Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Books are my comfort food!

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

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

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Monday Morning Open Thread: Ever Busy

Monday Morning Open Thread: Ever Busy

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Ah, those awkward moments at the big family parties… Lula is usually a smart politician (and Murphy knows several magnitudes of an upgrade from Bolsonaro), but reports are he’s convinced brokering a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia would win him the Nobel Peace Prize he covets. And if I discovered a process to reliably reverse human aging at a reasonable cost, I could very well win a Nobel Prize in medicine, but that’s not gonna happen either.

Reader Interactions

216Comments

  2. 2.

    lowtechcyclist

    I got a message from GSA this morning when I logged in to work, and I think it’s about my government ID badge, but I’d need Google Translate to have a Bureaucratese -> English setting in order to be sure.

  3. 3.

    Rusty

    And the 6 reactionaries on the Supreme Court are working hard to reverse as much of that right to vote as possible, either by making your vote meaningless through gerrymandering or outright preventing you from voting by overturning the voting rights acts and more.  Can’t have too much democracy or the majority will actually get to control something.

  5. 5.

    New Deal democrat

    In the “all people are 3 dimensional” category, Woodrow Wilson’s reputation has deservedly taken a beating because of his overt racism, including the segregation of federal employment, not to mention his belief that the South had had a legal right to secede (although he acknowledged that it was a good thing that the Confederacy lost). That, and being played for a total chump by the UK and France at Versailles.

    But he did support the passage of some very progressive economic policies, including the Sherman Anititrust Act. And, relevant to this post, he was an ardent supporter of the 19th Amendment.

    Credit where credit is due.

  8. 8.

    Kay

    My local public school got $970,000 in covid remediation money – tutoring, mostly. It’s based on Title I, so number of low income students. That’s a lot of money for district size. I imagine other districts with low income students are receiving proportional amounts.

  10. 10.

    Betty

    I thought Macron had dibs on the peace deal. Then there’s Pope Francis. Lula has to get in line.

  14. 14.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Rusty: Re 2024, I have no doubt Biden will win the popular vote. The Rs have won it only once in the last 8 presidential elections. But I am uncertain that will make him president. So yeah, thanks Supreme Court and R officials everywhere.

  15. 15.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    I didn’t think of this until much later yesterday, but your kid needs to up his dissembling game. When he said he smelled like cologne, not alcohol, you should have said, “It smells nice—what brand?” Or at least asked him why he was wearing cologne around the house early in the morning. 😹

  18. 18.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    I actually felt bad on the way home- I invited him for coffee and the minute he gets in the car I start interrogating him. Plus he dressed up a little for coffee- khakis and a nice sweater, real shoes, so maybe it was cologne? The hardest transition for me with kids is high school to college. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.

  21. 21.

    Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride

    According to the Guardian, Lula said it “isn’t helping” that Biden keeps saying Russia has to give back everything it grabbed and pay for everything it broke.  Likewise, no doubt we could have wrapped up World War II much sooner if we’d just let the “good Germans” know that in return for giving up they could keep whatever bits of Europe Hitler grabbed that they really wanted to keep and not pay for anything.

  22. 22.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: It’s a good thing it was already awarded. I hope this isn’t part of the money they’re trying to claw back.

  24. 24.

    HinTN

    @OzarkHillbilly: I had no idea but we head to NYC today so granddaughter, who is about to major in theatre, can take in three plays in two full days. Some sightseeing will transpire, too.

  25. 25.

    New Deal democrat

    @Betty: And Eugene V. Debs and others in the Red Scare. On the negative side of his ledger, I should have included that he was no friend of civil liberties.

  28. 28.

    Anyway

    I was outta the loop re Lula’s “efforts” to broker peace – sad to see this. He was one of the good guys.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Agree. I was pleased. It’s enough money to make a real difference.

    As you know, I don’t care what anyone says about inflation. Spending all that covid money and supporting the economy and avoiding huge unemployment was money well spent. Nothing is worse for people than high unemployment. I never want to see 16% again. It was devastating.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    More legal troubles for Americas Mayor:

    Daniel Gill’s lawyer says his client was caught up in a bad parody of a personal injury case.

    “It was almost as if he was playing a leading role in some bad lawyer movie where he gets bumped into in a supermarket and a week later he shows up in court, in a wheelchair with his leg in traction and a neck brace on,” said Ronald Kuby in an interview Thursday. But the “lawyer” he’s referring to is Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and attorney for former President Donald Trump. Kuby is representing Daniel Gill, a Staten Island ShopRite worker who patted Giuliani on the back and called him a “scumbag.” Gill was charged with second-degree assault — a felony — and spent a day in jail. The charges were later downgraded and eventually dismissed. Now Gill is suing the former mayor for $2 million in a defamation lawsuit.

    I think there are commonalities among the people who turned into insane reactionaries as a result of 9/11 and the people who turned into insane reactionaries as a result of covid. They don’t handle stress well.

  31. 31.

    Quinerly

    @Kay:

    I’m hoping for one pile on after another on Rudy. He doesn’t have the money to fight incoming on all fronts. He’s one of the weakest links. A good chance he’ll break.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    In Mississippi a gender-nonconforming girl was told to walk in her underwear because she’d come to the graduation wearing pants. Earlier a trans girl decided to skip the same ceremony because she was instructed to dress as a boy by school officials.

    However, a local outlet is reporting that another student in the same school also missed walking in her graduation due to the dress code. This time it was a gender-nonconforming girl who showed up in pants and a white shirt. This student had no prior warning that her clothing was unacceptable in the hours leading up to the ceremony and was instead pulled from the line at the last minute and told that wearing pants wasn’t acceptable. The solution reportedly suggested by the school was that she remove the pants and walk for her high school graduation in her underwear.

    Everyone at the NYTimes should take a bow. Another successful moral panic created! Good work, Team Panic. Ninnies.

  35. 35.

    Ken

    @Kay: Women aren’t allowed to wear pants and a shirt now?

    Or was it because it was a man shirt? Would it have been OK if the buttons were on the left side?

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @Quinerly:

    I think it’s pretty clear he has a drinking problem. I suspect at some point we get the announcement he’s going into rehab. I hae no idea how long he’s been showing up at work drunk but all of the many, many reports on his misdeeds include “seemed drunk” in some fashion.

    A lot of these people just have ordinary problems in addition to being authoritarian Right wingers. I think Ginni Thomas is nuts, for example. I think they pay her 100k a year to keep her off the telephone.

  38. 38.

    Jeffro

    Good morning BJers!  If you would like to start your morning off right by dramatically ramping up the cognitive dissonance in your favorite RWNJ family members and friends, ask them why bloody dictator Vladimir’s Putin’s latest list of sanctioned officials includes…a U.S. Capitol Hill police officer?

    ‘Signaling’: how does it work?

