Yesterday, we wondered how President Biden’s Kyiv visit would land with Russians. (Summary of the consensus: it makes Putin look like a weak chump.) Julia Davis, who runs Russian Media Monitor, has a column in The Daily Beast that confirms Russian state TV pundits are not taking it well:
In recent days, pundits and experts on Russian state television discussed the anticipated visit of U.S. President Joe Biden to Poland, confidently asserting that he would never dare travel to war-torn Ukraine. The news that Biden spent Presidents Day in Kyiv, alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, hit the Kremlin’s mouthpieces like a ton of bricks.
Davis says during a discussion on a state TV program called 60 Minutes (rip off!), host Olga Skabeeva questioned the logic of Russia providing security guarantees that they wouldn’t “whack” Biden, furiously asking guest military expert Evgeny Buzhinsky why apparently “it’s OK to threaten Putin and it’s also fine to blow up the Nord Stream?”
Translation: Putin looks weak. Also, everything is fucked up and bullshit:
Buzhinsky didn’t object to the idea of killing the American president, as long as his replacement was more in line with Russia’s interests. He wasn’t comfortable with the thought of Vice President Kamala Harris at the helm, claiming that, unlike Biden, Harris would be completely unrestrained in her response to Russia and would present an even worse option for the Kremlin. As opposed to Skabeeva’s suggestion of assassinating Biden, he regretted that the U.S. president wasn’t at least terrorized during his trip. Buzhinsky daydreamed that if Biden traveled to Ukraine by helicopter, he would have been escorted by Russian planes all the way to Kyiv, leaving him with an indelible impression.
Irritated, Skabeeva pointed out, “Following your logic, if we’re not starting this confrontation because the replacement will be even worse, then why did we even start this at all? What if everything will only get worse?”
May that become a self-fulfilling prophecy!
The hosts speculated about retaliatory strikes, such as taking out Musk’s Starlink internet. (It doesn’t sound like they fully appreciate Musk’s potential as an ego-controlled asset, even after Russia’s astounding success with Trump.) They also considered the possibility of Russia launching massive cyberattacks or refusing to renew a grain deal that will expire soon.
But mostly it was doom and gloom, according to Davis. One host called yesterday Zelensky’s “finest hour.” Another called it a “huge victory” for Biden. And it was.
Open thread.
Nettoyeur
The Russian viewing public is now learning the meaning of “squid clouds of butthurt.”
Baud
No, Russia uses the Julian calendar, so it’s completely different.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Julian? I thought he did fries.
bjacques
I’m looking forward to Putin’s Stateside fanbois weighing in.
Tankie tears are mother’s milk.
And remember kids: it’s only imperialism if it comes from the Imperial Valley region of the US. Otherwise, it’s only sparkling self-defense.
Frankensteinbeck
The idea of a black woman in charge really freaks them out, doesn’t it?
eclare
@Frankensteinbeck: Nailed it.
Geoduck
They came with a response, and are withdrawing from the last remaining nuclear missile treaty.
Roger Moore
I also think they don’t appreciate just how many satellites there are in Starlink. Russia not only can’t shoot down the more than 3500 satellites that make up the service, they probably can’t shoot down enough of them to make a noticeable difference in the service quality. Shooting at them would just piss Musk off to no real benefit. Given past Russian behavior, I almost expect them to start shooting next week.
Ken
I’m wondering what Russia’s plan (if any) to take out Starlink would be. Fragging the satellites would put a lot of debris in LEO, and cause destruction of other assets. It might even make new launches overly hazardous.
Or maybe I’m putting too much thought into this, and the plan would just be to call Musk and tell him to shut it down.
TaMara
@bjacques: Oh, they were all over twitter yesterday, criticizing the use of AF1 – thinking the 747, because they’re stupid. I’m sure they did not take the pool report well, which described Biden flying on a C-32 THEN taking a 10-hour train ride through war-torn Ukraine.
I’m sure they’ll find something to complain about to fluff Putin, but they can keep crying. President Biden looked like a boss with that move yesterday.
Betty
I am seeing pictures on Twitter of the audience as Putin went through his litany of grievances, especially about this war all being the fault of the West. No one looked very happy. Several seemed to be dozing.
TaMara
@Frankensteinbeck: The idea of ANY woman in charge scares them…a Black woman just dials it up to 11. I’m here for it.
Baud
@Betty:
Stalin would have had them shot.
Roger Moore
@Ken:
I think some kind of cyberattack is the only thing that has a remote chance of working. As I say above, Starlink has too many satellites to make shooting them all down a practical solution.
Frankensteinbeck
@bjacques:
The fundamental belief of a lot of tankies, now and for many decades past. There is a chunk of supposed liberals who believe that all international events revolve around America being an evil, oil-obsessed empire. Everything is America’s fault. They were pro-USSR back when, because America had to be the bad guy in that conflict.
OzarkHillbilly
I got up at 4 yestermorn because I couldn’t sleep. I was due to pick up the girls at 8;30 so I had a couple extra hours to surf and turf before I had to leave. About 5 I felt an itch on the right side of my neck. Reached up to scratch it and found that I had a goose egg growing there.
“WTF?” A fluid filled sack at one of my glands.
A half hour later it occurred to me I might have one on the left side too. I do.
After picking up the girls and delivering them to the loving arms of their MawMaw, I called the doc and got an appt surprisingly early. At the docs, I took off my shirt and the nurse said “WTF Tom!!! What have you been doing???” The weird thing is, I feel fine. No fever, no aches, no pains, nada. (other than my usual complaints) They took a bunch of blood and I’m supposed to get a CAT scan, which I suspect will find nothing. Maybe the blood work will show something.
Another mystery of life. I’ll let you all know when the goslings hatch.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
They’ve selected you as their host. You should be honored.
🤞
Chyron HR
At least the Germans occasionally tried to assassinate Hitler.
Kay
lol
Matt McIrvin
@Frankensteinbeck: There’s an interesting contrast here between the constant harping on femininity as weakness, in both Russia and the US right (too much tolerance for un-masculinity in America’s military!) and the image of a woman in charge as a bloodthirsty berserker.
Matt McIrvin
@TaMara: I recall reading that the C-32s, being based on the famously overpowered Boeing 757, are unusually good at evasive maneuvers. To the extent that nobody is particularly sure what will replace them, given that the 757 is out of production and modern airliner designs are more conscious of fuel efficiency.
horatius
@Roger Moore:
Of course they can shoot down all of Musk’s satellites. It doesn’t take much. Just send up a satellite with a bunch of nails in it and explode it in orbit. Easy as pie.
However, it will also destroy satellites in orbit of every country in the world and knockout gps systems and weather satellites. Not something Russia can ever recover from.
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
Don’t expect their criticism to have any kind of self-consistency; they never do. Harris would be simultaneously a bloodthirsty harpy and too weak and emotional to handle the struggle of governing. It’s the same way Obama could be simultaneously too incompetent to do anything and the leader of a nefarious liberal plot to take over the world. These criticisms are just calumnies based on gross stereotypes. They don’t have to make sense as anything but reasons to hate the person in question.
Leslie
I hope Russia does try to damage Starlink. Just enough to piss off the overgrown child and swing his sympathies back to Ukraine.
Subsole
@Frankensteinbeck: One of the many, many, many horrible things about Iraq is how thoroughly it broke some folks’ brains. It really did convince some people in my generation that the US does not – and can never – do anything good abroad.
Matt McIrvin
@horatius: The Starlink satellites are in low Earth orbit, and it’d be massive carnage there, would probably be a hazard for space stations too. But the GPS satellites are in 12-hour orbits, and regular comsats and weather satellites are generally in geosynchronous orbit, much higher; they’d be unaffected (existing ones at least).
Anonymous At Work
Roger Moore
@horatius:
That it will not do. Starlink satellites are in low earth orbit, just a few hundred miles up. Weather satellites are typically in geosynchronous orbit, about 22,000 miles up, and GPS satellites are in a weird medium orbit about 12,000 miles up.
Roger Moore
@Subsole:
My gut feeling is the people who think that way were going to come to that conclusion with or without Iraq. Yes, Iraq gave them an obvious reason for that belief, but they would have come up with some excuse anyway.
eclare
@Matt McIrvin: Same as the complaints about Obama, that he was both a militant tyrant and incredibly weak on the world stage. Remember the “apology” tour?
ETA Roger Moore beat me to it.
Princess
That Kamala Harris strikes fear in the Russians sparks joy in me.
zhena gogolia
@Nettoyeur: Uh . . . they’ve been familiar with that for a long time. It was invented there.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly:
We’ll want video of the blessed event, of course.
counterfactual
Starlink was designed before Elon’s brain melted, and had Kessler Syndrome in mind. Each Starlink satellite is tiny, and any debris from an explosion will deorbit in at most 10 years.
Going from memory, which is failing a bit as I age, each Russian anti-satellite missile is estimated to cost $20 million. Each Starlink satellite is estimated to cost $200,000, and they’ve launched over 100 in the past week. And no, it’s not simple to target a satellite and the Starlink constellation goes through a huge volume of space.
Frankensteinbeck
@Matt McIrvin:
Interesting point. I think the seeming contradiction works like this: One of the most common and deepest beliefs of misogyny is that women are inherently victims*. A woman wielding power is inherently jarring and unnatural to that perspective. Not just political, at any level down to insisting on being heard in a conversation. A woman who doesn’t just seek but wield power must be a ball-busting bitch.
*You see it in radical feminists too, who can be pretty damn misogynistic. They turn it around and blame all men for being inherently rapists. It’s picking sides in the same bigotry.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Frankensteinbeck:
Nailed it in one.
An entire worldview collapses.
James E Powell
A huge victory for Biden? Not according to right wing twitter!
It was darkly amusing reading the various ways that right wingers tried to put a negative spin on President Biden’s bold demonstration of our support for Ukraine. They’re such children.
The Moar You Know
You’re there, Skabeeva, but not actually quite there yet, because this is how the rest of the movie goes.
Why did you start this, indeed.
MC
They would like to assassinate the president during his visit and then get a more Russia-friendly replacement? What? What the fuck do they think would actually happen if they did that?
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@OzarkHillbilly:
If they’re cysts or something like that MAKE them lance and remove the damned things. I had one on my forehead back in the fall, and everyone insisted on me taking meds when all it needed was a good lancing and evacuation. It still shows up from time to time.
Next time, I follow through on my threat that involves a sterile razor blade….
