Warning: NSFW (h/t Satby)
Joe biden is Old pic.twitter.com/AXgunaP1LB
— 2RawTooReal (@2RawTooReal) September 10, 2023
Tragic news:
— Rep. Mary Peltola (@Rep_Peltola) September 13, 2023
We mourn the loss of Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr. His dedication to Indigenous communities, especially as a director at the Alaska Bureau of Indian Affairs, was unparalleled. Our deepest condolences to Rep. Mary Peltola & family. Buzzy's legacy will inspire us always. pic.twitter.com/A3XE67oNEj
— Native Americans for Sovereignty and Preservation (@ntvsovereignty) September 13, 2023
Alaska Public Media, “Rep. Mary Peltola’s husband dies after Alaska plane crash”:
U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola’s husband, 57-year-old Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr., died awaiting rescue after the plane he was flying crashed Tuesday in remote Western Alaska, according to officials.
Anton McParland, Mary Peltola’s chief of staff, said in a statement posted on her social media accounts that she was returning to Alaska to be with her family after the crash.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, Eugene Peltola Jr. was the pilot and sole occupant of a Piper PA-18 Super Cub that crashed under “unknown circumstances” around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday.
Peltola had flown a hunter and the hunter’s equipment to a remote location 64 miles away from the Western Alaska village of St. Mary’s…
Peltola was born in Bethel. He is Tlingit and Yup’ik and a member of the Orutsararmiut Native Council.
He could always be found behind the scenes as his wife campaigned to become the first Alaska Native woman to serve in Congress. But he was a trailblazer in his own right.
Peltola worked for more than three decades for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service in Bethel, eventually to become the first Alaska Native to oversee the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. Later, he served as regional director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Alaska. Through much of his career, he advocated for subsistence hunting and fishing.
He retired last summer, as his wife was running for office. He recently joked that he was adjusting to his new job as “arm candy” to the congresswoman…
The congresswoman’s staff will continue to operate her office and meet with constituents while the family grieves, McParland said.
======
One of three active-duty Marines who stormed the U.S. Capitol together was sentenced to probation and 279 hours of community service — one hour for every Marine who was killed or wounded fighting in the Civil War. https://t.co/s6vujJ0Vhp
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 11, 2023
More like… Kevin realizes he may be looking for a new job soon, and sycophant is the role he’s best at:
McCarthy seemingly confirms the DOJ is investigating Musk. https://t.co/w3Xw0QsUF5
— brb, harboring cats (@RaisingOneBrow) September 14, 2023
narya
Just snagged an appointment for the new Covid vax (and flu) on Monday morning. Also, thank you again to everyone who weighed in yesterday; you were super helpful!
Now back to our regularly scheduled nightmare.
Baud
You always know what to say, AL.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Did you know Biden is old? I just now found out Biden was old. Also, what’s a Biden?
Jeffro
The hack’s hack, Marc Thiessen, on why President Biden’s impeachment is inevitable
(he’s right, of course, but not for the “reasons” he lists here…it is inevitable because the GOP has absolutely no principles except ‘restore our white supremacist chieftain to power’)
It’s all your fault, Democrats:
*is there a term for when a hack ironically uses the word ‘irony’, without realizing the irony of what he’s trying to do here?
So there you go, Ds – the more you resist the guy who’s trying to destroy our democracy, the more responsible you are for aiding his return to power and destroying democracy.
#OnlyDemocratsHaveAgency
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Baud
I vote for2RawTooReal to have a prime time speaking slot at the DNC.
Thanks, satby and AL.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
eclare
Great video, thanks Satby! Perfect message, no BS.
Baud
@Jeffro:
“If our side isn’t unaccountable, we’re entitled to abuse our power.”
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Baud: Accountability is for the working poor and Democrats.
Steeplejack
Having sufficiently expressed my rant-gland in the late-night thread, I will note for anyone who might be Echo/Alexa curious that you can get an Echo Pop for $23, if you can handle “lavender bloom” or “midnight teal” as the color. (Limited time deal!) Charcoal and white still regular price of $40.
I got a Pop last weekend and have enjoyed exploring it. I’m using it mostly to stream SiriusXM and radio stations from all over. Volume and sound quality are surprisingly good. Will deploy a smart light bulb to control my most-used lamp when I get a new harp (or harp extender—thanks for the tip on that, NotMax) to fit the bulb.
Baud
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
How else will they learn? Think of the moral hazard!
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Seconded. Probably the best refutation of the “too old” argument that I have heard.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! 🙏
Tony Jay
Jesus Carsharing Christ. I must vent.
The retro-90s weathervane masquerading as Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has travelled to Brussels today to chat to Europol, an international Police agency he apparently doesn’t know the UK is no longer part of, before posing in front of something made of concrete and steel that is nevertheless warmer and more charismatic than he will ever be for misty-lensed photographs of his giant, laminated head staring perplexedly into an uncertain future. But he found time to give interviews to Rupert Murdoch’s Sun and Times (the Lizard of Oz’s main UK tabloid and broadsheet) before he left and had this to say.
“The government’s failure to tackle the criminal smuggling gangs orchestrating boat crossings (of desperate asylum seekers across the English Channel) is now so profound that I believe it needs to be considered on a par with the other three big security threats we face: climate change, hostile foreign powers and terrorism.”
The whole ‘stop the boats’ dog-whistle is a non-issue confected by the Tories to appeal to the farthest-Right racists who might otherwise abandon them for the Reform Party or one of the White Power extremist groups. It’s a product of the Tories deliberately pinching off all other legal routes for people to claim asylum in the UK and their friends in the Murdoch and Dacre Press hammering away for decades at the idea that ALL foreigners coming to the UK are de facto illegal immigrants who want to steal our jerbs and molest our white children. To say that its ‘profundity’ score is very much not even in the same solar system as foreign interference, terrorism or fucking climate change is not so much an under-statement as a subterranean abyss so deep within the Earth’s mantle that its transparent inhabitants lack even the concept of light-statement.
Not content with dragging Labour into the Populist Right camp by legitimising the Tory Party’s Kulturkampf stylings on Immigration and those seeking asylum, he went on.
“There is no return to freedom of movement. We have left the EU. There’s no case for going back to the EU, no case for going into the single market or customs union and no freedom of movement. I’ve been really clear that that’s the parameter.”
Fucking hell. I know the Plastic Peer has an exposed underbelly on this topic, since he was the Labour Party’s Shadow Brexit Secretary who demanded, devised, wrote, publicised and campaigned on pre-2020 Labour’s policy of holding a 2nd Referendum as the preferred route to preventing Brexit, and that the Tories are 100% going to make a very big noise indeed about that in the next Election campaign, but the fact is he was the Labour Party’s Shadow Brexit Secretary who demanded, devised, wrote, publicised and campaigned on pre-2020 Labour’s policy of holding a 2nd Referendum as the preferred route to preventing Brexit.
He’s the same guy who pointedly never raised his voice to counter the campaign to undermine Corbyn for ‘sitting on the fence’ over Brexit, gave numerous interviews ostentatiously breaking with his Party leader in favour of an overtly pro-EU membership stance, and who insisted that all Labour had to do in 2019 was turn its back on the Leave-voting Northern parts of its electorate and become the natural vote repository for the huge majority of people who just wanted to be able to vote against Brexit.
