Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

The willow is too close to the house.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

The lights are all blinking red.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

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

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

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Archives for June 2023

Come on, man!

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What in the wide world of fuck?!? This is too dumb to be real, yet here we are:

CNN — An employee at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence drained the resort’s swimming pool last October and ended up flooding a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

While it’s unclear if the room was intentionally flooded or if it happened by mistake, the incident occurred amid a series of events that federal prosecutors found suspicious.

At least one witness has been asked by prosecutors about the flooded server room as part of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to one of the sources.

The flood allegedly happened a couple of months after the feds retrieved a cache of classified documents when they executed a warrant at Trump’s Florida dump. It sounds like maybe some people cited damaged servers as a reason they couldn’t comply with DOJ requests to view video surveillance footage showing how the purloined papers were moved around the property, whereas other employees testified that no IT assets were compromised in the pool mishap.

I don’t know what’s going to happen with this investigation, but I’m beginning to think Trump’s gargantuan stupidity will make it impossible for the DOJ not to indict him. What would he have done differently if his goal was to overcome any vestigial institutional resistance to the idea that a former POTUS should be charged with a crime? The mind reels.

Open thread.

 

 

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Musical Chairs (Attorney Style)

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I have lost track of the Trump attorneys.  James Trusty seems like a joke, and I assume that Lindsey Halligan is the attorney is the female attorney that legal twitter said was apparently hired because she’s attractive and Trump likes to have her around.

Who is John Rowley?  Can someone catch me up?

(CBS)

Attorneys representing former President Donald Trump — John Rowley, James Trusty and Lindsey Halligan — were at the Justice Department at around 10 a.m. Monday, weeks after Trump’s lawyers had requested a meeting with top federal law enforcement officials.

CBS News saw Trump’s legal team walking into the Justice Department. They did not speak as they entered the building in Washington, and they stayed for just under two hours. A person familiar with the meeting between Trump’s lawyers and the department said that Attorney General Merrick Garland did not attend.

Two people familiar with the probe said that Trump’s legal team is frustrated with how Justice Department officials have handled attorney-client matters in recent months and would likely raise their concerns on this front during Monday’s meeting, in particular, prosecutors’ discussions of related issues in front of the grand jury.

(NYT)

Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump met on Monday at the Justice Department with officials, including the special counsel Jack Smith, two weeks after requesting a meeting to discuss their concerns about Mr. Smith’s investigations into Mr. Trump, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The meeting did not include Attorney General Merrick B. Garland or Lisa O. Monaco, the deputy attorney general, and it is unclear what precise subjects were discussed. But the visit came amid indications that prosecutors in the special counsel’s office were approaching the end of their inquiry into the former president’s handling of classified documents. It also came at a time when Mr. Trump’s advisers have concluded that there might not be much more time to stave off charges, the people said.

The lawyers — James Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsey Halligan — left the Justice Department after nearly two hours. They declined to speak to reporters.

Shortly after their visit, Mr. Trump posted a message on his social media platform, Truth Social, suggesting that his legal team had at least discussed with him the possibility that he could be indicted.

“How can DOJ possibly charge me, who did nothing wrong,” Mr. Trump wrote in all capital letters.

Oh, and if anyone wants to hear the folks at Lawfare (LIVE) at 3pm Eastern today:

Open thread.

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Cheap Knock-Offs (Open Thread)

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Daily Beast editor Katie Baker wrote a snarky take-down of Ron DeSantis’s so-called “secret weapon,” his wife Casey, whom Baker calls “Walmart Melania.” That’s not really fair to Walmart. Casey DeSantis is a grubby flea market trinket angling for a Dollar General distribution deal at best.

The First Lady of Florida showed up on the campaign trail in Iowa this weekend wearing a ghastly black leather jacket—American flag on front, an alligator and the silhouette of her state on the back, with the sneering words, “Where Woke Goes to Die”—that brought to mind nothing so much as the racks of a Red State big-bin store where it would be retailing for $24.99.

Okay, that sounds about right. This part rings true too:

Jackie and JFK symbolized the opposite of vulgar pettiness—they embodied youth, energy, a commitment to moral progress in the struggle for Civil Rights, a country fresh with idealism. Not an America that was obsessed with banning books about male seahorses and rainbows, or nuking the latest Disney movie.

The smug sanctimony of Ron and Casey DeSantis reminds me of a semi-famous evangelical street preacher husband-and-wife team from back in the day: Brother Jed and Sister Cindy.

They practiced “confrontational evangelism,” haranguing university students on campuses nationwide, including at the University of Florida, where back in the late 1980s, Sister Cindy directed a jeering crowd’s attention to me as I innocently strolled past with a cigarette dangling from my lips. “I wonder what else she puts in her mouth,” she said. So rude! ;-)

Students would stop and listen to the pair because they said offensive things at high volume, really leaning into slut shaming and gay bashing. I doubt they had many converts to show for it. Basically, they were performative assholes for their knock-off Westboro Baptist deity and merch stream. Ron and Casey are performative assholes for political power and money.

While Mrs. DeSantis is failing at humanizing her grumpy lump of a husband on the campaign trail, so far, she lets her tacky outerwear and Twitter intern do the shit-talking part of the job. In that sense, she does seem Melania-like.

The third Mrs. Trump is undoubtedly a terrible person, but the few times she endorsed her horrid husband’s specific policies or hideous remarks publicly, the performances contained an element of duress, as if they were compelled via a contractual obligation to fulfill the terms of the latest pre-nup iteration.

