administration but it was the only time I felt the little bastards weren’t tracking my every move and text.

  16. 16.

    PST

    We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, one that felt like a true family affair even though some of the family ties are rather loose. It included, for example, my late first wife’s son by her first marriage. We had ten adults (median age 66), no children, five last names, and five big dogs, all of us in my 98-year-old mother-in-law’s tiny house with its tiny kitchen. I was very glad that the dogs, some of whom were meeting for the first time, were so chill. All the humans were chill as well, even though some hadn’t seen each other in years. Everyone quickly and comfortably fell into earnest, cheerful discussion groups that crossed all the family, age, and political lines. I miss the chaos of young children running wild, a constant of the Thanksgiving dinners I remember from half a century ago, but I don’t think we could have handled it. There aren’t as many children’s tables as there used to be, which makes me feel wistful. I found myself thinking that if it weren’t for same-sex marriage, an idea that would have been inconceivable in my childhood, there would be even less glue binding us into large family groups. Although Covid is still with us, this was the first holiday gathering that felt truly post-Covid. Whatever our differences, we all vax up every way we can.

  20. 20.

    Geminid

    I see there are still two unresolved Congressional races. One is in the Colorado 3rd CD, where Boebert led Frisch by 552 votes, and a recount is in progress.

    The other unresolved race is in the California 13th CD, where Repuican John Duarte leads Democrat Adam Gray by 593 votes. Duarte, 56, is the owner of Duarte’s Nursery in Hewson, while the 45 year old Gray has represented Merced in the state Assembly since 2012.

    The 13th CD is in the Central Valley and includes a large portion of Modesto. It used to be part of a different numbered district, but after redistricting it has the number formerly assigned to the one Rep. Barbara Lee represents. Reapportionment cost California a Congressional seat and now the district numbers have been scrambled

    I expect that if Mr. Gray comes up short, he will try again in 2024. A presidential year electorate may put him over the top. And Duarte’s association with his feral House Republican colleagues may damage his appeal to his purple district constituents.

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    There’s a time and place to approach a stranger, and it’s not when they’re right in the middle of something. Someone other than Biden might not have shown as much restraint.

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    @Baud: The California 41st CD, where veteran Ken Calvert hung on one more time, is another opportunity. Challenger Rollins seemed dynamic and will likely try again. Demographic change on top of the presidential year electorate could favor the Democrat.

    The 41st CD is southeast of Los Angeles and includes Palm Springs.

  28. 28.

    Skepticat

    @Spanky: Weird little BIG monsters.

    My much-missed, beloved Maine coon cat wasn’t unusually large but was one of the best felines ever. I love the three domestic shorthairs who’ve since adopted me, but I hope to live long enough to have another MC.

  29. 29.

    ARoomWithAMoose

    Regarding the pixel 6a: no gorilla glass for the display (more shatter/scratch resistant, get a bumper case or wallet case if you’re prone to dropping phones), no wireless charging. If you can live with that the $300 deals right now are great for a new unlocked phone running vanilla android without bloatware.

    Google has committed to providing system updates to that model till July 2025, and security updates till July 2027 (with app updates as long as play store continues to work on the device).

  31. 31.

    JMG

    Just had the Black Friday breakfast of champions — leftover apple pie with a slice of cheese and black coffee. Turned down my son’s offer to go to Dorchester with him to some notorious soccer bar to watch USA-England. Covid aside, I am too old to spend 5-6 hours (must arrive by 11 to have a shot at a seat) in a cramped saloon with a couple hundred screaming men and women much much younger than myself.

  32. 32.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I loved that!

    My NYT has had their 11,000th article about who the Dems should run in 2024. I don’t actually read the articles, but I used to like to read the letters column. But now the letters column is devoted every day to the latest article about who the Dems should run in 2024 (this time by Frank Bruni, who wanted to get a beer with W.). It is the new butter e-mails.

  33. 33.

    Barbara

    My daughter’s dog died yesterday. Her age was indeterminate but probably at least 12 — and she was big, around 70 pounds. Adopted from a shelter 4 years ago, after being given up by a long-term family and failing with a few replacements. She was incredibly sweet and shy, and she didn’t really show signs of illness until Wednesday — maybe she was a little lethargic but not obviously so, and mostly in hindsight. She deteriorated rapidly yesterday and we just managed to get her to the vet, who told us that she was unresponsive and had really abnormal lab results, but she died before they administered any drugs. We’re all pretty shocked and sad. Vet said it could have been sepsis or cancer, but I guess we’ll never know. Feeling a little hole in my heart today.

  36. 36.

    Wapiti

    Something I’ve been looking to put into a shorter open thread for the veterans like John and Omnes, Ruckus, etc.: there is now a *free* *lifetime* National Parks Pass for veterans. It covers park entrance fees for the holder and other passengers in a private auto. It’s good for national parks (we used mine last year at Arches, in UT), national forests (like trailheads), BLM sites, CoE sites, and a couple others. I think they’re available at national forest ranger stations (I got mine at the “ranger station” in the REI flagship store).

  37. 37.

    oldster

    I don’t understand the comment about Abdul “mothering”?

    I assume this is a slang use of the term — someone help out an old man?

  38. 38.

    RaflW

    That’s a great line by Biden.

    But rather than take Melon aside, Biden needs to start ridiculing him. He’s becoming dangerous, in my opinion.

    He’s really ramping up the rhetoric attacking the left. I’m admittedly an alarmist, but that f**ker seems likely to join forces pretty directly with the stochastic terrorists.