Now, every time he wraps himself in the tattered colours of Brexit Absolutism, promises to ‘Make Brexit Work’, and insists that winning back the votes of that self-same Leave-voting Northern electorate (and their traditionally Tory fellows in the Midlands and the South) is the only way to power, all he does is draw attention to the suspicion that his previous Remain advocacy, however personally genuine it might have been, was never really about speaking up for this much-touted Remain majority, but was first and foremost a convenient tool designed to crash Corbyn’s Labour into a disastrous defeat that he and his ideological allies could benefit from.
After all, if there was a huge anti-Brexit majority back in 2019 that somehow just couldn’t bring itself to vote for Corbyn, surely three years after Brexit was revealed as a self-mutilating sham, there must be an even huger anti-Brexit majority out there for the taking by a Labour Party led by the anti-Corbyn. Mustn’t there? Bueller? Anyone? No? That just another inconvenient question the UK News Media know it’s not in their interests to ask? Never mind, what else did he have to say?
“There are some who say that Labour shouldn’t talk about immigration or shouldn’t believe in secure borders. On the other side, there are some who want us to turn our back on the world and shut up shop. Both are wrong. Both are un-British.”
Firstly, no there are not. No one is saying that. It’s a strawman so unconvincing that it might as well be dressed in the uniform of Senior Concierge of the Grand Continental Crow Hotel during the world’s largest and best-attended Global Crow Convention. Just like he did when he sneeringly painted anyone who had issues with his internal anti-centre left pogroms and abandonment of core Labour values as supporters of antisemitism, he’s adopted the language and enemies list of the rabid Tory Right and is calling anyone who has a problem with it a traitor. This isn’t the behaviour of a confident and principled leader with an optimistic vision of what the future holds for the UK. This is how small, frightened weasels talk.
When I say that I’d give various body parts to have someone like Joe Biden leading the Labour Party, this is the kind of thing that I’m talking about, and it’s why I just shake my head when anyone says that chatting shit about the kind of ugly cult Starmer has enabled Labour’s transformation into is the same thing as campaigning for the Tories. Truth is, there’s just no comparison between 2023 Democratic Party and the Nu-New Labour Party of 2023. One is a forward-looking coalition of mostly realistic people led by a guy who is as comfortable in his own skin as he is behind the wheel of a ’67 corvette. The other is a fractured, authoritarian mess micromanaged by a politically inept bunch of spiteful, backstabbing authoritarians who look at the fortune Tony Blair has amassed as an apologist for the worst people in the world and think that that is what is good in life.
They’re just two very different things. Which from my viewpoint over here, is bloody crap news.
p.a.
Politico- of all places- just did a pretty in-depth analysis of how Rethug policies result in rich areas of Red states have as bad or worse health and wellness results as the poorest parts of Blue states. Unless the press does its job this might be the only way to get through to those people. Death and destruction can concentrate the mind. But then conservaturd media will just tell them that they’re slitting their own throats because of libs.
Wapiti
I’m a little nonplussed about that Marine’s sentencing. The bozo swore an oath. On one hand, any hope he had of a military career has been destroyed. On the other hand, I guess a lot of the small fish in the mob got pretty light sentences, and 279 hours is ~35 eight-hour days. I do wonder if the Marines are facing separate charges for specific violations of Uniform Code of Military Justice, that wouldn’t be dealt with in civilian court.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
My roommate is here. I only think of moral hazard when I’m alone.
Baud
@p.a.:
Wow. I’m impressed. We should do a better job of ignoring the top stories the media pushes on us and finding nuggets like this to talk about and spread.
satby
telling ya, I do quality links
I shared that in yesterday’s overnight thread, so glad more will see it today. And in last night’s overnight thread I shared an npr piece that talked about these tiktok influencers so go look at the diversity in that group photo with Biden and see the two black women they profiled.
Rusty
As to that video clip by 2RawTooReal, all I can say is AMEN! (Listen to the whole thing, his defense of VP Harris is epic)
Baud
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
Is Moral Hazard their OnlyFans nym?
Baud
@satby:
Everything you do is quality.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Baud: Moral hazard is a way of life.
Steve in the ATL
Was one of you in the Detroit airport this morning? Guy in the security line had a red cap clipped to the outside of his backpack so everyone could see it. Said “RE-ELECT THE MOTHERF*****!! [actual word redacted to avoid offending the good Christian sensibilities of the jackal community], with an illegible signature in the bill.
And he wasn’t even white!
Another Scott
@Baud: +1
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
I’m so sad for Rep. Peltola. What a terrible thing.
According to TPM, 42% of small commercial aircraft fatalities in the U.S. occur in Alaska. Wow! Also:
Good lord!
Rep. Peltola’s predecessor, Rep. Don Young, also died on an airplane, but not in a crash. He was still serving in the House at age 88 (!) and was traveling to AK when he lost consciousness on the flight and was declared dead at SeaTac.
Jeffro
“Joe Biden has appointed more women to the motherfuckin’ courts than the WNBA”
LOLOL
made my day
eclare
@Tony Jay:
All I can say is, it sounds like shit is fucked up and bullshit over there. Thanks for keeping us informed.
Steeplejack
@satby:
Keep in mind that a lot of people probably click on your links without blabbing about it.
OzarkHillbilly
Police union leader said woman killed by Seattle officer ‘had limited value’
I got nuthin’.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s an odd way to spell “a promising life ahead of her and a family who loves her.”
JCJ
@Jeffro: I laughed at that as well. I picture Ketanji Brown Jackson, Candace Parker, and A’ja Wilson putting fools in their place
J.
@Baud: I second that.
Tony Jay
@eclare:
It is, but having ranted about it a bit I feel slightly better and will not be punching any babies as originally planned.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: Cong Nick Begich, father of the one-term D Senator Mark and grandfather (of one of IIRC Peltola’s R opponents, died in a plane crash in Alaska with fellow Dem MoC Hale Boggs, member of the Warren Commission, power-broker in the Dem party and LA politics, father of Cokie Roberts, husband of Clinton Ambassador to the Vatican, etc
ETA: scrolling while still half asleep leads to needless repetition, just been seeing a lot of rehashing of politically-related AK plane tragedies
Geminid
@Tony Jay: I can see how the Labour Party’s current management can be so maddening to you. It makes me think of the issue of party control, which is very different in our respective nations.
If the UK operated under the U.S. system, you or a like-minded Labour adherent could shout, “To hell with this Keir “Hardly” crap! We need to rebuild the party of Keir Hardy! And I will start doing just that in the next Parliament, when you select me in the Labour primary to run against those stinking Tories!”
Under your centralized party system, such a candidate would never even be allowed the chance to run for office as a Labour candidate.
Sometimes people here will complain about the relative looseness of party control, and it’s true that our less organized system will sometimes elect a problematic politician. But Democrats more often elect very sound and experienced politicians. And to the extent that we are unified- and I believe we are exceptionally unified right now- its a unity based more on choice than compulsion.
