A perfect example of how Fox brainwashes its viewers: by sharing some real information (a man did just paint a mural of Trump's mugshot in Atlanta) but concealing important facts (the completed mural shows Trump saying: "M.A.G.A My Ass Got Arrested") https://t.co/S1ez1qPQ9D https://t.co/QcmrAGel4Z pic.twitter.com/wcfUKwGUlq
— Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) August 29, 2023
Kyle is one of the best election analysts & he knows Ohio as well as anyone https://t.co/qoz1GqwxF9
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 29, 2023
BREAKING: New polling conducted by @GBAOStrategies reveals 88 percent of young Americans support labor unions.
We've said it before and we'll say it again: Gen Z is on track to become to most unionized generation in American history. pic.twitter.com/WpA5Rlpa8R
— AFL-CIO ? (@AFLCIO) August 29, 2023
?? Key Point ??
If we turn out just 5% more Democratic voters in rural areas of key states – we can flip toss-up seats, pass critically important legislation, and protect our democracy from the MAGA agenda.
Follow my friends @DirtRoadPAC https://t.co/ud37rV4s2B
— Jaime Harrison (@harrisonjaime) August 28, 2023
i‘ll vote for anyone who sets the death penalty for crypto mining https://t.co/fI5dlcebvJ
— GarbageApe (@GarbageApe) August 24, 2023
The Media Still Doesn’t Get Biden Voters https://t.co/HpqMqFm7Pl
— Shiny Objects (@Shinyobjects3) August 28, 2023
Yes, it’s the (GOP Never Trumpist) Bulwark. Still worth reading — The Media Still Doesn’t Get Biden Voters. And barely even tries:
… Reporters don’t do safaris to “Biden Country,” seeking to understand the voters who put him in the White House. While there are pieces explaining how, for example, black women in Georgia suburbs made a big difference in the 2020 election, there’s nothing approaching the ongoing coverage of white men in Ohio diners.
In case I had a blind spot, I turned to crowdsourcing, asking on social media whether anyone knew of examples of journalists making the case for trying to understand the Biden voter. Few could think of any. The two closest were a September 2019 National Review article by Jim Geraghty called “Inside the Mind of the Biden Voter” and recent podcast interviews by former GOP Rep. Joe Walsh, such as with Charlotte Clymer, a trans woman who’s worked for LGBT rights and pro-choice advocacy groups…
Four years later, discussing “what keeps Democrats up at night” heading into 2024, Geraghty asserts that “Democrats perceive themselves to be more popular than they are and American society to be much more unified behind their agenda and worldview than it is.” Among his evidence: “Oscar-bait movies . . . depicting some heroic multiracial gay handicapped abortionist who wants to save the rainforests” and the right-wing backlash to Bud Light doing a niche promotion with trans internet personality Dylan Mulvaney. Regarding the president’s campaign for re-election, Geraghty argues that a big reason Democrats are nervous is because, as National Review editor Charles C.W. Cooke put it, “Joe Biden is an asshole” and “always has been.”
Anyone’s entitled to their opinion of the president, but it’s safe to say most Democrats don’t share that one. Even in a piece purportedly about what Democrats are thinking, Geraghty focused on how he thinks Democrats misunderstand Republicans and independents, rather than trying to help Republicans understand how Democrats see themselves, let alone imploring conservatives to show more respect and sympathy towards liberals’ point of view, even if they disagree with it.
If anything, those exceptions prove the rule. Walsh does implore conservatives to reach across political and cultural divides, but hasn’t held office since 2013, and angered Republicans by launching a primary challenge to Trump in 2019, leaving the party in early 2020 after it flopped…
… Many journalists, editors, and political analysts at mainstream outlets headquartered in New York or Washington, D.C. were surprised by the rise of Trump and his 2016 win. Sensitive to accusations that they have a liberal and/or pro-establishment bias, and believing that his rise could represent a political shift worth studying, they bend over backwards to try to understand the mind of the Trump voter.
But here’s the thing: Many journalists, editors, and political analysts were also surprised by Biden’s strong win in the 2020 primaries after he lost the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. His nomination defied the narrative that the Democratic party had lurched to the left, becoming obsessed with identity politics and eager for socialism..
Apparently, many who purport to know about politics need to work harder at listening to, understanding, and empathizing with Biden voters…
Millions and millions of Americans are, for lack of a better term, Bidenists. Many don’t have strong feelings about Biden himself, and some are quite critical of him, but they tend to react to societal disruptions by seeking normalcy, not trying to increase the chaos.
Bidenists like a president who shows empathy, though they may not have realized that until confronted with the opposite. It’s not a coincidence that George W. Bush’s approval rating shot up after 9/11 and stayed high until after the invasion of Iraq, nor that various Republican governors saw sustained approval increases during the worst of COVID while Trump quickly lost his…
Overall, Bidenists are pretty earnest. And if the Trumpist right, the far left, and the above-it-all center keep assuming everyone is as disillusioned as they are, they’ll keep getting it wrong.
Joe Biden was swept into the White House by a record number of votes from a wide variety of Americans, and he’s not a charismatic leader who commands crowd and camera, singlehandedly inspiring new voters as Barack Obama or Donald Trump did. If conservative elites don’t like it, maybe they should stop behaving in ways that make Bidenism inevitable.
