Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Republicans in disarray!

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Friday Morning Open Thread: Summer Simmer

Friday Morning Open Thread: Summer Simmer

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Via the Washington Post‘s Petula Dvorak, from Obama’s summer playlist. In reference to:


 
The always smart & readable Julia Ioffe, for Puck, on gatekeeping foreign affairs at the Aspen Civility Security Forum — “Where the Wild Things Are”:

The Security Forum has always been about Blobby chumminess, but this year, when the ranks of corporate sponsors—and attendees—ballooned and when the organizers made a concerted effort at bipartisanship, it seemed, at times, to go a little too far. The British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, a Tory, was interviewed by Fox News’s Martha MacCallum—as I heard, on the embassy’s insistence.

It made for quite the bizarre conversation, with MacCallum asking Cleverly about sources of disinformation and, later, Cleverly waxing philosophical about why more Americans don’t support Ukraine, as if a representative of one of the main outlets undermining that support—and sowing disinformation—weren’t sitting right next to him…

And then there were the interviews, which could be so friendly as to be pointless. How, when you have the director of the C.I.A. on stage with you at a foreign policy conference for a very limited amount of time, do you ask him, “Is there any aspect of your job that’s fun?” How do you have the Secretary of State for a one-on-one interview, and with all that’s going on in the world, ask him extensively what he thinks about women’s soccer? Then again, it’s how you demonstrate to the principals that they will be treated well here, like the humans that they are, nothing too mean or challenging, and that they should come back next year. Which, given the Aspen Security Forum’s aspirations to become the American version of the Munich Security Conference, would make sense.

But beneath this thick schmear of civility, there was, of course, drama…

Just outside, NBC colleagues were hugging a furious Andrea Mitchell. (Mitchell, who is 76, is a kind of doyenne of foreign policy journalists—in part because, despite her stature, she still acts like a hungry cub reporter one-third her age—and conducts most of the highest profile interviews at Aspen.) A minute earlier, having absolutely no idea what was going on and just saying hihowyadoin to her, Mitchell frowned deeply and said, “bad” and gestured to all this. Right at that moment, newly minted NBC natsec editor David Rohde stepped in with comfort. “I’ve never been angrier in my 45 years” in the business, Mitchell fumed.

The reason for her fury, it turned out, was that she was supposed to conduct the interview with Volodymyr Zelensky, billed as a special anonymous guest, on the conference’s last day. But Zelensky’s people insisted on having CNN’s Fareed Zakaria do the interview and the Aspen people didn’t back Mitchell up, even though NBC was an official partner of the forum—and CNN wasn’t. Said one fellow journalist, shaking their head, “You just don’t do that to Andrea Mitchell.”


Welcome home, WaterGirl!


 
This is *not* gonna make President Biden’s walk-on list… but it has a good beat, you can dance to it:

Reader Interactions

252Comments

  4. 4.

    raven

    Ah yes, Appomattox, the home town of my bride where the sign coming into town says “Where the Nation Reunited”!

  6. 6.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    Fuck Mrs Greenspan. She’s a nepo retention who should have been shitcanned decades ago. Every croak and cackle features a meaningless reductive hot take. I find her neither knowledgeable nor informative; she adds no value to anything she covers, and infests a spot that a brighter, more educated and enlightened younger person could easily handle.

  7. 7.

    hueyplong

    Future waitstaff at the Home are on notice of what’s in store if they present the wrong color gelatin to Miss Andrea.

  11. 11.

    mrmoshpotato

    Stonekettle really puts all of the crazy into one nice, neat, gag-inducing package.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    This is *not* gonna make President Biden’s walk-on list

    I actually wouldn’t take that bet. Maybe just the music without the lyrics.

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack

    @Elizabelle:

    [. . .] she still acts like a hungry cub reporter one-third her age.

    The idea that Andrea Mitchell is still some hard-hitting, incisive interviewer is preposterous. (I’m not sure she ever was.)

  14. 14.

    p.a.

    @raven: Ah yes, Appomattox, the home town of my bride where the sign coming into town says “Where the Nation Reunited”!

     

     

    Gotta be from the Chamber of Commerce, 1950’s style!

  16. 16.

    Kay

    Democrats should be perfectly comfortable challenging Right wing education policy- most parents are Democrats and most people support public schools:

    To hear prominent Republicans tell it, theirs is the party of parents. This is somewhere downstream from Donald Trump’s eagerness to turn the corner on the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, which intertwined with parents’ frustration about their kids not being in school. After President Biden was inaugurated, the party and its media allies elevated and stoked parental discontent about how race was taught and gender addressed in schools.

    As he’s tried to find his footing in his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis has attempted to leverage these appeals to parenthood. He’s been an advocate for Moms for Liberty, a right-wing organization that’s been identified as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. His wife, Casey, has been at the forefront of a subset of supporters of his campaign, dubbed “Mamas for DeSantis.”

    Given all of that, you would be forgiven for assuming that parents — and mothers in particular — are a central component of Republican or conservative politics. And perhaps the goal is that someday they might be. But right now? Mothers are much more blue than red.

    Among those with kids under 18, the gap was narrower but still existent: They were 22 points more likely to be Democrats than Republicans (and more likely to be moderate). It was only parents with at least one child over 17 where party identification was about equal. They were more likely to be conservative Republicans than liberal Democrats by nine percentage points.

    There’s an obvious factor at play here: age. Nine in 10 of those who had kids under 18 in the 2021 GSS were 45 or younger. Nine in 10 of those who had at least one adult child were over 45. And the older Americans are, the more likely they are to be Republicans or conservatives.

    The results above are also intermingled with gender. Among women, even those with adult kids are about 10 points more likely to be Democrats than Republicans. Among men, those with adult kids are nine points more likely to be Republican. This data comports with analysis published Tuesday by Chalkbeat, an outlet focused on education. Looking at a number of polls, it found that dissatisfaction with schools isn’t driven by the parents who have kids but by those without kids in school.

  17. 17.

    Brachiator

    The reason for her fury, it turned out, was that she was supposed to conduct the interview with Volodymyr Zelensky, billed as a special anonymous guest, on the conference’s last day. But Zelensky’s people insisted on having CNN’s Fareed Zakaria do the interview and the Aspen people didn’t back Mitchell up…

    This just emphasizes what bullshit political journalism is at a certain level. This is much like show business reporters at the press junket for a movie premiere angry that they are not getting to interview Tom Hanks.

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    Said one fellow journalist, shaking their head, “You just don’t do that to Andrea Mitchell.”

    Nobody puts Mrs. Greenspan in a corner?

  20. 20.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    That little story about Mrs Greenspan is why her tumbrel number is always consistently in the Top 5.

    To paraphrase Charlie Pierce:

    “When the Smithsonian opens it’s American Museum of Feckless Journalism, Mrs Greenspan will have a statue in the lobby alongside Maureen Down and David Brooks.”

  23. 23.

    Kay

    The emails, sure, but Andrea Mitchell was also horrible on Benghazi, supposedly her area of expertise.

  24. 24.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    People place too much importance on the Virginia governor’s race, IMO

    But in this instance it may have saved the country from Ron DeSantis so…

  25. 25.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: “Party of parents” comes from the appeal to religious evangelicals, who have always believed they own “family values”, and is code for authoritarian natalism and opposition to reproductive rights and LGBT rights. They get to define who counts as a parent and which parents are the parent-est.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Oh, I’m sure some of that is “behind” this in a larger sense but for this particular smear I think they were just blindly following Rufo and also the mainstream anti-woke ninnies who joined in the panic.