    Russia has expanded its list of sanctioned Americans in a tit-for-tat retaliation for the latest curbs imposed by the United States. But what is particularly striking is how much President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is adopting perceived enemies of former President Donald J. trump as his own.
    Among the 500 people singled out for travel and financial restrictions on Friday were Americans seen as adversaries by Mr. trump, including Letitia James, the state attorney general of New York who has investigated and sued him. Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state of Georgia who rebuffed Mr. trump’s pressure to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election, also made the list. And Lt. Michael Byrd, the Capitol Police officer who shot the pro-trump rioter Ashli Babbitt on Jan. 6, 2021, was another notable name.
    None of those three has anything to do with Russia policy and the only reason they would have come to Moscow’s attention is because Mr. Trump has publicly assailed them. The Russian Foreign Ministry offered no specific explanation for why they would be included on the list but did say that among its targets were “those in government and law enforcement agencies who are directly involved in the persecution of dissidents in the wake of the so-called storming of the Capitol.”
    As recently as this month, Mr. trump has tried to rewrite the history of that day and has dangled pardons for convicted rioters if he is elected to a second term. He also refused to commit to supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia if he is elected president again.

     

    I know there is much to be desired (to put it mildly) about That Paper’s political coverage, but the fact that this article appeared at all, much less pointed out the obvious signaling going on here, is greatly appreciated!

    Send it far and wide and wait for the um er um “explanations” from those RWNJ friends and relations, I’m sure they’ll be quite entertaining!

  39. 39.

    Zzyzx

    “Brittney Griner’s return to the court”

    not me spending a few minutes trying to remember which circuit she was on…

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @Quinerly:

    He’s so old though. There’s a whole group of fanatical East Coast Right wingers coming up behind him.

    I personally think the east coast urban Right winger is more poisonous than the southern variety. They seem to turn out some real vipers.

  41. 41.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    A few days ago, I read that Montana had banned Tiktok. I assumed that was on state-owned devices, but no, it turns out it’s a total ban. Like on your personal phone. I’m stunned. Tiktok is teens’ favorite app. If the Rs wanted to antagonize young voters more, this is a way to do it. How do they enforce this?

  48. 48.

    New Deal democrat

    @Jeffro: Aside from the obvious signaling to Trump (“Your enemies are my enemies”), and the equally obvious implication that Putin intends for Trump to pull all US assistance for Ukraine if he is elected in 2024, there is something less obvious that this shows.

    Namely, that Putin is aware that his best strategy for Ukraine is to delay Ukrainian progress long enough for Trump to be elected. Which also means that Putin is aware that he is not winning – and maybe outright *losing* now.

  49. 49.

    Quinerly

    @Kay:

    Oh, I definitely think there will be an announcement about rehab facility too. Is Betty Ford even a thing now?  I just want him to break and start babbling. If it is possible, I might despise Rudy more than Trump. I want him destroyed.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @WaterGirl:

    The school may be supporting this overreaction and panic, I don’t know, but in my experience in my Right wing town the school is really just a reflection of whatever Right wing freakout is happening nationally- they’re as much a victim as the students.

    I think public schools could stand up to them a little more. I think when schools DO stand up and say they’re not going along with nonsense most people generally support them – public schools are really pretty popular, despite what you hear in media- but it’s easy for me to say. I don’t work there. I think public schools try to please everyone and the loudest people get the most attention.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @WaterGirl:

    And they’re wearing GOWNS so think of how silly this is. This fight is over ankles. They want her to show her ankles.

  53. 53.

    Sanjeevs

    @WaterGirl: It is.

    Some group claiming to be Russian anti Putin have captured some villages within Russia. They are being shelled by Russian army troops

  55. 55.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay:

    And they’re wearing GOWNS so think of how silly this is.

    So all the boys are in drag anyway! ;-)

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    He probably is a little wary of you. You are a keen observer, and not much gets past you.

  57. 57.

    Quinerly

    OT Such a good work day yesterday on the flagstones in JoJo’s side yard. I kinda want to seal them with a matt finish for some shine but need to do a little research. I have mostly worked with slate, marble, granite. We had a little rain so Miguel and I stopped, had beers under the covered area on the other side of the yard. Lots of chatting about politics, especially DeSantis and Florida. He brought it all up which I found interesting. Was really fascinating getting his perspective and he had a lot to say. Nice to just sit back and listen. Miguel was born in Juarez area. Came here with his parents when he was in the 3rd grade. All legal. Then went back with his parents for a couple of years around high-school time. Then all back (parents, 5 children) after Miguel was out of HS.

    My circle was so large in my neighborhood in St. Louis. Now, it’s so small here. I’m the odd duck in this neighborhood. Living in the “Land of Couples.” I am lucky to have Miguel’s help and friendship. I can see why my friend out here thinks of him as a son. Lot of depth, layers there.

  60. 60.

    Victor Matheson

    Pardon my ignorance, but there are 9 people in the picture of the G7 leaders. Nice to see that the most important people in the world apparently can’t count.

    Joking aside, I think I know the actual 7 leaders, but who is are the two people on the ends: the woman in the white and the tall bald man with glasses on the left.

  62. 62.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I agree, if we hadn’t spent that money we’d probably still be in a depression. Sometimes I think that’s what Republicans wanted, for the economy to go into a depression just in time for Biden to be president, so they could blame him for it.

  65. 65.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I can’t believe they have such a strict dress code for graduation, specifying even the color of clothing that has to be worn. They didn’t do that when I graduated in 1979! Seems obvious to me this was a deliberate action taken to humiliate and embarrass these students. Gee, I wonder why young people flee from these places as soon as they are able? It’s quite a mystery to solve, huh?

  66. 66.

    Jinchi

    @Kay: ​
      This time it was a gender-nonconforming girl who showed up in pants and a white shirt.

    I find it hard to believe that girls aren’t allowed to wear pants to graduation in 2023. And how does a school official tell a student to strip down to their underwear for a public procession without getting sued or fired?

  67. 67.

    Layer8Problem

    Greetings from the 1 train south of 125th Street.  It’s a Significant Day of Relationship for a year divisible by five so we’re off to an architectural-themed boat trip around the Important Borough.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @Amir Khalid: In all seriousness, the goal is to get Google Play and the App store to restrict the ability to download the app in Montana.  But I suspect the law will be struck down by the courts before it goes into effect.

  70. 70.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: No, the fight is over the fact that these teenagers are gender nonconforming, and the right wingers want to force them to conform.

  73. 73.

    Jinchi

    @Quinerly: I’ve been disgusted by Rudy since his response to the killing of Amadou Diallo.  Never did understand the appeal of this horrible man.

  75. 75.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: Yep, I don’t know how they think that’s constitutional. Do they think no one in the U.S. knows how to use VPN?

  76. 76.

    rikyrah

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Tiktok is teens’ favorite app. If the Rs wanted to antagonize young voters more, this is a way to do it. How do they enforce this?

    I don’t know, but, I am sure that Generations Z and  Alpha are working on a work-around.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @Soprano2: Most people probably don’t know how to use VPN.  But the kids will learn if they have to, just like the kids of yore learned how to program the clocks on VCRs.

  78. 78.

    eclare

    @rikyrah:

    I went to high school in a smallish city in the south, I don’t remember any kind of dress code, you have on a gown anyway.  And I think one of the schools required girls to wear white dresses, so every family can afford a dress that might be worn once?

  79. 79.

    rikyrah

    @New Deal democrat:

    Namely, that Putin is aware that his best strategy for Ukraine is to delay Ukrainian progress long enough for Trump to be elected. Which also means that Putin is aware that he is not winning – and maybe outright *losing* now.

     

    Yep.

  80. 80.

