Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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

Trump should be leading, not lying.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

“woke” is the new caravan.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

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

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

This really is a full service blog.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Cherish Joy

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And its fierce defenders!

… And resist the haters…

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179Comments

  1. 1.

    SFAW

    Bigger crowd than TFG’s inauguration? Seems that way.

    ETA: Damn! I was trying for the coveted #3 position. Where TF is Baud when I need him?

  2. 2.

    Mowgli

    Weeping a little with joy for my trans son and everyone who seeks to find a small space in this world to be themselves.

  3. 3.

    Nicole

    Thanks in part, to her appearance at the White House yesterday, this excellent clip of Cyndi Lauper performing at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2018 (for Cher) was making the rounds yesterday.  I saw online she’s 69 so she must have been 64 or 65 when she did this.  All the heart emojis.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quMSK1Q0sN0

  4. 4.

    SFAW

    Good speech from the President. Be even better if some of the RWMFs in Congress and elsewhere listened to it and said “Yeah, he’s right.”

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    Nice article in WaPo about what the Respect for Marriage Act means to several families.

    Regarding Twitter, Platformer says Musk will attempt to monetize the site by re-launching a subscription that allows people to see fewer ads and forcing users who don’t pay to opt-in to receive “personalized” ads.

  6. 6.

    JMG

    @Betty Cracker: Since Musk has fired most employees, and is cost-cutting by not paying Twitter’s bills, does the company even have the wherewithal to implement this change? I kinda doubt it. This smells of Musk bullshitting his creditors to me.

  9. 9.

    Another Scott

    @JMG: “The beatings will continue until morale improves.”

    I closed all my Twitter tabs yesterday.

    I see that Cheryl Rofer is looking at Post.news and that Popehat has an account there.  Guess I should get one there too…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  13. 13.

    Betty Cracker

    @JMG: Regardless of what happens with the bird app, I hope the Biden administration is examining contracts with Musk-owned companies and taking steps to disentangle critical U.S. defense and space capabilities from Musk-controlled enterprises. We can’t rely on an erratic, right-wing oligarch.

  15. 15.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:  Yeppers!

    Early pic of the Woke Mind Virus with possible patient zero.

    Brilliant!

    ETA:

    @rikyrah:

    Uh uh on the personalized ads

    And even more so on the location tracking.  So far, I’ve stayed on Twitter due to inertia, but either of these would push me off in a heartbeat.

    More ETA:

    @Betty Cracker:

    Regardless of what happens with the bird app, I hope the Biden administration is examining contracts with Musk-owned companies and taking steps to disentangle critical U.S. defense and space capabilities from Musk-controlled enterprises. We can’t rely on an erratic, right-wing oligarch.

    Damn straight!

  16. 16.

    Scout211

    @Betty Cracker: some details released yesterday Link

    Musk has also revamped Twitter’s subscription service, Twitter Blue, with the hope of generating fresh revenue for the company. The service launched Monday after Musk pulled and delayed the launch in November.

     

    Twitter Blue costs $8 a month for web users and $11 a month for iOS users who purchase it through Apple’s App Store. The $3 iOS price difference reflects Musk’s recent gripes about Apple’s 30% cut of all digital sales made through apps.

    Subscribers with a verified phone number will receive a blue checkmark once their account is reviewed and approved, Twitter said in a tweet Saturday. Blue users will also be able to edit tweets and get early access to new features. The company says Blue subscribers will “soon” see fewer ads, have the option to post longer videos and will appear at the top of replies and mentions.

  17. 17.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Betty Cracker: nahgannawork. Newspapers have been trying the ‘we gave it to you for free, now pay’ model for a while. Doesn’t work.  Musk just bought his MySpace/America Online. Maybe he can turn it into a non profit foundation like some of the newspapers have. At least the ‘non profit’ part will be accurate.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    Peanut just texted me about ordering her yearbook.

    When did yearbooks cost $70???

    You can tell that it’s been A LONG TIME since I was in High School

  23. 23.

    rikyrah

    Saw a coat that I really liked and it was a great sale.  It is my Christmas present for myself.

    As soon as I put the order in, it said out of stock. Going to call this morning and see if I can get it in another color and delivered now.🤞🏾

  28. 28.

    Kay

    Teenagers found a work around to Right wing antiwoke activists forbidding discussion of certain subjects in high school:

    PHOENIX (AP) — Mecca Patterson-Guridy wants to learn, but for some subjects, she isn’t always comfortable asking her teachers. So she has been turning to TikTok. Online, the 17-year-old high school junior in Philadelphia has found videos on social media platforms about protests over police shootings, civic engagement and Black and Latino history in the U.S. The accounts she checks regularly feature segments including “Fast Black History” and “Black Girl Magic Minute.” The videos, Mecca said, address “things that get overlooked in the classroom.”
    Scrutiny from conservatives around teaching about race, gender and sexuality has made many teachers reluctant to discuss issues that touch on cultural divides. To fill in gaps, some students are looking to social media, where online personalities, nonprofit organizations and teachers are experimenting with ways to connect with them outside the confines of school.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Platformer says Musk will attempt to monetize the site by re-launching a subscription that allows people to see fewer ads and forcing users who don’t pay to opt-in to receive “personalized” ads.

    So innovative- lower tiers with ads and upper tiers without ads. This must be the incredible genuis I have heard so much about.
    Add Musk to the huge pile of media- created monsters. They inflated yet another celebrity balloon.

  30. 30.

    narya

    I have now signed up for Mastodon, Post, Discord, and CounterSocial; we’ll see what sticks. I’m waiting to let it evolve before I really go all-in on learning my way around; there’s a relatively small number of people that I very much want to follow, and I’m hoping they all go the same way.

