Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

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

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

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

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

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

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

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

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Eid Mubarak!

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Eid Mubarak!

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Things I had no idea were out there…


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149Comments

  4. 4.

    Kay

    As B Cracker said, Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving

    MAGA firebrand Doug Mastriano is inducing panic among GOP officials as he inches closer toward a 2024 bid for the Senate after a disastrous showing in his Pennsylvania governor run in 2022. Among the concerned is none other than Donald Trump. The former president has privately told Republicans he fears that Mastriano, a far-right state lawmaker in a critical battleground, would hurt him in a general election if they were on the top of the ticket together next year, according to three people familiar with the conversations. Mastriano, who attempted to overturn the 2020 election and sought to outlaw abortion with no exceptions, lost Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial contest last November by 15 percentage points. His tease of a comeback bid has sparked alarm within GOP circles that he would cost the party any conceivable chance they had of unseating Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in 2024.

  7. 7.

    HumboldtBlue

    It may the last day of Ramadan, but I won’t be dancing. The past five days have taught me how fucking painful bursitis in your left knee can be. And it’s mighty goddamn painful, so much so here I am commenting, and it’s not even 4 a.m. Finally got seen by the doc yesterday and got a scrip for anti-inflammatory meds, so maybe I’ll be dancing next week. There were moments this past week trying to flex my knee that led to “weeping” pain, the sort of pain that simply is so sharp and acute you can only weep a little as you shift your leg.

    And that handsome smiling man in the last Tweet is Mo Salah of Liverpool, who is having his worst scoring season as Red, having scored only 26 goals and provided 11 assists in 43 games overall (that’s REALLY good for those who need context).

  8. 8.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I think Oz is himself a successful con man and probably a little embarrassed he got caught up in Trump’s sideshow.

    It has to have hurt his medical quackery business – at least 50% of his potential marks hate Donald Trump.

    But  Mastriano is a true loony.

  10. 10.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I’ve read of Muslim families using phone trees to relay the moon sighting that begins Ramadan. I don’t know if that is standard practice, just that this is not neccesarily a calender matter.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    Do they still have to see the moon? I thought with modern science, they would have precise information about the stage of the moon.

  12. 12.

    Anyway

    @Baud:

    Probably

    Fuzzy on the deets but depends on sighting a particular phase of the moon in Mecca which can lead to uncertainty about the exact day Ramadan ends.

  14. 14.

    Kay

    Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur has won her reelection bid over opponent JR Majewski in the race for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District.

    Majewski announced he’s back too this week, v Kaptur. I hope Majewski wins their primary (and I think he will) because they have a stronger, legit candidate who can convincingly pose as a moderate, although he is not one.
    Another Trump gift to the Democrats.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Hilarious! Maybe all of Trump’s zombie MAGA loser candidates will rise up and win primaries nationwide. Blake Masters and Kari Lake can duke it out in the AZ primary. Our senate map is tough next year, so we could use the help.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    I’ve read of Muslim families using phone trees to relay the moon sighting that begins Ramadan

     

    Just shows how unreliable Twitter is now.

  18. 18.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Some Republicans want David McCormick as the nominee. He’s the hedge fund guy that Oz very narrowly beat in last year’s Senate primary. I was relieved at the time, because I thought Oz was a bad candidate. McCormick probably wouldn’t have beaten John Fetterman,  but he would have been a better candidate than Oz.

    I don’t think any Republican candidate can beat Bob Casey. He won reelection in 2018 by over 600,000 votes, and if anything the trend in Pennsylvania since has favored Democrats.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    57/43 – she trounced him. Media exaggerated how close the race would be though, as part of their “promote the red wave” project. Kaptur is a NW OH institution so she’s a strong candidate against any R.

  24. 24.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Richard Majewski sure was a lousy candidate! The guy was a nobody before he painted his lawn into a big Trump sign. He did not evolve much going forward, either.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It’s all stuff like this now. Republicans can’t do normal campaigning to normies anymore- it’s all these elaborate fights with complicated backstories

    @KariLake Issues Challenge to MSNBC’s@morningmika
    and Morning @JoeNBC After Run-in at Airport – Mika Records Kari, Allegedly Calls her ‘Delusional’ and a ‘Liar’

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A little bit of good news:

    Scores of rightwing extremists were defeated in school board elections in April, in a victory for the left in the US and what Democrats hope could prove to be a playbook for running against Republicans in the year ahead.