    Polling has never supported the idea that parents were angry at or blamed public schools for pandemic closures. It never has. I have to assume that idea came from elite opinion,because it wasn’t parents.

    Public schools are majority – minority now. It isn’t 1993. They’re blacker and browner than the older population.

  28. 28.

    lowtechcyclist

    If Jack Smith ever gave me that look, I’d be going, “I confess! I confess!” even if I had nothing to confess to.

  32. 32.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Kay:

    On an amusing note, DeSanctimonious is within a pubic hair of calling Byron Donalds “uppity”, so we’ve got that going for us, which is nice.

  34. 34.

    matt

    Ridiculous idiot Andrea Mitchell getting what’s coming to her – priceless. She should retire.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:

    lol. I saw that.

    I can’t find it now but there’s a clip of DeSantis trying to communicate with a child going around. She’s holding a frozen treat and The Weirdo sort of confronts her on it “what IS that?” She tells him and he says in that awful, nasally voice “that’s a lot of sugar, isn’t it?”

    Just this unpleasant encounter. She was minding her own business eating a snowcone and here comes the destroyer of fun to criticize.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    DeMeatball did a town hall in Iowa yesterday, and one of the questions was about AI.

    “So, you have some of these big AI companies, a lot of their data, you know, is more woke. It does have a little bit of a political agenda. And so, there’s a lot of power to it.”

    Noun, verb, WOKE.

  38. 38.

    matt

    @Betty Cracker: They’re saying the data is woke I guess because they’re training text engines not to make racial slurs. Anti-anti-racism is their #1 issue.

  42. 42.

    Brachiator

    What an odd WaPo article.

    Using data from the 2021 iteration of the national General Social Survey (GSS), I found that those without children were 32 points more likely to identify as Democrats than Republicans, most of them identifying as liberal Democrats.

    A really tortured analysis. “Those without children” are not parents, so I am not clear why this group is even being included in a story that is mainly about parents and GOP education policy. Also, it’s not even clear from the wording that the author is talking about married people, single or divorced people, etc.

    Among those with kids under 18, the gap was narrower but still existent: They were 22 points more likely to be Democrats than Republicans (and more likely to be moderate). It was only parents with at least one child over 17 where party identification was about equal. They were more likely to be conservative Republicans than liberal Democrats by nine percentage points.

    This is more interesting, and more clearly indicates support for Democrats. But clearly age is an issue here. The gender breakdown is significant, and I wonder how this might look if you also broke things down by ethnicity.

    Ultimately, the GOP is going after angry old white people, and this group may be more receptive to the bullshit that the GOP is pushing.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Brachiator: Also, it’s not even clear from the wording that the author is talking about married people, single or divorced people, etc.

    You noticed that too, eh?

  44. 44.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Kay:

    He doesn’t seem to be a person that would be fun to spend time with, right? No warmth, no empathy. Like the bloated orange mediocrity, all his relationships seem transactional, with no network of old neighborhood or school friends. Unlike Trump, however, even his transactional acquaintances seem sullen and resigned to working on his behalf.

    I like to think his staffers are beyond miserable.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    @Baud:

    Actually they fell for the Frank Luntz approved BULLSHYT language.

    Now that he’s been in office and revealed himself to be what he is….

     

    The advantage is that they all.have shown what they are. And continue to show what.they are.

     

    I am still enraged 🤬 by that story out of Houston and how the GOP.newly installed cronies on the board of education are firing librarians in the POC schools and turning libraries into DISCIPLINE CENTERS 🤬🤬

    I wish one of the FrontPagers would.highlight this story.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    that’s a lot of sugar, isn’t it

     
    Too obscure to nominate?

    here comes the destroyer of fun to criticize.

    Now I Am Become DeSantis, the Destroyer of Woke

  50. 50.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    Also, Casey DeSantis gives off Betty Grissom (“The Right Stuff”) vibes about wanting to meet Jackie and talk about things….

  51. 51.

    sdhays

    @Baud: Is it, though? It’s true that “CRT” was a centerpiece of his campaign, but that was when the CRT “panic” was a new thing and I think it functioned, at best, as a distraction. Since it was new, it was whatever anyone wanted it to be. It drove turnout among Republicans and confused everyone else. McAuliffe ran a weak campaign and Afghanistan collapsed.

    Seriously, I think Youngkin won because of Afghanistan. The other factors were there, but the massive turn on Biden was when the polls started showing Youngkin could win.

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

     

    I need someone to clarify something for me.
    Dolt45 ‘s lawyers went to see Jack Smith yesterday.
    When they got there…Jack pulled out the joker and told them…we know your client tried to erase video .
    And sent them on their way?

  54. 54.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I am still enraged 🤬 by that story out of Houston and how the GOP.newly installed cronies on the board of education are firing librarians in the POC schools and turning libraries into DISCIPLINE CENTERS 🤬🤬

    I think there will be pushback from parents though, because (as you know) the “school to prison pipeline” issue with AA kids and “education reformers” turning schools into juvenile detention centers was super hot prior to covid. It never really got resolved. I imagine AA parents are going to raise it again now that covid is over.

  55. 55.

    eclare

    OMG Barbie was awesome!  It addressed so much women put up with.  And Ryan Gosling was amazing, he committed to Ken.

  56. 56.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah:

    I am still enraged 🤬 by that story out of Houston and how the GOP.newly installed cronies on the board of education are firing librarians in the POC schools and turning libraries into DISCIPLINE CENTERS 🤬🤬

    That’s just fucking horrible. There ain’t no other word.

    OK, there are other words. Despicable, abominable…

    I wish one of the FrontPagers would.highlight this story.

    Seconded.

  58. 58.

    sdhays

    @Baud: I’m just saying, the fact that it was a part of the successful Youngkin campaign doesn’t mean it was actually a major factor in his win. A component, yes, but that one data point doesn’t support it being a juggernaut of an issue, and subsequent elections, as people have started to understand what’s going on, haven’t demonstrated it as a good issue for Republicans nationally.

    If it was useful, and perhaps it was, it was because the opposition to it wasn’t fully formed yet. It’s a different environment now (and Virginia state and local elections are weird anyway since they’re all off-year elections with typically low turnout).

  59. 59.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Kay: Wait. Are they using “discipline” as in discipline and punishment? I thought they meant “discipline” as in courses of study. So the library would be a center for disciplinary knowledge?

    @eclare: Right! And it was fun.

  60. 60.

    eclare

    So fun!

    The ticket experience was weird.  I had my email ticket on my phone, and I showed it when I got popcorn, but there was no one checking as I went into the specific theater.  So is this all on an honor system now?

    Maybe someone checks at night but not for an afternoon show?

  62. 62.

    Spanky

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I thought they meant “discipline” as in courses of study. So the library would be a center for disciplinary knowledge?

    C’Mon, Dorothy! This is the right wing we’re talking about.

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Rest assured they are miserable — check out this 2021 Politico article: “Scarred DeSantis staffers form a support group.”

    @Brachiator: I assume the reason parents with kids 17 and older are more GOP leaning is because the parents are following the common trend of aging into conservativism. (A trend bucked at this blog daily!)