Steeplejack
Okay, wisdom for the day, courtesy of Morris Baxter on Atlanta jazz station WCLK: “The world needs you now, not when you’re perfect.” 👍
Jeffro
DeSantis: I’m More Than Happy to Trade Floridians’ Health (even Lives) For Votes
This one feels quite personal to me since, while she doesn’t live in Florida, my wingnut-adjacent mom is already absorbing all of the RWNJ media’s anti-vax nonsense, and this won’t help one bit. We were talking about getting the Covid booster just yesterday and she said, “I don’t know…one of my neighbors got the last one and had a heart attack a week later.” Mommmmmmmmm…
Most folks follow right along with whatever their leader is signaling, and this kind of shit has. to. stop.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I didn’t know they never found the plane that crashed with Begich and Boggs aboard. Also didn’t know Boggs was Cokie’s father.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Jeffro: A then B obviously means B because A, come on people.
Doug R
@Tony Jay:
I have a couple of die hard Labour friends back in ye olde Englande and I see your frustration with the pandering to Tory voters with Blair and now Starmer and I’m wondering just what you guys abhor so much about Lib-Dems?
Here in the Colony that kinda left in 1867, we get decent results with the mushy middle Liberal Party. Every once in a while they need help from the godless socialists of the CCF-now NDP to pass stuff like national healthcare, a national pension and unemployment insurance.
In fact right now they are in an agreement to support each other until the next election IIRC.
It’s been going on for awhile, that healthcare coalition was in the 1960s and in fact our most famous Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was a member of the NDP until he realized they weren’t coming to power in his lifetime and he switched to Liberal.
We’ve even got a term for strategic voting: ABC.
Anybody
But
Conservative
In which you check who’s got the highest percentage against the Tory and you hold your nose and vote for them.
So in conclusion, what have the Lib Dems done that merits this distrust-could they really be any worse that what Blair did and Starmer promises?
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
That’s right. Particularly under Starmer’s leadership, where the Party’s internal selection guidelines have been chucked out of the window in order to allow a clique of vengeful bastards from the London branches to arbitrarily deselect hundreds of sitting incumbents and replace them with carbon-copy loyalists without so much as a peep from the same News Media that ran blaring front-page BREAKING NEWS headlines about ‘The NEW STALINISTS’ if the previous leader failed to give fullsome backing to every Blairite MP whose local constituency party were upset that they’d just called for the previous leader to be hung as a dirty Commie traitor.
Put it this way. After what he said about Unions and trickle-down economics last week, Joe frigging Biden wouldn’t make the cut as a Labour candidate. Manchin would, definitely, and Sinema would have a front-bench role as Shadow Minister for Business, but Biden would be suspended and expelled before you could say ‘unelectable’.
Other MJS
Aw, Kev, you’re so cute.
schrodingers_cat
@Tony Jay: I have a question for you. How does Sunak and Murthy’s playing to the gallery in India by going to every temple in sight play domestically?
Steeplejack
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
Quad erat dumbassandrum.
Anne Laurie
The problem, as I understand it, is that there are big chunks of Alaska that can only be accessed by plane. And the vast, mountainous, mostly-wild terrain means weather that is frequently hazardous for small planes.
Not ideal, in a perfect world, but to Alaskans, hearing people (not you, Betty!) pontificate that ‘important people shouldn’t be on such flights’ must sound a lot like exurban blowhards complaining that people in big cities ‘shouldn’t be allowed’ to use bikes for transportation, or to walk anywhere near the roadways which in a proper world would only be ‘permitted’ to automobiles. After all, New Yorkers could tear up all those quaint little streets and turn them into nice smooth four-lane highways, but nooooo…
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Other MJS: Given the years of politically motivated investigation producing no evidence Joe Biden so much as jaywalked, I would like to thank the Republicans for proving we have a veritable Saint living in the White House
@Steeplejack: I see what you did there. And I don’t even speak pig.
Anne Laurie
One of the covid-related tweets I didn’t include this week said I need to find whoever’s been spouting this anti-vaxx crap to my mom, and beat them with their own shoes.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: Small plane crashes have been hard on MO Democratic politicians. Jerry Litton was a rising star in the Democratic party – he was killed in a small plane crash in 1978. Then there’s the small plane crash that killed Mel Carnahan in 2000. I’ve often wondered if that was the beginning of the decline of the Democratic Party in MO.
Fuck small planes.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: I listened to that the other day, it was so horrible.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: DeSantis is playing the oldies with this anti-vax crap, and I don’t think it will improve his standing with GOP base voters, and it definitely won’t help his image with normies he’d need in a general election. Ladapo, the surgeon general, is a certified kook who has been caught red-handed manipulating public health data. DeSantis would put him in charge of the CDC.
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: My son just started college in the aviation training program at the University of Alaska. According to someone I spoke to in the department, half of all private planes in the U.S. are located in Alaska. Let that sink in. Basically, there are almost no roads. I tried to get some driving routes between various points in Alaska, and you can’t do it. You can’t drive to Nome, Alaska (Go Balto!). You can only get to Juneau by car via ferry.
Anywho, it cuts a little closer to the bone when I hear about a tragedy like this, but this is just so sad for the Peltola family.
Yarrow
Oh, gosh. How sad for Mary Peltola and her family. Deepest condolences.
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly: Well, you see, it was supposed to be a PRIVATE conversation, so there! I listened to it, and I think what he was TRYING to say was that the city should not bother to contest claims for damages (probably not a controversial statement) but saying that the young woman was “of limited value” is just indefensible. And laughing . . . yeah, not good.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
If the next great political realignment occurs around vaccines, I would be elated. No way those dipshits can put together a working political majority, a problem only exacerbated for them by the way they choose to express their individual freedom
ETA: It’s nice to think various irresponsible factions would be hoisted by their respective petards. But these irresponsible jackasses, not just the anti-vaxxers, produce a lot of collateral damage.
Yarrow
That video is AWESOME. All Dems need to be saying things like that. And keep pushing back against our terrible media and their refusal to cover anything Biden has done but are stuck on repeat on his age.
Kay
@Jeffro:
Not true, but they don’t let that stop them from basing their whole dumb theory on it. No one has to read any further than that ridiculous claim.
Kay
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
I wonder if they maxed the anti vaxx group. Despite a lot of promotion from media and internet bros, RFK seems to have sputtered out and DeSantis is a national flop.
Tony Jay
@Doug R:
Basically, the Lib-Dems are, right now, the victims of their own actions. During the Blair Years they gradually grew in size and popularity because they were able to adopt a lot of policy positions that were to the left of New Labour, while still maintaining their position as the centre-right Tory’s safe protest vote when and if Tory scandals grew too whiffy.
In truth, the vote share of the Lib-Dems was what allowed Blair to stay in power through the early 2000s as his increasing rightward drift shed left-wing votes. The Lib-Dems sucked up enough votes that – could – have gone Tory if the Tory Party itself hadn’t been run by unreformed Thatcherites straight from Universal Movies central casting.