    Geminid

    @Quinerly: Is Miguel familier with 1st year Representative Gabe Vasquez? Mr. Vasquez was born in El Paso but grew up in Juarez. The two likely never met, but Miguel might be interested in Vasquez’s story.

    Vasquez returned to El Paso for high school and later attended Notre Dame. He worked for Senator Heinrich and was on the Las Cruces City Council when he ran for the NM 2nd CD. Vasquez is 38 years old.

  81. 81.

    The Moar You Know

    Lula is usually a smart politician (and Murphy knows several magnitudes of an upgrade from Bolsonaro)

    I’m frankly not seeing evidence of either.  He seems to be just as much of a shit as Bolsanaro, maybe a bit better about not saying the quiet parts out loud.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @rikyrah:  I haven’t heard Alpha before.  I thought they would go with Gen AA, but Alpha sounds less like a battery, I guess.

  83. 83.

    Jinchi

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
      I assume there’d be a graduation gown over the underwear

    But that only goes to highlight the absurdity of this whole issue. Whatever the students are wearing, it’s covered by the gown.

  84. 84.

    rikyrah

    @Soprano2:

    : I agree, if we hadn’t spent that money we’d probably still be in a depression. Sometimes I think that’s what Republicans wanted, for the economy to go into a depression just in time for Biden to be president, so they could blame him for it.

     

    Yep. No lie told.

     

    Which is why they’re trying to tank the economy now.

    These debt ceiling hostage talks.

    And, with what’s happening right now in Florida.

  85. 85.

    rikyrah

    @Soprano2:

    I agree, if we hadn’t spent that money we’d probably still be in a depression. Sometimes I think that’s what Republicans wanted, for the economy to go into a depression just in time for Biden to be president, so they could blame him for it.

     

    Never ever forget that the GOP chose ECONOMIC TREASON against this country in 2009, instead of helping President Obama bring this country out of its darkest days since the Great Depression.

    THEY CHOSE ECONOMIC TREASON.

     

    Only reason they couldn’t during COVID was because it was effecting EVERYONE, including their donors.

  86. 86.

    MattF

    @Jeffro: I was scrolling through the comments to see if anyone had posted about this, pleased to see it caught someone’s eye. I guess it means Putin (or some Putin-adjacent minion) thinks the J6 attempted insurrection was a fine, pro-Russian thing. May we wonder why?

  87. 87.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: Mitch McConnell was planning to choke Biden’s presidency with austerity, like he tried to choke Obama’s. Georgia voters blew that plan up when they elected Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on January 5, 2021.

  88. 88.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Re Giuliani, I am currently intimately familiar with the feeling of incipient psychological breakdown due to multiple stress factors beyond one’s control, and I am not a good enough person to say I wouldn’t wish that feeling on anybody. I do wish that feeling on people who deliberately cause misery for others, and you better believe I’m including Rudy Giuliani on that list.

  89. 89.

    Quinerly

    @Jinchi:

    Good points. I remember being disgusted too. Lots of the pre 9/11 Rudy stuff gets lost in memory holes, though.

    I want him totally broken (and, the obvious, broke).

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    @Geminid:

     Mitch McConnell was planning to choke Biden’s presidency with austerity, like he tried to choke Obama’s. Georgia voters blew that plan up when they elected Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on January 5, 2021.

     

    ECONOMIC TREASON

  91. 91.

    Redshift

    @Chris T.:

    I await the day the student says “I’ll just go naked”…

    My brother wore shorts under his robe at his high school graduation, and his bare legs apparently sparked speculation among his classmates about whether he was wearing anything at all.

  93. 93.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    Never ever forget that the GOP chose ECONOMIC TREASON against this country in 2009, instead of helping President Obama bring this country out of its darkest days since the Great Depression.

    THEY CHOSE ECONOMIC TREASON.

    Only reason they couldn’t during COVID was because it was effecting EVERYONE, including their donors.

    They did choose to kneecap their country’s recovery in the hopes of kneecapping Obama, absolutely.

    Notice the GOP – Fox News and elected R officials – went all-in on being anti-vax just as soon as Biden took office.  They did that to kneecap our pandemic recovery, too.  Even though it cost more R lives than D lives – the marginal difference meant very little to them if it gave the GOP base a rallying point and slowed our pandemic response.  (which it did in both cases)

    They’re ALWAYS willing to sabotage the country if it means keeping themselves in power.  Always.

  94. 94.

    sab

    @Baud: I am so old that I remember (with resentment) when as a girl I had to wear a skirt everywhere. Couldn’t play on the jungle gym at school because I was a girl in my mandatory skirt.

    Now I have stepchildren to show me how to work and work around everything. My stepson was here yesterday (Stepmother’s’ Day) getting my new tv to show me its smartness so I could find new programs not on my cable channels.

    ETA He is an “early adapter”. We laugh at him for that (so trendy) but he does know how to work everything new.

  95. 95.

    Redshift

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I assume there’d be a graduation gown over the underwear, but this strikes me as way out of bounds.

    Yes, the ludicrous thing is that the complaint is about dressing inappropriately, and they give away the game by admitting that being in underwear would be okay because it’s under a robe, when it would obviously be even more inappropriate.

  96. 96.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid:Mitch McConnell was planning to choke Biden’s presidency with austerity, like he tried to choke Obama’s. Georgia voters blew that plan up when they elected Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on January 5, 2021.

    True!

    And then when Warnock and Ossify were elected, ol’ Mitch just shifted to Plan B: “let’s see…which (nominally) Democratic Senators can we woo, bribe, blackmail, stroke, or otherwise suborn to help us block Biden’s policies and nominees?”

    Senators Manchin and Sinema, come on down!  You’re the next contestants on Your Price Is Right (For Kneecapping Biden)!!

  97. 97.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Kay: Speaking of that era…can anyone imagine the freakout if GW had been at the G7 en route to further foreign policy meetings abroad and had to cut those short because because Democrats were being dicks about raising the debt ceiling!!! Like, I’m old enough to remember when it was dirty pool to “criticize a President while he’s abroad” and I assume that would have applied even moreso to any legislative chicanery that hamstrung his ability to complete his trip as scheduled and project American power abroad.

  98. 98.

    Jeffro

    @MattF: “I am with trump, trump is owned by with me, his enemies are my enemies, I need him to keep causing chaos and division in America, I need that very badly as a matter of fact”

    Anyway, yes, that’s why I’m having a field day throwing it in the RWNJs’ faces today.  Is this coincidence, my far-right amigos?  Is it normal practice for the leader of a super-power to sanction a county DA of another country?  Why that DA?  It’s just all so very mysterious…

  99. 99.

    Quinerly

    @Geminid:

    We have actually discussed Vasquez in the past. Very proud of him. Miguel is very “up” on everything. (Quite frankly I don’t see where he finds the time…40hrs a week with Albuquerque Head Start Program, 6-8 hrs on side jobs on Saturdays and Sundays, wife, HS age son, and when he first started helping me here after my move, he would leave here and drive to Los Lunas to sit with and play music for his mother with dementia…she has since passed away). He’s 55. We need to keep him healthy. He has a lot on his plate. I have been a little worried about these heavy flagstones. That’s why I had been insistent about bringing on younger Bogart for help a few weeks back. My friend who “sent” me Miguel in the beginning will kill me if I kill “her” Miguel.

