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No Justins, No Peace

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

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

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

No one could have predicted…

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Afternoon Open Thread

Friday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 115 Comments

This post is in: 

Looks like we could use an open thread.

The weather is very spooky here today with crazy winds and rain, then hail, and now big fat snowflakes. Branches are dropping, and there are all sorts of strange sounds as small things get blown around and hit the glass door or the walls of the house.  Thumps as stuff lands on the roof.

I wasn’t sure whether the Fun Facts Fridays would be a nice tradition or would be tedious, so feel free to weigh in on that, too, in the comments, if you have an opinion.

Totally open thread.

Reader Interactions

115Comments

  2. 2.

    KenK

    From Business Insider:
    “Russia is showing off advanced military tech around the world while its troops in Ukraine struggle with obsolete Soviet-era weapons”

    Apparently, Russia is pimping some supposedly high-tech military stuff at arms shows, while their troops use Soviet era junk.

  3. 3.

    RaflW

    A front moved through Summit County, CO, around 1pm today. The temp dropped 12 degrees in 45 minutes, and the winds got gusty – with at least some snow popping up. They always do say to ‘dress for changeable conditions’ up here!

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    @RaflW: My poor snowman who spins in the wind is frozen in place, because we started out warm and then got the sleet, hail and now snow.

    He’s like the Tin Man.  I think I hear a faint oil can whisper in the distance.

  6. 6.

    FastEdD

    I was trying to record a quiet ukulele track a couple days ago, but the wind outside was uprooting trees and smashing them into the neighbor’s house. Not easy.

  7. 7.

    raven

    It’s cookin here, the heavy winds have kicked up the pine pollen and there is a big line of storms coming fast. JPL and Subaru have probably already  gotten hit and we’re trying to decide whether to take the little girl and eat outside!

  9. 9.

    eclare

    Yeah, we had really strong winds in Memphis this morning.  Knocked my internet out, but luckily the power stayed on.  Others are not so lucky.

  11. 11.

    eclare

    @raven:   The winds here picked up very suddenly, I don’t know if I’d risk it.  I also have a very healthy respect for lightning.

  12. 12.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Tennessee’s governor signed their anti-drag. It’s one of 400+ anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced by the Republican Christofascists just this year.

    The new law would outlaw any public performance of “drag” — and like other laws it’s intentionally so vaguely written that it can, and will, be used to target trans people. I literally could be arrested for being a trans person in public telling a joke or singing a song. It also would essentially ban rag queens from Pride (and other events).

    It’s the first of nearly a dozen such bills presently working their way through Republican-led state legislatures. This is what genocide looks like — it’s not just stacks of bodies, it’s intentional destroying of a targeted group in whole or in part, including “imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group” per the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

    #TransGenocide

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    @KenK:

    If Russia’s own military can’t even get hold of that high-tech gear for use in its ongoing hot war, no defence ministry in the world is going to feel confident about ordering it.

  16. 16.

    CarolPW

    @eclare: ​
     The wind here took down a panel of my fence, and along with it trashed my satellite radio antenna. At least I knew it went down so got it propped it back up before I had to let the dog out.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @Sister Golden Bear: Looks like the state ACLU is going to take a wait-and-see approach.

    While some lawmakers have expressed their intent to ban all drag shows in Tennessee, the legal definition for “harmful to minors” in Tennessee is very narrow and only covers extreme sexual or violent content with no artistic value. Drag performances do not inherently fall into this category and are protected by the First Amendment.

    Stella Yarbrough, ACLU of Tennessee legal director, had this reaction:

    “We are disappointed that Governor Lee chose to sign a bill that politicians intended to censor drag performances. However, I want to be abundantly clear: the law that was just signed does not make it illegal to perform in drag in Tennessee. The law bans obscene performances, and drag performances are not inherently obscene.

    However, we are concerned that government officials could easily abuse this law to censor people based on their own subjective viewpoints of what they deem appropriate, chilling protected free speech and sending a message to LGBTQ Tennesseans that they are not welcome in our state.

    We will challenge enforcement of this law if it is used to punish a drag performer or shut down a family-friendly LGBTQ event.”

    Any performers, event organizers or business owners being negatively affected by this anti-drag law should contact the ACLU of Tennessee at: https://www.aclu-tn.org/legal-assistance/.

  20. 20.

