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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Slow News Friday?

Slow News Friday?

by | 201 Comments

This post is in: 

First of all, can I say that it should be illegal for videos of Trump to autoplay on social media?  It’s bad enough to see a still of the orange one, but to see his lips moving and hear his voice is too much when you’re not mentally prepared.  Okay, moving on.

Another pet peeve.  When and how did the “You’re not the boss of me!” people turn into “I’m the boss of all of you!” people?  They just get to do that and no one is supposed to notice?  It’s not rules they hate; it’s all about who gets to make the rules.  Fuck them.

🐇

The framing of the tweet about Tim Scott was annoying, but this response from the Hoarse Whisperer was laugh-out-loud funny.

🐇

I LOVE THIS:

As I said in the comments, let Fetterman be Fetterman.

🐇

Poor Donald Trump.  I think you have worn out your welcome in the courts.
You Get Nothing!

🐇

This fellow explains the linear passage of time to Republicans, and more specifically, to Fox Not-News.

Warning: the video below does reference some awful videos that were recently being promoted on twitter, and then were no longer being promoted on twitter, so the complainers on Fox were saying that there had been no issue with cat torture videos being promoted on twitter.  Hence the explainer on the concept of the linear passage of time.  i.e.  there was a problem, the problem was pointed out, after that, something changed, but the fact that it’s not there any longer doesn’t mean that it was never there.

Similar to the concept of object permanence, but different.

Link to video.

Totally open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

201Comments

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    With the “slow news day?” heading, I am hoping to tempt the universe into giving us some awesome breaking news this afternoon.

  6. 6.

    Bobby Thomson

    Tim Scott wouldn’t get the nomination of the White Chritian Nationalist Party even if Trump wasn’t running, and his shot at Vp is somewhere between No forkin way and You gotta be kidding me.

    Fetterman in a hoody is fine.  I’ve never been a fan of pompe and circumstance.  I’m far more offended by an entire party in thrall to Putin, oil and gas, and gun manufacturers.

  7. 7.

    bbleh

    “‘Mr. Trump, you may have your answer now.  My ruling is this …”

    Oh, there’s gonna be some ketchup on the walls tonight.

  9. 9.

    bbleh

    @WaterGirl: oh no, there’s EVIDENCE!  For one thing, the judge has shown BIAS by actually RULING AGAINST some motions by DeSantis! How can it possibly be fair for a judge to sit on a case when they’ve already made rulings against one party??!?

  10. 10.

    oatler

    How’s this? Weather bug on the corner of my screen says Mostly Sunny while hail and high winds are coming on.

  12. 12.

    The Moar You Know

    I haven’t read it.

    @Baud: thanks for that.  The issue seems to be that the judge has said in public that when the DeSantis admin says they will do something, people should take them at their word.

    This looks like some weak sauce, but an actual lawyer should look at it.  I am not one.

    Further reading:  seems to boil down to, literally, “judge won’t rule the way we want”.  Good luck with that.

  13. 13.

    Bobby Thomson

    @WaterGirl: Shorter Desantis: the judge has outside of this proceeding referred to state action against Disney as retaliatory, so he therefore has prejudged the merits of this case in which Disney is suing us for retaliation.  To which my response is, “Good luck getting traction with that argument after Desantis bragged about sticking it to Disney in his book.”

  15. 15.

    bbleh

    @Bobby Thomson: along with the obvious political aspects, might this be considered an analogy to an attempt at some sort of “brushback pitch”?  Trump has tried the same sort of thing on more than one occasion, maybe DeSantis thinks he can or should?  (And separately, what on Earth makes someone think that’s a good idea?)

  17. 17.

    Cameron

    New thing I learned today: the most unfriendly city in the United States for work-from-home jobs is Bradenton, FL, which is just to the north of where I live.

  18. 18.

    Bobby Thomson

    @bbleh: you would be surprised how many lawyers think it is a good idea to show that judge who’s boss.

  19. 19.

    DFH

    You said: “When and how did the “You’re not the boss of me!” people turn into “I’m the boss of all of you!” people?  They just get to do that and no one is supposed to notice?  It’s not rules they hate; it’s all about who gets to make the rules.”

    This twitter thread helped explain it pretty well to me:

    https://twitter.com/_EthanGrey/status/1534024500970459138

    “If this has been a source of confusion, then your assessments of what Republicans mean by “freedom” were likely too generous. Here’s what they mean: 1. The freedom to tell people what to do. 2. Freedom from being told what to do.”

    Pretty much boils down to … heads I win, tails you lose. Sophomoric.

  20. 20.

    Aziz, light!

    Wow, that wasn’t Doug J on the NYT announcement? This “serious competitor” will burn up faster than a meteorite.

  24. 24.

    lowtechcyclist

    @DFH:

    “If this has been a source of confusion, then your assessments of what Republicans mean by “freedom” were likely too generous. Here’s what they mean: 1. The freedom to tell people what to do. 2. Freedom from being told what to do.”

    Protects but doesn’t bind, binds but doesn’t protect…yep.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    @DFH:

    what Republicans mean by “freedom” were likely too generous. Here’s what they mean: 1. The freedom to tell people what to do. 2. Freedom from being told what to do.”

    You’re right.  That’s it in a nutshell.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    Judge McBurney will have none of your shit [smack!].

    Whines about “New York Georgia judges” commence in 3, 2, 1…

  28. 28.