Gin & Tonic
@Betty: Yup
Jeffro
I thought for sure “Not Taking It Well” was going to be about
America’s fifth columnGOP leaders, because those MFs went off. the. rails. yesterday.It’s almost funny how the Republicans have to love Putin (because trumpov does) and have to hate Biden (because he’s been so successful in derailing Putin’s invasion plans). They just have no choice, do they? No possible way to be pro-America, pro-Ukraine, pro-democracy. Just all-in on the murdering dictator so beloved by their orange god-king.
RaflW
The Kremlin’s outlet over here – Fox – isn’t taking it well either. Clearly the coordinated talking point yesterday was “why did Biden go there when Ohio is such a disaster?”*
*Note that this is likely one of the first times Fox has dared call Mike DeWine’s problem a disaster. Before Feb 20, it was just capitalism as usual, nothing to see here.
RaflW
@MC: I’m kind of impressed that they think Kamala would kick their asses even harder!
Ken
Or one of these babies. The great thing about that design is that it fits in a cubesat, so you could send up dozens in a single launch.
Frankensteinbeck
@MC:
It’s why I said Biden was more in danger from Putin’s minions than Putin. They don’t think about what would happen. Strong, heroic, manly Russia gets its way, which it deserves to get, by hitting someone. The answer is always to hit harder. Failure can only come from not hitting hard enough.
Cameron
I hope the Russian government doesn’t think too much about the assassination idea. If the objection is “Biden bad, Harris worse,” why not look at #3 and……..JACKPOT!!!!
Paul in KY
@Baud: They would not have been dozing. Even if they had to stab themselves to stay awake, they would have stayed awake.
Spanky
@MC: Bear in mind these eejits are the equivalent of Hannity and Tuckie bloviating on live TV. Not a lot of brain power on display.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of Kremlin mouthpieces not objecting to replacing Biden with a POTUS “more in line with Russia’s interests,” Florida’s own Rage Munchkin recommended himself as that candidate on Fox ‘n Fiends yesterday. (Via The Bulwark)
Well, they’ve both got nukes, you sweaty, sour-faced prick. God, I hate these assholes.
zhena gogolia
@Betty: They’re basically bribing people to come to his extravaganza at Luzhniki.
Paul in KY
@Chyron HR: Always using overly-complicated ‘Batman villain’ type stuff. Sheesh, Germans….
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: We should have a naming contest!
Gin & Tonic
The Ukrainian state railway system, called Ukrzaliznytsia (Укрзалізниця) is run by a guy named Alexander Kamyshin, who has an active Twitter presence in English (@AKamyshin) Here’s his thread on transporting POTUS.
RaflW
@Matt McIrvin: A well maintained 757 will last several more decades. And these, even longer, since they are surely going through far fewer cycles (takeoff & landing) which is the main fatigue issue.
And while I am as gung ho as anyone to get more carbon-spewing out of aviation, again, the amount of total flying vs. airliners is trivial.
Also, too, there’s no way the US will buy A321neoXLRs for this mission, even if they were assembled in Mobile, AL. Boeing isn’t even planing to design a 757 (and, maybe 767) replacement for another decade. Don’t get me started on how management has hollowed out Boeing, one dividend declaration & stock buyback after another.
prostratedragon
“That’s Life,” OC Smith
Matt McIrvin
@Frankensteinbeck: I’m thinking back to the discourse about Harris during the 2020 campaign. One of the popular lines on the US right was that Biden was a senile puppet and Kamala Harris was actually the puppetmaster pulling his strings. It was clear that they had contempt for him but they were terrified of her.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: You…you’re cancelling our beloved governor? What kind of evil wokecrtantifasocialistlgbt-ery is this?
Steeplejack
@TaMara:
Also, as Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out last night, any airplane is Air Force One when the president is on it.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
oatler
The gracelessness of the right pissing on Biden’s visit, along with gleeful hopes that Jimmy Carter hurries to Democrat Hell… I must coin a word for it…
Matt McIrvin
@RaflW: I was honestly never 100% clear on the market differentiation between the 767, 777 and 787, all of which are widebody twinjets. I guess the 787 was kind of thought of as the 767 replacement, but that hasn’t really happened because of the 787’s own troubles?
Jackie
What time is President Biden delivering his speech today?
OzarkHillbilly
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I have a genetic condition that causes cysts and tumors to grow for no apparent reason. I’ve had dozens of them removed and I have learned to live with them and only get them cut out when they get infected and after a course of antibiotics. Otherwise it’s not worth the trouble. If I were to try to remove them all any time they showed up, I’d be under the knife every other month.
At any rate, these aren’t the type of cysts or tumors I am prone to, just fluid filled sacs which at this point hardly bother me at all, just the itching. I’ll wait and see what the docs think. It may well be they will subside on their own given time.
DCrefugee
“ego-controlled” is one of the smartest phrasings I’ve seen in a long time…
cain
@Roger Moore: I have a reasonable suspicion that Musk fans are also Russian fans and going after the father figure is going to create havoc for Russian troll farms – I can see Musk making retaliatory moves that put them at a disadvantage – the American right would also have to react.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: Love it!
zhena gogolia
I don’t know if Biden’s visit has helped Ukrainian morale vis-à-vis the war, but it certainly has helped mine.
It’s like the antidote to that famous picture of TFG with Zelenskyy, and the despairing look on VZ’s face.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
eclare
@Gin & Tonic: Thank you!
VOR
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: I’ve watched enough Dr. Pimple Popper to know that you really want an expert for a cyst in a visible place. It’s not like popping a zit or squeezing out a blackhead. The cyst will recur if you don’t get the entire sac. And scarring is a possibility for self-surgery.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
That’s cool.
brendancalling
@Frankensteinbeck: I have been genuinely surprised and dismayed by some of the names who turn up as tankies. It’s sad and upsetting.
Jeffro
@Cameron: speaking of “woke” and “wokeism”, the Post has a good piece up about how it means everything and anything to GQP officials.
James Carville nails it: “The only thing that unifies [Republicans] is cultural resentment” (which is why absolutely everything is ‘woke’)
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker:
For extra credit, maybe Rhonda can list some of the reasons for that.
Frankensteinbeck
A man who sits across a long table from his advisers is a test case in cowardice. I wonder if defenestration has been so contagious lately because Putin is scared he’ll catch it?
schrodingers_cat
Biden has been a really good foreign policy president and it was one of the reasons I voted for him on Super Tuesday. I remember writing a tweet to that effect and being pilloried by the tankie left, bhakts and MAGAs. I was even accused of working for the CIA. I had to mute that tweet. Good times.
OT: The latest case of lynching from India is beyond horrific. I haven’t seen anything in our MSM about it yet.
eclare
@Gin & Tonic: That was MJ’s point, Russia is wounded *because* of Biden. Lots of derision. And a movie reference that I did not get.
WV Blondie
@Jeffro: I bet James Carville actually said: “The only thing that unifies
[Republicans][these assholes] is cultural resentment” (which is why absolutely everything is ‘woke’).prostratedragon
@Gin & Tonic: Interesting. And it looks like a really nice train.
OT—
🎶 I’m
Eating paczki,
Paczki today!
I’m eating paczki, paczki toda-a-y! 🎶
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@TaMara: I distinctly recall that “Air Force One”, while traditionally the tricked-out Boeing 747 built by Boeing for the Air Force specifically for the President’s Use, actually refers to any Air Force airplane on which the President is traveling. So if Biden was flown into Kyiv in a Piper Cub, that’d be Air Force One. (Provided that Piper Cub belonged to the United States Air Force, of course.
(ETA: and maybe I should have finished reading the thread before sticking in my oar…)
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@oatler:
“Evil” works pretty well.
Cameron
@Jeffro: It’s a libtard conjure word. All the believers know is that it’s VERY, VERY BAD. Sort of includes the entire grievance thrift shop:unwhiteness, unmaleness, uncisness,tax dollars extorted from hard-working Merkins handed over to shiftless (fill in your target of choice), and on and on and on.
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: That was awesome — thanks for the link!
Frankensteinbeck
@Cameron:
I strongly disagree. ‘Woke’ has a specific definition agreed upon by the vast majority of liberals and conservatives. It means anti-bigotry, and conservatives loathe and are infuriated by anti-bigotry. Why does everything seem to go back to ‘woke’? Because they’re fucking bigots. Hardcore, pervasive bigots angry that society no longer agrees with them, and almost all their policies are based on that.
Jeffro
@Cameron: the article lists literally everything under the sun.
Ted Cruz’s quote: “Wokeism is the Left seizing institutions of transmission of ideas and that includes education – K-12 and universities. It includes journalism. It includes entertainment – Hollywood, movies, TV, sports, music, video games. And it’s characterized by demanding one uniform view on any particular topic, engaging in brutal punishment for any who disagree, including most simply being canceled.”
So. Many. Enemies. Out There!
(Note “seizing” and “brutal” – whew! Had no idea we were such monsters! =)
Here’s a good follow-up question for ol’ Ted: “pick any one of these ‘institutions of transmission of ideas’ and tell me what its ‘one uniform view’ is on any particular topic. Go ahead, I’ll wait.”
(Or give us an example of someone who was ‘canceled’, and then tell us a little bit about how, in your view, free markets work.)
UncleEbeneezer
@eclare: This is common practice. Anything that allows them to bash marginalized groups, is what’s most important. The stereotype of the marginalized member (whether it’s Black People, Women, LGBTQ etc.) can be anything so long as it serves bashing them.
RaflW
@Matt McIrvin: The 787-8 would be the closest to the 767-3 in size (though still bigger passenger count and cargo capacity), but ‘shrinks’ of the main design, which was the 787-9, tend to be heavier per passenger. And the 787-8 had some additional bloat. So the cost per trip isn’t ideal.
It works well for longer long haul, where the superior range and more efficient engines matter more, but the 767s were just right-sized for efficient, frequent east coast transatlantic trips.
cain
Except with few exceptions – I think that’s true. The U.S.’s foreign policy especially in trying to cage the USSRs have been myopic at best.
I don’t think China is a better alternative to be frank or any other country for that matter. But we can push the U.S. to be better – where Chinese do not as much agency for that in their govt.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jeffro:
Right. Anti-bigotry.
IE, their bigotry is not accepted.
Society itself has left them behind. They’re not losing, they have lost the culture war, which is why they’re trying to enforce it with laws. Twenty years ago, they wouldn’t need to pass laws to stop gender nonconformity. They would let social abuse do it.