    Old School

    I liked the idea of Fun Fact Friday as an excuse for a thread if one was needed, but was puzzled by the idea of making the “facts” false.

  25. 25.

    J R in WV

    Yesterday Wife and I took our two big dogs to our Vet clinic for their final vaccinations. They have first come first served hours from 8-11 each weekday and we left about 9:30 to make that time yesterday. Big boy is around 80 pounds, his little sister is 65 pounds, in the back seat, which has a heavy cover to protect the seats from dog damage.

    But when we came along to the bridge over the creek just before starting up the long steep hill to leave our neighborhood, a neighbor stopped his truck and waved out his window to stop me. He told us we couldn’t get out of the neighborhood that most direct way, as a big tree/trees had fallen, and there were multiple big trucks and heavy equipment working to clear the problem. So I went back across the bridge and down the twisty creek, a longer way to the state highway, bouncy from multiple slips along the creek. We made it to town  and the clinic in time, but the dogs suffered from the unusually twisty and bouncy drive and barfed in the back.

    After the vet vaccinated the dogs and gave them a brief physical, and petted and loved on them, we packed up, and drove to Kroger’s to pick up a prescription that was ready, and headed home with the pups. As we came to the steep hill into our neighborhood, as we rounded a curve I saw a pack of trucks and equipment STILL working where the trees had blown down. I had to back up the narrow steep hill for at least a quarter mile to a driveway where I could back around, 5 or 6 hours after those crews started their work.

    So we went around a slightly shorter back way into the neighborhood, but still twisty and bouncy, I went slower than the trip into town early in the day, but the poor dogs were still sensitive to the drive, and barfed a lot more. So glad for the seat protector, as the newer SUV has white leather seats which would not have survived the barf explosion.

    Anyway, to reach the point of this post, this afternoon, after last night’s heavy rains, we have another high wind advisory, and I’m sure some really big hardwood trees will be toppling over around here. So far so good, power is steady, phone lines still connect, but I’m sure plenty of neighborhoods are or will be out of power before all is said and done.

    Spring has sprung here, Lenten Roses and daffodils of various colors and styles of blooms are burst out into the sunshine, as well as forsythia bushes all around. Very pretty bright green moss covered rocks are so very bright in the sunshine. I hope all the B-J Jackals are safe in the wild and strange weather all around the whole continent~!!~

    Also too, the two dogs are doing fine, laying around the house resting after getting totally soaked prowling outside last night in the rain. They really are swell affectionate dogs who both love the wooded hillsides and wildlife all around the neighborhood we live in.

  26. 26.

    eclare

    @Baud:   The DA here has already said he would not prosecute anyone under the new abortion ban, I assume his stance on this will be the same.

  27. 27.

    prostratedragon

    Fun Fact thing I learned this week is that only 28 African-American women have broken 3 hours in the marathon. Article in Guardian. Any takers out there? I’m too breath-challenged for the distance now, let alone the time.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    JPL and Subaru have probably already gotten hit

    Well, here in Stone Mountain it’s plenty warm (75° for the high today) but dank and drizzly and windy, so it feels cold even though it really isn’t. And there’s a tornado watch in effect until I think 8:00pm. So I guess it’s March in Georgia.

  31. 31.

    Alison Rose

    Because I live in an apartment building populated mostly by assholes who have swiped packages from my doormat a few times, and because for some reason most delivery people (when they bring things to the door instead of to the Amazon Hub) don’t take the 1.5 seconds to knock, I recently put a little sign on my door asking for people to knock when leaving something.

    It does NOT say “pound on the door like you’re the FBI and I’m wanted for a string of grisly murders up and down the Pacific coast”.

    Thanks OnTrac. I totally woke up today thinking that my hair being half gray wasn’t quite enough and hoping I might get the crap scared out of me to add a little more salt. Jiminy crickets.

  32. 32.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @SiubhanDuinne: Speaking of Stone Mountain, are you per chance a fan of the tv show Atlanta?  There’s a great and brilliant episode in season 3 that you might enjoy.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Sometimes you can sue on First Amendment grounds if you have a plaintiff that says they are chilled from engaging in expressive activity by a law.  But ACLU apparently wants to take the position that this law is narrow, rather than argue its unconstitutional because it’s too broad.

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Thanks, glad to know about it. I’m not familiar with the series but will track it down. Is it network tv, cable, streaming service?

  40. 40.