Then they got the leadership of Nick Clegg and the decision to take their 55 (I think) MPs into Coalition with the Tories in 2010. To say this was a disaster for the Lib-Dems is another one of those understatement things. The short version is they got absolutely nothing out of the deal, not even a winnable vote on Proportional Representation, and they got the blame for all the shit the Tories inflicted on the country, including Austerity. Come the 2015 Election they got absolutely hammered and all of the good work of the previous decades was torched. They were a rump and a joke.
By the time the 2019 Election rolled around they were no longer the Liberal-Democratic Party. They were now JO SWINSON’S LIBERAL DEMOCRATS, after having selected a leader who’d been an enthusiastic member of the 2010/5 Coalition Cabinet and who apparently believed that she was going to be swept to power by an anti-Brexit, anti-Corbyn majority. What actually happened was she spent all of her time screaming “Commie Bastard!” at Corbyn, getting talked up by the usual suspects in the media, then led the Lib-Dems to a catastrophic defeat as all they were basically offering was Nick Clegg 2.0, and no one wanted that.
Since 2019 they’ve got a new leader in Ed Davey, who was also in the Coalition, and is also a bit of a centre-Right goon, but with Nu-New Labour eager to move Right into not only Lib-Dem territory but the territory vacated by Cameron’s Tories, they’re getting squashed.
Now, this may be an artifact of the Media’s determination to ignore them (why draw eyes away from Sir Starmer’s centre-Right project to the other available brand before the project is complete?) and of Nu-New Labour’s post-2019 about-face on the possibility of an electoral pact of any kind with the Lib-Dems (they were all for it when it was a stick top beat Corbyn with, but not so much when they’d be the ones having to give seats up) but the Lib-Dems are more or less invisible on the national stage.
That said, I’m pretty confident that the Lib-Dems are in a position where they are going to pick up a LOT of Tory seats come the Election, maybe even enough to deny Nu-New Labour a majority. Plus it’s not out of the bounds of possibility that a few Labour seats may end up with Lib-Dem MPs because enough Labour voters are so disgusted with the Starmer Partei they lend the Lib-Dems a protest vote.
This time in 18 months Ed Davey could hold the balance of power in Parliament. I only hope he doesn’t piss it away as cheaply as Clegg did. A solid referendum on proper PR at a minimum has to be a no-brainer, but we’ll see.
tl:dr – The Lib-Dems aren’t ‘hated’. They’re just sort of looked at as the disappointing middle-aged son who has been given so many chances to improve his life and that of his family, but keeps on having affairs and going back on the crackpipe whenever there’s money in his pocket.
RaflW
@Jeffro: re: Thiessen and his “the more you resist the guy who’s trying to destroy our democracy, the more responsible you are for aiding his return to power” crapola.
It’s such classic abuser framing. And of course what we’re seeing writ large by the GOP is that frenzy that comes when it becomes obvious that the target of the abuse is done and leaving. But in excruciating slo-mo. And with the press undecided wether they are too fond of the abuser to report on him accurately, and gosh, weren’t the fights amazing for click-bait.
Betty Cracker
@Barbara: Wow, that stat puts it in perspective — thanks!
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: I agree the anti-vax people are a fringe group. It’s infuriating though because the political calculations of people like DeSantis have left ALL of us so much more vulnerable. They’ve intentionally undermined our ability to take collective action to preserve lives.
BlueGuitarist
@Soprano2:
also Paul Wellstone, MN, killed in plane crash 2002.
schrodingers_cat
The Opposition INDIA alliance is boycotting 14 anchors who are a part of Godi (Lap, Embrace) Media. Think of Faux News anchors but worse. May be Ds should do something similar.
Tony Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s hard to say. It’s the kind of thing that would only really get a reaction in the Indian community (and to an extent in the wider South Asian community) and in a different way amongst the Tory Party’s rabid membership. I just don’t have any vantage point on either of those groups so I simply don’t know.
On the wider political stage, I don’t think it’s moving many mountains. Sunak is generally considered such an ephemeral nobody desperate for any kind of ‘success’ he can point to that you get the very strong impression that his Modi-fluffing is seen, across the whole political establishment, as a bit embarrassing and clearly the actions of a man who knows that he and his country are NOT the stars of any double-act.
Sorry I haven’t got any more profound insights than that. Then again, it’s Sunak. He’s got the gravitas of a ricecake.
Kay
@RaflW:
It’s exactly what people like Trump rely on. That no one will hold them accountable because they will just make it worse for us if we do. Trump SUCCESSFULLY relied on this for the first 65 years of his life. It’s an absolute surrender to the worst people and following this advice will leave them completely in control.
BlueGuitarist
Have folks been talking about the UAW StandUp strike?
https://twitter.com/uaw/status/1702083943174897746?s=42&t=ancgDcIEeiO9Y9X57E1oxA
Roger Moore
@Anne Laurie:
Josh Marshall, who wrote the stuff Betty is quoting, actually got into exactly the issues you’re talking about. It’s much more an explainer about why aviation in Alaska is dangerous and why politicians have to take it anyway than a call to get rid of it. His basic conclusion is that it’s sad but inevitable that politicians in Alaska will be disproportionately likely to die in plane crashes.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Betty Cracker: Few things have made me despair in life as much as the general public’s response to masking and vaccination due to the COVID emergency. It’s too much of a bother to wear an additional article of clothing, but you have all the will you need to fight for your right to literally spit in everyone else’s face.
Then I recall years of literature covering over a hundred years of clinicians fighting hand washing measures in healthcare settings and realize “this is obviously what was going to happen.”
Gin & Tonic
It appears the Ukrainians have not only attacked a russian navy drydock facility in Crimea, overnioght they took out an S-400 air defense system which, if I’m reading correctly, is about $1.2 billion with a B.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Small plane crashes have killed a lot of musicians too. Off the top of my head, Buddy Holly et al, Ricky Nelson, John Denver.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Dorothy A. Winsor: Patsy Cline.
@Tony Jay: Well, just consider yourself lucky you have such a broad selection of right wing goons, from the center all the way to the far right.
Look to your Scottish neighbors for guidance. They seem to have their heads screwed on right.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: You made a comment yesterday about the flimsy basis for Labour’s purge of Jeremy Corbyn on specious charges of anti-Semitism. That made me think of another contrast between Labour and the Democrats.
Last week, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying goup AIPAC let reporters know that they intended to back some Democratic primary challenges next year, including one against Minnesota Congresswoman Ihlan Omar. Within hours, House Minority Leader Jeffries announced that Democratic leadership would “vigorously support” Ms. Omar in next year’s primary.
Rep. Omar’s views on our government’s support of Israel might be considered heterodox among Democrats in Congress. But earlier this year, when Republicans succeeded in their discreditable move to exclude her from the House Foreign Relstions Committee, every Democrat voted in support of their colleague.
Hakeem Jeffries is considered by AIPAC to be a srong supporter of Israel, and he is. But Jeffries also knows that the question of relations with Israel is a potential “wedge issue” among Democrats, and he’s determined not to let it become one.
Jeffro
@RaflW: yes – abuser framing, definitely.