    Without looking at the data myself, I wonder what’s behind nonparents remaining comparatively more liberal. Could be LGBTQ folks are overrepresented in that group. Could be that not having a mouthy teenager around delineating your faults daily allows more adults to retain their idealism.

  64. 64.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    The Houston Independent School District, the largest in Texas and the eighth-largest in the United States, will eliminate librarian positions in 28 schools and turn libraries into what are being called “discipline centers,” according to Click2Houston.
    KHOU reports libraries at those 28 schools “will be repurposed into ‘team centers’ where students who had to be removed from class due to behavioral issues will be placed to watch their class virtually.”

    Houston Independent School District contains 276 schools and 196,943 students. The district’s minority enrollment is 90%. Also, 59.4% of students are economically disadvantaged.

    I don’t think there’s wide recognition among white people how the student body of public schools has changed – they’re more diverse than the country as a whole, because, younger. Focusing on white conservative parents with this CRT bullshit just doesn’t reflect the reality of US public schools.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: One theory — being a parent requires you to socialize with the parents of your kid’s social network and that community dynamic creates the conditions for a conservative mindset.

    Alternatively, maybe conservatives are less likely to be able to resist the social pressure to have kids.

  67. 67.

    Ken

    @Kay: His employees seem almost poisoned to me, they’re so soaked in that toxic Right wing online culture.

    It’s just barely possible that the mainstream media will notice this, what with the Nazi imagery in his ads.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    @eclare

    Necessary to apply for and receive a Matron’s License (and accompanying badge) when I was employed as a movie theater usher back when if wanted to work during matinees.

    Yes, a as young male I was officially recognized as a Matron.

  69. 69.

    narya

    @eclare: I might have to go see this in a theater after all. And I might drag my (male) friend with me, just for grins.

  70. 70.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: There’s a sort of doomer line I see a lot on political blogs in which someone links to a story about radicalized Nazi white youth and says “Demographics will not save us!” Maybe demographics won’t save us. But the missing piece there is that white youth are a smaller fraction of the whole population.

  71. 71.

    eclare

    @narya:

    You should!  It is fun, but wowza, within ten minutes I could see why RWNJ’s hate it.  And you def need to see Ken on a big screen!

  75. 75.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Said one fellow journalist, shaking their head, “You just don’t do that to Andrea Mitchell.”

    I mean, why not? Why not do that to Andrea Mitchell? What kind of power does Mitchell have other than to feel offended that her interviewee wanted someone else to do the interview? This is a problem with that level of American journalism…it’s all a clique where people are more interested in jockeying for access and prestige, which signals their place in the hierarchy.

    @marklar: Good one, and apropos. I need to watch that movie again sometime. I really liked it when I saw it in the theater back when it came out but don’t think I’ve ever rewatched it.

  76. 76.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Said one fellow journalist, shaking their head, “You just don’t do that to Andrea Mitchell.”

    I mean, why not? Why not do that to Andrea Mitchell? What kind of power does Mitchell have other than to feel offended that her interviewee wanted someone else to do the interview? This is a problem with that level of American journalism…it’s all a clique where people are only interested in jockeying for access and prestige, which signals their place in the hierarchy.

    @marklar: Good one, and apropos. I need to watch that movie again sometime. I really liked it when I saw it in the theater back when it came out but don’t think I’ve ever rewatched it.

  78. 78.

    Betty Cracker

    @Matt McIrvin: I think that line of doomerism is probably overplayed too, but there are troubling signs that radicalized right-wing youth aren’t just white kids.

  79. 79.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I have to assume that idea came from elite opinion,because it wasn’t parents.

    I think it came mostly from conservative pundits, who thought teachers and other adults who are in schools should be willing to risk their lives just to have schools open during a pandemic to make things be more “normal”. It always amazed me that these pundits didn’t seem to have any clue that a) there are a lot of adults in schools and b) it’s hard to have in-person school when there aren’t enough teachers who aren’t sick to even have classes. It was an impossible situation with no good solution; I think most parents believe the school systems did the best they could under the circumstances, while conservative pundits think it was all a liberal plot to allow teachers to be lazy or something. The teachers I knew said doing on-line schooling was actually harder than being in the classroom in person! I was happy when we found that whether or not you had in-person school sooner or later didn’t make any difference in student achievement; I’m sure the pundits still think it did.

  80. 80.

    Josie

    @Kay: ​
    The way this story is written makes it sound as if the Houston ISD is doing this. Actually the ISD was taken over by the state (Abbott), the original board was tossed and an autocratic crony was put in charge of the district. It was a totally political move and not what the citizens of Houston voted for. The Republicans have it in for Harris County in general due to our propensity to vote heavily Democratic. They are also screwing with our ability to have free and fair elections.

    ETA:https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/20/Harris-county-elections-law-challenges/

  83. 83.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Elizabelle: No sympathy? Hell, it’s making my morning just thinking of that twit losing her shit over something exactly like this.

    – Your cash is good at the bar.
    – What? Do you know who I am?
    – I do. You’re lucky the bar is open to you.
    – This is outrageous! I shall report it to The Angriff!

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    @eclare

    This was during the 1960s. Things may well have changed since.

    Clip-on laminated badge to be worn only when working matinees. Evening shows, no such requirement nor any license. Still have the badge, inside a box of jumbled lesser memorabilia.

  85. 85.

    Jeffro

    Speaking of Ukraine…Marc “the hack’s hack” Thiessen had a piece up (briefly, mercifully) in the Post yesterday reaching for every scrap of evidence he could make up find that GOP voters still support Ukraine and aren’t all like pro-Putin and shit.

    (no link needed, that was really all it said)

    I thought it was interesting that he felt the need to waste use his valuable Post real estate to throw that out there.  Really defensive stuff.  Why, it’s almost like the pro-Putin House GOP makes the party look…pro-Putin.  And pro-Putin just as the Ukrainian counteroffensive is gaining steam.  And when credit for all of that just might land in the lap of one Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.

    Hmm.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare: If I didn’t hate theaters so, I’d go see it for that reason alone. As is I’ll wait for the DVD.

  87. 87.

    Ken

    @Betty Cracker: @Matt McIrvin: I am reminded of an old study that appeared to show women became more pigeon-toed as they grew older. On a second look, it was because young women had once been taught to walk that way in that culture, but that was no longer done — so of course older women had a higher incidence than younger.

    I’m not saying that explains everything about these studies, but it seems plausible that the age split reflects a change in what these people were taught when they were young.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: I think I’d prefer a racially diverse radicalized right wing over an all-white radicalized right wing.

    Of course, I also think the former is unlikely to happen given the internal inconsistency.

  92. 92.

    Tony G

    Putting aside, for the moment, the Confederate/Fascist politics — what is the deal with the cowboy hats on these middle-class/exurban doofuses?  A little boy playing dressup, who never grew up.

  94. 94.

    Brachiator

    @Soprano2:

    I think it came mostly from conservative pundits, who thought teachers and other adults who are in schools should be willing to risk their lives just to have schools open during a pandemic to make things be more “normal”.

    Yep. In both the US and the UK, conservatives were more likely to dismiss the pandemic as no big deal, and were more likely to believe that schools and businesses should have remained open.

    If DeSantis is still around during the first primary debates, he will insist that he would never interfere with schools or businesses if we have another public health crisis.

