Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

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

Fight them, without becoming them!

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

The revolution will be supervised.

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

Books are my comfort food!

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

In after Baud. Damn.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Let there be snark.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Flop Sweat Tsunami (Open Thread)

Flop Sweat Tsunami (Open Thread)

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I was drafting a news/issues odds and ends post* yesterday afternoon. I had planned to include a warning that we should brace ourselves for an obnoxious media rehab of DeSantis and Musk.

The infotainment outlets originally proclaimed those mediocrities political/business savants, and then when the pair’s incompetence aggressively manifested, the infotainment complex shat on them for a while. (Which I admit I enjoyed. A lot.) So pumping them back up seemed like the next likely step. There were portents earlier this week, including intimations that DeSantis’s decision to declare his candidacy on Twitter was a bold move and that hosting the event was the wily Musk’s shot across Rupert Murdoch’s bow.

Then came last night’s catastrophuck, and friends, what a calamitous shit-show it was for both principals! In political/business image terms, it was like a train carrying 1,000 flaming dumpster cars hurtling off a bridge, landing on a nuclear reactor, and causing a meltdown that breached the earth’s molten core and triggered the simultaneous eruption of all the planet’s volcanos.

Possibly that’s a slight exaggeration. But dear God, the headlines — even from DeSantis and Musk-fluffing outfits like National Review! Putting on my flack hat, I’ll just note that it’s difficult to reset a client’s image when they do an extremely high-profile fuck-up that confirms the negative impressions that were already setting like concrete in people’s minds.

And for the spectacular fuckstravaganza to happen to the loathsome DeSantis and Musk simultaneously was just — MWAH! — chef’s kiss! I don’t think my feet have touched the ground for 24 hours.

Anyhoo, just wanted to share the joy. Open thread!

*I ended up trashing the post because it contained multiple items that depressed me (more book banning, LGBTQ bullying, debt ceiling fuckery, etc.), and then I heard Tina Turner had died, which depressed me further still. So I wandered off to do something else.** It was probably for the best. 

**Here’s the something else: We’re having a run of splendid open-windows weather, but it’s humid as fuck. It’s Florida, so I’m used to breathing air that seems filtered through boiling cotton balls. But it’s so humid that every surface feels slightly tacky, as if coated with drying varnish. Including one’s own skin.

My workstation desk is a wooden table with built-in leaves on either end that belonged to my great-great-great grandparents. I’ve had it for more than 20 years, ever since my uncle moved to his riverside cabin and bequeathed the table to me. It’s really too big for my riverside cabin, but I love it, so it moved here with me.

Anyhoo, I keep it reasonably clean. But the humidity-tackiness on the table’s surface felt unbearably icky this week, and the usual wipe-downs had little effect, even with copious elbow grease applied.

So I did something I’ve never done — something that would probably make an antique furniture expert sink into the nearest antique fainting couch: I wet down the table surface, sprinkled it with Bar Keepers Friend and really scrubbed the shit out of it with a deck brush. I wiped it down and repeated the process. Twice!

Then I dried it thoroughly with cotton towels, sprayed Murphy’s Oil Soap on it and wiped it down again. My God, what a difference! I’m tempted to give my face the same treatment. The end.

Reader Interactions

110Comments

  1. 1.

    trollhattan

    Malaysia decides Florida is on to something.

    Malaysian authorities raided 11 Swatch stores on May 13 and 14, seizing rainbow watches from the company’s Pride collection amid the country’s growing crackdown on LGBTQ expression, according to a local media report.

    Swatch confirmed on Tuesday (May 23) that officials had seized 164 watches, AP reported, because they “bore LGBT connotations.” The raid was led by Malaysia’s Ministry of Home Affairs. It is unclear what the ministry plans to do with the watches; Quartz contacted the agency for comment, but it did not immediately respond.

    The Swiss watchmaker plans to replace and continue to display the watches, according to a Guardian report.

    “We strongly contest that our collection of watches using rainbow colors and having a message of peace and love could be harmful for whomever,” said Nick Hayek, the Swatch Group CEO, in a statement emailed to Quartz. He added: “This has nothing political.”

    That’ll show ’em.

  3. 3.

    prufrock

    Here’s the something else: We’re having a run of splendid open-windows weather, but it’s humid as fuck.

    In Florida, dew point is more important than heat. Always has been.

  4. 4.