    Scout211

    The weather is very spooky here today with crazy winds and rain, then hail, and now big fat snowflakes. Branches are dropping, and there are all sorts of strange sounds as small things get blown around and hit the glass door or the walls of the house.  Thumps as stuff lands on the roof.

    If you add multiple power outages, internet down for three weeks and several trees blown down, you just described my three weeks in January. (Minus the snow. That was this week).

  41. 41.

    Mai Naem mobile

    It was snowing in some Phoenix exurbs a couple of days ago. Its happened before but it seemed heavier this time around. It also snowed in Tucson.  Anyhoo, DougJ was on the Michael Signorile show on SiriusXM on Wednesday talking about NY Times Pitchbot and a tiny bit about BJ.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    No difference between the parties.

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Friday, March 3, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed House File 28, a bill which will restore voting rights to over 50,000 Minnesotans on parole, probation or community release due to a felony conviction once the law goes into effect in July. Previously, Minnesota law permitted voting rights restoration after the completion of an entire sentence, which often included years- or decades-long periods of probation. Now, under H.F. 28, voting rights will be restored immediately after release from incarceration.

  43. 43.

    Chief Oshkosh

    The GoFundMe in Cole’s post just below this one is only at about $3,700 of the $15,000 goal. Please go read that post and consider donating.

  46. 46.

    HeartlandLiberal

    It must have reached the predicted three inches of rain today here in Bloomington, Indiana. It was raining when I woke up at 5:00 am, and still raining at two o’clock. Finally tapered off to a drizzle. I checked just now at 6:00 pm, yep, still drizzling. The 2,000 sq ft garden in the backyard looks like swampland, and the south side dry wash the borders our neighborhood, and goes through a culvert underneath our backyard, has been running several inches thick all day. In the mid forties, but windy, damp, and it felt so cold I did not even try when it damped down to a drizzle to try to smoke my daily cigar on the deck. Hmmph.

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    Slight feeling of accomplishment after doinking around with some gadgets lately. Yesterday I ran down public-domain editions of two Dorothy L. Sayers novels (from Standard Ebooks) after being dissatisfied with the dismal production values in the copy of Whose Body? I paid 99 cents for on Amazon. These copies of Clouds of Witness and Unnatural Death are very nice—and free.

    I downloaded them to my computer and then transferred them to my Kindle in a somewhat ungainly procedure involving a cable. “Ungainly” because both of my ThinkPad’s USB-A ports are in use and I had to unplug the dongle for my Bluetooth mouse so that I could plug in the Kindle cable. And then I kept reaching for the dead mouse instead of using the ThinkPad’s TrackPoint (red dot thing) or touchpad. D’oh!

    Mission accomplished, and now I’m 15% into the very nicely formatted AZW3 file of Clouds of Witness.

    Then today I got a message on my Fitbit Charge 5 that my clock face had an error. Ran that down in between doing other things and discovered that the face, Aura, had internal problems and was withdrawn by Fitbit. Had to refresh myself on how to select another clock face and eventually went back to the one I was using months ago (Retroflip). Mission accomplished.

    Finally, on the social front, I braved the cold, drizzly weather today and took pizza to Sighthound Hall for lunch for Bro’ Man and the kids, who were out of school today. Hung out with him for a while, discussed the news of the day and then came home to my modest rooms in Threadkill Lane. Busy day. No plans for the evening. Maybe a drink or two. Currently 40° and still drizzly.

  50. 50.

    WaterGirl

    Today feels like Saturday to me, and I have been surprised several times today with incidental reminders that it really is Friday.

  53. 53.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s on Hulu.  The episode I’m referring to is titled “Rich Wigga, Poor Wigga” (a reference to a Jay-Z song).  This particular episode can be watched stand-alone without watching the rest of the series, but it (the series and this episode) are both very heavy on Black cultural references.  So if you have any familiarity with hip hop/rap, Black Twitter etc., it definitely makes the show way more enjoyable on multiple levels, but that said plenty of Non-Black people I know enjoy it just fine even without that.  It’s very damn funny.  Anyways, this one episode happens to take place in a Georgia suburb, which is why I mentioned it.

  54. 54.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Steeplejack: Are you a fan?  I just finished Season Three and it was so good.  The last three episodes especially.  I love when the show goes very serious/dark with its’ humor.  And it can be incredibly moving too.

  57. 57.

