This is a totally open thread, but I am sneaking in a quick reminder that TODAY (Sunday) is the Legal Zoom with Imm!
The zoom link I sent everyone last week works for the zoom this week, as well.
If you have lost the link or never asked for it at all, please send me an email message!
I made peach-cherry-lemon popsicles yesterday, and I ate my first one last night. Turns out that I read 4.5 Tablespoons and my brain turned it into 4.5 ounces, which is double that. oops! No one could say that this batch of popsicles is too sweet!
*and it’s a recipe that I originally made up. duh.
Open thread.
UncleEbeneezer
So did everyone see the disinformation yesterday of people posting fake videos purporting to be Palm Springs getting ravaged by tropical storm Hilary? Problem is, the storm hadn’t even arrived yet. I think it was some sort of partially organized campaign of right-wing trolls that started because of their knee-jerk reaction to the name “Hilary” and the fact that they like to get their jollies trying to sow distrust in public orgs like the Weather Service. These people are so damn pathetic. I’m guessing they are the weirdos who actually follow Musk.
Maxim
I wish today were Saturday, but I do believe it’s Sunday already.
Anonymous At Work
@Maxim: No matter how much you wish it, as someone with a long scheduled PTO day on Monday, I wish it more.
Another Scott
A short musical interlude, for the guitar lovers out there…
(I can’t find the original.)
Cheers,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@UncleEbeneezer:
Relatedly, my RWNJ brother’s latest conspiracy theory is something about Oprah Winfrey buying up vast tracts of land on Maui and then starting fires so that everyone’s property except hers burns down. Just … smh.
UncleEbeneezer
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah and somehow Obama’s house on Maui was the only one spared (even though the Obamas’ HI house is on Oahu, not Maui!)
Redshift
Fuck Joe Manchin
(From yesterday’s WaPo, gift link.)
Among other assholishness, he’s claiming that Biden is “misleading” the public in saying the IRA is about climate and clean energy:
I know you are, but what am I?…
NotMax
Maui update (excerpts>.
Also,
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m sorry. I laughed out loud at how ridiculous that is.
So sad that your brother believes all that crap. As sharp and smart as you are, I have to think he is an intelligent person, IQ-wise, at least. How can be believe this stuff?
How can he not be someone who would verify crap like that before he believes it.
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: The Obamas have a house in Hawaii???
Alison Rose
@UncleEbeneezer: I’d imagine it’s some wishful thinking because they’re hoping to see places get destroyed so they can blame it on our Democratic state government. Meanwhile, that government has been doing everything possible to prepare and get info and aid out to folks who need it.
Alison Rose
@SiubhanDuinne: I mean…there are valid criticisms of Oprah, but “complete fucking sociopath” isn’t really one of them.
NotMax
@Redshift
According to Dolt 45, green energy initiatives are a direct cause allowing Russia to wage war on Ukraine.
Not going to link, you’ll have to take my word on this utter non sequitur claptrap he spat out recently.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
That’s so exotic.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I assume Legal Zoom will mention that now-famous Atlantic article by Luttig and Tribe, that says the Constitution makes TFG ineligible for office independent of any criminal convictions.
Alas, I probably can’t make the Zoom, but I assume the BJ legal minds will have made a binding ruling by the end of the afternoon, and that will be that.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Alison Rose: Did we see this one evolve in real time? Last week it appeared we’d watched “rich people want to buy up all the burned out land and take over the island” (true) morph into “rich people set the fires to burn people out so they could buy out all the land” (nutballs).
Short step from there to “Oprah set the fires”. Because if you believe in “rich people set the fires” but also “rich people are rich because they are blessed by God” then you have to lay the conspiracy on Oprah. Or George Soros. Certainly not a sweet humanitarian like Musk.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: The first question mark was because I didn’t know they had a house there.
The next two were because how did I not know that?
But I am totally onboard with mocking them for thinking that one of the 50 states is exotic. :-)
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
He’s not stupid. He just believes, and propagates, a lot of stupid stuff.