    Redshift

    When and how did the “You’re not the boss of me!” people turn into “I’m the boss of all of you!” people? They just get to do that and no one is supposed to notice?

    They always were. As Stuart Stevens put it, the only core principle conservatives have is “We get to tell you what to do. You don’t get to tell us what to do.” It fades sometimes when they’re only talking about the rules they’re against, like masks and so-called lockdowns, but “You’re not the boss of me!” always has an unspoken “I said me, I didn’t say anything about who is the boss of you.”

  29. 29.

    Urza

    @rikyrah: There’s a reason most offices that didn’t make it mandatory are still at around 20% capacity.  And those 20% going in do it to get away from family mostly.  Very few people go in cause they prefer the office.

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: My hopeful view is that just means that the Dems should quit saying the quiet parts out loud.  But as one of the just do the 14th amendment people, I have to say that doesn’t sound good.

  31. 31.

    debit

    I really would have appreciated some context about last link. I did not want to know that horrific videos like that are real. For anyone who hasn’t clicked yet, warning: descriptions of animal torture.

  32. 32.

    Suzanne

    When and how did the “You’re not the boss of me!” people turn into “I’m the boss of all of you!” people?

    They have always been like this! They’re fucken hypocrites! Not just sanctimonious, not just self-involved, not just stupid as shit!

  33. 33.

    trollhattan

    @Aziz, light!: Hoping against hope “one of the most serious” is a smack on DeSantis because it puts “who?!?” on the same level as Ronny Meatballs.

  34. 34.

    Old School

    @Cameron:

    New thing I learned today: the most unfriendly city in the United States for work-from-home jobs is Bradenton, FL, which is just to the north of where I live.

    Tracked it down.  1.8% of the job listings in Bradenton offer remote work.  Article does not posit why that would be.

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    @debit: I knew the awful videos were real, but to me the video I linked didn’t describe any of it, and anything I saw had already been referenced for the past week or so.

    But I am squeamish and I would never want to upset anyone or be insensitive, so I am sorry about that.

    edit: I added an explanation up top.

  36. 36.

    bbleh

    @Betty Cracker: @WaterGirl: per previous comments, 14th is a negotiation-stopper.  It’s basically the equivalent of what the Freedumb Caucus said.  The Freedumbers don’t have any problem running around playing with matches because they’re not gonna get much of the blame if the whole thing burns down, but from this I would guess that the WH figures Biden will, and (unfortunately) I agree.

    I note also the different ways the media are spinning the current “pause”: some say bothsides while others say — explicitly — the GOP negotiator walked out.  To my mind, that’s not a good look for the GOP, but I realize I’m not their target audience for this little stunt.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    @WaterGirl: Yep. It could be part of the strategy, i.e., it’s a phased approach—break glass in case of emergency but not before.

  38. 38.

    debit

    @WaterGirl: cat in a blender was descriptive enough.

    sorry. I can’t get the mental image and sound out of my head.

    edit: I removed the video and added a link instead.

  42. 42.

    Kelly

    Curses 🤬 on autoplay. I particularly hate it when I’m browsing for a movie or show to watch on one of our steaming services and the show just starts while I’m trying to read the description to decide if I’m going to watch it. Previews playing unasked for as I browse are also an abomination.

  44. 44.

    bbleh

    @WaterGirl: @debit: please, can we speak of it no more?  Like EOF.  And WG, thanks for edit.

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    @debit: Truly sorry to have upset you.  I struggled with that last week – I even started a new thread when someone felt felt they had to graphically talk about the videos.

    Musk is a blight on the world.

  48. 48.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Urza: I think you would be surprised.  I don’t like working from home.  I like having contact with people.  I like getting out of the house (not avoiding family).  I know that this blog, and maybe online people on general, tends toward introverts (or as CornerStone phrased it “elderly shut-ins”), but not everyone is that way.

  52. 52.

    Tony G

    I would like to see Biden break of these nonsensical “negotiations” with McCarthy and just repeat, every single day, that the U.S. constitution prevents him from defaulting on the obligations of the United States, and that he will adhere to the constitution.  Period.  Every single day.  And then he should just ignore any noise that McCarthy or the other GOP “leaders” make.

  54. 54.

    debit

    @WaterGirl: ack, I know you didn’t have any ill intent. Let’s let it go, if you’re okay with that. Im sorry for my part

    Truly, Musk is a blight  I’m deleting all my twitter bookmarks and won’t give him another click

  57. 57.

    twbrandt

    @Omnes Omnibus: I am very much of a work-from-home person, although I do like to go to a coworking space just get out of the house and have human contact occasionally.

    But I completely understand that many people do want to work in the office, and that’s completely fine. Do whatever is best for you.

  60. 60.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: I am pretty sure they have multiple irons in the fire and don’t want the 14th Amendment solution to become fixed in people’s head as THE solution.  Remember the whole public option thing?

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    This is interesting. The Chamber of Commerce writes to Biden – are the Republicans not even listening to the Chamber of Commerce anymore?  Do the Rs not need big business anymore because they have their pet billionaires?

  62. 62.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Omnes Omnibus: I would go in more often if my commute weren’t about an hour one way. The frustrating thing about THAT is, I live in the DC area and am only about 8-9 miles from the office as the bicycle takes me. Getting there by bike takes about 45-50 minutes. Getting home takes a little longer because it’s an uphill grade from the Anacostia to home most of the way. No towering climbs but still, gravity is working gently against me.

