Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

When we show up, we win.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

One way or another, he’s a liar.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

This fight is for everything.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

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

White supremacy is terrorism.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Happy Holi!

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Happy Holi!

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Another joyful, chaotic celebration of the end of winter…



Schrodinger’s Cat shared this in a comment last night:

If you schedule the holiday for a full moon (see also: Mardi Gras, Purim, et al), not only is it easy for preliterate folk to track, but you can keep partying after the sun sets…

***********

Also worth celebrating:

Reader Interactions

159Comments

  3. 3.

    Geminid

    Maybe young Democrats don’t over-think problems like their elders are prone to do.

  4. 4.

    schrodingers_cat

    The video is from the movie Navrang (9 colors) for 9 emotions. Its a musical about a court poet and his muse (his wife but she doesn’t know it). It has some great music.

    A more recent number celebrating Holi, from Ram Leela

    Lahu munh lagaya (I have tasted blood..)

  5. 5.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Who doesnt love their favorite Uncle, a double fisted fighter (image)​

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: I think many of us (eta: older DEMs) have been persuaded to fear things out of proportion to reality by the RW infotainment complex.

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    Cat news: I’ve had to reschedule the visit to the shelter. Don’t worry, it’s postponed only to Saturday, so I should still be able to announce Scully/Caoimhin to you Jackals this week.

  20. 20.

    R-Jud

    Naturally, just as everyone’s thoughts turn to spring, it is snowing here in Olde England. The stray cat who’s been visiting my back patio and gazing longingly through the door is nowhere to be seen. We’ve set up a shelter and some food for him and hope to catch him to get him to a vet. Hope he’s warm.

  21. 21.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Yes, we save our over-thinking for lesser matters.

    I think a lot of the agitation about replacing Biden among Democrats and the Democrat-adjacent was founded on disappointment with the 2020 primary result. People here have largely accepted it and even embraced it.

    And lot of the interparty debate along ideological lines that was more contentious from 2017 to 2020 seems to have receded in importance among Democrats generally. I know it has for me.

  23. 23.

    James E Powell

    That is great news; hope it translates into huge turnout & an increase in voting D for the whole slate. Our voters are known for fall off.

    I still question why they aggregators put people under 24 with people who are over 30.

  25. 25.

    pluky

    One thing the cultural purists xenophobes amongst us don’t seem to get is that, the more different people are around, the more reasons there are to have a party. Faites les bon temps rouler!

  26. 26.

    James E Powell

    @Betty Cracker:

    Right. And I have photos to prove it!

    I know one’s own anecdotal experience is not the most accurate guide, but at 20 I was an aimless blue collar high school graduate trying to get a date. At 30 I was a lawyer and my wife & I bought a house.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @James E Powell:

    I’m glad to see it because I wanted to see Biden rewarded for student loan relief, and was concerned that young people would say it wasn’t enough or would blame him for what the Supreme Court does.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    Biden’s income driven student loan payment plan is really good. It’s not getting any attention with the far Right SCOTUS getting ready to void student loan forgiveness, but I bet young people could be made aware of it.

    there will be ferocious resistance from the usual centrist/Right opposition. It’s interesting that the forgiveness at SCOTUS is getting all the attention when this quiet rule rewrite will be much more important

  29. 29.

    Kay

    I can’t link to the student loan plan (from January) but it’s very generous – it’s a rule change

  31. 31.

    PBK

    @R-Jud: We managed to catch a stray right before snow here in New England 🙂 Good luck getting the little furball.

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Elizabeth Warren made a great point about the SCOTUS questioning during arguments about student debt relief. Chief Justice Balls and Strikes asked if it’s fair to forgive student debt when people who get a loan to start a lawncare business don’t get the same consideration. Here’s what Warren told TPM:

    “When Justice Roberts asks about fairness rather than focusing on statutory interpretation or constitutional issues, he’s becoming a super legislator. That’s not his job,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told TPM. “It is not the role of the United States Supreme Court to make those judgements.”

    “And that means this Court is trying to pull more power into itself and away from the elected officials whose jobs it is to make those decisions,” she added. “This is not about a Court that is promoting small government. This is about a Court that is promoting big court.”

    She’s right. If the FedSoc court strikes down the relief plan, I hope all the Democrats make a huge stink about the court legislating from the bench.

  33. 33.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: If I had to pick out a development that did most for Democratic unity, it would be the Georgia Senate runoffs on January 5, 2021. Raphael Warnock’s and Jon Ossoff’s wins made it possible for Democrats to actually pass very needed legislation, to “deliver for the people” as the House Minority Leader likes to say.

    Democrats wanted to do more, but results gained with such narrow majorities promise more progress in future Congresses, if Democrats can stay united.

    I guess another important waypoint was the day last July when the Senate passed the CHIPS+ Bill. That afternoon Majority leader Schumer and the balky Senator Manchin announced agreement on a scaled back version of the “Build Back Better” bill. The failure to pass BBB was a sore point for the party, and even though the mis-named Inflation Reduction Act fell short of the BBB’s goals, it provided an important and encouraging legislative victory that bolstered morale.