    Poe Larity

    Ah, they’ll just spin it. Demand for Ron was so great he crashed the intertubes!

    Also, too, Aliens premiered 44 years ago.

  6. 6.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I’m tempted to give my face the same treatment.

    0/10.  Do not recommend.  As a teen, I actually had a rather good complexion so when I noticed a few small zits on my nose, I overreacted.  I scrubbed it with a little scrub brush.  I spent a couple weeks with scabs on both sides of my nose.

  7. 7.

    Betsy

    It’s just amazing how much fail white men can have and still be considered viable people.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    Charles Blow has some good advice for the non-trumpov GOP presidential candidates out there: best of luck getting the mango menace out of the race.

     

    “…many Republican commentators and donors, who’ve been desperate to move on from the toxicity of Trump, landed on DeSantis when casting about for alternatives. They inflated his ego, convincing him his big-footing in Florida made him formidable.
    He appears to be banking on Trump fatigue, or maybe Trump’s legal problems piling so high that even the former president’s most ardent supporters come to the conclusion that he is too encumbered to prevail. If he can’t outpace Trump, he’ll lie in wait to catch him limping.

    He’s not alone in that lane. The candidates (or potential candidates) Mike Pence, Asa Hutchinson and Chris Sununu — all current or former governors — occupy the same lane. They are the in-case-of-emergency-break-glass cohort: If Trump winds up on the path to prison and Republicans must scrounge for a last-minute replacement, they’re hoping that voters see them as solid substitutes.

    They’re positioned as candidates who can deliver on Republican policy priorities without Trump’s baggage and Trump’s drama — but Trump’s drama is the thing that many of his supporters are addicted to. The policies are welded to the persona.
    Trump allows his supporters to feel and express their full range of emotion: He entertains them; he channels their rage; he reflects their oppressive urges; he’s an oracle of their self-perceived victimhood and their model of a warrior against a government and culture that they feel are turning on them.
    Trumpism is a whole-self experience, spiritual in its depth, so Trumpism without Trump would be akin to preaching Christianity without Christ.

    And then there’s Republicans’ other lane, in which racial absolution without racial repentance is offered. It’s occupied by candidates of color who advance some version of this simplistic and opaque absolution: “America is not a racist country.”
    In recent election cycles, Republicans have embraced candidates who provided a version of that message — Herman Cain in 2012, Ben Carson in 2016 — even as their party has been rightly condemned for its tan-suit-faux-scandal-level anti-Barack Obama obsession, which was consistently colored by race.

    And now they have two candidates who’ve used those exact words: When she began her candidacy in February, Nikki Haley said, “Take it from me, the first minority female governor in history: America is not a racist country.” And when he announced his candidacy on Monday, Tim Scott — whom she appointed to his Senate seat — repeated a line he delivered in a 2021 speech: “America is not a racist country.”
    …Haley and Scott are using their own personal and political successes, not as exceptional examples of clearing hurdles, but to argue the height of the hurdles and to question the will of other runners.

    All the Republican challengers are governed by ambition, but Trump is now governed by a more powerful force: panic.

    …if trump regains the presidency, he regains the power to blunt pending federal investigations swirling around him and to force a crisis over any state criminal proceedings, like one that may materialize in Georgia.
    He wants to complicate any potential prosecutions by arousing the anger of his followers, giving rule-of-law-following institutionalists pause about the consequences of penalizing a president. Trump has shown that he has no qualms about breaking the country to save himself, that patriotism is a distant second to self-preservation.
    Now, with the prospect of being shamed and maybe even shackled, he’s going to spare nothing in his quest to clear the Republican field — and none of his opponents look as if they’re ready for it.”

  11. 11.

    zhena gogolia

    Betty do please look at JL Cauvin’s  imitation of DeSantis. He did a version of Musk and DeSantis yesterday with them both laughing at the end and it’s hilarious. I posted it twice yesterday got no response and I’m not in a place where I can post it now but just look on YouTube

  13. 13.

    kindness

    Bar Keeper’s Friend on wood, eh?  I’ve never used it that way.  Of course, out here in CA, it’s a dry heat, so less surface moisture.  Good for you Betty.  Sounds like you took of generations of layers.

  14. 14.