Yeah, it’s a long(ish) read… but if you’re here on a holiday weekend Saturday night, what else you got to do?
War for Ukraine Day 556: Kramatorsk Under the Gun
Baud
I resemble that remark.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I don’t have much to do, but I can’t read any long political articles right now.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I’m a Biden voter. I already understand me.
Suzanne
@Baud: I made an awesome dinner and cleaned my kitchen. That’s all the excitement I can handle tonight.
Villago Delenda Est
The MSM needs a serious blood purge. First, nuke the Vichy Times from orbit. Then conduct drone strikes against the headquarters of all the networks.
OK, I’m being pretty over the top here. But still, the media is a HUGE part of the problem, because its mission isn’t to inform. Its to entertain, and to generate revenue. It’s purely mercenary, and doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the consequences.
Villago Delenda Est
Also, too, what GarbageApe said.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Me too.
Gin & Tonic
I swam in the ocean today. Any day I can do that is a good day.
lowtechcyclist
Probably going to bed in a half hour or so. When you’re pushing 70 and have early a.m. insomnia, you get boring like that.
dmsilev
@Baud: I’m avoiding doing the work that I successfully deferred from last week. Does that count?
(ReportOne is 3/4s done. Haven’t started Report Two yet, but have gathered most of the supporting material. My equipment is more or less doing what I told it to do. Not too bad actually)
lowtechcyclist
@Gin & Tonic:
I had a pleasant bike ride this morning. Not that long, about 15 miles. But with vacation taking up three weekends, I’d gone over a month without being on my bike, so I’m getting back into it gradually.
UncleEbeneezer
The media doesn’t believe there is such a thing as the Biden Voter. They think we all support Biden only because we have no other choice (a myth that is aided and abetted by way too many Progressives too). But since he became the nominee, and definitely since taking office, I know I personally have only come to love Biden more and more. Not just because of the good shit he’s managed to do but because I think his values generally align with mine and because he seems like he loathes Trump/Trumpism, every bit as much as I do. I can feel the absolute contempt in his words every time Trump and the MAGA GOP are mentioned and I love it.
Kirk
So I read that Kondik article, and I feel like I lost some brain cells. Seeing if I can summarize, he seems to claim that Ohio was a bellweather state because it not only “picked” the president for several decades but was close to matching the voting margin in those years. And that, he claims, is no longer true because Ohio is red – the amendment vote and Brown victory are just flukes. Finally, because it’s red the only way it votes Blue in 2024 is if Democrats out-perform, and that’s not likely to happen.
Or at least that’s what I took away from it.
I want those minutes back and am very glad I don’t pay Politico for a subscription.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
Good, good.
Of course, the GQP will likely try to ignore / bypass / appeal / thumb their nose at the ruling.
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Kirk:
If Ohio is in play, we’re going to romp next year.
Alison Rose
Look, there are many things one could say about Biden, and some of them might be near the negative end of the spectrum, and maybe a few of those are slightly valid. But “asshole” is so entirely not one of them. For any Republican, whose party nominated and elected and is set to nominate again Donald God Damn Fucking Trump, to call anyone else let alone Joe For The Love Of God Biden an asshole is so absurd, dictionary.com ought to update their definition of hypocritical with this as the example sentence.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Me three. I am a Biden voter from the Super Tuesday of the 2020 cycle.
I made a shrimp and mussel stew with jasmine rice and some oven roasted broccoli. Now I am playing with my Neocolor II crayons
These days I am experimenting with various pastels and crayons.
Baud
@Alison Rose:
If you make it up, the media will print it.
Jackie
I thought this interesting; TIFG’s mug shot may be property of the Fulton County Sheriffs Dept and, should Fulton County make a stink about it, TIFG may owe the county millions of dollars for selling his mug shot. Suggested is the monies could be used to build a new jail, replacing the notorious deadly county jail.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-mugshot-2664806962/
Mousebumples
Anyone looking for a Bluesky invite? I’ve got 2 to share…
laura
I’llThis Biden voter will be spending the evening making an apple pie and being glad I’m not stuck at Burning Manhttps://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/no-access-after-burning-man-rain-storm-18344393.php
UncleEbeneezer
@Alison Rose:
Joe Biden: Slavery was bad, Black People should be allowed to vote, women and LGBTQ People deserve equality, Transgender People deserve to be treated with dignity and respect…
Conservatives: Ugh, what an asshole! 😡😡😡
Fair Economist
“Barely” tries to understand Biden voters? How about not at all? Biden voters fired an incumbent president for the first time in 30 years with the highest vote count in history, and there is no interest from the media in studying this large and influential group.
Their bias is showing.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose: It’s like “deranged Jack Smith.”
Alison Rose
@Baud: Is this what you tell your new campaign staff?
zhena gogolia
@Fair Economist: Does ANYONE remember the dancing in the streets the day Biden’s victory was secured? It was like V-E Day in Times Square.
dmsilev
@Fair Economist: I think the belief in the political media is that most of the votes weren’t so much for Biden as against Trump. And there’s probably a bit of truth to that. But only a bit. The problem comes when you assume that it’s the whole story.