    I am concerned that Twitter is being swung around to be in the US what Facebook was used for in Myanmar (though the tweets won’t be govt in this case).

    We’re already seeing some powerful fragments of the right just straight up say the ‘queers in Colorado Springs had it coming’ (or are writhing in hell). The right in this country is tipping into genocidal rhetoric, and it isn’t getting the attention it absolutely needs. Ironically, Twitter turning into $8chan actually weakens global witness and organizing.

  41. 41.

    Amir Khalid

    @ARoomWithAMoose:

    I’m in the market for a new phone myself. My neighbourhood isn’t in a 5G coverage area and I’m no power user anyway, so that’s not a priority for me. My current phone is a low-end Vivo, and I’m thinking of going to something low/midrange like the Vivo Y35. Unless someone recommends something better in that price range.

  42. 42.

    sab

    @Anyway: My flip phone’s clear button wore out deleting texts during this last election, so I have to go out today to buy a new one.

    Also a new charger for my antique Nook.

  43. 43.

    RaflW

    @Anyway: I’m trying to decide between the Pixel 6A and the 7. I have a Pixel 3 that I bought in May of 2019.

    It’s had a few problems, mainly the USB jack failed at about 2 years (so I use  wireless charging, and can’t use wired ear buds which I prefer).

    The photos are amazing, and the OS seems like it’s always been alright. But 3.5 years from a phone seems decent, battery is getting shorter but still workable.

    The G**gle phone it replaced was crap, tho. I can’t remember the model, but it bricked with very little warning (and I didn’t have photos backed up back then, dang it).

  44. 44.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: I never seriously considered rooting because who knows what happens to the important security features.  Do you really want well-intentioned randos messing with the software on boxes that hold our bank cards and lots of other important information, even if we aren’t presently using our phones for payments??

    The days of being able to personally totally control software are long over.

    “I’ll compile everything myself!”

    “Yeah, but who wrote the compiler?”

    “I did!”

    “Yeah, but who wrote the libraries?”

    “They’re open source and have been checked and debugged by lots of volunteers!”

    “Yeah, but who wrote the computer UEFI and keyboard firmwares?”

    “Well, …”

    “And, who wrote the SSD firmware?”

    “Er, …”

    “And who wrote the router firmware?”

    “Um, …”

    “And what do you do about the fact that Cohen proved that you cannot guarantee that a computer is virus-free?”

    “Now you’re just being mean…  :-(”

    ;-)

    I think there’s safety in numbers, but try to be careful.  Life is too short to think that I can stay ahead of the crackers if they single me out.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  47. 47.

    Soprano2

    @zhena gogolia: And it’s also completely ridiculous. What would they write if it were Republicans who had just had a historically successful mid-term election. I’m certain they wouldn’t be writing columns about how the sitting R president shouldn’t run for re-election in 2024!

  49. 49.

    Amir Khalid

    @Soprano2:

    Republicans don’t want Biden to run in 2024 precisely because they know he’ll be the strongest candidate the Democrats can field.

  50. 50.

    Soprano2

    @RaflW: I saw on there this morning that some right-wing people are targeting 5,000 liberal accounts to get taken down, including ones associated with people who write about fascism and the Holocaust. It’s pretty clear what they’re trying to do.

  51. 51.

    Soprano2

    @Amir Khalid: The claim is that the majority of Democrats don’t want him to run – I heard a story about that this morning on NPR. It it the new “Hillary’s e-mails”. ETA – I do agree with your point, too – Republicans know he will be hard to beat, that’s why they want to substitute some other Democrat. I wish reporters would ask every Democrat who says they don’t want him to run a) who would you prefer instead, and b) do you think “person x” that you prefer can beat Donald Trump?

  53. 53.

    Geminid

    @Amir Khalid: They also want to cover a tumutuous party primary, which is one of many reasons to want Joe Biden to run again

    The typical lack of a tough primary is one reason incumbent presidents win more often than not.

    I think we will see this on the other side this cycle. The Republican primary will likely be rancorous, divisive, and very expensive.

  54. 54.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: Yes, they are always in favor of more turmoil because that’s more exciting for them to cover. It’s one reason they seem to be so dismissive of the Biden White House, it bores them to tears.

    ETA – I wonder how much of the “even Democrats says Biden is too old to run for re-election” stuff is driven by the amount of press coverage of it? People hear a story where it’s reported that “Democrats say Biden shouldn’t run again”, so they think “Huh, maybe they’re right”, and then it builds on itself all based on what a few people said to a reporter.

  55. 55.

    PaulB

    @Soprano2:  I wish reporters would ask every Democrat who says they don’t want him to run a) who would you prefer instead, and b) do you think “person x” that you prefer can beat Donald Trump?

    Not to mention that the primary would be contentious, undoubtedly causing hurt feelings, along with accusations of racism, homophobia, misogyny, ageism, etc. That’s just a wonderful recipe for a smooth election to follow, right?

  56. 56.

    Amir Khalid

    Two days ago we had a hung Parliament. Today Anwar announced that his Pakatan Harapan coalition has achieved a two-thirds supermajority, having being joined by the coalitions from Sabah and Sarawak.

  57. 57.

    Alison Rose

    Dude, are you kidding, that Paula Abdul performance was fucking awesome. That song was my JAM as a girl, and I still know all the words :)

    Also, love how Biden handled that douche but I was hoping we’d get a callback Will you shut up, man

  59. 59.

    zhena gogolia

    @Amir Khalid: Bingo. But what worries me is that OUR SIDE is parroting the same line. I’ve heard it repeatedly from my own liberal friends in recent weeks.