  100. 100.

    Soprano2

    @eclare: I can understand having basic rules, like “no jeans”, but saying everyone has to wear a specific outfit underneath their gown seems stupid and unnecessary.

  101. 101.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl:

    I thought Belgorod was part of Russia. ??

    It is. The claim is that an anti-Putin Russian group (the same one that claimed credit for the assassination of that warblogger last month) has seized control of a town there.

  102. 102.

    rikyrah

    Antiabortion groups push 2024 GOP candidates to embrace national ban

    The effort comes amid warning signs from polling and election results of Republican vulnerability on the issue

    By Michael Scherer
     and 

    Josh Dawsey

    Updated May 18, 2023 at 10:05 a.m. EDT|Published May 18, 2023 at 5:00 a.m. EDT

    Leaders of the antiabortion movement gathered in Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago office last week to head off what they viewed as a potential crisis.

    The former president’s reelection campaign had recently said that abortion restrictions “should be decided at the state level.” Days later, his rival, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, delivered a speech arguing against federal abortion limits that did not have enough votes to pass both chambers of Congress.

    Trump’s guests, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), showed him polling from the GOP firm On Message Public Strategies suggesting that a majority of Americans supported limiting the procedure after 15 weeks.
    They insisted that the federal government must still have a role. They reminded Trump of his performance at the 2016 Las Vegas presidential debate, when he used shocking language to describe Democratic support for exceedingly rare abortions in the latest stages of pregnancy, which are typically conducted only in cases of fetal anomaly or threats to the life of the mother.

    Multiple people involved in the conversation say Trump got the message. Two days later, during a CNN town hall, he repeated almost word for word what they had discussed in his office, reframing the debate away from Republican plans and onto misleading claims of Democratic extremism.

    “Remember the debate with Hillary Clinton?” Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “And I said, ‘Rip the baby out of the womb at the end of the ninth month, they will kill the baby in the ninth month.’”

    The moment was a win in a behind-the-scenes battle being waged by antiabortion activists and senior Republican officials to corral the party’s presidential candidates on an issue that has been widely viewed as kryptonite for the GOP since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. They are using the early days of the presidential contest to coach Republicans across the country on the need to find their voice on the issue, while arguing that any retreat from long-held GOP orthodoxy on abortion will only feed the Democratic narrative.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/18/abortion-bans-republicans-2024/

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    new: here’s why President Biden’s approval ratings don’t really mean jack shit

    because trump is a fucking lunatic and everyone knows it, that’s why

    Concern’s about Biden’s re-election swamped by fear of trump in swing voter focus groups

    Gee, YA THINK?

    Every single one said they wished Biden and his old Republican foe Donald Trump were not running for reelection. Several offered dire assessments of Biden’s mental and physical capacities, calling him too old or speculating about the possibility of dementia.

    But as the focus group moderator steered the conversation to the possibility of a Biden rematch next year with Trump, the mood clearly shifted among these voters, who had all cast a ballot for Trump in 2016 and then Biden in 2020. Nine of the 15 said they would vote again for Biden, three said they would go back to Trump and three said they would either not vote or find a third-party candidate.

  105. 105.

    Quinerly

    @Jeffro:

    Related…I didn’t click, but RWNJs were making a big deal over Biden almost falling, stumbling, tripping over the weekend.

  106. 106.

    Edmund dantes

    @Soprano2: they think they will cow Apple and Google. It’s 10K fro each download allowed to a Montana citizen in Montana or person in Montana. Not sure why they think they can afford to deal with the lawyers on the side of Apple and Google. Also at least Roberts and Gorsuch wouldn’t go against the corporate overlords on this one since TikTok doesn’t touch any of the current culture bugaboos (but that is subject to change of course).

  107. 107.

    eversor

    As for the Peace Prize people need to stop rushing at it as it’s not theirs to decide what the outcome is or broker a deal.  If Zelensky agrees to trade over part of Ukraine and sign over Crimea to stop a nuclear war than he gets the fucking peace prize which at that point would be a joke of a prize.

    Lula’s Brazil is part of BRICS so he also has a dog in this fight.  Pick a side asshole.  Nut up or shut up.

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    Concerns about Biden’s reelection swamped by fear of Trump in swing voter focus groups

    “Whatever the step above panicked is, that is what I feel about Trump,” said one of the voters, who picked Trump in 2016 then Biden in 2020

    By Michael Scherer
    , 

    Emily Guskin
     and 

    Scott Clement

    May 22, 2023 at 5:00 a.m. EDT

    Nearly all of the 15 gathered swing state voters described feeling negative emotions when they saw President Biden on a television or computer screens — “confused,” “concern,” “worry,” “sad,” “sorry” and even “panicked.”

    Every single one said they wished Biden and his old Republican foe Donald Trump were not running for reelection. Several offered dire assessments of Biden’s mental and physical capacities, calling him too old or speculating about the possibility of dementia.

    But as the focus group moderator steered the conversation to the possibility of a Biden rematch next year with Trump, the mood clearly shifted among these voters, who had all cast a ballot for Trump in 2016 and then Biden in 2020. Nine of the 15 said they would vote again for Biden, three said they would go back to Trump and three said they would either not vote or find a third-party candidate.

    Even a 32-year-old recruiting manager from Phoenix, who had described the panic she felt watching Biden, came back into the fold.

    “Whatever the step above panicked is, that is what I feel about Trump,” said Felicia, a registered Democrat.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/22/biden-trump-2024-focus-groups/

  109. 109.

    Ken

    @Redshift: As I recall, there were a fair number of boys and girls in shorts at my high school graduation. It was early June, it was hot, and those rental gowns were made out of some synthetic that didn’t breathe at all.

  110. 110.

    Ohio Mom

    @Jinchi: The last few graduations I attended, a good number of girls were wearing outlandishly high and elaborate heels. I think because that is the only thing you can wear with a gown to show your personality and be unique. Some of the girls were quite wobbly in them.

    @Layer8Problem: Have a wonderful sail! I did not know there were architecture boat rides in NYC. I’ve been on the Chicago one, and on the NYC Circle Line on a school trip; riding the Staten Island ferry was a staple “Uh oh, the kids are restless and squabbling, we need to get out of the house, what should we do with them” activity of my growing up years.

    My plans for my future trips to NYC include riding the new (to me) ferries that zigzag the East River, and the birdwatching boats in the NJ Meadowlands. Now I will add the architecture tour to that list, Ohio Dad is an architecture buff.

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    Which is why Tester needs to be on BJ’s list for repeated donations.

    He has been a consistent Dem vote without 1/10th of the bullshyt that we get from Manchin.

     

    The battle to defeat Jon Tester in Montana is personal for Republicans

    The Democratic senator has been able to win consistently in a deep-red state

    By Liz Goodwin

    May 22, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

    A self proclaimed “seven-fingered dirt farmer” could stand between Republicans and the Senate majority in 2024.

    Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection next year, has bedeviled Republicans since 2006, winning reelection twice in a deep red state whose other senator, Steve Daines, is now in charge of gaining back the majority for Republicans as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

    “He’s pretty wily,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who once led the NRSC, of Tester. “He’s been able to hold on a long time.”