    Jerry

    Two suggestions for something to watch: the Freevee app/channel on my Roku has two wonderful and unexpected shows that are worth your time. The first is Jury Duty which has no business being as funny as it was. It’s reality tv show about a jury doing its job in a civil suit. Except it’s not, it’s a fake trial and everyone is an actor except for one of the jurors. The other show on Freevee that is a joy to watch is Detectorists. It’s written, directed, and stars Mackenzie Cook, Gareth from the original version of The Office. The settings are gorgeous English countryside and is about some people that do metal detecting as a hobby. Charming and funny is all I can say about that.

    Freevee is, as the name suggests, free but has commercials during the programming. The two shows mentioned above are still 100% worth your time even with the commercials.

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    I’m tempted to give my face the same treatment.

    NO NO NO get yourself some retinol from the dermatologist.

    God. Every headline this morning is about what a gigantic shitting-of-bed the entire event was. And it was entirely foreseeable. I don’t get it….why aren’t these people competent?! With all the money spent on campaigns, I truly don’t understand how they can go this badly.

  16. 16.

    trollhattan

    He was so hellbent on getting “into government” he’s now going to be housed by that same government.

    The Arkansas man who was photographed on Jan. 6, 2021, with his feet on a desk in then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office was sentenced Wednesday to four and a half years in prison.

  20. 20.

    BR

    The MSM will now have to wait until the Trump indictments before they try to rehab their buddy Ron, to make the primaries a good horse race.

  24. 24.

    Geo Wilcox

    @Suzanne: It’s a grift. I think the only one who truly thinks Ron can really win is his wife. If he loses she will blame him for not being able to show off her Jackie O wanna be wardrobe. And the woman holds grudges a loooooonnnnngggggg time.

  25. 25.

    CaseyL

    Since what Musk’s fanbois love about him is his capacity to break things, breaking his own event might actually be a plus to them.

    I don’t pretend to understand this, but the Right is reflexively against anything good, including competence.  The bigger the failure, the more it charms them.

    (Possibly because. they’re such hopeless nitwits themselves, so it reassures and validates them when the rich and powerful faceplant.)

  26. 26.

    Tony Jay

    If the Media want to spend the next six months providing the voiceover narrative for the Incredible Misadventures of Puddy Whiteboots & The Blue Tick Bumbler, then more power to them. Their indefatigable ability to shoot both themselves and everyone foolish enough to embrace them right in the micro-dick is entertainment this maudlin world can all gather around and enjoy. And if it comes with a side order of Joisey Bellyflop ker-splatting all over Humpty Trumpty’s ‘Biggest Bully in the Village’ cred, all the better.

    These people are repellent. Really, massively, hilariously awful. They can’t be anything else because the voter base they’re fighting to impress demand nothing less than daily reflections of their worst traits, magnified 1000fold and getting more toxic day by day. The more that’s front and centre of the American political scene, the better for Democrats.

    Plus, I personally enjoy sneering at them. I haven’t had an environment this target-rich since Flobalob went glug-glug under the waves.

  27. 27.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Suzanne: “Low quality hires” is what Kay would call them. Other than the people they hire to manage their ill-gotten gains, incompetent people don’t hire competent people.

  28. 28.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Josh Marshall weighs in:

    Okay, here’s my take. Obviously the tech snafu at the beginning is going to be the irresistible headline. A major fail. The announcement he read was a mess. Once they actually got down to talking, DeSantis is fairly good at talking about the issues that matter to …

    2/ him. But the issue is what matters to him. This is a way way WAY online minded campaign. And really lives within the keyboard warrior world of the right. What are the issues a winning GOP presidential campaign is going to run on? Border, Inflation, weakness abroad, etc.

    3/ They hit on the border a bit at the end, sort of realizing they’d all but ignored it. But almost the whole thing was fluffing Musk for buying Twitter, the freedom fighters who were left back on Twitter, the mainstream media, and then at the end DEI and “gender ideology.”

    4/ This is super niche stuff that most of the country doesn’t even know what he’s talking about. I noted that just a short time ago Sacks said DeSantis would be like a “cool headed ruthless assassin” turning back to the woke mob. To most people that sounds kinda nuts.

    5/ Something that comes off 4Chan and weird mass slaughter chic. Anyway, DeSantis did get his stride. But again, this is almost all within the conversation of the Twitter far right. That’s not where the country is.

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    I ended up trashing the post because it contained multiple items that depressed me

    Sounds like an interlude of respite is in order.

    There’s always room for Borge.

    (FSM only knows how many hours of rehearsal took place beforehand. Or is that befourhands?)