    Geminid

    I see that State Senator Jennifer McClellan will be sworn in Tuesday, March 8 as the new Representative for Virginia’s 4th Congressional District. She will take the seat formerly held by the late Don McEachin. The 4th CD includes the cities of Richmond and Petersburg, and counties south to the North Carolina line.

  58. 58.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Steeplejack:

    @prostratedragon:

    It’s only March 3rd, and 4 musicians (David Crosby, Jeff Beck, Tom Verlaine, and Wayne Shorter) whom I considered icons have left us.

    Thankfully, Shorter was blessed with a long life and left us with a large catalog of outstanding music.

    I thought this 2016 letter to the next generation of artists from Shorter and Herbie Hancock was pretty cool

    https://www.herbiehancock.com/2016/12/10/an-open-letter-to-the-next-generation-of-artists/

  61. 61.

    Steeplejack

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I saw most of the first season when it was on cable. Haven’t tracked it down on Hulu yet. I liked it. Plus I lived in Atlanta for 26 years.

  65. 65.

    ian

    I wasn’t sure whether the Fun Facts Fridays would be a nice tradition or would be tedious, so feel free to weigh in on that, too, in the comments, if you have an opinion.

    I enjoyed those threads.  Thanks for putting them together!  As long as you don’t find the task tedious, my vote is to keep it going.

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl:

    I was joking. Even when I was grappling with the gizmos I felt slightly like a cliché retiree. “I used to be a district manager, but now . . . Yes, dear, I fixed the goddamn bird feeder! Is Mad Money on yet?”

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    Looks like the state ACLU is going to take a wait-and-see approach.

    I wouldn’t describe that as a “wait-and-see” approach.  It’s more of a “we will act if anyone tries to enforce this” approach.  This makes sense, since the “actual cause or controversy” clause of the Constitution makes it hard to fight to invalidate a law until someone tries to enforce it.

  68. 68.

    Frankensteinbeck

    We’ve had high winds all week, but today is like nothing I’ve ever seen without a tornado going past.  The tornado watch ended two hours ago with no tornados, but the wind is only getting worse.  Amazingly, the big tree in the yard behind ours fell over in the only direction it wouldn’t harm anything.

    The wind is supposed to stop around midnight, and then it’s clear skies for a week.

    It was weird this afternoon watching clouds rolling across the sky.  Not just that you could tell they were moving if you watched, it was casually visible.

  70. 70.

    JPL

    @raven: Way late to this thread, but I was just listening to Jackson Browne.   Amazing how those sounds still resonate today.

    Heavy rain here, but not much else.   My son in Sandy Springs was spared damage, but the street over from him, lost a few trees and power.

  75. 75.

    Danielx

    Raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock, as we say in the Midwest.

    Eta: with sloppy snow yet to come.

  76. 76.

    Sure Lurkalot

    I’m going to say “bleh” about this Denver winter. We had a moderate amount of snow..not really a lot but it’s been unusually cold and gloomy without a smattering of springlike sunny days that we usually get in the winter. Now it’s March, we should be hitting the mid 50’s and having above freezing nights, but no. It’s flurrying now, the weekend is supposed to be passably ok and then another week of highs in the 30’s. Make it stop!

  77. 77.

    MomSense

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    I think we need to create a consortium of states who pass laws in support of trans rights and who work together to provide help to trans people in other states.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    Have lost track of the real count but it’s now at least Day 16 of blustery passing bands of intermittently heavy showers, accompanied by unseasonably cooler temps.

    By passing, I mean 5 or 10 minutes of inundation several times each hour.

  82. 82.

    Brachiator

    I had a fun fact. Guess I will save it.

    ETA: I am hearing on the news that DeSantis is coming to California to try to appeal to Trump supporters. A scheduled stop is the Reagan Library.

    The news commentors are not impressed with him or fluffing him as much as other media pundits.

  83. 83.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Many thanks for this background. I’m really not very familiar with Black cultural references, so this will be fun, getting both educated and entertained. (Never too old to expand one’s horizons!)

  85. 85.

    SomeRandomGuy

    The thread about Florida Fascism was something I wanted to drop a comment on, but, my brain doesn’t work right today, so I’m trying again.

    You know what’s horrible about a law making a blogger register? It’s not that the law is remotely constitutional – it clearly isn’t. What’s horrible about it is, it might nevertheless become law, and be used as a weapon.