    Republicans hope to change that this time, with Daines and his longtime top aide Jason Thielman, the NRSC’s executive director who is also from Montana, working to recruit a top-flight challenger to Tester and using their expertise to plot his defeat from their perches at the organization. They argue the state has changed rapidly since the last time Tester won, and their bet is that Montanans will no longer let their affection for the likable senator with a penchant for salty language override their increasing alienation from the Democratic Party.

    ………………………

    But Tester’s allies essentially agree that the race will be a test of whether the senator’s authenticity and connection with his home state’s voters can override most Montanans’ inclination to vote Republican. Trump carried the state by 16 percentage points in 2020 — less than he won it by in 2016. But in 2022, Democratic state lawmakers lost races in the party’s former stronghold of Great Falls and Cascade County — Tester’s backyard — and the GOP gained a supermajority in the Montana state legislature.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/22/jon-tester-montana-senate-race/

  112. 112.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: (see #103, above ;)

    But yeah – tell me more about Biden’s “electability” problem in the face of another trump term, snooze media

  113. 113.

    sab

    @Soprano2: RWNJs do that. My one year in an icky private school the RWNJ in charge of our uniforms did that. Not just you must wear our uniform. But on Monday and Wedenesday you must wear that variant ( skirt and sweater) and on Tuesday and Thursday you must wear the other variant ( jumper dress)  and on Friday the chapel outfit ( we are Christian not Muslim on Friday ???)

    I knew the mom in charge and she was a toxic control freak. And all the other moms let her do her thing.

  116. 116.

    eversor

    @Edmund dantes:

    The issue with tiktok is it’s crushing competing American owned products like instagram.

    Social media always has this same silly life cycle.  First it’s the techies, then it’s the young, then it’s the famous, then the olds get on it and the whole fucking thing implodes as the people that matter don’t like olds*.  So this is nothing more than ye old protecting an American company over something kicking it’s ass.

    The Democrats should also not touch tiktok.  It’s where the youth are, and people are not going back to facebook, it has olds.

    *Many of the techies and famous people are olds.  But the moment a site has crazy uncle liberty, or even worse non stop talk about the fucking 60’s or 70’s and how great all the music and movies were, it’s fucking dead.

  117. 117.

    rikyrah

    Republicans deploy new playbook for abortion bans, citing political backlash

    GOP lawmakers in North Carolina and Nebraska are casting new 12-week bans as “mainstream,” while Democrats say they are “cruel and extreme”

    By Rachel Roubein
    , 

    Caroline Kitchener
     and 

    Colby Itkowitz

    May 20, 2023 at 10:09 a.m. EDT

    Nebraska antiabortion groups and GOP lawmakers were stunned. In late April, their effort to ban most abortions was tanked by an unlikely person: 80-year-old Sen. Merv Riepe, a longtime Republican.

    Instead, on Friday, Nebraska’s conservative legislature voted to ban abortions at 12 weeks of pregnancy — a threshold that significantly narrows the window for legal abortions but still allows the vast majority to occur.

    A few days earlier, North Carolina Republicans used their legislative supermajority to enact a similar 12-week ban, calling it a “mainstream” approach that would be more broadly accepted than the stricter bans many conservatives had sought to pass. And in neighboring South Carolina, state Sen. Katrina Shealy (R) told The Washington Post that she and the other female GOP senators who blocked a near-total ban are planning to push for a 12-week ban on most abortions when the state Senate takes up a bill next week restricting abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.

    Immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republican lawmakers were quick to embrace so-called “trigger” bans designed to take effect as soon as the decision was released, while others rushed to pass additional restrictions that would halt the procedure in their states, sometimes backing proposals that did not include exceptions for rape or incest.

    Now, almost a year later, lawmakers in some Republican-led states have started coalescing behind bans that allow most abortions to continue — a reaction, some Republicans say, to the sustained political backlash to abortion restrictions that has been mounting since the landmark decision in June.

    While the 12-week bans have so far only passed in two states — North Carolina and Nebraska — the proposal has also gained traction with some national antiabortion groups who say they’re supportive of restricting abortions as far as a state can, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which has also been pushing for, at minimum, national limits on abortion at 15 weeks.
    …………..

    How voters respond to these new bans could impact how abortion plays out as an issue in the 2024 presidential election. With little polling on the 12 week proposals, it’s unclear whether voters will buy Republican arguments that these kinds of bans are a “mainstream” compromise.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/20/republicans-deploy-new-playbook-abortion-bans-citing-political-backlash/

  121. 121.

    Suzanne

    Having attended high school and university in Arizona, where graduations are incredibly hot and uncomfortable affairs, I saw many classmates wear nothing but swimsuits under their robes. They would often leave the robes unzipped until the ceremony actually began.

    Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

  123. 123.

    Miss Bianca

    @rikyrah: You know, they wouldn’t be feeling this “panic” about Biden’s age, mental abilities, etc etc if the fucking media weren’t always harping on those strings helpfully provided for them by the GOP. Jesus Christ. At least most of these idiots are smart enough to realize that the reality of Trump is, in fact, worse than their imaginary  Biden.

  124. 124.

    Mike in NC

    Good luck to Lula on that Nobel Peace Prize. Many of us are still waiting for the definitive article or book about Fat Bastard’s deranged pursuit of the prize for making his ‘deal’ with the dictator of North Korea. How many millions of dollars were wasted in that ridiculous effort? Even Pompeo and other cabinet members couldn’t stop laughing about Trump’s stupid attempt to outdo the hated Barack Obama.

  125. 125.

    Suzanne

    @eversor:

    But the moment a site has crazy uncle liberty, or even worse non stop talk about the fucking 60’s or 70’s and how great all the music and movies were, it’s fucking dead. 

    My BioDad and my BoomerUncle keep answering those dumb math problems with the order of operations and the stupid-ass quizzes. STOP IT, BOOMERS, BE FUNNY.

  126. 126.

    catclub

    @Betty: ​
    &nbsp

    ;I thought Macron had dibs on the peace deal. Then there’s Pope Francis. Lula has to get in line.

    No love for Erdogan?

  129. 129.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Everyone, you better sit down for this surprise that none of us could have possibly guessed…

    Police say the masked, umbrella-wielding man who smashed windows at a Minneapolis auto parts store two days after George Floyd’s death has ties to a white supremacist group and specifically sought to inflame racial tensions.

    According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minneapolis police arson investigator Erika Christensen wrote in a search warrant affidavit filed this week that the man’s actions created a hostile atmosphere and sparked a series of events that turned previously peaceful protests chaotic. She said she believed his “sole aim was to incite violence.”

    …

    The tipster identified the man as a Hell’s Angels member, and said he “wanted to sow discord and racial unrest by breaking out the windows and writing what he did on the double red doors,” reported the Star Tribune.

    According to Minnesota Public Radio, community members have long suspected that outside extremists were trying to inflame tensions at demonstrations against racism and police brutality in the wake of Floyd’s death, with some Twin Cities residents reporting seeing “white supremacist and other far-right imagery on vehicles that came into their neighborhoods during the protests.”

  132. 132.

    dnfree

    @rikyrah: I came here to share the same article!  Interesting and seems reasonable.  But what do we do about the people who voted for Trump twice and still think he was cheated out of his win?