    In Illinois, Democrats said more than 70% of the school board candidates it had endorsed won their races, often defeating the kind of anti-LGBTQ+ culture warrior candidates who have taken control of school boards across the country.

    Republican-backed candidates in Wisconsin also fared poorly. Moms for Liberty, a rightwing group linked to wealthy Republican donors which has been behind book-banning campaigns in the US, said only eight of its endorsed candidates won election to school boards, and other conservative groups also reported disappointing performances.

  31. 31.

    JWR

    Forget about Kari Lake, there’s a new dog in town! (Politico)

    Larry Elder enters 2024 presidential race

    Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder launched a 2024 presidential campaign Thursday, joining a growing list of candidates seeking the GOP nomination.

    “America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable,” Elder wrote on Twitter Thursday night. “We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That’s why I’m running for President.”

    […]

    Elder said his run is in part motivated by members of his family who have served in the military.

    “I’m the only one who didn’t serve, and I don’t feel good about that,” Elder told host Tucker Carlson during an interview on Fox News Thursday. “I feel I have a moral, a religious, and a patriotic duty to give back to a country that’s been so good to my family and me,” Elder said.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JWR: ​ “I feel I have a moral, a religious, and a patriotic duty to give back to a country that’s been so good to my family and me,” Elder said.
     

    In other words, his usual grift isn’t paying him enough.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The supreme court is poised to decide whether to preserve access to a widely used abortion medication, after extending its deadline to act until at least Friday.

    Less than a year after the court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v Wade and eliminated a constitutional right to an abortion, the justices are now weighing new legal questions in an escalating case in Texas with potentially sweeping implications for women’s reproductive health and the federal drug approval process.

    For now, the court is not weighing the merits of a legal challenge brought by abortion opponents seeking to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s 23-year-old approval of mifepristone. At issue before the court is whether to allow restrictions on the drug imposed by a lower court that would sharply limit access to the drug, including in states where abortion remains legal.

    The justices had initially set a deadline of 11.59pm on Wednesday, but that afternoon, Justice Samuel Alito issued a brief order extending the court’s deadline by 48 hours. The one-sentence order provided no explanation for the delay but indicated the court expects to act before midnight on Friday.

    So… They really want to uphold the Texas idiots hold but they haven’t found a way to do it without showing their asses.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    Our closest neighbor sold their property — not because of us! I’ll miss them because they are adorable snowbirds, but now I’m wondering what the people who bought the place are like. I think my husband met them when the house was for sale. We’re so far out in the boonies that a passing car is a notable event, and these people stopped and talked to the mister while he was watering the garden to make sure they were in the right place.

    He said the people he talked to were a couple (he thinks) from Washington State. The neighbors who sold said the buyers are from Washington State, so it has to be the same people. But the mister can tell me nothing about them! Not even basic shit like their approximate age range, whether there were kids in the car, whether they seemed nice, etc.

    He always needles me about being unobservant and cites this one time 15 years ago when I remarked on a tree he planted in the yard as if I’d never seen it when it had actually been there for five years. Okay, fine, sometimes I’m flora-blind! But I guaran-damn-tee you if I had met potential neighbors for two minutes, I would have much pertinent information to share.

  38. 38.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:

    Amazingly, here it is, the 21st century, and we still don’t have a standard Islamic calendar for the world. The science to calculate sightings of the new moon has been around for many centuries, and it goes back to the Golden Age of Islam. But the tradition of using the Mk 1 eyeball dies hard. And so this year some countries have celebrated the 1st of Shawal a day or two ahead of other places.

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    Media mention.

    Nigh impossible to pigeonhole is Merlí. Sapere Aude on Netflix. Part easygoing dramedy, part telenovela, part sexytime romp, part Reader’s Digest version of Philosophy 101.