    As the abortion debate has proven (yes, proven), the problem is not always the ability of the law to punish offenders – it’s also the secondary effects, like, hospitals refusing to take on the liability and culpability if they are so much as *accused* of performing an abortion without a case no prosecutor would bring… and remember, lawyers are trained to assume possible malicious prosecution, when writing legal advice. Then, add in the *persecution*. What would happen to a hospital that “just” gave a woman with an ectopic pregnancy an abortion? Well, they might not be criminally prosecuted, but… they might have to provide documentation (multiple times), might have to have people sit with prosecutors and cops, etc., all with the hint of legal peril overriding the entire situation.

    So: hospitals don’t let a doctor perform a life saving abortion until women are in grave danger – usually, septic. Most women of childbearing age can survive sepsis – but “most” means “more than 50%” and *anyone* who gets sepsis is in real, immediate, danger of death, even in the ICU. (That’s why there is an ICU, in part.)

    Note that this means there’s neither comfort nor recourse for the grieving family if the woman dies. In essence, NO ONE WILL CARE.  Oh, *we* will care, and that, and that, plus $8.50 or so buys you a cup of coffee. No, not inflation: climate change is ruining coffee growing land, making it more expensive, and it will get worse.

    Where was I? Right: the point is *not* that the law gives a cop the right to arrest a blogger for failing to register. It means every troublesome blogger will have 3000 loyal Republicans ensuring a single page impression per day, with investigations, registration failures, “accidental” arrests and harassment, demands for additional paperwork, etc., under the law.

    The goal of the bill is not the bill – the goal of the bill is to get “someone, who isn’t me” to do something that other people have to fight against. So: the ACLU is (well, would be)  spending resources protecting bloggers, rather than  starting a lawsuit to prevent shipping lawful migrants, without proper safety precautions (like, people on the other end, knowing they’ve got company coming), to other states. Or, without helping to lobby for *real* civil liberty reforms, rather than this kind of bullshit.

    If passed, people will be harmed until it’s off the books, and since the purpose isn’t “to fix a problem” but “to fight evil non-Republicans,” they’ll pass  another law, or come up with another scheme.

    (Re dumping migrants, seriously: isn’t it unlawful to dump people at the side of the road? If you drove someone into the middle of a desert, and abandoned them there, far from water or shelter, wouldn’t that be murder? And aren’t people who transport migrants licensed? Couldn’t their licenses all get pulled for abandonment or something?)

  87. 87.

    citizen dave

    @UncleEbeneezer: Wondering which episode this is?  Can’t find it on google, and I just watched Seasons 3 and 4 a month or so ago.  Great show, one of the very best ever.  I was amazed so many times, and laughing hard out loud in the final sushi/Popeyes sequence.  The last 3 episodes of Season 4 are so fantastic.

  88. 88.

    RSA

    @Baud:  On Friday, March 3, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed House File 28, a bill which will restore voting rights to over 50,000 Minnesotans on parole, probation or community release due to a felony conviction once the law goes into effect in July.

    Republicans: We want everyone to have skin in the game.

    Democrats: Okay, people released from prison can vote.

    Republicans: Wait, not like that.

  89. 89.

    hilts

    @Brachiator:

    From what I’ve seen of DeSantis so far, he does not strike me as someone who has the guts to take on Trump directly and I think he’d get humiliated by the Orange man if he entered this race.

  90. 90.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @SiubhanDuinne: The show has many levels to its’ humor and references, but I think pretty much anyone can enjoy it.  It’s one of those shows where almost everything has a purpose/meaning underlying it.  And it definitely has all kinds of interesting things to say about race in America (and the world).  Definitely one of the most creative shows in recent years

    One other warning: try to watch them as seasons.  There are often things that happen in one episode that end up showing up in unexpected ways, later in that same season.  If you wait too long between episodes, it’s easy to miss them (as we did).

  91. 91.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @citizen dave: Season 3 Episode 9.  It was originally supposed to be the season finale.

    I gotta re-watch wife episodes 8-10 of S3 with my wife (who hasn’t seen them yet), and then I’ll check out Season 4.  Look forward to it.

  93. 93.

    kalakal

    @Steeplejack: Reading them in order is a good idea. You don’t have to but successive books do refer to previous ones, particularly regarding Harriet & Peter

  94. 94.

    Brachiator

    @hilts:

    From what I’ve seen of DeSantis so far, he does not strike me as someone who has the guts to take on Trump directly and I think he’d get humiliated by the Orange man if he entered this race.