  134. 134.

    eversor

    @eclare:

    Thanks!  She’s not a cat though, she’s people to everyone that knows her.  After she’s done her initial fanging she’ll just walk up to someone and start speaking to them through the entire odd set off not meow cat noises.  When my SO is dancing and raises her hands above her head Penny will do the same and prance on her hind legs.  Damn cat plays fetch. And does the crab dance to kpop with our nieces.

    I think that, as we had to bottle feed her for a bit and help her learn to walk, run, jump, and more, she imprinted hard on us.  So we have turned into a cat pack.  The trap with this is that she’s insanely territorial about her pack and her territory.  So for our regular friends she likes being chased down, pinned down, and tossed in the air, and loves play fighting with them.  If anyone else tried it the blood will fly.

    She’s too funny though.  We tried to feed her tuna sashmi a few days ago and she wanted the salmon.  So she just stole that, ran off.  Came back for the tuna.  And then later dragged the salmon she stole back onto the table to eat it.

    I’ll try to get some videos that someone can load.  I haven’t seen a cat act like this ever before.

  136. 136.

    narya

    It boggles my mind that people are freaking out about Biden’s health when TFG couldn’t drink water or walk down a ramp or or or.

    I would have loved it if every class member of those girls had dropped trou as well, in an “I am Spartacus Baud” moment.

    In personal good news, my apparently wrongheaded effort to report consulting wages is being rectified by the state, and unemployment will be reinstated! Turns out I was not supposed to report those earnings; go figure.

  138. 138.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: It’s disheartening that the dumbest voters in America will have such an outsized say in the 2024 presidential election, but this part of that article made me feel a little better:

    But as DeSantis prepares a formal announcement of his campaign, Trump’s leading challenger for the nomination did not perform any better in a hypothetical head-to-head with Biden. The focus group voters cited his controversial positions in Florida and governing style as reasons for turning away from him. A majority of the participants chose Biden in that scenario, with a handful taking DeSantis or saying they were undecided.

    We’ve often speculated in this forum whether DeSantis has screwed the pooch before the contest even properly begins by moving so far to the right. This tells me maybe he has.

  140. 140.

    CliosFanBoy

    @Betty: At first, he supported woman’s suffrage only on a state-by-state basis and made a very public show of traveling back to New Jersey to vote in favor of it there (it failed).    He allowed the DC Police to lock up members of Alice Paul’s group (and they were horribly mistreated in prison). They were violating DC law, not federal law.

    But he got along well with Carrie Chapman Catt’s group, and by 1918 he publically supported the 19th Amendment, giving an address to Congress advocating for it. When it stalled in the Senate, he heavily lobbied several wavering Senators to get it through the Senate.

  141. 141.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: we have two problems

    1. Too many libs have joined the media in worrying about Biden’s age.
    2. Most people experience Biden through media or internet filters.

    Actual campaigning should help with both things.

  142. 142.

    Jackie

    @Redshift: It was tradition to wear our bathing suits under our gown. It was usually around 100 degrees in the gym – no AC. Immediately afterwards, we all headed straight to the river and plunged in.

    This was early ‘70s. Teachers and faculty *knew* and chose to ignore.

  144. 144.

    Jay C

    @Miss Bianca:

    Yeah: where did the WaPo dig up this “focus group” – ALL 15 of them cite trepidations on seeing President Biden ON TV?? WTF??

  145. 145.

    dnfree

    @lowtechcyclist: The graduation gowns I’ve seen recently are knee-length on many students, and the zipper doesn’t go all the way to the bottom of the gown, and if graduation is outdoors they blow around.  These are flimsy cheap polyester, not a heavier fabric, and come in sizes that fit, for example, 5’1” to 5’6”.  I can guarantee you we might have seen this child’s underwear at the graduation we attended yesterday.

  147. 147.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Quinerly: Great article and Dahlia is correct that it is high time to throw off the gloves in reporting on SCOTUS. Treating them like demigods has eroded their legitimacy and frankly, I’m not sure if the body can recover it.

  148. 148.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jeffro: I can’t get to the website where the list of 500 people is. Is there some U.S. website that has it?

  149. 149.

    Jay C

    @catclub:

    On the fourth dimensional side of the ledger I think [Wilson] was played at versailles because he had a bad case of Spanish flu.

    Dunno: whatever his health issues, it’s more likely that Wilson got played at Versailles because he was American – and because he was Woodrow Wilson, who, AFACBD, actually believed in most of the high-minded ideals he promoted (for Euro/white folks, anyway). No match, in any event for the determined imperialists who were his nominal Allies…

  150. 150.

    Geminid

    @catclub: Turkiye is actually the most likely venue for peace talks if and when Russia and Ukraine decide to settle this war. Erdogan has maintained relations with both countries, continuing trade with Russia while shipping lethal weapons to Ukraine.* The only meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian Foreign Ministers took place last March in Antalya, with the Turkish Foreign Minister acting as referee.

    But I doubt if Erdogan cares much about some committee of Norwegians giving him a prize.

     

    *Oryx’s Stijn Mitzer published a very informative article about this last November, titled “The Stalwart Ally: Turkish Arms Shipments to Ukraine.” It’s easy to underestimate Turkish military assistance to Ukraine because they do not publicize it, but it’s been substantial, ranking high among NATO countries according to Mitzer.

  151. 151.

    Soprano2

    @sab: The girls in my class all wore shorts underneath their dresses every day so we could play like the boys did!

  152. 152.

    CliosFanBoy

    @New Deal democrat: That, and being played for a total chump by the UK and France at Versailles.

    A bit over-stated.  His leverage was not as significant as his opponents later made it out to be.  Yeah, the US thought, “we won the war.”  But the Brits and French each thought they had won the war.   The most significant loss of influence came when the US rejected the Treaty (which Wilson gets a big part of the blame for along with Senator Lodge (spit!).

    I think his biggest mistake was in not having the Kaiser’s government  sign the Armistice and then the Treaty.  Make them take the blame instead of the new Weimar Republic.

  153. 153.

    Quinerly

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    I just love her when she is on MSNBC. I listen a lot on the Tune In App on an Echo outside. If I hear her voice (which I love) I run inside and turn on the TV. Been following her for years.

  154. 154.

    dnfree

    @Ohio Mom: At the graduation we attended yesterday, I’d say about half the girls were wearing high heels or wedged heels (graduation being outdoors) and the other half wore tennis shoes, some of them stylish and some athletic.   Dresses ranged from very short to ankle-length, and all were visible because the knee-length polyester graduation gowns blew around.

  155. 155.

    Quinerly

    The Tim Scott boomlet is coming. Will you remember what you were doing when he announces shortly?

    I’m off to weed my cactus garden. Got my purple and black gauntlets ready to go. Have a great day!

    (Really loved the lurker intro thread last night. Great work, Watergirl.)

  156. 156.

    CliosFanBoy

    @New Deal democrat: not to mention his belief that the South had had a legal right to secede (although he acknowledged that it was a good thing that the Confederacy lost).

    He made a fascinating argument that the interpretation of the Constitution had changed over time but that the Confederate states kept to the original interpretation, that secession was allowed, and that the Union state’s newer interpretation was that the Union was permanent.

    He’s trying to split the difference, but the crucial point is that he thought that each generation could re-interpret the Constitution. Some right-wingers still hate him for that, but it allows for reforms that previous generations had rejected, such as women’s suffrage.