    Meanwhile: last full day of work. Went out w/ my team last night and had a lovely time–I called it AMA/WA (ask me anything/with alcohol). I’m happy that they’re being moved under another exec–one who will be able to teach them things that I cannot and who can better defend them against executive fuckery.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Math Guy:

    My h.s. yearbook was free to me only because my mom took out a half-page ad every year for our family’s bookstore, and she always immediately handed me her one gratis copy. There were a couple of other kids in my class whose parents also owned local businesses and who took out ads in Tabula each year. We not only got them free, we got them a day ahead of the designated distribution date at the school. One of the very few times in my high-school career when I was able to feel slightly superior to my classmates because I got my paws on it before they did!

    No idea what the regular price was. Maybe $7.50? Expensive for the late 1950s, for sure!

  35. 35.

    narya

    @Paul in KY: Thanks! It won’t really start until January–heading to visit very old parents next week–but that’s fine. To celebrate, today I did NOT walk or run, though admittedly that was because it’s freezing rain and sleet outside, and I was Not In The Mood. Fixing the rowing machine is near the top of the to-do list precisely because of weather like this.

  36. 36.

    Ohio Mom

    @rikyrah: Yes, HS yearbooks are ridicously pricey.

    In this age of selfies and phones full of photos, I am not sure what purpose a yearbook serves. You have your own, personally curated yearbook in your pocket. But peer pressure is a mighty force for young people, so yearbooks must be purchased.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Steeplejack:

    RedKitten’s sons. Suzanne’s two younger spawn. And lots of others, including plenty of grandchildren and nieces/nephews. We were there for many of the pregnancies and births. Maybe we should do a Kids of Balloon Juice calendar.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    Here’s an example of a hard hitting interview with Elon Musk from 2018:

    Kara Swisher: It is Halloween night, and I have gotten my treat, which I’ve been asking for a while. I’m here with Elon Musk at the headquarters of Tesla. Is that right? The right pronounce? Is it Tesla or Tezla?
    Elon Musk: Tesla, yeah.
    Whatever.
    By the way, I think your costume is great.
    Thank you! I’m dressed as a lesbian from the Castro in San Francisco. That’s what I look like.
    I’m here with delicious coffee. We are gonna have a long discussion about all kinds of things. Elon’s been very nice to do this in the evening, here. We’ve been chatting about all kinds of things, but we’re gonna get into it really quick. We’re gonna talk about Tesla, we’re gonna talk about SpaceX, we’re gonna talk about this year, we’re gonna talk about The Boring Company, and anything else Elon wants to talk about, because people like to hear you talk.
    Let’s start from the beginning, about this year. You’ve given some very interesting interviews. You’ve gotten on Twitter, made some mistakes.
    What’s Twitter?

    You guys, he works 120 hours a week. He says.

  43. 43.

    Paul in KY

    @narya: You will get a heck of a workout with a good rowing machine! Hope you parents are doing well. Mine are 98 and 96. Doing as well as can be expected for that advanced age. Drive carefully!

  44. 44.

    Kay

    This fluffling, worshipful interview is with a car manufacturer. A person who produces 4000 lb vehicles that go 100 mph for ordinary people to drive on the roads everyone else is on.

    I mean, thank God these people weren’t around for the exploding Pinto. We’d all be dead.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    Democrat, Environmentalist, & the establishment (@BlueSteelDC) tweeted at 7:53 AM on Wed, Dec 14, 2022:
    Twitter before mMsky purchase was not a very utilized platform but very important for the public square.

    Its brand as its place where media goes to gather extended more clout than its user levels

    The first thing he did was mess w/ the brand and reduce usage even further https://t.co/dQUbbbNYOl
    (https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1603025435725647872?t=bOt8XLpW7gNyQdqvX5Nk1w&s=03)

  48. 48.

    R-Jud

    @Steeplejack: She just designed our Christmas card, which is of an adorable snake in a Santa hat eating a gingerbread man.

    I love my little beanpole.

    ETA: It’s weird to think I started reading this blog back in 2008, when I was still pregnant with her.

  50. 50.

    rikyrah

    Democrat, Environmentalist, & the establishment (@BlueSteelDC) tweeted at 7:46 AM on Wed, Dec 14, 2022:
    Love how only after two weeks conservative commentators and those who love them

    Declared  Musk strategy as paying off

    And all I kept thinking is he hasn’t yet paid a bill or receive payment on an invoice

    You guys will never be able to pretend you understand business again
    (https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1603023515401191425?t=13AtD3qM5s-vy-EhQ63ZuQ&s=03)

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    YEP

    Lowdown, no good muthaphucka.

     

    Michael MacKay (@mhmck) tweeted at 7:49 PM on Tue, Dec 13, 2022: Twitter has removed the UA two-letter country code for Ukraine from two-factor authentication. Ukraine has disappeared from Elon Musk’s virtual map of the world. The effect of this change is to reduce the presence of pro-Ukrainian, pro-democracy voices on this platform. (https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1602843107992772609?t=bS_CIkC5fKKPdP2EARr-sQ&s=03)

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    Like we didn’t see that in real time.

     

    R.S. Locke / Royal Suitor (@royal_suitor) tweeted at 5:37 PM on Tue, Dec 13, 2022:
    “I was told, because I’m quite critical of the monarchy in many ways, I was told that I could say what I want about #HarryAndMeghan, but I had to lay off of William and Kate. That was the instruction from the editor.”

    Norman Baker regularly writes for The Sun & Daily Mail. https://t.co/ypKk60M06q
    (https://twitter.com/royal_suitor/status/1602809851406491650?t=wktzCAXtwOId9mpAns2n0g&s=03)

  54. 54.

    The Moar You Know

     and taking steps to disentangle critical U.S. defense and space capabilities from Musk-controlled enterprises.