I’ll give him this, though. A few days ago he wrote something racist in an all-family email. I called him out on it and he immediately responded “I apologize. You’re right.” So he’s capable of recognising the offensiveness and bullshit occasionally.
WaterGirl
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Absolutely! On both counts!
UncleEbeneezer
@Alison Rose: There’s a big push of the idea that Biden/Dems somehow failed Maui. And sadly, it’s not just MAGAssholes and Russian bots spreading it, but as usual a bunch of VeryOnline Progressives etc., are helping to spread it too.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: But smart people tend to be inquisitive. If something seems outlandish, check the facts.
Neither of those things seem to resemble him.
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: You mean “Very Online PRETENDING to be Progressive”. Right?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: You may need a subscription to see the Atlantic article. Both authors have researched this question themselves, but also reference a recent scholarly article on the same subject which I don’t think is paywalled.
UncleEbeneezer
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Rebecca Watson did a video on the Maui Rich People Conspiracy Theories.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
That was a reference to Cokie Roberts who once (I think during the 2008 campaign) criticised the Obamas for vacationing in Hawaii. Can’t remember if she actually used terms like “exotic” and “unAmerican,” but that was the general thrust of her comment.
ETA: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/cokie-hawaii-too-foreign-for-obama
Alison Rose
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Maybe it’s Oprah AND Soros!!!!! Maybe they’re lovers!!!!! Maybe my fucking head is gonna explode!!!!!!!!
Alison Rose
@UncleEbeneezer: I mean…I guess since Republican governors/presidents have consistently failed people in natural disasters, they just assume the same will be true for everyone.
smith
@SiubhanDuinne: I just looked it up. This is the quote:
The Myrtle Beach comment tells me that she thought he wasn’t acting white enough.
UncleEbeneezer
@WaterGirl: I mean, if you ask them, they think THEY are the real Progressives and nobody else.
But yes, what you said.
Scout211
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Discussed at length yesterday. Did you see that thread? Thread
And I thought we were all experts. No? 😉
smith
@Alison Rose: Or maybe they think they still need to even up the score for Katrina.
karen marie
@UncleEbeneezer: I’m surprised DSA hasn’t formally endorsed RFK Jr.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Nope. Had a lovely day with my bride. Was unplugged for much of the day. Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out.
SiubhanDuinne
@smith:
Thanks. I found it too, and added the link to my comment.
Cokie could be astonishingly tone-deaf.
Scout211
Since we’re discussing Maui, have you seen this article about one house that was spared from the fire? What Saved The ‘Miracle House’ In Lahaina?
The photo of the one house that still stands, among blocks and blocks of rubble is striking. Reading the story, the theory is that the renovations to the property and the landscaping changes may have saved the house. It has some interesting tips for all of us who live in fire zones.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: Cokie’s father was Hale Boggs – a long time Democratic Rep from New Orleans. Her lane is old-school white-male conservative southern Democrats. (Frequently known now as MAGA Republicans.)
That’s her lane, and she’s always in it, and is not shy about criticizing others who aren’t in that lane with her.
IMO.
Cheers,
Scott.
oldgold
I have been busy at work over the recent past. Some of what I have been doing involves an insane book banning statute recently enacted by the Tall Corn State’s MAGA Solons. As such, I missed what the zoom meeting scheduled for this afternoon is about. After it is over, will there be a post reflecting what was discussed?
MomSense
My dad may join us on the zoom today if we remember to get off the porch.
HinTN
@SiubhanDuinne: She’s from Louisiana and descended from Hale Boggs. Of course she’s tone deaf, she’s a creature of Washington power elites.
ETA: I see @Another Scott: got there first.
Ruckus
I will try to make the zoom today, didn’t get home in time last week…
Now if I don’t have electricity….
