Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

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

Republicans do not trust women.

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

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

Shut up, hissy kitty!

“But what about the lurkers?”

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

In my day, never was longer.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Fight them, without becoming them!

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

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

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Monday Morning Open Thread: Honoring Bloody Sunday in Selma

Monday Morning Open Thread: Honoring Bloody Sunday in Selma

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No better way. Per the Associated Press:

President Joe Biden used the searing memories of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” to recommit to a cornerstone of democracy, lionizing a seminal moment from the civil rights movement at a time when he has been unable to push enhanced voting protections through Congress and a conservative Supreme Court has undermined a landmark voting law.

“Selma is a reckoning. The right to vote … to have your vote counted is the threshold of democracy and liberty. With it anything’s possible,” Biden told a crowd of several thousand people seated on one side of the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for a reputed Ku Klux Klan leader.

“This fundamental right remains under assault. The conservative Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act over the years. Since the 2020 election, a wave of states and dozens and dozens of anti-voting laws fueled by the ‘Big Lie’ and the election deniers now elected to office,” he said.

As a candidate in 2020, Biden promised to pursue sweeping legislation to bolster protection of voting rights. Two years ago, his 2021 legislation, named after civil right leader John Lewis, the late Georgia congressman, included provisions to restrict partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, strike down hurdles to voting and bring transparency to a campaign finance system that allows wealthy donors to bankroll political causes anonymously.

It passed the then-Democratic-controlled House, but it failed to draw the 60 votes needed to advance in a Senate under control by Biden’s party. With Republicans now running of the House, passage of such legislation is highly unlikely…

Reader Interactions

223Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    This fundamental right remains under assault. The conservative Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act over the years.

    Glad he called them out.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    It passed the then-Democratic-controlled House, but it failed to draw the 60 votes needed to advance in a Senate under control by Biden’s party.

    Way to whitewash the GOP out of the story.

  3. 3.

    sab

    I am assuming ” honoring” isn’t quite what you meant. There should be an exact opposite of “not favorably  commemorating” but I do not know what it is.

    ETA But on the other hand “honoring their bravery” is probably exactly what you meant. Honoring the Selma marchers, not the thugs in charge of resisting them.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    @sab:

    There should be an exact opposite of “not favorably  commemorating” but I do not know what it is.

     
    Commemorating?

  5. 5.

    Tony Jay

    Calling them out is always a good idea and ever so cathartic.

    Sixty years on and the hatemongers are still trying to hide behind Mummy’s red, white and blue skirts. Teaching the truth about your country’s history isn’t ‘dishonouring’ it or ‘rewriting’ it, quite the opposite. It’s pointing the finger of shame directly at the people, organisations and ideologies who dishonoured (and continue to dishonour) the country in the first place by using violence to prioritise a White America over a Free America.

  6. 6.

    eclare

    Watching MJ.  I don’t like Jen Psaki’s attitude, she is all smiles and laughs about TFG saying “I am your retribution.”  I find that statement from a potential president terrifying.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    @eclare:

    I’m not watching the show, but as a general matter I think we should neither be flippant nor fearful when it comes to fascists.  Neither attitude helps us in the fight.

  10. 10.

    cmoren

    Consider that the GOP could potentially use their ability to gerrymander congressional districts to gerrymander the electoral college itself and lock in control of the PresiEach State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congressdency with a smaller minority of the national vote than in 2000 or 2016, when they won the electoral vote because of winning a majority within a strategic combination of individual states.  Consider that Maine and Nebraska are each now the only states that carve out a specific congressional district to get its own elector, distinct from the rest of its electoral votes going to the winner of the remainder of the respective two states.

    Article II clause 2 of the contitution:

    Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled….

    Ya think the current SCOTUS 6-3 majority would stand in the way of closely divided states where the GOP has a momentary trifecta changing to elector-by-congressional district (as Michigan flirted with doing but backed off)?

  15. 15.

    raven

    @NotMax:
    Among his 400 posse members were the 29 Ku Klux Klan members that the FBI had pinpointed in Selma in 1965, Clark said. He preferred they join because he didn’t want them “moving independently.” Of his posse, he said, “They were not angels, and they were not devils; they were decent men.”

  16. 16.

    Geminid

    Rep. Terri Sewell was Selma High School’s first Black Valedictorian. Her mother, a librarian, was Selma’s first Black City Council member.

    Ms. Sewell went on to study at Princeton. There she was befriended by future First Lady Michelle Robinson, whom Sewell considered a “big sister.”

    After studying  in England as a Marshall Scholar, Sewell earned a law degree at Harvard where, It being a small world, Sewell became friends with Barack Obama. Sewell says that as President, Mr. Obama influenced her decision to run for Congress in 2012.

  17. 17.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I saw this post and thought about John Lewis, whom I miss. Then I scrolled down and read about the newest monster who crawled out of the swamp at CPAC. It’s hard to believe we’re talking about members of the same species.

    So Biden is right:

    We should learn everything. The good. The bad. The truth of who we are as a nation.

  20. 20.

    Cliosfanboy

    Quick question. This belong in one of Adam’s threads on Ukraine, but is there an OFFICIAL webpage that sells Patron stuff (like tshirts?)  There’s tons of Patron stuff online for sale, but I want my money going to Ukraine, not some t-shirt guy in Jersey…

  22. 22.

    Kay

    Reproductive rights groups in Ohio cleared a significant hurdle on Thursday in their effort to bring a ballot initiative before voters that would secure a constitutional right to abortion.
    The Ohio attorney general, Dave Yost, approved a petition brought by campaigners looking to bring the ballot initiative to voters in November 2023. The petition will now go to the Ohio ballot board for approval, which has 10 days to approve or reject it.
    The two groups submitting the petition – Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights – gathered thousands of signatures from voters in the state to get the petition process started. The groups believe voters want the chance to vote directly on whether abortion rights should be protected in the state’s constitution.
    The groups are in a race against the clock to get abortion on the November 2023 ballot, because a number of bills are passing through Ohio’s Republican legislature looking to weaken the citizen-led ballot initiative process. One such bill, which would increase the threshold at which a ballot initiative can be passed – from a simple majority to 60% of votes – has already been passed in the House and awaits debate in the Senate.
    If it passes, that same question will go to voters on the November 2023 ballot. If abortion rights proponents manage to get their initiative on the ballot for November, their effort will only require clearing the current 50% threshold.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @eclare:

    Interestingly, I learned yesterday on this here blog that there’s an LGBT+ group called the Stonewall Democrats, which is completely unrelated to the civil war.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    The OH petition clearing the AG is just the first step. Then it goes to the Sec of State “ballot board” for approval, then comes the big lift- gathering about half a million signatures in all 88 counties (the number is based on how many people voted for governor in the last election) and having those signatures survive challenges. Obviously the key to “suriviving challenges” is gatehring many, many more signatures than ‘required’, so say 600-700k signatures.

  28. 28.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Look at it this way: that CPAC guy is clearly a member of the same species as the people who were beating them. And the marchers’ whole point was that they and their attackers were, in fact, the same kind of being, with the same inherent rights. So by the transitive property…

  30. 30.

    trnc

    @Baud: Me, too, but then he said this:

    “Selma is a reckoning….Without the right to vote, nothing is possible….I will not let a filibuster stop us from protecting the right to vote.”