  31. 31.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Jerry: I’m watching S1E1 now of the Detectionists. Thanks for the suggestion – my boss isn’t going to get her money’s worth out of me this afternoon. Oh well, she’s used to it…

  32. 32.

    MattF

    David Frum notes that DeSantis’ media handlers never show him straight-on— there’s always a barrier of some sort, or he’s facing away from the camera. Hmmm.

  33. 33.

    Suzanne

    @CaseyL: The “value proposition” that DeSaster purports to offer is “competent, skilled Trumpism”. But when he clearly fails right out of the gate, it really undermines that message. And, like, Trump’s people like him already. They aren’t really shopping for a replacement when the real thing is available.

    Trump’s appeal was never about policy. He doesn’t know anything about policy. I don’t know why Puddin’ Cup thinks that being the cheap knockoff Trump by copying his “policy” is a path to success.

  34. 34.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jeffro:

    They’re positioned as candidates who can deliver on Republican policy priorities without Trump’s baggage and Trump’s drama

    DeSantis’s strategy was to deliver even more and more sadistic drama than Trump.  It was a great strategy for getting the nomination.  His problem is that he’s weak.  Pathetically, shockingly, what-the-Hell-are-you-doing-in-politics, unable to hit back to weakest pressure weak.  You can’t be the champion of white supremacy if you just stand there mumbling when the other guy punches you.  Hell, Trump isn’t even very good at it, but DeSantis can’t manage a baby slap fight.

  37. 37.

    Suzanne

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    This is a way way WAY online minded campaign. And really lives within the keyboard warrior world of the right. 

    Agreed! Like, old people vote Republican. Old people watch Fox News. Old people are not living on Twitter!

  39. 39.

    Jackie

    @kmax: Don’t fret about it; the one and only time I was first I bought a lottery ticket. I didn’t win. So first is just a lonely number.😉

  40. 40.

    C Stars

    @Betty Cracker: You know, just in terms of cultural iconography, it’s such an odd choice. Musk is a pot-smoking (and no doubt dabbler in many other substances) anti-family-values silicon valley/global elitist. Who, I think it only makes sense to speculate, probably has sex or has had sex with men. Evangelicals are supposed to prefer him over Disney? Of course, it’s already been established that cognitive dissonance is not a problem for these folks, but still. It is surprising to me.

    The only thing that matters is that they are both trolls. Two peas in a pod that way. Two trolls in a twit.

  42. 42.

    bbleh

    I like the sound of “flop sweat tsunami” so much I want it for a band name or something.

  43. 43.

    Betty Cracker

    @trollhattan: Astoundingly bad! They’ve got scads of money, and that’s what they came up with. I think the horrid Christina Pushaw, a low-quality hire if there ever was one, who runs that outfit.

    @Jeffro: Right? As someone in the comments said, DeSantis is the beta male in his own ad!

  44. 44.

    gvg

    I was in Publix yesterday and noticed that the National Enquirer headlines were Sex Creep Trump Buy’s Melania’s Silence…didn’t they used to cover for him? Anyway I think that is a good thing for us. More sleezy low quality publications pointing and laughing should hurt him with his voters. I just hope they go after all the creepy republicans.

  45. 45.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

    The Desatis War Room interspersed images of Musk during Ron’s speech or is that my imagination?

    If he wasn’t a fascist dickwad, who has to show “strength”, he could’ve leaned into being socially awkward. Heaven knows a bunch of people are socially awkward. It’d make him relatable.

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    @C Stars: Yeah, he’s so not them but nevertheless, they’re attracted by his boorishness and money. I don’t have a count on how many bastard spawn he has, but it’s not a small number. “But…Gawd loves him, because look at how rich he made our Elon!”

  47. 47.

    TaMara

    So I did something I’ve never done — something that would probably make an antique furniture expert sink into the nearest antique fainting couch: I wet down the table surface, sprinkled it with Bar Keepers Friend and really scrubbed the shit out of it with a deck brush. I wiped it down and repeated the process. Twice!

    Unless you’re collecting antiques as an investment, original dirt isn’t really necessary. But if what you really want is a good antique with functionality and beauty, sometimes that means removing all the dirt or refinishing or repairing. So good job and I might like a photo, since almost all my wood furniture are antiques.

  48. 48.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @C Stars:

    You know, just in terms of cultural iconography, it’s such an odd choice.