It is raining here in the San Gabriel Valley, and has been for the last couple of hours. It is expected to rain solid for the next 36 hours. It is expected to rain about 3 times the rate it is now, later in the day. That tells me that the street out in front of my apt. should be curb to curb full of the runoff.
Redshift
@WaterGirl:
Confirmation bias is prevalent among smart people, too. We’re all less likely to check things that agree with what we already believe.
It would be nice if only stupid people fell for this stuff, but there’s plenty of evidence that’s not what distinguishes who does and doesn’t.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Scott:
@HinTN:
Just a little nitpick: As you both referred to Cokie Roberts in the present tense, I feel obliged to mention that she died four years ago.
UncleEbeneezer
@karen marie: Cornel. They’ll put their support behind Cornel West. He’s the better fit for them because he:
• Hates Obama/Dem Party (and generally blames Dems not Republicans)
• Pushes Class, Not Race narrative, despite his early works on Racism.
• Anti-War (likes to blame NATO expansion and criticize Ukraine but not Russia)
• Let’s DSA types pretend they are so much more “down” with Black Liberation than the rest of us, sell-out Obama/Biden voters.
prostratedragon
“El titere [The Marionette]”. (This one might have been a gangster.)
Redshift
@UncleEbeneezer:
Yeah, one thing I saw a lot (in replies to tweets) was how insulting it is to people in Maui that Biden is only giving them $700 each.
It’s a mix of dishonest people pretending they don’t know that’s just the immediate payment for living expenses, not the only disaster aid, and stupid people believing them.
H.E.Wolf
And they don’t worry about little things like how to spell someone’s name correctly.
As Kay might say: they’re low-quality hires. :-)
UncleEbeneezer
@H.E.Wolf: One L, Two L’s, close enough!!
Miss Bianca
@Redshift: Oh, and right on schedule, this headline pops up from WaPo (can we call them “FtFWaPo” yet?):
Ahead of Maui visit, Biden’s governmental and personal response scrutinized
Yeah, right, assholes. “Scrutinized” by whom?
Alison Rose
@UncleEbeneezer: Do they also love people who don’t pay taxes and child support? (Probably do!)
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
Some are leaders. Fewer are strong leaders. The majority are followers. It’s easier, it is what they learned from their parents. Who learned it from their parents. You can see where this is going….
As much as most humans think they are independent thinkers and not followers, that’s not the way it works for many. Think January 6. Think of the people that think that SFB is a world leader. But he’s not, he’s a follower who put himself in a leadership position and got followers to elect him to a job that he was/is 10000000% unable to accomplish, and it’s because he thinks, such as it is, that he is finally a leader. He’s not even close, never has been, never will be. He is a pompous, arrogant follower, play acting (not even close to actually) a supposed leadership role. His only direction is ME-ME-ME….. the same direction he’s played his entire life. I say played because he’s never grown up, never known how to be an actual adult. It’s why he’s so bad at play acting as an adult.
Think of him as a 280 lb, 77 yr old child and see how that fits.
WaterGirl
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I front-paged that article yesterday, and my link in that post was the 12-ft ladder link that should work for everyone.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks. She made an impression…
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
Folks, this is hysterically funny: GOP voters/Fox News viewers are so propagandized to think that Biden can barely string a sentence together, they no longer care about “electability” – ANYONE can beat Joe Biden! So why not go with trump…AGAIN??!?
In other words, by running “BIDEN SENILE DROOLING IDIOT” stories every half hour, Fox probably shot itself in the foot re: getting rid of trump(!)
Unreal.
Disinformation, much like great wealth, distorts our politics and weakens our democracy.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I totally understood your reference! I was just clarifying that my comment hadn’t actually been mocking her for that. It was me being surprised they had a house in Hawaii and wondering how I didn’t know tht.
Kelly
@Scout211: Regarding the Maui miracle house I believe the Louis Pasteur quote “Chance favors the prepared mind” applies. A fire resistant margin around your home can help. We have a gravel path around our home. There’s a lot of luck. In the 2020 Beachie fire plenty of fire resistant homes burned and yet our adjacent neighbor with a cedar roof, cedar siding and a cedar deck, all dry as toast survived. Completely surrounded by ashes when we got home.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: That would be so cool!
