Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

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

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

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

Bark louder, little dog.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

I was promised a recession.

It’s a doggy dog world.

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

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

In my day, never was longer.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

The words do not have to be perfect.

Let me file that under fuck it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Chag Sameach! (Happy Passover!)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Chag Sameach! (Happy Passover!)

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  3. 3.

    Joe Falco

    @Baud:

    Biden says he wants to unite the country, but why does it feel like he wants to divide the country more than ever?

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    After my usual post dinner food coma (woke up at 10:30) I never got another second of sleep. Started getting charlie horses in my calves and feet. Spent all night switching out ice packs until I finally said screw it and took a vicodin…. and it didn’t work either. Finally gave up at 4:30 and just got up.
    Now I can barely keep my eyes open, but something tells me that if I try again to sleep the CHes will just come back with a vengeance. My body hates me.​
     
    eta: so yeah, BLECH!

  10. 10.

    Kathleen

    1. @Baud: If Biden were really serious about uniting the country he would pardon HR Haldeman and E. Howard Hunt.
  12. 12.

    dmsilev

    @Baud:

    Why Biden gotta be so divisive?

    Per the holiday, the key question is where does Biden come down on the question of regular vs. egg matzoh?

  14. 14.

    Splitting Image

    @Baud:

    Twitter is no longer policing Russian and Chinese state-backed media

    Understandable, since they have more editorial independence than, say, NPR.

    Elon Musk remains a master strategist.

  15. 15.

    Splitting Image

    @Jeffro:

    CAN’T MAKE ME, UM, UNDIVIDE, BRANDON!

    There is a reason that amoebas have never mounted a serious attempt to dominate the earth.

  17. 17.

    randy khan

    I married into a Jewish family, which means I get both the Christian and Jewish holidays.  Passover is really wonderful.  Like a lot of Jewish holidays, it is a family affair with no rabbis or synagogue, and the story is told as a collective memory, a kind of unification (lots of passages place you in the story – “I was a fugitive Aramean,” for instance), and a call to action to care for others. (There’s a whole passage about remembering that you were a stranger – the unification again – and that you should treat strangers kindly.)  It’s had even more resonance in the time since the 2016 election.

    Oh, and like every Jewish holiday, there’s a lot of food.  So what’s not to like?

  19. 19.

    marklar

    @randy khan: That you finished your post with a question is full evidence of your complete assimilation into our tribe!  Bruchim ha’baim!

  22. 22.

    Gin & Tonic

    I know some of you (including this here blog) use Patreon. Here’s a good thread on how Patreon blocks Ukrainians yet refuses to do anything about russian propagandists, fundraisers, and even a dude who tortures Ukrainian POW’s:

    Why does @Patreon block Ukrainians but help Russians raise money for genocide? Thread.

    I’m Ukrainian vlogger.
    On March 20, on my birthday, Patreon deleted my account allegedly for funding weapons or military activity.
    No proofs was provided. Just these words.

    I appealed and… pic.twitter.com/zdwkmM4251
    — Serhii Sternenko ✙ (@sternenko) April 6, 2023

  26. 26.

    Sanjeevs

    IN LATE JUNE 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.
    If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.

    https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow

    500K for one vacation. And Clarence has been doing this for 20 years.

  27. 27.

    Soprano2

    Also on NPR more whining about “not this case” from Chait and Mona Charen here. Evidently only Republicans are allowed to push the envelope by trying new legal theories. Never mind that Michael Cohen has already been convicted of a crime over this, so the criminality has already been established!

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Soprano2: ​
      The case against Trump isn’t pushing any new legal theories though. It is just applying existing law to someone unaccustomed to it.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @dmsilev:

    I listened to some of his speech. He’s shocked that someone finally got him. There’s a kind of learning curve with better-off criminal defendants where they can’t believe they are in the same system with the people they have always had contempt for- they’re offended, not scared or chastened. He’s at that point on the curve. He still doesn’t really believe it’s happening because it’s not supposed to happen to people like him. Trump may stay stuck there- his whole personality is “no growth of any kind” – he’s brittle as hell- so he may just stay in the “offended” stage where someone more flexible and (frankly) smarter would move along and start to comprehend what’s happening.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @Sanjeevs:

    Clarence Thomas may end up being responsible for federal court reform. He and his spouse abuse the positions they have.