    Won’t be to everyone’s taste but there was enough meat on its bones to keep me tuned in all the way through both seasons. Albeit it not raptly; it’s the kind of thing one can flip to while puttering around the house doing other stuff at the same time. The English-dubbed version, while by no means stellar, is acceptable and not near as “Acting? Wuzzat?” inclined as so many dubbed programs are. (WaterGirl take note, may qualify as treadmill fare.)

  40. 40.

    Amir Khalid

    @JWR:

    Forget about Kari Lake, there’s a new dog in town!

    I’d like to regard this comment as looks-shaming, but all the pictures I’ve seen of her have been blurry.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: I was faced with the same wondering when my neighbor sold her place. Here’s hoping you fare as well as I did with the new neighbors.

  45. 45.

    Amir Khalid

    Thanks again to all in the Jackaltariat for the kind and consoling words about my health, and Agent Scully’s passing. It is truly a blessing to have you for friends.

  47. 47.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    Part easygoing dramedy, part telenovela, part sexytime romp

    I’m sold!  Also, the mention of meaty bones.

  48. 48.

    Betty

    @Kay: Bob Casey is not likely to lose to any potential Republican, but Mastriano would be worse than the likely other choice, hedge fund guy, McCormick.

  49. 49.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Amir Khalid:

    I’d like to regard this comment as looks-shaming, but all the pictures I’ve seen of her have been blurry.

    Ba-dum-tssh!

    And here’s more evidence of Kacsmaryk’s dissembling and his attempts to cover up his extreme past.

    The federal district judge who first suspended the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the so-called abortion pill mifepristone failed to disclose during his Senate confirmation process two interviews on Christian talk radio where he discussed social issues such as contraception and gay rights.
    In undisclosed radio interviews, Matthew Kacsmaryk referred to being gay as “a lifestyle” and expressed concerns that new norms for “people who experience same-sex attraction” would lead to clashes with religious institutions, calling it the latest in a change in sexual norms that began with “no-fault divorce” and “permissive policies on contraception.”
    Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed federal district judge, made the unreported comments in two appearances in 2014 on Chosen Generation, a radio show that offers “a biblical constitutional worldview.” At the time, Kacsmaryk was deputy general counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit religious liberty advocacy group known before 2016 as the Liberty Institute, and was brought on to the radio show to discuss “the homosexual agenda” to silence churches and religious liberty, according to the show’s host.

  50. 50.

    JWR

    @Amir Khalid:

    I’d like to regard this comment as looks-shaming,…

    That thought came to me as soon as I hit Post Comment. Hope I didn’t ruffle anyone’s feathers.

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    @HumboldtBlue

    Welcome aboard the Disorient Express. Both knees here* (arthritis), although they generally display courtesy enough for each to await its turn in the rotation.

    Ever been tested for gout? Initial reading of symptoms you describe prompt asking that.

    *among other joints

  52. 52.

    Abnormal Hiker

    @Amir Khalid: According to wikipedia the same uncertainty exists for Passover, so some Jewish communities distant from Jerusalem have Seder on two consecutive days just to be sure.

  53. 53.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Phoenix-based OHPredictives* released an early Senate poll Feb. 16. One question polled was favorability, and Lake’s and Master’s net unfavorable scores were in the low 30s, I believe. That’s pretty bad!.

    Three other Republican candidates as well as Kysten Sinema were underwater on this question. The only candidate with net positive favorability was Rep. Gallego. He was even +6 among Independents, which I took as a good sign.

    This of course is a very early poll, but I found it encouraging. Ruben Gallego led in all two- and three-way matchups.

    *OHPredictives describes itself as a “nonpartisan public opinion, market research and data analytics firm.” They do a lot of Arizona political polling.

  54. 54.

    Betty

    @HumboldtBlue: Murkowski saying she was fooled by Judge K’s philosophy while knowing his position with the First Liberty Institute seems pretty preposterous. The interviews should surprise no one.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: Glad your new neighbor turned out to be nice!

    We’ve had two property turnovers fairly close by in the five years we’ve been here, and both were improvements, IMO. One was the neighbor on our other side, and the new guy is a massive upgrade over the dickhead who used to live there, who named his WiFi this:

    Not any more, asshat! 😂

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    From Ex-members of extremist Mormon sect plead for help to find missing children (a frightening story) comes this little jewel:

    The Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints is a religious organization with approximately 10,000 members who practice plural marriage in settlements primarily along the Colorado-Arizona border. Historically, members have been required to follow the edicts of the group’s prophet, or leader.