    What’s his plan, especially with 2 senators out of commission right now? Did he find the Green Lantern ring?

  31. 31.

    SuzieC

    My Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, wearing pink, is in the photos.  Proud of her.  And of Biden.

  33. 33.

    Jay

    @Cliosfanboy:

    Under Balloon Juice for Ukraine on the sidebar, there is a list of donor sites that aid Ukraine.

    As far as I know, there is no official Patron merch site, with everyone from United 24, Saint Javelin to individual Esty users, using his image to help Ukraine.

  34. 34.

    Geminid

    @Kay: I read that the Ohio legislature will take another shot at gerrymandering the state’s Congressional districts. In an early preview of 2024 Houses races, Karl Kondyk at the U. Va. Center for Politics rated the districts of Marcy Kaptur, Emilia Sykes, and Greg Landsman as toss-up because of prospective redistricting. Republicans might only pick only one or two of them as targets, though.

    For similar reasons, Kondyk rated four of  North Carolina’s Democratic CDs as tossups.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    George Packer whining about The Wokes in The Atlantic because God knows there haven’t been enough identical antiwoke essays yet- churn out another one:

    The sierra club’s Equity Language Guide discourages using the words stand, Americans, blind, and crazy. The first two fail at inclusion, because not everyone can stand and not everyone living in this country is a citizen. The third and fourth, even as figures of speech (“Legislators are blind to climate change”), are insulting to the disabled. The guide also rejects the disabled in favor of people living with disabilities, for the same reason that enslaved person has generally replaced slave : to affirm, by the tenets of what’s called “people-first language,” that “everyone is first and foremost a person, not their disability or other identity.”

    50% of the Atlantic’s content is now middle aged (or older) white men complaining about wokeness. The antiwoke articles number in the hundreds.
    With all that’s going on in this country a huge group of centrist and center Right famous people now devote their entire careers to complaining about wokeness.

  38. 38.

    Geminid

    @trnc: The Senate would not vote on a Voting Rights bill now even if all the Democrats were present. President Biden is speaking prospectively, as he should.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    Kaptur is a one-off. Her seat was not that competitive- she’s just a very good fit for Ohio no matter where they jam her in. She’s her own brand, much like Sherrod Brown although Brown has a higher hill to climb, statewide. They’re in a kind of class by themselves.

  40. 40.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Basically the same thing is happening in my state of MO, and for the same reasons. I think their real initial motivator was the voter approval of the Medicaid expansion – Republicans did not want that! So, instead of acknowledging what the voters of MO want, they said things like “Well, the voters in my county didn’t vote for it so I believe it’s not valid and we shouldn’t fund it”. Like most right-wingers, they don’t believe people in cities are actually legitimate voters whose voice should matter. The most ironic thing is that Medicaid expansion probably helps rural people and rural hospitals more than people in the cities.

  41. 41.

    gene108

    @Kay:

    One such bill, which would increase the threshold at which a ballot initiative can be passed – from a simple majority to 60% of votes – has already been passed in the House and awaits debate in the Senate.
    If it passes, that same question will go to voters on the November 2023 ballot.

    They want a ballot measure to pass by simple majority that requires future ballot measures to pass by supermajority…🤦‍♀️🤦🤦‍♂️🙄

  42. 42.

    Kay

    Ohio Republicans quietly enacted a measure earlier this month that imposes sweeping new restrictions on voting access in the state, including more stringent voter ID requirements, cutting the early voting period and giving voters less time to return their mail-in ballots.
    The new law puts Ohio among a handful of states with the strictest voter ID rules in the country. The state had already required voters to show identification at the polls, but allowed an exception for voters who couldn’t produce one, allowing them to present a bank statement, paystub or other document to prove their identity. The new law gets rid of that exception and only allows someone to vote if they provide certain forms of photo ID.

    This has been tough for Ohio voting rights activists (including me) because we fought very hard for the exception that allowed alternate ID documents (paystub, etc). The new rules will exclude a huge group of Ohio voters – which is what conservatives intended.
    I think Ohio voting activists have to regroup and come up with another approach at this point. We’re getting killed.

  43. 43.

    Geminid

    @Kay: It seems like Republicans would leave Kaptur alone and go after Sykes or Landsman, or both. My understanding is that with the last map they tried to get Republican Reps out of the 9th and 13th districts while holding the 1st, but wound up losing all three.

  44. 44.

    gene108

    @trnc:

    What’s his plan, especially with 2 senators out of commission right now? Did he find the Green Lantern ring?

    Whatever executive actions President Biden can take to protect voting rights, plus an engaged DOJ Civil Rights Division to sue to protect voting rights.

  45. 45.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: These people are so afraid things will change from how they were when they were young. If they didn’t have so much influence due to their perches in places like the NY Times, WaPo, and similar publications it would  be funny how alarmed they are about language. Why does he care how the Sierra Club uses language?

  46. 46.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: The problem to me is that to the average “normie” these requirements sound harmless – “Who doesn’t have a driver’s license or other ID, and who can’t get one? Isn’t that no big deal?” because that’s how their lives are. They can’t imagine the life of someone who doesn’t have a driver’s license because they either don’t or can’t drive, or someone whose job(s) and hours and kids make it almost impossible for them to get the requisite ID, or those who don’t have identifying documents or the money to pay for them. Of course we know that this really isn’t about the “proper ID”, because the true intent is to suppress voting, so if the targeted groups manage to overcome this obstacle they’ll just find another one.

  48. 48.

    trnc

    @Geminid: The Senate would not vote on a Voting Rights bill now even if all the Democrats were present. President Biden is speaking prospectively, as he should.

    Thanks. What is the prospect?

    No one should take ownership of things over which they have no control. There’s not much difference between “The filibuster won’t stop me” and “I’ll get democrats and republicans to work together.” Unless you have the key votes to actually make it happen, it’s happy talk. I would much rather he say, “We can’t do this unless we have the votes. Call your senator (especially Manchin) and don’t let up until you’ve secured a promise to get the VRA passed.”

  49. 49.

    Baud

    @trnc:

    That would be a great strategy if we had the House.  But we don’t, and Biden isn’t going to tell people we’re not doing nothing.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    They’re ridiculous. It’s this GRASPING at control, hanging on to it, that so repels me. THEY will make the langugage and norm rules! They are the Official Setters of Norms! Just fucking let it go, the world won’t end if Influential Centrists aren’t running every.single. aspect of it.

    They have to write the Sierra Club’s language guide? Really? They can’t just leave that to someone else?

    I don’t think it will work anyway. As much as these people frantically grasp at the past, it will not remain 1978 forever.

  52. 52.

    trnc

    @gene108: Whatever executive actions President Biden can take to protect voting rights, plus an engaged DOJ Civil Rights Division to sue to protect voting rights.

    The VRA is meant to give federal protections to what are now largely state laws, so I’m not sure what EOs will be able to do. Also, the DOJ can’t prosecute violation of rights that don’t exist. That’s why the SC is knocking those rights down.

    If there is an actual plan that will absolutely protect voting rights, that’s great. I’m just afraid that he’s making promises that he can’t really follow through on.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @trnc:

    By that measure, he shouldn’t have forgiven student loans because republican judges will strike it down.