Again, they’re really fucking pissed that they’re being told their bigotry is wrong.
There is real social push back. They are mocked. In some extreme cases they can lose their jobs. Actually important people have been fired for sexual assault! They personally get criticized and corrected for casual bigotries like jokes about men in dresses!
There is no confusion on this. They’re bigots, majority society has decided their bigotry is unacceptable, and they’re foaming at the mouth enraged about it. It was already a nightmare for most of them when a black man became president.
brantl
@Baud: Stalin would have their names efficiently taken down, by efficient secret police; Putin? To dream the impossible dream…..
Cameron
@Frankensteinbeck: I think there are two types of rightwingers. The more intelligent ones are the people you describe, and their response to being asked about wokeness is defensive snarling to distract from their sordid value system. The pure followers really haven’t given it much thought, and their response is more likely to be “huh?”
Immanentize
Not only a great president, but the greatest?
cain
I’m reasonable certain that the universal view is that Ted Cruz is a wanker.
TaMara
@TaMara: Is everyone under the impression that I did not know that the C-32 was AF1? It was the putin loving rightwingers who didn’t seem to realize this.
I’m fully aware that AF1 is whatever plane the Pres is on…I’m assuming if for some reason he commandeered my next flight to LA, we would all be flying on AF1 😁😘
Cameron
@Immanentize: I’m so old I remember Billy Beer.
Frankensteinbeck
@Cameron:
They don’t have to. For the vast majority of them, the reaction is simple and emotional. It needs no thought. They are repulsed by liberal acceptance of diversity, and they have all encountered it. It is everywhere. Cruz is right. They can’t engage in any entertainment medium without seeing women and blacks in roles traditionally reserved for men. Their children are watching shows with gay or nonbinary characters in them – especially lesbians. Girl-girl relationships are utterly mainstream in 10+ cartoons these days, and appear explicitly in several of the most popular. It’s brought up regularly in the news. Their men have been rejected by a woman for being a bigot. It’s why they’re pushing censorship so hard. Only the most extremely insulated never encounter diversity these days, and it’s most prolific in children’s entertainment and education.
Betty Cracker
@prostratedragon: My husband’s relatives probably are too. Where we live, we’d have to make them ourselves.
Cameron
@Frankensteinbeck: Not a coincidence that a teacher can get hit with felony charges for bringing unapproved books into a classroom here in Florida.
Marc McKenzie
@Frankensteinbeck: Yes. But to be fair, it also freaks out quite a few folks over here too.
UncleEbeneezer
Ken
But that’s not wokeness, it’s more like, oh, the fine-structure constant is 1/137.036; a fundamental principle of the universe.
randy khan
This sounds like more honest commentary than we’re likely to hear about on Fox News, which I assume is still asking why Biden hasn’t gone to Ohio.
cain
@Betty Cracker: If they are so gravely wounded right now – guess how that came about, eh? Moron.
Redshift
@Jeffro:
Good, hopefully it’ll get through to some of the non-politically-obsessed.
Every term the right manufactures a grievance about starts out with the real meaning (in this case, they hate the idea of fighting bigotry) but in their bubble quickly morphs into meaning “everyone we don’t like.” “Bias,” political correctness,” “socialism,” “cancel culture,” even “liberal,” it goes back decades. Rufo was explicit about this with CRT, and pundits still couldn’t figure it out.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ken:
Betty Cracker
According to CNN, Biden’s speech in Warsaw starts at 11:30 AM ET. There was a clip of a motorcade in Warsaw that went by what looked like a palm tree. Does Poland have palm trees? It was dark, but it sure looked like a palm tree!
Steeplejack
@TaMara:
I think everyone was correctly ragging on the right-wingers, not you.
dnfree
@schrodingers_cat: That’s just awful. It is appalling how opening the door to bias even a crack at the highest levels of government enables a flood of terrorism. It’s like Pandora’s box.
Cameron
@Ken: Wokeness vs. Wankness?
Redshift
@TaMara:
That would be cool, he should do that! Is loved to be able to say I got to ride on AF1. 😁
And like the presidential helicopter is Marine One, Joe should institute a name for the train the president is riding on.
cain
@Ken: True. but I’m very woke to Cruz being a wanker.
LiminalOwl
@Baud: Putin will defenestrate them.
@Matt McIrvin: Well, the Night Witches… Or, more to the point, doesn’t that dichotomy mirror the Orthodox/Catholic binary view of women in general?
Frankensteinbeck
@Redshift:
Three, and arguably four out of five meant anti-bigotry from the start. ‘Socialism’ means ‘might help someone other than me’ to them. If they paste these terms on everything, it’s because they do have a consistent philosophy. They’re asshole bigots. Anti-bigotry IS the core of everything they hate.
Ksmiami
@Nettoyeur: or FAFO… maybe they should stop digging the hole they’re in…
frosty
@Immanentize: I was when Carter’s beer deregulation would come up. Huge impact!
Another Scott
@Roger Moore: +1
A jackal downstairs (Carlo the Jackal??) pointed us to the Frontline interviews for their episode on Putin and the Presidents. I’ve only seen the excellent Ioffe interview thus far, but she makes that point very forcefully.
Cheers,
Scott.
horatius
@counterfactual:
My point was that there’s no way to do precision strikes to take out apartheid princeling bitchboy’s space toys without taking a sledgehammer to the near earth orbit and pissing off the entire world.
Redshift
@Frankensteinbeck: And it’s why they made up the vile “groomers” slur (and liberal “indoctrination.) It can’t be possible that their children (and masses of other people’s children) could learn about the world and reject their cramped worldview, or that people around them have been gay or trans or nonbinary all along and were just forced into the closet, it must be that someone is corrupting them to turn them into these terrible things!
Ksmiami
@horatius: it would be a declaration of war on countries across the globe and Russia would be destroyed.
Geoduck
@Betty Cracker: Lots of places insist on importing palm trees and keeping them alive. I live in Washington State, and you can see many scattered around my town. (Mostly the smaller kind, true, not the tall stereotypical variety.)
Origuy
Twitter thread from the director of the Ukraine rail system describing the preparations for Biden’s trip.
frosty
@frosty: I was *wondering* when. Sheesh.
Frankensteinbeck
@Another Scott:
That was something I saw in another article trying to explain Russian culture and why they put up with Putin. Lying, and he said the stereotype was ‘what you say at the kitchen table is different from what you say on the street’ is considered the norm. It’s part of how society works.
lowtechcyclist
@Subsole:
Can you blame them? We spent the Cold War propping up every last ‘anti-Communist’ tinhorn dictator in the Third World, and of course there was our Vietnam intervention (which wound up enveloping Laos and Cambodia as well (to especially tragic results in the latter).
We had a brief interval in the 1990s when we weren’t actively doing any of these things, and then along came Shrub and his need to one-up his daddy.
I differed from them in that I didn’t feel that we couldn’t have a foreign policy that was on the side of good rather than evil. But damned if we weren’t right back to being the Bad Guys. And of course our military involvement in that region finally ended only when Biden had the guts to pull us out of Afghanistan just a year and a half ago.
Ksmiami
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: the MAGAs are irredeemable and we need to make them irrelevant.
Princess
@Jeffro: This is such a tell from Cruz: “Engaging in brutal punishment for any who disagree, including most simply being canceled.”
What’s this so-called brutal punishment? We choose not to listen to them. They’re such a bunch of screaming toddlers. WAAAAAHHHH! Listen to MEEEEEEE!!!11!1!!!11!!!!!
Geminid
@TaMara: Two pool reporters flew with President Biden to Poland, and then accompanied him by train to Kyiv. One was an AP reporter and he contributed to an AP story about the trip published last night.
The C-32 carrying the party took off from Andrews Air Force Base at 4:15 am, and made a quick refueling stop in Germany. It was designated “SAM 060,” SAM standing for Special Air Mission. The plane’s transponder was turned off for the four hour leg from Germany to Rzeszow, Poland.
The AP story also covers Biden’s time in Lyiv and is quite good. I found it reprinted in the Times of Israel. There was a very good picture of Presidents Zelenskyy and Biden standing in front of the white, gold capped Saint Michael’s Cathedral.
An interesting detail: just as the cathedral bells were ringing at 11:30am Kyiv time, air raid sirens sounded. The English version of the warning that came over reporters’ phones was voiced by actor Mark Hamill. The all clear was given as Biden’s train left the Kyiv station just after 1pm. Hamill concluded this announcement with, “May the Force be with you.”
Ken
Tricky, since none of the armed services run trains. I suppose we could call it Army One, since it’s a ground vehicle, though that conflicts — when the President’s on an Army aircraft, it becomes Army One.
Redshift
@Another Scott:
It would be nice to think Americans’ eyes would be opened a little by experiencing the same thing with conservatives…
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Jack E. Smith![]()
(@7Veritas4) tweeted at 5:25 PM on Mon, Feb 20, 2023:
Tucker Carlson and Fox News were caught intentionally spreading the Big Lie for ratings.
Today, Kevin McCarthy gave them exclusive access to 40K hours of J6 footage.
The irresponsibility on display here…is breathtaking.
Jack E. Smith![]()
(@7Veritas4) tweeted at 6:43 PM on Mon, Feb 20, 2023:
The J6 committee had access to it.
The DOJ has it.
Kevin said he wanted to make it available to the public but only gave it to Fox News.
For reasons we all know.
schrodingers_cat
@dnfree: It is more government sponsored (ruling party) than government enabled. The perpetrator is a member of Bajrang Dal which is a part of the Sangh parivar (Sangh family)
The BJP is the political arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or Sangh) for short.
Jeffro
@Princess: oh I know! I actually laughed when I read that, but it’s because I was picturing Cruz trying to make his patented ‘deadly earnest’ face while describing “brutal” wokeism and cancel culture.
yes, Ted…it’s just unbelievably brutal when nobody wants to listen to Ted Nugent or read ‘The Bell Curve’ or whatever. LOL
schrodingers_cat
@lowtechcyclist: He got zero credit from your tankie friends for getting out of Afghanistan.
lowtechcyclist
@RaflW:
Cleek’s Law needs an upgrade. It’s not so much that the wingnuts are against whatever the libs are for, and vice versa, upgraded daily. It’s that the wingnuts’ cause du jour is whatever they think will own the libs today, whether or not the libs have even thought about it yet, let alone taken a position on it.