    @Betty Cracker: Right now and for at least the next decade, the only way America is getting people and most satellites into space is via SpaceX.  The Russians won’t carry our stuff anymore and the Europeans have a minimal launch capability that is booked solid.

    We built an impressive and useless moon rocket, shot it (now it’s gone, no more moon rockets for years) and turned over low earth orbit to Phony Stark.  GG America

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    The Right and their defenders are all insisting it will never happen, but I think they lost credibility with ordinary women (if election results are any measure) because they all said the same thing about Roe.

    The defining feature of the anti-abortion “movement” is that they lie to women constantly.

    Democrats should absolutely run on “they want to ban birth control”. The Right opened the door. Just walk right thru it. Fair game.

  57. 57.

    Layer8Problem

    @Kay:  His every waking minute he’s working!  When he’s stuffing his face with Doritos he’s working!  When he’s slapping some subordinate around the head or verbally abusing some rando in the street?  Working dammit!  Trying to text frickin’ Grimes, repeatedly, and the drunken middle-of-the-night voice mails?  Hel’lo, WORKING!  He’s the hardest working man in show-biz.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    But…pronoun jokes are so funny!

    Only completely humorless people wouldn’t laugh at the antiwoke pronoun jokes. The measure of whether I have a sense of humor is if I laugh at Matt Taibbis’ “satire” :

    Most notably, the Exile nurtures a peculiarly vicious and schizoid attitude toward women. While Russian women are rhapsodically celebrated as long-legged gazelles with loose morals—”the most physically attractive women on earth, and . . . usually available to the highest bidder,” expat women are ridiculed at length as “fat-ankled” and defensively sexless. Self-hating geeky American men are encouraged to take advantage of the perception that all Americans are rich and have oodles of condomless sex (sometimes in the ass!) with drunk, nubile dyevushkas. Ex-girlfriends are held up to public ridicule—Ames at one point chronicles his threats to kill a pregnant ex if she won’t have an abortion.

    They demand everyone laugh at their “humorous” work. Not to laugh does NOT mean their work sucks, it means that there is something wrong with YOU.

    In order to be cool like the antiwoksters I have to join in and laugh at vicious “jokes” about women. Maybe then the (formerly) ultra-hip but now cranky and bitter middle aged Men of Substack will talk to me.

    No thanks.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Layer8Problem:

    Guffaw. I just loathe the “120 hours a week” people.

    One of the last funny things I saw on Twitter was a post by this woman who is some kind of “career influencer”. She posted her calender to, I guess, brag about how hard she works. People took the calendar apart and they were right. Fully half of it was her workout and dining out schedule – all she did was put everything she does other than sleeping in “work”.

    One hysterical “work”entry. “Dinner with dad”. Poor dad.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    A lot of the anti-abortion activists are on social media lying about birth control – the health risk. Banning birth control is absolutely mainstream in that movement, judging by the words and actions of the (paid) movement activists.

    This might come as a shock to anti-abortion activists but women actually discuss birth control a lot with health care providers and other women. They know a lot about it. Once again, their patronizing notion that women need fundamentalist religious to lecture them on the cost/benefit of birth control- a DAILY part of womens lives for DECADES of their lives- is demeaning. We know about birth control. Women can go into multi-paragraph explanations of the various IUDs versus birth control pills at the drop of a hat.

  63. 63.

    JMG

    @The Moar You Know: When a company basically has only one customer, that customer has a great deal of influence. I suspect the DOD and NASA attorneys are on high alert for anything Space X might do that could even conceivably damage that amazingly broad concept “national security.”

  64. 64.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Layer8Problem: If there’s one thing in common between Musk and Trump (okay. there’s a lot more than one thing) it’s that rich idiots do this all the time.

    You claim you’re “working” because you’re available. Or you have a short meeting in the evening. Or reading occasional mail. Or you’re on Twitter making a fool of yourself.

  65. 65.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Been reading/listening to the communications TPM has broken and I’m feeling pretty sure we’ll see some big names getting indicted for seditious conspiracy. Not all, but a very important minority.

    About 30-40% of the Meadows texts make me think the writer was just doing their “MAGA Rah Rah Trump’s our Leader” due dligence to let Meadows–and hopefully Trump– know they were still Loyal Members of the Court. They’re now the folks expressing Trump shouldn’t run, either in private or public. Not at risk of legal action.

    25% or so are definitely people with clear mental health issues (which is concerning those persons who are elected representatives in Congress) and completely carried away with an amygdala driving on hyperdrive emotion, maybe even a bit inebriated. Some could be at risk because they actually did take actions based on their desperate need to save America for “Baby Jesus Who Sent us Trump”.

    It’s the 30% that are rock solid cynics, believing that even though Trump lost, and they all knew it, they were going to keep him in office no matter what, whatever trick or cheat or violent action they needed to take–or direct the “Rubes At the Protest” take for them–in order to keep the power and protection that Trump would ensure they continued to have.

    Every single one of those people need to go to jail.

  67. 67.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay:

    Democrats should absolutely run on “they want to ban birth control”. The Right opened the door. Just walk right thru it. Fair game.

    Hell yeah.  Make them explain.  As the expression goes, “when you’re explaining, you’re losing.”

  68. 68.

    geg6

    @Kay:

    Yep.  A typical Swisher knob job with Elmo.  Why anyone ever took this woman seriously is beyond parody.  She’s an idiotic fan grrrl and I have had nothing but disdain for her for years.  But all my techie friends are shocked at my assessment and think she’s just an amazing journalist.  Jesus.  Are techies just even more stupid engineers?  I work surrounded by a lot of engineers and engineer worshippers but even they are less disgusting and clueless than these Silicon Valley “geniuses” and their media minions.