    Morale aside, along with the CHIPS+ and Infrastructure bills the IRA should produce tangible results for the economy. I think that President Biden’s and Congressional Democrats’ chances in the 2024 elections will rise and fall with the economy, and these legislative accomplishments will help.

  34. 34.

    Ken

    @Baud: I wouldn’t characterize my reaction to the “dump Biden” push as hostile. It was more like physicist I. Rabi’s reaction to the discovery of the muon: “Who ordered that?”

  37. 37.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: Maybe, but I think a significant amount of it is discomfort with the thought of Kamala Harris becoming president if something happens to Biden. There are parts of the Democratic Party where misogyny and/or racism are still a factor.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Right, but they could credibly claim Overton Window moving, because everything less than “forgiveness” is now the middle position. Biden’s plan is so generous it esssentially “forgives” up to 12k in debt – most community college borrowers have less than 15k in debt so it’s free community college. Basically.

    They could claim a win, but they won’t, because they’re not very smart :)

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Are the 6 far Rightists on that court concerned about the unfairness of Pell Grants? Because lower income young people don’t get grants to start lawn care businesses now, but lower income young people get Pell grants.

    Any government subsidy for education is “unfair” under the Right wing analysis. In fact, all K-12 public education is also unfair. Kids who don’t attend schol should all get 7200 a year in cash from the State of Ohio if any kid attends a public school. Ohio does no regulation of homeschooling, and, trust me, there are plenty of Right wing kids who are not attending school at all nor are they getting an education at home. They just don’t attend school. Do they get 7200 – the per pupil subsidy in Ohio?

    Education has always been treated differently. The far Right really wants to go to “fairness”?

  44. 44.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: There’s that too. But a lot of the anti-Harris agitation comes from people disappointed by Biden winning the 2020 nomination. He is a tougher target right now, so they focus their animus on proxies like VP Harris and Secretary Buttigieg.

    Many of these people liked Nina Turner a lot when she contested the OH 10th CD nomination with Shontel Brown. For them, Turner was the right kind of Black woman.

  45. 45.

    Nelle

    @Kay: That’s what is happening in Iowa.  My tax dollars going to “private schools” at 7200 a head.  No accountability, no transparency.

  48. 48.

    Michael Bersin

    @zhena gogolia:

    He never bothers to show up in Kansas City. He made a Super Bowl bet with that schmuck from Ohio – wagering barbecue – from Kansas City, Kansas. He has a house in Virginia. The running gag in Missouri is that he’s the third senator from Virginia.

    When he was Missouri Attorney General he lived in Columbia until the uproar over his convenient flaunting of the statute requiring the Missouri AG to live in Cole County (Jefferson City) got to be too much for him. He did eventually get an apartment in Jefferson City. Then the right wingnut controlled General Assembly repealed the statutory residence requirement. No problem!

    So, no, Josh Hawley (r) doesn’t spend much time in Missouri hanging out with his constituents if he doesn’t have to.

  55. 55.

    kalakal

    I am utterly fucking furious.

    As another world beating Brexit Benefit those contemptible shits are now lauding Britain’s ” modern slavery system”. They are boasting that the UK will not help enslaved people. They actually see it as a good thing. I hope the ghost of William Wilberforce haunts them for the rest of their days

    21 scathing responses to the UK anti-immigration policy that flirts with legalising slavery https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2023/03/08/scathing-responses-to-uk-anti-immigration-policy-on-modern-slavery/

  57. 57.

    WereBear

    @Michael Bersin:

    So, no, Josh Hawley (r) doesn’t spend much time in Missouri hanging out with his constituents if he doesn’t have to.

    How you gonna keep them down on the farm when they don’t want stay there?

    When President Obama won, I remember considerable wailing and rending of garments among all the Republican toadies and staffers.

    Who now had to go back to Small Town USA and try to pretend their capital is actually a city. It’d be sad if they weren’t so awful.

  58. 58.

    Geminid

    @Michael Bersin: John Tester’s Montana reelection will probably be the most consequential Senate race in 2024, but Josh Hawley’s could be the most interesting. Both Hawley (43) and his likely opponent Lucas Kunce (40) are both young and male, and they both went to Ivy League universities. They seem like very different politcians, though. Hawley will likely get the win, but I think he’ll have to work hard for it.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @Nelle:

    I love the parents who tell me they’re “homeschooling” when they wrk full time. They’re encountering me in the juvenile justice system, which gives you a sense of how this home “not schooling” program is going. But the powers that be in Ohio are terrified of the religious Right, so we all pretend it’s all going GREAT!

    It’s all absolutely incoherent. Tough on crimesters on the Right are dragging kids and parents in on truancy while at the same time allowing a select group to not go to school at all. Ever. They’re setting uo these “voucher” schools all over-no regulation at all, no accountability, public financing.

    You know what’s going to happen? There’s going to be A FIRE in one of these fly by night “schools”  – it wil take a huge tragedy for people to get their heads out of their asses on this.

  62. 62.

    Scout211

    @NotMax: And in other weather news . . . things here in NorCal are going to get dicey starting tomorrow. Some California residents are urged to prepare 2 weeks of essentials ahead of expected flooding 

     

    CNN — 
    Officials in California are imploring residents to prepare for a powerful storm set to lash the region with torrential rain later this week as the state continues to recover from colossal amounts of snow that trapped mountain communities.