Also (not that this even needs to be said): would Thiessen argue the same thing if a Democratic ex-president had 91 felony charges against him? Including trying to overturn a lawful election where a Republican president had won?
getthefuckouttahere
“Fellow Republicans, don’t you see, we must not prosecute Democratic ex-president Smith, because that would be… damaging to the country! (laughter) No really, it would…set a bad precedent! (more laughter) They’ll just revenge-prosecute Republicans the next time they have power!” (HOWLS of laughter now)
Like Republicans give a shit about any of that.
Like Democratic politicians would try to pull 1% of what trump did.
Like the Democratic party would re-embrace a criminal, obviously deranged, one-term loser. Hell, we don’t even embrace the D pols who WIN
schrodingers_cat
@Tony Jay: Those were my feelings too. I thought it was quite cringy. I had second hand embarrassment watching it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Otis Redding and Stevie Ray Vaughn (technically a helicopter crash). Both in WI. If you are a musician coming to the upper midwest, come by ground transport.
Frankensteinbeck
@RaflW:
The press loves abuser logic and has as long as I can remember. Sticking it to the poor is always a ‘brave’ decision. I’m sure it’s connected to the culture of rape-enabling misogyny that MeToo exposed, then too many people forgot about. It must be Hell to be a family member of most major pundits.
Every pundit who ever praised Paul Ryan is a domestic abuser. Count on it.
EDIT – @Gin & Tonic:
And even more important, I bet it’s impossible to replace. If it costs that much, there probably aren’t any to buy and the ones they have are all in service.
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: Well, that’s the story he is going with, but color me skeptical.
RaflW
@p.a.: I know it’s Politico, but I’d appreciate a link if possible (I did several searches and came up w/ nothing that looked like what you describe). Of the top of my head, though, this data must be before medical professionals had time to flee such Paradises of Freedom™ as Pocatello or Spartanburg. So these GOP folk should strap in for even worse health outcomes
Relatedly, in ‘unexpected’ out comes that liberals could have easily predicted, Politico also reports that women are saying they’re less likely than in recent times to even elect to try to get pregnant, because of course they know that pregnancies carry risks, and the GOP doesn’t give a toss if they have complications that could kill them.
RaflW
@Frankensteinbeck: Its way beyond pundits, though.
It is ‘straight news’ editors and reporters. There is still way too little diversity in news rooms, for one thing. Most of the people working elite political beats and editing major dailies are so far removed from any impact that would redound from a GOP sweep of our politics (or so they think. I suspect the crackdown on the press that would come from the collapse of our creaky democracy would shock them plenty) that they can steer coverage in ways that spell doom, and feel nothing in their gut about what harm they’re causing.
Doug R
@RaflW: Yeah, I couldn’t find that Politico link either.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Randy Rhoads (Ozzy’s guitarist) died in a plane crash.
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly: He can’t do anything to change his tone or the laughter, that’s for certain.
Ken
“Now, let’s discuss this editorial you wrote in September of 2023, suggesting the Republicans should look for a candidate other than Leader Trump…”
“It was Julia! Julia! Put the rats on Julia!“
Barbara
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Jim Croce, Buddy Holly, John Denver, Patsy Cline, Otis Redding, and probably more than a few others. And who could ever forget Roberto Clemente.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
👍
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: I was looking at the Twitter feed of Turkish journalist Ragip Soylu (@ragipsoylu) this morning, and he linked to several interesting article. One was a Politico-EU interview of Armenian PM Pashniyan. He spoke about how Russia’s power in the Caucasus region has declined because of its war against Ukraine. Armenia can no longer rely on Russian military support, Pashniyan said, and must deal with neighboring Azerbaijan on its own, hopefully with some diplomatic support from other nations.
The interview coincided with a small joint exercise with 84 U.S. and 150 Armenian soldiers near the Armenian capital of Yerevan. The exercise is still ongoing, and is oriented towards peace-keeping missions.
Nelle
@Barbara: As I’ve said before, when I met my husband he was an Alaskan bush pilot (in the summer; he was a PhD student at UW in Seattle in the winter. I taught so our rhythm for years was up to the village on the summer, Seattle in the academic year. We flew commercial into Fairbanks. Then there was no GPS; I had aviation maps on my lap. We flew north over the White Mountains, then over the Yukon flats, then over the Brooks Range, and finally over the Arctic Coastal Plain to the village of about 100 people on an island off the north coast of Alaska. We rarely had weather reports so we kind of did a hunt and peck through the clouds.
Because of the beauty and the resources, we met the Sec of Interior, House Merchant Marine Committee, Senate Energy Committee, writers like Ed Abbey and Barry Lopez, journalists from major media. We were a lot younger, yes, the risks were great, and I cherish the rewards.
(Nothing like my precocious daughter, at age 3 and in my arms, telling the Sec of Interior, “Don’t you put pipes on my pretty land!”
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
A) Very much a difference. The Democratic leadership know what they’re doing and can see the big old trap that would lay for them. Boot Omar on the say-so of AIPAC and that gives AIPAC the whip-hand in deciding who else the Democrats are ‘allowed’ to have within their tent. Before you know it everyone who has ever stood on a stage with Omar would be on the shit list and would have to be dumped, otherwise the Dems would be harbouring people implicated in antisemitism, wouldn’t they?
B) The people running the Labour Party now saw the exact same dynamic with the British versions of AIPAC, only they thought it was a super idea to give pro-Israeli hardliners a veto over who can and cannot be in the Labour Party, because above and beyond everything else about them they’ve got the political nous and sophistication of a week-old donut. Now they’re in a position where they can’t back out of the poison bargain they made, but that means as the anti-Corbyn smears fade off into the nether (as far as the main Media outlets who pushed it are concerned) Nu-New Labour remains hemmed in and unable to move out of a foreign policy straitjacket that is toxic to many progressive voters, because any attempt to reverse out of the deal would lead to accusations of ‘a return to antisemitism’ that those at the top of the Party have made themselves defenceless against.
I think it’s pretty obvious which Party has grown-ups running its affairs.
Tony Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s one of the worst feelings, and it’s kryptonite to a successful political career. Nobody wants to vote for the try-too-hard who makes them shrivel up inside every time they step on a rake.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Richie Valens, too. Not WI, but next door.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Too young for wisdom, too old for a doughnut
At this time, that’s not the impression you’ve given me.
schrodingers_cat
@Tony Jay: Modi’s amen chorus who thinks everything he does is a masterstroke loved it. There was a lot of gushing from the Godi media types as well.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Sacrilege against a religious extremist. Do it again.
Betty
@Tony Jay: Keir puts me in mind of Kevin. A couple of weasels.
Gin & Tonic
@Geminid: Funny story – some time back when my son was traveling in the area, he decided on a whim to go to Stepanakert, then accessible by road from Armenia (not sure if it is today.) Got a hand-written visa into Nagorno-Karabakh, spent a couple of days there. Harrowing story of the drive back, after having spent most of the night drinking local moonshine with the bus driver.
Frankensteinbeck
@RaflW:
I’ll be honest, I lump the two into one group. I can’t really tell where the dividing line is, and don’t much care since the rot is in their culture.
RaflW
@Ken: Put the rats on Nancy Barnes.
(Yes, I have a chip on my shoulder about her. IDK how Boston Globe readers who might be Juicers have fared, but she was terrible for the StarTribune, and I suspect she didn’t really do any favors for NPR either.)