And of course whether or not it contradicts whatever stance the wingnuts were taking on that or on anything else yesterday, because owning the libs today is more important to them than being consistent across even short periods of time.
Redshift
@Frankensteinbeck:
Bigotry is at the core but it’s not the only thing at the core. They’re also selfish and devoted to the idea that money is the only measure of value. (There was that interesting article about how being a free-market fundamentalist leads to anti-science views.) And bigotry is a major component of the authoritarian impulse, but it’s not the entirety of it.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat: You must have somebody else in mind. You gonna name three, you closet fascist?
ETA: Hey, if you’re gonna make up stuff about me, I can sling mud too.
Mr. Bemused Senior
In other news, George Santos admits he is a terrible liar.
He aspires to become a better liar. /snark
sab
@MC: Take out Biden and then Kamala and we are at Qevin. Can’t get more Russiophile than that.
Jinchi
@Roger Moore: All Putin needs to do is declare that Ukraine’s access to Starlink is an unacceptible escalation that will trigger a nuclear response.
That will stoke Musk’s sense of self importance and his constant fears WW3.
He’s surrounded by trolls who think ChatGpt could save the world by using racist slurs. I’m sure they could convince him that he could personally save us all by cutting off access.
Mimi Haha
@Jeffro:
Ted Cruz is Woke. Pass it on.
Cameron
@rikyrah: In the spirit of the Speaker’s dedication to an informed citizenry, perhaps the President could authorize release to any person or organization interested in these recordings.
Bex
@Betty Cracker: Rage Munchkin should be our nickname for that guy.
rikyrah
Barbara Lee for US Senate (D-CA) (@Needle_of_Arya) tweeted at 5:08 AM on Tue, Feb 21, 2023:
they really do just let US Senators use a relative’s address as voting address to prove that they are a voter, a resident, and eligible to serve as senator from that state, when it’s clear that they don’t actually live in that residence
(https://twitter.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1627988544986972160?t=0w26CnvP-kJLqRKMbfaYmg&s=03)
Jinchi
@Mr. Bemused Senior: No /snark needed. He really does. want to be a better liar.
Timill
@Ken: USATC would like a word…
Kathleen
@OzarkHillbilly: Hoping for a great outcome for you.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: Pics, please
rikyrah
I am so glad people called out this clown.
Matthew Schmitz (@matthewschmitz) tweeted at 8:05 AM on Mon, Feb 13, 2023:
The Democratic party is increasingly divided—between a white, woke, wealthy class of donors and activists, and its poorer, more diverse, and more culturally conservative voters.
Call out 1
Biden/Obama/HRC/Harris Democrat (@KTforBiden) tweeted at 7:01 AM on Tue, Feb 21, 2023:
You mean a divide between Socialists/BernieBros who hate the Dem party & Dems? Between do-nothing fauxgressive activists and the ACTUAL progress of real Dems?
The Dem Party itself is not divided, it’s just under attack by loud socialists who want to take control of the Dem party!
Call Out 2
Democrats Deliver (@truthjusticehph) tweeted at 11:52 PM on Mon, Feb 20, 2023:
The Democratic Party has never been more united, but never let facts get in the way of your narrative. God forbid you actually cover the fractured GOP and it’s consistent losses bc it appeals to a very small basis of very angry people. Mostly white.
Immanentize
@Cameron: I had a can of Billy Beer that I kept, but my nephew drank it.
rikyrah
No Lie Told:
Barbara Lee for US Senate (D-CA) (@Needle_of_Arya) tweeted at 5:01 AM on Tue, Feb 21, 2023:
This entire framing paradigm is white-centered and written by a Berniebro.
The ‘conservatives’ in this scenario are white, left-populist Millennials, locked in conflict with Black & Latino voters who live in the real world and who will not flip conservative as they grow older.
(https://twitter.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1627986782448144389?t=KMou8jQ4K04ZxyPWcYJilA&s=03)
Immanentize
@frosty: Did you wake up this morning and get yourself a beer?🎶
Kathleen
@Cameron: She didn’t even give him the courtesy to address him as “Governor Rage Munchkin”. Oh the incivility!
rikyrah
Debby Williams![]()
![]()
![]()
(@dwilliams1210) tweeted at 7:08 AM on Tue, Feb 21, 2023:
Wisconsin voters on Tuesday will cast their primary ballots in what’s turned into an expensive and high-stakes battle for control of the Supreme Court in a key battleground state… https://t.co/rl7rjIXxHO
(https://twitter.com/dwilliams1210/status/1628018914276921344?t=5x-uji7fhxceqsJ0u0bc7A&s=03)
UncleEbeneezer
@Frankensteinbeck: This. I’m currently finishing up reading Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women & The Politics of White Supremacy and one of the things it really highlights is how much the use of “Socialism” and “Communism” by the right-wing was always intertwined with their concerns about school integration, inter-racial marriage, etc. The two really go hand in hand in the history of organizing on the Right. I always suspected as much because clearly the thing they hate about Communism/Socialism is the thought of those people getting something, anything from their precious, white tax dollars. You really can’t separate anti-Communism/Socialism from White Supremacy/Racism (anti-Blackness, anti-Semitism, Sinophobia, Xenophobia). They have always gone hand-in-hand with anti-Communism/Socialism being used to provide cover for more transparent White Supremacy. Blatant White Supremacy will turn some people off, but many of those people will jump right in if you just change the framing of the exact same goals (banning textbooks, opposing integration etc.) if it’s framed as fighting the threat of Communism/Socialism.
JanieM
@Betty Cracker:
@Geoduck:
I was surprised to find palm trees in Ireland the first time I went. Don’t know how Poland’s climate compares to Ireland, but Ireland is very wet and doesn’t get very cold. I think there’s even maybe an island nearby that grows them for sale? (Not going to google…..so take it for what it’s worth.)
patrick II
@Frankensteinbeck:
That theory sense for a while when we went after the oil in Iraq and threatened Iran.
Bex
@prostratedragon: I’ll join you! I have a box of the raspberry-filled variety.
Nettoyeur
@Baud: No. They changed to Gregorian after the Revolution.
Matt McIrvin
@TaMara: No, I was assuming everyone knew that.
And indeed the C-32s are used by the Vice-President and/or First Lady most of the time, but the President will use them as circumstances warrant.
Kathleen
Nettoyeur
@Betty: Be careful. Eastern European culture does not include smiling except at family and friends. They think American smilers are goofy.
Ken
Cool bit of history! So Army One would work, though ATC One sounds more exciting.
eclare
@UncleEbeneezer: I watched the first episode of Fight the Power yesterday and LOVED it. It brought so many of the early threads of hip hop together in a way I had not realized. Thanks for the rec!
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Will these be the Geese That Lay the Golden “Blech”?
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
The fella who assassinated Gandhi was from RSS.
delphinium
@Gin & Tonic: Awesome! Loved that in his first tweet he says “Grab some popcorn, Amtrak”.
Is this the same railways guy that Letterman spoke to when he did his show in Ukraine?
Barbara
@Another Scott: Very interesting. More interesting to me, however, is that the former Soviet satellites all seem to have — even if not uniformly — adapted to to western European norms. Hungary stands out as the exception. I had a friend who worked for an American conglomerate food company who found himself stationed in Poland within a couple years after the wall came down. He told us how difficult it was to break through to people whose work lives had been very rigid, compartmentalized — people frequently responded to requests by explaining all the things that weren’t part of their job, even if it was clear he was the boss and working for the new owner. Things like, if you are the only one in the office and others are at lunch, you should answer the phone even if answering the phone isn’t in your list of duties. It’s fair to say that somehow these nations have moved forward in ways that Russia has definitively not done. It’s like anytime the thaw starts moving in Russia’s direction some lizard brain imperial impulse makes sure to stomp all over it by doing things like invading another satellite. Chechnya, Georgia — and now, Ukraine. I can only hope that Ukraine breaks the machine for good, that even if it remains illiberal it finally realizes it can’t insist that its former satellites remain client states following its demands.
patrick II
@Roger Moore:
My gut feeling is that one shouldn’t declare war on a country based on lies and give people a real reason to think that your country had nefarious motives and then claim they would have thought that way in any case. It is poor long term strategy.
schrodingers_cat
@cain: Yep. He was. He is a hero to die-hard Sangh members like Mr. Modi.
Paul in KY
@cain: Oh, you woking woker!!! Telling the truth on Cancun Ted!
UncleEbeneezer
@eclare: Glad you enjoyed it. I’m really enjoying the series too. It’s a pretty great example of the kind of contextualized history documentary that Conservatives will absolutely wet their pants over.
Paul in KY
@Cameron: It was good for hucking it at someone (if full).
schrodingers_cat
@lowtechcyclist: Biden got no credit from the anti-war left for pulling out of Afghanistan. That is a fact.
Good to know that they are no friends of yours.
Steeplejack
@Nettoyeur:
Maybe give your snarkmeter a whack to make sure it’s working.
Paul in KY
@Frankensteinbeck: Hopefully that will be in his obit & hopefully I’ll be around to read it.
cain
@cain: Whoops we’re talking about Mahatma Gandhi – I realize there was a number of other Gandhis that were assassinated.
lollipopguild
@JanieM: Southern Ireland and SW England both benefit from the Gulf Stream I have seen palm trees(small ones) in photos of SW England.
Qrop Non Sequitur
I’m old enough to remember when “woke” was called “PC.” I’m even old enough to remember when it was called “respectful.”
Freemark
@lowtechcyclist: Just to be clear it hasn’t ended. It’s just been severely reduced. Which is a good thing. But definitely not ended.
Barbara
@Roger Moore: I continue to be pissed that GWB was allowed by our constitutional form of government to impose violence and mayhem wherever he felt like, based on lies and fabricated evidence, just so that he could address psychic wounds, his father’s at the hands of Saddam Hussein, and his own for not living up to his father’s example. It’s disgusting, it hurt a lot of people and it really should be embarrassing to us as a nation, even if not quite so obvious as the embarrassment of having Trump as president.
Paul in KY
@Redshift: Choo Choo 1
brantl
Pissantliness?
Qrop Non Sequitur
Anti-war left here. Biden gets full marks for this. No notes.
cain
@schrodingers_cat: Obama didn’t get any either for pulling out of Iraq – it’s almost like they have an agenda with their complaints!
lowtechcyclist
@UncleEbeneezer:
IME, they can tolerate the truth about slavery a lot better because that was A Long Long Time Ago.
There are plenty of us still alive who remember Jim Crow.