  32. 32.

    Michael Bersin

    The brazen chutzpah of right wingnuts in Congress (including the representative in my district) in posting “Passover Greetings” to constituents on social media after days or weeks of posting blatant dog whistles in support of that ridiculous grifter is astonishing and sadly, not surprising.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    An orange man told me we don’t have to respect any judge whose family engages in politics that we don’t like.

  35. 35.

    Ken

    @Joe Falco: Biden talking about anti-Semitism as if it were a bad thing is divisive, because it makes Nazis and other anti-Semites feel bad. We should remove “The Diary of Anne Frank” and similar books from school libraries, so they aren’t offended.

    Also, talking about rising anti-Semitism just gives it publicity. If we all just ignore it, it will wither away.

  36. 36.

    Sanjeevs

    @Keith P.: At heart he’s just a regular guy

    “I don’t have any problem with going to Europe, but I prefer the United States, and I prefer seeing the regular parts of the United States,” Thomas said in a recent interview for a documentary about his life, which Crow helped finance.
    “I prefer the RV parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There’s something normal to me about it,” Thomas said. “I come from regular stock, and I prefer that — I prefer being around that.”

  37. 37.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I bet, white wealthy people think regular laws don’t apply to them. I listened to a Hidden Brain podcast where he interviewed a woman who had been a wealth manager for billionaires. It was eye-opening as far as how they don’t see laws or even countries making any difference to them. They travel around on private airplanes without ever having to experience security or even needing to show a passport. That’s why now I think having a wealthy person surrender their passport really isn’t enough to keep them from fleeing if they really want to

    Just think, if he had never run for president none of these prosecutions would have happened.

  38. 38.

    Soprano2

    @Sanjeevs: I guess he’s never seen the “People of WalMart” web site, because then he would know that WalMarts aren’t necessarily where the “normal” people are. LOL

  39. 39.

    tobie

    I was bummed that Elijah didn’t come yet again. We kept the door open for a long time in case he had other houses to attend to first. No luck. Other than that it was a happy seder.

  40. 40.

    sdhays

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yesterday, Vox had a headline for an article explaining the “dubious” legal theory behind Trump’s indictment.

    I didn’t click through.

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    @Sanjeevs: Was just reading that piece in ProPublica. Thomas is just massively, shamelessly corrupt, and of course he’s not the only one of the FedSoc Six — they’re all arrogant crooks.

    For some reason, an awful painting that I first took for a bad photo jumped out at me the most in that article. Here’s the caption:

    A painting that hangs at Camp Topridge shows Crow, far right, and Thomas, second from right, smoking cigars at the resort. They are joined by lawyers Peter Rutledge, Leonard Leo and Mark Paoletta, from left.

    They commissioned a painting that depicts them scheming to subvert the judiciary for their own political ends and hung it up at an exclusive private wingnut resort. That pretty much says it all. FFS.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @Sanjeevs:

    It’s hilarious. I read the glowing accounts of his Wal Mart parking lot vacations at the time and believed it. Score one for Thomas- he fooled me, and apparently every reporter he’s ever spoken to.

    I’m suprised there are so many photos of the luxury digs and the wealthy patrons gathering to lobby Thomas. Whoever gave this to Propublica has a LOT of information. Hopefully more where that came from.

  44. 44.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: Where my sister lives, people parking campers in the Wal-Mart lot are usually cooking meth.  Not saying yes, not saying no…

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: Just think of the sacrifices rhat he makes for us.  It is an important lesson during this Holy Week.

  47. 47.

    tobie

    @Sanjeevs: Effing A. The elites pretending they’re not the elites is unadulterated propaganda.

    Maybe Clarence Thomas can tell the people in the Walmart parking lots he likes to visit how he’s made sure his well-heeled friends don’t have to pay a living wage, provide benefits, keep the air and water clean, properly fund schools, allow universal healthcare, etc.

    One of the reasons I hate populism is that it’s so easily abused. Everyone and anyone can claim to speak for the little guy, even Harlan Crow and Clarence Thomas. The manipulation appalls me.

  49. 49.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Could be someone who works for one of them, because people like this completely forget about the people who work for them.