Alison Rose
@zhena gogolia: Seriously. Jack Smith has to be the most chill, even-tempered dude I’ve seen. “Deranged”. Yeah okay.
Alison Rose
Really interesting column (gift link) from Jamelle Bouie: What the Contradiction of Slavery Tells Us About Abortion Rights
Tom Q
@Alison Rose:
Lindsey Graham — before he went permanent darkside — famously said “If you don’t like Joe Biden, there’s something wrong with you.” As you say, he’s not only clearly not an asshole, he’s almost the diametric opposite.
Right-wingers also convinced themselves Barack Obama was a moron who couldn’t speak without a teleprompter carrying him, so believing patently untrue things comes natural to them.
Sister Golden Bear
When they start
sayingenforcing the (not really) quiet parts out loud:GOP Targets Small FL Town Over “Safe Space” Stickers
On the money quote from Shitter because embedding is broken, nor can I find it on Nitter:
Jeffro
Right??!?
Like…can we ever talk about the majority in this country? The group that provided President Biden with the highest PV total in our country’s history??
Fuck it. Let’s just Dobbs and trump-indictment-fest our way to another GOP ass-kicking.
The media is like the Republican Party in that they need several straight losing election cycles to change their wa…oh, who am I kidding? The Republican Party will learn, the media never will.
Alison Rose
@Tom Q: They have a real “8-year-old grabbing your hand and hitting your own face with it and asking ‘why are you hitting yourself'” vibe.
Alison Rose
@Sister Golden Bear: The party of FREEZE PEACH wants to tell business owners they can’t put a sticker on their windows. How about if the rainbow has a bald eagle flying past it holding a baseball and a slice of apple pie.
Ken
@UncleEbeneezer: It is the same group that said Biden was like Fred Rogers, because they thought that was a bad thing.
wjca
Hey, if Alabama can ignore a court order about gerrymandering, why can’t Florida? I mean, Alabama’s US Senator lives in Florida for heaven’s sake.
Jeffro
@Alison Rose: It’s a good column! (I noted this in the ‘dishwasher’ thread earlier).
I’m still waiting for some Dem elected official (or hey, the whole party) to pick it up and run with it. Even in our current ‘Idiocracy-on-Steroids’ environment, the parallels cannot be missed.
“Either women are full citizens, or they aren’t: which is it, GOP?”
Sister Golden Bear
@Alison Rose: Only if the eagle is clubbing a trans woman with the baseball bat. /s
The Lodger
@Alison Rose: That was Charles F.U. Cooke. Two major fires last month and sadly, he didn’t die in either of them.
wjca
The evidence suggests that you probably have that backwards. At least, in 30 years the California GOP hasn’t stopped losing (more and more) and hasn’t learned anything. Is there any evidence the party is different elsewhere.
RedDirtGirl
An activist friend of mine is getting involved with an organization called the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative. I know that we talk a lot about the 27% who are deplorable and irredeemable, but what if there really are more people in the rural areas that are reachable, and open to progressive ideas?
From their website:
If locally-tailored progressive populist programs take root in rural communities, the fruits of these programs will restore communities to economic, civic, and democratic health and provide rural voters with a more ideologically diverse choice of candidates.
Sister Golden Bear
@laura: Burning Man is always the most wonderful time of the year in SF because the burners out of town on the playa.
Today’s good news is that despite the gloomy and muggy weather — really unusual — I still managed motivate myself to make some good progress on decluttering house. I had started before getting Covid and was at the “worse before it gets better” stage when I got sick, and everything has sat there during long recovery because I didn’t have the stamina to deal with it.
Lyrebird
Quoted
For
TRUTH.
I think they are trying to make bigger and bigger lies to see if they can get away with it. It might be interestin gto to watch if it weren’t in support of fascism.
I hope we can keep turning them back so decisively that we can soon look back and laugh, but we are not there yet imnsho.
Alison Rose
@The Lodger: Apologies. The space lasers have been on the fritz lately. We’re working on it, but the high holy days are coming up so things are hectic!
Alison Rose
@Ken: Imagine being so filled with blind hatred that you don’t realize literally every human with a soul loved the absolute hell out of Mr Rogers.
Raven
Go Dawgs!
topclimber
@Tom Q: Maybe the guy met Joe while Dark Brandon was having a hangover.
Villago Delenda Est
Reading an article in Slate on the dumbphone that says that Rethuglican voters want to be lied to. After all, Ramasmarmy told multiple lies during the Rethug debate, and his poll numbers went up. This is the sort of stupid that conventional means will not fix.
Josie
@Alison Rose:
You are en fuego tonight!
de
The article equates Obama’s and Trump’s wins. Obama was swept into office, he won big in 2008. Trump barely squeaked in because of less than 100,000 votes spread across various states and of course because of the stupid electoral college we are stuck with. Obama is overflowing with Charisma, Trump has hatisma.
Nukular Biskits
You and me both.
Stupid me, I’m doing work stuff because I don’t have time to do it … at work.
At least I have beer.