JAFD
@RaflW: Methinks what you want is
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/01/america-life-expectancy-regions-00113369
Have great day, regardless !
Marcopolo
@Gin & Tonic: yeah, this was a big hit. made possible by a lot of smaller actions over the past several months. just following the reports since the counter offensive began in June UKR has methodically gone after RU air defense assets (along w/ artillery btw). generally not as flashy as last night but it all sets up for giving them the ability to 1) hit more targets w/ missiles/drones w/ higher probability/ less chance of interception 2) use their air assets a little more (more closely to the front lines). there have been reports of more UKR helicopter sorties close to the front lines this past week or two. all leading to the ultimate goal of making any RU presence in Crimea untenable. of course, this goes hand in hand with the UKR attacks focused on screwing up RU supply & logistics to Crimea.
Geminid
@Frankensteinbeck: Turkiye could sell back to Russia the S-400 anti-air missile systems it bought from Russia a few years ago. But while Tukiye has maintained and even enhanced its trade relations with Russia since the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Erdogan’s government has allowed Turkish arms sales to Ukraine only. Although not widely publicized, these have been substantial.
Turkish President Erdogan has not tried to wind down his country’s economic relations with its powerful neighbor to the north. That would really disrupt the Turkish economy. However, Russia’s occupation of Crimea and parts of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast present a strategic threat to Turkiye’s security, and Erdogan does not want this threat to become permanent. So I think they will hang on to their S-400 systems.
Anyway
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
Just got back from a week in France and experienced the joys of LHR security — I can’t understand why we are still going thro’ people’s water bottles TWENTY YEARS after 9-11!!!
I don’t understand why the Rethugs are okay with that intrusion and inconvenience but lost their sh1t over masks…
Anyone have Sec PeteB’s email – I need to send him a rant…
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Sure… but is Sir Starmer “old”?
cain
@p.a.: The reaction though is not to improve the red state but to destroy the blue state’s offering since it has the temerity to offer lower income people good healthcare that should only be offered to higher income/rich people.
wjca
@Jeffro:
Thiessen: “not because Trump didn’t do anything wrong”
Even Thiessen admits that Trump “did something wrong.” Sounds like the case is a slam dunk.
RaflW
@JAFD: Thanks, yes, that seems to be it.
While this info is definitely interesting, one political challenge is that people in Lexington County, S.C, probably have little to no idea what life expectancy or quality healthcare in faraway places like California looks like. Likewise Maine may as well be the moon to people in Perry County, KY.
There was a time, not that long ago, that at least some portion of elected Republicans might have been swayed by good research and reporting like this. But Rand Paul? Hahahhaha (please hear the ruefulness in that laugh).
His response, if he even bothered to glance at this item, would likely be to try to tear down what Maine or California have accomplished, so that the contrast would ‘go away’.
I feel like the repertorial world in this country still hasn’t grasped that the GOP is un-embarrassable. That they eschew all policy. Not just that they ignore policy research or data. They don’t do policy at all any more, except when it comes to abortion & LGBTQ ppl.
Other than that, Viveck is spouting nuking 5 gov’t agencies because the MAGAts want a devolved, toxically polluted, monopolist oligarchy (OK, they can’t use those big words, but y’know, outcomes).
Betty
@Anyway: Please do. They won’t undue the stupid water and shoes rules because “What if?” Maddening. That whole liquid thing never made sense in the first place. Scientists said the proposed scheme would have been impossible to carry out on a plane. Nevertheless, here we are.
Jeffro
@JAFD: that article is just amazing, thank you
JaySinWA
@Barbara:
That’s a very specific low number, most settlements that I’ve read about start at 5 to 10 times higher than that, some in the low millions. It makes me wonder what the “run of the mill” blood money payout is.
Googling “seattle police settle case” gives headlines with settlements from .5 million to over 3 million, but usually after expensive litigation. So they figure nobody will sue, and they can just buy off any complaints out of petty cash? I wonder what makes them believe that.
Experience or just pulling a number out of his posterior?
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: Buddy Holly’s bass player gave his seat on that plane to the “Big Bopper,” and proceeded by automobile. That choice made possible Waylon Jennings’ long musical career.
Now, singers and bands have seem to have adopted busses as their preferred mode of travel.
cain
@OzarkHillbilly:
I really hate these police unions – they are by this point just white supremacy recruiting centers or attractors.
Old School
laura
@Geminid: Roadie brother the elder has always loved the bus- the vibration of the road puts him to deep, restful sleep (always, always, always sleep with feet end pointing towards the driver!) He has high regard for the drivers and has developed a fear of flying the last couple of years and dreads flying into Columbia.
Hoodie
Was listening to the Obama Bros podcast talking about the “Joe Biden is old” thing, with them concluding that the Biden campaign needs to emphasize what he’s accomplished and how he seems to be still vigorous. That’s all fine, but it probably is not sufficient to talk about what Joe has achieved and his current state of hale health because people will still wonder where he’ll be in 3-4 years. The other elephant in the room is that the GOP will be casting aspersions about Harris, especially because the press is vulnerable to this type of crap. This becomes more problematic because of Biden’s age, e.g., no one gave a shit about Dan Quayle because no one thought he would ever be president.
Before people leap to the defense of Harris, nothing against her. I’m also not one of those people who would push to replace her on the ticket, as that would cause more problems than it would solve and, ultimately, would be a shitty thing to do. Instead, I’d like to see Dems do more to define her before the press and GOP do, particularly taking advantage of her relationship to Biden and how she has grown as a politician because of that. Whether true or not, there might be some value in more emphasis on her being a protege to Biden, e.g., how she’s gained so much from working with him and learning from his decades of experience, his knowledge about how government works, etc. His experience is somewhat unique and could be used to break her out from some of preconceptions about her. Being VP reinvigorated Biden’s career by changing his image from old white guy Senate hack. He gained a lot of cred among key Dem segments by being a loyal wingman to Obama. Try to build similar cred for Harris among the segments of the public that are comfortable with Biden, but for his age. Right now, I’m not sure they know what they’d get if Biden were to go down.
West of the Rockies
@Jeffro:
I hope you made this comment in the Washington Post comments section after Thiessen’s wretched diatribe.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
According to Breslin’s How the Good Guys Finally Won, the pilot had left his emergency locator device at home.
wjca
For some, correlation IS causation.
karen marie
@Wapiti: They bloody well better be.
lowtechcyclist
@Barbara:
That’s OK, you just click your heels together three times and say, “There’s no place like Nome” each time.
Betty Cracker
@Hoodie: From what I’ve seen lately, it sounds like the campaign is following your recommended playbook on emphasizing Harris. I like that strategy too. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for voters to more closely scrutinize a VP who serves with an 80-something POTUS, and the fact that Repubs have tried like hell to paint Harris as a liability could work to our advantage because when you actually listen to her, Harris comes across as sharp and witty and capable.
cain
@schrodingers_cat: They don’t talk to Dems anyways. They are happy with just regurgitating GOP talking points or giving the GOP talking points.