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Democrats should absolutely run on “they want to ban birth control”. The Right opened the door. Just walk right thru it. Fair game.

     

    And, it’s true.

     

    They DO want to ban birth control

  74. 74.

    Layer8Problem

    @MisterForkbeard:  I think it’s the rentier thing, the belief, or disingenuous justification anyway, that because your income per minute is so bleeding high you make gajillions even when all you’re doing is breathing, well, that equals work, because pay implies work.  Take that, ditch-digger, I’m working harder!  See also wealth must imply intelligence.

  75. 75.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Kay: I always figured this would be the case.  Schools can ban all the books they want and it will only have a tiny effect.  Most schools don’t even really teach about the stuff they want to ban.  They certainly didn’t when I was a kid.  Our Black History was essentially: Slavery just happened, then Civil War, I have A Dream, the end.  I imagine today’s textbooks add Obama but are mostly the same.  I think students (or anyone else) who wants to dig deeper into subjects of Systemic Oppression, Feminism, Gender etc., are already searching them out on Twitter, YT, TT, SubStack, Podcasts etc.

  76. 76.

    Montanareddog

    @Betty Cracker: Good luck to Elongated Mush in trying to enforce personalized ads and location tracking in the EU

    For those not aware, go and try Google Street View in Germany. It is only available on a few roads, usually arterial, because of the strictness of the privacy laws

  77. 77.

    Paul in KY

    @rikyrah: Always been a bit surprised (after various revelations) that Harry didn’t level with Meghan (when it became serious) about what it was to be a ancilliary member of royal family and how everything in palace/media is tailored to the monarch and future monarchs and fuck all else (if/when it comes to that).

    Maybe he didn’t think of himself in that barrel. Sorta naive if that’s what he thought.

  78. 78.

    PAM Dirac

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    It’s the 30% that are rock solid cynics, believing that even though Trump lost, and they all knew it, they were going to keep him in office no matter what

    I think TPM is going roughly in chronological order, so I suspect the difference between the cynics and the ra-ra’ers will become increasingly clear as the report gets closer to Jan 6.

  80. 80.

    The Moar You Know

    Teenagers found a work around to Right wing antiwoke activists forbidding discussion of certain subjects in high school:

    @Kay: oh hooray.  Turning over education to unvetted volunteers on a platform run by a government hostile to America.  What could go wrong?

    (Everything.  Everything could go wrong)

    This is nothing but a bad idea, exactly equivalent to the self-made experts “learning” about mRNA vaccines on YouTube.  Maybe we could quit fucking with the experts and let them do their jobs for a change?  Too much to ask in 2020s America, I know.

  81. 81.

    Paul in KY

    @geg6: They probably like her edgy/cool banter with him. Wish they could chit chat with him like that or that she would give them more than .03 seconds notice.

  82. 82.

    mali muso

    Good morning! Feels a bit weird to have a sense of relief that my own (interracial) marriage is now protected. When I was pregnant with my daughter in 2016, I was so excited to imagine that she would live in a country where a black man had been president at her birth and a woman was president during her childhood and we were moving towards more equality for all.  How naive I was.

  83. 83.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @rikyrah:

    You’re a coward whose own identity is so fragile that it depends on the oppression of others.

    Ingraham on Respect For Marriage Act: “Whether you’re catholic or evangelical or Muslim, any serious person of faith, you will not necessarily have the rights tomorrow that you had yesterday.”

    No worries, though, Laura, you can still hate. You’ll always have that.

  85. 85.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Finally got my glasses!!  It’s amazing how much clearer everything looks close up.  I had no idea!  Waiting for the headaches that everyone says I will get from using them in the first couple days.

  88. 88.

    The Moar You Know

    Always been a bit surprised (after various revelations) that Harry didn’t level with Meghan (when it became serious) about what it was to be a ancilliary member of royal family and how everything in palace/media is tailored to the monarch and future monarchs and fuck all else (if/when it comes to that).

    Maybe he didn’t think of himself in that barrel. Sorta naive if that’s what he thought.

    @Paul in KY: he’s coming off like a high-end dimwit, frankly a lot like his mother, and I doubt he ever thought once about what he was going to be dragging this nice young woman into.

    My family is from the Deep South and they’re not overt bigots, but if I’d chosen to marry a woman of another race it would have been somewhat of an issue and I’d have felt bound to at least mention that to her.

    Harry’s family are definitely straight-up, in your face bigots.  Him marrying anyone outside the narrow confines of the British ruling class, never mind an American of another race, was going to be a problem and there’s no way he didn’t know that dumb as he may be.  I don’t see how this marriage ends well, TBH

    ETA:  not to go one sided here.  She certainly must have known this was going to be a problem as well.  Unlike Harry, she seems to have some brains.

  89. 89.

    Danielx

    @Paul in KY:

    Got that right. My third grade teacher Miss Woolson, bless her heart, told my parents I was straining to read the blackboard. Couldn’t believe the difference when I got my first pair.

  90. 90.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @The Moar You Know: I don’t think anyone is suggesting we cede this fight.  We can and must fight for good, honest, contextualist history and Sex Ed, LGBTQ history, Gender, the science of Covid etc., be taught in public schools and that libraries have titles where students can expand their understanding of all of those.  But the reality is that Red States are going to ban shit where they have the numbers to do so, so we are applauding these workarounds and alternative avenues for the good information to get to kids/students.  It’s a shitty situation, but there are already experts who have lots of great educational material on Social Media, Podcasts etc., and kids/students are finding them and that is a very good thing despite the overall shitty situation that will probably go on for awhile.

  92. 92.