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Also, as a non-Jewish first-born son, I am decidedly unenthusiastic about Passover.

  51. 51.

    Soprano2

    @Ken: It’s not different here for the most part. Some people park there overnight on the way from Point A to Point B because it’s free. Periodically we get calls from people with RV’s who want to know if they can go to our treatment plant to dump their tank. We direct them to the local dealership that sells RV’s.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Every single one of them, too (‘ve never seen an exception) insist that law enforcement should go after the “real” criminals or “real” crimes, just like Trump and his enablers in media are doing now.

    Every single one. Donald Trump is an ordinary country club bore. His reaction to this indictment and the reaction of his enablers is the boilerplate reaction of every well-off person (big fish, small pond) who has ever been charged with a crime where I live, from OVI to tax fraud to embezzling from the Boy Scouts.

    1. offended, not scared or chastened
    2. screaming “go after the REAL criminals and REAL crimes, not MY behavior!”

    It’s privilege and it looks the same whether it’s a NYC real estate scammer or a small town tax cheat.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I don’t know if this is true across the board, but I once read that superstar athletes have everyone who works for them sign NDA’s – I can’t imagine Thomas’ uber wealthy patrons haven’t figured that out too so it had to be informatin the whistleblower was barred from passing along. Sweet! :)

  55. 55.

    Jeffro

    Oddly enough, I’m seeing zip about Thomas and the GOP billionaire megadonor on Fox News right now, isn’t that weird?

    LOL

    However, I do see Ronna Romney McDaniel yapping over a chyron that says “DEM WINS EXPOSE LIABILITIES IN GOP CASE FOR 2024”, which I did not expect.  Probably something about their ‘messaging problem’ w/ reproductive rights..

    And the top story on Fox News dot com?  Travis Tritt (who?) is…oh no…REFUSING to endorse (or drink? or just be around) any more Anheuser-Busch products because teh trans, or something.  Top story!

  58. 58.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: What’s really funny about that is that in my experience most of the time ordinary people don’t see it like that at all. We have a case here where a guy who owned several restaurants “allegedly” committed massive PPP fraud – he created over a dozen LLC’s with no employees in order to apply for millions of dollars worth of PPP loans that he then used not to pay employees, but to buy cars for himself and his mother, a yacht, an expensive house, and a lot of other crap. The reaction from most people around here is “oh that guy is a huge criminal, throw him in jail”. All of his restaurants are closed now. I got money from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which is a different thing that was an actual grant rather than a loan, and I am so paranoid about doing the right thing that I made sure I didn’t claim one penny of any kind of tax, because that’s not allowed under the terms of the grant!

  59. 59.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffro: It’s so funny that they think it’s their messaging that’s the problem, rather than that they are endangering women’s lives with their sloppily-written total abortion bans, or that people just don’t agree with their position on abortion.

  60. 60.

    Anyway

    @Sanjeevs:

    The number of reactionary RW billionaire sugar daddies is staggering. Our system allows these gazillionaires numerous ways to funnel unreported moolah to fund RW propaganda and stymie (for the most part) rule-following Ds.

    Comparing D and R fundraising is foolish (as was being done in the recent WI SC election for example…)

  61. 61.

    RevRick

    @randy khan: As one Jewish wag has put it, the theme of most Jewish holy days is, “They tried to kill us, but they failed. Let’s eat and drink wine!”

  66. 66.

    UncleEbeneezer

    So there’s been a big kerfuffle here in Altadena about a mural on the side of Unincorporated Coffee that some locals feel is disrespectful because it depicts violent imagery.  It’s near a corner that has had problem with gang and police violence over the years.  It’s part of a rotating series so this particular piece of art will only be up for one year.  I know and respect some of the people leading the effort to get it changed, and the Town Council member mentioned in the article is my Representative, who I generally like, but I dunno…I feel like this one is a bit of a stretch for several reasons.  I don’t find it overtly offensive or in any way racially-themed (no historically racist tropes/styles in the imagery, looks more like almost Ancient Greek/Mycenean? style) and I think the violence its pretty tame.  If I had kids I wouldn’t even think twice about them seeing this.  I suspect that what’s really happening is that a community is mad about gentrification (which I totally understand, we are too) and is using this to lash out at a white-owned business and white artist even though the business has very diverse staff of Black, PoC and Unapologetically LGBTQ/Gender-Nonconforming employees.  Honestly it’s one of the reasons I love supporting them.