    If I take metro, and bike to the metro stop, I can be to work in about 35-45 minutes IF my transfer from the Red to Green metro lines goes smoothly. But I usually walk to the metro so that adds about 10-15 minutes vs. biking to the metro and…I’m not saving any time vs. biking. Driving…takes an hour. It’s the worst way to get into the office. I did it once, early in the pandemic when DC was a ghost town and it still took like 40 minutes.

    If I could get back and forth in like 20 minutes I’d probably go in a time or two more a week. I DO NOT want to go back to always in the office. That has nothing to do with fear of Covid, just the disutility of commuting plus the advantages of telework.

  64. 64.

    Eyeroller

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
     I am very introverted. But I liked working in the office. I liked having coworkers around, occasionally going for lunch or coffee or whatever. I did not enjoy commuting, I’ll grant that, but where I live it’s not too bad. Now that I live alone I miss going to the office even more. Plus at the office I did not have to worry about cats walking on my keyboard constantly, or harrassing me to serve them their lunch.

  65. 65.

    Roger Moore

    @bbleh: ​
     
    The goal is to set things up so they can blame their inevitable loss on bias rather than a shit case. It might possibly be useful if they expect the appeals court to be biased in their favor, and it will certainly be useful in insulating themselves against the loss in the court of public opinion.

  67. 67.

    Cameron

    @kalakal: I don’t know what the situation in Largo is, but the deal in Bradenton has me scratching my head.  It’s not just sub shops and art galleries – there are branches of some pretty big companies there.

  68. 68.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @twbrandt: I get that.  I just get a little frustrated when people around here suggest that work from home would suit everyone.  Also, there are a shitload of jobs that simply cannot be done from home.

    ETA: I also enjoy having the chance to use that CS line.

  69. 69.

    JPL

    @WaterGirl: My hopeful view is that democratic house members enmasse grab a microphone and say we could default because they want to keep tax cuts for the rich and let the poor starve.

    Just like Jesus would do.  amirite

  70. 70.

    Old School

    @Cameron:

    And 2nd worst is Largo, also in FL.

    My mother-in-law lives in that general area and has a work from home job, so I guess there are some available.

  71. 71.

    JPL

    @debit: When Musk took the reins, I deleted my account.  That does not mean you can no longer see what your favorite folks are saying.   You can’t comment, but I avoided anyway.

  72. 72.

    trollhattan

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
    Per the posted notices they’re STILL passing covid around in my newish-to-me suburban outpost, to which I have to commute 50% post-WFH, all this after bike and light rail commuting downtown for a decade, pre-covid.
    The drive ranges from 20 to 40 minutes, depending. The cycle commute ranges from 50 to 70 minutes, depending, and in spots is harrowing no matter which route I pick.
    If they can’t fix it to my satisfaction before year’s end, I’m fucking out. Stress will get me before the F-250s do.​

  75. 75.

    JMG

    According to Politico (yeah, I know), unnamed White House aides have told “progressives” that Biden will never invoke the 14th amendment for what sound very much like Republican reasons (market turmoil, prolonged legal battle unsettling Wall St.) I do not believe this story because if that’s what Biden was going to do, I don’t think he’d piss off his most loyal supporters in Congress ahead of time. Of course, I also believe that on balance unnamed White House aides of either party are the dumbest people in Washington. The ones who use their names seem more sensible.

  77. 77.

    Steeplejack

    Best Twitter comment on Fetterman at that press conference: “Fetterman blending in.”

  78. 78.

    trollhattan

    Gavin becoming one of the Dem’s best trollers of Republicans, all while advocating for California.

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom is ramping up his pressure campaign against Republicans as a slow-moving natural disaster hits a conservative-leaning region of California. And the Democrat is using a perennial Republican calling card — water funding — to drive home his message.
    Newsom, who has grown increasingly frustrated over the lack of federal action, is casting Republicans as unwilling to fund critical flood protection in the Central Valley, where record snowmelt has already submerged farms and will continue to threaten communities into the summer, while California steps up to front the money.
    Now, he’s singling out House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Rep. David Valadao, who represent the region, in a letter shared with POLITICO that marks an unusual escalation for a governor more used to calling out his foes in speeches and tweets than issuing stern, behind-the-scenes appeals for their cooperation.

    At the heart of the squabble is a levee protecting the city of Corcoran and a state prison complex from the slowly-rising Tulare Lake, which had been a dry lakebed for decades until this year’s record snowmelt started flowing down the mountains. Newsom agreed to front $17 million to increase the height of the levee after pressure from local leaders, who also asked federal representatives for help.
    “While they called for ‘immediate action,’ House Republicans refused to act on their request, pushing instead for more cuts to local infrastructure projects, and driving the country closer to the brink of default, as you play politics with the American economy,” Newsom wrote to McCarthy and Valadao in the letter dated May 11, which references the partisan standoff between congressional Republicans and the White House over the debt limit.