  96. 96.

    Central Planning

    @Jeffro:

    …credit for all of that just might land in the lap of one Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.

    🎵 Extra value is what you get, when you vote Robinette! 🎵

  97. 97.

    NotMax

    Lost in the hoo-ha over yesterday’s superseding indictments was the petition Dolt 45’s (and Nauta’s) lawyers submitted to Cannon, asking that instead of the mandated by law protective restrictions regarding access to classified materials only in a SCIF, they be allowed to pore over and discuss them at home.

    1) Nauta has no business reviewing any classified material at all, whether inside a SCIF or not.
    2) Releasing such documents from the chain of custody is, frankly, unheard of.
    .
    I expect even Cannon cannot and shall not swallow this swill.

  98. 98.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Cameron:

    Hell, I wonder how those kids even happened in the first place.  Artificial insemination? The gardener? Some gym rando?

  99. 99.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Brachiator:

    Yep. In both the US and the UK, conservatives were more likely to dismiss the pandemic as no big deal,

    And that got more of them killed disproportionately in relation to other factors. I wish they would be smarter, better human beings. Their stupidity and awfulness harm the rest of us. However, at least they harm themselves just a little bit more.

    I’m thankful for tender mercies.

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    @Brachiator: Yeah, we’re doomed if any crisis that requires collective action takes place with that meatball head in charge. That said, I hope his fellow presidential aspirants don’t let him get away with lying about what he did during the pandemic.

    To hear him talk now, you’d think DeSantis never closed schools or businesses and always hated vaccines. Not true. He did shut FL down (belatedly, but it happened), and he redirected at least some early shipment of vaccines to wealthy donor enclaves.

  101. 101.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @NotMax: Trump having the docs in his home is what started this in the first place. Plus, we’ve all seen the pics of him on the dining patio conducting presidential business. You can imagine him sending a waiter to get a file from his desk.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    Without looking at the data myself, I wonder what’s behind nonparents remaining comparatively more liberal.

    Nonparents might be too large or to undefined to compare to other groups. It might include more younger people, students, and possibly more gay people.

    Of course, these days I wonder how many gay people are parents.

  103. 103.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @eclare: Sorry ’bout that.

    Barbie is one of the most radical films of 2023, and–even better–it’s making a shitload of money, thereby establishing Gerwig as a major player in Hollywood.

  104. 104.

    piratedan

    @Jeffro: Mitchell has always let her own supposed self-importance drive her “journalism”.  She’s barely a cut above Mags Haberman, as she’s high on her own insiderdom versus being lampreyed onto the GOP.

  107. 107.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    He did shut FL down (belatedly, but it happened), and he redirected at least some early shipment of vaccines to wealthy donor enclaves.

    Wow. I did not know that DeSantis shut Florida down. I thought I read stories suggesting that he “bravely” defied the CDC. I DO recall his hiring a state health officer who didn’t seem to be particularly qualified.

    But I did see stories about his getting the vaccine to wealthy residents. I despised him for this before I knew more about him and his policies. I would love to hear him explain this.

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker:

    He did shut FL down (belatedly, but it happened), and he redirected at least some early shipment of vaccines to wealthy donor enclaves.

    I would also bet a large amount of money that he and Casey got their shots and boosters according to Fauci’s recommendations.

    Though I acknowledge that by speculating thusly I am, according to RW rules, violating their constitutional HIPPO rights.

  109. 109.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Did you read the comments on that story? Lots and lots of “good, they can’t read anyway” and “they probably don’t use the library anyway, may as well use the space for the bad kids”. You can’t tell, but I’d bet money most of those comments come from older white people. They’re making a big deal out of the fact that there will still be books there. Sure, and who wants to go to the library where they’re warehousing all of the worst behavior problems? That’s going to be a really welcoming environment for readers. /s/s/s/s/s/s

  111. 111.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Kay: One of the notable take-aways from Mothers of Massive Resistance, Mothers of Conservatism and It Happened In Pasadena (three books all about right-wing activism campaigns that targeted schools, curricula, integration, etc.) was how these things were always the result of a tiny sliver of angry parents not the majority.  Conservative activists across the US helped amplify them (via Newsletters and Letters-To-Editors in local papers) and give the appearance of a widespread movement with Millions of parents sharing their sentiments, but it was always a very small number of people.  It’s the same thing now where the outrage comes from a handful of right-wing, activist parents, many who don’t even live in the district.  But it’s a play that has historically been quite effective for slowing down progressive education in America.  I wish I knew a One-Weird-Trick solution but I can’t think of one.  These assholes have always been a problem…

  113. 113.

    Geminid

    @sdhays: There was a 12 point swing from Biden’s 10 point win in 2020 and Youngkin’s 2 point win the year after. I think that result was what I’ve learned sociologists would call “multiply determined:” it turned on several factors that were by themselves insufficient to effect the result but were collectively decisive. I think Hilary Clinton’s loss was similarly multiply determined.

    The CRT issue worked for Youngkin as a means to rally the Republican base, without pounding the abortion and gun rights issues that he had to keep n the background if he was to win. I think normie voters just scratched their heads at the emphasis on CRT, but Republican voters heard the dog whistle loud and clear.

    The really important lesson was that Virginia Democrats cannot be complacent if they want to win, and I think we’ve learned it. We’ll all see if this is so in November’s General Assembly elections.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Black and brown parents were more cautious re: covid and kids than white parents were – I suspect because at the beginning of the pandemic their communities got hit harder than white communities did – which made them more closely aligned with “their” schools on closures, which is actually how it’s supposed to work.

    Public schools are supposed to reflect the people they serve, not the opinions of NYTimes columnists.

  115. 115.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin:  But the missing piece there is that white youth are a smaller fraction of the whole population.

    You can tell this if you pay attention to advertising – it’s a lot less “white” than it used to be, because they’re trying to reach young people. I think it hasn’t sunk in to most Americans that this is happening, but advertisers know it because it’s their job to know. I’ve had older white people complain to me about this – “Why are there so many ads with black people in them?” is a representative complaint.

  116. 116.

    Cameron

    @Brachiator: If you just looked at his Surgeon General’s CV, you’d think he’d scored big-time.  Then you look at what this bozo actually believes…..

  117. 117.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ken: The one like that that I always think of is the study showing that left-handedness took an alarming number of years off your life expectancy. They concluded this by working backward from obituaries. But that meant that people who died older had a bias toward living further in the past, when most children were forced to become right-handed.

    There was a Family Research Council paper about how being gay kills you that had the same problem–but it also came out in the middle of the AIDS pandemic, and at a time when being gay was still far more stigmatized than it is today, so there were obvious causal effects on top of the statistical bias.

  119. 119.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: They notice the change in advertising, though, and old white people think it is some kind of nefarious conspiracy.

  120. 120.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @The Thin Black Duke: And while some bemoan the fact that the film gives Ken too much attention, I think Gerwig’s choice to use him (and the other Kens) to illustrate second-class citizenship, trophy-partnerism, and the way that Patriarchy actually boxes Boys/Men in too, was freaking brilliant and took a lot of guts.  The focus of the movie isn’t Ken or Barbie, it’s Patriarchy.  And I can’t think of a movie that takes such dead-aim at Patriarchy and does so with so much cleverness and fun.  I’m glad she made the movie SHE wanted to make.