  54. 54.

    Soprano2

    Requisite “these are the awful times we live in” story for today. On Saturday we attended a memorial for the 19-year-old son of my former manager’s former live-in boyfriend. The son was killed in a motorcycle vs. car accident. As you can imagine, the church will filled with teenagers who have no idea how they could end up at such a thing. A teenager who knew him and was planning to attend his memorial was killed Friday night in a firearm “accident” where people who were drinking were messing around with a pistol – a man and woman in their 20’s and the teenager. Because it’s MO, there is actually a line in the story that the people “knew how to handle a firearm properly but were doing so recklessly at the time of the incident.” (No shit, Sherlock!) According to the story I read, the man in his 20’s was handling the pistol when his finger “hit the trigger” and the gun fired. I heard thru the grapevine that he is now under arrest for some kind of manslaughter. Another young person dead and countless people’s lives changed forever all because two drunk people were able to fool around with a pistol. Now all those kids have another memorial to go to. Tragedy upon tragedy, it’s hard to believe it’s true. I made sure to find the story on an actual web site before I repeated it.

  55. 55.

    mali muso

    Had a dream right before I woke up this morning that kiddo and I were at some random location when who should come in but smiling Uncle Joe Biden with his Secret Service detail. I push forward with kiddo to have the chance to meet him and get a quick selfie, but in true nightmare fashion, my phone camera refuses to work! Yeah, I know, not exactly life or death situation but in the moment, it felt very dramatic.

  56. 56.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    to affirm, by the tenets of what’s called “people-first language,” that “everyone is first and foremost a person, not their disability or other identity.”

     

    The ultimate identity politics is treating people as persons first.

    Where does it end?

  57. 57.

    Geminid

    @trnc: “Happy talk”? Sheesh.

    There may be good occasions for President Biden to use the language  you would have him use, but this was not one of them.

  58. 58.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I have to be honest, the idea of not using the word “Americans” seems ridiculous to me, but I’m not writing their guide and if that’s how they want to do it then I don’t care. That’s these people’s problem, they are so worried someone is doing something differently than they would do it. They can’t stand that they no longer control everything about how everyone does things, although the truth is they never really had control over people, they only think they did.

  59. 59.

    trnc

    @Soprano2: The problem to me is that to the average “normie” these requirements sound harmless – “Who doesn’t have a driver’s license or other ID, and who can’t get one? Isn’t that no big deal?” because that’s how their lives are.

    And another reason it sounds normal is that no ID supporter is ever asked to explain how in person voter fraud would work in practice. The closest district election that I know of had a margin of a few hundred votes. How can someone overcome that margin in person? How is someone going to vote fraudulently in person even 3 or 4 times? How many funny hats do they have? How many friends willing to risk the $500 per fraudulent vote fine?

    The goal is not only to prevent some people from voting, but also to slow the process down to a crawl in democratic districts. That needs to be highlighted because that’s something most people can understand.

  60. 60.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    Here’s the actual recommendation.

    Tips About Writing About Immigrants and Refugees

    ….

    Avoid using the term “Americans”generically for
    a group (because it limits the group to those who
    have citizenship status as Americans). There may be
    moments when it is appropriate to utilize this word; for
    example, if someone is referring to their own ethnic or
    racial identity, as in “African Americans” or “Chinese
    Americans.”
    „ Before using “Americans” to refer to all people
    living in the U.S., consider that in Latin America, the
    identifier “American” is typically used to refer to
    everyone who hails from the continent.
    „ Alternatives to “Americans” include: U.S. residents,
    people in the U.S.

     

     

    Here Are Some Tips on How to Be Sensitive
    to Lack of Political Representation

    ….

    Avoid using the term “Americans” generically for
    a group (because it limits the group to those who
    have citizenship status as Americans). There may be
    instances in which it is appropriate to use this word.
    For example when referring to “Black Americans” if
    the author identifies that way. Also consider that in
    Latin America, the identifier “American” is typically
    used to refer to everyone who hails from all of South
    and Central America

    Equity Language Guide Sierra Club 2021.pdf

    pp.9 and 16

  61. 61.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: “American” is a point of irritation for Latin Americans in particular; has been for a long time. The thing is, Spanish has a euphonious word for “United Statesian” but English doesn’t. People have proposed all sorts of new coinages but they don’t catch on.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin: I took that recommendation to mean, be careful if you are writing for a Central or South American audience.  “Americans” is pretty unambiguous with a U.S. audience.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I think excesses work their way through and moderate without the antiwoke police force pulling over the Sierra Club and enforcing 1978 norms.

    My youngest was born in 2003. He just isn’t stuck with the norms that were in place when George Packer was a young man, forever. That isn’t how it works. They have to LET IT GO, although doing so MIGHT MEAN 1. that are old now and 2. not 100% on charge of every aspect of life in the US.

    I actually prefer “enslaved” to “slave”, BTW. It’s more specific and more clear and when I heard it I thought of slavery in a slightly different and deeper way. So I’m glad the Norm Police Force didn’t issue a citation in that case :)

  64. 64.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Their whole thing, too, is “language alone won’t make things more equitable!”

    But they don’t do anything other than police woke language! If they want to show us how language alone won’t make things more equitable, maybe they should do some different work on equity instead of devoting their entire careers to scolding the Oberlin Student Council?

    It’s like the “TERFS”. They’re supposed to be “feminists” yet they do no feminism. Instead they spent their entire lives fighting with trans people on Twitter and in the pages of the NYTimes and The Atlantic and their dumb substacks. In what sense are they “feminists”? Theyre just “trans exclusionary activists”

  65. 65.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Besides the 3 Ohio and 4 North Carolina seats, the other Democrat-held seats that Kondyk rated “Tossup” were Alaska at-large (Peltola). CO 6th (Caraveo), PA 8th (Cartwright) and WA 3rd (Gluesenkamp Perez).

    Kondyk listed ten Republicans in tossup districts: Schweitzer (AZ-1), Duarte (CA-13), Garcia (CA-27), Valadeo (CA-22, D’ Esposito (NY-4). Molinaro (NY-17), Santos (NY-3), Williams (NY-22), Chavis-Remer (OR-5), and Kiggans (VA-2).

    This of course is a very early appraisal, dated February 23. Rating the Alaska at-large seat was a safe move, but I think Mary Peltola will hold that seat as long as she wants.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @trnc: ​
      :”Here we are in Selma, where people with a lot less power than I have risked their lives to get voting rights, and I want to tell you that I have very little ability to do anything to protect those rights. Sorry, folks.” Not particularly inspiring. I took his actual words as a promise to keep voting rights as a priority and to use executive action to protect and extend them. YMMV.

  69. 69.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Omnes Omnibus: Not aimed at you or trnc specifically, but more generally when the subject comes up of how much we can really do:

    Progressives always want Democrats to swing for the fences and make big, inspiring proposals, but they also have to realize that if we do that, we’re going to lose a lot and probably get blamed for it.

    It’s a legitimate choice–Republicans chose back in the Goldwater era to dream big and lose a lot with the understanding that it would pay off decades in the future. But that is the tradeoff. Either you make some inspiring speeches you can’t back up with concrete action, or you’re left playing small ball and looking like a mere technocrat tweaking things around the edges.