    Also, given the way small but very vocal segments of communities in other parts of the country are weaponizing their discomfort and pressuring their local governments to ban books and art, this effort just really rubs me the wrong way.  To flip the script, I can very easily see white voters complaining about murals depicting: John Brown, The Stonewall Uprising, John Lewis on Edmund Pettis Bridge etc. because they would be too “violent”.  And they are already using flimsy claims that the statue of David is “sexual” as is anything with a rainbow.  I hate slippery slope arguments but this is one case where we are already there.  In large swaths of America, businesses can’t possibly have anything that is too Black, or too pro-Women, too Queer etc., because their communities would throw a similar fit if they try.  I don’t mind people boycotting or complaining about the art that a business chooses for it’s walls, but when they start getting the power of government involved, I have a hard time being on-board unless it is an especially egregious example, like using well-known hate symbols, racist/ethnic stereotypes etc.  I also have a pretty high bar for violence in art, personally, which probably also colors my view.

  67. 67.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    Meanwhile in Florida, if you piss off DeSantis and file a lawsuit against the state, the state will arrest your 13 year old for posting a meme:

    Data scientist’s 13 yr old arrested for posting a meme in Snap chat group

    “A week after we filed our lawsuit against the state, a kid claiming to be the cousin of one of my son’s classmates joined their snapchat group. They recorded their conversations, and anonymously reported my son to police for sharing a popular internet meme.”

    For context-Rebekah Jones is the data scientist who worked for the state of Florida on the covid-19 database and claimed the state was hiding the actual numbers on covid.  She was fired and her family was terrorized when DeSantis’s goons raided her home at gunpoint in December of 2020.

  68. 68.

    snoey

    @Kay: Reporters who wrote those stories didn’t know what they were looking at. They had a land yacht RV that goes for upwards of half a million and is usually parked in resorts where the fee is more than most hotel rooms.

  69. 69.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay:

    There’s a kind of learning curve with better-off criminal defendants where they can’t believe they are in the same system with the people they have always had contempt for- they’re offended, not scared or chastened. He’s at that point on the curve. He still doesn’t really believe it’s happening because it’s not supposed to happen to people like him.

    Let’s see, where can we fit this in among denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance?  Sounds like a form of denial, so let’s go with that.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I await with bated breath the House Committee on the Weaponization of Govt hearings on this obvious abuse of power. Gym Jordan is just the man to get to the bottom of this.

  72. 72.

    Baud

    I wonder if prior knowledge of the Thomas story was the impetus for this recent action by the Judicial Conference.

    After pressure from members of Congress, the federal judiciary revised its financial disclosure rules to require that federal judges – including Supreme Court justices – to be more specific when disclosing non-business travel.
    Under the Ethics in Government Act, judges are required to report information related to gifts of more than minimal value that are received from any source other than a relative. But the law provides an exemption for “food, lodging, or entertainment received as personal hospitality.”
    The new regulations now require that judges disclose non-business stays at resorts, the use of private jets and instances when a third party reimburses a host for costs associated with a visit.

  76. 76.

    narya

    @Soprano2: I think about this a lot. I know some folks who are reasonably well-off, in a middle-class, own some (inherited) property kind of way, but they live extremely simply (e.g., buy cars in cash rather than take out a loan). On one hand, they are “privileged” by most of the common/current standards, though unable (and disinclined) to see that privilege. On the other hand, the cheats about whom they rail are the folks they can see, i.e., neighbors. They are likely in the Faux bubble, so they just have no sense of what true wealth, and true cheats, are like. I have no idea how to reach them–they’re my friend’s family, so my inclination is to be pleasant to them and assiduously avoid politics, and to ask them about things that interest them. But I think it speaks to a larger problem–the people you mention are just completely out of sight.

  77. 77.

    2liberal

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Started getting charlie horses in my calves and feet

     

    I’m an old also, personally when I start cramping the next thing is to drink some water for  sufficient hydration.

  79. 79.