  61. 61.

    Soprano2

    @zhena gogolia: You know that the answer is “no, they never do”. They desperately want TFG to run again, and they want someone other than Biden for the Democrats because to them that would be more exciting because it would give TFG a better chance to win.

  62. 62.

    Van Buren

    @Barbara: My SIL is putting her dog down today. Cancer. Very sad for family, it was really my BIL’s dog, and he passed away in 2020. Gigi was an important connection for them.

  64. 64.

    Layer8Problem

    @Another Scott:

    As long as you trust Google and Apple to be good corporate citizens with their “important security features”, and generally I suppose they are. Google’s Do No Evil’s been in the rear view mirror for a while now. We might not be able to go over every piece of open-source code personally, but some OCD type might and say “you got a buffer overflow here, patch that” and “there’s no legitimate reason that Sudoku app needs your location or your contacts list”.

    The object of us interested paranoids is to increase the friction that the Bad Guys/Three-Letter Agencies/State Actors have to deal with in order to single you out. It’s the difference between “Activate LeetStandardGoogleCrackNo8 Cecil and we’ll have his furry porn cache in a trice” and “Oh jeez, they’ve got LibreWhatever with the security fixes? Uhh, send it to the stoner hippie crackers in the basement, but they’re running about a week’s backlog”.  If anybody really wants to get you, they’ll get you, but not everybody has Ernst Stavro Blofeld sending his minions after you and the discount bad guys will just stick to the easy marks who never update their software.

    Personally I do nothing bank related on my stock Pixel 5a, but lots of people do with no trouble and that’s cool too.

  65. 65.

    Capri

    There are two things I need to put into the Jackelverse:

    My daughter is friends with someone who needs to find housing in Reno NV for herself an her husky dog.  She’s a service worker, so not much money. Any leads would be greatly appreciated. I can be emailed at [email protected].  Right now she’s staying with friends or living in her car so she doesn’t have to give up the dog.

     

    A person I used to work for needs a liver lobe transplant. That’s a living transplant so the donor gives up a liver lobe and time. He’s A+ blood type, but I’d encourage everyone to please consider inquiring about being a living liver donor at UPENN. The initial screening process is anonymous and non-binding, of course.  penntransplant.donorscreen.org

    Thank you

  66. 66.

    StringOnAStick

    @zhena gogolia: Me too, I was shocked when a group of D’s I was in were adamant that “Biden is too old and Kamala is horrible” .  I think they all listen to NPR and read the NYTimes, so that scans.

  67. 67.

    Cameron

    @Soprano2: If Joe Biden announced that he wasn’t going to run, the only mention of his administration that would ever appear again in Our Liberal Media would be a series of retrospectives starting in late 2024.

  71. 71.

    Ohio Mom

    @Capri: Can’t be of any help beyond sending good wishes, just wanted to add that the liver is the only organ that regenerates.

    The donor’s liver grows back to its original size and the donee’s new lobe also grows into the proper size. Downright miraculous.

  72. 72.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @oldster:

    I don’t understand the comment about Abdul “mothering”?

    me neither, anyone else have a clue for the old folks here?

    @Alison Rose:

    couldn’t agree more. How was that disturbing?

    Dude, are you kidding, that Paula Abdul performance was fucking awesome

     

  77. 77.

    Anotherlurker

    @Barbara: I am so sorry. I recently lost my beloved Pup so I know the pain you and your daughter are going thru.

    Your daughter gave the pup her very best life.  Cry when necessary and smile at her memory.

  78. 78.

    Ohio Mom

    I find this expectation that a president is some sort of father figure who can fix your personal problems extremely weird.

    It’s qualitatively different from say, getting your Congressman’s help with untangling an issue with a government agency, or the famous example of Abraham Lincoln granting pardons for war-related offenses.

    Those instances make sense to me, your problem has to do with government policies, procedures and programs and the governmental official is the face of government to you.

    Now, presidents encourage this other silliness, hugging survivors of catastrophes for example, and (as much as I love him) Biden asks for it, really. So it isn’t going away. But i think in the long run, it confuses people about their relationship to government.

  81. 81.

    Soprano2

    @Steeplejack: There were so many clues that TFG isn’t in the best of health, yet the press obsesses over Biden because of a number rather than his actual fitness profile.

    How many stories have they done, I wonder, about Republicans who don’t want TFG to run in 2024? Because you know they are out there.

  82. 82.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Alison Rose: I had a band that took rock/pop tunes and gave them a heavy funk spin (keeping chord/melodies but giving them Meters/P-funk style beats and grooves, Tower of Power horn parts etc.) and Straight Up was one of our closers because people always went absolutely nuts for it.  It was really fun to play.

    We also did Closer by NIN, which also got a great response because what drunk, dancing person doesn’t want to sing that chorus real loud at 1 am, lol!

  83. 83.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Steeplejack:

    Ghost quote at the beginning now?  It’s a post-Turkey Day miracle!

    “Donald Trump Took a Golf Cart 700 Yards and Kept G7 Leaders Waiting for Photo.” Trump was that feeble in 2017—five and a half years ago—and we’re still two years away from the next presidential election. Meanwhile Biden is cycling quite often. But, sure, let’s talk about how Biden is too old and infirm

    Is Dump feeble, or a fat, lazy sack of shit?

  84. 84.