    The GOP leadership has done much, is still doing much, to protect Trump. This helps him against all other GOP hopefuls.

    Not sure how loyal Trump’s MAGA base will be.

    The GOP has a mess on their hands. I am enjoying it.

  96. 96.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Good god, this!!!:

    “January 6 crimes dwarf Watergate in scope, seriousness, complexity, volume of evidence and numbers of defendants. The matters are not comparable. This should be obvious to any fair-minded person with a minimal understanding of the events.”

  97. 97.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I’m pretty anal about watching or reading series chronologically, certainly the first time through. Even if there aren’t big swooping story arcs, the characters are bound to change somehow over the course of time, or the writer’s style will mature, or something. So yes indeed, I’ll begin with S01E01 and go from there.

  99. 99.

    hilts

    @Brachiator:

    As repulsive as Trump is, no one could ever accuse him of being boring. DeSantis, on the other hand, has less charisma than a brick wall.  I’d like to be proven wrong, but I expect Trump to wrap up the Republican nomination very quickly.

  100. 100.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Good god,

    The biggest Good god for me is that Trump is out on the campaign trail instead of serving a life sentence in a super max federal prison for instigating the January 6th insurrection.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @hilts:

    The only premise that I see is deathsanta is he’s a useless dipshit who will do everything he can think of to win, except act like/be an actual human being and SFB is well past his sell by date so I’m thinking he won’t have the what’s it to manage more than drooling on himself. Of course one should never count out any of their supporters  thinking they are the hot thing of the moment for being useless and drooling, so that could/would make them actual candidates. Sort of a scary thought, that those two could be, on any planet, considered candidates for the leader of a country.

  104. 104.

    RaflW

    @UncleEbeneezer: Dear mollycoddled Peter Baker: Why on earth are J6 and Watergate in any way comparable, except as they both evidence Republican contempt for law and order?

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @Wyatt Salamanca:The biggest Good god for me is that Trump is out on the campaign trail instead of serving a life sentence in a super max federal prison for instigating the January 6th insurrection.

    I’ll see your ‘good god’ and raise you a “we should have settled this in the early morning hours of Jan 7th” but yeah, super max would have been a solid second best.

  106. 106.

    kalakal

    @eclare: I don’t know whether it amounts to much but I’m starting to see an increasing number of anti Desantis pieces in the MSM.

    The FTFNYT tore his book to shreds, he screwed up a softball interview with The Times ( prop R. Murdoch) and even the FTFNYT noted it. He had a load of Trump fans banned from his rally/book launch and it was widely reported. Not much maybe but I’m wondering if we’re going to see increasing pushback. DeSantis reacts really badly to anything outside a fluff interview, he has all the charm of earwax and the mental agility of a paving slab.

    If there’s an increasing drip, drip, drip of that in the msm he’s toast

  107. 107.

    Yutsano

    I just saw a news blurb a little while ago saying Biden had a cancerous growth removed at his last physical. It was in the FTFNYT so I didn’t follow up on it, but someone please tell me that isn’t going to be the next talking point.

  108. 108.

    mrmoshpotato

    36 here and no rain earlier afaik.  Downstate IL looks like they had fun though.

    And Jersey Mike’s chipotle cheesesteak was meh.  Maybe it’s better as a wrap with less bread (or give me a boatload of beef!)

  109. 109.

    Steeplejack

    @Yutsano:

    I don’t know about media coverage, but the very brief blurb I saw said that it was basal-cell, which is very okay if you have to get some sort of cancer. Usually it’s skin cancer, which is what mine was. But Biden is 100 years old, so it will probably be fatal. 🙄

  112. 112.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Yutsano: IIUC he had a “basal cell carcinoma” removed from his chest. Doesn’t sound like a BFD to me.​ I had one of those – a growth about the size of a pea – surgically excised from the outside edge of one eye socket a few years before COVID. Never been the slightest sign of recurrence since.

  113. 113.

    Chris T.

    I always like the Fun Facts threads, but I’m not sure if I killed the last one with my “a dictionary, grep, awk, and sort” trick, or if it was just because I was late to it.

  115. 115.

    citizen dave

    @UncleEbeneezer: Dead thread, but thanks!  I thought there was an episode set at Stone Mountain, though.  Spent some time on youtube last night watching videos about the “Three Slaps” episode that opens Season 3.  I had no idea it was based on a real event.

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