    UncleEbeneezer

    So my in-laws just found out that my FIL has a pension that he hasn’t gotten payments for, for the past 30 years.  $180/month and a lump sum of $30K.  We are thrilled for them!!  This will be so helpful for their waning years.  Now we have to figure out how to invest a majority and also figure out a little vacation or something they can take to treat themselves (if/when MIL is safe to travel again by train, they won’t fly).  Anyways, very exciting.

  93. 93.

    Barbara

    @Paul in KY: I think H&M are naive, but on the other hand — we are talking about his family, the only family he has.  And I just find it hard to render too harsh of a judgment on someone who is, after all, just looking for what I view as basic acceptance and support for himself and his wife, and now children.  He can’t conjure up a new, non-royal set of relatives.  And the press was horrible to all of his other girlfriends, who fit the preordained, “approved” mold.  They decided they couldn’t take it.  Don’t blame the victim, even if they should have been a little more self-aware.  The alternative was permanent loneliness and short-term relationships.  Surely it wasn’t wrong for him to aim a little higher in order not to become the next Prince Andrew.

  94. 94.

    opiejeanne

    @Danielx: It was 3rd grade when I mentioned that I was having trouble seeing the blackboard. My seat was near the front of the class. Got bifocals within a week and was, like you, amazed at what I’d been missing. I still wonder if I just didn’t notice how hard it was to read the blackboard the previous year or if something changed.

  95. 95.

    Paul in KY

    @The Moar You Know: Good points. Think her race & ‘agency’ (self-made millionaire, doesn’t require any of that royal money, been working since she was 12, very polished in any media setting) are the main things that twist them up.

  98. 98.

    Math Guy

    @SiubhanDuinne: My HS graduation was in 1975 from a small, rural Nebraska high school. Maybe we had to buy them – I don’t remember. It was a small class of about 60.

    Went to exercise for 45 minutes and the conversation has certainly taken some interesting turns.

  100. 100.

    cain

    @Another Scott: popehat has moved on to mastodon.social. You can find him there. The migration is continuing. I’m not sure about post.. I’ll make an account – but I think mastodon should be good enough.

  102. 102.

    Old School

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    So my in-laws just found out that my FIL has a pension that he hasn’t gotten payments for, for the past 30 years.  $180/month and a lump sum of $30K.

    How wonderful for them!

    Although if he was supposed to get $180/month for the past 30 years, it seems the lump sum should be over $60K.

  105. 105.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Ingraham on Respect For Marriage Act: “Whether you’re catholic or evangelical or Muslim, any serious person of faith, you will not necessarily have the rights tomorrow that you had yesterday.”

    I’d love to ask her what rights I lost yesterday.  I sure can’t think of any.  But people I care about had their rights protected, and that’s the important thing.

  107. 107.

    Paul in KY

    @Barbara: I’m glad they met and fell in love, etc. Just think he should (in hindsight) have let her know a few more of the downsides about being a ‘spare’. As I said above, maybe at that time he didn’t think he was really in that barrel (members of royal family who courtiers/media don’t really give a shit about as they know that, excepting some terrible tragedy, they’ll never come within sniffing distance of throne).

    Edit: She also appears to have not been very curious about an institution that has been paramount in Britain since 1066.

  108. 108.

    J R in WV

    @Danielx:

    My third grade teacher Miss Woolson, bless her heart, told my parents I was straining to read the blackboard. Couldn’t believe the difference when I got my first pair.

    My poor dad flunked a vision test in Kindergarten, the teacher said “Why E, your eyes are bad!” but didn’t say “Tell your parents!”

    So many years later he was with his dad in Charleston (state capitol) and asked granddad where was the Charleston Gazette newsroom. They were standing across the street from the big sign. In high school?

    I had glasses when I was in first grade. Still do. When I get up at 3am to take a leak, first I put on my glasses. Well, I get the red light flashlight pretty early also too…. don’t want to step on a cat, or …

  111. 111.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Betty Cracker: Regarding Twitter, Platformer says Musk will attempt to monetize the site by re-launching a subscription that allows people to see fewer ads and forcing users who don’t pay to opt-in to receive “personalized” ads.

    I would not be to surprise it comes out that Musk’s whole Red Pill thing is act to get the MAGA hats to pay these subscriptions because he knows they are group of suckers.  Musk’s one skill seems to be creating a cults personality around himself and Trump’s Cult of Personality is ripe for the acquisition.

  112. 112.

    Paul in KY

    @lowtechcyclist: They lost the right to smugly tell the couple that in (insert crappy state here), your so-called ‘marriage’ is not recognized and I don’t have to accommodate you.

    They love doing horrible, assholeish thing like that and now its been taken away…

  113. 113.

    J R in WV

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I’d love to ask her [Ingraham] what rights I lost yesterday.  I sure can’t think of any.  But people I care about had their rights protected, and that’s the important thing.

    Ingraham lost the potential right to put her thumb on the rights of people she despises, and press hard to squash those people she hates. Worst thing evah!!!

    These people don’t even realize that they display how despicable they are every time they open their mouths…

  114. 114.

    CaseyL

    @UncleEbeneezer: That was certainly true for me, even as a high schooler in the 1970s: I learned a lot by independently reading up on things that interested me.  Sometimes, not always, it would be something in class that got my attention and spurred me to read more on it.

    But I’ve loved reading my whole life.  That’s the thing: a lot of people just don’t.  This is not a recent phenomenon by any means.  In my college dorm room, my bookshelves overflowed with books I read for fun.  My roomie was astonished and said she only read what she had to.  This was in the late 70s!

    I supposed nowadays people turn first to social media, which is a lousy way to learn anything in depth.  But it’s a perennial problem, getting people to learn more about subjects, any subjects, beyond what they get in school.