    About 16 million people across central and Northern California, including the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, were under flood watches early Wednesday ahead of a storm set to drench the region Thursday with dangerous amounts of rain in most of the places that currently have existing layers of heavy snow from previous brutal storms.

  64. 64.

    Subsole

    @kalakal:

    Forgive the Yank, but…

    You guys have a modern slavery system???

    And…the government just…tweeted that out??? Like, to the entire internet??

  65. 65.

    Michael Bersin

    @Geminid:

    Lucas Kunce (D) served in the Marine Corps. He grew up in Jefferson City – in a family of modest means.

    Josh Hawley (r) lived in Lexington, but attended a prep school in Kansas City.

    There is a difference.

    But, then, this is Missouri. Distinguished military service didn’t help Jason Kander (D) in 2016 either.

  66. 66.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay:

    Ohio does no regulation of homeschooling, and, trust me, there are plenty of Right wing kids who are not attending school at all nor are they getting an education at home. They just don’t attend school.

    That’s insane at both ends. Do these parents so deeply believe the Rapture will happen before their kids have to make their own way in the world that they figure their kids won’t need an education?  (Do they not remember how old they were when they were first told that the Rapture could happen any time now? Has that not engendered any skepticism about it?)  Or are they just engaging in child neglect because they’re fuckheads?

    Personally, I believe that those are the sorts of families that Child Protective Services should intervene with.  But if there’s no regulation of home schooling, obviously there’s no proof that the kids aren’t being educated.

    Which is why it’s crazy at the other end, at the state end.  Home schooled kids, private school kids, whoever, should have to take the same standardized tests that the public school kids do (preferably in an environment with independent supervision), so that if they fall too far behind their grade levels, they have to be sent to the public schools.  And if the parents won’t do that, treat it as child neglect and take the kids away.

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    @Scout211

    Wednesday forecast: Southwest winds 20 to 50 mph. Gusts up to 75 mph increasing to 90 mph in the afternoon. Chance of rain 80 percent.

    Rough guesstimate of somewhere between 3 and 4 inches of rain on Tuesday chez NotMax.

  68. 68.

    Kelly

    An inch of snow at 600′ here in the western Cascade Foothills. Still snowing. Probably won’t last air temp is 33F. Pretty.

    As a University of Oregon student from late 1970’s I’m offend millions of recent students are crushed by debt due to high university costs instead of the generous subsidies that allowed me to graduate with a debt equal to 4 month pay from my first post university job.

  69. 69.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    She’s right. If the FedSoc court strikes down the relief plan, I hope all the Democrats make a huge stink about the court legislating from the bench.

    Obviously the conservatives who accused liberal Justices of ‘legislating from the bench’ for decades have no actual principles, they just want to see their side win. So if we now have conservative Justices doing that, they’re totally on board with it.

    But it’s still worth getting the message through to low-engagement voters that that’s what’s going on – that it was never about principle, and this Bogus Scotus is going to rule in whatever way promotes their ideological leanings, regardless of what the law, the Constitution, and precedent have to say.

  70. 70.

    Scout211

    @NotMax: Yikes! Gusts up to 90 mph?!  

    You are in Hawaii, right?

    This is quite worrisome, since our atmospheric river arriving tomorrow is on the “pineapple express” straight from Hawaii.  😳

  71. 71.

    Cliosfanboy

    @Michael Bersin: speaking as a Northern Virginia resident, can you take him back?  PLEASE!!! Just tell him there is a Harris Teeter and a Whole Foods in Kansas City and maybe he’ll go willingly.

  73. 73.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s because he doesn’t live in Missouri, he and his family live in Virginia. I’ve heard that he’s building a house in Ozark, but it seems to be taking a long time. They can put up even a big house in 6 months easily, but this has been going on for years.

  74. 74.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    And if anything, Missouri’s even redder than it was in 2016.

    @Soprano2:

    If they finished the house, people might expect him to actually live there some of the time.  Horrors!

  75. 75.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: My niece was supposedly “homeschooled” under the exact same conditions. They bought some books and that was the end of it. For some reason my niece became hysterical about going back to school when she was a freshman – I think something happened to her but never actually knew what or if that was even it, but she was happy with her school then suddenly screaming and crying when her dad tried to get her to go.

    Homeschooling can be good, or it can be terrible, but since there’s usually no oversight of it at all we have no way of knowing who’s doing what.

  77. 77.

    Brachiator

    85% of young Democrats 18-34 years old wanting POTUS to run again really has some very online over 35 year old people in their feelings to day.

    How can this be? Some people have been insisting that Biden and the Democrats were failing the yoots, not listening to them or giving them what they wanted.

     

    ETA: So, it’s a Holi day?

  78. 78.

    C Stars

     

    @Soprano2: Right, and the other side of this: many young people would be absolutely thrilled with a Harris presidency for the same/opposite reason. They (and me, tho I am not so young) actively WANT a woman/person of color as President.