Alison Rose
@Josie: Haha, doing my part to keep the weekends lively around here :P
laura
@Sister Golden Bear: I feel you/I feel seen about the declutter. I had big plans for summer vacation, and now I’m back in school and the stuff I planned to get done didn’t. IKEA kallax record holder unassembled, stereo turntable, not set up, stuff still hanging around that should have been goodwill expressed, recently deceased weinie dog gear and such like, still empty reminders. But hey, it can still get done some fine day and I’m not at Burning Man.
Another Scott
@laura: That’s a lot of water…
I’m reminded that the Sahara used to be grasslands with internal lakes and such…
Cheers,
Scott.
Suzanne
@laura:
Careful…. this one leads to fights.
KrackenJack
@laura: It’s counter-intuitive, but when Burning Man is wet, it’s on fyre!
Tenar Arha
@Mousebumples:
Do you like it? How’s the bumpy start, smoothed out? How’s the moderation?
Shalimar
@Alison Rose: Latest “free speech” issue I saw today is that Elon Musk’s blue checkmark army is angry at the ADL for meeting with Yaccarino about hate speech on the platform. Musk is considering a poll (which only blue checks can vote in now) to decide whether to ban the ADL. Because having an army of neo-Nazis deciding whether to persecute Jews is where right-wingers are now in their quest for free speech.
eclare
@schrodingers_cat:
Super Tuesday Joe voter here from 2016.
CaseyL
I tried to DIY a project I’ve wanted to do for years, and very quickly discovered I need to call in a professional.
My house has the same bathtub and surround as when I moved in. The caulking has always been ugly: too much, too uneven, etc. I ignored it for many years, and finally decided to remove the old caulk and put on new. I watched the requisite YouTube how-tos, read the same information on non-YouTube how-tos and thought: It will be tedious, but I can do this.
Only I found that one particularly huge lump of caulk in one of the corners has been hiding a hole in the surround all these years. I uncovered just enough to know it’s there – I would need more tools to get the rest off; whoever did this used caulk like Bondo – and decided not to go any further on my own.
I am desperately hoping using caulk as Bondo actually “worked” – i.e., kept water from getting into the wall structure behind the surround – and at worst I’ll need to replace the surround.
Or this might turn out to be the most expensive “small project” ever.
Mike in NC
A National Review piece of shit that WaPo insists on giving a platform to.
RevRick
@Baud: That’s for sure, because we’ve already won Florida… and Texas is in play!
Jay
@CaseyL:
push some tile mastic into the hole.
If water got in there and you have mold, well, walls ripped out.
If it was plugged with silicon, it should be good.
Lay a tape line down on the tub and the wall, lay in the silicon, smooth it out with a wet finger when it skims over, pull the tape when cured.
Bill Arnold
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’d be OK with a thorough purge of their team covering US politics.
sab
@Baud: Me too.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
THIS. Absolutely Fucking This.
I’ve ranted about this before, the media is about making money, first and foremost. Sure they’d like to get the news out there and have record numbers of subscribers/listeners/viewers, but that is because that makes them more money. I mean let’s face it every business is about making money, otherwise at least 96% of them wouldn’t be doing whatever it is they are doing. I’ve owned 2 different businesses and sure I wanted to make that money by providing something, something, but making money is the whole enchilada.
Ruckus
@Alison Rose:
I like your style.
To the point, don’t waste a lot of words, call the assholes what they are – assholes. I kind of like DGDFT. A bit more descriptive than SFB.
Bill Arnold
@Alison Rose:
Or a rainbow, paired with
“The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
(Or maybe in Hebrew to drive the point home.)
Timill
@CaseyL: ‘s probably less expensive that a friend’s project to put his copy of “Cyteen” on a shelf.
He finished reading it, looked at the relevant shelf – no room. Looked at all other shelves – no room. Looked for space to add more shelves – no room.
He ended up moving house as a result…
RevRick
When the 2016 campaign began, I made two commitments to myself. The first was to not support any candidate over 70. The second was to support the choice of South Carolina black church ladies. And so I made contributions to Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. Well, South Carolina happened and I chose to junk my first commitment.
In retrospect, I should have realized how great were the possibilities of a Biden administration.
If there’s one gift he has, it’s his ability to schmooze and get along with everyone who isn’t a psychopath. It takes real talent to get Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin on the same page. Joe Biden is the most successful President since LBJ. And he did it with no margin for error.
Alison Rose
@Ruckus: Sometimes* I can ramble and babble a lot. Other times, I’m just like…fuck this jerk, ta-da, the end.
(*anyone who knows me IRL is now laughing their ass off because by “sometimes” I mean “almost all the time”)
Mousebumples
@Tenar Arha: I’ve only been there a few weeks (courtesy of @Omnes), but it works well enough for my needs, most of the time. Still not seeing my sports follows, mostly, so that’s disappointing, but they aren’t on Mastodon either. Easier to find and follow people vs Mastodon, and (might just be my instance) less siloed, in sense
Eta – and it’s bedtime here. I might try to check in on the am thread, re available Bluesky invites, if my kids will cooperate…
Splitting Image
@Kirk:
It’s a fair observation to make. Ohio was a tipping point state in 2004 and Kerry based his strategy around winning it. Ohio has clearly trended Republican since then (as have former bellwethers Florida and Missouri) while Colorado, Virginia, Georgia and Arizona have trended Democratic. If Biden carries Ohio in 2024, he will carry all of those.