Given that the backdrop is filled with the DC press and everyone else wired for GOP talking points and horse race – they’ll be happy to just visit where Dems congregate overhear shit and write articles on what they over hear.
No, we need to start dong the same game – talk to us- we will give you exclusive content. That’s what they want. Don’t create a vacuum where they have an opportunity to make shit up and then add a GOP lens to it.
ETA – they should definitely kick Fox out of briefing room though – the other news people will gather the wagons around them because they are all connected. The white house should basically say “Sue us – we’re ready to fuck your shit up” – it’ll make them wary.
We likely don’t do these things because Dems are interested in making things better – this is just drama to them. But it isn’t – it’s moving the window. All of us want this fight and we want to beat them and force changes. Without an independent press, we are going to never get rid of this strain of fascism.
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I didn’t even know John Denver was dead. I thought he was just no longer newsworthy.
Omnes Omnibus
@lowtechcyclist:
Delete your account.
Jeffro
@West of the Rockies: I would but everyone’s already piling on!
“YES MARC – IT’S ALL OUR FAULT FOR HOLDING HIM ACCOUNTABLE, RULE OF LAW, YADDA YADDA”
schrodingers_cat
@cain:
They already do this don’t they. HRC’s email, Al Gore invented the internet etc. etc.
Omnes Omnibus
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is resuming abortion services in Milwaukee and Madison. Source (Twitter). This is awesome!
Suzanne
Tragic news about Mr. Peltola.
Those little planes are absolute fucken death traps. I either knew personally or am one degree of separation away from multiple people who have died in them. Will not get in one, ever.
Trivia Man
@Old School: I like the default- you WILL start on Oct 23 unless you explicitly waive your right to a speedy trial. Close off some last minute stalling plays. As it stands right now – 18/19 start at that date. Orange Head is the only one to waive that.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: hiding her would only make it look like this Administration *should * hide her, and they shouldn’t.
In addition to featuring Harris, I hope the campaign finds some good ways to remind people that they’re voting for Democratic policies, which means Democratic outcomes in their communities, states, and the U.S.
They can do it as a comparison:
Or even better, why waste time spelling out what trump/GOP would do if elected – everybody already knows!
So…(tv ad voiceover): “When you vote for Biden/Harris, here’s what you’re voting for: X, Y, and Z. Vast majorities of our country want X, Y, and Z. So vote for Biden/Harris, and get X, Y, and Z”
(one of which would have to be ‘protecting your reproductive rights’)
Doug R
@Tony Jay: I think one of (Lesser) Britain’s problems is how deep putin and the Russian money/mob have their tendrils into London’s
money-laundering“financial sector”.I mean the American Senate which was Republican led at the time released a report admitting Russian influence in 2016, the British government doesn’t even dare look for putin messing with Brexit.
Bill Arnold
@Jeffro:
One could think of Joseph Ladapo and Ron DeSantis as part of a stealth wet-work arm of the Democratic party, differentially killing 100s of thousands of Republican voters, to throw very close elections to the Democrats.
They (Ladapo and DeSantis) are certainly evil enough.
Frankensteinbeck
@RaflW:
Mitch McConnell laughed, laughed, when asked about the human suffering and death Covid had caused. I will never forget that and no one should. The man is a fucking monster. Pure evil.
RaflW
@Frankensteinbeck: McConnell is of the devil. But despite his intrinsic evil, there were some Republicans who still took policy briefings from reputable sources and, from time to time, got onboard bipartisan bills and voted for them.
And particularly at the state level, it didn’t used to be 100% hand-to-hand combat to pass bills that had demonstrable public good potentials. It really has become much harder to convince GOPs that anything is worth trying other than tax cuts and slut-shaming.
Ruckus
@Wapiti:
If he had any aspirations for a career this will haunt him for a very long time in the Marines, or likely any branch. And yes when in the military you are in it 24 hrs a day. I’d bet his ability to advance will be just shy of nil. IOW it won’t be stated openly in his record but in some unspoken code so that his level of advancement is blocked. And unless something has changed, it’s likely that reenlisting every 4 yrs will be blocked because you can’t remain at the bottom and stay in. And there likely will be some sort of punishment for violating the concept of being a marine, or any service member, duty to country. Now it might have changed in the half a century since I was in the military but I very seriously doubt that.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay:
I agree the Lib Dems are going to pick up a lot of seats in the blue wall areas. I think many red wall seats won by Tories the last time will go back to Labour. I don’t see a lot of people voting LibDem as a protest vote against Labour. Maybe that could happen in some very safe constituencies but in general a protest vote will just split the vote and let the Tories win again. For anyone who wants the Tories out the best bet is to vote tactically for whatever party is best positioned to win in a given constituency.
A new factor this time is Scotland, where the SNP has kind of fallen out of favor and from polling I’ve seen Labour may gain seats. Labour hasn’t been a factor in Scotland in a long time so that could be interesting.
Also, I know you’re not a fan of Starmer but learn from us. If you keep beating up on your candidate they will lose. Decide if you think Starmer is a better option than Sunak and the Tories and if so, stop beating up on him. If you’re going to vote for Labour there’s no benefit to telling everyone how bad they are. It will not help your ultimate goal.
wjca
It’s not just the planes. Sometimes it’s the little airports.
I was flying into a local airport here, which happens to have a golf course at the end of the runway. Somebody on the driving range managed to loft a ball high enough that it appeared in front of me. Went thru the prop somehow, punched a hole in the windshield, and took off my headphones as it went by. Plane landed OK, but Whew! (I still have the range ball.)
CaseyL
\@Bill Arnold:
I believe, in a totally non-crankish way, that the GOP and their oligarchic owners know full well what climate change is doing. But rather than even admit it, much less try to address climate change, they’re mostly engaged in killing as many people as possible – to leave more resources for themselves.
\Hence: No legislation limiting access to firearms, legislation that makes pandemics worse, health legislation that kills women and children, etc. upon etc.
Bill Arnold
@Gin & Tonic:
There are a couple (according to Wikipedia) of S-400 systems in Syria, under direct control of the Russian military, that have been shaping Israeli international politics related to Russia for years.
If one or more of them were moved to Crimea (a major operation that could itself fail), that could shift Israel-Ukraine relations.
Jeffro
@Bill Arnold: it would be a little different, but you almost have to wonder if it would be helpful for the Ds to run ads showing DeSantis’ remarks, then showing the disparities in mortality (vax vs anti-vax, D vs R), then in big and bold red letters
WE DON’T WANT TO WIN ELECTIONS LIKE THIS, GOVERNOR
STOP MISINFORMING FLORIDA ABOUT LIFE-SAVING VACCINES
across his stupid smirking mug
wjca
I believe the technical term is not “stealth-wetwork arm” but “useful idiots”
JAFD
@Jeffro:
@RaflW: You’re welcome !
(hope I got that ‘reply to multiple posts’ thing correct.)
Another recent essay I thot well worth reading:
https://armoxon.substack.com/p/if-you-want-to-be-friends-then-why
And an observation from Magdi Jacobs @magi_jay
I’ve lived as an Alaskan in the lower 48 for over a decade & the one thing I still cannot get over is how, in Alaska, all the wilderness danger comes from above — bear; moose – -& down here all the wilderness danger, or most of it at least — comes from below. Snakes, ivy, TICKS.
wjca
I’m actually a bit surprised that a general discharge wasn’t in there somewhere.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: I can think of someone who life appears to have limited value, and it’s the prick who thought that, let alone said it out loud!