    Musk is a rich, mediocre white man who uses his wealth to demand sex from women, treat his underlings like shit, and force liberals to listen to hate speech, especially against trans women.  He’s a petty, middle school level asshole, a guy who thinks responding to questions with poop emojis is a killer put-down.  These are fantastic traits from a right wing perspective.

    For a subset of the right wing, he does computer stuff while claiming to be the smartest man (women don’t count anyway) in the room, and got really super rich, so he validates them the same way Trump validates the Your Racist Uncle subset.  That he’s actually dumb as shit and just got lucky because he was good at the right specific thing at the right time makes it better, because his shit talk is their shit talk so that proves they’re the smartest person in the room and everyone who thinks they’re unlikable jackasses is just jealous.

  49. 49.

    trollhattan

    Where’s Tony Jay? I need to know if the driver was BoJo.

    A man has been arrested after a car crashed into the gates outside Downing Street.

    The Metropolitan Police said he had been arrested by armed officers on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving.

    There were no reports of any injuries and inquiries are ongoing.

    Police set up a cordon in Whitehall, the main road running past Downing Street, as officers with sniffer dogs were seen outside the gates. Witnesses saw one man being led away by police. The incident happened at 16:20 BST, police said. Footage of the car shows it approaching the main entrance to Downing Street, the home of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his family.

  52. 52.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro:

    Trumpism without Trump would be akin to preaching Christianity without Christ

    Evangelicals have been essentially doing the latter for decades, and it’s now only just starting to catch up with them.

  53. 53.

    Geminid

    @gene108: The ad was like trailer for some sort of bromance movie. “Here’s my buddy having fun with his flamethrower! And here’s me riding an airboat!. I was an officer in the Navy, and he owns a car company!”

    The impression given is that DeSantis and Musk are best buds. They might even be right now. But Musk strikes me as a fickle friend because he’s a fickle person in general. This ad will not afe well, I think.

  54. 54.

    oatler

    ABC took note of the flustercuck with “Ron DeSantis announces candidacy in glitch-prone twitter confab”.

  55. 55.

    Betsy

    @The Thin Black Duke: That’s a very good point.

    Fragile men without talent who have gotten by on privilege their whole lives are (consciously or unconsciously) *terrified* of competent people and threatened by new / good ideas.  And corrective advice is anathema to them, so they rarely learn from others.

    And Kay, of course, is always right on the money.

  56. 56.

    CaseyL

    Huh: Twitter appears to have been briefly broken in a new way.

    I closed my account, but still drop in to read a few folks I used to follow.  Two of them, Tom Nichols and Ian Dunt, now have their profile pages showing a message saying they haven’t tweeted yet, but the tweets will show up when they do.

    It’s fixed now, but that was… interesting

    ETA: Or not; it seems to be happening randomly, getting fixed randomly, and then popping up again.  Tried reading a thread on the Rhodes sentencing, and everyone’s down again.,

  57. 57.

    Betsy

    @Geminid: Considering that Muskrat is “the electric car guy,” I don’t think he’ll go over well in the South.  I mean, the way rebels react aggressively to my Prius just existing in traffic …

  59. 59.

    C Stars

    @Frankensteinbeck: Musk is a rich, mediocre white man who uses his wealth to demand sex from women, treat his underlings like shit, and force liberals to listen to hate speech, especially against trans women.  He’s a petty, middle school level asshole

    In addition to both being narcissists, this seems like a fairly thorough catalogue of their commonalities. But you’re right, it’s definitely a “certain subset” and I don’t think a certain subset wins the nomination. Echoing @Suzanne above, this seems like a far too online campaign for a guy who was “made” by ultraconservative senior citizens in Florida.

    Anyway, it seems clearer every day that DeSantis is just positioning himself to be the guy who is there in case both Trump and Biden kick the bucket.

  60. 60.

    OverTwistWillie

    The Sunshine Special

    There is a whole ecosystem of political consultants and media toadies who exploit half brights into thinking they have a shot.

    Someone sold them a warmed over plan for running to the base in the primary, ????, then win the White House.

    Sure, it is toad venom smoking nuts, but Casey Tots wants to be First Lady.

  61. 61.

    C Stars

    @CaseyL: I don’t have an account either, but haven’t been able to reliably access any of the accounts I like for quite some time. I’ve just stopped going at all. I rely on BJ posters to curate tweets for me these days.