The upshot is that it is neither necessary nor likely that Biden will carry Ohio next year. It is therefore a waste of time for the New York Times to have reporters camping out in diners there talking to Trump voters. They and their readers would be better served by trying to figure out if the Democrats are going to turn out voters in Atlanta, Charlotte, and Phoenix. That the New York Times is not doing this is an indictment of their reporting.
CaseyL
@Jay:
Many, many thanks for the tip about tile mastic!
I’ve got my fingers crossed about the hole – it really was plugged but good with the caulk, which (to my uneducated senses) looked and felt like silicon.
Putting down the new caulk isn’t the problem; it’s getting rid of the old stuff. Not nearly as easy as it looked on YouTube, probably because it is very old and was put on so thickly.
RaflW
As was noted last night (can’t remember by who), far too many pundits also bought the whole “red wave” malarkey hook, line and sinker and were shocked by the mid-terms, too. Few of them really took any lesson from that except “I was surprised,” not, “I should throw out my priors.”
gwangung
A bit of self-imposed messiness….
…not only did I decide to redo my will….
…not only am I on the search committee to hire a new General Manager for our national organization…
…not only am I doing a five minute speech on my theatre group to a national convention on Monday…
…AND I am producing a new show with said theatre group…
…I have, somehow, been sweet talked into teaching a five unit course on Asian American theatre at the University of Washington (when I haven’t stepped into a classroom in 40 years).
(Yeah, yeah, this is more of a humble brag…but this DOES eat into a holiday weekend….)
cain
@RaflW:
I truly believe that the editors and other mid-level media types are conservatives and are against a progressive country. It’s your likely Gen X/Boomer(more Gen X) that are out there fucking it up and making them change article headers and so on.
They hate where this country is going – but we are going liberal the Reagan conservative cycle is over. It’s our turn now. And we need to because we got to prepare for climate change and a host of other things and we need new ideas – not stupid recycled Reagan bullshit.
Citizen Alan
@Villago Delenda Est: OF COURSE THEY WANT TO BE LIED TO!!! Shitgibbon doesn’t have hypnotic powers! Faux News doesn’t beam mind control waves into people’s brains! The Deplorables actively seek out people who will tell them lies that comport with their bigotries and their sense of unearned victimization.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: Yes, I remember it well. I think the press ignored it.
Tenar Arha
@Mousebumples: I’ll take one, if you’re still awake, or hopefully you’ll check back tomorrow. Do you need an email address? Or is it just a link? LMK
CaseyL
@gwangung:
You’re in for a wildly exciting autumn! Those are dream projects (well, not the will rewriting part); I hope they turn out equal parts professionally and personally fulfilling.
@Timill: Well, that would be my first reaction, too: Need a bigger house! Though I would wish to get a house big enough to put those compressing book stacks in – the ones that stack close together, and you open aisles up between the stacks with a big old wheel. I fell in love with that arrangement at first sight.
Soprano2
@Sister Golden Bear: I’m so old I remember when Republicans wanted the government to leave small business alone. They really want to legislate what kind of sticker a business can put on their door? Just change it to a rainbow with nothing else. Would they try to make rainbow stickers illegal? What 🤡.
TS
@Jeffro:
The answer is NO. I don’t think they even make it to 3/5 of a person because any woman of child bearing age is obviously not a citizen at all.
Jay
@CaseyL:
if it’s silicon, vinegar.
Lots of razor blades.
Time to do it well.
Kristine
@Mousebumples: If you have one left, I’ll take it.
pacem appellant
There was a Washington Post op-ed post Biden election by Eugene Robinson that attempted to flip the “In this Ohio diner” motif on its head. It didn’t get any traction, mainly I suspect because it was contrary to the narrative that the overlords at the Gray Lady and other MSM outlets know to be true (including WaPo), that it was left untouched.
Then 2022 happened.
And this milquetoast nothing burger from the Bulwark is all we get.
It certainly seems to prove that there are a lot of people’s political desk jobs that depend on not understanding what’s going on in the United States.
Soprano2
@CaseyL: Sounds like pretty much any project at our house. Fixing the bathroom has led to needing to have Terminex treat our house….😲😲
RaflW
Not sure now where I saw it referenced earlier today, but that WaPo piece written by someone at the Door County WI fair, checking in at the two booths, the GOP and Dem spots, and how they each talk about abortion, was a rare look at what at least some non-Trump people want.
We need far more of that sort of thing. I even appreciated that they just let that 70-something GOP man blaze on about how he wants to take away even the ‘save her life’ exception. Yep, they’re that extreme. Some of ’em, anyway.
RaflW
@TS: As Heather Cox Richardson said just recently about the TX city/county laws:
“Such [travel] barriers are precisely the same as those for people trying to leave authoritarian countries. Someone who is prohibited from leaving a jurisdiction is not a citizen but a subject. Free and full citizens of a democracy have the right to travel, both inside the country and out of it. That right is guaranteed to U.S. citizens by the Constitution. [emphasis added]”
Citizen Alan
@RaflW: Fucker was 79. I hope “God’s Plan” is to kill him off and send him to burn in hell. And I’d be happy to tell the evil SOB that to his face.
SiubhanDuinne
@Soprano2:
This seems an appropriate song.