Do you not have a laptop that can get wireless from the porch? You need to remedy that, STAT.
UncleEbeneezer
For anyone who missed it, here is the clip of Hillary on Maddow preaching the truth about Trump and Republicans, in response to a question about the Women’s World Cup. They hate America because they believe only Cis, Het, Christian, White People (especially Men) are ENTITLED to rule and nobody else should have a say.
This has ALWAYS been the fundamental belief of US Conservatives, whether they were Confederates, Southern Dems opposed to Reconstruction/Civil Rights, John Birch Society nut-jobs, Orange County/Reagan Republicans, Folksy W fans and now Trumpers.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
Is there no common label we can use for shorthand?
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Red Hats and Red Roses
Ends of the Horseshoe
White Grievance mongers
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: That is an amazing clip. Everyone should watch it.
Redshift
@Jeffro:
In some ways, this is part of the constant wingnut media drumbeat that everyone believes the Democratic president is a disaster for the country. Believing they’re the majority is sometimes motivating, and sometimes it convinces them it must be in the bag and reduces motivation.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Idiots?
Sister Golden Bear
California Shop Owner Murdered Over Rainbow Flag
All of the haters who’ve calling for LGBTQ+ people to be eliminated, and who have been stoking stochastic terrorism, have blood on their hands.
Now they’re going after allies as well. A beloved boutique owner in Lake Arrowhead, CA was shot and killed after the suspect made derogatory comments about a rainbow flag outside her store.
Rest in Power Laura Ann Carleton.
Ruckus
@UncleEbeneezer:
This has ALWAYS been the fundamental belief of US Conservatives, whether they were Confederates, Southern Dems opposed to Reconstruction/Civil Rights, John Birch Society nut-jobs, Orange County/Reagan Republicans, Folksy W fans and now Trumpers.
They are followers. Even those at the higher end of the food chain. They want to conserve the pecking order. They wouldn’t know a leader if HE passed out and fell on them. They don’t want self determination, they want someone to follow. But they ALL want someone to follow. So someone with money must be a good follow, because they have what followers want, someone that manages to be wealthy must not be looking for someone to follow. But that’s not how actual leadership works. It’s not force, brutal or not, either. It’s not just confidence. It is knowledge. Knowledge of how things and people work. Knowledge to teach someone how to do something and do it reasonably well. Knowledge that we all follow at some point, but also the knowledge to lead when necessary.
lollipopguild
@WaterGirl: Was it not Cokie Roberts who said that Hawaii was a foreign country?
Scout211
This leaked out to ABC News this morning:
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: I doubt it. Every attempted shorthand term/phrase to refer to this group, will get repeated responses nit-picking the language. I think it’s mainly because the people I’m referring to come from many different groups and people who aren’t assholes in those same groups don’t-want their groups/themselves associated with them. If you say “BernieBros” you get knee-jerk #NotAll Bernie Supporters responses. If you use “Leftists/Progressives” then the debate starts over what makes someone a “Real” one of those. Etc. And they sometimes have differing partisan affiliations, different priorities and even different behaviors (some push Anti-Vax bullshit but not Putin-love, and vice versa) but there is enough overlap that they are all a part of a problematic coalition. At the end of the day, I think everyone reading this knows exactly the people to which I am referring even if the group itself is hard to name or draw a sharp boundary around it.
UncleEbeneezer
@WaterGirl: Thanks for the signal boost :). It’s a reminder of what a total Bad-Ass Hillary is and has always been and probably why she’s been so hated by the other side. She’s smarter, tougher and unafraid to speak the truth to their bullshit.
Eolirin
@UncleEbeneezer: Performative lefty assholes seems to be perfectly serviceable to me. Or if we want to cover the left and the right: Stupid People on the Internet.