  62. 62.

    craigie

    it was like a train carrying 1,000 flaming dumpster cars hurtling off a bridge, landing on a nuclear reactor, and causing a meltdown that breached the earth’s molten core and triggered the simultaneous eruption of all the planet’s volcanos

    That happened to me once.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    @Betsy

    And yet one reads again and again of another EV assembly and or battery production plant being located in that same South.

  64. 64.

    Barbara

    @Betty Cracker: That voice.  OMG.

    Also, it’s kind of amusing that DeSantis teams up with Musk, whose schtick is electric cars and solar power.  I mean, what about the coal barons?

  65. 65.

    Marmot

    @Betty Cracker: Oh wow is that funny. I made it about halfway, but of all its many badly written lines, my favorite is “merit must trump identity politics.”

    He can’t say that without accidentally mentioning his rivalhahahaha HHHAH? AHAAAHAAAahahaaa hahahaha. Ahem.

  67. 67.

    RaflW

    re: your humidity postscript, I was in Houston this past weekend for the memorial service of some dear friends’ mom (two friends, one mom, so I think that’s the correct apostrophe location? G.S.P. Not my strong suit. Anyhoooo, moving along now).

    I was bracing for that air that feels a bit like I need gills, not lungs. But saints be praised, dew points were in the 60s. Sunday evening it was in the 70s before sunset. Glorious. Well, it was still Houston, so, YMMV (I lived there for about a decade, so thank you, yes, I will trash that city of endless visual horrors otherwise known as the entire freeway system + minimal zoning).

  68. 68.

    RaflW

    @Barbara: Musks schtick is tax credits and subsidies. The ostensible products are just mechanisms to reach into taxpayer pockets.

  69. 69.

    piratedan

    in regards to DeSantis being the Beta in his own campaign ad,  it’s apparent to me that maybe this wasn’t so much a campaign kickoff but perhaps instead more of a sugar-daddy search… a response ad like “see… Putin bought his own President and if you’re a rich douchebag who wants their own Fascist attack dog, then our Candidate is available!” kind of thing.

  70. 70.

    Ken

    @Geminid: I thought it looked more like a WWE entrance.  I must admit that’s just from the still image, with the steel stairs, pyrotechnics, and the shot of the competitor from behind. I didn’t play the video.

  71. 71.

    trnc

    @Jeffro: like Christianity for 2000 years after Jesus died, trumpism can be whatever the hell it’s followers want it to be.

  72. 72.

    Tony Jay

    @trollhattan:

    Nah, it says the Police arrested and charged him.

    It it had been Flobalob behind the wheel, they’d have helped him into an unmarked police car, made the CCTV footage disappear, denied any incident had taken place, announced that they were ‘looking into the evidence’ in advance of any decision on whether charges were merited, leaked ‘actionable intelligence’ to the Mail and the Express hinting at extremist environmentalists and/or anti-monarchist anarchists being responsible, brought in reinforcements from surrounding police forces to kettle, beat and illegally detain passers-by on suspicion of thinking about planning an unapproved protest, then held a press conference to announce that no further statements on the matter would be made until the findings of any potential independent investigation into the events surrounding the decision to install security gates at the entrance to Downing St had been released.

    And the BBC would have led with a story about a talking pig entertaining children at a Kettering hospital instead.

  74. 74.

    FelonyGovt

    Friends, I have a limited amount of funds budgeted for campaign contributions. After last night’s epic fail and Biden’s “this link works” rejoinder, I am sorely tempted to kick in money to Biden/Harris. Makes sense, or should I wait until later in the campaign and/or save it for down-ballot candidates?

  75. 75.

    Jackie

    Governor Abbott says *Happy Anniversary* to Uvalde elementary school students😡

    ”Texas parents raised concern this week after their elementary-aged children came home with a Winnie the Pooh cartoon book that instructed them to “run, hide, fight” in the event of a mass shooting at their school, the Oak Cliff Advocate reported.
    A consulting firm for law enforcement based outside of Dallas reportedly created the comic book, titled “Stay Safe,” which features each of the characters from Winnie the Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood using their unique skills to show how students can protect themselves during a school shooting.
    “If danger is near, do not fear, HIDE like Pooh does until the police appear,” the book instructs, according to images shared by parents with the Advocate. “If it is safe to get away, we should RUN like Rabbit instead of stay.”
    The book was reportedly distributed around the first anniversary of the mass shooting in Uvalde, in which 19 children and two teachers were murdered in their classrooms.“
    https://themessenger.com/news/texas-schoolkids-sent-home-with-winnie-the-pooh-book-teaching-them-to-run-hide-fight-in-school-shooting

  77. 77.