    Valadao spokesperson Faith Mabry pushed back, calling the letter “nothing more than political posturing from the governor on an issue that is completely nonpartisan.”
    “Rep. Valadao and our team have been in close communication with the governor’s office and local leaders in the Central Valley since the storms began — for Newsom to play politics on flood response is shameful and incredibly disappointing,” Mabry added.
    Since the flooding started, Valadao and other California members of Congress have said they are working on getting additional federal support. Federal disaster agencies may be able to reimburse some or all of the $17 million because of President Joe Biden’s emergency declaration, Newsom officials said last week, but the process could take months or years.
    A representative for McCarthy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
    Along with Newsom’s direct appeals to get the lawmakers to work on providing federal funding for Corcoran, there’s an element of political jiu-jitsu: a Democratic governor most closely associated with liberal parts of the state calling out the pair of conservatives from rural California for not adequately focusing on the needs of people in their own backyard.

    Specifically, Newsom’s request also turns on its head years of Republican agitation in California and Washington for more water-infrastructure funding, a point the GOP has repeatedly used to paint Democrats as out of step with the region.
    The federal government funded repairs to the levee in 1969 and 1983, and Newsom in recent public remarks has said he finds it “absolutely extraordinary, but not surprising, that you have representatives in the Central Valley that opposed federal funding for infrastructure.” The levee continues to cause problems because the ground has sunk as farmers pump groundwater for their crops.
    https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/17/gavin-newsom-kevin-mccarthy-california-water-money-00097513

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack

    @oatler:

    I have been getting used to the idiosyncrasies of Windows 11 since upgrading recently, and one of the nice things is that I now have a widget icon in my task bar that shows me the current local temperature with a basic image. Unobtrusive and has been pretty accurate. Nice.

  82. 82.

    mrmoshpotato

    First of all, can I say that it should be illegal for videos of Trump to autoplay on social media?

    Amen!  My condolences to your memory.

  83. 83.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: My Atlanta friend is a retired attorney, and he did jury duty on a civil trial before Judge McBurney. Warren’s seen a fair amount of judges, and he thought McBurney was top-notch.

  84. 84.

    geg6

    @Urza:

    I actually do not like WFH.  At all.  And it’s not because I want to get away from my family.  I have all the freedom in the world to do it several days a week, but I rarely take advantage of it.  I found, over the course of COVID when I had no choice but to work from home almost every day, that I worked many more hours than I do when I go into the office.  Screw that.  Give me my (usually) 8 hour day.  They don’t pay me enough to regularly work 10-12 hours with no lunch break every day.  I’m happy to go in.

  85. 85.

    eclare

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I feel the same way, as long as the commute isn’t bad.  But I just live with a cat and a dog, so getting away from family is not an issue.

  86. 86.

    Matt McIrvin

    @twbrandt: I think I’d be perfectly happy working full-time at the office as long as it wasn’t such a pain to COMMUTE TO and FROM the office.

    As it is, I actually look forward to going in once-twice a week to get re-energized and be able to talk to people about work stuff in person. But not having to spend 2+ hours a day just going back and forth between two places is precious. (I work longer hours when I’m WFH, too, because of that–though the bus I use has wifi and I can get some stuff done on it.)

  87. 87.

    Geminid

    @JMG: I wouldn’t say the Congressional progressives are the most loyal to President Biden. The “moderate” New Democrat Caucus has been as supportive of Biden as the “progressive” Progressive Caucus, may even more so. Most of the Blue Dog Caucus has been too.

  89. 89.

    Ken

    Obviously the reason the White House wants to squash discussion of the 14th amendment is that they’re not planning to use section 4, on the public debt. Section 3, on insurrectionists being barred from Congress, on the other hand….

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Just Some Fuckhead, I think (or maybe also): “A blog audience that is largely elderly white shut-ins with four or more animals living vicariously through a near-recluse hillbilly in West Virginia.” Memorable enough to bookmark.

  92. 92.

    Bill Arnold

    Re explaining “the linear passage of time to Republicans”, some might like the hardcore True Detective version. This is the Professor version of his “Time is a Flat Circle”, the clip with the beer can crushing.
    True Detective – Membrane Theory (M-Theory) ((Youtube, 1:50)

    Detective Rust Cohle : It’s like in this universe we process time linearly forward. But outside of our space time from what would be a fourth dimensional perspective time wouldn’t exist. And from that vantage could we attain it? We see our space time would look flattened. Like a single sculpture of matter and super-position of every place it ever occupied. Our sentience is just cycling through our lives like carts on a track. See everything outside our dimension that’s eternity. Eternity looking down on us. Now to us its a sphere but to them its a circle.
    It’s like in this universe we process time linearly, forward, but outside of our space-time from what would be a fourth-dimensional perspective time wouldn’t exist, and from that vantage could we attain it we see our space-time
    with a flattened like a single sculpture.

  95. 95.

    cckids

    @trollhattan:

    Whines about “New York Georgia judges” commence in 3, 2, 1…

    “So unfair, very bad!” I’ll forever hear that nasal whine :(

  96. 96.

    glc

    @WaterGirl: But do we want breaking news?

    Incidentally Twitter links stopped working for me a while ago (a week perhaps?) probably because I don’t have an account. But whether that’s a minus or a plus is very uncertain.

  97. 97.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl:

    This is interesting. The Chamber of Commerce writes to Biden – are the Republicans not even listening to the Chamber of Commerce anymore? Do the Rs not need big business anymore because they have their pet billionaires?

    The Chamber is supporting the GOP nihilists here, why would they need to listen?

    They seem to have made the same transition the NRA did a few years back — from supporting any candidate who votes their way (anti-regulatory, in this case) to being an explicitly Republican group, supporting them no matter how disastrous what they’re doing is for business. (With the NRA, the tell was supporting GOP candidates against Democrats who’d checked all of their boxes.)