Cameron
Totally OT. Any chance of a thread on the President’s speech?
trollhattan
@Frankensteinbeck:
“Giving us either Obama or Hillary, okay, but combining them with Harris? Nyet!”
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
It’s terror that if you put a strong woman in charge they are going to come after all the macho men in the world for being themselves. And they won’t stop until every last one is deflated into a pile of flop sweat on the floor. And that means them, because they know who they are and what they have said and done in the past.
Ruckus
@James E Powell:
They’re such children.
What do you have against children……
jeffreyw
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@MC: Exactly. There are plenty of Putin curious Republican leaning semi-normies who would switch on a dime to extreme Russia hate if they assassinated a US president. I HATED Trump. But if any country had ordered his assassination, that would not be allowed to stand. At that point, its an attack on the US, not the individual. Granted, the true Tankies and Q-cultists would not have that reaction. They would cheer. But they would be in for a rude awakening when normally sympathetic neighbors start screaming for Russian blood.
Qrop Non Sequitur
If you mistake cruelty for masculinity, of course the people working to stop cruelty are attacking masculinity.
jeffreyw
Live Cam Mardi Gras Bourbon Street
UncleEbeneezer
@lowtechcyclist: Yup. And there are actual pictures from Jim Crow, showing some of their parents/grand-parents doing horrific things.
Brachiator
@jeffreyw:
Waiting to see which Republican will be stupid enough to call for eliminating the EPA.
Jackie
A bit of news during Biden’s speech: he announced the U.S. will host the 2024 NATO Summit.
J R in WV
@Princess:
Practical reason #475,234 to vote for Kamala for President when the time comes, if you ask me.
Qrop Non Sequitur
In their heart of shriveled hearts, isn’t that what they all want? Even Rick Perry was able to remember he wanted to eliminate it.
cain
@Brachiator: start running pro-EPA ads in Ohio, showing what the EPA is doing.
Then start talking about how Scott wants to sunset the EPA.
ETA – oh yeah! #200!! (add: kool-aid man breaking through a wall)
Layer8Problem
@Ken: There was this outfit too: the U. S. Military Railroad. But I think they wrapped up operations after Appomattox.
They had their name on the sides too so Confederates or Czarists knew who they were.
Jowriter
@Geminid: That last sentence brought tears to my eyes. Indeed.
Ken
@jeffreyw: Fox pivot to screaming about federal overreach, state sovereignty, and the weaponization of the government in ten, nine, eight….
trollhattan
@jeffreyw:
Good. Hope they demand a thorough site investigation–nature and extend of contamination in soil gas, soil, groundwater–and restoration to pre-accident conditions.
If contamination reaches groundwater it will be complicated and expensive. The folks of that town deserve it, regardless of cost.
Paul in KY
@Another Scott: Back in one of my political science courses, Dr. Yanarella taught that socially, we were much closer to China than to Russia (USSR then).
Qrop Non Sequitur
The right to act when jurisdictions intersect always devolves to whichever level of government will do what Repulicans want. It’s the law libtards.
Cameron
Looks like Russia gets a moment in the sun this afternoon. UNSC meeting on Nord Stream at 3. Probably sound and fury, but not much else.
sab
Qrop Non Sequitur
It always fucks with me when I see this because my first impulse is always Halo’s “United Nations Space Command.”
Tony G
@bjacques: Marjorie Taylor Greene has already reacted to Biden’s visit to Kyiv by threatening to have Georgia (or at least non-urban parts of Georgia) secede again. (I’m pretty sure that she’s never heard of Sherman’s March to the Sea — or anything else about the Civil War.). Somehow I suspect that she’s not talking about putting her own personal ass in danger.
lowtechcyclist
@Brachiator:
“All of them, Katie.”
The only reason they ‘want’ Biden to visit the site of the train derailment (they don’t really) is because they think they can score some incredibly stupid cheap points because he was in Ukraine and not in Ohio. Two days ago, they didn’t give a damn about the derailment.
And they certainly didn’t want Biden’s Administration to have any powers to bring a corporation to heel over something like this, and they still don’t.
Tony G
@lowtechcyclist: Most of them have wanted to eliminate the EPA since the seventies. To much Big Gummint.
Old School
@jeffreyw:
You could have given a warning that the camera is pointed directly at the “Nipple Glitter” booth.
(And that it isn’t being utilized currently.)
Cameron
@Tony G: MTG – more toxic than anything Norfolk Southern was carrying.
sab
@cain: The problem with the news coverage is they keep saying “EPA” when there are two EPAs. ” Ohio EPA” which is a lying captive of industrial interests, and Federal “EPA” which is actually trying to protect us.
When news reports say EPA says no problem they mean Ohio EPA. I don’t know if they have let the feds in yet.
When Ohio EPA says they tested 500 houses and air is fine, remember that it’s February and winter here and nobody has their windows open to let in toxic breezes.
Barbara
@Tony G: Well, what I read was that she wanted to divide whole states into red and blue. I have no idea what she would do with states that have statewide elected officials in both parties, like Georgia. If Montana and Wyoming want to to pay their own freight — well, I would definitely miss the national parks is all I can think by way of opposition. And no, I don’t want that, I think it’s an exceptionally stupid idea that is unlikely to reflect well on her. I have this dream that eventually someone like her or maybe Marco Rubio will say something that is so stupid even their own supporters will wonder about following the lead of someone who is that stupid. Evidently I overestimate the average intelligence of their supporters.
Matt McIrvin
@TaMara: …though, to be super-duper-pedantic, “Air Force One” is whatever Air Force plane the President happens to be on. That’s why the helicopter carrying the President is usually called Marine One or Army One, because that branch of the service is operating it.
Richard Nixon flew on a commercial flight on one occasion while he was President, more or less as a publicity stunt, and it had the call sign Executive One. So I guess that is what they’d use if the President commandeered a commercial flight.
Tony G
@Roger Moore: Putin versus Musk. Clash of the narcissists.
sab
Dave Yost, Ohio AG, says Buttigieg should resign because he didn’t comment before he knew what was going on. Same Dave Yost who said immediately that no ten year old in Ohio was raped and then had to backtrack completely a month later when a guy pleaded guilty and she had had an abortion.
Qrop Non Sequitur
Benghayzi?
These people seriously don’t respect any sort of professional process. Just shoot from the lips…
trollhattan
@sab: Ohio EPA? Checks out, Randy Newman even did a song.
Jackie
Great news for Jen Psaki fans – which includes me:
“Inside with Jen Psaki” will air on MSNBC Sundays at noon and debut March 19 featuring one-on-one interviews with newsmakers and political analysis from the former White House press secretary.”
snip
“I’m very conscious of the fact that people know who I am because I was standing behind a podium speaking on behalf of Joe Biden,” Psaki said as part of an interview given to The New York Times this week promoting the launch of the show. “I am not going to gratuitously attack him, nor am I going to gratuitously applaud him. … If he deserves applause, I will applaud him. If he deserves critique, I will critique him.”
Linked from The Hill as there is no paywall.
https://thehill.com/homenews/3867752-jen-psakis-msnbc-show-to-launch-next-month/
Frankensteinbeck
@oatler:
They’re assholes.
Paul in KY
@UncleEbeneezer: Or maybe them.
trollhattan
Meanwhile, in TateTown…. You hate to see it.
“Controversial influencer” is definitely appearing on my next business cards.
Qrop Non Sequitur
No, that’s already in use; applicable though it may be.
zhena gogolia
@Jackie: Disappointed in her. Another hack.
sab
@trollhattan: Every state had rivers burning back then. But ours got the news. “Burn on Great River…Cuyahoga River goes smoking through my dreams.”
sab
Duplicate
zhena gogolia
Lincoln Project did a good job with this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sv_1ekXc4o
Cameron
@trollhattan: I’m reminded of the National Lampoon ad: learn Euphemism, the language of evasion!
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
The reports on Biden’s recent trip specifically noted that the plane which flew the president to Europe was not designated Air Force One. Was this not an Air Force plane?
Was the train Biden travelled on designated Choo Choo One?
Tony G
@Barbara: Yes, I’m sure that entire states seceding was what MTG had in mind (although I suspect that there’s little relationship between her words and any cognitive activity). I excluded “urban areas” of Georgia because — in an alternate universe in which secession was a serious idea instead of a meaningless slogan — she would have to take into account the fact that the Atlanta metropolitan area (full of Those People) contains more than half the population of Georgia. In the “minds” of MTG and her idiot followers, non-white residents of Georgia (and other states) are not really human and should be ignored or, in necessary, repressed by violence. To the extent that her gibberish means anything at all, she’s talking about bringing back Jim Crow (and maybe even slavery) in the states of Real America like Georgia. She is what those idiots voted for.
Jackie
@zhena gogolia: How so? She’s appeared as a commentator on various shows and remains the Jen Psaki we (I) respected when she was with the Biden administration.
eclare
@zhena gogolia: That was good.
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: I can only hope that Romanian jails are nasty! Especially for them.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: Well, they must have made an exception for super sekrit travel.
Paul in KY
@Brachiator: I hope the train was designated as such. Can add that to my resume…
zhena gogolia
@Jackie: She takes jabs at Biden and both-sideses stuff. Not interested in her further career. She was great as press secretary, as pundit, not so much.
rikyrah
@jeffreyw:
Has the Governor of Ohio declared a State of Emergency yet?
sab
@sab: Mis-spoke. Big river, not Great river. Also too, the river is not that big. Ohio River is much bigger.
Gravenstone
As if Russia has that sort of air superiority over Ukraine. The cheerleaders clearly don’t understand the limits of their own team.
Qrop Non Sequitur
I didn’t see any jabs in the excerpt. It was all theoretical.
sab
@rikyrah: Last I heard he thinks this is a minor problem. He does not want Federal funds to be necessary (we are going for another tax cut here, because 4% is too damn high for our rich folks.) He has so far refused any federal help.
I am not complaining- he accepted Obama care funds and Infrastructure funds. If the people in a county who voted against the Federal government don’t get Federal money I am fine with that.
Gravenstone
@Geoduck: On the drive in this morning I was listening to an 80s album that has a general theme of impending nuclear apocalypse (Planet P Project). Start up my computer, open CNN and am greeted with news of Putin withdrawing from that treaty. Even though he’s just posturing, I really don’t need the societal angst of my teen years to make a comeback. Still, it’s nice to see the message of Joe’s Ukrainian visit was clearly received.