    Fleeting Expletive

    I happened to catch most of a horrifying hearing conducted by Sen. Jon Ossoff on CSpan reviewing the state of women’s health care in the immigrants’ holding camps. Seems one so-called doctor diagnosed and ordered vaginal ultrasounds, D & C’s, and other abuse of the women:  He alone ordered 90% of them and has been prosecuted. The relevant people in charge at BPS just rubberstamped every damn one of the procedures he directed be performed. They sounded like Nazi’s, “we checked to see every document was properly signed off on” was about the extent of the oversight.

    I It was straight up Good German indifference to the women themselves and to appropriate medical standards.

    I’m grateful for Sen. Ossoff’s initiative on this but we need a lot more awareness and a hard, hard look at what vile things are and have been done in our name, in our country.  This and a thousand other human rights abuses that TFG enabled.

  87. 87.

    Steeplejack

    For fuck’s sake, did no one notice that the “guy interrupting Biden” thing is from February 2020?! Almost three years ago, for those who can’t do the math. And when Biden was not the president. Jesus.

  90. 90.

    Betty Cracker

    Regarding Musk’s stupid and dangerous idea to grant amnesty to banned accounts, someone on Twitter said it will be like when the moron in Ghostbusters shuts down the containment unit. Sounds about right. I’m 100% sure there are edge cases where a ban wasn’t entirely justified and/or incidents where bans weren’t applied consistently. That’s because content moderation is hard. It’s a pain in the ass at THIS blog, let alone a platform with millions of daily users.

  92. 92.

    Alison Rose

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    We also did Closer by NIN, which also got a great response because what drunk, dancing person doesn’t want to sing that chorus real loud at 1 am, lol!

    LOL yep. I was nearly 14 when that album came out, and we for sure loved shouting that line at the top of our lungs :P

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    @Ella in New Mexico: I assume it’s related to this (from 2009):

    Abdul often served as the mothering voice of hope to the endless string of hopeless singers who paraded across the “Idol” stage, counseling them to keep reaching for their dreams, glumly advising them to chase other dreams instead or leaping from her seat to dance, sing and slap her palms together when she approved.

    Just a guess – I never watched the show.

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  95. 95.

    Geminid

    One of many things that bugs me about talk of replacing Biden is that it tends to make people overlook the work other Democratic leaders are actually doing. No matter how much Pete Buttegieg and Gretchen Whitmer accomplish, it gets shaded by their stature in a projected horse race.

    This is a problem generally, I think. The national media and those who follow it tend to devalue the current work of Democratic officeholders because the prospects of their advancing to the next level is often centered in people’s appraisal of them.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    Good article about the corruption at the SCOTUS:

    And that is the crux of it. The fact that some of the justices believe that “casual” and “social” relationships with lobbyists, activists, and interested parties who have business before the court are appropriate and acceptable is the problem, because it means they cannot be trusted to avoid such contacts. The problem is that the same justices who keep blaming their colleagues and the press and the American public for broad declining trust in the institution seem to have no comprehension of what kinds of behaviors appear to be inappropriate because they actually are inappropriate. Traffic court judges in towns with four stoplights know better than to drink and vacation and shoot with interested parties before them, much less set aside choice seats for big ticket cases. Evidently it’s different when the interested parties are rich.

    Now, please.If a whistleblower had come forward and recounted these events but they involved the liberals on the court rather than the far Right bloc, would this story have disppeared so fast?

    I look forward to Justice Roberts “investigation” into the Dobbs leak. What a crock. It obviously came from the Right so we’ll never hear another word about it.

  99. 99.

    gene108

    @Capri:

    I tried the donor screen, but don’t qualify because of other health issues.

    Good luck to your friend in finding a donor.

    Sorry I couldn’t help.

  100. 100.

    Kelly

    I’ve been eyeing the Pixel 6a to replace my 5 year old Moto g5+. Somewhat put off that the new phones advertise a one day battery life while my 5 year old Moto used to be good for a week and is still good for several days.

  102. 102.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    Srsly. We all miss things now and then, but when I’m about to get really wound up about something I try to remember to take a deep breath and check a detail or two to see if I really need to launch. I know everything is true because it’s on the Internet, but sometimes it matters when it was true.

  103. 103.

    ARoomWithAMoose

    @Kelly: The “poor” battery life is completely dependent on app usage.  If all you do is check your email and sms texts once an hour and are not out at extreme range from a cell tower/wifi (where the phone radio needs to keep bumping up broadcast power), it will last a few days on a charge.  (I recently replaced a dying 4xl with a 6a, I miss the wireless charging, I’m not sold on the camera compared to the 4xl).

  104. 104.

    Kay

    Frankly, it’s also kind of pathetic that Alito considers far Right lobbyists his “friends” – he thinks he’s getting invited to their palatial vacation retreats because they LIKE him and not because they want certain decisions from him. What a dope.

    Does he have any real friends or is he just as unpleasant and bitter as he appears at Right wing galas?

  106. 106.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @zhena gogolia: Everyone I’ve seen pushing the Biden Is Too Old! bullshit are people who said the same thing in 2020 and are also constantly shitting on the Dem Party, Pelosi, etc.  Most were hardcore Bernie or Warren fans.  They are also outraged that Dems didn’t win every race in Mid Terms and are of course immediately jumping to how it is all evidence of why Dems Suck, Vol. ∞+1.  I think they are getting it from Russia and their Progressive Twitter faves, who love to parrot Russian anti-dee propaganda.  NPR just reinforces it and gives it even more legitimacy, sadly.