Geminid
@wjca: The Marine Corps may have been waiting for the disposition of the Marine’s criminal case before beginning internal proceedings against him.
wjca
@Geminid:
I sure hope so. (Actually, a flat out dishonorable discharge.)
Ruckus
@Tony Jay:
He’s got the gravitas of a ricecake.
I imagine that you mean a 4-5 month old ricecake……
tam1MI
I am actually surprised we got this far into a thread discussing famous musicians who died in plane crashes, and nobody has yet mentioned Lynyrd Skynyrd.
eclare
@tam1MI:
Good point. Also, Travis Barker somehow did not die, but the pilot did and another surviving passenger got hooked on drugs due to trauma and died.
RaflW
@Doug R: Brexit is the absolute mother-load of sunk cost fallacy.
Geminid
@wjca: Marine Corps Times had an article two days ago about Corporal(?) Hellonan (I think much of it was a reprint of the AP arrticle linked in the post).
It said that Hellonan and 2 Marine buddies drove from Quantico, Virginia to DC on January 6 and listened to Donald Trump’s speech on the Ellipse. They were later recorded entering the Capitol several minutes after its defenses were breached.They stayed about an hour. Cameras recorded them placing a red “MAGA” hat on a statue and taking pictures of themselves with it, and participating in chants of “Stop the Steal” and “Four more Years.”
The three were arrested 12 days later. They were not found to have committed acts of violence or vandalism, and prosecutors recommended 21-day jail sentences for Hellonan and one companion and 30 days for the other.
Judge Reyes noted that after Hellonan received a defacto demotion from his job as a signals intelligence analyst to duty inventorying equipment, he performed his tedious tasks with “stellar motivation” and that stood in his favor. In court, Hellonan took full responsibilities for his actions and expressed remorse for them.
The Marine Corps Times article said the three were in the process of separation from the Corps, and that federal prosecutors had said the separations “might be under less than honorable” conditions.”
Miss Bianca
@Baud: me, too. Hell, I would volunteer to have his babies if I weren’t too damn old (speaking of OLD!)
Tony Jay
@Yarrow:
I keep on making this point but we seem to be talking past each other, so I’ll just make it one last time, finally, and as clearly as I can.
America is not Britain. The political situations are not at all similar. When I say how much I like the way Biden leads the Democrats it’s because of the Big Tent policy that gives room and respect to all of the coalition’s factions. That’s why I have no time for the online Leftists who moan about ‘corporate Dems’. In Biden they’ve got a guy talking about the failure of trickle down economics and the need for strong unions. In the UK saying that would get you blacklisted from standing as a Labour Party candidate. Complaining about it would get you expelled. That’s a difference I shouldn’t need to contextualise.
Starmer’s Labour are not – my – Labour. It’s not a matter of the leadership having different priorities to me, it’s a matter of the faction Starmer represents actively declaring war on the rest of the Labour Party and telling everyone else, not just people like me, but milquetoast Establishment centrists like Progress – not obliquely or in code but openly and contemptuously – that if we don’t like it we should fuck off out of ‘their’ Party while they point and call us Jew-haters and traitors.
This coming from the people who actively and deliberately sabotaged two Labour election campaigns and helped put Tory Governments in power. Who lied about the former leadership and everyone who supported it in the most disgusting way possible and in the process did possibly fatal damage to the Party’s future. These are the people demanding absolute and unquestioning obedience to the party leadership while at the same time systematically purging anyone with a record of supporting the previous leadership.
These are the people who have used fraud and bureaucratic bait-and-switch to oust popular MPs and councillors in favour of centrally imposed loyalists, and spitefully suspended whole constituency parties if they’ve dared to complain.
Over the last three years these people have systematically reneged on every single promise they made to win the leadership for Starmer, and abandoned progressive policy after progressive policy in favour of right-wing populism, flag-shagging and corporate sponsorship, tut-tutting at public sector strikers while sucking up to Rupert fucking Murdoch.
The very idea that me venting my fury here every now and again makes me responsible for a hypothetical failure to oust the Tories is, frankly, a pretty damned bizarre take. If Nu-New Labour fail to destroy the Tory Party at the next election then the only people to blame are its current leaders, who have pushed so hard to the Right on so many issues that they risk alienating millions of voters.
Starmer’s faction have agency too. They could – not – be the awful people they are. They could – not – go out of their way to disgust progressive voters while taunting them with “If you don’t vote for us you love the Tories”. They could – not – do a lot of stuff that will cost them votes, but they don’t want to.
I’m not their babysitter, and I’m under no obligation to lie about them or what they’re doing. So I won’t. If you want to pretend that that makes me a Tory-enabler go right ahead.
Tony Jay
@Doug R:
The British Government (sponsored by Russian billions) ordered the intelligence services not to investigate Russian involvement in Brexit – then cleared themselves by saying the intelligence services had no evidence of Russian involvement.
The UK News Media didn’t bother chasing that story up. They were too busy breathlessly wondering if the then Labour leader was a Red Hitler or just a Hitlerite Red.
Wankers.
Ruckus
@wjca:
He was off duty and out of uniform. So his public display of unapproved actions against his bosses upcoming boss would not DIRECTLY been a problem. But Indirectly, absolutely it would be. So they would likely keep him in to attempt to modify his ideals and behavior. Which is usually not a highly regarded good time from the point of view of the lower ranked asshole. And would likely result in him not continuing as a Marine when his current enlistment ended.
Ruckus
@Geminid:
Well I see I should not have posted without reading to the end….
In years past I believe my comment above would stand, that the Marines might actually do a bit of “training” to correct the shitty behavior but my experiences were a long time ago and during Vietnam so the concept of the times is likely different. It was after all only 50 yrs ago…..
StringOnAStick
@Omnes Omnibus: Denver was flying an exotic plane (I think it was a LongEeze, propeller in the back) that was new to him and didn’t know how to switch to the backup fuel tank, and he ran out of fuel.
BarcaChicago
Does anyone know how to embed that great X/Twitter “Joe Biden is Old” video directly to Facebook? When I try I just end up posting a link to X/Twitter, not the video as is accessible here on BJ.
Thank you!
Another Scott
@BarcaChicago: I ass-u-me that Melon is making it hard to post Twitter stuff on Facebook.
It’s on Instagram which should work with Facebook very well.
https://www.instagram.com/2rawtooreal/
It’s presently the first one in the 3rd row.
I hope this helps!
Cheers,
Scott.
Tehanu
I know members of Congress can’t be prosecuted for anything they say on the floor of the House, but what that creep McCarthy tweeted (xheeted?) as a “joke” sounds like slander to me and a social media platform is not the floor of the House. Biden ought to sue. I’ve hated Republicans since Nov. 22, 1963, when I saw the head of the local John Birch Society walking down the street with a transistor radio held to his ear and a big smile on his face, and I hate them even more now.