Princess
@jeffreyw: Glad the EPA is going to get Norfolk Southern to do the clean-up and pay costs.
And now we know why the GOP wants to get rid of the EPA.
Jackie
@zhena gogolia: You’re welcome to your opinion, of course, but I haven’t seen her attack Biden, or any Democrats to any great degree. When she does speak out against someone, it’s been basically the same complaint generally voiced here, for the most part.
schrodingers_cat
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Good on you. If any prominent anti-war left person has given Biden credit for pulling out of Afghanistan I have to yet see it.
Josie
This is an interesting post from Political Wire:
“The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group accused the country’s defense minister and its highest-ranking general of treason on Tuesday, intensifying the most high-profile dispute in the Russian forces since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began,” the New York Times reports.
I don’t receive the NYT, so can’t read the entire article. I hope it’s true and look forward to hearing more about Russians in disarray.
Cameron
@Josie: Sounds like a classic invitation to ‘rooting for injuries.’
StringOnAStick
@Betty Cracker: It was probably in a huge pot and normally spends the winter inside a conservatory, but they proudly brought it out to display for POTUS. Being a horticultural-American myself, I get the lure of growing that special exotic that thrills me but can’t survive without extraordinary measures, though I have weaned myself off it. I’m not saying I’ve conquered it, but it is under control thanks to my inherent practicality and freaking out about drought conditions being apparently permanent now.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@schrodingers_cat: Define prominent.
Eta: Bernie Sanders work for you?
Here you go.
sab
The other Ohio industry fire. That was in Bedford, an industrial suburb here. My husband worked in industrial Bedford for two years in his twenties. He has PTSD from the experience. Two guys had their hands crushed in equipment in his company when he worked there. He is past 70 now and still has nightmares about that job. Different company though.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
Funny, most news reports mentioned Air Force One. But a few got it right:
NBC.
Super duper secret.
Chief Oshkosh
@jeffreyw: Just nationalize the fuckers.
sab
@Chief Oshkosh: If we nationalize then we pay. I would rather make the stockholders pay, and then nationalize when the company goes broke from paying for damages they caused.
schrodingers_cat
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Thanks I will read it later.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@schrodingers_cat: Here’s the Krope notes version:
sab
@sab: If DeWine accepts federal money then he has to accept that the RR did something wrong. He ain’t gonna do that.
Qrop Non Sequitur
This is clearly Biden’s fault for not overstepping his Constitutional authority and regulating the Railroad, ergo we should end all regulations and leave everything to the private sector because only they can regulate themselves.
sab
@sab: His current concern from working in Bedford is mesothelioma. I figure that he would have died from it years ago if he was in line for that horrible condition. Although he was exposed to the stuff that caused it. Just another healthcare issue to worry about. He likes those.
geg6
@sab:
EPA has told OH EPA to get out of the way:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/21/epa-ohio-train-derailment-cleanup/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F392f4a5%2F63f4fdc21b79c61f87a0371f%2F5bb0db1eade4e2323ef0321f%2F29%2F72%2F63f4fdc21b79c61f87a0371f&wp_cu=1aae3d01763246b7051692757fda10cb%7C6e214596-0ecc-11e0-a478-1231380f446b
sab
Immanentize
@Josie: maybe I am alone in my worry, but all this very public complaining by Wagner and Prigozhin feels like bad Kabuki. A head fake to suggest the primary Bahkmut attackers are on the ropes before a spring surge. Or maybe Mr. Prig really believes he is gonna take out Mr. Puti and the failure to arm is real?
sab
@Immanentize: Why not both?
Cameron
@Immanentize: Agree. He doth protest too much. That sounds off.
Immanentize
@sab: good point.
StringOnAStick
@Immanentize: Interesting thought, and when you put it that way, highly probable. My hope is that all the aerial surveillance being conducted makes sneak attacks/preparations quite visible.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: Yeah, only kind of secret. I think “SAM<whatever>” is the call sign they generally use for these planes when the President or whoever isn’t on board. So it would have been hard to hide the plane but they were implying he wasn’t there. Of course once the thing went to frickin’ Ukraine it wouldn’t have been very hard to deduce what was going on.
sab
@sab: Not that I am cold-hearted. He has real, serious medical issues. I would rather that he worry about the mythical ones while I do what I can (diet etc) about the real ones unbeknownst to him.
ETA If you chose to smoke for twenty years….?
ETA My Dad was a pathologist who taught lung pathology at the local medical school. He also caught his little sister’s lung cancer, and yet his wife kept on smoking for the rest of her life ( 30 years.)
Little sister died a year later.
Steve in the ATL
Of course not. But she’s heard plenty about the War of Northern Aggression!
patrick II
@Brachiator:
I read that he traveled on an Air Force C32, which is the AF version of the 757. I assume it had all of the comms it needed to keep the president in touch.
Qrop Non Sequitur
Smoking chooses you, maaaaaaan…
Matt McIrvin
@patrick II: Yeah, most of the time they’re the ones Kamala Harris uses as “Air Force Two”. But the President’s 747s can’t be used in all situations, and these planes are one of the other possibilities.
sab
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Dad taught his little sister to smoke. He himself never actually inhaled.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@sab: Your dad was Bill Clinton
Eta: Maybe I should read up the thread before being a wiseass
The best people often are.
sab
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Nowhere so cool as that. Just a doofus good guy. Went through the bad guy motions but just couldn’t follow through.
ETA His baby sister died of lung cancer at 52. Dad has never gotten over that. He feels responsible, which is nutz.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
All of them, Katie.
Nettoyeur
@zhena gogolia: Yeah, though the ultimate version of Catch-22 is what I associate with the USSR/Russia. (Everything that is not forbidden is required).
Jackie
From the Political Wire:
“Almost exactly a month before a Norfolk Southern train derailed and spewed hazardous materials in eastern Ohio, the company gave the maximum $10,000 to help bankroll Gov. Mike DeWine’s inaugural festivities,” WSYX reports.
“An examination of state records shows this contribution, which is part of $29,000 the Virginia-based corporation has contributed to DeWine’s political funds since he first ran for governor in 2018, is merely one piece of an extensive, ongoing effort to influence statewide officials and Ohio lawmakers.”
Also:
NBC News: “EPA orders Norfolk Southern to clean up Ohio train derailment site and pay all costs.”
Chetan Murthy
@Jackie: Colbert let their shitbird CEO have it with both barrels in his monologue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIm4S9Am4Ls&t=1s
sab
@Jackie: DeWine implicated. Why am I not surprised. Ohio press will ignore it. I am even less surprised.
trollhattan
@Jackie:
“My first guest tonight”
[from off-stage] “No, no, I won’t do it. You can’t make me go out there. I won’t!” [smashing glass sfx] “Noooooooo!”
“…is Fox News’ own Peter Doocy, come on out, Peter.”
“She’ll kill me. Nooooooo!!!”
I’d watch.
sab
@sab: Also too, her kids still all smoke. That is not on Dad.
cain
@trollhattan: I think this was an actual scene from Batman: The Animated Series :D
OverTwistWillie
@Matt McIrvin:
SAM + reg number is how they refer to the airframes; SAM90003 would be this plane. Though they can carry whatever flight ID; SAM060 in this case.
The SAM designation started back in the Ike VC-137A MATS days.
The VP flew back in a C-17 due to mechanical issues, so perhaps there was a shell game going on with her C-32.
Jackie
@trollhattan: 🤣
cain
So this earlier –
Some asshole shot at some children ages 5 – 17 at least 9 of them were hit. At this rate, there will be a lot of thoughts and prayers but nothing else. These people will spend more time looking at menstrual cycles than looking at gun violence.
trollhattan
Reconsider walking the dog. Side-by-side BBC articles ATM are “Alligator kills 85-year old woman in Florida” while walking her dog AND “Woman trampled by moose while walking dog” catty-corner on the map in Anchorage, AK.
I tell ya, it’s a jungle out there.
Jackie
@Chetan Murthy: I saw that and wished Colbert could see and hear my standing ovation!
Ken
Also one of the laws of the ants in The Once and Future King. I don’t recall if it was their only law, or if there was a complementary “Everything not compulsory is forbidden”.
Tony G
@Josie: It wouldn’t be the first time in history that a mercenary force rebelled against the people who were supposed to be paying them.
smedley the uncertain
@Paul in KY: Train was designated Rail Force One by Ukraine.
Discussed upstairs.
Paul in KY
@StringOnAStick: I once visited a cousin who lived in a huge mansion and in their formal living room, on either side of the entry hall, had 2 40 ft tall palm trees in huge planters. Planters were chinese porcelain and each was 5 feet tall and 7 or more in diameter.
Chief Oshkosh
@sab: No, if we nationalize them (and I wrote that half-kidding), we’d just use their cash reserves to pay for clean-up. No cash reserves? Take it from the Caymen Island and Swiss accounts of the former execs. Again, only half kidding here.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Tony G: So the check didn’t clear?
Tony G
@cain: Another heroic second amendment advocate.
Chetan Murthy
I had an interesting experience last night (well, early this AM). I participate in a technical forum about a programming language and maintain some packages in that language. I’d emailed a user whom I’ve corresponded with (he uses some of those packages) previously, about how to use those packages better. Now, my automatic signature is “He/Him\nSlava Ukraini!” And so this guy responded to my email with “Don’t believe what all those Nazis tell you”. After a couple of round-trips, it became clear that he supported Vova’s invasion. Ah, well. I had the urge (and wrote an email) to tell him what for, laying it out in great detail. But I tore it up and simple told me that it was clear he supported Vova’s invasion, and hence I was blocking him.
And then I did.
In the conversation, he clearly believed that “what about Iraq” (and more generally whataboutism) was an acceptable rejoinder to “Putin’s invasion is illegal”. Turned out, I had just been watching Masha Gessen explain this very thing, in their PBS Frontline interview: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/masha-gessen/ . Fascinating. They approach the question of Putin, Ukraine, Georgia, Syria, Russia, from a psychological/cultural point-of-view, but with amazing results! They explained how Vova (and hence, all Russians) want to return to when the world was bipolar, and hence, “whataboutism” is not merely not hypocritical, it is THE POINT.