So far, Mrs. DeSantis sticks to cloying descriptions of life with three small children in spoken remarks. She seems to lack Sister Cindy’s true-believer moxie, so I’m not sure what she’ll have left to peddle after Pudd’n Boots flames out (please FSM). Maybe she can take a turn as the designated wingnut on “The View.”

Open thread.

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Monday Morning Open Thread: Keep Fighting (As If We Had A Choice)

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… The massive Pride Month gathering marked a show of defiance this weekend in a state where librarians have been pulling gay-themed books off the shelves, teachers are no longer allowed to discuss gender identity or sexual orientation and many LGBTQ families feel under attack. Organizers said reservations at the host hotel came in slower than normal. One event — the Taste of Gay Days — was scratched after restaurateurs voiced concerns.

But the show did go on. Rainbow-hued merchandise designed by Disney — including a plush Mickey Mouse waving a Pride flag — flew off the shelves almost as quickly as it could be restocked. Drag queen bingo was held. In the end, all 1,001 rooms at the host hotel were booked, though Gay Days chief executive Joseph Clark said travel warnings from civil rights and equality groups advising against travel to Florida had impacted turnout.

“For some it’s the safety aspect, for others, they don’t want to spend money in a state that doesn’t support them,” Clark said. “My message has been, ‘We need your help here in Florida.’”

Gay Days at Disney began three decades ago to bring together LGBTQ people and families in an environment where they felt included rather than marginalized. While the entertainment giant doesn’t sponsor the event, it has welcomed hundreds of thousands of Gay Days visitors through the years, making it one of the nation’s largest Pride Month events. Travelers dress in red shirts to identify themselves while at the theme parks. There is also an LGBTQ expo, pool parties and a Miss Gay Days pageant contest at other venues nearby.

“The birth of Gay Days was really about being visible at a time when it was dangerous to be visible,” said Brandon Wolf, communications director for Equality Florida. “The same is true now.”…

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On The Road – Albatrossity – Serengeti day 2, round 1

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It’s Albatrossity Monday!  We are world travelers this week, starting in the Serengeti, then heading to France with Dextrous, South Carolina with Raven, and Colorado with cope.  We finish off the week with lashonharangue in Tanzania!

Remember, you don’t have to be somewhere exotic to send in a submission!  Local color is fun, too.

Albatrossity

Our second day in the Serengeti was spectacular. Both mammals and birds continued to amaze!

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On The Road - Albatrossity - Serengeti day 2, round 1 9
Serengeti National ParkMay 20, 2018

The day started with these two zebras engaging in a bit of horseplay as the sun came up. Still pictures cannot do this scene justice, so here is a video with some other creatures in the foreground and in the background. Click here for larger image.

A Couple Weeks Into the Diet

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Tonight’s Dinner: Curried shrimp with riced cauliflower.

A Couple Weeks Into the Diet

So far I have dropped over ten lbs, and I feel a lot better. It’s taken some tweaking, but I’m now in a comfortable place regarding food choices and scheduling.

For me, the biggest problem was that initially we had me set up for three meals a day, and that just does not work for me. I don’t eat like that, I never have, and I never will. If I wake up and have breakfast, no matter what it is, I just want to go back to sleep. All I want in the morning is drinks. I am rarely, if ever, hungry until at noon earliest (assuming I get up around 7-9). Basically, the most I can do a day is two meals- something in the early afternoon, then a dinner, then a little grazing before bed.

The whole three meals a day thing is just shit made up to accommodate religion, anyway. It has nothing to do with your actual body. My dietary needs will not be trammelled by religious practices.

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Medium Cool – Best Mystery Genres!

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Medium Cool – Best Mystery Genres!

 

I know there are lots of mystery lovers here, and I am one of them.  So tonight let’s talk about the best mystery genres, with an eye toward featuring some of those sub-genres on future Medium Cool posts.

Let’s nominate / discuss / consider the various sub-genres of mysteries and which are your favorites, and then we can argue for / fight about / debate which ones are the best.

If you are passionate about a particular sub-genre of mystery and you would be interested in writing something up to get us started talking about your favorite sub-genre of mystery, send me an email and let us know in the comments.

 

For tonight, I’m going to let CaseyL start the conversation with her comment from last December.

My hand is up waving, in enthusiastic support for a Medium Cool focus on mysteries.

Mystery is one of my main fiction genres, and one of the things I love about the genre is its infinite capacity for hybridization with other genres.  Way beyond the “hard boiled” v. “cozy,” mysteries can be historical (including alt.historical), romantical, and science fictional.  About my only requirement is that, whatever logic the universe in that mystery operates on, it be consistent.

I’m a particular sucker for historical mysteries.  They’re everywhere and everywhen: Medieval Europe, Tudor/Elizabethan England, Ancient Egypt… I think there are even some set in pre-Columbian America. I love Lindsey Davis’ books set in Imperial Rome.  She does an excellent job of milieu-building, so that you can get a feel for what everyday life was like.  I’ve hopped around some of the other historicals, and enjoyed them, but none have made the impression Davis has.

Then there are the mysteries set in other countries and cultures, so the reader gets to learn something about those other countries and cultures.  Donne Leon lived in Venice for over 30 years, and reading her mysteries has a poignance beyond the books themselves, as she unwittingly chronicled how Venice became unliveable (slowly, then quickly) for residents who weren’t ultra wealthy, with her main characters noting, and lamenting, the social, environmental, and economic changes as they happened.

TL;DR: you can do anything within the structure of a mystery.  It’ll be fun to talk about!

So, BJ peeps, what’s your favor sub-genre of mystery?

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