Soprano2
@RaflW: ‘If the woman dies that’s “God’s plan”, even if there is a way to save her life.’ Doesn’t that idiot understand that the fetus will die, too? Democrats should use this, that Republicans don’t care if women die from treatable problems, that they care more about a potential life than a person who’s in front of them. It’s so disgusting.
Citizen Alan
Mississippi Expatriate Holiday Report: For the Labor Day Weekend, I am taking my first actual vacation (as opposed to work related things where I could get someone else to pay for my hotel and meals) in probably a decade. I am presently in LA. I have tickets to see “Peter Pan Goes Wrong” tomorrow at the Ahmanson theater. I spent three hours at the Broad Museum today and then dropped a ridiculous $250 at an actual French restaurant! (And to my amazement, escargot is really good, albeit it overpriced.) After the matinee tomorrow, I will be checking out the Museum of Modern Art tomorrow afternoon. And then possibly getting drunk at the gay bar two blocks from my hotel before going back to Fresno on Monday. Wish me luck.
mrmoshpotato
Get more drunk and continue not reading the career whitewashing of lifelong Rethuglican shit***** who are largely responsible for the shitstorm we’re currently in.
ETA – and watch YouTube camping videos.
Pete Downunder
@Citizen Alan: I don’t know if it’s open this weekend, but the La Brea tar pits and associated museum is surprisingly interesting.
BruceFromOhio
Not ‘swept’, I think the word here is elected. By a record number of votes. From a wide variety of Americans.
I know, its a real fucking mystery.
Quinerly
OT JB’s death hit me hard today after I got out of the house. Local Santa Fe musician and friend on fiddle did a take on Buffett….a little tribute in Lamy, NM. Pretty cool. And so…..I cried for the first time. Big cry.. Then the audience cried too.
Fucking skin cancer that turned into lymphoma…..COD.
BeautifulPlumage
@gwangung:
Wow, that’s impressive, and lucky students! Sounds like you’re pretty busy this fall – good luck.
frosty
@Quinerly: Oh hell. He certainly lived a life that could cause skin cancer. Awful.
You have some grieving to do, so let it happen. My buddy and I are practicing “Pencil Thin Mustache” for an open mic next week so that will be my tribute.
Alison Rose
@Tenar Arha: @Kristine: I have one invite code, so if Mousebumples isn’t able to cover both of you, the other one can have mine :) Or we could make you both arm-wrestle for it! I’ll check back on this thread in the morning (but I’m in CA so later than most folks check in on here).
Soprano2
@Quinerly: Wanted to tell you that I think the bricklayer’s union is gone from Maggie O’Brien’s building. I didn’t see any evidence of them.
Ruckus
@Splitting Image:
That the New York Times is not doing this is an indictment of their reporting.
To me it’s an indictment of the political views of the owners of record. They are in it for the money and the advancement of their political views. News, naw, it’s their political concepts. People write for a newspaper because it’s a good job or it meets their political views, or because they aspire to go higher. People own newspapers so they can get people to listen to them and pay them for paper to recycle.
Kristine
@Alison Rose: Thanks.
The absolute last thing I need is another social media account. But I’m curious.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
It’s beyond disgusting. In this day and age it’s murder.
Ruckus
@Pete Downunder:
Actually the La Brea Tar Pits are beyond amazing.
In the middle of a modern, vibrant city/county is not a made up display but an actual very ancient piece of history. It’s not overwhelming but it is amazing, first that it’s been maintained, second, how old it really is.
Ruckus
@BruceFromOhio:
Not ‘swept’, I think the word here is elected. By a record number of votes. From a wide variety of Americans.
I know, its a real fucking mystery.
I thought that this demands repeating.
TS
@RaflW:
Who knows what the current version of SCOTUS would say about that – therein is the problem – not to mention that those most impacted by such legislation can hardly afford to appeal things to the SCOTUS – unlike the TIFG who seems to get fundraising to pay his legal fees (or not pay them at all)
Aussie Sheila
@Villago Delenda Est:
Have I ever told you I love your work? If not, consider yourself told. The Oz press media is pretty bad, (Murdoch dominated), but the mainstream Press in the US is uniformly awful, or at least the bits I follow, like the NYT and the Post. It’s just awful.
Ruckus
@Quinerly:
Life ends for all of us.
The good, the bad, the amazing, and the disgusting.
I wrote the following a couple of years ago as part of a book I’m contemplating.
“I’m spry as child, other than standing still with my eyes closed is basically impossible. I’ve managed to last at least 20 seconds with someone on each side to catch me and I’ve been caught from falling by a very nice woman doc once doing that standing with your eyes closed trick. And no I do not like stairs at all. 2-3 yrs ago I was fine. Getting old sucks, except for the alternative, which is far worse. Some are lucky that the worst doesn’t start all that early and some have events that shorten their time of trying to figure out your limitations and how to get around. I still feel pretty lucky and good that I get that opportunity and can walk a couple miles a day faster than some half my age.