  107. 107.

    J R in WV

    I’m so sorry to hear about the doggos who have passed away on this holiday weekend. Our current pack of two big black with white trim dogs are young and spry still, and very affectionate. Occasionally one or the other, (rarely both) will sneak into bed with us a 3 am or so.

    Last night CooCoo, the 85-90 pound boy got into bed, I was barely awake and didn’t mind at all. Then he unloaded a couple of quarts of deer bits right on the down comforter between Wife and I. This is how dogs bring food back to a den, they eat all they can hold, run home and empty out for the other pack members, including puppies being weaned. So I didn’t feel like I should yell at him for instinctive pack support behavior.

    I picked up the bambi-bits with a plastic bag, wiped up the blood with a roll of paper towels, and set the comforter aside to dry off, and got a smaller one form the empty guest bedroom. Will spray with shout and wash it later this afternoon. Nice to know the dogs love us enough to share the venison with us. Hunting season we don’t really feed much kibble, they graze the forest for left over bits from hunters cleaning their kill.

    Then we slept late again this morning.

  108. 108.

    Starfish

    @stacib: There have been people at events doing this for years. Either they can make a gotcha video for the opponents by cutting whatever video they make to say “Look at the president being a jerk,” or they can build up some influencer fan base on one of the social media sites. It is mostly white men doing this nonsense because no one else can make a career out of being a jackass.

  109. 109.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Alison Rose: Of course!

    I also had the fun experience, back in the day, of being in a band that covered Big Dumb Sex by Soundgarden.  Another song with a pretty straight-forward chorus.  But unlike Closer, only a handful of our most devoted grunge-loving friends really knew that deep cut enough to sing along.

  111. 111.

    Starfish

    @Kelly: You get less battery life when you are powering these stupid huge screens.

    They are phones not tablets, dammit, and they should be able to fit in a human woman’s hands without needing a stupid PopSocket.

  115. 115.

    Steeplejack

    @Starfish:

    Also, when Biden was a candidate—I don’t know if it’s still happening to him as president—there were groups that would send A-holes to “subtly” disrupt rallies, meet-and-greets, press conferences, etc. The guy in the video clip above seems like one of those.

  117. 117.

    Bill Arnold

    @RaflW:

    Ironically, Twitter turning into $8chan actually weakens global witness and organizing.

    This is the only reason I and many others are not actively working (various methods) to destroy twitter; it continues to serve marginalized, otherwise voiceless communities, around the world, including in the US. (Technically, I don’t give it a high probability of surviving due to the mass layoffs of the technical staff, and also it will be an increasingly easy target.)
    I have heard some rumbles about liberal/antifa/pro-rights/anti-RW-government groups being targeted with mass reporting campaigns by Fascists(/Nazis) on Twitter, but am not sure how real the effects are yet. At least one such targeted person’s account returned within 24 hours.

  118. 118.

    Steeplejack

    I had my first “Twitter is crumbling” experience yesterday. One of my daily check-ins, @Zeddary, posted a cryptic “I’m out” a few days ago, and then yesterday I saw the notice “These tweets are protected.” I took that to mean that he is limiting access (and thus replies) to his feed as he decamps to Mastodon. My other usual follows are hanging on so far, but it is mildly depressing. I don’t think people realize how huge and important Twitter is beyond being a chat app. It became the go-to source for real-time news, and it has been incredibly important in helping marginalized and oppressed communities. All of that is going to be very hard to reproduce.

  120. 120.

    Jackie

    @Steeplejack: From the same link:

    “The episode came just days after Trump sent his daughter, Ivanka, to speak at an event in Saudi Arabia because he was too “exhausted” two days into a seven-day tour of the Middle East and Europe.”

    It’s just mind boggling how the GQP (AND Dems) ignore both TFG’s age and stamina – of which he has none.

  121. 121.

    Another Scott

    @Steeplejack: https://twitter.com/chadloder was suspended a day or two ago, apparently as a result of Melo talking with some RWNJs.  Then he was back for a few hours and mentioned a Twitter data breech of a year or two ago (that they claimed was fixed, but apparently wasn’t).  He’s suspended again now.

    Dunno how long the lights are going to stay on there (real life doesn’t happen as quickly as tweets), but it seems to be in a death spiral, and nobody can do anything to stop it as long as Emlo is in control.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  122. 122.

    Layer8Problem

    @Another Scott:

    OO programming in non-OO languages.

    That’s excellent.  DOS Batch? I’d rather hit my thumb with a ball peen hammer. awk I expected somehow. But sed?? Like the man said in Galaxy Quest, “Oh that’s not right!”

    . . .

    # OO sed engine with code for a polymorphic shape example.
    # I'm going to Hell, I just know it.

    . . .

  123. 123.

    Kelly

    @ARoomWithAMoose:If all you do is check your email and sms texts once an hour and are not out at extreme range from a cell tower/wifi (where the phone radio needs to keep bumping up broadcast power), it will last a few days on a charge.

    I’m often out of cell range or at the edge. A bit voice and texting from the boondocks. I’ve just been reading about Apple’s emergency satellite texting feature which is kinda intriguing. I’ve never needed rescued. I once drove up to a bad accident where everyone was out of cell range. A Highway Dept snowplow came by and could reach out with their radio.

    I take a lot of snapshots but I have a micro 4/3rds camera for good pictures.

    @Baud: They don’t keep their software as up to date as others though.