    Yep, along that single atom border. Somebody read about Colorado City, AZ being the center of the FCLDS and never actually looked at a map. The Guardian owes me a new key board.

  57. 57.

    p.a.

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    So… They really want to uphold the Texas idiots hold but they haven’t found a way to do it without showing their asses.

     

    I suppose them even being concerned about ass-display is a kind of victory.  They want a country where they can shit everywhere and no one can respond.

  58. 58.

    HumboldtBlue

    @NotMax:

    Ever been tested for gout?

    Nope.

    @Betty:

    The interviews should surprise no one.

    Agreed, the number of GOP judges appointed to various benches who have hidden or outright lied about their right-wing agenda is worrying.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @p.a.:

    They’re in a bind.  The conservatives hate loose standing rules but they have to apply loose standing rules to allow this case to proceed.

    ETA: I wouldn’t be surprised if they take up the case directly and hear oral argument in the fall.  They’ll probably stay everything so that would be a few months reprieve.

  60. 60.

    delphinium

    @OzarkHillbilly: So… They really want to uphold the Texas idiots hold but they haven’t found a way to do it without showing their asses.

    Or pissing off their big money donors/pharma corporations.

  61. 61.

    delphinium

    @Amir Khalid: Was late to the thread yesterday-sorry to hear about Agent Scully and hope you are doing much better now after your hospital stay.

  62. 62.

    CaseyL

    @Betty Cracker:

    Oof, I’d be a little wary of someone moving from Washington (where I live) to Florida (where I lived for a while).

    It’s possible they moved for a lower cost of living.  If your neighboring property is on the water, that’s a definite possibility – because nothing in Washington on the water is remotely affordable.  Washington is an expensive state to live in on all counts.   But Florida seems an odd choice – not only being so damn far away, but the weather will be an enormous shock to them, not to mention the cost of house insurance.

    They might also be part of the exodus of RW people leaving Blue States for their imagined Red State Paradise, where they can be assholes without challenge.  Florida still seems like an odd choice for that, as there are plenty of RW states a lot closer.

    Good luck with the new neighbors!

  63. 63.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @delphinium: I don’t see how they can uphold it without pissing off big pharma. The other day I was saying they wouldn’t because of big Pharma. Now I fear I may have been wrong, Denying it on the grounds of standing is a slam dunk but for Alito to extend the hold another 2 days means (to me anyway) he is trying to convince Gorsuch or Roberts to go along with the Inquisitor 4. It shouldn’t even be that close.

  67. 67.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: trump: “How am I supposed to keep grifting  saying insane shit win in 2024 with all these flaming RWNJs running in my precious battleground states???”

    Loyalty: it’s a one-way street with the orange man, GOP!

    ETA: Kari Lake’s gonna hurt him in Arizona, too!

  69. 69.

    geg6

    @Geminid:

    Totally agree.  Casey isn’t going anywhere because he’s got a very strong record and people in PA like a guy like him.  He’s modest and soft-spoken but has real convictions.  Although he’s from a political dynasty, people don’t really view him that way.  Which is a real testament to his abilities.

  71. 71.

    Anyway

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    So… They really want to uphold the Texas idiots hold but they haven’t found a way to do it without showing their asses.

    I’m scared – Friday afternoon is their favorite time to drop rulings breaking all precedent, outside their lane etc etc.

  72. 72.

    Jeffro

    @JWR: if we had higher requirements for national office (Reps and Senators too, not just Prez) we wouldn’t have to put up with every two-bit hustler and goof saying “I’m running for President!”

    Nobody gets to walk in off the street and be CEO; why should the Elders and Williamsons of the world get to pretend like they’re c-suite material?

  73. 73.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’m trying to think of culture war issues that don’t involve regulating other people’s sex lives. There must be some, but they aren’t the ones that get the big headlines. What’s up with that?

  75. 75.

    Jeffro

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:I’m trying to think of culture war issues that don’t involve regulating other people’s sex lives.