  100. 100.

    WaterGirl

    @geg6: One solution to that is to get a simple timing program.  Once you hit your limit for the day or week, you stop working.

    I use this one.  I find that my “sense” of how much I have worked for a particular client on a particular day is often not accurate at all.  Sometimes in one directions sometimes in the other.

    So Toggl keeps my billing accurate.

    Toggl

  101. 101.

    Citizen Alan

    @JPL: I am in the weird situation of being unable to delete my twitter account because I was permanently suspended a few years back for hurting the feelings of some republican asshole (redundant, I know).

  102. 102.

    mrmoshpotato

    @karen marie:

    I am so bored. I don’t want to do my work. 

    It’s close to the end of the day, but do you have a drum to bang on?

  103. 103.

    WaterGirl

    @glc:   Hmm, what do you mean when you say twitter links stopped working for you?

    Can you see the tweets that are up top?  If it’s a video, can you press play?  Can you click on the tweet and go to that tweet on twitter?

    What doesn’t work?

  104. 104.

    prostratedragon

    Wow. Early this morning I found myself thinking that TFG and his lawyers greatly underestimated the amount of sheer hatred building against them for their maliciously dilatory behavior. And Judge McBurney on cue.

  109. 109.

    Geminid

    @Redshift: The national Chamber if Commerce solidly backed Congressional Republicans through the last decade. To the consternation of Republicans, they started hedging their bets in 2020 by endorsing 20 Democratic Representatives, and I think they endorsed most of them again in the last cycle. My Representative, Abigail Spanberger, was one of the 20, and Sharice Davids (KS-3) was another.

    Spanberger’s 2020 debate with the Republican was interesting in that she had been endorsed by the Chamber while he was endorsed by the Club for Growth. They agreed on the need for more rural broadband but nothing else. Spanberger was reelected by a little under 5,000 votes that year.

  111. 111.

    Scout211

    @glc: Incidentally Twitter links stopped working for me a while ago (a week perhaps?) probably because I don’t have an account.

    That happened to me, too, on my Mac. I have never been a subscriber either, but I never had a problem clicking on a tweet and linking to the Twitter page.

    My browser told me I should clear my cookies but I looked at my browser preferences and found Twitter was listed as a site not allowed to add cookies. I don’t know if it was a recent Chrome update or a new thing for Twitter. But I don’t remember setting that preference or changing that preference in the past week.   I changed the setting to allow cookies and now I can click through to Twitter or click on a tweet in a search.

    By the way, this didn’t happen on my iPad.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    WASHINGTON — A Metropolitan Police Department lieutenant who supervised the intelligence branch of the Washington, D.C., police was indicted this week, charged with tipping off former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio about a pending warrant for his arrest just ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

    Between July 2019 and January 2021, Tarrio and Lamond communicated “at least 500 times using cloud-based messaging services, including Google Voice, Apple iMessages, and Telegram, an encrypted messaging application,” the indictment said. They sent approximately 145 messages using a secret chat function on Telegram that causes messages to disappear, the indictment charged, adding “at least 101 of these messages were destroyed.”

  113. 113.

    Roger Moore

    @Redshift:

    but “You’re not the boss of me!” always has an unspoken “I said me, I didn’t say anything about who is the boss of you.”

    This makes total sense for someone who believes in social hierarchy. Their view of the way the world works is that there are people above them to can boss them around and people below them who they can boss around*.  They want to climb the social hierarchy so there are fewer people bossing them around and more people they can boss around.

    The way they do that is to resist letting other people boss them around and trying as hard as possible to boss other people around.  It’s all about exerting social dominance.  It doesn’t matter how minor the point or how wrong they were; conceding anything puts them on the slippery slope to being subordinate.  This is the root of a lot of “Karen” behavior and also why they resist doing anything the liberals like.

    *I guess there might also be some people at the same level who can’t boss each other around.

  114. 114.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Omnes Omnibus: At some jobs I’ve had the commute has been an hour+ of pushing through nearly motionless Boston-area traffic jams, populated by aggressive assholes, both ways. On bad days the commute home could stretch to 2 hours.

  117. 117.

    prostratedragon

    @Scout211:  Happening to me on linux, only with firefox; chrome, which I do not like, works ok, as does firefox on my android phone.

  118. 118.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I think you would be surprised.  I don’t like working from home.  I like having contact with people.

    So do I.  Also, I’ve got a really crappy workspace at home, which was already overloaded by other stuff before the pandemic sent us all home.

    I’ve been telling my bosses for two years now that I wanted a real workspace again, just a regular cubicle.  But the office is shut down for renovations, so tough luck.  I’ll be retiring before they’re done.

  122. 122.

    trollhattan

    @Kay:

    “How deep is the corruption?”
    “How long’s the handle on your shovel?”
    Effectively, this mook invited in a guy who helped wound scores of his fellow officers.

  123. 123.

    Roger Moore

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    This reminds me of an interesting point I heard recently on the Downs-Thomson paradox.  The basic idea is that traffic tends to increase until driving is as slow as taking public transit (or bicycling, walking, or whatever the best alternative to driving is).  As long as driving is faster, people will switch modes to driving to save time, creating more traffic.  That will keep happening until traffic gets bad enough that it’s no faster than taking public transit.