    I had a bad experience with Lenovo unremovable crapware that soured me to Lenovo laptops and now they own Moto

    @Starfish:They are phones not tablets, dammit, and they should be able to fit in a human woman’s hands

    and giant phones are still not big enough to use for a tablet.

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: I’m going to chime in and say that even if not intended that way, this feels like a criticism of Anne Laurie, who does more research to bring us good information and keep us up on popular culture than most, if not all, of the rest of us on the front page.

    Not to mention the she is doing all these World Cup posts, even though that’s not her thing, because it matters to a lot of people here.

    Religiously vetting every single thing – beyond what she already vets – would surely mean that we would get half as much interesting stuff, in search of having a 0% “this is old news” rate.

    My two cents.

  125. 125.

    zhena gogolia

    @WaterGirl: I’m going to be charitable and say the comment was directed at the person who tweeted not at Anne Laurie. I enjoyed the video I never saw it before

  129. 129.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl:

    It was absolutely not a criticism of Anne Laurie. It was about the general Twitter phenomenon where something catches someone’s eye, they comment on it or relay it, and subsequent readers naturally assume the two things are connected in time. Which leads to the stream of comments: “Why does President Biden have to put up with this?” “Why is President Biden wasting his time with this?” Etc. But in February 2020 Biden was not even the favorite, so this had the equivalent importance of Chuck Grassley doing origami with corn husks at one of his senile town halls. A quick glance at the time stamp on the video would have saved a lot of agita.

  130. 130.

    Bill Arnold

    @WaterGirl:

    Religiously vetting every single thing – beyond what she already vets – would surely mean that we would get half as much interesting stuff, …

    We all need to be better at this. My current heuristic for classifying a reference/tweet content as needing a deeper probe is a combination of novelty of the information, the amounts and types of emotions it generates, and whether it slots nicely into existing beliefs (priors).
    Humans are mostly easy targets for manipulation; we are also increasingly better, though, at detecting manipulation. In the US, the Trump administration was like training wheels for propaganda detection; they were blatant and crude.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    Abortion foes sued the Food and Drug Administration in federal court in Texas on Friday in an effort to reverse the agency’s decades-old approval of mifepristone, the drug used in medication abortions. Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative group that has been involved in antiabortion litigation, filed the suit in Amarillo on behalf of four antiabortion medical organizations and four doctors who had treated patients with the drug. The suit also named the Health and Human Services Department as a defendant.

    Would immediately ban most (early) abortions in the US, including those in “blue” states.

    We’ll be told it will never happen but of course it could absolutely happen with far Right courts. They’re lying to women and given them inaccurate and dangerous medical information.

  132. 132.

    Kay

    After Dobbs a lot of poorly informed and lazy media people compared France to the US on abortion ad announced the two countries were the same. That was wrong. They don’t read anything prior to making these announcements because they don’t actually care about womens rights or health.

    It is about to get MORE wrong:

    Lawmakers in France’s lower house of parliament on Thursday adopted a bill to enshrine abortion rights in the country’s constitution, the first step in a lengthy and uncertain legislative battle prompted by the rollback of abortion rights in the United States. The vote was 337-32 in the 557-member National Assembly.To be added into the constitution, any measure must be first approved by majorities in the National Assembly and the upper house, the Senate, and then in a nationwide referendum.

    The US is backpedaling on womens rights while the rest of the world moves forward.

  134. 134.

    MagdaInBlack

    @J R in WV: I have had that happen, but I was nowhere near as patient and understanding as you. Same dog that kept bringing home the desiccated zombie deer legs.

  135. 135.

    Starfish

    @WaterGirl: We relied on Twitter as a reliable aggregator to bring us new information. Now that it is being abandoned by journalists, we can’t really rely on Twitter in that way anymore.

    I am not sure what the next reliable aggregator will be.

    I used to keep the “Green Balloons” list on Twitter to help Balloon Juice people find each other more easily.

    I have shut down my Twitter account.

    Some people are fighting to try to keep it, but you can’t do that when the CEO is working so hard to ruin it. If Elon wants Twitter to be truth.social, it will be. Lifting the bans off of various white supremacists and agents of disinformation and banning people critical of Twitter itself is going to get us down that path.

  136. 136.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    That’s what I thought about CA-27 (D+4), CA-40 (R+2), and CA-45 (D+2). I had high hopes for getting at least the two D+ districts.

    All three were very narrow losses in 2020, CA-27 by 300 votes. This year, all three Rs substantially expanded their margins.

    I wonder about the impact of Dobbs, in there was any, on CA-40 & CA-45. Both Rs, especially Michelle Steel, are very vocally anti-choice, anti-contraception. Both their D opponents stressed this above all other issues in their TV ads.

    I also wonder if the One Big Thing was that the governor’s and US senator’s races were forgone conclusions so D voters just did not vote.

  138. 138.

    Jess

    @Ella in New Mexico: I’m feeling both admiration that Paula can pull off those moves in a sequined catsuit at my age, and sadness that she feels she has to in order to be applauded. At what point can women stop putting on a show and just be admired for their wisdom and accomplishments?

  139. 139.

    Origuy

    Friends of the Blog Four Directions were involved in making it easier for a Nevada Native tribe to vote. 

    The Yomba Shoshone Tribe sent a request to the Nye County clerk’s office on July 29 for a polling location on Election Day. On Aug. 1, the deadline, then-Clerk Sandra Merlino, confirmed that it received the request and would make the new clerk aware of it when he started. But the clerk’s office was also confused about what jurisdiction the tribe was located in, falsely claiming that it was in Lander and not Nye County.