    Mike in NC

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Between banning abortions and making guns available to everybody, Florida is rapidly going to become a great place to die.

    Read a hilarious article about how Fat Bastard slinked back to Mar-A-Lago after his arrest, where favorite son Eric arranged to have a full house of rich pricks offer up the adulation he needs more than oxygen to survive.

  80. 80.

    J R in WV

    @Baud: ​

    Twitter is no longer policing Russian and Chinese state-backed media

    But NPR is now shown on the bird to be state run media!?? Musk is mentally defective in so many different ways, wonder if it was something in the water where he grew up, lots of deranged folk in the Boer community…

  83. 83.

    lowtechcyclist

    @JPL:

    They’re protected by the repubs.   This is the Roberts’ Court.

    Well, sure they are. So the Dems should sit on their hands?

    ETA: The Dems did the right thing and impeached Trump twice, knowing that the likelihood of success was basically nil.  Can’t see a reason for them to do different here, at such point as they reclaim the House.

  84. 84.

    cain

    @lowtechcyclist: ha! Kevin can’t even boot out Santos – the one where nobody likes including the majority of his district. Hell he’s even in a couple of committees.

  85. 85.

    SFAW

    @Sanjeevs: ​

    500K for one vacation. And Clarence has been doing this for 20 years.

    You seem to think it would affect his impartiality. I kind of doubt it. I think he would probably vote the same way with or without; getting these trifles is just a legitimate and minor expression of friendship from a generous friend.​
     
    ETA: I can’t tell whether I’m being serious.

  86. 86.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    IMO, and I say this as someone who has one, an owner-operated business is the best deal going in this country. The whole system is designed to favor us. It’s a much better deal than working for someone else. I’m glad not everyone wants to do it-if they did our secret might get out :)

    I know you’re going to say there’s risk (true) and it’s a lof of headaches (also true) but as far as earning in relation to work expended  an owner/operator is the way to go. IMO it is the ONLY way for non-college to build wealth and it’s very do-able if they can get a start.

    None of my kids took this advice! I have some hope for my middle son, the electrician. I would LOVE to set him up with his own thing. I feel like he’s cranky enough and “you’re not the boss of me” enough to do it. He’ll always be comfortable as a journeyman but if he wants to make real “pass to his kids” money he needs to be a contractor.

  87. 87.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Kay: Reminds me of the shithead cop Chauvin who was convicted of murdering George Floyd. He could just not believe that he was being held to account for murdering what he so clearly considered a non-human.

    I look forward to seeing the same shocked look on Trump’s face when he’s convicted on these and other charges.

  88. 88.

    gwangung

    @Kay: Yeah, that’s the secret all of us fundraisers know. You make money by owning your own business (and being good at it). The whole “millionaire next door” thing is real, and it applies to the modestly well off to the very rich. (To be top .001%, though, it helps also to be lucky and to have connections).

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    Ohio has this thing where if you get X number of OVI’s ( I don’t know – it’s a more than two) you have to have a special orange license plate. My former neighbor, who is a retired well-off executive and a drunk, got popped over the limit and had to have the plate- OUTRAGED. He cornered me outside a movie theater to tell me how unfair it is and how they need to go after the real criminals.

    Always. Every single time.

  90. 90.

    Kay

    David Dayen
    @ddayen
    ·2h
    I’m amused by the disquiet among legal observers, pundits, & Never Trump critics that the prosecution by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is “unimpressive.” Nothing has been more unimpressive than the record of federal law enforcement over the past 20 years.

    Before everyone starts defending Garland, past 20 years. The scofflawing by the rich and famous didn’t start with Garland. It’s a systemic problem. They’re afraid of powerful people and they can’t be- that can’t happen.

  91. 91.

    oatler

    I thought  ‘Chag Sameach’ could be a Horslips song, like ‘An Bratach Ban’. Live and learn.

  92. 92.

    EarthWindFire

    @randy khan: I lived too far from my college to go home for Easter/Passover break, so my nominally Christian self went to friends’ seders. My reaction was the same as yours.

  93. 93.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: That’s true, especially if you’re small, because you’re exempt from a lot of things. My husband says our taxes would go way up if we ever sell the bar, and that’s probably true. If you wanted to it’s also a way to cheat on taxes.