    Ken

    @Jackie: “We understand their concerns, but we can’t let the feelings of a few parents prevent other children from having access to these materials. And it’s not like they have rainbows or slavery.”

  78. 78.

    Splitting Image

    @Ken:

    I thought it looked more like a WWE entrance. I must admit that’s just from the still image, with the steel stairs, pyrotechnics, and the shot of the competitor from behind. I didn’t play the video.

    Watch it with the sound turned off, at the very least. The visuals don’t consist of someone punching DeSantis repeatedly in the face, but they are close.

  79. 79.

    eldorado

    so everyone is talking about desantis today, which seems like it’s a win for him. his real problem is that trump is going to crush him personally, otherwise this would just a way to raise his profile

  80. 80.

    zhena gogolia

    @John S.: Thanks! I have to say I have never seen Musk speak so I can’t judge, but just the imitation alone is hilarious.

  82. 82.

    RaflW

    @FelonyGovt: I’d very much say “save it for down-ballot candidates”. If you have a modest budget for political giving, focus on local or regional races where you have some connection. You’ll get a sense of who could really benefit from a well timed 10 bucks or whatever you can afford to give them a boost.

    Wanting to juice Joe & Kamala is understandable! I gave via that tweet yesterday in part as just a “whoo, thanks” to their savvy social media team. But my budget is quite comfy, so I’m not reducing my plans for smaller bore races where $46 matters (one of the buttons for our 46th president!).

  83. 83.

    Suzanne

    FTFNYT has a piece of Mme. Puddin’ Cup’s personal fashion choices today. She manages to look wrinkled in every picture.

  84. 84.

    VFX Lurker

    @Poe Larity: Aliens premiered 44 years ago.

    Minor quibble — Alien (which also showcased a glorious self-destruct explosion) premiered 44 years ago in 1979.

    Aliens premiered 37 years ago in 1986.

  86. 86.

    Jerry

    @Chief Oshkosh:  I’m watching S1E1 now of the Detectionists. Thanks for the suggestion – my boss isn’t going to get her money’s worth out of me this afternoon. Oh well, she’s used to it…

    Oh, another bit of that particular show, the theme song is a wonderful slice of English folk ballad. The show comes across as a love letter to the English countryside

  88. 88.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Then I dried it thoroughly with cotton towels, sprayed Murphy’s Oil Soap on it and wiped it down again.

    Anybody need some Murphy’s Oil Soap? In lockdown, while I was ordering everything online, a lot of time I ended up with larger quantities than I would normally buy, either because the smaller quantities weren’t available or because I didn’t realize (especially on Amazon) how much I was getting.

    So in ordering cleaning supplies I ended up with several large bottles of Murphy’s which I thought we needed for floors. My wife informed me that it would make the floors too slippery and we don’t in fact use that on our floors. What we do use it for is a very short list.

    At least I know sooner or later I’ll get through the mouthwash, deodorant, dryer sheets, sponges, chopsticks, masks, alcohol wipes… that were also mostly purchased in 2020 during lockdown.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    There were portents earlier this week, including intimations that DeSantis’s decision to declare his candidacy on Twitter was a bold move and that hosting the event was the wily Musk’s shot across Rupert Murdoch’s bow.

    It was a strange move, but I am not sure how bold it was.

    The whole thing certainly turned into a mess. But it is interesting that Musk may want to be a political player, despite his protestations of just wanting to encourage free speech.

    That DeSantis bypassed Murdoch is also interesting. The rumor is that Murdoch is disenchanted with Trump, but he clearly will suck up to whoever appears to be on top. And Hannity and other Fox pundits continue to root for Trump.

  91. 91.

    Brachiator

    @eldorado:

    so everyone is talking about desantis today, which seems like it’s a win for him. his real problem is that trump is going to crush him personally, otherwise this would just a way to raise his profile.

    Trump is certainly going to make a lot of noise.

    To be clear, I despise both Trump and DeSantis, and pretty much all Republicans.  But we have seen Trump’s play before. He is very predictable. And the media is hot to see a replay of Trump’s greatest hits.

