Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

An almost top 10,000 blog!

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Let there be snark.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

We still have time to mess this up!

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

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Oops!

Oops!

by | 196 Comments

This post is in: 

I had a Dorothy Winsor Authors in Our Midst post scheduled for today at 11, but I ended up gardening from 10 am until 2:30 pm.  Didn’t even stop for lunch, had no computer out there, and I forgot to check at 11 to make sure it went up.

So I am part of the reason there wasn’t a post for so long, and Dorothy was stood up at the altar.  Authors post is now scheduled for 10 am on Sunday, so please be sure to stop by for take two.  :-)

Totally open thread.

Reader Interactions

196Comments

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    @prostratedragon: That is an excellent idea.  My favorite shape, currently, is Roccia. It’s the length of a lasagna noodle, with ruffled sides, but maybe 1/4 of the width?  I tend to break them into 4 pieces as they go in the water so they are nice bite-sized units.  No hole so they don’t get soggy.  They are perfect!

  7. 7.

    JoyceH

    @WaterGirl: How about horse racing, and all the horsies keeling over at Churchill Downs? Personally, I think racing three year olds shouldn’t be allowed. It’s like those pre-teen gymnasts, only, y’know, with horses.

  9. 9.

    Jackie

    I just read an article asking who should choose a successor if a California senator resigns? The governor or voters?

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    @James E Powell: I’m game for that!

    Or we could fantasize… if each of us could kick just one Republican off the island, who would we pick?  No fair coordinating so we take 1,000.

    Which R is the biggest danger to democracy?  Or we could each pick 3.  Who would we kick out of the House?  Out of the Senate?  And one free space.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    @Jackie: That one’s easy!  It needs to happen fast.  The governor, just like the law says.

    We could try to come up with the ONE compelling argument that would get Feinstein to step down NOW.

  15. 15.

    Cameron

    How about compression stockings?  I’m an old fart with bad veins who lives in Florida – I wear both cargo shorts and compression stockings.  Stylin’?  You don’t know the half of it.

  17. 17.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    RIP Newton Minow

    Newton N. Minow, who as Federal Communications Commission chief in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a “vast wasteland,” died Saturday. He was 97.

    Minow laid down his famous challenge to TV executives on May 9, 1961, in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, urging them to sit down and watch their station for a full day, “without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you.”

    “I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland,” he told them. “You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, Western bad men, Western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercials — many screaming, cajoling and offending.”

    h/t https://apnews.com/article/newton-minow-dies-tv-vast-wasteland-3aa9234488f44df9b7f59f8072e1c8a1

    The S.S. Minnow of the 1964-67 television show Gilligan’s Island was sarcastically named after him to express displeasure with his assessment of the quality of television.

    h/t https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_N._Minow

  18. 18.

    prostratedragon

    @WaterGirl:  Never heard of that one. At the end of the day I remain devoted to spaghetti, though other shapes have merit, and soup mostly requires something compact. I remember there used to be long macaroni rather than just elbow. The long stuff was good.

  21. 21.

    WaterGirl

    @prostratedragon: Yes, my former favorite, which the boutique store at the corner use to get, was a full-length hollow noodled that was so awesome.

    He would drive to NY every 6 months to pick up the pasta from this company in Italy.  And then he couldn’t get it anymore.  Sigh.

  22. 22.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl: I’m a rigatoni fan.  Sauce clings to the ridges, and meat sauce can get stuck inside.

    Now, if we’re talking stuffing pasta, it’s a toss up between jumbo shells and manicotti.

  24. 24.

    bbleh

    @Wyatt Salamanca: thank you.  My earlier comment was WAY down thread, and I was about to break the rule and comment again.  Extraordinary guy, and I say this having absolutely no connection to his anonymous bitcoin-funded “grants” program and … oh crap, did I say that out loud?

    Amazing.  WaPo article worth reading.  Gift link: https://wapo.st/42y0Wz9

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    @prostratedragon: For soups I like the little tiny baby bowtie pasta.  Full-size bowtie pasta gets to soggy in anything with a sauce.