  94. 94.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    IMO it is the ONLY way for non-college to build wealth and it’s very do-able if they can get a start. 

    What about low cost index funds in a tax-advantaged account, regularly investing 15-20% of your income over 30-40 years?

  95. 95.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Yep, the “real criminals” – homeless people, poor people, black and brown people. They don’t think people with money can actually commit crimes, and get outraged when they find out that’s not true.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @gwangung:

    I was surprised when I found out how rich auctioneers are – they up there with radiologists and orthopedists :)

    Self employed. One or two or three man shows, usually all relatives.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    No, that’s fine and great for you to take care of yourself and you should do that (I do the same) – you’ll have 800k to a million when you retire, right, and if you live to 90 you’ll spend all of it.

    But if you want to build wealth – enough to pass to someone else- you need to own. It’s THE way for most people to get rich, not the 1% who are CEO’s or physicians who make a million a year- but for everyone else. So you would do welll as a nurse. Great! But if you want to do really well you would own and run a home health care company. You just won’t get there as a nurse.

  98. 98.

    Quinerly

    Gym Jordan has subpoenaed Mark Pomerantz,  (DA in Bragg’s office who quit and wrote the book). Breitbart reporting.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    This country favors small business. The policy. It’s why I get so annoyed when my fellow small business people whine so much (on the Right) or when people insist no one can make real money anymore (on the Left). It’s just a lie. This country favors, almost coddles, small business people.

  101. 101.

    Geminid

    @Quinerly: That’s not an especially smart move on Jordan’s part, it seems to me. But this is no surprise.

    Those Republicans running these stupid hearings seem to think only of the questions they will ask, not those Committee Democrats will ask.

  102. 102.

    oatler

    @Kay:

    25 dollar 30 now 30 dollar 30 dollar
    30 dollar 30 dollar give me a hollar 30 dollar
    Who will bid it at a 35 dollar bid?
    35 dollar 35 35 make it 35 and a 35 make it 35 and a 35
    Who will bid it at a 35 dollar bid?

  103. 103.

    Eunicecycle

    @Kay: He’s going through the stages of grief. I think he might get stuck at anger for a looonngg time though.

  105. 105.

    sdhays

    @Baud: Why do they even bother? Clarence could submit a piece of toilet paper smeared with his own feces and nothing would happen to him. He’s truly untouchable, unlike Trump who was convinced he was untouchable and is now being confronted with the possibility that he’s not.

  106. 106.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @oatler:

    FX: GAVEL HIT THREE TIMES

    CRUN: Attention, fiendish Chinese bidders, the auction commences. First object to come under the hammer is this glass jar.

    FX: GLASS JAR SMASHED BY HAMMER

  107. 107.

    Ken

    @dmsilev: I saw a side-by-side of that courtroom sketch and a still of Jim Carrey as the Grinch.  Other than the hair color….

  108. 108.

    Eunicecycle

    @Soprano2: there’s some PR going around the rightwingosphere for people to get on board with Lindsey’s 15 week abortion ban, saying most people will be happy with that. Uh NO WE WON’T. Just leave things between a doctor and a patient! The End!

  110. 110.

    Eunicecycle

    @lowtechcyclist: you beat me to it. The stages of grief can explain a lot of behavior. It’s not always the death of a person; it can be the death of a dream, a job, an idea. I think Rs in general are going through grief at the death of what they see as “the way things should be.”

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    @Eunicecycle: Governor Youngkin and Virginia legislators talked up a “15 week” abortion bill going into their last session, but they would not put it to a vote in the House of Delegates where they have 52-48 majority. The excuse was that the bill could not make it past the Senate.

    That excuse did not stop Republican Delegates from passing other stupid, performative legislation. But they know this issue is an electoral loser for them, and as it is they face an uphill climb on this fall’s election.

  113. 113.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @sdhays: How long before the artist’s voicemail and website overflow with a septic avalanche of MAGAt threats? (Silly me, I suppose that’s a done deal. Nothing to see here folks, pass by – on the far side of the gutters…)

  114. 114.