  142. 142.

    delphinium

    @Kay:

    Abortion foes sued the Food and Drug Administration in federal court in Texas on Friday in an effort to reverse the agency’s decades-old approval of mifepristone, the drug used in medication abortions

    It is my understanding that FDA will remove drugs from the marketplace due to serious side effects/fatalities, not because some self-interested fucknuts don’t like the drug. Since pregnancy itself carries risk for harm and death, it would seem that this drug would be necessary for those patients that should not go thru a pregnancy and thus this lawsuit should go nowhere. But given the corrupt state of various judges and courts, hard to tell the outcome any more. Democrats need to push these stories out to the public as the media is really failing at their jobs here.

  143. 143.

    Miss Bianca

    @Jess: Well, speaking as a woman *and* a performer, I guess I have to say that Paula may feel her performances *are* her accomplishments.

  144. 144.

    mrmoshpotato

    @The Lodger:

    You just gave me an idea: what about a T-shirt with “Why not both?” in five languages.

    And you must include “Why not Zoidberg?” for the Futurama fans. :)

    Oh, and what 5 languages?

  147. 147.

    delphinium

    @James E Powell: I think part of the issue in both NY and CA is that Dem voters become a bit complacent because both of these states have been considered blue for so long. This also seems to apply to some of the NY candidates as well. Also, since both of these are ‘safe’ abortion states, folks may feel less urgency than voters in other states. In addition it may be that like Ohio, the rural parts of NY may be getting redder so, it is more difficult for Dems to win in purplish areas.

  148. 148.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    I got caught in the act of editing to add:

    Mike Garcia’s old district was D+3, this year D+4.

    Young Kim’s old district was D+3, this year D+2.

    Michelle Steel’s old district was R+1, this year R+2.

    Garcia’s & Kim’s districts were pretty close to the same areas; Steel’s not at all the same. Joe Biden won Steel’s new district by 6 points.

  150. 150.

    Geminid

    @delphinium: The Democrats in New York might well have been complacent. I thought we may have been complacent in Virginia last year, and our candidate might have been too.

    Virginia Republicans, on the other hand, were hungry. After getting thrashed in statewide contests for years, they finally had a chance and made the most of it. That may have been the dynamic in New York this year.

  151. 151.

    sab

    @Barbara:  I am so sorry for your daughter’s loss.

    We took in an oldish dog a few years ago. She had been adopted from very bad circumstances, and then shuffled between my stepdaughter’s friends for a couple of years. Nobody was in a position to give her a settled life but everyone loved her. We took her in and gave her a settled life: home where we loved her a lot, food every day, regular walks, all that middleclass comfort stuff.

    Devastated when she died of cancer. We had about five weeks of her being very sick, vets not knowing what was going on, and desperately trying to help her which in retrospect was torture of a sick old dog.

    At least your daughter and her dog didn’t have to go down that route.

    I am so sorry. Good dog had a good last few years.

  152. 152.

    Kelly

    I think Oregon had a bit of long term Democratic control complacency. Oregon abortion rights are well protected by state law which reduced the salience of Dobbs. Turn out was low. We won CD6 by just 339 more votes than the Republican + RWNJ Constitution Party candidate drew. We lost long time Blue Dog CD 5 by about 2%. We kept the Governorship by 3.5%.

    We passed a gun control measure, permits, data base, 10 round magazine limit by 1.4%. I wonder how much that brought out the wingnut vote. The winner in the Linn County Sheriff race promised to not enforce the new law. Linn county is about 20% of CD 5. Jamie McLeod-Skinner also lost Marion county by a lot. Biden squeaked out a win in Marion County.

  157. 157.

    Low Key Swagger

    For those looking for a Twitter alternative…many people I follow there are now on Post.  I got on the waiting list and was approved in two days and I am a nobody.  So far, interface is really good, tho still in beta.  Lots of major news networks already there.  I won’t post a link cuz not sure how or if it’s OK.  But check it out.

  158. 158.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Georgia Republicans seemed to be very unified and motivated this year. Kemp easily turned back Perdue’s challenge, and beat a strong challenger in Stacey Abrams by a fairly comfortable margin.

    I think Herschel Walker’s runoff election will show the limits of their motivation. But Walker’s not one of their own, and would not have won the nomination without Trump’s insistent backing.

  159. 159.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Alison Rose: Oh absolutely.  That’s also why one of my original bands had a song titled “Fuck Everyone.”  Very much intended for sing-along-ability.  Composed at the end of the W administration I actually wanted it to be “F*** America” but my band mates thought that was a step too far.  Since the 2016 election, Charlottesville,   Babies in Cages etc., I’ve routinely teased them by asking if they still feel that way 🤣

  160. 160.

    TriassicSands

    @Anyway:

    I have a Pixel phone. It’s excellent. One of the benefits over Samsung and other Android phones, is the Pixels aren’t larded down with a bunch of extra unwanted, annoying apps. What you want and need can be downloaded.

    Also, when you buy a Pixel, you get a certain number of Android updates that are available much more quickly than on other manufacturers’ phones. Apparently, they can be very slow to issue upgrades.

    Phones today are advertised more as cameras than as communication devices and the Pixel cameras (through advanced software) are excellent. Plus, you have the option of buying either a flagship level phone, or the less expensive, but still great “a” phone — 3a, 4a, 5a, 6a. The 7a isn’t out yet, I guess.

    My own use of the phone is quite limited, but it does everything I need it to do. I would, if necessary, definitely buy another one. I got mine “unlocked.”

