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.
trollhattan
Malaysia decides Florida is on to something.
That’ll show ’em.
kmax
Maybe a first comment? Never happened to me before..
Happy dance
EDIT – Dang
prufrock
In Florida, dew point is more important than heat. Always has been.
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.
RedDirtGirl
I’m reposting this from the earlier MuskRat/DeSaster Thread.
Failure to Launch
Omnes Omnibus
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.
Betsy
It’s just amazing how much fail white men can have and still be considered viable people.
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.
Betsy
@Betsy: Not even just viablempeople. People to look up to. *Special* people.
Leaders, for gods sake.
trollhattan
@Poe Larity: “Morning Joe” has a proper comeback for any DeSantis claims about “just too darn many folks” on line for that…whatever it was.
https://twitter.com/Morning_Joe/status/1661719795790643201?cxt=HHwWgoCwhbTWzo8uAAAA
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
New Deal democrat
Credit where credit is due: John McCain in 2015 on Putin’s plans for Ukraine and Imperial Russia:
https://twitter.com/Den_2042/status/1661261771988975618?cxt=HHwWhIC25fSx_o0uAAAA
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.
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.
Suzanne
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.
trollhattan
He was so hellbent on getting “into government” he’s now going to be housed by that same government.
Betty Cracker
Y’all, he followed up the Space faceplant with…this:
Betsy
@Suzanne: They’re white men, honey!
Suzanne
@Betsy: Seriously. They just fail upward, over and over again.
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.
C Stars
@trollhattan: DANG! Outlawing rainbows.
Tbonette
@Betsy: you win the internet today.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: who’s the candidate in that ad – DeSaster or Musk?
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.
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.)
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.
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.
UncleEbeneezer
Josh Marshall weighs in:
C Stars
@Betty Cracker: Oh god. I don’t think I can roll my eyes any harder.
NotMax
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?)
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…
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.
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.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jeffro:
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.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: That B-roll footage–Musk, primarily–which keeps repeating is really from the “campaign”? Holy hell, that’s bad.
trollhattan
@Suzanne: Think Bobby Jindal and the staircase. How’d that work out?
Suzanne
@UncleEbeneezer:
Agreed! Like, old people vote Republican. Old people watch Fox News. Old people are not living on Twitter!
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: To quote a former President:
“That was some weird shit.”
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.😉
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.
John S.
@zhena gogolia:
He really nails both men.
https://youtu.be/Ky7R7J1NzyQ
bbleh
I like the sound of “flop sweat tsunami” so much I want it for a band name or something.
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!
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.
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.
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!”
TaMara
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.
Frankensteinbeck
@C Stars:
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.
trollhattan
Where’s Tony Jay? I need to know if the driver was BoJo.
C Stars
@John S.: that is hilarious and disturbing
Delk
@Betty Cracker: pretty bad when you need musk for a hype man.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
Evangelicals have been essentially doing the latter for decades, and it’s now only just starting to catch up with them.
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.
oatler
ABC took note of the flustercuck with “Ron DeSantis announces candidacy in glitch-prone twitter confab”.
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.
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.,
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 …
rikyrah
I just watched TikTok videos about the disaster that was his rollout and some MSNBC commentary…
LOL
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.
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.
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.
craigie
That happened to me once.
NotMax
@Betsy
And yet one reads again and again of another EV assembly and or battery production plant being located in that same South.
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?
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.
craigie
@Jeffro:
Isn’t that what we have now?
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).
RaflW
@Barbara: Musks schtick is tax credits and subsidies. The ostensible products are just mechanisms to reach into taxpayer pockets.
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.
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.
trnc
@Jeffro: like Christianity for 2000 years after Jesus died, trumpism can be whatever the hell it’s followers want it to be.
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.
AWOL
@Poe Larity: “Alien.”
“Aliens” is a totally different blast from a totally different director.
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?
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
Citizen Alan
@Betty Cracker: I could not watch that all the way through. How did he get elected to any office anywhere in america with that voice?!?
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.”
Splitting Image
@Ken:
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.
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
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.
Betty Cracker
@eldorado: Some folks believe any publicity is good publicity. I think that’s bullshit.
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!).
Suzanne
FTFNYT has a piece of Mme. Puddin’ Cup’s personal fashion choices today. She manages to look wrinkled in every picture.
VFX Lurker
Minor quibble — Alien (which also showcased a glorious self-destruct explosion) premiered 44 years ago in 1979.
Aliens premiered 37 years ago in 1986.
eldorado
@Betty Cracker: i don’t think the old rules apply to whatever this current media ecosphere has devolved into now
Jerry
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
Betty Cracker
@eldorado: I think faceplants are still bad. YMMV.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
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.
Brachiator
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.
Amir Khalid
@trollhattan:
I’m embarrassed.
Brachiator
@eldorado:
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.
Cathie from Canada
Hey Betty, its nice to see you are also a believer in Barkeepers Friend and Murphy’s Oil Soap. Both are such great stuff!
Eunicecycle
@Betty Cracker: Just saw this. There’s so much Elon Musk in there! What’s he running for again?
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.
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.
evodevo
@Jerry: Loved the Detectorists…low key humor, slice of life, and archaeology all in one package…
Jerry
We just started season 2 last night
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…
bbleh
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: donate it to someplace with a lot of wood furniture that needs cleaned, like a primary school that still has wood desks or someplace that has pews.
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.
Brachiator
@C Stars:
Sounds like a toss up.
The evangelical crowd want oppression and theocracy. They don’t care who helps bring it.
rikyrah
Can we get a picture of the desk?
different-church-lady
…and then blew up the launchpad.
Frankensteinbeck
@Snarki, child of Loki:
At night, the ice weasels come.
different-church-lady
@C Stars: The troll part overrules all the other things.
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?”
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.
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.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: Wondering if (God Forbid) DeSatanis got to GQP nom, he might have that douche as VP nominee?
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: They would have pinned it on UK history’s greatest monster: Mr. Corbyn.