  70. 70.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: So if they think language alone isn’t enough, why are they so worried about it? I heard Suzette Hayden Elgin speak once; she’s a linguist. She said words almost always proceed violence, that it’s extremely rare for violence to happen in the absence of angry words. She said the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is wrong because the hurt caused by words is what causes violence! So words are extremely important, and these people know it because they work so hard to gin up a panic over the usage of them. If words didn’t really change anything they wouldn’t be so concerned about them, or so insistent that they never change.

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
      There are times and places for certain types of rhetoric as well. Selma isn’t the place to talk about constraints. It is a place to talk about aspirations and to put down markers for the future. To talk about the bravery of the people there 58 years ago and to commit to honoring their legacy by continuing their work.

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    The mostly middle-aged, mostly male, mostly white anti-woke crusaders remind me of the Brent character in “The Good Place.”

    (Mild spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen the last season — stop reading now.)

    There’s a brief clip toward the end of the series where Brent is shown still arguing about why it should be okay for him to tell women to smile. The people he’s arguing with have presumably been trying to help Brent work through his condescending bullshit for centuries at this point, but he says something like, “But what if it’s objectively true that she’s more attractive when she smiles?” LOL!

    Some people will never get it and never let it go. Lots of them work for The Atlantic. 

  75. 75.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Soprano2:

    To me it feels like the real target is middle aged and elderly black church ladies, many of whom don’t drive and had home births in places where they weren’t allowed to be born in hospitals (or the families couldn’t afford it).

  76. 76.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Words change both the person who uses them and the people who hear them. I remember 20 years ago now when I started imitating my grad students and saying “partner” instead of “husband.” It had never occurred to me that I was identifying my sexual orientation by my word choice. This was before same-sex marriage was legal too.

  78. 78.

    Hamlet of Melnibone

    @Betty Cracker:

    IMO, The Good Place is one of the best sitcoms ever made.  I love that a show that funny can also make me think a lot about good and evil and right and wrong.

    I’ve watched it a couple of times start to finish and have revisited certain episodes many times already.  I never took any Philosophy classes in college, so my exposure to many of the concepts over the years has been completely haphazard.

    It is a great show.

  82. 82.

    narya

    @Hamlet of Melnibone: two additional recommendations: the podcast, hosted by Marc Evan Jackson, and Mike Schur’s book on how to be a good person, which is basically a result of the philosophy he read to create the show.

  83. 83.

    Jackie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I think a lot of people started adjusting to *partner* rather than *spouse,* *husband/wife* as marriage wasn’t always a given any longer. Saved a lot of awkward moments.

  84. 84.

    Glidwrith

    @Soprano2: And we always have the phrase “them’s fightin’ words!”. An insult can be so grevious that it is forgiven if a fist fight immediately happens.

  85. 85.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    I often wonder if being a racist shit causes one’s brain to be less than 2% functional on every other issue. Including autonomic function.

    Maybe it’s not the racist shit but the attempting to find words to support it without saying it. Must be tiring.

    Maybe it’s their wonderful brain power showing itself. As missing.

    It must be tiring to worry about being hateful enough to be noticed for being hateful. Sure is ignorant.

  86. 86.

    munira

    Hard to believe it was 58 years ago. Of all the things I’ve done in my long life, what impressed my grandson the most was the fact that I went to Selma and then Montgomery for the march. He did a paper on John Lewis and was just in awe of my experiences there.

  88. 88.

    Manyakitty

    @eclare: that whole show made me uncomfortable this morning. I usually leave MSNBC on as background through the day, but I noped out around 7:30.

    The whole show gave me a sense of nobody learning their lessons from last time and the creeping dread was more than I could stand.

  89. 89.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Soprano2: Right?  Like they can continue to use all these words and phrases and unless they are surrounded by Social Justice activists, they will almost NEVER have anyone object.  But even if they do…SO???  Language changes/evolves all the times and words go in and out of popular use for all sorts of reasons.  It’s really no big deal.

  91. 91.

    Manyakitty

    @Betty Cracker: thanks for the reminder that it’s time for a Good Place rewatch.

    Also, I can’t confirm it, but I swear I saw Zelensky in a crowd scene from season 3 episode 4 (?). He was an actor then, so it’s possible.

  93. 93.

    frosty

    @Kay: ​Thanks for this. I was a long-time dead-tree subscriber to The Atlantic, but gave it up around 2004 when they got purchased by a hedge funder or something like that. Lately I’ve been checking ownership and seeing articles and thinking I might re-subscribe. Based on your comment I’ll wait awhile longer.​

  95. 95.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Matt McIrvin: “they also have to realize that if we do that, we’re going to lose a lot”

    The problem is, that means they have to admit that their preferred policies are nowhere near as universally popular as they claim.  The kind of Progressives you are talking about, don’t seem capable of doing that.  Especially since doing so would greatly reduce their ability to do what they love most: complain about Dems.  So I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that.

  96. 96.

    Brachiator

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:

    To me it feels like the real target is middle aged and elderly black church ladies, many of whom don’t drive and had home births in places where they weren’t allowed to be born in hospitals (or the families couldn’t afford it).

    I wonder how many young people age 18 to 21 don’t have driver’s licenses.

  98. 98.

    Matt McIrvin

    @UncleEbeneezer: They make the point that ambition and the promise of major change can itself be attractive in a way that boring incrementalism isn’t.

    It’s true. I’m just not sure that their specific pet issues are the ones that will do it. One I hear a lot is that antitrust action in the name of mom-and-pop businesses vs. big corporations will be a big winner with the white working class, and while I think this kind of policy is a good idea, and would support it, I just don’t see it.

  100. 100.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Ruckus: It’s not showing that their brains don’t work.  It’s showing that their brains can and will do incredible amounts of mental gymnastics to make everything accord with their beliefs in racial/gender hierarchies.  Of course if our language had a word or phrase that somehow left THEM out, you better believe they would adamantly want it changed/fixed.  These are the same people whose immediate response to “Black lives matter” was “don’t you mean ‘ALL lives matter?'”  So they definitely get the concept of lingual inclusion, they are just very selective about whose inclusion is worthy of prioritizing.

  101. 101.

    schrodingers_cat

    @WaterGirl: @Steeplejack: Thanks.

    FWIW I think it did deserve a FP post. This blog is not shy about bashing Manchin and Sinema from the FP (rightly earned in many cases) but when it comes to the Red Roses, their “Progressive” leaders and their shenanigans that harm the Ds there is a studied silence. Coincidence?

  106. 106.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m on team SC for this one. They lost the governor ship and we almost lost the Senate race. I think both of those were related at least partially to the chaos that was happening in Nevada because of that take over.

  108. 108.

    Ruckus

    @Manyakitty:

    As much as this might seem strange, given the necessity of having a car in LA, but there is a pretty good mass transit system here. It of course doesn’t go everywhere one might need to go but it is still pretty damn useful. I can easily ride from east to west almost all the way across the county. Less north to south availability but still a noticeable ways. And it is being expanded. The tracked portion is all electric, including the subway. And yes I said subway. There is also a diesel train system and at rush hours it is far faster than driving. And I know this because for a few miles it runs next to a major freeway for some time. It is also standing room only during rush hours.