  115. 115.

    scav

    @J R in WV: If they weren’t somehow aware of how despicable they are and are clearly seen to be, they would scream a lot less about about the mere existence of viable alternatives to their lives.  That knowledge is the burning power-cell of their panic.

  119. 119.

    opiejeanne

    @J R in WV: I don’t understand how they do not hear themselves.

    As a Methodist and not a member of the religious groups she lists as serious persons of faith, I am deeply offended by being considered unserious about my faith. As if condemning others is proof of serious faith.

  120. 120.

    piratedan

    @PAM Dirac: They’re being thorough about providing context around the releases…

    which demonstrates that some of these elected members of Congress are just flat out fucking embarrassing sycophants/lickspittles who are so far round the fundamentalist bend as to be scary…. which may serve their opponents well in the next elections as it kind of removes the marketing patina that surrounds these foofs, I’m all for that.

  124. 124.

    rikyrah

    @Barbara:

     I think H&M are naive, but on the other hand — we are talking about his family, the only family he has.  And I just find it hard to render too harsh of a judgment on someone who is, after all, just looking for what I view as basic acceptance and support for himself and his wife, and now children

     

    This was it. They were willing to do the work. ‘ The job’. But, no….that wasn’t good enough for ‘ The Firm’.

     

    I haven’t seen the documentary on Netflix. I don’t really think I need to see it. I’ve followed them from the beginning of their relationship. Since Diana died, H&M were what I got into following. And, just from an objective standpoint, you had to see how ridiculous they were being with her.

     

    As an outside observer, I don’t think I’ll ever get past:

    Them removing their security
    Them telling the press where they were in Canada
    Them taking Meghan’s name off her child’s birth certificate.
    Tyler Perry having to ‘rescue’ them and give them shelter in America.

    Will never get past that.

  127. 127.

    rikyrah

    @opiejeanne:

    As a Methodist and not a member of the religious groups she lists as serious persons of faith, I am deeply offended by being considered unserious about my faith. As if condemning others is proof of serious faith

     

    I hear you. Like those hateful clowns are the only ones ‘ serious’ about their faith?

     

    Phuck outta here.

  128. 128.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @CaseyL: I’ve been doing a lot of self-education on Feminism, White Supremacy and Trans Issues for the past 5-10 years.  It’s been mostly listening to excellent deep dive podcasts, watching videos, documentaries, reading lengthy Twitter threads and following/friend-ing numerous people on FB who work or speak regularly about these topics.

    I read Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X Kendi, and 1619 Project but that’s about it.  I have never picked up a physical book about Feminism, or Transgender Issues but I feel like I’m much more well-informed than your average Cis/Het, White Man on these things.  All of which is to say that books are just one form of media for learning.  So while the banning of books sucks and we need to fight it, we are lucky to live in a time where there are several other avenues for people to educate themselves.  I’d also add that when I look at the people of privilege that I know who are best informed on stuff that is outside of their lived-experience (white people who understand racism, Men who advocate Feminism, Cis/Het people who speak up about Trans Rights etc.) NONE of them got that way through public school classes.  All of them had an interest and explored it on their own, regardless of what their schools taught, or even BECAUSE of what their school didn’t teach them.  So I don’t think these bans will really make a huge difference.

  129. 129.

    The Moar You Know

    I don’t understand how they do not hear themselves.

    @opiejeanne: But they do.

    They not only have the right to be horrible people (nobody’s gonna take that away from them and I wouldn’t even want to try) they want the right to inflict their horribleness on everyone else they can.  The things you see as despicable and cruel they see as good and right.  I gotta be honest; I don’t know how we’re going to reconcile these two very different visions of what society should be.  Historically, the cruel and vicious have been in charge, because they’re willing to take steps to be in charge that decent people are not.  I don’t know how you fix that either.  “Educating” them is not the answer.  They know what the right thing to do is.  They just attach zero value to it.

  133. 133.

    Nora

    @Sure Lurkalot: As compared to the millions of women who discovered the day the Dobbs decision came down that they definitely didn’t have the rights they’d had for 49 years.

    That woman makes me sick.  If your religion requires that you force other people to follow your rules, whether the other people believe in your god or not, that’s not a religion, that’s bullying.

  134. 134.

    Miss Bianca

    Speaking of glasses, there was a conversation going on a couple weeks ago here about a good online source for glasses. Anyone remember what site it was? Just got a prescription myself for, you guessed it, bifocals, and wondering whether trying to order them online is a waste of time and money or not.

  136. 136.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Nora: The move where whatever oppression they want to perform becomes a tenet of their religion and is suddenly sacred… well, it’s probably the oldest move in the book, since it goes back at least to the invention of books.

  139. 139.

    Paul in KY

    @rikyrah: Good points. ‘The Work’ though, seems to involve ALWAYS making the monarch & heirs look great, even if it makes you look bad. IMO, that’s one of the finer points of being a ‘working royal’ that Harry didn’t seem to grok and pass on to Meghan.

    They (press & courtiers who are only working for monarch/heirs) really treated her like crap.

  140. 140.

    Darkrose

    @Kay: I’m kind of pissed at Swisher TBH. She completely bought into his bullshit early on, and is now Shocked! Shocked! to find that a guy who inherited a South African emerald mine, whose company was sued for egregious racism, and whose trans daughter wants nothing to do with him might possibly be a right-wing racist transphobe.

    Musk isn’t a tech genius or a brilliant engineer. He’s a bog-standard venture capitalist whose contribution to SpaceX and Tesla has been providing funding. He lied about his degrees, and the Twitter fiasco proves that he doesn’t know jack and shit about software, social media, or management. Tech journalists like Swisher pumped him up for years; the media created the monster.

  143. 143.

    Kent

    I’m not a twitter power user.  I just started looking at twitter to follow the Ukraine war.