    Where this gets really nasty is if pubic transit has to use the same traffic lanes as cars do.  In that case, it will always be slower than driving, and traffic will keep getting worse.  If you want traffic to improve, you have to have public transit (or other non-car means of transport) with dedicated rights of way.

  126. 126.

    Burnspbesq

    R.I.P., Jim Brown. He was the GOAT in two sports (until Lyle Thompson came along) and so much more.

  127. 127.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ve owned 2 businesses. Neither could be run from home. Now one, the machine shop, some of the machines could run unattended 24 hrs a day so they made money even when the lights were out and the door was locked. But they still required power that most houses don’t have, 3 phase and a fair amount of amps.

    But yes I do/did agree with you – I don’t like to take work home. Now sure the trip to and from could sometimes be a pain in the ass. It once took me 4 hours to drive 33 miles in LA. Every single freeway interchange had major accidents, no one was getting anywhere any time soon that day. Normally that drive took 35 minutes, as long as I left at the right time. I left at the right time that day. Not long after that I moved the business, cut the trip down to 15 minutes. Then the Northridge earthquake happened. And that 12 mile trip became a 2 hr dive in both directions. I never even think of going on a game show, what with my luck…..

  130. 130.

    Scout211

    Are you in the list?

    Moscow bans ‘500 Americans’ from Russia including CNN journalists

    CNN — 
    Former United States President Barack Obama, late night television host Stephen Colbert, and CNN’s Erin Burnett are some of the “500 Americans” Russia has banned from entering the country.

    Russia on Friday announced it was banning “500 Americans,” many prominent figures of US executive power, from entering the country “in a response to the regularly anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the Joe Biden administration,” according to a statement from Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    The list includes Obama, former US Ambassador Jon Huntsman, several US senators and the next expected chairman of the joint chiefs Charles Q. Brown Jr.

    The rambling list of names also includes American late night TV hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Colbert, and Seth Meyers.

  132. 132.

    WaterGirl

    @JMG:

    The guy wrote the Chamber letter, or at least who signed it, used to be McCarthy’s Chief of Staff.

    Wow.  That says everything, doesn’t it?

  135. 135.

    WaterGirl

    @Kay:

    A Metropolitan Police Department lieutenant who supervised the intelligence branch of the Washington, D.C., police was indicted this week, charged with tipping off former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio about a pending warrant for his arrest just ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

    I thought about adding that to this post as I was putting it together, so I’m glad you linked to it.

    The bolded part is the most appalling.  Even the leadership of a lot of these institutions is corrupt.

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    @Roger Moore:

    I’d bet you know of the all electric Metro train system here in LA. I use it regularly and it is a lot cheaper than the gas for my car which gets 30-40+ mpg. Of course that’s not in traffic… And watching out the windows as we fly by the not so rush hour traffic is entertaining.

  141. 141.

    Dan B

    A “non profit” paid 15 unhoused men $100 each to pose as vets being displaced by refugees in upstate New York.  It went viral on many right wing media sites.  None have retracted the video.

  142. 142.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lowtechcyclist: The thing about the move to WFH and the difficulty bosses have in ending it is, just before this happened, a lot of offices had moved to open-plan schemes without even enough room to give everyone a permanent spot to work, let alone a cubicle. It’s fine if it’s mostly a WFH situation and not everyone is there every day. But I don’t know what people expect if they want everyone to be in all the time.

  144. 144.

    Dan B

    @Ruckus: When I was last in LA we took the train from Pomona to downtown and the bus from downtown to LACMA.  It took more time to go the few miles to LACMA than Pomona to downtown.

  146. 146.

    narya

    Since it’s still a slow news day . . . a friend’s sister died over last weekend; she was in the middle of a second bout with cancer, and, even though her recent doctors’ visits were promising, she apparently just up and died, thereby skipping the slow lingering death. Anyway, I had never met her, but of course we wanted to support her brother, our friend, so we went to the service and then the luncheon. She was a lesbian, and much beloved, and the stories that were told at the luncheon made me wish even more that I had known her. And, here’s the bizarre part–one of her friends was someone I met in grad school, and was friends with, 35 years ago; I last saw her about five years ago, I think. Small, small world . . .

  147. 147.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    #FindOutFriday
    – Teixeira ordered to be held without bail
    – Rudy’s lawyer quits civil case
    – Donald denied a reply in the GA DA case
    – DC officer indicted for tipping of Tarrio
    – GA DA narrows charging window
    – Alvin Bragg weighs new Weisselberg charges

    And it’s only 1:30 PT
    — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) May 19, 2023​

  148. 148.

    Ivan X

    @Dan B: I hate to be an insensitive idiot but can someone explain to me why unhoused is now the more thoughtful word? I’m not saying that it isn’t more thoughtful, but I want to understand why, since like many old persons, I find myself more resistant to change than I wish I were, and I find change easier if I know the why behind it.

  149. 149.

    Scout211

    @Dan B: I posted that downstairs. The local State Assemblyman ran with that story and made many news appearances, pumping up the outrage.  Veterans vs immigrants! Outrage!

    His excuse? I wasn’t aware it was fake.  It’s like there is no checking the validity of these stories. Do they not have staff? If it serves their political purpose, they just run with it. Like so many other GOP politicians, they use the outrage to their political advantage and then claim ignorance or bad information when it’s found to be a lie. Grrrr.