    The other little boutique food shop hasn’t been able to get the baby bowties, either.  But they did get the Riccia again, so I won’t whine too much.

  27. 27.

    Jackie

    @WaterGirl: Ah, but if the governor was Republican, would you be ok with a Dem senator being potentially replaced by a Repub?🤔

  30. 30.

    Cameron

    @WaterGirl: I have not made the effort to look, but I find it hard to believe that those who desire same (not sure if you were referring to shorts, stockings, or both) can’t find them in Florida. Actually, probably pretty much anywhere.  Maybe I should try to team up with the Circus Conservatory and develop a line of Clown Compression wear for the venously challenged.

  32. 32.

    Alison Rose

    Don’t know if this was mentioned in earlier threads, but Zooey Zephyr proposed to Erin Reed!! (ErinInTheMorn on Twitter, a trans woman who has been doing amazing work keeping people informed and up to date on anti-trans legislation). I didn’t even know they were together! Click through to see the cute pics :) Mazel tov to them!

    At Queer Prom tonight, Zooey dropped to one knee and asked me to spend forever with her.

    I said yes.

    I can think of no better person in this world to stand side by side with.

    She has made me the luckiest woman alive. pic.twitter.com/70oXTWKimT
    — Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) May 6, 2023

     

    Tonight I asked Erin to marry me.A year ago, I told Erin that I was looking for a love that felt like home.I have found that and so much more. I have found my future, my family, and my forever. pic.twitter.com/ntLayGwGJo— Rep. Zooey Zephyr (@ZoAndBehold) May 6, 2023

  34. 34.

    JWR

    @JoyceH: Back when all those horses were keeling over from broken ankles, (fetlocks?), and shoulders at the Santa Anita track, I read something by an old-time trainer who wrote that it’s their brittle, bred for speed bones that was the problem, and that no amount of normal bloodwork would fix the problem. I thought of that when I heard a race supporting fan on local news say that “it’s just nature” that makes horses bones break.

  36. 36.

    Maxim

    @WaterGirl: Did it stop with the pandemic? Maybe it’ll come back.

    I am the opposite of a foodie. I am perfectly content with repetitive, ordinary meals. Partly an autism thing, no doubt. But I like looking at recipes and seeing ideas for creative cooking, even if I’m not going to make them.

  37. 37.

    prostratedragon

    @Wyatt Salamanca:  Sarcastically, or ironically? Because it was clear to a 7-year-old at the time that he had a point, even though it could be fun to watch. And even if he couldn’t save us from ourselves, he did leave some good works behind. RIP

  39. 39.

    Cameron

    @Alison Rose: That is really cool.  And look at those two messages – I don’t see anything but love there, do you?  Maybe the haters should spend more time looking in the mirror.

  41. 41.

    bbleh

    @Alison Rose: Fab!  Good for them!  Glad to see she has support and all the bigoted crap that’s getting shoveled her way isn’t burying her.  Yay!

    We should crowdfund flowers or something, just to make a splash.  Wouldn’t take much.

  46. 46.

    James E Powell

    @Jackie:

    Give that multiple contenders for the job are already campaigning, I would hope that the governor would appoint a lefty Democrat who promises to: a) be a caretaker & b) show up every day to vote for Biden’s appointments.

  50. 50.

    WaterGirl

    @Alison Rose: I saw that earlier, but when I saw “queer prom” I assumed it was from when she was much younger.  Like when you go to prom!

    Queer prom must be a thing that I don’t know about.

  52. 52.

    raven

    @raven: Huh, I juts know we used to go up there for incredible Italian food and thought that joint would have it! There was a boutique grocery in C-U???

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @NotMax: Bucatini looks kind of close, but the noodle seems to thick or the hole seems too small.  The store is still there; maybe I should stop by and see what the name of the noodle was, and the name of the company, too.  Maybe it’s order-able on line.

    Thank you!

  55. 55.

    Michael Bersin

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    The S.S. Minnow of the 1964-67 television show Gilligan’s Island was sarcastically named after him to express displeasure with his assessment of the quality of television.