  79. 79.

    cain

    I love our youngsters they accept me like I was their age and we have great conversation. I have more of a generation gap with older generations than younger ones.
    I think that mentality is why they don’t look at Biden and others as old.​
     

    Also I love how it breaks up whatever media story the news folks like the NYT likes to cook up. They seem to love talking to the bitter and white demographic

  80. 80.

    Ohio Mom

    I’d never heard of Holi before. Sounds like it makes Margo Gras look tame in comparison. Spring’s arrival makes people giddy everywhere.

    I think I will go look for some YouTubes I’d colored dust being strewn.

  81. 81.

    Geminid

    Virginia has a new Democratic Congresswoman. Last night Squeaker McCarthy swore in Jennifer McClellan as the new Representative for the 4th CD, which stretches from Richmond to the North Carolina line.

    Rep. Robert Scott gave a short speech introducing Ms. McClellan to her new colleagues, noting that McClellan is the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress:

        ” I know she will continue making history with her steadfast commitment to the people of the four Congressional District, fighting for their voices to be heard,” Scott said. “and I know she will carry on the legacy of her predecessor, our dear late friend…Donald McEachin.”

    Roll Call.

    Congressman Scott himself made history when he beat Republican Tom Bliley in the 1992 3rd CD race. Scott became the first African American Representative from Virginia since Reconstruction

  84. 84.

    JCJ

    @Omnes Omnibus:  DJ Elders sounds like a geriatric music show.  Maybe that is what TFG calls himself when he is DJing from his tablet at Maird-a Lago

    Y-M-C-A

  85. 85.

    Citizen Alan

    @lowtechcyclist: I don’t think it’s about the rapture. I just think there are parents who would prefer for their children to grow up ignorant and endure a lifetime of poverty than for them to ever learn something in school that might make them doubt their religious beliefs or reject the bigotries of their parents.

  87. 87.

    Kent

    @Kay: It isn’t just education.

    Where is my subsidy for not growing soybeans?  Why don’t we all get paid not to grow soybeans?

  90. 90.

    Kent

    @lowtechcyclist: Teacher here.  So I’m somewhat familiar with the evangelical homeschool world.

    It’s not that they teach NOTHING.  The do have lessons.  There is an enormous quantity of information out there that is fed into the homeschooling community.  I wouldn’t call it curriculum but that is what they call it.  So they get to learn things like how the US is a Christian nation, founded on Christian principles, that God gave us the free enterprise system and the right to carry assault weapons.  And don’t get me started on what they call science.

    When I get former or current homeschoolers in my class they often are super smart on one particular narrow skill.  Like basic math or spelling bee skills.  But have zero breadth in their education and don’t have the skills to critically examine ideas and concepts that might be outside their comfort zone.

  91. 91.

    Soprano2

    @Citizen Alan: That’s the theme of “Educated” by Tara Westover. Her father thought the school was the devil, teaching things the kids didn’t need to know. Once they knew the basics of reading writing and math he thought they should be at home helping the family out. That book was both interesting and horrifying, to know these things were going on and the state of Idaho could do nothing about it even if they wanted to.

  92. 92.

    kalakal

    @Subsole:

    And…the government just…tweeted that out??? Like, to the entire internet??

    Well of course thet did, they’re very proud of it. It’s the most modern don’t y’see?

    Along with everything else that may improve life reading the room is not their thing.

    Also they’re shits

  94. 94.

    kalakal

    @Kent:

    “His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn’t earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major’s father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbours sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” he counselled one and all, and everyone said “Amen.”

  95. 95.

    Brachiator

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Home schooled kids, private school kids, whoever, should have to take the same standardized tests that the public school kids do…

    I thought that states already had some provision for this, but who knows if regulations are being eroded.

    And if the parents won’t do that, treat it as child neglect and take the kids away.

    I would prefer to see less draconian steps taken.

  96. 96.

    Ohio Mom

    I’ve known some lefty/hippie home schoolers, the type who didn’t want their children’s free spirits squashed by the “oppressive system.”

    I rolled my eyes at them (out of their sight) but they all did right by their kids, making sure they learned what they needed to know.

    A lot of them participated in a homeschooler cooperative, where the kids got together to socialize and maybe learn subjects their parents felt less sure about teaching, like math and science — basically reinventing the school classroom (Because guess what, teaching children in groups became a thing, all over the world and throughout the ages, for a reason).

    Some of them also sent their kids to public high school, recognizing that their kids needed exposure to advanced topics they couldn’t provide at home, and extracurriculars — you can’t put together a sports team or a big theater production in the backyard. These families all had a few anxious moments when their kids had to endure testing for the first time but they all survived.

    All in all, they were a privileged bunch. If home schooling wasn’t so freely allowed, basically a modern day fad, they would have sent their kids to school without even thinking about alternatives.

  97. 97.

    ian

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There is probably some truth to the argument that they give data to the Chinese government.  I’m not sure how the ban discussed in the article you linked to would pass first amendment scrutiny, but constitutional law is not my specialty and is harder to guess than ever with the robed six ruling on things based on policy preference.

    Here in Wyoming, our governor just banned the use of Tiktok on government agency computers and phones.  His rationale was pretty humorous, as it blamed misinformation and ideological content.  I sent him an email asking if we could do the fox news app next, but for some reason I never got an answer.