    DeSantis seems to be continually stumbling out of the starting gate. But I am curious to see if he has anything at all or is just an empty suit who is not ready for the big time.

  94. 94.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    “it was like a train carrying 1,000 flaming dumpster cars hurtling off a bridge, landing on a nuclear reactor, and causing a meltdown that breached the earth’s molten core and triggered the simultaneous eruption of all the planet’s volcanos.”

    It was like a circus-train carrying hundreds of clowns on their way from Clown-college to CPAC,  derailing while crossing a bridge over the NRO cruise ship, that has just collided with a natural-gas super-tanker and a freighter filled with ammonium nitrate, resulting in a massive explosion and intense fires.

     

    Then the orcas attack, snacking on crispy humans.

  95. 95.

    Barry

    @C Stars: “Musk is a pot-smoking (and no doubt dabbler in many other substances) anti-family-values silicon valley/global elitist. Who, I think it only makes sense to speculate, probably has sex or has had sex with men. Evangelicals are supposed to prefer him over Disney?”

     

    Those days are long gone.

  97. 97.

    Jerry

    @evodevo:  Loved the Detectorists…low key humor, slice of life, and archaeology all in one package…

    We just started season 2 last night

  98. 98.

    evodevo

    @Jerry: Two thumbs up.  I had to educate Mr. Evodevo on the Sutton Hoo find…he had no idea of what could be out there in some random field…

  100. 100.

    NotMax

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Pish and tosh. Have been using in a diluted solution of a capful in a bowl of about a quart of water on wood flooring when it comes time for a serious down on hands on knees and scrub vigorously with a sponge cleaning for longer than some here have been alive.

  101. 101.

    Brachiator

    @C Stars:

    Musk is a pot-smoking (and no doubt dabbler in many other substances) anti-family-values silicon valley/global elitist. Who, I think it only makes sense to speculate, probably has sex or has had sex with men. Evangelicals are supposed to prefer him over Disney?

    Sounds like a toss up.

    The evangelical crowd want oppression and theocracy. They don’t care who helps bring it.

  103. 103.

    different-church-lady

    it was like a train carrying 1,000 flaming dumpster cars hurtling off a bridge, landing on a nuclear reactor, and causing a meltdown that breached the earth’s molten core and triggered the simultaneous eruption of all the planet’s volcanos

    …and then blew up the launchpad.

  106. 106.

    different-church-lady

    @trollhattan: First they came for the rainbows, and I said, “What the fuck? You’re outlawing colors in the order of the spectrum? Who dropped you on your head?”

  107. 107.

    Citizen Alan

    @John S.:  Watching this, I was suddenly struck by the fact that I’ve never actually heard Elon Musk speak. Does he really sound like Butthead from Beavis & Butthead? Also, despite Cauvin’s best efforts to parody Puddin Boots, his imitation is still less cringe-inducing than the asshole’s real voice.

  108. 108.

    Kim Walker

    I know this is probably a dead thread, but I saw an article today and was wondering if anyone (particularly BC) had heard of them. First paragraph copied here:

     

    ON May 3, the Washington Post filed a report on child labour law violations in just one state, Kentucky. The findings: three Kentucky McDonald’s franchises had illegally employed over 300 children who worked longer hours than the law allowed; two 10-year-olds were working as late as 2 a.m. without pay, one operating a deep fryer, forbidden by law for children under 16; and 27 other McDonald’s locations allowed 242 14- and 15-years-olds to work beyond legal limits. Bauer Foods was fined for employing 10 year olds; and, Bell Restaurant Group 1 allowed 39 underage youths work at four locations, two during school hours. 688 minors were found employed illegally in hazardous jobs. Kentucky, unfortunately, is not an outlier. America’s children are under attack. Multiple states are rolling back child labour laws as part of a push by conservative groups, mostly far-right Republicans, now attempting to pass legislation undoing over 80 years of child protection. In Arkansas, children under 16 can work without parental consent. In Tennessee 16- and 17-year-olds can serve liquor. States are passing legislation in direct violation of federal laws, using the arguments of rights – state rights, parental rights, and children’s rights. However, underneath all that “rights talk” lies something more insidious and odious – powerful money interests promoting and funding exploitation of the most needy and disadvantaged children in our society. The Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability and the Opportunity Solutions Project, their lobbying arm, have been identified as the driving forces behind the elimination of child labour protections.

     

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