  109. 109.

    WaterGirl

    @schrodingers_cat: I dislike Bernie and Company as much as the next person, but I was pretty busy this weekend. I would’ve put up that post in a heartbeat had I not been so busy. So yeah, I think that at least, was a coincidence.

  113. 113.

    Soprano2

    @WaterGirl: I agree too, when a whole state party organization turns over like that it’s a big deal, especially when we see it was causing problems. How much have we talked on here about the Democratic leadership in Florida and New York needing major changes?

  114. 114.

    laura

    Welp, it appears that apartheid Clyde’s vanity project has taken on water and is listing as the band plays on. The twitter accounts I lurk on are inaccessible. No Stonekettle, Ragnorak Lobster, Emptywheel, George Hahn, NYC Southpaw…..

  116. 116.

    Manyakitty

    @Ruckus: one of those friends is, in fact, in LA (West Hollywood, specifically). Her kids and their friends are content with Ubers and Lyfts over navigating the roads. In places with good public transportation, it almost makes sense. However, it seems like a generational thing, too. Go figure.

  121. 121.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: Nevada State Assemblywoman and new Democratic Party Chairman Daniele Munroe-Moreno said it well:

    Thank you Nevada Democrats!

    This victory belongs all of us fighting to unite our Democratic family because we know how much we are capable of when we come together as one team.

    Let’s get to work!

    @Danielle4NV, March 4 2022

  123. 123.

    RaflW

    Apparently Muskker℠ is extra-borked this morning, so only the text of the various tweets up top are loading. Which is not a problem, I very much get the thrust of Biden’s visit.

    I will note that Chirs Geidner (“Law Dork” blogger), who is a solid liberal, has been making some fair points about Biden saying all these important things about voting, but at the same time seemingly squashing any sort of move towards more representation for the basically vote-less citizens of D.C. (where he lives, so it’s personal as well as systemic for him).

  126. 126.

    Ruckus

    @Manyakitty:

    I’m so old that I remember when the city of Los Angeles had an electric bus system. It was weird seeing the overhead wire and contact system to power the buses and what they had to do to go around corners. But they were quiet and didn’t smoke, like every combustion engined vehicle of the time did. I imagine that a wire breaking in the overhead system would not be all that great. And then the bus companies and the petroleum companies wanted to make money and the electric busses went away. It’s always about the benjamins isn’t it. But now the bus system where I live has electric buses and induction charging systems at some of the stops, like at one stop at one of the main electric train stations. The modern world, who would imagine that it was modern 75 yrs ago?

  127. 127.

    Steeplejack

    @laura:

    Everything on Twitter seems to be down right now. You can’t even log in. Not that I have an account, but I can’t even get to the log-in screen (via browser).

  129. 129.

    Another Scott

    @RaflW:

    RollCall (from 3/2/2023):

    “If I had been on the [D.C.] Council, I would’ve voted against the measure,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who once represented Maryland’s 8th District as a member from Montgomery County, which borders the District.

    The House on Feb. 9 voted 250-173 to pass a second disapproval measure against a rewrite of the D.C. criminal code, which 31 House Democrats supported.

    A president needs to pick his battles.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  132. 132.

    Jowriter

    @WaterGirl: Definitely seconding SC.  EVs are important and Nevada’s 6 could make a lot of difference next election.  Speaking as a New Yorker who is highly incensed at the ’22 shenanigans in my state.  So-called progressives have done a great deal of damage.

  133. 133.

    Geminid

    @Ruckus: Germany has been converting its rail system to electric power. On some routes they don’t even run wires but use locomotives powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

  134. 134.

    laura

    @Baud: Le Sigh, the dogs have been fed and I’m washing the bedding. Woe is me. No electronic distraction (sad trombone). Will make a leftover smoked chicken creamy poblano chile casserole and then commence eating my feelings while listening to Monday Monday, Stormy Monday, Come Monday, I dont like Monday’s playlist.

  135. 135.

    lowtechcyclist

    @schrodingers_cat:

    This blog is not shy about bashing Manchin and Sinema from the FP (rightly earned in many cases) but when it comes to the Red Roses, their “Progressive” leaders and their shenanigans that harm the Ds there is a studied silence. Coincidence?

    One doesn’t have to follow current events closely to know the extent to which Manchin and Sinema have prevented the Democrats from achieving goals such as voting rights over the past two years.

    But while I read about politics almost every day, I almost never hear about those anti-Dem lefties that obsess you.  I think the last time one was mentioned often enough for me to remember was when Nina Turner lost a primary.  Or maybe when David Sirota said something ridiculous enough that it was noted outside their bubble.

    But on the whole, they’re fringe players, and it’s a very small fringe.

  138. 138.

    Another Scott

    @Steeplejack:

    DigitalTrends.com:

    It seems the issue is related to Twitter’s switch to a paid API. The company announced in early February that it would switch to a paid API service, resulting in many third-party apps like Twitterific being shut down. Now, it seems Twitter itself is running into issues related to its paid API system.

    Reporter Aidan Moher speculates that links and images are broken due to Twitter’s data tracking. When using a link out of Twitter, the website captures data about where you’re going, which is sent through the Twitter API. That service, according to Moher, seems to have lost API access due to the switch to Twitter’s new paid system.

    Twitter Support says that “some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected.” The issue, according to the account, is the result of “an internal change that had some unintended consequences.” The team is working on a fix now and said it will share when that fix has been implemented.

    Testing before sending to production?? What a novel concept!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  140. 140.

    Geminid

    Virginia has a lot of veteran state legislators retiring ahead this fall’s elections. A week ago the total was 21 out of 140 Delegates and Senators, with over 360 combined years of service. Democratic Senators Richard Saslaw and Janet Howell are two of the longest serving retirees. While it’s not certain which party will be in control next January, the next General Assembly will definitely be a younger one.

  142. 142.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Another Scott: It’s almost like every move Elmo makes to ostensibly increase Twitter’s revenue damages Twitter’s ability to perform the functions that had it able to bring in revenue in the first place, on both the technological and the psychological/sociological front. Sooner or later, something will break that can’t be fixed, and Elmo will be left with an internet corpse and $44 billion in debt. The results will be interesting, in the “oh God, oh God, we’re all going to die” sense.

  144. 144.

    RaflW

    @Another Scott: Testing before sending to production? What a novel concept!

    It’s certainly why I have no interest in riding in the Afrikaaner Princeling’s self-driving vehicles.

  145. 145.

    JML

    @laura: which version of Stormy Monday are you listening to? (My personal favorite is B.B. King & Albert Collins from Blues Summit)

  151. 151.

    laura

    @JML: I like em all! Bobby Blue Bland, BB King. Albert King & Stevie Ray Vaughn, Allman Brothers Live at Fillmore East, Sting. I’m casual with my musical affections.

  152. 152.

    Ruckus

    @Geminid:

    Fifty yrs ago I rode trains in northern Europe and every one I rode on and saw was electric. Now I have never been to Germany but I have been to a fair number of European countries.

  153. 153.