    Once you’re out of the realm of the s-word, it’s pretty penny-ante stuff.

    “DEMOCRATS WANT TO MANDATE SALAD FORKS AT EVERY PLACE SETTING!!1!  DAMMIT, IF I WANT TO EAT MY MEAL WITH JUST A SPOON, THAT’S MY RIGHT!”

    Stuff like that.  =)

  76. 76.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: I had lots of ideas, including “deep state” references to further inflame their already rampant paranoia, etc. But in the end, the mister convinced me to let it go. He thinks escalating feuds with heavily armed people is imprudent, the buzz kill! ;-)

  78. 78.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Jeffro: Battles over the validity of climate change, private property rights, federal land use, and role of federal government generally are culture war issues which don’t involve regulating sex lives or personhood.

  84. 84.

    Jeffro

    Alexandra Petri today: We Will Hold The Country Hostage Until Our Demands Are Met, and Also Once We Know What Our Demands Are.

    (or something like that!  =)

    Obviously, the reason we are here on the brink is because we have a specific thing that we want to achieve! We did not go into this and say, “What we are certain about is that we want to hold up a bank, and we will figure out the rest of the plan after we get there!” We went into this saying, “We are principled individuals, with clear, realistic goals and we will stop at nothing to attain those goals!” We are not quickly Googling what goals are; we have them ready to go. Right now! Yes, they are coming! Here they are!

  86. 86.

    Jeffro

    @Omnes Omnibus: ??

    I didn’t say it was a cure-all; I just said we wouldn’t have to listen to all these nuts, because they’d be ineligible to run.

    We’d only have to listen to the nuts who are eligible to run.  And at least we’d know that those nuts had served in a lower office, had disclosed their taxes, etc.

  88. 88.

    eversor

    @Betty Cracker:

    Masters was a Peter Theil puppet.  As is JD Vance and Josh Hawley.  That’s a massive problem for them.  Democratic billionaires may not invest enough but the Republican crowd all have competing agendas and their own puppets.  What sucks for them is most of their puppets come off as insufferable cock wipes to most of the population.

    Masters sitting out in the desert with some German WW2 Nazi pistol which is low caliber and talking about the art of the gun was just an own goal.  Nobody goes out and buys that you get a 9 or a 45 unless it’s a revolver.  And your bonkers grandpa who served in WW2 has a 45 not a Nazi pea shooter.  Only extremely disturbed people do what Masters did and even to gun owners (I own a few) it was batshit fucking insane.

    Even worse Masters is very much not military and can’t pull the act off.  We all have a way of talking and walking and you know who served and who’s faking it in a second.  So standing out in the desert fondling a Nazi pistol while you are some Ivy League pipsqueak just makes you look odd.

    DeSantis falls into this as well he’s not a fucking pilot or weapons officer or intelligence officer so why was his ass in a jet?  It looked stupid and he looked like a pudgy fuck.  At least Crenshaw and some of the others who pulled stupid stunts were SEAL and didn’t look way out of their league doing them.

    If you want to be a badass the recruiters office is right over there!  But anyone remotely familiar with the military is just going to look at Masters and DeSantis and wonder if they have been smoking crack with My Pillow cause not a damn one of us that served would act like that!

  89. 89.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    I just caught up on 3 days of threads. Can’t stick around this AM long. Hope Amir sees this….so sorry about his kitty. I teared up when I read his post and the replies. So very sad.

  90. 90.

    jonas

    @Baud: ​
     

    It’s funny that Trump is worried about how radical his political spawn are.

    I think it’s less about the radicalism than how the fact that they lost shows that they were never worthy of his support to begin with.

  91. 91.

    sab

    @Jeffro: The problem with your approach is that they have managed to turn years of Federalist Society activity into qualifying rather than disqualifying.

    Been decades since I had anything to do with law practice, but the utter misbehavior the Federalist Society young lawyers still shocks me. They will apparently say or sign anything if their client or paymasters want it. Lying about classified documents, hiding a plea deal offer from your client facing prison are okay?

  92. 92.

    tobie

    When will we hear from Supremes today on Mifepristone? 10 am? Having to fight this fight again and again is so exhausting. (I’m not encouraging giving up, just giving an internet sigh.)