  98. 98.

    Jackie

    Jamie scorches the GQP Covid hearing today:

    “Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) blasted a House Select Committee on Covid-19 by noting that former President Donald Trump had refused for months to investigate the virus’s origins but praised China President Xi Jinping instead.

    At a hearing to determine the origins of Covid on Wednesday, Raskin wondered why Republicans were not more upset with Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic.

    “The COVID-19 pandemic came to America in 2020, of course, when Donald Trump was president,” Raskin told the committee. “And that president’s policy failures, magical thinking, and total recklessness caused, according to his own special advisor on COVID, Deborah Birx, the unnecessary death of hundreds of thousands of Americans.”

    The CSPAN video embedded is well worth watching!

    https://www.rawstory.com/jamie-raskin-gop-hearing-trump/

  99. 99.

    Paul in KY

    @Soprano2: I would be superfine with VP Harris becoming Pres, if Pres Biden decided he needed to resign or (God forbid) died in office.

    I do have qualms about her running as a non-incumbent (as President) at top of ticket (due to misogyny).

  100. 100.

    Kelly

    @kalakal: When my brother’s father-in-law retired and sold his very profitable construction business some of the proceeds purchased an eastern Oregon ranch. Several thousand acres big he bought it for a place to ride horses and hunt. All expenses to keep the place were covered by not growing wheat and some complete legal tax write offs.

  102. 102.

    NotMax

    @Ohio Mom

    There’s a “Christian” high high school on Maui (limited enrollment) which was accepted into the county interscholastic league for football. Always harbored the suspicion (still do) that the founder and coach* applied for admission to give him an excuse to loiter in the locker room.

    *Brother of the nutball pastor of a major fundamentalist church here.

  103. 103.

    eversor

    @Citizen Alan:

    This is exactly it.   Christianity has failed.  It’s been proven to be a crock of lies repeatedly on anything related to the real world but it, and Christ himself, damn well demands a strictly patriarchal world, full submission of women and slaves, and brutality to enforce it.  They are not going to give this up.  They’d rather see the world burn than lose Christianity.  To be clear Jan 6 was a Christian attack on America because it’s losing it’s faith.  Trump came into power by overwhelming Christian support.  You can trace anti COVID safety to Christianity.  You can trace Reagan to it as well.

    To the TV conversation in the other thread…. no modern TVs do not break down all the time people are just buying junk.   There is a reason some brands and technologies cost double or more for the same screen size!   The issue is that everyone figures out the screen size they want and then goes and buys the cheapest screen.   Same applies to your computer monitor.   You can pay 100 or 30000 for a 24 inch monitor.   There’s a reason for the price gap and that’s not a joke.  Most people buy a TV now with the assumption that in a few years they are going to move to the next new resolution or display tech and just do not care.   Don’t do this.  I bought a high end plasma (Panasonic which costed 2x as much as the competition at the time when 1080p hit) and ran it 24/7 and it’s still going at my parents now.  I bought the highest end SONY OLED this time around and while my friends paid half as much on lower end LGs they have burn in already and other issues.  You get what you pay for here.   Don’t want something that fails, don’t buy disposable junk.  I hate throwing things away and will always shell out to fix rather than just go get another on sale.   This is also why there is so much computer waste out there people don’t want to shell out for a 2-5k laptop or a monster of a desktop so they get something that is already outdated and then junk it a year later.

    This falls into the entire “it’s expensive to be poor” issue.  It works on everything.  I paid a grand for boots… 15 years ago.  I still have those boots.  Sure new laces and new soles but they still work.  Ditto for a leather jacket that is now 20 years old.

    People just want to buy cheap replacable crap.  I own two pairs of boots.  One brown, one black.  They are older than some of my relatives!

    Back to the TV.  TVs now are less TVs than some sort of hybrid computer and TV.   They come loaded with all the apps you want and you can download more or hook up an Amazon fire device.   We do not have cable we have fiber optic internet.   You can yell at it from the kitchen and it will swap streams.  The fancier the TV someone has the less likely it is they have cable.

  106. 106.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    @ian:

    That’s what I was thinking. I was wondering how this would ever be constitutional. A lot of people my age and younger love Tiktok and I hope this doesn’t have some kind of blowback on Dems.

  107. 107.

    Baud

    @kalakal:

    His wife was claiming non-dom tax status ( massive tax break for the ultra wealthy) while he was chancellor

     
    Why does UK tax rich dominatrices?

  108. 108.

    NotMax

    Oh yeah, big storm a-coming in anywhere from 12 to 36 hours. Both feet swollen up to 1½ times their regular size — sure sign,

  109. 109.

    Steve in the ATL

    @raven: yes, and it’s troubling. We need a place to talk about the combine.   Bryce Young is short, as everyone could plainly see when he stood next to Stetson!  AR can jump high and far therefore he’s the top QB on the draft—reading defenses and throwing accurately are less important than jumping!  Stetson is fast and accurate with a strong arm—and taller than Bryce!

  110. 110.

    ian

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): unrelated note: the other day you were asking about the former front pager Zandar.  I responded to you in the thread, but it was late night and I don’t know if you saw it.

    http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/

    I’m not 100% sure it is the same Zandar, but it isn’t a common name and you could always ask him in his comments if he used to post here.