  121. 121.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    The “kids these days are dumber” is another misunderstanding by older white people. The standardized tests they take now are much more difficult than the tests we took. Their “proficient” would be “advanced” 30 years ago. So they can read. It’s just that we set the bar higher for them under this “high expectations” theory that ed reformers like Arne Duncan believe in.

  123. 123.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Tony G: He really does look like a weak person, doesn’t he? Sort of the opposite of, say, Garth Brooks. Brooks wears a cowboy hat a lot too (many in that genre do), but arguably conducts himself like a normal adult.

  124. 124.

    M31

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: You can imagine him sending a waiter to get a file from his desk.

    “Hey! Get me another Diet Coke, with extra ice this time, and just grab that folder labeled “Iran War Plans NOFORN” wouldja”

  125. 125.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @eclare: There are no accidents.

    I enjoy reading movie criticism, but what usually dictates the movies I watch are the directors. Little Women and Lady Bird let me know that Gerwig depicted women intelligently, so I trusted her that Barbie was going to be more than an exploitative, one-dimensional toy commercial.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    About 10 years ago public schools “tipped” nationally to majority minority. It was national news. I was shocked at how many of my older clients mentioned it to me, clearly rattled. I thought at the time “oh, this is going to be rough”

    Change is hard :)

  128. 128.

    NobodySpecial

    Public schools are majority – minority now. It isn’t 1993. They’re blacker and browner than the older population.

    This is, of course, exactly why they’re hammering public schools so hard. The GOP is chock full of folks who fled public schools to self-teach or put their kids in Murican Madrassas and can’t deal with the fact that a well educated public school child will run educational rings around their half educated Liberty U targets.

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    @Josie:

    The way this story is written makes it sound as if the Houston ISD is doing this. Actually the ISD was taken over by the state (Abbott), the original board was tossed and an autocratic crony was put in charge of the district.

    That’s why I was asking if this was the district that was taken over. I had a hard time believing that an elected school board with a large minority student population would do this.

  130. 130.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: My husband says that kids today have to be smarter because the stuff they’re working with, like computers, is harder to understand. For example, what it means to be a mechanic has changed a lot in 50 years. It used to be just about “turning wrenches”, now it’s a lot more about computers and electronics.

    I’ve read that every generation they have to revise the difficulty of the I.Q. test upward about 10-15 points in order to keep the scores “even” with each generation. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I read about it a long time ago.

  131. 131.

    Brachiator

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Barbie is one of the most radical films of 2023, and–even better–it’s making a shitload of money, thereby establishing Gerwig as a major player in Hollywood.

    I am glad that Barbie is making a bunch of money. I wouldn’t care if it were mindless fun, although I can’t imagine Gerwig making a dumb movie.

    I was riding home on the bus the other day and overheard an older white guy declare that he would never see the Barbie movie, that in fact he would go see Mission Impossible before he would see Barbie, even though he hated “that Tom Cruise guy.”

    It was like he was afraid that watching Barbie might shrink his genitals.

    I have fallen out of movie going since the pandemic, but might make an exception to catch Barbie in the theaters. I love Nolan and also want to see Oppenheimer, but I can’t sit through a 3 hour movie at the theaters.

    It’s funny. I wouldn’t mind seeing both Barbie and Oppenheimer on the big IMAX screens. From the trailer, Barbie seemed to be a visual delight.

  132. 132.

    Betty Cracker

    Front page article at today’s Orlando Sentinel:

    New law shields DeSantis’ use of state vehicles to campaign

    TALLAHASSEE — If it hadn’t been for a fender bender on Interstate 75 near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Tuesday morning, most folks wouldn’t know that Gov. Ron DeSantis was using state government vehicles for his 2024 run for president.

    Tuesday’s four-vehicle collision on the way to a campaign fundraiser draws a curtain back on the campaign’s use of state resources. But finding out who’s paying for it is nearly impossible thanks to a new law passed by the Legislature to protect the governor’s travel records from public view.

    “The legislature has enabled him to hide his travel records so we don’t know and have no way to hold him accountable if he is using state resources in his campaign or if that is even the case,” said Ben Wilcox, research director for Integrity Florida, a nonprofit government watchdog.

    My hope is that DeSantis flames out of the primary so spectacularly that it dooms his presidential aspirations forever AND makes him persona non grata in Florida so he can’t run for a US Senate seat in the future. His approval ratings here are down.

  133. 133.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @UncleEbeneezer: Great analysis.

    Ironically, the angry right-wing white guys attacking Barbie for being “anti-male” are too clueless to realize that their ridiculous performative nonsense that they’re acting out in public (burning Barbie dolls, etc.) is the hyper-masculine behavior that Gerwig is satirizing in the movie.

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Barbie made its money back in the first weekend.

    THE.FIRST.WEEKEND.

     

    AND, a whole lot of people went to see Oppenheimer because of Barbieheimer.

     

    Peanut did.

    Barbieheimer is how they got a 15 year old Black girl to see a movie about the American creator of nuclear bombs. And, the friends she dragged with her.

    That’s $$$ they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten.

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: the Never Trumpers at the Bulwark are taking bets as to whether he drops out before or after Iowa, and who will take second or third, Scott or Ramaswamy, if De Santis stays in and finishes fourth.

  139. 139.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Matt McIrvin: Also, the reason the other side is trying so hard to get white kids indoctrinated into Conservatism very young is because they see that the young white people have never been more progressive, Anti-Racist, Feminist, pro-LGBTQ, etc. and interested in knowing real history.

  141. 141.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Yeah, here they’re still majority white just because our population in this city is still so white. Our population is 85% white, which is 10 points whiter than the state of MO. Even here things are changing, because not that long ago it was more than 90% white. In 2000, the population of Greene County was 92% white, and Springfield has the vast majority of Greene County residents.

  143. 143.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @The Thin Black Duke: MILD MOVIE SPOILER BELOW!!!:

    Did you happen to catch the quick cut to Ken waving a big flagpole on the courthouse steps just like an Insurrectionist?  (Chef’s kiss)

  144. 144.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: +1

    “Vote for me ’cause I’m big and strong and powerful and am the only person who can do the job!”

    And

    “Imma take a year or two off from my current elected position to run for a different office because there’s no need for me to be doing my job in my state suffering – largely as a consequence of my actions – from an insurance crisis, climate change effects, lack of workers, issues with recovery from previous hurricanes while waiting for the next ones, lack of tourists, a teacher crisis, etc., etc.”

    I hope the normies are watching and taking notes!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  145. 145.

    delphinium

    @eclare: ​
    Don’t know if you ever saw Lars and the Real Girl, but Gosling was really good in that. The story could have easily slid into ‘creepy’ but he helped sell it as more sweet story along with the rest of the cast.

  148. 148.

    Soprano2

    @rikyrah: This is the best thing about it, because that’s what Hollywood people pay attention to – how much money did you make. It’ll give her a lot of power to determine what she does next.

  149. 149.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax:  I’ve been wondering whether lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira, if different from tgf’s, even need to see such materials or have the necessary clearances. I guess that would depend on what a reasonable scope for their defenses is.

  152. 152.

    Soprano2

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I was able to do that, but I was able to do it even before I went to school. My mother says I taught myself to read, because she never worked with me on it but I learned anyway. When I was in kindergarten I think we were supposed to know some words, but weren’t expected to be able to read like that.