  93. 93.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    Was imagining something more subtle, like A Series of Tubes, or Latte Sippin Lib, or Soros Funded This .
    :)

  100. 100.

    Gin & Tonic

    This is all perfectly normal, right?

    Russia’s favourite military pop star, Shaman, has gone full-on fascist in his latest video, “Us”, a hymn to “Us: the great strength that has united our country for a thousand years!”

    Just look at this. Fucking bonkers. pic.twitter.com/f6Vh12U8mt
    — Dr. Ian Garner (@irgarner) April 21, 2023

  104. 104.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @sab: ​ No, I’m not, but I had no idea Betty C’s husband is a woman.

    I do know a very petite woman who cornered a RWNJ out in the middle of nowhere Shannon Co and told him in no uncertain terms he was gonna take his shit some place else because she was not going to put up with it. He did, forthwith. The whole time she was upbraiding the asshole, her husband was praying. I wish I could tell the story as well as my buddy M did, it was hilarious.

    eta: I still have my 2016 Hillary sticker on my truck, it’s right next to my 2020 Biden sticker.

  105. 105.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: Our two MAGA-type school board candidates lost, thank God, because if they had won they would have had a majority on the board, and then the real awfulness would have begun.

  107. 107.

    narya

    Re: SCOTUS–I think they’re caught between wanting to DO EVERYTHING NOW and some pushback on that from a few of the right-wingers they need on their side. I don’t think Alito gives an entire fuck about precedent, standing, the pharmaceutical industry, or anything else, but I suspect Gorsuch and Roberts aren’t quite willing to go along completely. It’s a YOLO court, and Alito and Thomas want to air every last grievance they have; they can mostly drag Barrett and Kavanaugh along with them, and usually Gorsuch and Roberts as well, but this one isn’t a great case for their destroy-the-administrative-state-AND-make-women-knuckle-under plans. It’s weak on several counts–standing, for sure, but also on challenging the FDA on something like this–but their desire to ban all abortion may overrule that. It’s like the 303 Creative case in that they basically told the world what kind of case needed to be brought, so it could then be brought. If they do not ban mifepristone, they will provide instruction on exactly how to do so that the case can be brought, and I suspect we will see a reappearance of the Comstock law.

  108. 108.

    Lapassionara

    @OzarkHillbilly: this is a culture war collision with corporate interests. I’m confident the culture war faction (Alito, Thomas, etc) want to eliminate the stay. The corporate side, Roberts and maybe Gorsuch, are probably more sympathetic to the business arguments.

    I hate living in interesting times.

    ETA what Narya said

  110. 110.

    Kay

    NYTimes has an editorial – “The Greatest Threats to Speech Come from the state, not students”

    about fucking time

    college administrators should be ashamed going along with this nonsense that their STUDENTS are a threat to fee speech

    pack of cowards- if I was paying 100k to Stanford Law and the law school threw me under the bus to appease screeching Right wing judges I might take my tuition money elsewhere

  111. 111.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    The Greatest Threats to Speech Come from the state, not students

    Twist:  They’re talking about Biden and blue state govenors!

  112. 112.

    eversor

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Feral cats, and cats in general, are a societal menace.  I have a feral rescue cat we scooped up as an infant who couldn’t walk so don’t give me crap.

    They slaughter native animals like crazy and drive species to extinction.  They are catastrophicaly bad from every angle other then we like them and find them cute.  But we domesticated them specifically because they are genocidal monsters to anything and everything and that was good for farming.  If we are going to complain about our impact on the world due to over fishing and global warming than cats have to be on the table as well as an issue to remove.  Cause uh, if we really do care, than cats need to go and quick.

    There’s not a sane solution for this because the actual solution is to wipe out cats and outlaw them and that’s not going to happen.  Which means we have to accept widespread species extinction on a scale that humans would envy, diseases, parasites, and people like my mid sister being hospitalized because her neighbor would not abide by the no cats rule when my sister is deathly alergic to them and that’s why she moved into a no cat condo building.  Cat owners don’t care though.  Their cat is more important than a species wipe out (but they are vegans!  so they have the moral high ground) or the death of someone who is allergic to them.  I own cats, and I fucking hate cat owners.