Another Scott
@Ruckus:
Obligatory: Aphelis.net:
☛ Newsweek: “A Cult of Ignorance” by Isaac Asimov, January 21, 1980, p. 19. PDF (1 page image).
Yup.
Cheers,
Scott.
UncleEbeneezer
@Eolirin: That’s pretty accurate. But many times it includes Centrists too, who I wouldn’t categorize as “Leftys.” That’s the problem, the group has people from so many factions that it’s hard to pinpoint them accurately with any phrase.
Eolirin
@Another Scott: Asimov got it wrong; a more accurate line would be “my ignorance is better than your knowledge, and I will kill anyone I need to to prove it”
Eolirin
@UncleEbeneezer: Stupid People on the Internet it is then.
jimmiraybob
@Baud:
Authoritarians. Look up “authoritarian personality” (followers/leaders).
opiejeanne
@Sister Golden Bear: Devastating, partially because I know where that is and the community around it.
The sign says it was established in 2013 but I think that’s the overall company (she owns a shop in Studio City with the same name) or maybe the shop was in a different place in the area, because it wasn’t in that space when we sold our cabin in Blue Jay in 2019. That space was empty when we left that community for the last time. We spent a lot of time in that hardware store two doors down and Timberline in the Glen three doors down, especially when we were getting the cabin ready to sell.
H.E.Wolf
The late, great Ogden Nash had this to say about L’s:
The one-L lama,
He’s a priest.
The two-L llama,
He’s a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn’t any
Three-L lllama.
[The anthology for kids which included this poem had a note from the editor: a three-L lllama is a very big fire.]
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Yesterday we connected to zoom for our reunion all the way in the barn!
Sister Golden Bear
@opiejeanne: The boutique owner who was murdered opened the additional location in the mountains a couple years ago.
Geminid
@Baud: Some people use “Dirtbag Left” to describe this crowd. I remember a New Mexico jackal describing them this way. She had some first hand experience with this type when she was a Democratic county chairman, I believe.
My impression is that there has been some separation on the “Left” in the last 3 or 4 years, with the more responsible ones aligning with the current Democratic Party and a smaller group staying in opposition. Some of the latter group hoped to transform the party into a Left party, but now have a sour grapes attitude.
Citizen Alan
@WaterGirl: I will never forgive the people I hold responsible for hillary clinton not becoming president. I will hate them from beyond the grave.
Anyway
@UncleEbeneezer:
They hate mainstream Ds and want to keep them out of office — that’s what binds them.
Baud
@Geminid:
I was talking about the collection of Russians, Republicans, and their “progressive” allies.
Anyway
@lollipopguild: What was so offensive about Cokie Roberts’ description was that Obama had grown up in Hawaii, had an aging grandmother there — it was his home. She had the gall to question his spending time there. That led to my final break with NPR. Haven’t had it in my car shortcuts since then. Never have them on. Fuck em.
TerryC
@Citizen Alan: My next granddaughter is to be named such as results in the initials HRC. I’m keeping my mouth shut until maybe about when she turns 1. Daughter-in-law not a Hillary fan.
UncleEbeneezer
@Anyway: Agreed. They views Dems/The Dem Party as the real enemy.
WaterGirl
@TerryC: I love that.
Something something a dish best served cold!
Geminid
@Baud: I see that now. I was just thinking about the left component of that grouping.
The people I was talking about generally have fallen into the anti-NATO, anti-Ukraine camp. Part of that is an oppositional stance towards the Democratic Party. A lot of the same people complaining now about aid going to Ukraine instead of Hawaii were blowing the East Palestine trainwreck up into another Chernobyl. They probably are responding to Russian influencers, but they have a predisposion to go along with that stuff. Some of this probably comes from the loose network built out by the Russians for the 2016 presidential campaign.
brantl
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: It got a very mixed maybe.
opiejeanne
@H.E.Wolf: That is the worst pun!