    Ruckus

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I’ve always had weird sleeping habits. Most of my adult life I’ve gotten by on 5-6 hrs a night, other than every so often doing 10-12 hrs. Since I retired I more/most often get 7-8 hrs. So now a 5-6 hr night seems weird.

    This getting old shit is getting old.

    Oh well better than the alternative.

  154. 154.

    Ruckus

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR:

    That’s what happens when a not so smart, smart ass, gets in so deep over his head that he can’t even find the light switch to enable him to find his way out.

  155. 155.

    NotMax

    @Ruckus

    On the slim chance the catenary (overhead wire*) should break it would just dangle in the air since it is made up of two horizontal wires connected to each other by a series of vertical strapping (droppers). The chance of both horizontal wires snapping simultaneously is small. Too, the horizontal lines are under tension set by counterweights on poles, stanchions or towers so in a worst case scenario those weights would descend, resulting in physically raising the broken wires.

    *Trivia: the hinged, flexible connector apparatus atop the train is called a pantograph. Trolleys, although sometimes equipped with a pantograph, more often collect power from the catenary via a long pole with springs to hold it against the wire, not so imaginatively known as a trolley pole.

  156. 156.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ruckus: These days trolleybuses also have (smaller) batteries so they can go a short distance without the overhead wire. That actually goes back a long way, but what they can also do is automatically raise and lower the pole and reconnect it with the wires, and among other things that means they don’t really need quite the huge nest of wires at every intersection to handle turning.

    I actually think a lot of places are too quick to abandon trolleybuses in favor of other systems like battery buses with fixed charging points. The MBTA has been making some bad decisions along these lines, though I guess part of the Silver Line still uses hybrid buses that can run on trolley power.

  158. 158.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I don’t know what business a state does with a retail pharmacy, but bravo, I hope it hurts

    Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom

    California won’t be doing business with @walgreens — or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk. We’re done.

  159. 159.

    japa21

    I do think the DSA thing is worth discussing. They have been successful at some very local levels, but this was their first victory AFAIK on a state wide level and it was almost counterproductive in the long run. Did it impact 2022 election results? Very possibly, although I have not seen any studies to verify that assumption.
    It is interesting to see how that takeover compares to right wing party takeovers. I would posit that the far right has been very successful in taking over party apparatus at a state level but with limited, if any, electoral success because of it. In fact, in many states it seems to be driving voters away from the party. So called Independent voters are essential in every election and the fringes of both parties turn them off.

  160. 160.

    JML

    @laura: nice. I have a lot of different versions as well, and it’s a song that has a lot of space for a great artist to take in different directions.

  161. 161.

    Manyakitty

    @japa21: same for third party candidates. The only way to not be a spoiler is winning state and local races to demonstrate seriousness and sanity. These DSA loons failed on both counts.

  162. 162.

    Geminid

    @Ruckus: Germany still runs a lot of diesel locomotives. The government has set a goal of electrifying 75% of the 33,000 kilometer network by 2030, but the Pro Rail Alliance says they won’t meet that goal at the present rate. The success of hydrogen fuel cell-powered locomotives may help pick up the pace.

    cleanenergywire.org has some articles covering this.

  163. 163.

    cain

    @munira: You can include me in that group with your grandson – would love to hear your retrospective on that march from your point of view.

  165. 165.

    cain

    @Matt McIrvin: The problem with DSA is that they’ll keep making the same mistakes and then blaming it on Dems under the guise of “you’re doing it wrong!”  It’s the same mentality of “Reaganism” – it can’t fail, you’ve just failed to do it right.

    When confronted with the fact that most Americans are not onboard with their notions – they have no answers.

  166. 166.

    cain

    @cain: @WaterGirl – if they consent – it would be lovely to get a FP post on their perspective of Selma having attended it. Too bad, we didn’t get this for Black History month!

  168. 168.

    Geminid

    @Manyakitty:  DSA membership may be stalling out. It rose from ~55,000 in 2018 to around 95,000 in 2021, but now may have dropped back down below 90,000. They are strongest in New York, where they count two U.S. Representatives and three state Senators elected as Democrats as DSA members.

    Freshman Representative Greg Casar of Austin, Texas is a DSA member but the local chapter withdrew their endorsement because he would not follow the party line regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I think Casar is still counted as a member. Overall though, their electoral strategy of working through the Democratic Party seems to have leveled off in results, and it has become more controversial within the party.

    The party’s biennial convention will be held in Chicago this summer, August 4-6 (I think). They will have a lot to talk about.

  170. 170.

    gwangung

    @cain: It’s top down thinking, strategy and tactics, instead of bottom up and grassroots.

    Focussing on grassroots upward and building coalitions is something they’re weak on; they’ll claim grassroots support, but they dismiss out of hand the groups they need in order to meet their goals.

  172. 172.

    cckids

    @Brachiator:I wonder how many young people age 18 to 21 don’t have driver’s licenses.

    More than in my day. The cost of car insurance caused us to make our kids wait till they were 18, rather than 16, to get licensed. I’m sure it hasn’t improved in the past 10-12 years.

  173. 173.

    Ohio Mom

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Medicaid dollars go through the state, maybe they won’t allow California Medicaid recipients to use Walgreens?

    That is a wild guess, it may be illegal to prohibit patients from using the pharmacy of their choice.

    Another wild guess, if California provides Medicaid through managed care plans, renegotiate contracts to leave out Walgreens? Again, just guessing.

    Whatever the mechanism, Go to it California!

    I myself am a bit disappointed because I like my neighborhood Walgreens for various odds and ends, but I will live without them for the duration.

  174. 174.

    trnc

    @Matt McIrvin:

    @Omnes Omnibus: Not aimed at you or trnc specifically, but more generally when the subject comes up of how much we can really do:

    Progressives always want Democrats to swing for the fences and make big, inspiring proposals, but they also have to realize that if we do that, we’re going to lose a lot and probably get blamed for it.

    Agreed. Omnes makes a fair point that the speech should be inspirational. I just think it can be done without overpromising, so the question is whether Biden actually can do much to get around the filibuster.

  175. 175.

    Geminid

    @gwangung: DSA members at least understands the importance of grass roots organizing, and they try, which is more than I can say about the greater number of people on what I would call the non-Democratic Party Left.

    There is a lot of internal debate within the DSA over their relationship to the “Bourgeois” Democratic Party. And now the Democrats are perceived as more welcoming to “progressives,” and their successes in the past two years tend to draw serious progressives to its bigger tent.

    Ironically, Raphael Warnock’s and Jon Ossoff’s wins in the Georgia Senate runoff may have represented a downward inflection point for the Democratic Socialists of America. The Democratic Party is where the action is now, or at least was when we held a Gouse majority.

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may have been another inflection point downward for the DSA. Their anti-NATO policy has caused stress within the party, and drawn a lot of animus from the public.

  176. 176.

    Kent

    @Geminid:

    @Ruckus: Germany still runs a lot of diesel locomotives. The government has set a goal of electrifying 75% of the 33,000 kilometer network by 2030, but the Pro Rail Alliance says they won’t meet that goal at the present rate. The success of hydrogen fuel cell-powered locomotives may help pick up the pace.

    cleanenergywire.org has some articles covering this.