    Even in those days it would have been a bit too much to name the prairie schooner on Dusty’s Trail the same.

    And, of course, Minnow would have then been able to retort, “I rest my case.”

  57. 57.

    JoyceH

    @Jackie: Does anyone else think there’s more to Feinstein’s absence than shingles? I know shingles can be difficult for the elderly but… It’s been quite a while.

  58. 58.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl: Never heard of short rigatoni.

    And, yes, manicotti and cannelloni are “special occasion” pastas due to stuffing them being a pain.

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    @James E Powell: I have not!  They have a kinda similar shape but the ruffle is only on one side.  I see how they have the wide “road” with sides to keep the sauce in.

    My sister is the sauce fiend.  I use sauce sparingly.

  63. 63.

    prostratedragon

    @WaterGirl:  Sorry — the thick kind best. The sauce works its way in if they’re simmered together a few minutes.

  64. 64.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: Cheese & Crackers at Old Farm.  That’s how I think of it, anyway.  Gourmet food items, fancy chocolates, crazy good spicy ginger ale that’s really hard to find, etc.

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    @mrmoshpotato: Okay, it probably has a different name when it’s half the length of regular rigatoni.  But it has the ridges, and except that it’s shorter, the diameter is the same.

  73. 73.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    Hey WG, what’s the topic/subject for Medium Cool tomorrow? I have tomorrow night off from work so I’ll be able to participate

  75. 75.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    Never tried spinach fettuccine, but I love fettuccine alfredo.

    I’ll out myself as a heratic and say I don’t think Olive Garden is that bad

  77. 77.

    WaterGirl

    @JoyceH: I’m guessing that if shingles has you down for the count for 6 months or a year, it’s not going to get better any time soon.  Maybe never.

    She is hurting our party, and a with it Diane Feinstein wouldn’t want that.

  79. 79.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    She is hurting our party, and a with it Diane Feinstein wouldn’t want that.

    Somebody in her life needs to step in and convince her to step down. She’s putting her life’s work in danger

  82. 82.

    Dan B

    @WaterGirl:  My partner and his ex put on the Prom You Never Went To every May since LGBTQ people didn’t get to go to prom with their SO until the late 90’s.  I was blackmailed into taking the homely National Merit Scholar by the AP math teacher.  I attended the Prom You Never Went To with my roommate’s Samoyed since I’d taken a “dog” to my high school Prom.  She, the Samoyed, won King of the Prom wearing a shocking pink one piece bathing suit.  Pictures are in the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle.

  84. 84.

    prostratedragon

    @WaterGirl:  Oh, could be … Need to settle on the kind and source as I might be too hungry for a major cooking project. There’s always Spaghetti-Os😉

  87. 87.

    Elizabelle

    @Jackie: Governor Newsom could appoint a caretaker Senator to serve out DiFi’s term.  Voters elect a Senator in 2024.  Vying are Barbara Lee, Katie Porter, and Adam Schiff.

  89. 89.

    Miki

    @JoyceH: It’s not the shingles that’s taking so long. It’s the Postherpetic Neuralgia that knocks people down, sometimes for months and months, with terrible, unrelenting pain.

    That being said, it says nothing about whatever else she’s going through, nor whether she should resign sooner instead of later.

  95. 95.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    Thanks. I’ve never read Dorothy Sayers or Agatha Christie, but I think I did see at least one or two episodes of Poirot that can’t remember well lol

  96. 96.

    Chetan Murthy

    As long as it’s an open thread,  here’s something I did recently.  I made the tiktok feta pasta recipe, but:

    1. a can of bianco di napoli crushed tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes
    2. about a pound of spicy (chicken) italian sausage, removed from skins and sauteed
    3. didn’t add pasta (so making sauce only)
    4. added a ton of chopped basil at the end
    5. and a decent amount of vodka near the end (like: I didn’t measure — just glug glug)

    Boy howdy, the vodka really did help the feta mix well (emulsify?) with the sauce.  Just *incredibly* better than I’d gotten before without the vodka.  And so easy!  I still have some in the fridge that I’m slowly eating thru.