  157. 157.

    CliosFanBoy

    The only dress code I remember from college (1981) was NOT to wear checkered or patterned pants because they looked stupid peeking out from under the gown.  And the registrar wore a pair under a black gown as a demonstration.

  160. 160.

    Jeffro

    @Quinerly: oh no doubt. Every last little stumble (by foot or by mouth) will be screaming headline news on Fox and Newsmax for the next 18 months.

    Meanwhile, of course, the corrupt orange goon rides a golf cart everywhere…

  162. 162.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Even if you’re goober enough to want to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia that does not include total Russian withdrawal… isn’t the first thing you want to do ‘make friends with Zelensky’?

  163. 163.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:

    We’ve often speculated in this forum whether DeSantis has screwed the pooch before the contest even properly begins by moving so far to the right. This tells me maybe he has.

    I’d say so.  DeSantis, enabled by the rubber-stamp FL legislature, has put some truly frightening policies into action.  And there’s no (blech) trump “charisma” or star power to divert folks’ attention – it’s just this little troll hurting people because he can.

  164. 164.

    Steeplejack

    @Quinerly:

    Excellent, thoughtful article by Lithwick.

    After the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, which were accompanied by a non-existent official investigation into the legitimate claims the hearings surfaced, I wrote about my inability to go back to the Court. I felt that showing up there seemed to perpetuate the idea that every justice is the product of a functioning process. But the process was corroded. I covered it. The corrosion spread across the reputation of the court and also our ideas about what justice should mean. If reporting on the court doesn’t include probing into who is on it, how they got there, where little baby cases are hatched and who pays for their progress through the system, we are reporting on the output without questioning the input. And if that is the beat, we are doing half our jobs.

    She goes on to make some good suggestions on how to reform the coverage.

  166. 166.

    Soprano2

    @raven: They are. They’re doing a concert with the Springfield Symphony down in Branson in September. They did one with them up here last September – it was so popular they added another performance, and both of them sold out. I wasn’t able to go to either of them then.

  168. 168.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: that is interesting!  I thought Erdogan was pretty Putin-friendly.

    Maybe they consider their mutual owning of trumpov a time-share?

  169. 169.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jeffro: I know. But all the Western sources just link to the MID website, and I can’t seem to access it. Maybe I’ve been cancelled!

  170. 170.

    Geminid

    @CliosFanBoy: The German High Command was quick to offload responsibility for signing the Armistice onto the Berlin government, and Wilson was far away that November. The British and French could have done something but did not.

    The moral collapse of the German high command was unforseen and in retrospect, unwarranted. Ludendorf panicked when his armies could have retreated more and then dug in. Writing in the postwar period, British military historian B.E. Liddell Hart said the German army was not stabbed in the back but rather, the high command “shot itself in the foot.”

  171. 171.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Baud: The people on our side who are spreading fear and panic about Biden’s health/age, are predominantly the same people who constantly had to remind us that “he wasn’t my first choice” every/any time they supported him.  Haters gonna hate.

  172. 172.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @catclub: In fact Wilson was “self-played” at Versailles, when his Fourteen Points’ insistence on self-determination for every ethnic group in Europe slammed into the totally fucked up demographics of every nation east and south of the Oder and Neiss.

    Every one of the major ethnicities in the previous 500 years had bounced between a maximalist state that ruled a significant chunk of territory, including sizeable minorities of other ethnicities, and a minimalist state where the only ethnicity present was its own, which in practice sometimes meant its disappearance from the map.** And every one of those peoples loudly insisted on its right to a maximalist state. Before the armistice terms were dry most had taken up arms against whatever strangers happened to be living (sometimes for centuries) on land they claimed for themselves. Czechs, Poles, Slovaks, Romanians, Baltic states, Bulgarians, Ruthenians, Greeks, Albanians, Italians…gesummaria. Alsace-Lorraine was a slam-dunk by comparison.

    Hungary was about the only nation that was forcibly downsized from a maximalist state under the Habsburgs (ruling Slovaks, Croats, and Romanians from Budapest and demanding they all learn magyarul) to a minimalist state containing only Magyars, and that only because they lost the war. The Allies tried to dismember the Ottoman Empire but failed when the Greeks got waaaaay too greedy and the defender of Gallipoli, a guy names Mustafa Kemal Pasha, rallied the Turks to drive their army into the Aegean and force a revised peace treaty that let them keep Anatolia.***

    (NB when Turks were ordered to adopt surnames as part of entering the 20th century, the parliament of the Turkish Republic insisted that Kemal take Atatürk, “Father of the Turks,” and never was there more justification, as present-day Türkiye would in all likelihood not exist without him. [Fun fact: Atatürk was from Thessaloniki, now the second city of Greece.])

    ** Poland is the classic example, going from the geographically largest state in Europe in the 17th century to its complete dismemberment by partition by 1795, but there are others. In particular, if you lay all the maximalist states for the various Balkan peoples onto a map, you will find that they effectively lay right over top of one another.

    *** Including the very non-Turkish Kurds in the southeast, a major mistake and headache for them ever since.​

  174. 174.

    Ohio Mom

    @dnfree: The local high school graduations, as well as the community college’s, all take place in Xavier’s indoor basketball areana (Catholic university here). How they got this monopoly, I don’t know.

    The graduations have none of the charm of an outdoor event, or grandeur of the city’s symphony hall (where, once upon a time, was where Cincinnati’s high schoolers graduated).

    It’s ugly and the acoustics are terrible. But it is air conditioned, everyone gets to be on the Jumbotron for a moment because the camera is focused on the graduates as they match in, and at the end, confetti in the school’s colors are shot out of a canon near the ceiling.

  176. 176.

    Steeplejack

    @eclare:

    Definitely worth the read. Another highlight:

    Unfortunately, we somehow did not learn the lesson the public was forced to learn during the Trump years—that just because there’s a red brief and a blue brief, there doesn’t by necessity mean there are two legitimate, fact-based sides to an issue to which we must impute good faith. There isn’t always some reasonable compromise to be found in the middle. Watchdog groups have proven that a good number of those briefs were bought and paid for by big money, riddled with bad science, and driven by an Overton window theory of the law. We have enabled the Overton window, by forgetting that the story of what happened to the Supreme Court on Mitch McConnell’s watch is as much a Supreme Court story as the manufactured narrative of 303 Creative—even if there will never be a 6-3 decision handed down about it.

  177. 177.

    New Deal democrat

    @catclub: In re: Wilson had the Spanish Flu while at Versailles.

    That’s hardly 4-dimensional; in fact there is a pretty respectable case for it

  178. 178.

    patrick II

    Is there a relationship between the number of members of the house and/or senate and the number of electoral votes states have?

  179. 179.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: The Oryx article is worth reading. Mitzer notes that while other NATO countries bar Ukraine from using their weapons on Russian territory, Turkiye does not.

    Erdogan and Putin are more like frenemies than allies. Ukrainians know that Turkiye is “dancing at both weddings,” as one official put it, but I never see President Zelensky or other officials complain in public because they know the whole story.

    A lot of Westerners do not like Erdogan and there certainly are good reasons not to. But blaming Turkiye for not following the US’s lead in its foreign policy is a very Western thing; most Turks respect him all the more for his stubborn nationalism, and that’s one reason he will win reelection.