My tale is not as bad as some because 20 yrs ago I started working out to make my life better. I was not considered over weight but I still lost 20 lbs. And I’ve managed to keep a decent weight. But you lose the battle to stay young, by not staying young. Every animal goes through this or something ends the process. I’ve watched every one in my family and most of my friends do this, everyone gets a turn, Lily and I are getting ours. Humans take 5-25 yrs to get through it, it’s just the way it is. There is no road map, no definitive timeline, no secrets, if you aren’t there yet, live well. We have a lady in the complex who is 95 yrs old, rides around on an electric chair, is half blind, half deaf, was hospitalized with Covid for about 2 weeks and is still around and is well, not kicking but just being a tough old bird, someone to emulate. I know people my age who are doing better, some doing worse and a number that lost the fight. That old hippy saying “Keep on keeping on” rings true.
Lily was a friends dog that I walked on occasion.
Villago Delenda Est
@Aussie Sheila: AS, thank you for your kind words! At least the Aussie Press seems to have a bit more variety than the US media, which is groupthink broadcast everywhere.
Aussie Sheila
@Villago Delenda Est:
Our saving grace is the Australian Broadcasting Commission, (ABC).
It isn’t radical, but its strict approach to facts and it’s broad support electorally saves us somewhat from the cluster F that is US broadcast media.
BTW, apologies for Murdoch, but really, did you have to grant him citizenship? Strip him of it. I can guarantee there won’t be any support in Oz for regranting him Australian citizenship.
He is destroying democracy everywhere he goes and is allowed.
Villago Delenda Est
@Aussie Sheila: Ronald Reagan did that. Another example of why he was a monster.
Frankensteinbeck
@Citizen Alan:
I read the book, and I promise you that Peter Pan started out wrong. What a deranged, evil piece of supposedly children’s literature. I don’t know what is more messed up, that Peter Pan’s murdering psychopathy is presented as the magic of childhood, or the declarations that grown women find Peter having his baby teeth irresistibly sexy.
Tony Jay
@Citizen Alan:
Awesome. Taking my lad to see one of these shows in Liverpool.
@Frankensteinbeck:
For me, The Lost Boys is one of the few versions of the story to nail the true horror of what Peter has to offer – with added 80s hair and Cory Hair’s appalling jacket/dressing gown ‘thing’.
ColoradoGuy
I think the media infatuation with TFG is they see him as one of their own … an entertainer. “The News” is just a marketing phrase for content aimed at an older demographic who expect a simulated newslike product to fill part of their evenings. (Yes, I am an old too.)
The entertainment industry looks after its own, and TFG is a fully paid-up member who continues to generate content to fill the airwaves and generate clicks. The content is irrelevant; it could just as easily be a test pattern, if the viewers were there. As it is, the TFG cult expects something between a tent revival and a traveling circus … other politicians are boooring, so don’t get watched.
The GOP figured out long ago, with election of Governor Reagan in California, that many low-info voters want entertainment, so why not a movie or TV star? If they snap and snarl at a minority that can’t get airtime, so much the better.
It might sound a little dark, but if the GOP ran Auschwitz, they would make it into a reality TV show, with lots of horrifying comedy. It’s their brand now … horror comedy. Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh pioneered the format, and TFG stepped right in.
Aussie Sheila
@ColoradoGuy:
I think that is true. The olds (and I am one in years at least) still watch the News on TV and take their cultural tropes and meaning from that medium. The young, not so much. What worries me about the US is the seeming incapacity of its sclerotic political forms to meet the needs of both its younger generation and the needs of rapid political reform to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It’s not just climate change. It’s the fact that the so called ‘American Century’ is drawing to a close, and US elites are simply unable to deal with that fact.
The US media, both Press and broadcast are seemingly incapable of dealing with reality.
Geminid
@Aussie Sheila: Americans are pretty much wrapped up in the short-term political situation and there is not much introspection about our place in the world. We also tend not to pay much attention to goings on in other nations; the war in Ukraine is an exception to this general indifference.
But I’ve been meaning to ask you: I follow the clean energy transition and the hydrogen aspect in particular, and I’ve noticed some ambitious hydrogen projects for Australia. Does this get much attention in your country? What do you think of them?
Btom89
@MouseBumples. Would like one of the Bluesky invites.
bjacques
@Ruckus: very late…La Brea even has a song!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=A_YPFvC-C_E&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo
Aussie Sheila
@Geminid:
Yes the hydrogen projects do get a lot of attention here, and not all of it favourable. I am not a scientist but as I understand the debate there isn’t much enthusiasm for it from genuine climate scientists. It is heavily supported by the centrists in our Conservative Party, called the ‘Liberals’ here in Oz..
The real argument here is the need for massive investment in upgraded transmission infrastructure to deal with the fact that solar energy here is obviously abundant and very, very popular with households and the population at large.
The upgraded transmission will cost a lot, and the conservatives are moaning about it. As usual. Nevertheless, I believe that people will support the upgrade simply because every Australian knows that our abundant and seemingly eternal sunshine is an energy bonanza.