    Cacti

    Heathen that I am, I always found the passover story morbidly amusing for the fact that omniscient Yahweh needed a visual reminder of who not to kill.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @oatler:

    I adore auctions. I like the whole thing – parking along the road early in the morning, milling around, those of us who are smug and calmly waiting having done our research prior contrasted with the newbies who are nervous wrecks….

    You have to know what you want and exactly what you will pay for it. Unless you’re just going to watch- I do that too.

  120. 120.

    frosty

    @Kay: Ownership is great. The smartest financial move I ever made was to go to work for an engineering consulting firm that’s an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). It beats working for partners or shareholders. The first few years were unimpressive but the last 10 way outperformed my 401K.

    I call it Socialism, LOL: Workers own the means of production.

  121. 121.

    scav

    @Cacti: Well, honestly, isn’t prayer just trying to frantically trying to catch the all-knowing one’s attention and remind him that the one that prays is the good and well-deserving one in their own opinion?

  122. 122.

    Quinerly

    I know we are all going to to be upset that Travis Tritt is following Kid Rock’s lead and dumping AB.

  125. 125.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    Dunno about other states but once attended an auction in PA where a part of the goods included multiple lots of used bedding. Learned then it was illegal to publicly auction used bed pillows so the auctioneer would announce, while prominently holding one up, the taking of bids on a single paper cup, “and each cup comes with a half dozen pillows.”

  129. 129.

    Baud

    @Cacti:

    omniscient Yahweh needed a visual reminder of who not to kill.

     

    I think it’s more that the visual reminder made it easier to program the plague bot.

  130. 130.

    StringOnAStick

    @Quinerly: I wonder if acts like Trit realize that some of the venues they play at are sponsored by Bud, and their stance might impact where they get bookings?

  131. 131.

    Roger Moore

    @Soprano2:

    They don’t think people with money can actually commit crimes, and get outraged when they find out that’s not true.

    I think it’s slightly different.  Being a criminal is different from committing crimes.  A criminal is something you are.  Poor BIPOC are criminals because of who they are.  They deserve to be treated like criminals regardless of any technicality like them not having been convicted of any crimes.  And, of course, the police can’t be faulted for occasionally thinking a rich BIPOC is actually a poor one and treating them like a criminal; it’s just an inevitable mistake because you can’t tell Those People apart.  Meanwhile, rich white dudes are never criminals, no matter how many crimes they have been convicted of.

  133. 133.

    Roger Moore

    @Cacti:

    Heathen that I am, I always found the passover story morbidly amusing for the fact that omniscient Yahweh needed a visual reminder of who not to kill.

    I don’t think Judaism makes a point of YHWH’s omniscience or omnipotence.  He’s obviously very powerful and knowing, but there’s lots of stuff in the Hebrew Bible that makes more sense if you assume He isn’t all powerful or all knowing.

  134. 134.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Kay: Our Justice system tried and convicted:

    Tom Delay
    Rod Blagojevic
    Martin Shkreli
    Harvey Weinstein
    Bill Cosby
    R. Kelly
    Jeffrey Epstein
    Ghislaine Maxwell
    Paul Manafort
    Steve Bannon
    Mike Flynn
    Lee Baca (LA Sheriffs Dept)
    Phil Specter
    Wong Kwong Yu
    Allen Stanford
    Viktour Bout
    Bernie Madoff
    Elizabeth Holmes

    All very wealthy and powerful.  Obviously more would be better, there’s always more, but that list is not too shabby.

  135. 135.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Plus, God had one of his angels do the killing. The Angel of Death may have been one of God’s creations, but he lacked God’s omniscience. His strength was ruthlessness.

  137. 137.

    Soprano2

    @Eunicecycle: The anti-abortion true believers wouldn’t be happy with that (and neither will I). They want a nationwide total ban on abortion and any birth control they think causes abortions, they won’t be happy with anything less.

  138. 138.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    You have to know what you want and exactly what you will pay for it.

    Which is exactly why top auctioneers earn the big bucks.  Their whole thing is knowing how to get people caught up in the moment so they bid more than they originally intended.  If they’re auctioning something inherently valuable, that can be worth a lot of money to the seller; it’s only fair they’d get a cut.

  139. 139.