The interview is from 2019, I think. But then they have a new one from a few weeks ago: https://weta.org/watch/shows/amanpour-and-company/masha-gessen-what-media-gets-wrong-about-putin-69pcnu
I’ve been watching this Frontline series: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview-collection/putin-and-the-presidents/
and while Timothy Snyder was excellent, by and large the real finds have been the women who are intervviewed: Julia Ioffe, Yevgenia Albats, Marie Yovanovitch (DAMN! NFLTG!) They all recount *events*, but it seems like they all have insights into *why* people do these things, that are lacking in the testimony of the men I’ve watched.
The Masha Gessen interview was nearly 2hr long. Well worth it. Also, there’s a transcript. I have to say, typically I reach for the transcript, but I actually found the video worth watching. Ditto the other interviews in the Frontline series.
Paul in KY
@sab: cigarette smoking is very, very addictive.
sab
@Chief Oshkosh: If I knew how to emoji I would thumbs up here.
ian
@Nettoyeur: I always think of this graphic image (link is reddit) when discussing the USSR
Paul in KY
@sab: I quit when I was 11.
Dangerman
@Barbara: Not possible. They are enamored with the assholes that wants to rake the forests or believe the fires are caused by space lasers (which is at least close; normal people call it “lightning”). Nothing is too stupid for Team Red. Default? Sure, let’s piss off Soros and those liberals.
Jackie
Thwarted again! TFG’s SCOTUS proves disloyal one more time:
“A lawsuit from a trio of Utah brothers seeking to kick President Joe Biden out of the White House and return Donald Trump to the presidency will not be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“The high court again rejected the brother’s case on Tuesday.”
Qrop Non Sequitur
@sab: Being on your phone helps.
👍👍👍 💪
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: Saw the film of the moose. Think it didn’t like her dog. It could have easily killed her and didn’t.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Paul in KY: I smoked cigarettes from age 23 to 26. Then again 36 to 38.
Gravenstone
@Brachiator: That line will stretch around the block.
Paul in KY
@Ken: The ‘Once and Future King’ is the King Arthur book that had the boar hunting story! Thanks!
sab
@Paul in KY: I know that. My husband quit early in our marriage, ten years after he quit drinking. I do not know how he quit either, apparently effortlessly. Just decided one day I don’t do that any more. I never tell him how in awe I am.
ETA I was a childhood thumbsucker, and that was huge to quit. No chemical dependency at all. Just very comforting
EETA I never asked him to quit. I hoped he would but I never expected he would nor did I ask.
Cameron
@Jackie: Ah, the Brunson brothers, Moe, Larry, and Curly.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: I think it’s more they want to recycle another golden oldie from the Carter years to beat up the Democratic president.
“Day Eleventy-Seven – America Held Hostage – Why Won’t Biden Go To East Palestine?”
They did the same thing with Harris – “Why won’t she go to The Border???!!”
They get to keep it in the news with almost no work on their part, and they don’t have to propose any solutions or anything different – just say that he’s doing it wrong/has other priorities/is afraid of Real America™, etc. They get to keep the press distracted with an easy story – “Today is day N+1 and Biden still hasn’t come…”
And too much of the press is more than happy being led around like this…
Grr…,
Scott.
UncleEbeneezer
rikyrah
Frank Figliuzzi (@FrankFigliuzzi1) tweeted at 7:54 AM on Tue, Feb 21, 2023:
The footage reveals security camera capabilities, safe room locations and more. What could possibly go wrong?McCarthy Blasted for Handing Over Jan. 6 Footage to Tucker Carlson https://t.co/CVF1hEO1Zj
(https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/1628030373279019010?t=jKNnh03dmWQQAio750nOlw&s=03)
Lapassionara
@Gin & Tonic: That was a fun read. Thanks.
Gravenstone
There’s a case of Mutually Assured Destruction I wholeheartedly endorse.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@trollhattan: another Randy Newman song
eclare
@sab: It released some chemical in your brain that made you feel good. Same with biting your fingernails, for people who do that.
Ironist
@Matt McIrvin:
The 777 is enormous – it’s a 747 replacement (do the same job with two fewer engines!), and has been hugely successful in the market. The 767 was designed in the 70s in response to the original Airbus twin jet, and was also enormously successful. It’s much smaller than the 777, and is getting long in the tooth, especially engine efficiency wise compared to newer designs. The 787 is “all composite” (plastic) for lower weight and higher efficiency, which lead to major teething issues at first, many due to terrible management errors, but is now also successful, although the early troubles completely evaporated a multi-year head start and allowed Airbus time to re-design the A350 to strongly compete. The story of the decay of Boeing management, culminating in the 737 MAX catastrophe, is so depressing.
Paul in KY
@smedley the uncertain: I was so close. Darnit! Thanks for the info, though.
sab
@eclare: I do bite one thumbnail. Leave the rest alone. My poor left thumb is dramatically stunted. Half the size of the big thumb. Has been all its life.
ETA Mom says I was thumbsucking since birth. Did it in the hospital at birth. Probably was doing it in utero.
Chetan Murthy
@Ironist:
My mom bought me some Boeing stock when she was managing my retirement money; right after the 737-MAX crashes I sold that stock, b/c I realized I would never willingly set foot on a Boeing plane again. And ensuing events have confirmed that judgment: they really do seem to have lost the plot on what matters in designing aircraft. Depressing. Boeing was an *institution*.
Bill Arnold
@horatius:
It’s been said upthread, but … the attack surface of starlink is not just the physical integrity of the satellites. The Russians know this. (They discuss it, with varying levels of cluefullness.)
burritoboy
Russian political culture and it’s history – insofar as it actually exists – is so utterly different from even the experiences of many it’s near neighbors (at least those in Europe) that it simply is very close to unimaginable for most Americans. It’s a near-millenium long history of what is effectively failure to have even a remote semblance of politics. Americans come off a history of successes (yes, there have been setbacks but they have often been overcome) but Russians come off a history of failure. (And this is not a failure limited to recent times, but goes back well into even the middle of the Middles Ages. And what Russians view as “successes” are actually failures as well – the “successes” are simply those times when Russian have conquered and brutalized more people rather than fewer. But the secret is even those things continued to damage and hurt even the Russians themselves!) That changes everything about all your politics, your outlook, your very being.
Doesn’t mean it can’t be overcome – but it’s very difficult, and I would judge quite unlikely.
Paul in KY
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Glad you were able to stop.
kalakal
@lollipopguild:
Yep, there’s quite a few there in Devon & Cornwall & about 30 miles south of Cornwall are the Isles of Scilly which benefit even more and have a world famous sub tropical garden
https://www.tresco.co.uk/enjoying/abbey-garden
Some palms are a lot cold hardier than people think. Chinese Windmill Palms (Trachycarpus Fortunei ) can handle at least -5, there are some growing in Connecticut where it gets down to -20.
Bismarcks, Mediterranean fan palms can all handle below 0.
I used to grow quite a few in Northern England
Paul in KY
@sab: My dad quit back in 62 or thereabouts when the Surgeon General said it was bad for your health. Gave his cigarettes to his squadron mates and that was that.
kalakal
@rikyrah: They should redesign the security arrangements & send Kevin the Spineless the bill
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Paul in KY: They stunk and I didn’t want to carry that odor around with me. I’ll admit to including tobacco in my Marijuana preparations, though
Also stinky, but more socially acceptable in my circle.
Matt McIrvin
@Chetan Murthy: I can understand refusing to do that on moral grounds, but it’s worth saying that in spite of everything, air travel on Boeing aircraft or otherwise is still vastly safer now than it was, say, 40 years ago during Boeing’s heyday. That’s visible in the raw statistics, and it’s probably a combination of many technological and regulatory advances.
The reason that, when I was a kid, people kept harping on how air travel was statistically the safest mode of transportation was that it didn’t seem like that at all. There were big, gory airliner crashes in the US that made headline news a few times a year. Today we don’t really get that.
J R in WV
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
Anti=war left here too — If Biden had not accomplished anything but leaving Afghanistan — that one accomplishment would make him one of the best Presidents in American history, along with FDR, LIncoln, Washington. And it was accomplished with minimal fatalities and injuries among Americans on site. Let alone Biden’s multiple other remarkable accomplishments, like keeping Ukraine out of Putin’s vile hands.
I will confess I was so done with seeing that video of people attempting to cling to an aircraft taxiing to takeoff. The media should be stifled for running that image more than once~!!~
Tom Levenson
@Ken: When you invoke the fine structure constant, Cthulu stirs and eldritch evil escapes across the multiverse.
Qrop Non Sequitur
Facts. The single best thing a President has done in my lifetime.
Cameron
@Paul in KY: I quit in 1995, but smoked way too much before. I consider myself lucky that I’ve only got COPD.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
You mean like this guy?
NEWS: Sanders Statement on Withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Afghanistan » Senator Bernie Sanders (senate.gov)
ETA: Took me about a minute to find that.
ETA2: Beaten to it by an hour or so by Qrop Non Sequitur. I blame meetings!
Matt McIrvin
@Chetan Murthy:
shades of “Bob in Portland”!
sab
@Paul in KY: My dad was a lung pathologist. He knew it was dangerous, and he came home to his smoking wife, the love of his life, every day.
ETA Married 1950. Widower 2012.
Chetan Murthy
Bozhe
moimiy![1] If only the Czar knew what his Cossacks are doing![1] That’s “My god” in Ukrainian (per a google search). Hope I got that right.
Paul in KY
@Cameron: Glad you quit! My dad is still alive at 98.
eclare
@sab: My mom quit when she got pregnant with me. Dad quit about 25 years later.
sab
@Paul in KY: My dad is also alive at 98.
Chetan Murthy
@Matt McIrvin: Oh, it’s not on moral grounds. It’s b/c I can always fly Airbus. AFAICT, Airbus’ safety standards have not dropped like Boeing’s. After 20+ years working in big tech companies, I have a strong reaction to seeing the destruction of engineering cultures. And I don’t want to invest in a place that’s doing that.
Now, a valid rejoinder to that is: “you can still buy stock in the company even if you never fly their planes; after all, the US Government will never let them fail”. But I just can’t bring myself to invest based on those principles. Not a moral problem — just that that’s not now I judge investments.
sab
@eclare: My mom quit with four pregnancies, started up after each.
ETA I am not actually sure she quit. We were all tiny premature babies.
Gretchen
@Frankensteinbeck: I just heard of a Fox-watching couple complaining that one of the new characters in Frozen 2 “had to be black”.
eclare
Amir you watching?