  98. 98.

    NotMax

    Now that friends’ computer-focused live call-in radio show has wrapped up its 20 year run I find myself at sixes and sevens about what to do between noon and 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
    ;)

  102. 102.

    kalakal

    Mrs kalakal and I have just had our second bivalent Covid boosters. So far so good

  107. 107.

    Ken

    @zhena gogolia: As I read more of Christie’s work, I found a certain amount of recycling. She even acknowledges this through her Ariadne Oliver surrogate, when Poirot points out that two of Oliver’s stories have the same solution, and just change the circumstances. This is in Cards on the Table, as I recall.

  108. 108.

    Cameron

    @SpaceUnit: With pockets like rockets, yo.

    Oh.  This is about pasta is it?  I just didn’t…..I just thought, y’know, with slammin’ ham and makin’ bacon and that bologna and other sausage stuff, that, maybe…well.  Sorry.  Sorry.  Wrong thread.  TMI.

  109. 109.

    prostratedragon

    @mrmoshpotato:  Must try sometime. But I’m Southside, so thinking Ascione Bistro. The pappardelle with boar sauce, which leaves room for my own meat sauce later in the week.

  112. 112.

    Amir Khalid

    About an hour ago, around 4:00am my time, I found on YouTube a song I hadn’t known I needed.

    The song that had comforted me most when I lost Bianca was Linda Ronstadt’s cover of Goodbye My Friend. It helped bring out the tears that needed to come out. Karla Bonoff’s lyrics addressed my own feelings of loss and grief, and held out the promise that I’d find a way to come to terms with them.

    So at four o’clock this morning, I found Bette Midler’s The Rose. And I was finally able to shed tears for my baby girl Agent Scully, the way I needed to.

  115. 115.

    Ksmiami

    @JWR: can’t go shopping, can’t go to school, can’t go to a concert or a July 4th parade… welcome to the gunslinging US of A. We are bugfuck insane .

  120. 120.

    WaterGirl

    @Dan B:  How fun!  Seriously?  The photos are in the museum?

    I take it that you and your partner didn’t keep up the prom tradition when you guys got together?

  126. 126.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    So I’ve heard and what I remember. That’s why I like Columbo. He’s the anti-Poirot in all the best ways

  130. 130.

    Dan B

    @WaterGirl:  We did go to the prom until my partner’s ex decided he was done.  I remember one at the Miuntaineers that Microsoft’s second employee and grounder of the computer club at Bill Gates and Paul Allen’s high school, Ric Weiland, was at.  Ric was a weight lifter.  He was there with an equally stellar blond hunk from California.  Ruc knew both of us but it still felt like we were hanging out with Hollywood stars.  My partner was working and we were backstage a lot.  Ric passed away so it’s just a nice memory.

  134. 134.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Alison Rose: I happened on this earlier. Congratulations to Erin and Zooey, who in addition to bringing awareness and compassion to the issue of trans rights, are smart, witty and indefatigable.

  136. 136.

    Another Scott

    Speaking of oops…, FT.com:

    The trio of bank failures since March has cast a pall over KPMG’s lucrative business as the largest auditor of the US banking sector.

    Questions over the quality of its work and independence have mounted in recent days, following the release of a Federal Reserve report into the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the forced sale of First Republic. The Big Four accounting firm was auditor to both banks, as well as to Signature, which was seized by regulators in March.

    In all three cases, KPMG gave the banks’ financial statements a clean bill of health as recently as the end of February.

    […]

    Nobody could have predicted!!11

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  138. 138.

    hilts

    @zhena gogolia:

    Are you or any other commenters here familiar with Anne Perry’s novels?