  112. 112.

    cain

    @schrodingers_cat:

    It’s interesting that India is still supporting Russia and continues to buy their natural gas and help funding the war machine.

    My relatives in India see everything from a perspective of “do they support India?” frame. So in general they like Republican presidents and not Democratic ones. (because ostensibly, Republicans like to send jobs abroad so of course, countries like India benefit) They like Russia because they have given consistent support.

    But from a moral perspective – funding a country that is promoting genocide is not a good look. More than that, Russia itself doesn’t give a shit about their own people and happily sending them into a grinder. Then we find out yesterday, the soldiers are just looking to loot the whole place so they can buy cars.

    So all in all, India is pretty myopic when it comes to where they lie on the world politics – all that good economy have given them a sense of entitlement. (which I get, I mean, Americans are way more entitled than any Indian)

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Brachiator:

    Neither homeschooled nor voucher-using private school students take the same tests public school students do in Ohio. There WAS a requirement that voucher students take the same tests, but Republicans repealed it, I think because the students who attended the private schools that accept vouchers scored lower- consistently lower and by quite a bit– than the students who attended public schools.

    The key here is “the private schools that accept vouchers”. Fancy private schools don’t accept vouchers, because vouchers are only worth 7200 and fancy private schools cost 12, or 15, or 20. When Betsy DeVos says you will be able to choose the same private schools that wealthy people choose, it is a lie. You will be able to choose from those private schools that charge 7200 or lower in tuition. They all tell this same lie.

  114. 114.

    Ohio Mom

    @NotMax: You may very well be correct about the coach but there is also the issue that without belonging to a league, what would the fundie high school team do with themselves? They need opponents to play against.

    Not that I would have voted to accept them into the league. Let them stew in their own juices.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    That’s the theme of “Educated” by Tara Westover.

    Good book. But “the state of Idaho” could have done something about the child abuse in that family. Her parents and brother were physically abusive, which is a crime. IMO law enforcement give way, way too much deference to “religion” or “belief systems”. Her father almost killed the kids. He was a monster.

  118. 118.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @cain:

    Then we find out yesterday, the soldiers are just looking to loot the whole place so they can buy cars.

    God, that’s disgusting! I haven’t been following as closely as I used to so I hadn’t heard about that, but it doesn’t really surprise now that I think about it

  119. 119.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    There WAS a requirement that voucher students take the same tests, but Republicans repealed it, I think because the students who attended the private schools that accept vouchers scored lower- consistently lower and by quite a bit– than the students who attended public schools

    Which is pretty funny, because there’s a persistent “joke” online that people that go to public schools are idiots

  120. 120.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    There’s this thing we run into here, in rural Ohio, where like as in Educated, parents claim some kind of religious or belief system objection to allowing medical care for their children. I think it’s bullshit though- I think they’re not taking their kids in for medical care because if they do a mandated reporter in the healtrh care system will report child abuse. I mean, what exactly was the “religion” the mother was practicing in Educated? The Religion of Essential Oils? They denied their children medical care because they didn’t want to go to prison for abusing their children. That’s the “belief system”.

  121. 121.

    Ohio Mom

    @cain: Oh god, that is the same thing as American Jews who support Republicans because “they’re good for Israel.”

    They are mostly Orthodox — religiously Liberal Jews are overwhelming Democrats. But too many of liberal religious Jews still hold it against Democrats that they aren’t strong enough for Israel, based on the occasional Democrat saying something vaguely supportive of Palestinians.

    And then there are the secular Jews who are so fed up with Israel, we just vote Democractic and ignore the organized Jewish community altogether. We can’t entirely assimilate out of the community though, neither can American Indians assimilate out of their identities.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    It’s a perceived value thing- it’s “exclusive” so it’s better. But parents know better on a local level, which of course is different than “pundit level” or “ideologue in the GOP level”.

    We’ve had vouchers for years in Ohio- our local Catholic school (which is just not a good school) dropped 7th and 8th grade last year due to lack of enrollment. They can’t give it away.

  123. 123.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: I see that Ohio Republicans are proposing to expand vouchers so widely that just about everyone will be eligible. Where does all this money come from, you advocates of small government?

    I admit am not following this story very closely because it’s too painful, these people won’t be happy until Ohio is a completely failed state. I mean, look at the proposal to repeal the state income tax completely. They are sociopaths.

    ETA: I find the story of your local Catholic school dropping grades hopeful.

  126. 126.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Ohio Mom:

     I mean, look at the proposal to repeal the state income tax completely. They are sociopaths.

    I’ve been to Tennessee before, just last year, and they don’t have an income tax. They make up for the shortfall in property and sales taxes. The state sales tax there was a big chunk of a bill I paid at a bar

  127. 127.

    Geminid

    @Ohio Mom: I think that there may also be some secular and religious Jewish Americans who basically support Israel, but see uncritical support for Israel as not good for that country. They may dismiss the Republicans’ support for Israel as too uncritical, and standing on shaky and shallow foundations as well.

    They may also notice that while many Republicans wholeheartedly support Jewish people when they are 4,000 miles away, some are more ambivalent when it comes to the Jewish people living here.