  154. 154.

    Soprano2

    @NotMax: You’d think, but a Google search shows that it’s 82.54% White 7.45% African-American. That’s surprising to me, that there is a larger percentage of African-American people in Branson than in Springfield. Hmmmm…….There are a lot of people who work there who live in those weekly hotels, or in campgrounds. That might account for some of it.

  155. 155.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Soprano2: Kindergarten was half-day and playtime for me.

    I do wonder how that standard matches development of small muscle control, which I think affects the ability to control eye movement. But I assume whoever wrote the standards knows a lot more about child development than I do.

  156. 156.

    delphinium

    @Brachiator:

    It was like he was afraid that watching Barbie might shrink his genitals.

    So true, and you could substitute “Barbie” for any number of the other harmless things that these type of men are afraid of.

  158. 158.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @rikyrah: I think it also made an important point: Contrary to stereotypes, No, a staunch feminist making a movie about Barbie doesn’t have to erase all references to Ken/Boys/Men.  She can let them shine too.  Feminists can love, celebrate and include Boys/Men, and do so, all the damn time (and that’s okay and doesn’t make them traitors to the cause). And the measure of how Feminist a movie is, is a matter of more than just the Bechdel Test and/or tallying the number of lines spoken, by gender.

  159. 159.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @delphinium: My crush on Ryan Gosling began when I saw The Driver, a neo-noir crime thriller that follows the same premise as Baby Driver, but envisioned in a more gritty, low-key, atmospheric style.

  162. 162.

    rikyrah

    @Soprano2:

     They’re making a big deal out of the fact that there will still be books there.

     

    They know the optics. They know how ridiculous it looks. Any phucking excuse because the story reeks.

  164. 164.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @narya: Oppenheimer got made because of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. If Warner Bros wants Barbie 2, they’re gonna greenlight whatever movie Gerwig wants to make.

  165. 165.

    Eolirin

    @Betty Cracker: It also captures a very large portion of the 18-20 something set which are overwhelmingly Democratic. That’s almost certainly skewing the numbers some.

  166. 166.

    narya

    @Soprano2: Welllll . . . my brother is a mechanic. He is extremely good at what he does because he can do both the “mechanical” piece and the computer pieces (he’s pretty smart). He grew up working on cars. He says one of the biggest issues is that new mechanics have none of the mechanical skills or experience. Another thing that puzzles him is that when guys make their 40 hours, they . . . stop. He does not, and, as a result, makes a whole lot more money and has the owners constantly giving him raises so they can keep him.

    To your point: I think it’s harder because it really does take BOTH the mechanical knowledge and the ability to use the computer diagnostics. You gotta know how something works, mechanically, to diagnose and fix those things about which the computer is clueless.

  168. 168.

    Ken

    @Kay: The flipside of that is when people dig out old tests from the 1850s and claim kids nowadays can’t pass them. When you look through the questions, half of them are on converting cubic feet to bushels, exports of countries that don’t exist any more, the proper way to write a promissory note, and historical narratives that have been made irrelevant by the extra century and a half of history.

    And of course they have nothing about electricity, biology,  computing, languages (other than English), or any of the other things we now expect students to learn.

  169. 169.

    narya

    @The Thin Black Duke: And I know that some women in Hollywood have been using their power to get movies made (e.g., w/ production companies). I am wary but optimistic; I’m old enough to have seen women’s accomplishments, in a variety of fields, regarded as an exception, whereas any old many can do X.

  170. 170.

    Yarrow

    @Kay:  Houston is the most diverse city in the US. Houston Independent School District students are largely POC, as your statistics noted. Latino students are the largest demographic group.

    It’s hard to target schools with POC populations with this library decision because for the most part all the schools are majority POC students, with a handful of exceptions. However, they are targeting schools in the poorer areas of Houston. So kids with fewer resources are punished by having their libraries taken away.

    The whole thing has been a power grab by the state of Texas and the Abbott administration. HISD is the largest school district in the state. It’s in Houston, which is in Harris county and the largest blue voting area in Texas. Of course they want to punish the people there.

  171. 171.

    Jackie

    @matt: I’m good with that! I only watch her show when a sub is filling in for her. She is well past her “use by” date.

  173. 173.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Soprano2:

    The teachers I knew said doing on-line schooling was actually harder than being in the classroom in person!

    Whether it would be easier or harder over the long haul, there’s no question that it was harder for them in the 2020-2021 school year, because they’d never done this before, while they’d had years of experience teaching in a classroom environment.

    And then in some places (like Calvert County, MD, where I live), they decided at the beginning of 2021 to let those kids back into the classroom whose parents wanted them there, so teachers were simultaneously teaching to kids in the room and kids online.  We were making insane demands on them.

    I was happy when we found that whether or not you had in-person school sooner or later didn’t make any difference in student achievement; I’m sure the pundits still think it did.

    They probably still do, even though it’s been reported in the major newspapers.

  174. 174.

    Josie

    @rikyrah: ​
     Exactly. And the irony is that the school that didn’t measure up to state standards (which was their excuse for doing this shit) had raised its scores in the last year to meet standards. Abbott has been bitten by the presidential bug and has lost his mind.

  175. 175.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @narya: It’s true that women directors have a narrower window of opportunity than their male counterparts, unfortunately. In spite of Woman Woman being one of the most successful movies in the DCU, when the sequel bombed, Patty Jenkins saw those windows of opportunity slam shut.

  176. 176.

    NotMax

    @Ken

    And of course they have nothing about electricity, biology, computing, languages (other than English), or any of the other things we now expect students to learn.

    The time has come, the Walrus said,
    To talk of many things:
    Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —
    Of Babbages — and kings —
    ;)

  177. 177.

    Captain C

    @NotMax:

    I expect even Cannon cannot and shall not swallow this swill.

    IANAL but I suspect that if she tries, interesting things will happen.  I would imagine that this would not only get her removed from the case, but would gain the attention of some counterintelligence types.  Probably not the people you want quietly looking through your whole life.

  181. 181.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: Interesting demographics. The Virginia Greene County where I live has an 85% White population also, compared to the state’s 68% non-Hispanic White cohort.

    It’s a dinky little county, only 156 square miles and 20,000 residents. That number was 10,000 in 1990. Yankees like me have flooded the place since.

  182. 182.

    narya

    @The Thin Black Duke: And, the thing is, I would be way more willing to spend money on movies (and other entertainment) that women wrote and produced and directed, without interference from male studio/money people. I suspect I’m not alone. As an aside, I’m doing some consulting with a man who’s about 70; he saw Barbie this weekend w/ his sister & granddaughter, and he was the one who was most entertained by it. (Sis was very tired and fell asleep.) He appreciated the subversion.

  183. 183.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I don’t think people understand standardized testing. That “proficient” is a benchmark and you can bump it up if you want to. When they went to Common Core tests in OH (supposedly they didn’t but they mostly did) I looked at the tests because my youngest would be taking them. NY put the whole thing online so anyone could look anything up. They’re more difficult than the tests I took. They require more actual understanding rather than the sort of “I’m good at these tests!” game I was presented with- which I enjoyed- that game :)

  184. 184.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Jack Smith to FLA jury: the damning surveillance video of Trump illegally hiding classified docs is the evidence that Trump did not want you to see. He tried to destroy it so that you would not be able to catch him in the act of committing the crimes charged.