    But I have discovered that you can block or mute any advertiser that you want and I have started doing that.   Does anyone know if this has any effect on twitter’s ad revenues or ad system?  If, for example, if everyone blocks ads from Apple does Apple find out and then get charged lower rates because less people are viewing their ads?

    I still have fun blocking ads even if it has no real effect.

  144. 144.

    The Moar You Know

     And there’s a bill to ban TikTok in Congress now. Funny, that…

    @Darkrose: there are some serious and legitimate national security concerns about TikTok, not limited to, but especially around the potential for the sort of election interference that we saw from Russia in 2016.  Well, should they desire, the Chinese have an entire platform to do it with now.  And it’s the one that all the youngs are on.  That should concern anyone.

    I admit to bias:  I fundamentally believe that no form of social media can convey benefits that outweigh its liabilities.  And those are many.

  145. 145.

    Another Scott

    @Miss Bianca: Several online eyeglass shops were mentioned.  I’ve used EyeBuyDirect.com (part of the huge Luxottica conglomerate) twice with good results.

    Good luck!

    [eta:] Progressives for me.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  146. 146.

    Elizabelle

    @Paul in KY:  The Murdoch papers are poison on Megan.  The NY Post, gag.

    Harry saw his mother killed by the media.  They chased her to her death in that tunnel.  He saw the sadness in his Aunt Margaret, who was not allowed to marry a divorced man, did marry and have a family, but seemed kind of a wealthy woman without much to do.

    He’s also familiar with the remaining European and Asian monarchies, and how their non-heirs live.

    It would seem H&M could have communicated their wishes more directly but — maybe they did and what they were proposing just.was. not.done.

    All that said, I wish they’d do something more worthwhile with their time and energy than media content.

  148. 148.

    Matt McIrvin

    @opiejeanne: I grew up around a lot of evangelical religious conservatives though not in a family of them. They live in a complete epistemic bubble–the unhinged stuff they believe is just self-evident to all normal people, as far as they’re concerned. They often accuse us of living in the bubble (or simply being blinded by a rebellious hatred of God) for not seeing it.

    So “not hearing themselves” is just not going to apply. From inside the bubble they’re just stating obvious truths.

  149. 149.

    Elizabelle

    @Miss Bianca:  Bifocals without the lines.

    I’ve always gotten my glasses at Costco.  All the bells and whistles (Transitions lenses, antiglare and reflection, progressive lenses if you like them), well made, and gently priced.  But you have to go there in person. With a current prescription.

  150. 150.

    Barbara

    @Elizabelle: You know, I know that Harry was told that the media killed his mother, but maybe it slowly dawned on him that the truth was a lot more complex — that his own family fed his mother to the media as a way of protecting his father and his creepy uncle.  Hurting some as a way of shoring up privilege and support overall but especially for the favored few.  And it wasn’t the media that denied Margaret the love of her life.  It was her sister.  He will not be the first or the last to exile himself from his toxic family.  Which doesn’t excuse the press.

  151. 151.

    DougL

    @Barbara:

    A very compassionate response. I remember the first time I considered what it must be truly like to be a royal in the UK in the modern age. What a miserable existence for a human. Shudders.

  152. 152.

    ian

    @The Moar You Know:

    This is only the second generation of British royalty that wouldn’t have had the legal right to execute her

    The British Royalty haven’t had that power since at least 1689.

    The British Bill of Rights limits what the monarchy can and cannot do, and having people executed at whim is something that is far beyond their powers.

    Edward VIII married an American woman, and this among other issues caused his resignation, but no one proposed executing the woman in question.

  153. 153.

    Barbara

    @Matt McIrvin: Right, but increasingly the bubble is being popped by adult children who won’t rinse, lather and repeat the parents’ devotion.  Which the parents blame on outsiders, of course, but still, it explains the near hysteria of the current situation.  They are losing the future, not just mine and yours, but increasingly theirs.

  155. 155.

    Another Scott

    @Miss Bianca: They’re without lines, and have a variety of focal lengths (not just 2 as in normal bifocals).  They can take some time to get used to as you sometimes have to do “chin pointing” to look through the right part of the lens without straining to focus.

    I have fairly tall lenses (about 1.75″ high) and my prescription isn’t terribly strong, so it works pretty well for me.  I have no ideal how people with “stylish” tiny frames work with progressive lenses (if at all).

    Shop around.  I looked online because the opticians I looked at only had tiny lenses at the time.  Make sure you can return/exchange them if you aren’t happy.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  157. 157.

    Darkrose

    @narya: Congratulations!

    I’ve signed up for Mastadon and Post. I have a one-strike block policy on the blue hellsite, and I view my timeline chronologically so I’m able to curate my experience pretty well, but I’m probably not leaving Twitter until a critical mass of Final Fantasy XIV fandom finds another home.

  158. 158.

    Paul in KY

    @Elizabelle: I bet they did convey their thoughts, but, once again, Harry (and by extension) Meghan are ‘little people’ in the palace hierarchy and unless they could have shown how much fluffing they were going to do for Charles/William/George, those decision makers just wouldn’t give a shit about any of their proposals.

  162. 162.

    geg6

    @Paul in KY: ​
     

    Edit: She also appears to have not been very curious about an institution that has been paramount in Britain since 1066.

    I don’t have an ounce of curiosity about the royals and never have and never will, despite my grandparents having been born in England. I totally understand why she, being an American, she doesn’t understand what’s so special about a group of people who aren’t actually running their country, who don’t really work for a living and who seem to be nothing but parasites on the backs of the British people who, for some impossible to understand reason, continue be to happy to pay to keep these deadbeats impossibly wealthy. She was used to Hollywood and thought she could handle the British press. Who, as bad as the US press is, could give their stateside brethren lessons in vileness. She also had dealt with garbage about being mixed race and thought it couldn’t possibly be as bad as in the US. She thought she knew what she was getting into. I’m really not into the royals at all, but all this victim blaming really pisses me off. The only royals I’ve ever admired are these two because they told the whole bunch to go fuck themselves. I like them a lot just for that.