  128. 128.

    Kay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    This is a 2020 review but it’s the same every year- they score lower than public school kids.

    But most kids who use EdChoice scholarships perform worse on state standardized tests than their public school peers, a 2020 investigation by the Cincinnati Enquirer found.   In 88% of Ohio cities where vouchers are used, the data showed better test results for the public schools. And when it came to Ohio’s eight largest cities, five of the districts (Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Toledo and Cincinnati) reported higher proficiency levels.

    So the school choice people fixed that problem! They stopped requiring state tests in the religious schools they prefer.

    I think public schools could sue the state on this- why should public schools be required to take the tests if we’re all paying for private schools that are exempt? The reason we had to take the tests  was “accountable to the public because of public funding” but now they’re funding all private schools with public funds- why should they be exempt from the rules that apply to public schools?

  130. 130.

    Ohio Mom

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I know there are a number of states that don’t have income taxes, they just make it up other ways, like you said, sales and property taxes.

    The Ohio idea seems to be, local governments can raise their own revenue. It sounds like a recipe for chaos and big cuts in education and local services. Which is their goal, really.

  132. 132.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    It’s a perceived value thing- it’s “exclusive” so it’s better

    I’ve gotten into watches lately, and notice the same thing there, especially in Rolex owners. In all reality, as nice as their mechanical movements are, the only reason some of their watches MSRP for $13k-20k and up are because of marketing/branding

  133. 133.

    schrodingers_cat

    @cain: I had to leave the WhatasApp group that my cousin by marriage (ex-journalist from the ToI) started to discuss American politics. The willingness to swallow lies that fluff their egos was a bit much for me to take. That and the absolute confidence in discussing American presidential politics without having a clue about stuff like the Electoral College

    Speaking of foreign relations it is rather sad to see the career diplomat who is now the foreign minister act like a two-bit BJP IT cell troll.

  134. 134.

    Ohio Mom

    @Geminid: As I’m sure you already know, a lot of Republican support for Israel is inspired by Evanglical eschatology, which holds that all the world’s Jews need to be in Israel — and destroyed — for the Rapture to occur (or something along those lines). With friends like that…

    Some American Jews also seem to believe that Israelis are white (good) and Palestinians and Arabs are not (bad), which jives with their other prejudices (this is my own crockpot theory based on the attitudes of people I know).

  135. 135.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Oh yeah, it was horrifying what he did to those kids, and in the end to himself. That whole book was a hard read for me, because I kept wondering why some neighbor didn’t intervene in some way, and then realized most of the neighbors probably thought there was nothing wrong with what they were doing.

  136. 136.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    So the school choice people fixed that problem! They stopped requiring state tests in the religious schools they prefer.

     

    I think public schools could sue the state on this- why should public schools be required to take the tests if we’re all paying for private schools that are exempt? The reason we had to take the tests was “accountable to the public because of public funding” but now they’re funding all private schools with public funds- why should they be exempt from the rules that apply to public schools?

    Exactly. GrOpers are such corrupt hypocrites

  137. 137.

    Kent

    @Ohio Mom: Voucher money is taken directly out of the public school budgets.  I mean you can’t raise taxes for that sort of thing.   Every voucher is 100%  paid for by the home school district of the student using the voucher.

  138. 138.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: True, but at least in MO all they have to do is say “homeschool” or “religious belief” and the authorities here back off completely. That’s why my inlaws told the school they were homeschooling their daughter, to get the truant officer to go away. She was smart so she turned out OK, she got her high school equivalency and she and her husband have high-paying jobs for a disaster cleanup company. Their house is way nicer than mine, that’s for sure!

  140. 140.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I think that’s funny because it directly contradicts one of the reasons they promote vouchers. They claim the private and religious schools give kids a better education, but aren’t willing to prove that by making them take the same tests the public school kids take. And just think, they have that level of failure with cherry-picked kids!

  141. 141.

    Anyway

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Which is pretty funny, because there’s a persistent “joke” online that people that go to public schools are idiots

    We must hang out in different “onlines” – new to me.

  142. 142.

    Geminid

    @Ohio Mom: Yes, and that is a shallow foundation for supporting Israel. It’s of relatively recent origin, too. Some Baptist contrarians trace the popularity of these Israel-related “End Times” prophesies to Hal Davids’ 1970s best seller, The Late, Great Planet Earth. The Democratic Party’s support for Israel dates to that country’s founding in 1947, and is still solid.

    Edit: I do not know that many Jewish Americans, but the few I know with strong animus towards Palestinians seemed to base their hostility less on skin color than on the bloody and counterproductive suicide bombings during the Second Intfitada in the early years of this century.

    Within Israel, the bombing campaign knocked the props from under the pro-peace party Meretz. They entered the 2000s with 12 Knesset members and finished with 6. Meretz struggled afterwards and are now out of the Knesset for the first time since their founding in the 1990s.

    They missed the 3.25% threshold by a tenth of a percent in last November’s election. Theirs and the Arab Balad Party’s 2.85% vote meant that an election where the pro- and anti- Netanyahu parties both polled close to 50% resulted in a 64-56 Knesset majority for Netanyahu’s coaltion.