  185. 185.

    Yarrow

    @Josie: I really hope Abbott flames out on the national stage like Rick Perry did. At least things finally seem to be going less well for AG Paxton.

  186. 186.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @The Thin Black Duke: Oh cool.  I loved the books and the 1979 animated version.  Glad to see it will be made with big budget and by someone who isn’t a fundie Xtian, cause I could very easily envision a horrible version by the people who did God Is Not Dead, to push an overtly Xtian message in a really annoying and tedious manner.

  188. 188.

    Manyakitty

    After breathlessly asking Chris Christie for his take on Hunter Biden’s plea deal, Andrea Mitchell can shut up forever. Go off and enjoy your retirement and take your journalistic malpractice with you.

  191. 191.

    Jackie

    @Kent: “She and Ron give off more Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos vibes in my book”

    EXACTLY! I’d love to see her shoe and capes collection.

  192. 192.

    Ken

    @UncleEbeneezer: I was confused because I didn’t think there was a Florida jury yet, so checked Weissmann’s original (thank you nitter). I think he was imagining what Smith will say when this goes to trial.

  193. 193.

    Ken

    @UncleEbeneezer: I could very easily envision a horrible version by the people who did God Is Not Dead

    As I understand it, there’s not much overlap between the “God is Not Dead” types, and people who recognize that Narnia is Christian allegory. The former are more likely to condemn Narnia because of the witchcraft, magic, and talking animals.

  194. 194.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Philbert: The thing that surprised me about that is that Mrs Greenspan is only 76. Kind of like being surprised over and over again that De Santis is only 44.

  195. 195.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Soprano2: ​@narya: ​  I think a lot of people underestimate the knowledge and skill that go into “turning wrenches.” IMO that is a mistake.​

  196. 196.

    Alison Rose

    “You just don’t do that to Andrea Mitchell.”

    Counterpoint: You do.

    Christ, she’s acting like a pathetic adolescent. It’s fine to be upset about losing out on the interview, but be an adult and keep your mouth shut.

  198. 198.

    Captain C

    @Another Scott:

    there’s no need for me to be doing my job in my state suffering – largely as a consequence of my actions –

    Having Meatball Ron running around the country in a donor-paid private jet while ignoring his gubernatorial duties may be a net positive for Florida.

  199. 199.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Tony G:

    what is the deal with the cowboy hats on these middle-class/exurban doofuses?

    The epitome of “all hat, no cattle.”

  200. 200.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ken: I don’t know, seems like a lot of evangelicals have embraced CS Lewis as one of their own because of his Christian apologetic writings (though, really, his Church of England theology was quite different from theirs). I thought they tended to regard Narnia as the acceptable fantasy series.

  201. 201.

    Quiltingfool

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: When I was working on my education degree, a professor in one of my classes told a story about a first grade teacher in his school (he was the principal) who had great success with her students being at or above grade level reading when they finished first grade.  He said he complimented her on that and asked what she did to achieve those reading levels.

    She told him she didn’t do anything special, and was a bit embarrassed that she didn’t have the training as the younger teachers had.  What she did, was that she observed what the kids were able to do.  For example, she noted when kids were able to skip, hop on one foot, tie their shoes and so on…just ordinary things.  She had a chart that had all these simple skills listed, and when a child did all those things, she handed them a primer and started the reading process.  She told the principal that some kids were ready to read at the beginning of school, some near the end.  All were at reading level when entering 2nd grade.

    Learning to read is successful when a child is ready and not all children are ready at exactly the same time.  This teacher waited until a child was ready (from her observations).  I think when you try to teach a child to read before they are ready it can lead to frustration and then a child gives up on it.

    I taught too many kids who had given up on reading and I wonder if part of the reason is they weren’t  ready to read when they were young, but were “taught” anyway.

  202. 202.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Omnes Omnibus: You might be the only one to appreciate this. Went to pick up my (mundane) car from the local independent garage/repair shop the other day, and saw a cherry older car I didn’t recognize. Asked the mechanic, he said “that’s a 1974 Jensen-Healy.” I said “wow, I’d forgotten about those” and he (40-ish) replied “I’d never heard of them until this came in.” Car was in absolutely pristine-appearing condition. Car has a Lotus engine and a BMW 5-speed transmission.

  205. 205.

    Matt McIrvin

    @delphinium: I think most prominent Ryan Gosling role I’ve seen was Neil Armstrong in First Man. He was fine in that, though the movie was, I think, somewhat hampered as a biopic by the fact that Armstrong was a very reserved, somewhat remote man, and the movie more or less sought to explain that (as a reaction to overwhelming and repeated grief).

  206. 206.

    UncleEbeneezer

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday will sign an executive order giving decisions on the prosecution of serious military crimes, including sexual assault, to independent military attorneys, taking that power away from victims’ commanders.

    Thank you Joe Biden and also History’s Greatest Monster™, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who apparently pushed for this.

  207. 207.

    Hoodie

    @Chief Oshkosh: My dad had a buddy, a native Idahoan, who said “cowboy hats are fine when you’re sitting on a fucking horse for hours out in the blazing sun but they’re too goddamned big to wear in polite company.”  He also use to rail against posers wearing cowboy boots, which he said were only good for riding a horse or sitting on a barstool.   He also said the best off road vehicle (what he called his “fishin’ car”) was an old VW beetle.  If you got stuck, you could just pick the damn thing up and move it.

  208. 208.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

     I think Hilary Clinton’s loss was similarly multiply determined.

    I thought the phrase for Hillary’s loss was ‘overdetermined’ – that is, she lost by such a thin margin that any one of several factors could explain it all by itself.

  210. 210.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Hoodie:

     He also said the best off road vehicle (what he called his “fishin’ car”) was an old VW beetle.  If you got stuck, you could just pick the damn thing up and move it.

    I had a VW Super Beetle back in the 1970s.  One time when it was stuck in a snowbank in Hartford, I did exactly that.  Even my Honda Civic weighs too much to even think of trying that.

  211. 211.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Alison Rose:

    Christ, she’s acting like a pathetic adolescent. It’s fine to be upset about losing out on the interview, but be an adult and keep your mouth shut. 

    At her age, I’d just say she’s being a fucking brat.

  212. 212.

    narya

    @Omnes Omnibus: Completely agree. I come from a family that has a lot of people who know how to take things apart, put things together, etc., and, while I don’t have their knowledge, I know enough to appreciate it and to look for folks who have it when I need something fixed. Frankly, my second or third book (after I published my dissertation) was going to talk about embodied knowledge. My own example comes from making thousands of croissants: some days the dough was just f’ing perfect, and I could tell with my hands as much as anything else.

  213. 213.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Quiltingfool: ​
      I preferred to be read to over reading until some time in third grade. When I was read to, stories played as movies in my head. It didn’t happen when I read to myself until I reached a reading speed where it did. At that point, my reading speed and reading level began to increase almost exponentially. I also lost interest in being read to because it was too slow. My mother was an elementary teacher herself, and I think she knew not to push me too soon.

  214. 214.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin:

    They notice the change in advertising, though, and old white people think it is some kind of nefarious conspiracy.

    It’s all those ‘woke’ corporations.