  162. 162.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @delphinium: Most of the swing districts in CA only recently went Blue.  Many for the first time in 2018.  So it’s not super surprising that they’d bounce back to Red in a mid-term.  But yes, I think the relative safety of abortion protections probably hurt our enthusiasm.

  163. 163.

    Kelly

    I was disappointed at the way Oregon redistricting worked out. Democrats won CD 1 and CD 3 by over 100,000 votes each. CD 6 is adjacent to CD 1 and 3. CD 5 is adjacent to CD 3. adjusting the boundaries by a mile could have made CD 5 and 6 secure Democratic seats. The problem was caused by the Oregon constitution decreeing a legislative quorum as 2/3 of a chamber. This presents the minority party with a filibuster like blocking opportunity which the Republicans used to beat boundaries more favorable to Democrats.

  164. 164.

    TriassicSands

    Although the fellow was rude and annoying, I actually found Biden’s statement unnecessarily insensitive. Telling him, “I’m beginning to see why your wife left you.” wasn’t necessary.  The guy obviously has problems. Why on earth would anyone ask a president for marital advice in a public forum? Relationships are individual things, and Biden’s successful marriage hardly makes him a therapist or counselor.

  167. 167.

    Ruckus

    @Wapiti:

    Thanks!

    I have seen the park info and the VA sent out a notice so I’d bet a lot of vets do/will know about this. There’s something like 5 million vets who use the VA so at least some of them will see it…..

  169. 169.

    Another Scott

    @TriassicSands: 1) It was an old clip.

    B) It seems likely that the guy was a troll.

    iii) It’s what happens in public events and politicians need to have a way to counter it without encouraging it.

    Biden did fine.  Most people would not have talked with him one-on-one (understandably so, because he was being a jackass).  Biden’s exemplary humanity came shining through yet again.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  172. 172.

    delphinium

    @Kelly:

    We passed a gun control measure, permits, data base, 10 round magazine limit by 1.4%. The winner in the Linn County Sheriff race promised to not enforce the new law.

    Always interesting when law enforcement can decree they won’t follow the law without any consequences for that.

  173. 173.

    cain

    @RaflW: I got the pixel 6, it’s ok – half the time I can’t get it to wake up when I say “hey google”. Which seems like a fairly large failing.

    I have an old Nexus 5, the back camera doesn’t work. I’m actually loading an aftermarket OS called postmarketos which will make it into a full own linux phone os – should be fun!

  175. 175.

    Brachiator

    @RaflW:

    I’m trying to decide between the Pixel 6A and the 7. I have a Pixel 3 that I bought in May of 2019.

    I have heard good things about both phones. I recently bought a Pixel 7. This replaced a 4XL, which I think will no longer receive updates.

    I like stock Android phones. I am still learning the features of the phone and updating apps and settings.

  176. 176.

    cain

    @Layer8Problem: ​ As long as your phone is connected to a cell phone tower, they can track you through triangulation.One of the biggest issues with privacy is that these phones have modems that are one big binary blob – nobody knows what it is in it and all the data is going through that binary blob.
    Even if you replaced android with something else, you still have to deal with the cell phone towers.​
     
    ETA – cell phone providers and/or bounty hunters can easily find you with a monetary payment. So if you’re someone running away from a bad situation – that becomes a problem.

  177. 177.

    cain

    @Soprano2: ​
     
    Just tell them that their abject failure in predicting the election results means nobody needs to hear whatever bullshit they think they are pedaling. It should be beaten into them on a constant basis.

  183. 183.

    TriassicSands

    @Another Scott: It seems likely that the guy was a troll.

    There’s no question the guy was out of line, but neither is there any way to know if he was just inappropriate (and hurting) or just trying to cause a problem. If he was sincere, I have no doubt Biden could have shut him down without personalizing it. It was remarkable that he said he was willing to talk to the guy afterward — not many people would do that. But making such a personal comment was, to me, unnecessary.

    People are weird and some are really messed up.

  186. 186.

    TriassicSands

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    The Pixel 6a does NOT have a headphone jack, but the 3a, 4a, and 5a phones all do. You can probably get the 6a for less than the 5a, but you won’t get a headphone jack.

    When you buy a Pixel phone you get a guaranteed 3 major OS updates and they are issued very soon after they are introduced. Other manufacturers, I understand, are much less reliable.

    Still, only 3 updates seems rather stingy to me after you’ve paid hundreds of dollars for a phone and in the case of the “a” phones what are supposed to be “budget” phones.

    I wonder what % of Americans can’t realistically afford paying $300-$400 for a phone with a limited life expectancy. At $299 (today?) the 6a is probably the cheapest any “a” series phone has been when it was the latest model.

  188. 188.

    Jackie

    McCarthy’s *brilliant plan* should he become Speaker:

    “On Friday, legal expert Chris Geidner took to Twitter to tear apart House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for one of the first plans he has announced once the Republican majority is officially sworn into the chamber.”

    “On the very first day of the new Republican-led Congress, we will read every single word of the Constitution aloud from the floor of the House — something that hasn’t been done in years,” McCarthy had pledged. However, Geidner took issue with several aspects of this idea.

    “1. It’s the House you’re leading, not Congress. 2. A public reading like this is performative,” wrote Geidner. Furthermore, he continued, “3. Who will read the Three-Fifths Clause? 4. Who will read the 14th Amendment?”

    https://www.rawstory.com/kevin-mccarthy-constitution

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