  143. 143.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Anyway:

    It’s something I see every once in a blue moon in comment sections and the like. It’s not especially common, but it pops up more than I’d expect

  144. 144.

    Kent

    Any chance we could get some India politics and culture threads here from time to time?  It is such and important country and I need to educate myself.  I think India is kind of a black hole for a lot of us.

  146. 146.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kent: I had offered to do the same for Balloon Juice in 2019 after Modi got reelected and I did several FP guest posts for this blog. My offer was accepted but I was told to wait until after a website update.

    I have not heard from the TPTB since then.

    Anyway you can follow me on Twitter and I am planning to revive my own blog because 2024 is going to be a crucial election for India.

    The best grass-roots journalism in India right now is the regional language press in India. English language press is derivative and opinion driven for the most part.

    Article14 covers legal news

    is one of the few exceptions.

  147. 147.

    Kent

    @schrodingers_cat: You are now followed on twitter.

    One of my biggest questions about India is the extent to which divisions are primarily religious or primarily ethnic/cultural.

    It seems to me that Hindu vs Muslim are as much or more ethnic categories than religious.  In that if you are born Hindu or Muslim you remain locked into those categories for life regardless of whether or not you live a completely secular life and have no religious faith whatsoever.  Which would mean that the conflicts in India are actually more ethnic than religious.

    I have work colleagues who are Indian and 100% Atheist.  Yet they are still inextricably Hindu and always will be.

    The reporting in the west is actually extremely lazy about this.  It is always just about Hindus vs Muslims with no deeper exploration as to what that actually means.  And what it actually means to be Hindu or Muslim in India.

  148. 148.

    WaterGirl

    @schrodingers_cat: I would be happy to put up a guest post from you about India if you want to write something up.  Just like we do with Tony Jay.

    If I recall correctly, Cole let you know that as an option, gosh, maybe over a year or two ago.  It’s definitely been a challenge to judge time during the time of Covid.

  149. 149.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I’m actually fine with standardized tests but a lot of public school parents resent them- too much spent on them, etc. I told my kids it’s just one measure and it’s overused and to relax and get through it- I don’t care that much what they get, I felt like I had a handle on how they were really doing.

    But- the shamelessness of these people – WHILE they are screeching that public school students must be tested constantly for “accountability” they were busy as little bees cooking up schemes to hold their own publicly-funded private schools harmless.

  150. 150.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: With such a critical election coming up, I would welcome a series of posts on India. I was saying the other day that people needed to know more about Turkiye, but I know even less about India and than I do about Turkiye, and that’s not much.

  151. 151.

    H-Bob

    @Betty Cracker:  Chief Justice Balls and Strikes is being misleading — the people who get a loan to start a lawncare business get to  have their loans discharged in bankruptcy, while people with student loans don’t.  Plus businesses don’t have the “classes” as a prerequisite for filing bankruptcy!

    Although it would be funny to have Elon attend a credit counseling class before throwing Twitter into bankruptcy!

  153. 153.

    Kent

    @Kay: Teacher here.

    Standardized tests pose a conundrum.

    The NCLB, Race to the Top, and Common Core type curriculum anticipate annual standardized tests in all cores subjects which means all kids get tested in at least four subjects every year.  That is excessive.

    And if you make them high states in that EITHER the schools themselves, teachers (pay for performance) or individual students are rewarded and penalized based on test scores then you turn every class into a test prep factory for all subjects across all years.

    But if you make them low stakes that aren’t collected for any purpose other than generalized data analysis then kids quickly learn to blow them off, making the results meaningless.  And if you only want to track larger trends then you don’t need universal testing anyway, only smaller statistically reliable subsets.  Perhaps 5% of the student population.

    And if you want standardized testing to actually inform instruction then you need to provide the scores back immediately, not months later after the kids have already moved on from the class in which they were tested.  Which also never happens.

    So basically a GIANT waste of time and money that increasingly distorts education the more emphasis you place on it.

  154. 154.

    rikyrah

    @schrodingers_cat:

     

    He is so awful. I have no expertise in UK politics but I think his in-laws wealth and politics in India is going to ultimately land him in hot water.

     

    All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.

  155. 155.

    Anyway

    @Geminid:

    @Ohio Mom:

    My sense is that the extreme RW tilt in Israeli politics from about 15 years ago grew more pronounced with the influx of Russian/Soviet Jews — this made the politics extremely hostile towards people in “occupied territories”. In this they also got  lot of funding from billionaires like Adelson – aimed at changing the facts on the ground.

  156. 156.

    Geminid

    @Anyway: I think the suicide bombings early in this century also pushed Jewish Israelis rightward, at least on the Palestinian question. Over 600 Israelis died, and that was a lot in a nation of not much over 8 million people.

  158. 158.

    sab

    @Betty Cracker: schrodingers cat and I disagree about E Warren, but just because we have different areas of expertise. E Warren severely sucks on harrassing the not so bad Pharmas in her own state.

    E Warren is amazing on bankruptcy in general, and poor kids trying to finance their education (her areas of expertise.) She having been there and done that.

    ETA She is a lawyer. My guess is she is a nitwit on most science issues.

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