  150. 150.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Scout211: ​
     
    They must have got this blacklist from Dump.

    I watch Jimmy Kimmel every night. He rarely if ever talks about Russia. But Jimmy does cut Dump to pieces every chance he gets.

  151. 151.

    Roger Moore

    @WaterGirl:

    The bolded part is the most appalling. Even the leadership of a lot of these institutions is corrupt.

    It also suggests another reason the police weren’t prepared for the attack on the capitol.  At least one person in charge of finding out that kind of information was on the wrong side.

  152. 152.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  That story is huge.  There are likely many, many complicit in law enforcement, and we need to find them and remove them.

    Just looked in on The New York Post.  Its website would seem to have gone to DefCon 3: top stories are Prince Harry is a cheapskate, something about Hunter Biden’s baby mama, and Obama officials protected Hillary Clinton against any FBI investigation.  Plus, critics complain don’t be dissing Casey Desantis.  Oh, and Beyonce and Jay-Z just bought a really, truly expensive house.

    To their credit, they do have a story about newly indicted Lt. Shane Lamond, a lot of a ways down the website.  But it is there. You have to look for it.   It’s a very comprehensive AP story.  And the NY Post has it tagged under “white supremacists.”

    Of course, the BezosPost put the story in their “Metro” section, and that is an interesting choice.

  153. 153.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

     Biden to Name Air Force Chief to Top Military Post, Officials Say

    The appointment of Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. would mean that the top two Pentagon leadership positions would be inhabited by Black men for the first time in American history.

    Women piloting F-35s, Asians sweep Oscars, Blacks quarterbacks in the Super Bowl and now Blacks running the military – welcome to Biden’s America.

    It’s so hard being a straight, white male in this country.

  154. 154.

    MomSense

    @Ivan X:

    I think the terminology is somewhat in flux.  There are several issues with homeless. It has a lot of baggage. The connotations around the word home are less pragmatic.  Home is also a feeling.   The pros of homeless are that the term is a legal one with respect to the UN definitions of human rights.

    The use of unhoused and unsheltered  is driven by activists who feel that it better expresses the reality of the situation.  The terms are more stark, more reality based.  We are literally trying to get bodies in safe shelter.

  156. 156.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @trollhattan: My bike ride is great – the DC area and DC especially have done a wonderful job of adding bike infrastructure. Especially if I take the scenic route I can go almost door to door on paved multi-use trails. Even on the direct route I have bike lanes and trails for the majority of my commute. But I can’t do it 4-5 days a week without my legs giving out. Plus I have a somewhat senile MIL at home and a dog to walk. My wife’s in health care so she’s in the office 4 days a week so being home helps a lot.

  157. 157.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @JMG:

    sound very much like Republican reasons

    Why do you consider those “Republican” reasons? Market turmoil and a prolonged legal battle unsettling Wall St would be bad for the economy and workers’/retirees’ 401k/IRA balances

  158. 158.

    Manyakitty

    @Citizen Alan: hey, same!!! Andrew Clyde (murder party, GA) said something about his wife having a vision that trump won. I asked if his religion called that witchcraft, and what they’re supposed to do with witches, and that I hoped he wouldn’t burn her at the stake. 🤷‍♀️

  160. 160.

    Baud

    @Scout211:

    Former United States President Barack Obama, late night television host Stephen Colbert, and CNN’s Erin Burnett are some of the “500 Americans” Russia has banned from entering the country.

     

    Good. I love Obama but his habit of smoking pot in Gorky Park is just asking for trouble.

  163. 163.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Someone on here was talking about Hank Green (and his brother, writer John Green) the other day. Hank has been diagnosed with early stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Treatable but still cancer.

  165. 165.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: That’s all fine, but my concern is letting Air Force people get the top job.  They are even nuttier than sailors.

  166. 166.

    Jay

    @Ivan X:

    unhoused people have “homes”, they are not “homeless”, it’s just that their “home” might be a car, a van, an old camper, a tent, a tarp, a particular park bench, a shopping cart.

    while the general perception of the unhoused is that they are drug addled “crazy” people, most actually work and earn income. They just don’t earn enough income to afford rent, or have personal histories that make them unattractive to landlords.

    So, “homeless” has become a pejorative and unhoused has become the preferred term because it more clearly represents the problem. Here we just had a new record set. The cheapest 2 bedroom apartment in the Lower Rainland lists for $2800 a month, no utilities included.

  167. 167.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    That being said, to add to my thoughts, never say never. I hope it’s just loose talk by WH aides to reporters

    The GOP negotiator walking out does not bode well imo. I hope it’s just theatrics

  168. 168.

    kalakal

    I have just seen the most convincing, and indeed eloquent, argument for Brexit ever! Huzzah! I am now a convert. /S x 1 zillion

    seriously watch the video clip, you’ll never see a better demonstration of someone clinging to a delusion in the face of all the evidence*

    Brexit Benefits

    * New Zealand produce has always been available in UK shops

  179. 179.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

     Former United States President Barack Obama, late night television host Stephen Colbert, and CNN’s Erin Burnett are some of the “500 Americans” Russia has banned from entering the country.

    They also banned Cocaine Bear which is really over the line(s)

  180. 180.

    Roger Moore

    @Ruckus:

    I’d bet you know of the all electric Metro train system here in LA.