    Roger Moore

    @frosty:

    Employee stock plans used to be way more common, and they were one of the ways long-term employees could do really well for themselves.  My father is very well off because he worked for HP starting in the mid 1960s and got in on the employee stock plan.  He and my mom eventually diversified their portfolio so they wouldn’t be completely screwed if the one stock tanked, but the root of their wealth was getting in on the company stock.

  140. 140.

    Roger Moore

    @NotMax:

    Interesting.  I know Ebay has a bunch of restrictions on what you are and aren’t allowed to sell, and one of the things that’s strictly off limits is used underwear.  There is apparently a whole fetish around it, and Ebay didn’t want to get involved.

  141. 141.

    frosty

    @Roger Moore: That was how my parents financed their retirement: the Westinghouse (now Northrop Grumman) stock plan. ESOPs are different: they aren’t publicly traded. The only shareholders are the employees. The value isn’t tied as tightly to the market and they’re much more resistant to takeovers. It’s a good approach for a professional service firm.

    ETA I had no idea when I took the job.

  142. 142.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Kay:

    You have to know what you want and exactly what you will pay for it. Unless you’re just going to watch- I do that too.

    Pretty fair strategy for bazaar shopping in Türkiye as well, as I learned on my only visit there in ’96. When a vendor in the çarşı sees you looking at an item he will generally say, How much would you pay me for it? Basic rules for the negotiation:

    1. Never propose a price for an item unless you are prepared to purchase it at that price. Very bad form to have your price met and then walk away. It’s not a game for your amusement, it’s their livelihood.
    2. When proposing a price, decide how much that item is worth to you, including any sentimental or souvenir aspects.
    3. You will almost surely name a price higher than he’d be willing to sell it for. But unless you are a thoroughgoing expert in this type of item, you are not going to get “a bargain” – aspects you don’t notice will almost surely reduce its value.[1]
    4. When the vendor throws up his hands and exclaims, That’s less than I paid for it![2], ignore him[3] and do not budge a penny (or a lira) – say again, “This is what it is worth to me.” [4]
    5. Once your offer is accepted (it will be), pay the man.
    6. Resist the urge to second-guess yourself when you find a similar (or the same!) item a day or two later at half the price. You paid what it was worth to you at the time you bought it, so stop whining.

    There are a couple other time-honored techniques [5]. Maybe the most important thing to remember is that, by his own lights, the vendor at a çarşı in Türkiye is a businessman, not a thief, and deserves to be treated with courtesy and respect. American tourists generally treat him as a thief, but so long as he doesn’t misrepresent the materials or the quality of the merchandise, he is under no obligation to save them from misunderstandings that they mistakenly think will get them stuff for less than it’s worth.

    (Sorry for getting off on a long tangent, I hope it was enjoyable at least… :^D)

    [1] I like to preface any offer with, I’m not an expert in [item], so I can only tell you what it’s worth to me. It may be worth much more than that, but I don’t want to insult you. Standard response: Yeah yeah sure sure, kaç para? (how much?)

    [2] He is almost certainly, um, er, ah, bending the truth – unless you’re a complete skinflint, he’d make money on any price you quote. Maybe not as much – but the purpose of the dance is to increase his profit.

    [3] My standard response: Oh I’m sorry, I don’t want you to lose money. So we cannot make a deal. It was very nice to meet you– then shoulder my rucksack and walk to the door. Before I can leave the vendor invariably rushes after me shouting No no wait wait….

    [4] I have had carpet salesman say to me in obvious frustration, Can’t you even offer me a dollar more? Do so and you convince him he can budge you, and you waste enormous amounts of time resisting his best efforts to ratchet up your price.

    [5] a) Scout out an item early in the day and return 30 minutes before closing – no one wants to pack up the merch in the evening & unpack it the next day. b) Ask for a price on a group of items, one of which is the one you really covet. c) Ask for a discount on US dollars paid in cash – the Turks love them as a hedge against their customarily ruinous inflation.

  143. 143.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @StringOnAStick: Guess it’s A-OK for them to avoid any particular vendor or venue “on principle,” but not for any venue/vendor to stand on their own “principles” to avoid them. Sauce for the goose, usw.

  145. 145.

    evodevo

    @Eunicecycle: sure…right…the same thing would happen that went down in FL…15 weeks suddenly turned into 6 weeks the other day….not gonna fall for that one…

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