Aussie Sheila
@Aussie Sheila:
Oh and Hydrogen also has its own emission problems when being used as an energy source. Where I live, solar is a no brainer, everyone knows it, and people want to get ‘er done! 😉
lowtechcyclist
@eclare:
@RevRick:
It just seems like that primary season had to have been seven or eight years ago, with the pandemic and all that’s happened since. ;-)
Another Scott
@Jay: Nit – “Silicon” is a hard, silver-grey colored elemental material used to make electronic devices. “Silicone” is a flexible waterproof silicon-compound adhesive that is usually white and comes in a tube.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@RaflW:
IANAL, but ISTM that these laws also run afoul of the “full faith and credit” clause of the Constitution (Art. IV, Section 1). Ultimately, I agree with Bouie that a house divided against itself cannot stand. But in the meantime, states are required to respect the legality of each other’s laws.
Back in the days of wildly differing liquor laws, that meant that Dry State D couldn’t stop its citizens from going to Wet State W and boozing it up. But they could check cars coming back from W to see if they were carrying booze which was illegal in D.
So ISTM that it would be unconstitutional for Texas to stop or hinder its citizens from going to New Mexico where abortion is legal, and it’s purely those citizens’ business what they do when they’re in NM. (Had a friend whose license plate read O2BINNM. Seems more meaningful than ever now.)
If there were sufficient reason to believe those citizens were bringing contraband back into Texas, then TX could stop them and check. But of course it’s what they might not be bringing back that bothers Texas, but as long as abortion is legal in NM or some other state, that shouldn’t be something that Texas can prosecute over, or enable its citizens to sue people over.
LiminalOwl
@Alison Rose: Well said. Thank you for the eloquent rhetoric.
Mousebumples
@Tenar Arha: If you’re still watching the thread, I’m at whiteowl4 AT Gmail.
@Kristine: And same to you, Kristine.
I can try to reach out to WaterGirl too. 😊
Mousebumples
@Btom89: I think mine are both spoken for. But Alison Rose seemed to have one, or else satby in the morning thread. 😊
Geminid
@Aussie Sheila: Yes, hydrogen energy is controversial. Still, the International Energy Agency projects that hydrogen will account for 18% of a carbon-neutral world energy economy in 2050, mainly in energy intensive industries like steel and glassmaking, and heavy transport.
Alison Rose
@Btom89: I see the others are taken care of, but if you’re around, I can send you one! Drop your email if you’re okay doing so, or you can send a note to WaterGirl to pass along to me :)
Another Scott
@Geminid:
OTOH, it will be expensive. CRUGroup.com:
And that’s before one considers the atmospheric chemistry issues:
It’s a tough problem, and hydrogen is not an easy – cost free – solution in the transition. It may have a role to play, but …
Cheers,
Scott.
Tenar Arha
@Alison Rose: Thsnks for the offer!
@Mousebumples: Thanks so much. I emailed you this morning & posted too in the Burning Man thread.
@Btom89: Just in case you’re only monitoring here. The Burning Man thread now has more invites too now 😉
brantl
@Mousebumples: I think I would try it.
brantl
@Ken: Biden is a lot like Fred Rogers, and having recently developed an interest in Fred Rogers, I think Fred was best described as Jesus in a cardigan sweater.
brantl
@CaseyL: Using caulk as Bondo will work to seal, not to support. If the caulk in there is just space-filling to avoid water leakage (and is there in sufficient coverage/quantity to cover all that needs water-proofing) then you’re good. If it’s being used to substitute for structural strength, it will be pulled off by stress, and no longer be water-proof. Does this help?
Uncle Cosmo
MAD Magazine beat ya by something like 60 years – they ended a skewering of Hogan’s Heroes with a page from the next logical step, the comedy spinoff Hochman’s Heroes, set in an extermination camp… One of the nastiest (and IMHO deservedly so) shticks Bill Gaines et al. every came up with.
Citizen Alan
@Tony Jay: I’ve read several meta-fictions about the “real” Peter Pan having been a vampire or something similarly horrible who influenced Barry into writing the story. The most prominent was when Peter Pan was based on Sprite from The Eternals. Sprite, of course, was an alien being thousands of years old who had been stuck in the body of a prepubescent human child the whole time, an experience which drove Sprite mad several times. (If Disney had been smart, they’d have based The Eternals movie on the Neil Gaiman miniseries in which Sprite was the real bad guy.)
Geminid
@Another Scott: I also read the articles critical of hydrogen power. It’s useful though, for you to report them for the people who haven’t.
But since you read Phyics.org I expect you read stories about the basic research being done in this field. And a cursory glance at the subject heading “hydrogen power” will show projects from electrolyser plants in Minnesota and Michigan to hydrogen fuel cell buses in Santa Clara and Alameda,
There are major hydrogen projects in Spain and the Netherlands promoted by governments whose scientists know as much about these questions as you, and maybe even more. The International Energy Agency projects that hydrogen will account for 18% of the world’s carbon neutral energy economy in 2050. Evidently they think the roadblocks you cite are worth overcoming, or may be not as substantial as you and your selected sources make them out to be..
Have you taken this question up with Don Beyer, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner? They are the ones responsible for this country’s investments in hydrogen power. I’m just reporting on the results, not enabling them.
Kay
Who buys and reads anti woke lectures anymore? There’s really a market for 8 years of “The Oberlin Student Council gets on my nerves” ?
I guess. They’ve published two anti woke books just in the last 2 weeks – one by a far Right misogynist Nazi and one by Freddie deBoer.
It’s like this endless well for writers who don’t work very hard.