Cameron
@Paul in KY: Guess I’ll stick around for a while, since I’m just a wet-behind-the-ears 72.
kalakal
@Qrop Non Sequitur: The weird thing is that if you’re a regular smoker you don’t notice the smell. Sneak outside, quick cig, a mint & a glass of water, no one will be able to tell. I used to believe this when I smoked, now I can tell if someones had a cigarette from 30ft when they walk in the room.
Tom Levenson
@Ken: Thomas One.
(Yes, Thomas the Tank Engine was soooo my jam way back when.)
Matt McIrvin
@Chetan Murthy: The only company I actually directly own individual shares of is Microsoft, and that’s just because I got a bunch of it as an employee benefit (long story), and held onto it out of laziness. Hasn’t been doing great over the past year but no tech stocks have.
JAFD
@Cameron:
Another member of the Class of ’50 here.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@kalakal: Exactly. And given my late start(s) and short stints, I was pretty conscious of this right along.
sab
@kalakal: Yes. My smoking mom had a nose like a truffle pig. To fool her you needed to smoke her brand, which was awful.
Chetan Murthy
@Gretchen: They Do! They do, Cletus&Jethrene, they do! the guy who swims next to me at my pool, Dave, would be your typical suburban white guy …. only he has a HUSBAND! Every train car is filled with people of color at least halfway. There are LGBTQ couples and trans people everywhere! That’s our world, Cletus&Jethrene!
Don’t like it? TURN OFF THE DAMN TEEVEE!
eclare
@Matt McIrvin: I inherited Ford stock. Hopefully they will do well with EV’s. Ford is building a multi-billion dollar plant about 50 miles from me.
JAFD
If you’re not up to anything Friday night
“Listen live on February 24th, at 7pm (Eastern time) (and via WQXR.org)
The Metropolitan Opera, in association with Lincoln Center and the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations, present a one-time live broadcasted concert to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct the Met Orchestra and Chorus, and soloists Golda Schultz, Emily D’Angelo, Dmytro Popov, and Vladyslav Buialskyi. The program will feature Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and Silvestrov’s “Prayer for Ukraine.” The night of solidarity opens with Verbytsky’s Ukrainian National Anthem.
Program:
Mykhailo Verbytsky: Ukrainian National Anthem
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem, K. 626
– Golda Schultz, soprano; Emily D’Angelo, mezzo-soprano; Dmytro Popov, tenor; Vladyslav Buialskyi, bass-baritone
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op.67
Valentin Silvestrov: “Prayer for Ukraine”
Chetan Murthy
@Matt McIrvin: Hah! Interesting! My mom bought me some MSFT back then, too. I haven’t sold it, even though I would *NEVER* buy or use an MSFT product. B/c I think the company is well-run, knows how to execute, and even though their tech isn’t the best, they really *do* know how to execute.
And I repeat: I would never use an MSFT product.
Ken
Same goes for Ted Cruz.
(Besides, most of the people who say that are just annoyed that α is so close to an integer.)
J R in WV
@Brachiator:
That was part of the security for this somewhat controversial trip, to try to keep Russia or fellow fascist travelers from shooting down Biden’s flight. Don’t use a call sign that amounts to painting a target on your back, in other words.
I can’t speak to ChooChoo One, but they draped an American flag on that train’s locomotive, at least for the entry into Kyiv. My heart swelled as we learned more about Biden’s trip… in the good way.
CaseyL
In 4th Grade, after seeing a graphic movie at school about what smoking does to your lungs, I got both my parents to quit. (They restarted a few years later.)
Then when I was 14, I started smoking, because it was a legal way to get high. (The first cigarette of the day gives you a lovely bit of euphoric dizziness.)
I quit multiple times over the years – usually for about a year, but once for 5 years! – but always started again when life got too stressful. Only quit for good when I switched over to vapes. That is, I gave up the tar, asbestos, and FSM knows what else is in tobacco smoke, but am hanging happily onto the nicotine.
The dirty little secret is, I loved smoking. The initial high, the sensuous feeling of the smoke going down into my lungs (what the kids call “throat hit”)…there’s an episode of Frazier when he’s trying to get his agent to quit. She does a monologue about how much she loves smoking that was absolutely true and on point. I felt it in my bones.
But the vaping works: I have not smoked a cigarette since 2012. I’m aware of the cardiac risks associated with nicotine addiction, but don’t plan to quit vaping. I gotta have one vice, tyvm.
zhena gogolia
@JAFD: Thanks!
lowtechcyclist
@Paul in KY:
Never carve your initials on the møøse. After all, møøse bites kan be pretty nasti…
Chetan Murthy
@CaseyL: May I ask: there are also patches and gum for nicotine ? Do they not work as well as vaping ? I mean, for nicotine-delivery ?
rikyrah
Both of my parents were smokers.
My father got lung cancer 10 years before I was born. They removed his left lung. He lived another 30 years, until pancreatic cancer killed him.
My mother had quit smoking for 25 years when she was diagnosed with lung cancer . Killed her within 6 months.
cain
@Chetan Murthy: Damn MBAs and their managerial influence on engineering.
sab
@CaseyL: This is why I am in awe of spouse quitting. Also why I never asked him to.
cain
@rikyrah: Ugh – sorry to hear that.. :(
eclare
@CaseyL: I smoked clove cigarettes as a teen. The smell was divine.
CaseyL
@Chetan Murthy: There are, and I used the gum for a while many years ago. But I like the oral part; hence, vapes
@eclare: So did I, back in college IIRC. Clove cigarettes are amazing – and, also IIRC, even worse for you than regular cigarettes.
eclare
@rikyrah: So sorry about that…
zhena gogolia
@eclare: Not for those around you! (My first husband smoked those. Ugh.)
lowtechcyclist
My dad quit smoking when he was in his mid to late 50s. He’d been smoking since college, so you can do the arithmetic. Obviously when you’ve been smoking for decades, the lung damage doesn’t entirely go away, and he was aware of that, especially given his love of hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities. But he never got cancer, thank goodness, and lived to age 90.
Timill
@rikyrah: Isn’t all that stuff classified information?
Gin & Tonic
@Chetan Murthy: MSFT also provides *very* significant aid to Ukraine in its war effort. Far more than any other tech company.
Matt McIrvin
@Chetan Murthy: I got laid off by them during the Great Recession and while it was not a happy time, I get the impression that current management is at least a major improvement over who was running the show back then. Funny thing is, while I never used Windows except under duress, I actually DO regularly use some MSFT products now (Typescript/Visual Studio Code, and the XBox One).
LiminalOwl
@Redshift: Areyou possibly overlooking the element of pure projection in the slurs?
trollhattan
@rikyrah: Ugh, brutal. So sorry you lost both folks to the devil weed (the REAL devil weed).
Mon and dad both smoked. Mom got a bad cold/flu one winter and noted “when I cough, it tastes like an ashtray.” She quit. Dad never quit and at 65 was dead of lung cancer that had spread to his brain by diagnosis. That last year was hell on earth.
Mom lived to 88.
They “bribed” the three of us to not smoke and it worked, none of us picked up the habit, although 18 years of second-hand smoke made me a smoker of a sort, until heading off to college.
Matt McIrvin
@trollhattan: My parents both used to smoke a lot–I don’t think they do any more.
My dad had the easiest time quitting of anyone I’ve ever heard of. He got a bad cold one day, went to the doctor, and the doctor said “if you want to get better faster, I recommend not smoking for the duration… and, in fact, this would be a great opportunity for you to just quit smoking entirely.” And he did.
At some point they banned smoking in the house, but my mother was the kind of smoker who could go out for a smoke just as an occasional thing, sometimes socially when a smoker was visiting. But I think she gradually tailed off too.
J R in WV
Have never used tobacco in any form — although we had elderly neighbor farmers for whom their tobacco crop was their only cash income, $3k or $4K a year, and I helped them with various parts of the very laborious growing, harvesting, curing the annual crop, and even let them grow a crop in our bottom one summer.
The aroma of tobacco curing in the barns in the fall was wonderful, although I detest the smoke. Those old boys were so good to me and our other neighbors, I miss them like family. Taught me about horse farming, building fences, you name it, they were there for us.
As a youth in the ’50s and ’60s both parents smoked, and driving with them up front smoking was like hell for me. Dad quit cold turkey around the early ’60s, mom didn’t quit until she nearly died of pneumonia one winter in Fla. Too late, she had COPD bad, which killed her eventually, Hospice at home was great for her. She died in Dad’s arms in their bedroom, probably a heart attack, years after the Docs predicted her death.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: Horrifying news. Rajasthan seemed to be a peaceful place and there was less presence of Wahhabi madrasas.
Old School
@Gretchen:
Frozen 2 came out in 2019. They are a little behind.
But wait until they get to the more recent films with – gasp! – gay and lesbian characters.
Chetan Murthy
@Dan B: it seems clear that Modi is using Muslims in India in the same way that Hitler used Jews in Germany. And even otherwise-stalawart liberal Indian-Americans I know, fall prey to this … Islamophobia. Well …. they were stalwart, until transphobia started up, and then, well yanno, turns out they weren’t as stalwart as I thought. Ah, well.
RaflW
@Another Scott: I’ve watched about a season and a half of Hulu’s “The Great”, a very fabulized (and very naughty and graphically violent) mucking about in the story of Catherine the Great.
They’re plain about it being ahistorical. But one thing they do hammer home a lot is that Russia is not European, and that Russians don’t want to be Europeans. (Much less, centuries later, to be Americanized.)
Ilieitz
@RaflW:
Dan B
@Geoduck: Windmill Palms are very hardy. Seattle is the same hardiness zone as northern Louisiana. And… there’s a thing called Zinal denial – growing plants that aren’t hardy in every winter.
trollhattan
@RaflW: A guilty pleasure that show is. “So, I tried to coup you first but you had already couped me. Huzzah!” Few historical things amuse me more than their deep and abiding hatred of Sweden. “Those Swedes and their damndable Allen wrenches!”
Succession seems to be fraught, for sure. Peter the Great to Peter the Less-Than to Catherine who just happens to be German. Okay, Prussian.
Dan B
@JanieM: Ireland is in the direct path of the Gulf Stream. Poland is not. Their winters are very cold. Ireland and Northern Ireland can grow seven varieties of Eucalyptus and five varieties of Palms. We visited a grand garden near Belfast and the air smelled like the Berkely hills l, intense Eucalyptus fragrance. Wild stuff.
Dan B
Chetan Murthy
@Dan B: Good for your dad! Excellent parenting choice!
Geminid
Paul in KY
@sab: Great to hear!
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: I do love that show. Huzzah!