    Perry died on April 10th.  As her Wikipedia article notes, she was the author of the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt and William Monk series of historical detective fiction. In 1994, it became public knowledge that Perry had been convicted for murder as a teenager while living in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 1954, at the age of fifteen, she and her 16-year-old friend Pauline Parker murdered Parker’s mother, Honorah Rieper. After serving a five-year sentence for the murder, she changed her name and returned to the United Kingdom. She was identified by journalists following the release of the movie Heavenly Creatures, directed by Peter Jackson, in which Kate Winslet portrayed her.

  139. 139.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I know fuck all about horse picking.

    Well, know this!

    BREAKING: Kentucky Derby winner Mage turns down a meeting with Trump. Asked why, they said “If I wanted to see a horse’s ass, I would’ve came in second!”— Travis Allen (Biden Fan) (@TravisAllen02) May 6, 2023

  141. 141.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @kalakal: Mr. Lurkalot and I just got our 2nd bivalent as well, about an hour in. Going to go workout in case I feel crummy tomorrow.

  142. 142.

    Dangerman

    Balloon Juice Post Reading Process

    Step 1: Read Title

    i.e., “Oops”

    Step 2: As needed, quickly read Author

    i.e,. “Oh, shit, is it the Blogmaster?”

    Step 3, as needed:

    i.e., “OK, how did he hurt himself now?”

  144. 144.

    Jackie

    @JoyceH: I’m clueless. She was already showing cognitive problems and I have no idea if shingles could exacerbate that or not. 🤷🏼‍♀️

  147. 147.

    different-church-lady

    So, apparently horse racing is the only sport left where the don’t cover the screen with so much graphic crap that you can’t follow the actual event being televised.

  148. 148.

    evodevo

    @JWR: Yep…I’ve been around horses for 60 years….too much stress on young immature bones…and if you look at race horses in comparison to “regular” horses, their legs look like pipestems.  Pipestems that support a minimum of 1200 lbs pounding along at 30 miles an hr.  I am just surprised that more of them don’t break down in every race…in Britain, they don’t race till they are at least three or older.  Over here, they are often racing at two, which means they were already in training as …yearlings…

  150. 150.

    Jackie

    @Nelle: The person who replaces DiFi could keep her staff – at least for a while. That’s what Mary Peltola, the new Rep from Alaska did.

  151. 151.

    prostratedragon

    @Alison Rose:  When two people find each other and desire to make such a committment, how can one do anything but lift a toast to them? May they leave the haters behind.

  152. 152.

    JaySinWA

    @WaterGirl: You just gave her a new villain origin story. One way to become immortal[ized]

    ETA “The wayward water girl gardener” or better “the evil water girl garden”

  153. 153.

    NotMax

    @evodevo

    Quirk when it comes to “years” in racing is that all professional race horses are listed as one year older each successive January 1st.

    So if born on December 31, the horse is classed as a one-year-old the next day and as a two-year-old a year and a day after birth.

  154. 154.

    evodevo

    @NotMax: Yeah…there was a Dick Francis mystery based on just that …. the horse was foaled on Dec. 25 or whatever, two weeks early, and the owners covered it up and registered him with the jockey club as a Jan 1 foal.   Complications  resulted in murder of one of the stable workers, I think…I can’t remember the title…

  155. 155.

    different-church-lady

    @NotMax: Right. But if you’re breeding a thoroughbred, you’re timing it for a spring birth no matter what. So they’re all roughly the same age, even if the earth hasn’t quite completed the third trip around the sun just yet. A horse born on New Year’s Eve isn’t going to be in the Kentucky Derby.​

  156. 156.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @hilts: I read a bunch of Anne Perry novels. I think I quit as she was ending one series and starting another.

    I was once in an online discussion about whether an author’s personal behavior would make you stop reading their novels. I was amusing that we had no problem with Anne Perry having committed murder but would stop reading a writer who’d been mean to another writer online.

  159. 159.

    zhena gogolia

    @hilts: I read her obituary but never read her novels. I think Inspector Lewis did an episode inspired by that story.

  160. 160.

    JWR

    @evodevo: Thanks for the confirmation. That story was why I’m always a bit amused when they talk about testing the horse for disease and the track for… I dunno, maybe tiny gopher holes lurking to swallow up a horses foot? But this is a sport in dire need of reform.