    Diesel locomotives are especially dumb because they are actually just electric locomotives carrying diesel electric generators that produce electricity to drive the electric motors on the wheels.

    Trains require so much torque to move that they would tear up any transmission if you made them like trucks with a diesel engine driving the wheels through a transmission.  So that is why they actually use electric motors to drive the wheels.  Electric motors are far better at low end torque.

    So switching locomotives to electric makes enormous sense and always has.  It’s just a question of electrifying the tracks with overhead wires

  177. 177.

    Geminid

    @trnc: There might not be any filibusters this Congress, because the House probably won’t pass legislation that the Republicans want to filibuster. It will more likely be Democrats denying the 10 votes to close debate.

    Any strategy to eliminate the filibuster can’t be applied until the next Congress at the earliest, it seems to me. Then, even if Democrats hold the Senate and win back the House, I don’t see Biden strategizing a way to get the votes to eliminate the filibuster. There could be a carveout on a couple important bills, but there are 4 to 8 Democratic Senators who will not go along with an across the board end to the 60 vote requirement. There may be enough votes in later Congresses.

  178. 178.

    trollhattan

    Jesus, not again. Make it stop!

    Gloomy, rainy days will persist through the first full week of March in the Sacramento area. The National Weather Service alerts motorists of wet roads Monday morning, as showers return to the capital city.

    Katrina Hand, a meteorologist with the weather service, said rain totals from Monday to Wednesday morning are expected between a quarter to half an inch. Heavier rain will follow, she said, as a warmer and wetter atmospheric river enters the region late Thursday to into the weekend. It’s still a few days too early to tell, Hand said, but an inch and a half to 3 inches are expected Thursday to Sunday, with the heaviest rainfall on Friday.

    There are some flooding concerns later in the week and into the weekend. Hand advises motorists to be aware of standing water and local ponding on roadways, slick roads and increased travel times. There may also be increased creek and river levels, she said, below 4,000 feet.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article272798925.html#storylink=cpy

    Shorter me: getting your decade’s rain in a single four-month stretch is not what we signed up for.

  179. 179.

    trollhattan

    @cckids: ​Ours waited until 17. The insurance hit’s not ghoulish (21 now) but friends with teen boys have an entirely different tale.

    Is it meaningful that the top cause of death has shifted from car accidents to gunshot?

  180. 180.

    Scout211

    @trollhattan: The NWS has warned the Motherlode counties to expect flooding with the subtropical atmospheric river coming Thursday-Friday.  Snow levels are expected to rise to 8,000 feet in some places, melting snow in the foothills and mountains.  This is not good.

    A strong storm system over the eastern Pacific Ocean will approach the coast of the Pacific Northwest on Thursday night and Friday. An abundance of subtropical moisture will move inland over Central California along the southern periphery of this storm system from Thursday night through Friday night.

    Mild air associated with this air mass will cause the snow levels to rise to around 8,000 feet on Friday.

    Heavy rainfall and the mild air mass will result in rapid snow melt in areas that have received several feet of snow in the past few weeks.

    In the Sierra Nevada foothills, two to four inches of rain is possible from Thursday night through Saturday.

    In the Sierra Nevada mountains below 8,000 feet, three to five inches of rain is possible from Thursday through Saturday. The majority of the rain should fall Friday and Friday night.

    The combination of heavy rainfall and rapid snow melt will cause water levels to rise on area rivers and streams from Thursday night through Saturday.

     

  181. 181.

    Geminid

    @Kent: Or, railroads can use hydrogen fuel-cell powered locomotives, like the Germans are already doing in Lower Saxony and elsewhere. The locomotives are French-made, so France is probably using them also.

    The EU generally is leaning into hydrogen as a key component of their future energy mix for both industry and transport. Hyundai is now selling fuel cell-powered heavy trucks in Germany and Switzerland, and if they work out Hyundai will sell many more.

  182. 182.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Ruckus: I have a deviated septum which causes my turbinates to swell as soon as I get into REM sleep (after ten years of suffering this bs, I’m finally getting surgery for it at the end of the month!) so I frequently wake up at midnight, 2, 5, sometimes all three, with crushing stuffed nose on one side.  It’s annoying as hell and takes a major toll on quality-of-life.  Counting down the days til surgery since I’ve heard that it makes sleeping so much better.

  183. 183.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Soprano2:

    I would argue it’s not “fringe” when they take over a whole state’s Democratic Party apparatus.

    How many people did it take for them to pull that off?

  184. 184.

    Brachiator

    @trollhattan:

    Is it meaningful that the top cause of death has shifted from car accidents to gunshot?

    I was looking at the stats for this the other day.  Part of this seems to be related to a steady and significant decline in deaths from car crashes since 2006.  Autos have become much safer over this period.

    Firearm deaths actually declined for a while, but in recent years have seemed to increased dramatically.

  186. 186.

    Kay

    @trnc:

    I think we need specific benchmarks on what would be a “good” performance by the DOJ on voting rights protections and what’s a “weak” performance. We need more than “they brought this or that lawsuit during Obama or Biden so obviously that’s the best they could possibly do” – that’s not a measure, it’s cheerleading. What would be the most aggressive approach and how does their work measure up to that – if a LESS aggressive approach is better as a matter of legal strategy (and it might be) why is it better?

  187. 187.

    trollhattan

    @Scout211: For folks who ask, “why isn’t the lake filled?” this is the answer. Flood-control reservoirs are restricted to accommodate heavy runoff until later in the year. e.g., Folsom Lake above Sacramento is at 580k acre-feet but holds 980k, which they could have easily reached a month or more ago.

    With a 200% snowpack, a big warm wet storm is nerve-wracking. We’ll have floods to be sure.

  188. 188.

    trollhattan

    @Geminid: Where are they sourcing the hydrogen? IIUC it mostly comes out of natural gas, at present. Green hydrogen, if it scales up efficiently, will be a major energy option in the future.

  189. 189.

    Kent

    @Geminid: Hydrogen fuel cell locomotives operate the same way as diesel locomotives.  The fuel cell generates electricity which powers the electric motors that drive the wheels.

    It makes sense for areas where electrification of the rail line is impractical or too expensive.  But then you still need all the hydrogen fueling facilities.

    Direct electric power is always going to be the most efficient way to run locomotives as long as you can install the wires.

  190. 190.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: At least some of the hydrogen is “green,” but I couldn’t say how much. It would be easy to find out. cleanenergywire.org, the outfit with the articles on the German rail system, is one place to look, and other sites have a lot of reporting on the EU’s plans for hydrogen and current uses.

    I think the EU intends for it all the hydrogen it uses on the future to be green. I don’t know what the target date is though. They’re only now starting, and there may be roadblocks along the way. But they seem serious.

  191. 191.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Soprano2: The sad part is that these are completely preventable if they had the will to do anything about it. But they don’t. Instead, they’ll just bemoan the tragedy and say it was ‘Gods will’, learning exactly nothing from this.

  192. 192.

    Geminid

    @Kent: The company running the fuel cell locomotives in Lower Saxony uses them for the reason you suggest-saving the cost of running overhead lines. I guess they flll their tanks with hydrogen at the terminals.