  180. 180.

    Ken

    @Uncle Cosmo: I love historical maps, and at least part of it is looking at areas that I think of as France (or Italy, or Germany) and seeing a few dozen petty kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, et cetera, each fiercely independent of the others.

  181. 181.

    New Deal democrat

    @Uncle Cosmo: “In fact Wilson was “self-played” at Versailles, when his Fourteen Points’ insistence on self-determination for every ethnic group in Europe slammed into the totally fucked up demographics of every nation east and south of the Oder and Neiss.”

    I’m going to disagree somewhat here (politely I hope). Wilson was a really poor negotiator, telegraphing in brightly flashing neon lights that what he wanted most of all was the League of Nations.

    Every time another issue came up, the UK and France would make noises that maybe there should be a peace treaty without any such League. And Wilson would cave. No Sun Tzu genius he!

    Wilson also got played by the Amistice itself. The 100 days offensive by the Allies at the end of the war was fueled directly by all of the newly arrived US troops (and the tank, which was partially the brainchild of none other than Winston Churchill).

     

    Meanwhile both the UK and France were militarily dead on their feet. So they offered Germany an Armistice prematurely, to minimize the US’s leverage in the ensuing peace negotiations.

  185. 185.

    scav

    For greater ease in bathroom gender-verification, no doubt some of Mississippi’s bastions of higher education (High School!!) will require students to parade around in their underwear at all times. School Uniform Skivvies!

  186. 186.

    Ruckus

    @Soprano2:

    They likely feel like they are losing control so they do asinine things that piss off most everyone to gain control back. It rarely works well because of asinine things that everyone is pissed about. And the students are graduating so they can – and often do flip off the assholes as they leave. We had similar type of crap when I graduated HS. IOW it’s a control thing, kids graduate, which means they won’t be back to be controlled/fucked with any longer and the controllers know the kids know that they are finally rid of the controllers bullshit. In some schools kids work hard because they know they will never ever have to come back to be treated like crap if they graduate. I graduated HS 56 yrs ago and it likely hasn’t changed one bit.

  188. 188.

    WaterGirl

    @Kay: I get where you’re coming from, but any adult in a position of authority in a school that tells a 17-year-old girl to fucking walk on stage to get her diploma in her fucking underwear is a perpetrator not a victim.

    No matter who is pressuring that person, that’s just totally fucked up and they do not belong working in a school.

  191. 191.

    cain

    @Baud: They certainly can’t declare VPNs illegal but why not? I mean it seems everything goes when it comes to protecting kids except for the clergy. The only protected class that has infinite rights to prey on kids.

  193. 193.

    cain

    @eversor: I think the problem with TikTok is that it is a Chinese company and they have access to an incredible wealth of the upcoming generation behavior – imagine using all that to train AI algorithsm mimicking Gen Z behavior.

    Of course, all the other social media is probably doing the same. But there is definitely some general privacy issues especially with a country that has a lot of human rights issues – more so than our country does.

  194. 194.

    Gvg

    @Jinchi: no I think you are all assuming wrong. I think the girl wore pants instead of a gown. Why else would they be picking on her?

    Mind you, they shouldn’t. And a lot of the kids are going to leave town soon, including some they think are their type. But the ones who stay will mostly be just as mean.

    Around here, they’d get sued for their behavior, but I guess they might get a different jury there.

  196. 196.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    This made me remember the Harriet Tubman $20 which was slated to appear on the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage till the assholes in the previous administration derailed it in a random gratuitous act of racism.

    So was that decision reversed? Do we get Terrible Person Andrew Jackson replaced by Tubman at long last?

    A quick Google search reveals the answer: Yes, but not till 2030.

  197. 197.

    Ruckus

    @Miss Bianca:

    Also don’t forget that SFB is only 3 yrs younger than Joe. And in such great shape. (If great meant the opposite of what it says in any dictionary) And of course one can’t discount SFB’s wonderful personality and IQ of a piece of burnt toast.

  198. 198.

    GibberJack

    @Jeffro: Not just sabotage, they were  willing to cause the deaths of thousands of Americans to stay in power. Some five hundred thousand excess deaths, in fact, as a result of their intentional acts to subvert this nation.

    Nearly as many deaths as in the first civil war.

  200. 200.

    Matt McIrvin

    @cain: I think it was John Keegan who said right after 9/11 that the US Air Force should destroy any web server that emits an encrypted packet with air strikes. That’s all of them now!

  201. 201.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    They don’t really understand people, I think. They asked her to express an opinion about Biden and she did that. It doesn’t surprise me at all that she expressed a negative opinion and then said she would vote for him. You can have negative opinions on certain aspects of people you support- they were looking for a negative one and they got one. It didn’t change her vote though. They could have just asked her who she is voting for and gotten the same result.

    I know why they didn’t though- they want to talk about Biden’s age and they’re using this focus group – these people- to hide behind. It’s really manipulative and dishonest.

  202. 202.

    Kay

    If they’re fair (hah!) they’ll ask an age question in every Trump poll and focus group.

    If age is a legit issue they need to ask the other old candidate. But they won’t. Because they’re gross hacks.

  203. 203.

    GibberJack

     

    @eversor:

    or even worse non stop talk about the fucking 60’s or 70’s and how great all the music and movies were, it’s fucking dead

    Sometimes I think this site is already there.

    Also, only old people talk about their pets like they’re people.

  204. 204.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay:

    I know why they didn’t though- they want to talk about Biden’s age and they’re using this focus group – these people- to hide behind. It’s really manipulative and dishonest.

    Especially given that Biden is just three and a half years older than Trump.  And it’s no contest which is in better shape for his age.

  206. 206.

    Gravenstone

    @Redshift: I recall one of the more transgressive sorts on my conservative campus creating a kerfuffle in the early 80s by the simple act of wearing shorts and dress shoes under a trench coat on fine spring day.

  208. 208.

    dnfree

    @Ohio Mom: The graduation we attended yesterday was in a minor league baseball stadium, and the “Jumbotron” did show each graduate. The student speeches were also shown on the screen, prerecorded rather than live. There may be reasons for that, ranging from nervousness to intention to go off-script.

  210. 210.

    Librarian

    Margaret MacMillan in her book Paris 1919 says Wilson had a cold in Paris, and could have had a minor stroke, but she doesn’t say anything about the Spanish flu.

  211. 211.

    Ruckus

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    As someone not all that younger than Joe Biden I can honestly state that each senior citizen ages at a different rate. There are humans who live to be 105-110 years old and there are humans who live 4 months (a cousin of mine) or less. There is no one lifetime clock and there are always extenuating circumstances as to how long one lives. I saw, not to long ago a story about a black woman in the south, I believe she was 110 or 112 and smoked every day. Our genetics and luck determine the last birthday we celebrate and we don’t control either of those. Joe Biden is 80, only 3 yrs older than SFB and the differences in health between them couldn’t be more obvious to a blind man.

  212. 212.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Kay: Why , in 2023 does a high school have a dress code mandating dresses or pants ANYWAY.  since we were all wearing caps and gowns I think my high school just wanted us graduated and gone.  We also spent the entire graduation throwing beach balls back and forth…..hey, it was the 70’s.  Reason number a billion I will recommend my daughter and son-in-law NEVER take a job in a red state.

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