  165. 165.

    Paul in KY

    @geg6: You aren’t/weren’t marrying into it :-)

    She is a very focused and busy individual and probably thought Harry would fill her in on all the details. She does say she never googled them or did any research. Maybe a staffer did a bad job of coming up with pertinent info.

    I don’t look at what I said as ‘victim blaming’. Just exercising a bit of hindsight.

  167. 167.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @geg6: one of the mild surprises of The Crown to me was that the immediate family curtsies and bows to head magoo in private

    I wonder if Charles has kept that up

  168. 168.

    Betty Cracker

    @Miss Bianca: Hubby and I have ordered many pairs of specs through Zenni.com. Hubby has a complex prescription, and I have progressives, and we’ve never had an issue. The only drawback is that they’re manufactured in China, so it takes a while to get them — two or three weeks. But it’s cheap enough that you can buy multiple pairs for what one pair would cost at LensCrafters.

  169. 169.

    Kay

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I think what you lose when you take it out of schools is the people who encounter the concepts almost accidentally, because they’re just exposed to them.

    The lady who cleans our law office told me she came to oppose the death penalty because she loves John Grisham novels. People have tons of stories like that – where they FIND a position or interest they didn’t know they had. The naturally curious and scholarly kids probably could conduct their own education online- public schools are the for the other 90% who can’t or won’t.

  170. 170.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, we don’t really know what they do in private, but imagine being a teenager and being obligated to curtsey (or bow) to your mom — even when you were pissed off at her? Remember how Nancy Pelosi invented the “fuck you” clap for Trump? Wouldn’t surprise me if Princess Anne perfected a “fuck you” curtsey for her mom.

  171. 171.

    Kay

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    One of my older sisters is a CPA. I asked her once what her favorite college course was and she said “botany”.

    Botany? She had to take a science course to get her degree and that fit her schedule. So if she hadn’t have had a baby at 18 and needed a high paying job with only an undergrad degree she might not have been an accountant- she might have been a botanist

    She encountered botany accidentally and loved it :)

  172. 172.

    Darkrose

    @The Moar You Know:

    there are some serious and legitimate national security concerns about TikTok, not limited to, but especially around the potential for the sort of election interference that we saw from Russia in 2016.  Well, should they desire, the Chinese have an entire platform to do it with now.  And it’s the one that all the youngs are on.  That should concern anyone.

    I’m not saying that there aren’t valid reasons to be wary of TikTok. Most of those concerns are around privacy and data collection, and those concerns apply to the internet more broadly. I absolutely have no confidence that Little Marco understands anything but “Wah Wah China Scary,” or the bill would not be called the  ‘‘Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act’’

    Marco doesn’t give a shit about the documented internet surveillance and influence from Russia, or the oppressive censorship of his buddy De Santis. This is all performative bullshit about kids these days and their tickety tockety with a big heaping of yellow peril.

    I admit to bias:  I fundamentally believe that no form of social media can convey benefits that outweigh its liabilities.  And those are many.

    I’ve been online since I joined Usenet in 1990; I met my wife 18 years ago on LiveJournal. I was a Twitter early adopter because of Stargate fandoms, and I’ve stayed because I enjoy the fandom, librarian, disability, and Giants baseball conversations. Social media is a vital tool for connection and communication for me, especially as a neurodivergent person who often finds in-person interaction stressful and difficult. Social media has helped me find frameworks for understanding aspects of myself, particularly around disability and gender.

    Not everyone’s experience with social media positive, and that’s fine. Maybe don’t dismiss it for everyone just because it doesn’t work for you.

  174. 174.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay: Same here! Had to take some science classes for my distribution requirements at UM, and stumbled on a botany class in my senior year and LOVED it. Had I known earlier, I might have braved college level chemistry in order to take more botany classes!

  175. 175.

    gvg

    @UncleEbeneezer: Wrong IMO. Those people are leaders but they can only lead as much as most of the population the normies let them and those people do pick up what they know mostly from public schools and the people around them.  If the public space is made less safe for minorities and less open for teachers to teach, the comfortable majority won’t even notice quite as many of their own assumptions especially when they are young enough to be the most impressionable.  So the herd won’t be quite as educated and willing to follow the most compassionate leaders.

    Not to mention it will isolate and frighten the most vulnerable. There will be some suicides over this.

  176. 176.

    evodevo

    @Sure Lurkalot: ​
      Well, yeah, Laura, if you are Catholic or Muslim, and the evangelicals take over, you definitely WILL lose your rights…that’s been the game all along…just look at the rampant anti-semitism raising its head the last few years…other groups are entering the target area…

  177. 177.

    evodevo

    @Barbara: Yes…explains a lot of their absolute desperation around getting their agendas passed into federal law…they know they are losing the young demographic, and it grates….

  178. 178.

    evodevo

    @Miss Bianca:  Yes..plants (and bacteria) are fascinating…they keep the rest of us alive and breathing, but no one gives them a second thought unless they are eating them…they can do things chemically that are astounding…and they can’t run away from threats…they have to stand and deliver…

  179. 179.

    sab

    @Kay: My baby sister was a botany and linguistics dual major. We laughed: you can talk to plants. She got a job with a service that watered plants in Boston office towers ( talking to stressed plants) and this led her into computer support stuff (talking to stressed staff while you fix their computers),at which she excels. And most people don’t.

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