    To us lefties, the idea is so ridiculous, it’s hard to believe even the MAGA cultists could swallow the notion of corporate ‘wokeness.’ But they do.

  215. 215.

    Trollhattan

    @Gin & Tonic: I remember those. Even back in the day they were uncommon, 7600 sold in North America.

    Jensen Interceptor even weirder, with a big American V8.

  216. 216.

    gene108

    @sdhays:

    Seriously, I think Youngkin won because of Afghanistan. The other factors were there, but the massive turn on Biden was when the polls started showing Youngkin could win.

    NJ also had state legislative elections in 2021. Democrats did poorly, but have enough of a buffer in the legislature that control didn’t flip.

    There was a strong throw the bums out mood in November 2021.

  221. 221.

    Subsole

     

    @Kay: They are poisoned. Some of those places are just straight up unwell people feeding off each other’s pathologies.

    It’s like a very, very poorly run madhouse. If you weren’t crazy going in, you’ll be crazy by the end of the first year.

  222. 222.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Trollhattan: I remember Jensens from middle school when my friends got way into cars and I got dragged along and we debated the relative merits of a Maserati vs a Lotus etc

    Now I occasionally do google searches for “Plug-in/Hybrid crossover” and “Ford Electric Ranger”

  223. 223.

    Geminid

    @gene108: The advantages Democrats had in 2020 were increased by Trump’s presence on the ballot, I think. In the case of Virginia, it may have been more like a D+7-8 state than a D+10. He was a potent GOTV force for Dems.

    Some people who compared voting rolls from 2020 and 2021 thought that there were Republicans who came out for Youngkin that stayed home in 2020. I would not be surprised if this were so.

  228. 228.

    There go two miscreants

    @Gin & Tonic: ​

    You might be the only one to appreciate this.

    Hah! Not by any means! (I’m still sorry I gave away my collection of Road & Track Road Test Annuals from the ’60s and ’70s!)

  230. 230.

    Paul in KY

    @NotMax: I think, for TFG, the strategery is the mass volume of motions. Not the merits per se (as there are no ‘merits’ when dealing with him). Just delay, delay, delay so hopefully (for him) he can get re-elected and pardon himself or maybe the horse will talk.

  231. 231.

    satby

    @Omnes Omnibus:  I think a lot of people underestimate the knowledge and skill that go into “turning wrenches.” IMO that is a mistake.

    Late to the thread, but this is absolutely true. Lots of very smart people also are very tactile and prefer jobs that allow them to move around and use all their skills, not just the “reading and writing” ones. Especially now when computers run cars and manufacturing equipment.

  232. 232.

    delphinium

    @Subsole:

    Some of those places are just straight up unwell people feeding off each other’s pathologies.

    And I would guess even the more “sane” ones eventually just give up and go along rather than swim against the tide.

  234. 234.

    Paul in KY

    @M31: Fixed: “Hey! Get me another Diet Coke, with extra ice this time, and just grab that folder labeled “Iran War Plans NOFORN” wouldja, Ivan”

  235. 235.

    Paul in KY

    @Betty Cracker: Man, the legislature down there has really been his lickspittles/toadies! How can they have any respect for themselves? All little men and women.

  236. 236.

    Subsole

    @Baud:

    Believe it or not, some of the wilder Hoteps get along pretty well with white nationalists.

    They both want the same thing- a small, dead-end world where their small dead-end tribes can do small dead-end things forever. Ideally on the blood, pain, and bones of the rest of us.

    So, yeah, once they get us beat down sufficiently, they’ll turn on each other. But don’t rule out the possibility they can make common cause to target us.

    Insanity makes strange partners.

  237. 237.

    Subsole

    @Tony G:

    Pretty much. They want the social cachet of being a suburbanite’s idea of small-town- and absolutely none of the hard lifting that goes with the actual small town life.

  238. 238.

    satby

    @narya: Another thing that puzzles him is that when guys make their 40 hours, they . . . stop. He does not, and, as a result, makes a whole lot more money and has the owners constantly giving him raises so they can keep him.

    My son is a mechanic too, and about to be promoted and get another raise based on his skills but also his work ethic, because he’s the same way. He’s 37, and will be the “senior” mechanic. He bought his first car for cash (unbeknownst to me) at age 14 so he could work on it. Had to wait two years to test drive his repairs himself 😆

  243. 243.

    Paul in KY

    @catclub: I was stationed there at Biloxi for 8 months back in 1982. Of course, I was a white male officer, so no problem for me. Felt sorry for the black residents and troops there (and anywhere in MS).

  244. 244.

    Brachiator

    @satby:

    He bought his first car for cash (unbeknownst to me) at age 14 so he could work on it. Had to wait two years to test drive his repairs himself…

    This is forward thinking on so many levels. Very impressive.

  245. 245.

    Paul in KY

    I have seen The War and Treaty. Did a set at Roo several years ago. Great show by them. Highly recommend them.

  247. 247.

    Citizen Alan

    @Soprano2:

    This leaves out a bit of subtext, I think. Conservatives did not simply want the schools kept open so that there would be “normalcy.”  They wanted the schools to function as babysitters so that they would be better positioned to push for an end to lock down and get everyone back into the office or the factory.

  248. 248.

    Soprano2

    @narya: My BIL who is a retired mechanic – he’s 68 – constantly complained about the computers the last 10 years he worked. He said he just wanted to fix cars, not worry about what the computer said. I take your point about not being as good at the mechanical stuff, but someone who wants to succeed will have to become good at both, like your brother is. My point was that the amount of knowledge and expertise it takes to be a mechanic has expanded because cars have changed.

  249. 249.

    StringOnAStick

    @satby: We have a young friend who obviously has an  undiagnosed reading/learning disability.  He squeeked through school somehow, realized he couldn’t do any job involving a computer, and became a farrier (shoes horses).  As he says: ” horses can’t read, we get along fine”.  He also has the smartest and most well trained dog I have ever met.

  250. 250.

    Ruckus

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    This a huge thing. It takes away from a commander the concept that he/she is the end all be all of a military unit. Because some can do that very well and some are just plain shit at this. It is their domain that someone disrespected on one side or the other of the issue and it’s usually considered very bad form to take it out or often even listen to the power side of the issue. I’ve been somewhat in that space, although it wasn’t me that was the perp in my case. My commanding officer told his subordinate to not obey a command from the Pentagon and the clerk told me about it. I called my congressman and he called the Pentagon and the next day the captain got a call at 5am west coast time that the clerk told me the responses consisted of 3 words. Yes Sir and No Sir. Eight days later I walked off that ship with my honorable discharge.

    A number of commanders are actually despots that think their responsibility is to fuck with everyone below them in rank. In the long run it often does not go well for them.

  251. 251.

    Bupalos

    @Betty Cracker: I think it’s about the economy of fear. I’d say it’s likely parents are more conservative because conservatism generally is driven by fear, and fear for one’s children tends to outpace fear for oneself.

    Liberals don’t run on fear, and thus can’t make as much political hay out of  even legitimate existential threats like climate change as conservatives can make hay out of some random kid’s book that features a talking mushroom or something.

  252. 252.

    leeleeFL

    @Betty Cracker: I was just thinking, yesterday, how Joe Biden should be President forever because he described Rudy G.  as ” a noun, a verb and 911!”. It was genius, and it showed he knew how to cut a guy!  I still love him for it!

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