    The Gold L (soon to be A) Line has been my primary mode of commuting since 2016.  I’m generally going against the main flow of traffic, so it isn’t much of a time saver for me personally, but I still like it.

    One of the big things I’ve noticed since I started taking the train regularly is all the inconvenient parts of driving.  People talk about how it takes you point to point rather than having to go out of your way, but that’s only true if we devote a disproportionate share of our space to parking.  If you try driving to some place that prioritizes people and the stuff they want to do over parking, it turns out cars are pretty inconvenient.  And then there’s the time (and money) you devote to filling up on gas, getting regular service and repairs, smog checks, shopping for a new car, etc.

  181. 181.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @kalakal: ​
      When I first flew into Gatwick in 1984, the fuzzy little fuckers were grazing within yards of the runways. I suppose EU regulations did away with them. That, or it was the professionalization of Rugby Union. Damned spivs these days, may as well be footie players.

  182. 182.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
      Admiral Ackbar removed himself from consideration fearing the promotion would be a trap

  183. 183.

    kalakal

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:

    Former United States President Barack Obama, late night television host Stephen Colbert, and CNN’s Erin Burnett are some of the “500 Americans” Russia has banned from entering the country.

    That’s got to hurt the MAGAs, Putin refutes ‘birther’ conspiracy

  184. 184.

    Jay

    @WaterGirl:

    probably it’s a mindset. In places where there is a lot of affordable housing, there isn’t that problem. Study after study, program after program has shown that if the “unhoused/homeless” are given safe, affordable shelter, the majority never have that issue anymore.

    There was a trial in Winterpeg, and the Lower Rainland, where instead of putting people on “welfare”, ($860 a month), they were given $10k in cash, no strings attached. 6 months later, between 86% and 94% were housed, employed, and had money in the bank.

    I spent 6 months job hunting from where ever I could get free WiFi, because we had no cell service, no data plan, and had to tell potential employers up front, that while I had a phone number, I could not do phone interviews, because I had no phone service.

  187. 187.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Elizabelle: I’ve been more of a performer, though MCing is fun too. And I got a great story out of one MCing gig.

    A friend of mine asked me to MC a burlesque show at an AA event, which I was eager to do because it was one of my first MCing gigs. I just needed to 86 the booze jokes and substitute AA-related jokes (asking my friends who were in the program for suggestions). She mentioned it was at one of the airports near SFO, which was a little weird, but whatever.

    Night of the gig, I get to the hotel and it’s swarming with young adults and teens Turns out it was the All California Young People’s AA Conference, and they’d booked the entire hotel.

    Go to the green room and ask how large an audience she was expecting. Oh, 600-700 people. The largest show I’d MC’d previously had an audience of a few dozen people, OMG, I need a drink. And I can’t, because I’m at an AA conference.

    Then I find out she had an 18-performer line-up, which is extremely long show, and with burlesque shows there’s more time needed to fill between acts while the stage kittens clean up the stripper droppings. And now I’m not sure I have enough material. OMG, I really need a drink. And I can’t because I’m at an AA conference.

    Then a minor crisis erupts — no one had thought about the fact that there were kids under 18 attending the conference, and we couldn’t check IDs to get into the ballroom where the show was being held (because it was an AA event). So there’s a debate about whether we should try to make the show PG-rated. Which would put a bunch my already short material off-limits. OMG, I really fucking need a drink. And I fucking can’t because I’m at a fucking AA conference.

    Fortunately, they ended deciding instead to have a pre-show announcement that anyone under 18 had to go do something else. Thankfully it ended up being a great audience — being pumped up on coffee and Red Bull made them an energetic room. Although we did have to call on the SFO air traffic controllers to land a couple people were so wired they were buzzing around the ceiling.

  188. 188.

    bbleh

    @JMG: @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): the kind of economic sh!tstorm that would ensue from a default would be catastrophic, and of course middle-class Americans would take it in the neck because who else?  (Got a job vulnerable to layoffs?  Ruh-roh. Have a retirement account that’s in anything except cash or money market?  Ruh-roh…)

    Even a near-default would cause a lot of turmoil in financial markets, especially stock markets, and the history of the 19th century, not to mention 1929, makes it very clear that something that starts there does not necessarily stay there.

    And politically — unfortunately — it would be a disaster for Biden imo.  Like it or not, people (unfairly) credit or blame the President for prevailing economic conditions, despite his/her extremely limited ability to influence them.  And in this case, he would be more involved than in, say, the average recession, and recessions have been a major anchor on re-election prospects since forever.

  196. 196.

    glc

    @WaterGirl:

    Like Scout 211, and also on Mac.

    The posts at BJ look fine but if I try to follow on to the original on Twitter (or really, to get to the linked document) I get a note from them about clearing my cookies. Which I did not look into – I take this more as a “Do you really need to see Twitter?” comment, and just go away.

    It’s fine as far as I’m concerned. Twitter is breaking its own internal systems and no doubt plans to break some more, so this seems like a natural development. If the links work for people with accounts on Twitter, I would ignore the issue.

  198. 198.

    James E Powell

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    For the great majority of my trial attorney career, I did not take work home. I really needed the separation or it would have been my whole life.

  199. 199.

    Another Scott

    @glc: I had that Twitter issue a week or few ago.  I brushed off the “clear your Twitter cookies” comment, but that actually fixed it for me.  (Winders with Chrome.)

    Alternatively, you could try a different browser and see if that works.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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