  161. 161.

    Geminid

    @hilts: I read most of Anne Perry’s books a few years ago. I thought they were decent, but kind of grim.

    My friend Joan gave me a whole box of Perry novels. Every now and then I threaten to return them.

  162. 162.

    Raven

    ALLEN, Texas (AP) — Multiple people were shot at an outlet mall in the Dallas suburb of Allen, Texas, on Saturday, sending hundreds of shoppers fleeing in panic in the latest gun violence to strike the country.

    Calls about shots being fired came in about 3:40 p.m. from the Allen Premium Outlets. A dispatcher with Allen police confirmed the department was investigating a shooting but couldn’t say more.

    WFAA-TV reported that police on the scene said there were multiple victims, including children. Their conditions were not immediately known, but WFAA reported that the Collin County Sheriff said the shooter is dead.

  163. 163.

    Miss Bianca

    @Amir Khalid: Oh, The Rose! It’s a great song from a so-so movie, kind of like Evergreen.

    I was off-blog when Agent Scully made her all-too-brief appearance in your life, so I sort of had to guess at what had happened. I am so sorry, Amir.

  165. 165.

    Miss Bianca

    @hilts: I remember reading her first Charlotte Ellison/Thomas Pitt mystery, The Cater Street Hangman, way, way back in the late 70s or early 80s when it came out as a dime-store paperback. it inspired me to try scripting a modern-day graphic novel version (I was young, what can I say.)

  167. 167.

    CaseyL

    @Amir Khalid:

    The Rose is a wonderful eulogy song for Agent Scully.  I’m glad you are able to mourn her fully.

    I hope your own health continues to improve, and that you can find another cat to give your heart to.

  170. 170.

    StringOnAStick

    @JWR: I made friends with a farrier this year and he says thoroughbreds have crappy feet too, thin outer shell on their hooves and prone to splitting.

  171. 171.

    Central Planning

    @NotMax:

    “Everybody wants ta get in’ta the act.”
    – J. Durante

    “Everybody wants to be a cat!”
    – The Aristocats

  172. 172.

    WaterGirl

    @Amir Khalid: I just listened to The Rose, and read the lyrics.  A lovely song, glad it gives you comfort.

    When I lost my kitty soulmate, I found comfort in – of all places – the end an episode of Criminal Minds where one of the cast members speaks a quote that is pertinent to the case they just finished up.

    So for me, it was this:

    Oops!

  174. 174.

    JWR

    @Raven: From an earlier story on NBC:

    Gov. Greg Abbott called the situation an “unspeakable tragedy.”

    “Our hearts are with the people of Allen, Texas tonight during this unspeakable tragedy,” he said.

    Still no details, aside from one guy saying he thinks some of the victims are children, but at least we know Greg Abbott’s still got his heart up his sorry ass.

  175. 175.

    Alison Rose

    California potentially (hopefully) doing the right thing: (NYT gift link)

    A California panel approved recommendations on Saturday that could mean hundreds of billions of dollars in payments to Black residents to address past injustices. The proposals to state legislators are the nation’s most sweeping effort to devise a program of reparations.

    The nine-member Reparations Task Force, whose work is being closely monitored by politicians, historians and economists across the country, produced a detailed plan for how restitution should be handled to address a myriad of racist harms, including housing discrimination, mass incarceration and unequal access to health care.

    Created through a bill signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in the wake of the nationwide racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the panel has spent more than a year conducting research and holding listening sessions from the Bay Area to San Diego.

    It will be up to legislators to weigh the recommendations and decide whether to forge them into law, a political and fiscal challenge that has yet to be reckoned with.

  177. 177.

    StringOnAStick

    @Amir Khalid: I still get teary about my soul kitty, gone 8 years now, and we have a pair of sister kitties who will be 6 this fall.  There is always a place in my heart that misses her; I’m sure you feel it too.

  179. 179.

    lowtechcyclist

    @JWR:

    Gov. Greg Abbott called the situation an “unspeakable tragedy.”