    Drafting 14 year olds into pet smashing is just bad optics though.  I’d say make the police do it, or just catch and spay/neuter.  We adopted a feral specifically for that reason rather than go to a breeder and she’s the most vocal, social, friendly, gem of an animal I’ve ever met.  She’s fixed, she is not allowed out of the condo, we live in a pet condo building so I’m not going to make anyone sick, she’s just a gem.  However a lot of cat owners in our building let them out and they kill everything all the time and then get hit by cars.  Worse many of these are custom breeds from kitty mills, they don’t come from rescue or feral captures.  Which is very sad.  As there are a lot of great cats who would love for you to take them home.  Give them just a little bit of love and spend their life with you.

    I don’t think most people take “pet” ownership as seriously as they should.  For me it’s a commitment to little Miss Money Penny for her life, and I will be devastated when that ends, but I also have a duty not only to her to but to everyone and everything around me to not let her rampage on a killing spree around Arlington VA.  Cause she got out once, and promptly returned with a bird.

  115. 115.

    The Moar You Know

    Really, New Zealand? Nobody thought this was a bad idea?

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: New Zealand is home to a crapton of endangered species that feral cats are helping to make extinct.  It’s a real problem there.  That being said, NZ, read the room.  Grinning kids standing over a pile of dead felines is going to fuck your tourism industry up but good.

  116. 116.

    jonas

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
      They’re probably desperately looking for a way to uphold the ruling, but say “this applies only to abortifacents, nothing else!!” Otherwise they’d basically have to rule that potentially any FDA-approved drug, including widely-used vaccines, birth control, antidepressants, painkillers, etc. can be yanked from the market if some kook who doesn’t like them finds a sympathetic federal judge.

  118. 118.

    eversor

    @gene108:

    I’m aware.  Still not a pilot.  When I left we had a JAG I had to deal with who’s job was to come up with some bullshit explanation as to why what we did was legal after we did it.

    Regardless JAGs are by default not combatants in the real sense of the term.  DeSantis was not a pilot, weapons officer, intelligence officer, special operations officer, infantry officer, armor officer, artillery officer, or any of the other combatant roles that exist.  So why is he acting like he is or was?

    Say what you will about McCain but he was a combatant officer and a pilot.  He could pull off sitting in a jet, Shrimping Boots “I fucked with the Mouse” can’t.

  120. 120.

    lowtechcyclist

    @eversor:

    Feral cats, and cats in general, are a societal menace.

    I’m trying to decide whether it’s good or bad that religion isn’t the only thing you’re like this about. :-)

  121. 121.

    Baud

    @Kay: I remember during the metadata wars how all the libertarians cared only about the NSA and not private company data collection because the NSA was the state.

  123. 123.

    eversor

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Love cats but it is a problem.  They clobber local bird populations some of which are endangered.  For places like NZ which have species that only exist there this is an even bigger problem.

  124. 124.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eversor: ​ We have no mice in our house. That is most likely Miss Kitty’s doing. She’s good at killing copperheads too. The best part is she is an indoor cat to her core. One time I heard her crying and crying but couldn’t find her. Eventually I managed to trace her plaintive meows to an unscreened window that was cracked just enough for her to squeeze out. She was very happy when I brought her back in.

  126. 126.

    eversor

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That’s nice and mostly our kitty situation as well.  Anything that she can take down she’s going to.  She also sleeps in the bed, sits on laps, constantly attacks people. and very loudly marches across the condo mewing at the top of her lungs.

    As per venomous pests I shoot or shovel them as I do not want to risk Penny being bit.  We get cooperheads, water mocassins, brown recluse, and black widows here and all of them will send you to the ICU.  You’ll live, but it’s not going to be fun.  Last time I got hit was a brown and for about three hours I thought it was a normal bug bite and then the stupid started.  You get necrotic flesh damage and it’s not all fun and games.  You’ll live though!

  127. 127.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: You put an extra word in there…

    regulating other people’s sex lives

    Trans people’s very existence is treated as a culture “war”, and has nothing to do with sexytime.