  197. 197.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay:

    We need more than “they brought this or that lawsuit during Obama or Biden so obviously that’s the best they could possibly do” – that’s not a measure, it’s cheerleading. What would be the most aggressive approach and how does their work measure up to that – if a LESS aggressive approach is better as a matter of legal strategy (and it might be) why is it better?

    we should compare what they’re doing to some hypothetical better approach we can’t identify or describe?

  200. 200.

    Scout211

    Dish Network is still trying to manage a ransomeware attack from over a week ago, with data also being extracted. All internal operations are still not working. We still get television but authentication for streaming apps is not available. Customers can’t pay their bills and no one can sign up or change their plans.

    Then today I get a nice friendly email from AT&T telling me there was a data breach in their network systems, with data being extracted.

    I am beginning to think that maybe all of these online accounts we signed up for just might not be all that secure. Huh.

  201. 201.

    Soprano2

    @lowtechcyclist: I’m not saying whether it’s bad or good, I’m saying it’s worth talking about. Again, how much talk has there been on this blog about the dysfunction of the New York and Florida Democratic Party organizations in those states? I think what happened in Nevada is at least worth talking about.

  203. 203.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I think the last time one was mentioned often enough for me to remember was when Nina Turner lost a primary.

    Nina Turner is a paid political commenter on CNN where she has recently been promoting the Republican talking points on East Palestine. Medhi Hassan had her on MSNBC a week or so ago to debate I forget what. I didn’t watch because I can’t stand either one of them

  205. 205.

    karen marie

    @Scout211:   This is the result of decades in which consumers were expected to bear responsibility for protecting against data theft and corporations were held harmless, and the sale of “identity theft protection” was a growing business.

    Once again, profits are privatized and losses are socialized.

    It would be great if these breaches changed that dynamic but that’s not going to happen.

  208. 208.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    we should compare what they’re doing to some hypothetical better approach we can’t identify or describe?

    Well, no. That’s the opposite of what I said. Legal actions are specific and defineable and measurable. There’s no need to not “identify or describe” them. We could compare the Biden DOJ’s efforts in Texas to the Obama DOJ’s efforts in Ohio, for example. Saying “they’re doing a great job and also that’s all they could possiby do” without some kind of measure or benchmark just doesn’t mean anything.

  209. 209.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Soprano2:

    I’m not saying whether it’s bad or good, I’m saying it’s worth talking about. Again, how much talk has there been on this blog about the dysfunction of the New York and Florida Democratic Party organizations in those states? I think what happened in Nevada is at least worth talking about.

    True, I’m not saying otherwise.  But ‘fringe’ is in terms of support.  They can pull something off like this without many people if they catch everybody unawares.  Like in the 1980s when the wingnuts would show up and vote for a school board election that was reliably a low-turnout event, and take control of the school board until the next election, when the normies would show up and vote them out.  (Looks like that cycle is back.)  Which is what seems to have happened in Nevada.

    Is it worth talking about? Sure.  But there isn’t much to say besides: don’t take any contest like this for granted.

    As best as I can tell, the problems with the NY and FL Democratic parties are a bit more complicated, and there’s certainly a bit of history that got the NY party to where it is now.  And the NY party’s dysfunction is particularly noteworthy: while a better performance there probably wouldn’t have given us the House majority, it might well have put us within a special election or two of it.

  210. 210.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: After all the bullshit accusations that he was somehow incompetent, afraid or corrupt, it would be absolutely hilarious if Bragg ends up being the first to indict Trump.  But it’s quite possible, as I was just listening to Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok explain on Saturday’s Legal AF podcast.     They’ve talked before about how this could very well be the whole reason that Bragg wanted to hold off on indicting Trump right away: instead, using the Trump Org conviction and time in Rikers to flip Weisselberg so they have a better shot at nailing Trump on Stormy Daniels charges.

  212. 212.

    Kathleen

    @japa21: They have stated on Twitter their goal is to destroy the Democratic Party. Justice Dems said the same thing but later deleted those tweets. Thst is why I feel the same way SC does.

  213. 213.

    Kathleen

    @cain: Or DNC rigs everything. They never ever take responsibility for their failures. I seldom gear of them even congratulating their opponents.I Instead they accuse opponents’ supporters of being corrupt. Nina Turner has been whining for 2 election cycles. I will not support any Dem who endorsed her. I 9

  214. 214.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kathleen: every time I get a campaign solicitation from Katie Porter, I reply that I want her to explain that endorsement. Now that I think of it, I haven’t gotten one in a while, not even at the end of last month. I wonder if I got myself taken off a list.

  216. 216.

    ColoradoGuy

    One slick feature of electric trains-with-wires is regenerative braking. This is not new; the commuter train I took in Japan in the 1950’s had a large Ammeter in the cab that showed Plus Amps (in the hundreds) and Minus Amps (in the hundreds).

    When the train went downhill, the meter swung all the way to left, feeding power into the system. When we pulled out of the station, which uses maximum current, it swung all the way to the right. As a kid interested in technology, I thought this was pretty slick, especially since the system was powered by Japanese hydroelectricity.

    But … for trains powered by diesel-electric or fuel cells, nope, no regeneration, unless you have (very) big battery packs. It’s interesting the very largest propulsion systems, in ships and trains, are hybrid, because mechanical transmissions cannot handle the enormous torques at start-up. In ships, it’s steam turbine-electric, or very large diesel-electric, and in trains, it’s diesel-electric. And it’s been that way since the Thirties, so this isn’t new technology.

  217. 217.

    Geminid

    @Kathleen: Mr. Shahid of the Justice Dems really stepped in it with those tweets about a hostile takeover, etc. He deleted them, but people were watching the JDs like hawks and screenshot the offensive tweets.

    Fortunately for them, the Justice Democrats have a parallel organization, Brand New Congress, that they can work though.

    I kept up with this stuff on several accounts like @LizBurgh and Justice Dem Watch. Then last Spring the Justice Dem Watch twitter account disappeared. A couple months later I realized they had themselves rebranded, as “Post Left Watch.”

  218. 218.

    Geminid

    @ColoradoGuy: I think that fuel cell powered trucks and locomotives use batteries, just not as big as with battery only vehicles. So they may be able to utilize regenerative braking.

  219. 219.

    Ruckus

    @Tony Jay:

    Same as it always is.

    Life isn’t a competition, especially not a life and death competition.

    Some people think freedom is a large bank account. It isn’t.

    Some think that they are better because their bank account is huge, they aren’t.

  220. 220.

    Dan B

    @Ruckus: Seattle wanted to take down its electric trolley system. That was stopped after a long fight. Seattle has many hills and electric buses are much better than lumbering diesels.

  222. 222.

    Dan B

    @Geminid: There may be a great deal of hydrogen underground. It seems that hydrogen wells up from deep in the earth and gets trapped by layers of dense rock and water.  Estimates are that all our energy could be met by mining this hydrogen.  The reality and downsides may prove different.

  223. 223.

    Geminid

    @Dan B: I read some about that. Right now it looks like the EU intends to get its hydrogen using excess wind and solar capacity to produce hydrogen by electrolysis. A big electrical co-op in Western Ireland is planning a large offshore windfarm that will be dedicated to hydrogen production. I don’t know if this will happen, but the EU definitely plans to use a lot of hydrogen in coming decades.

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