    Fuck Greg Abbott.  He and his fellow gun-humpers do worse than nothing – they loosen gun laws and have created a world where it’s practically ‘another day, another mass shooting.’  Or somebody shooting someone else who looked at them the wrong way.

    They should take all the damn guns and dump them into an active volcano.

  180. 180.

    JaySinWA

    I doubt I will ever name a novel.

    I may have misplaced the modifier. Perhaps “Evil garden [ensnares] water girl”. 

  181. 181.

    S Cerevisiae

    Dead thread but in appropriate for a war thread, I lost my Bella today, the German Shepherd who rescued me a decade ago. I wish people had a chance to see that last calendar picture, with her bucket. Godspeed my love Bella, I’ll see you in the other side. 💔

  183. 183.

    Another Scott

    re the Default Ceiling, DeLong says ‘print the perpetual consol bond’.

    NYMag.com:

    In any case, a minimally dramatic or legally ambitious solution to the debt-ceiling standoff would be preferable. And the Treasury Department has one: It can keep funding the government through the sale of consol bonds.

    In simple terms, a consol bond is one that never matures. A normal bond commits a borrower to paying back the principal on their loan plus interest at a set date. A consol bond, by contrast, requires the borrower to make annual interest payments forever but does not require them to pay off the loan’s full value at any particular point in time.

    This is handy since the legislation establishing the U.S. debt limit defines the federal debt as the amount of principal that the government is obligated to repay. Thus, while a normal U.S. Treasury bond increases the national debt as defined by the debt ceiling, a consol bond does not. If the government borrows money via bonds that have no principal — only interest-payment obligations — then it can continue funding its operations indefinitely, even in the absence of a debt-ceiling hike.

    There is a clear downside to the consol-bonds solution. In order to attract buyers for bonds that never mature, the Treasury will need to offer a high interest rate, increasing the cost of government financing. But this would still eliminate uncertainty about the government’s capacity to repay previously issued, normal bonds. So the impact on the cost of credit in the broader economy should not be very significant.

    But it has the advantage of being extremely boring and incredibly legal. The Treasury Department has the authority to issue whatever kind of bonds it sees fit. Avoiding default through the sale of consol bonds would not require any epic constitutional confrontation between the executive and legislative branches nor would it involve the creation of an object tailor-made for the ultimate heist. It would merely require the Treasury Department to do something weird — but dully technical — in order to prevent a financial crisis. The Treasury and the Fed have pursued variations on that basic task repeatedly since the 2008 financial crisis and have generally faced little political blowback for doing so.

    (Emphasis added.)

    Having Yellen in Treasury may be yet another example of the benefits of having oldsters with vast experience in many areas (e.g. her time at the Federal Reserve) in the right place at the right time. She undoubtedly knows about this and how to make it work if necessary.

    We’ll see!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  186. 186.

    prostratedragon

    Sorry to hear of this loss.  Bella and her bucket sounds like a lovely memory.

  188. 188.

    Jackie

    @S Cerevisiae: I’m so sorry for your loss of Bella. GSDs are the best.

    eta Bella and her bucket is adorable!🥰

    Thanks for posting her photo, Scott.

  190. 190.

    S Cerevisiae

    @Another Scott: omg thank you for finding that! I’m a wreck right now, watching rock dvds to keep my mind off that my baby girl is lying in State downstairs to be brought to the crematorium tomorrow. I love you all but I’m a bit out of shape right now…

  191. 191.

    S Cerevisiae

    Watching one of my Kansas discs, the always helped me, in a way they are the rock and roll Bach…

  192. 192.

    Ajabu

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    My wife picked her favorites for the Kentucky Derby. Didn’t bet on it. Just did the research to amuse herself. Picked ALL 3 winners!!!

    Did I mention she didn’t bet on it?

  193. 193.

    sab

    @S Cerevisiae: I am so sorry. We lost our GSD in 2009 and not a day goes by when we don’t think of her. It will feel better in time. Now we just have happy memories of a delightful girl.

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