    This common conflation is harmful because it implies that Trans identities are inherently sexual and therefore inappropriate for “the children”, or “in public”, etc.

    This legal erasure can lead to very bad outcomes as you might imagine. It’s a very scary time for Trans communities right now.

  128. 128.

    Ksmiami

    Almost time to pave over the so called Supreme Court. It’s lawless and unaccountable. No, I don’t see how we defeat the right without massive conflict.

  129. 129.

    Jackie

    @CaseyL: Betty Cracker:

    That was my first thought, too. Why would a Washingtonian move to RW FL – unless they’re RW WA MAGAts.

    Hopefully they’re Democrats looking for sunshine and affordable water property!

  130. 130.

    Suzanne

    Doug Mastriano LAWL.

    So my neighborhood is apparently 75% Democratic based on that NYT searcher tool from a couple of years ago, but there are a couple of visible Trumpy houses. One still — STILL! — has Mastriano signs up. LMAO.

  131. 131.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: ​Just wanted to say thank you for that NYT Sandy Hook piece. Damned hard reading, tear rending at times. I can’t imagine going thru what those people did and in all likelihood are still going thru.

  135. 135.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eversor: ​ I capture the venomous snakes that show up on our proerty and take them down the road to release on the conservation area. As far as fiddlebacks and black widows, I’ll kill them when I find them in the house but otherwise consider them as fodder for the wolf spiders. A friend of mine got bit by a brown recluse and as result has a football sized dent in her thigh. Pretty damned ugly. I once worked with a tinner who got bit on his belly and lost I forget how many feet of intestines. The places I have worked on, some of which had to have fiddlebacks, I figure I must have been bitten numerous times but for whatever reason I am not sensitive to their bites. I guess I got lucky for once.

  136. 136.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

     

    I think Oz is himself a successful con man and probably a little embarrassed he got caught up in Trump’s sideshow.

    It has to have hurt his medical quackery business – at least 50% of his potential marks hate Donald Trump.

     

    They never grasp who their audience is. He messed with his original pool of rubes, and now, may have messed that up.

  137. 137.

    rikyrah

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    So… They really want to uphold the Texas idiots hold but they haven’t found a way to do it without showing their asses.

     

    They want to do it, but, haven’t found a way that it doesn’t place a bullseye on Big Pharma.

  138. 138.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    Been done this way since before any kind of time piece. Well maybe a sun dial, except there is no sun then so…

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    It’s funny that Trump is worried about how radical his political spawn are.

    Not sure I’d call him a spawn, he was nuts before SFB started playing in politics, trying to find something that he could actually compete in. And lo and behold SFB found something and he was once again totally shitty at competing in politics as in everything else.

  140. 140.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yep, we dodged a real bullet with that one. Evidently the majority of the voters wanted people who actually care about the welfare of kids as opposed to pushing their own agenda. People got fooled by one candidate last time – he flew under the radar, presenting himself as regular local businessman. Then when he got elected he revealed his true colors, going on local right wing talk radio to talk about his true views. Sometimes he even subs for one of the local radio hosts, Elijah Hjarr.

  141. 141.

    Soprano2

    @eversor: My husband says there should be a better way to distinguish combat veterans from all veterans, because it’s a different thing. Not that you don’t need all the non-combat people, but being an actual combat veteran puts you in a different category. And he would know exactly what you mean about being able to spot imposters.

  143. 143.

    Manyakitty

    @J R in WV: Amir ended up in the hospital for several days. During this time the lovely Agent Scully took ill and passed away. Not sure about the actual timing, but that’s the outlines. No fun at all. So sorry, again, Amir, if you see this.

  144. 144.

    J R in WV

    @Amir Khalid:

    Thanks again to all in the Jackaltariat for the kind and consoling words about my health, and Agent Scully’s passing. It is truly a blessing to have you for friends.

    So sorry for your loss, and your health issues. Take care, keep in touch !!

  145. 145.

    WaterGirl

    @Amir Khalid: Oh Amir, I missed that thread yesterday so this is shocking news.

    So glad to see you here again, but hospital plus losing your little girl like that, my heart breaks for you.  Agent Sully was lucky to be loved by you.   tears.

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